Equestria has been attacked by forces of pure, undiluted, chaotic evil, and Princess Luna has called for help, in the form of 4 warriors of light from another world.
The land of Equestria was always one filled with light and positivity, but the darkness has been amassing, the Sin, embodiments of the evil of ponies' hearts and souls, have struck, many ponies have died, and only 4 centers of civilization remain, Canterlot, Ponyville, Bearussia, and Neigh York, the last vestiges of hope for ponykind, and they are mere motes of substance waiting to be consumed.
Princess Luna, a powerful mare who has seen first-hoof into the abyss of darkness and evil, has used her and her sister Celestia's magic to summon warriors of light, heroes that will save the land of Equestria.
She was expecting 1, 2, maybe 3 tops, and if Lady Luck was on her side, 4, but she received, not 5 or even 6, but 15 fighters to help this task.
That's not what was surprising about them, what was surprising about them was that they were not even ponies.
The Sin, beings of darkness, embodiments of negativity and evil of the hearts and souls of ponies, they are powerful, ruthless, bent on eliminating their creators, wiping them from the face of Equus, the planet on which our story takes place.
Countless millions of ponies, as well as griffons, donkeys, zebras, and even a few dragons were slaughtered, given only enough time to make peace with the keepers of the afterlife.
Faced with a cruel and merciless enemy, the likes of which that cannot be reasoned with, the once peaceful species known as ponies was forced to take up arms against their opponents, but they were weak.
Magic failed, speed and strength were useless, and all hope seemed lost...
Until they remembered a very important lesson.
Princess Luna, who had been avidly living by Twilight Sparkle and her friend's letters of wisdom in the studies of friendship ever since she had returned, realized the way out.
They needed help.
<<Opening transition>>
"Perhaps victory is in something that has been taken for granted, something that is valued by a desperate, but sensible soul." the goddess of the night, her majesty Princess Luna, stood on a balcony, listening to the sounds of the crowds below, working out how to stave off the next attack.
By her side was her trusted weapon, the Lunar Zanbato, she read the kanji that lined the blade "Luna, goddess of the night, a mare of beauty and magical power.", then read the kanji on the handle "Eternal death before Dishonor"
The last time she had used the Lunar Zanbato was when she was Nightmare Moon, a monster that she now had control of.
"Sister, if you have any ideas on how to stop this madness, please, speak up." Celestia assured, as now was not the time to withhold information or tactics.
Her weapon was the Solar Zweihoofer, it was her own, day based sword.
The last time she had used the Solar Zweihoofer was against Luna as Nightmare Moon
"Do you remember one of young Twilight Sparkle's lessons long ago, within a few weeks of her permanent relocation to Ponyville?" Luna asked, choosing to go at it from a more subtle, yet logical standpoint.
"Um, I have the scrolls, if that's what you're asking." the older sister replied, unsure of where this was going.
"No, I am not asking for the scrolls, I am saying that I might know the way out of this, a way that could save us and our subjects." Luna had been improving her speech patterns, and digging up information.
"Well, okay, tell me." the solar goddess insisted, now she really wanted to know.
"Applejack, the farmer mare, she had learned a lesson early on about being able to let others help you, and I think her epiphany runs deeper in these troubled times." the blue alicorn continued, finally turning to face her sister.
"Sister, we need help, divided we fall, but united we will stand. We have to call for help." it was a logical idea at the least, a surprisingly simple solution to a complex problem at best.
"Define 'call'." Celestia countered.
"Remember the spell, the one you tried to use when I was still the beast, one that ended up summoning a monkey holding a stick?" Luna recalled the rather humorous event, even in the context of NMM bearing down on old Canterlot castle like a ton of bricks and Celestia being desperate.
"Yes, I was very disappointed with that, it was far from expected." the alabaster alicorn recalled the event with a few laughs and a sigh.
"Well, I found the scroll you wrote the spell on, and I restored it, the runes and equations read out 'A warrior to fight the darkness', I changed it to 'Warriors(s) to fight the creatures of darkness'. If we focus, we could summon help from another world, perhaps one with a more thriving dominant species in a less forgiving world. These beings could assist in ending the Sins attacks." the blue alicorn looked solemn, unsure of herself and her goal with this idea.
"We will need more power, sister, you may not have noticed at the time, since you were busy laughing your flanks off, but it took nearly all of my tolerable expending of magic to summon just ONE creature. That is why I couldn't take advantage of your distraction and why your distraction prevented my easily causable death. We will need more power to summon not ONE, but MULTIPLE creatures, if this is your goal." the solar goddess countered again, she had doubts of this plan.
"*ahem* Wow, if only we knew TWO powerful unicorns who could assist us in the casting of this highly advanced magical spell. Perhaps even with TWO powerful pegasi and TWO powerful earth ponies to offer help with their own innate magics. If only we knew these 6 ponies that we need, as well as where to find them and how to negotiate with them, it help even more if they also had some sort of set of POWERFUL MAGICAL RELICS at their disposal. Oh wait, I think we DO know some ponies like that, sister. It's also logical to need help in getting MORE help. I apologize for my sarcasm, but I'm 7 days without sleep, so I think you can understand." the blue alicorn ranted in her best sarcastic voice, her simple solution to a complex problem.
"Okay, I get it, please stop, we will travel to Ponyville to get assistance from the Element Bearers, we can go know, if you'd like." the white alicorn offered, she was honestly surprised that she didn't think of this idea herself.
"Alright, post-haste, we can get their easier and faster if we run. I know it would make more sense to teleport or even fly, but I said it before, I'm 7 days without sleep, I can't do much flying or magic in such an exhausted state, and I know that you've been just as long awake as I have, so I doubt your own abilities with the same. I'm sorry but also, bringing a chariot and a group of guards will only make us a bigger target." the moon goddess placed a hoof on her chin as she planned the trip.
"Ugh, you're right, this isn't going to be easy. We should leave now, you have the scroll, and we have our swords, so we're ready to go, now." Celestia noted, "Well, we can start the journey by flight, if nothing else, we would avoid our subjects seeing us like this, and it would help with the whole 'city on a mountainside' type problem we would face." Luna nodded in understanding, and the pair spread their wings and took off.
Flying through the sky, a bit slow and quite a bit shaky, the fatigued sisters made their way to the outskirts of Canterlot. They glided from the mountain-side city as far as they could to Ponyville.
Canterlot was half a mile up, and Ponyville was 5 miles away, even at their best, they could only reach 4.5 miles by gliding.
Landing a bit roughly and folding up their already tired wings, the duo continued the trek on hoof.
The landscape around them seemed to regain a bit of green color, but it was all mostly gray. The depressing discoloration was a byproduct of the Sins' influence, power, and presence.
Eventually, without this help, the whole world would be covered in grayness and darkness.
They heard a howl, some of the Sins were approaching, and quickly.
Several Sin timber-wolves, with a Sin alpha, an Ebony-wolf, were charging straight at the alicorn sisters.
Luna levitated out her titanic katana, sniffing the blade. It was coated in a layer of magical polish, a mixture of mint oil and hydrogen peroxide, this was to keep it from being damaged. The blade reached out far, far enough to easily span across her entire forwards and peripheral vision when held out horizontally.
She jumped over the first wolf, slashing the second and dodging the third. She turned in time to receive a wide slash at her face, which she guarded with her foreleg, earning a large gash in her usually pristine midnight blue coat, right on the backside of her foreleg.
Looking at the pale red blood, whitened with holy power, reddened by mortality, she felt enraged at the marring of her usually incorruptible beauty. She knew that the wound would leave scars, scars that would stay there forever.
Bashing the head of the Sin-empowered timberwolf to splinters with the pommel of her katana, she gave the whole body a few hearty chops to keep it down.
Celestia was fairing only slightly better, while Luna's style was adaptation, her style was defense=offense, blocking another failed attack, she chopped off another piece of wooden leg. Her adrenaline was pumping fast.
She suddenly had a cold flash, her body relaxing almost completely in the span of 2 seconds. This brief period of weakness was long enough for the large beasts that fought her to land their strikes.
One claw-group induced wound on the right flank, another on the left wing, she started shedding blood too.
Spinning the Solar Zweihoofer rapidly, the glittering golden blade sending multiple blinding flashes of light into the eyes of her targets, the slightly wavy blade catching more light than a normal blade.
The small hook on the end stuck first, then the whole wolf was forced against the ground, then swung over and down in an overhead slam, followed by a stabbing, a shaking, and a slash to kill it.
With her half of the enemy finished off, she picked off pieces of wood that had gotten caught on her sword. There were smushed splinters all along the wavy edge and even some caught in the sun shaped crossbar, the sword had been designed so that the blade was essentially a 'solar flare' coming from the crossbar.
Luna had sustained another wound, a single cut across the left cheek, when the sisters had split off, Celestia had receive four normal Sin wolves, where as Luna had gotten three normal Sin wolves, and the Ebony Alpha.
The Alpha was much larger than the normal wolves, the normal wolves were about five feet long, one foot wide, and two feet tall, the Alpha, which also had the option of bipedalism, was twelve feet long, four feet thick, and six feet tall.
Standing on two legs, as it did now, it was closer to fifteen feet tall, the long limbs of its limbs suspending it high into the air.
Luna merely stabbed it in the magical center, disrupting the magic that kept it together, which caused it to fall.
But the Sin empowerment brought the center into focus much faster than normal. The energy collected the twigs, sticks, logs, and all other sorts of wooden pieces together again.
Luna delivered more slashes, but they did less and less, until finally it seemed as though the goddess of the moon was swinging at air for all the good it did.
Celestia drew back her sister, grabbing her with her magic and pulling her over.
"We need to work together on this, do you think you can keep up if we do the Sky's Wrath?" she asked quickly, watching the Alpha wolf pull itself together quicker and quicker.
"Of course, but it will take a lot of power, if I wasn't hyped up on adrenaline, I'd probably pass out." Luna informed, turning to the Alpha wolf again.
White and blue, blue and white, together they had more power than almost every other pony alive. Even if all ponies alive were all combined into one.
The sky darkened slightly as the deity level magic was cast. The stars appeared and shone with the intensity of the sun, the sun turned blue with climbing temperature.
The moon came up, shining gray with dark magic, the sun was fully blue.
The two beings of terrible power, of corruption beaten into submission and used as a puppet, proper devilish beings.
Nightmare Moon
Supernova Sun
Nightmare Moon wore white armor with cyan accents, crafted of the forged white stone of the moon she fought for and the cyan salt of the oceans that she moved, both under her command. Her blacker-than-black coat and starry cloud of a mane were hauntingly beautiful.
Supernova Sun wore pink armor with black accents, crafted of the iron from her enemies' boiled blood and the charcoal of plants that thrived and died by her power, both under her command. Her orangey-white coat and orange fire of a mane were stunningly beautiful.
The sun and the moon, light and dark, fire and water, day and night. They were opposites and yet they were equals.
The sun was blood red with hellfire, the moon was dark gray and black with the void.
The Alpha wolf's soul was banished from existence, the body burned to ashes, and then the ashes burnt to nothingness
It was a little excessive, but they were desperate and currently lacked some of their higher thinking skills, the unholy power coexisting with their holy forms faded, leaving them normal.
The sun returned to its cheery yellow, shining normally as though it wasn't just used in a holy smiting spell. The moon slid back to its assigned position in the sky, which was over some other part of the world.
Walking slowly, they were more tired than before, but determined to not fall asleep. Their subjects, all the ponies, griffons, zebras, dragons, and whatever else, they needed them.
And they would not give up.
<<Ponyville Transition>>
Twilight Sparkle, once the Student Archmage of the Canterlot Academy School for Gifted Unicorns, now appointed the First Archmage Guardian of Ponyville, it was her job to make sure that the town was well protected and the citizens were ready in case of an attack.
Luckily, all of the Elements Bearers had been promoted to an officially recognized position of power with a very wide scope of authority.
Rarity was the Second Archmage Guardian of Ponyville, because she lacked power in her magic that Twilight had, though she did have a finesse that Twilight lacked.
Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy were appointed Valkyrie Messengers of Warning, if Border Patrol spotted something that was getting through, it was their job to inform the masses to preparation. Of course RD was the First and Fluttershy was the Second, but ponies knew that if they called for attention, it was important.
Fluttershy had even mastered speaking at a normal volume from the job, though she was unhappy about leaving her animals at her cottage. However it was too far away from town and too close to the Everfree Forest to include in the borders, but she could sleep at night knowing that her animals weren't harmed by the Sin. Sin creatures only went after sentient species.
Applejack and Pinkie Pie were appointed First and Second Master Border Guards of Ponyville, with Applejack as the First, it was their duty to make sure no Sin creatures got into the town, magical posts had been placed at twenty five foot intervals, marking the 'borders' of the town with what could be considered magical electric fences, though they were weakened by the distance. The two earth ponies patrolled three hours a day, three times a day, every day, watching out for dangers that might attempt to break in.
Other ponies also joined the patrol, it was easy, seeing as how the main two requisites were the abilities of fast galloping and loud screaming.
Applejack was on patrol at the moment, pondering the several fancy inventions that were recently made in times of war.
Gunpowder was improved upon, less smoke and more force, which was surprisingly not mutually exclusive. Improved metals and other physical materials with better hardness and wear resistance. It was all mainly improvements to previous things.
With the new gunpowder, cannons could be made smaller, and with that, came the idea of a hoof-held cannon.
Several months had passed, feeling like centuries, and now Applejack possessed a weapon made by one of the many manufacturers that sprang to life with the new demand for weapons on the market.
Horce Smith and Stallien Wesson, the company known as Smith & Wesson, she had a model Twenty Nine, if six shots of the concrete tearing Forty Four magnum cartridges didn't kill it, then it was a problem worth reporting.
She had considered a 'Samuel Boy model 1911', which fired Forty Five Automatic Boy Pistol, but the Boy Pistol cartridge lacked the power the Forty Four magnum had.
She peered out into the grayed landscape, looking for dark splotches or other types of discrepancies.
The orange farmer mare saw two figures, blue and white, slowly trudging towards the town's borders.
They looked medium sized for Sin creatures, but Sin creatures were rarely white and almost never blue. The only account of a blue Sin was a report from the dragons on a Sin-empowered Ursa Minor attack on Vulcan Complex, the only thing that dragons had that resembled a civilization settlement.
Even dragons could be overpowered by many numbers of larger Sin, and Applejack gulped at the possibility of a Sin Ursa Minor that was within seeing distance of the town.
A flash of silver and gold, a signal meaning other non-Sin traveling to a sanctum of light.
As the pair got closer, Applejack recognized them immediately.
Luna and Celestia, they were walking slowly towards the borders and looked hurt.
Sprinting out to them, the apple family pony met them halfway.
"Yer highnesses, welcome to Ponyville again, if ya don't mind me askin', why are ya walkin'?" AJ asked as she began to walk backwards in front of the regal siblings.
She saw why after taking a closer look, her face must have given the assurance that there was no explanation needed.
Both sisters were bleeding lightly, wounds mostly sealed but still leaking small amounts of pale red blood and clear plasma. They looked fatigued, disheveled, they seemed to have not slept for several days, and their less-than-pleasant smell hinted that they might not have bathed for a similar time period.
The trio of ponies made their way to the border, Applejack calling for a chariot for them all, taking courtesy for the tired royals.
A few minutes passed on the slow ride
As they were being pulled through the city streets, a random pony jumped onto the chariot, cackling madly and attempting to batter the royals and Master Border Guard, the mare's face looked gray, she was stricken with Sin infection.
*BANG*
A loud splatter of blood, bone, and brain matter hit the road, the practically detonated head of the corrupted mare was gone, and the body shoved off of the chariot, which had stopped the second a disturbance was felt.
"Somepony get this corrupted pony out of town, and clean up the mess, we can't have their Highnesses getting infected." Solemn and morbid faces met hers, nopony could believe that the main two beacons of hope for survival were almost choked, left to suffocate and die.
Applejack was a bit sad, the blasting of her revolver was like a reflex, something she never would have thought of doing.
She tossed her revolver to another member of Border Patrol, she didn't care who it was, she just recognized the face from the roster.
A bit horrified at how easily she had committed the act of killing, she looked down, seeing the exhausted alicorn sisters sitting down, inviting her to do the same.
"I'm sorry for what just happened." all three of them said at the same time.
*blink blink*
"Ah didn't even think 'bout doin' it, ah juss did, and ah feel awful for lettin' that become reflex." the farmer mare apologized.
"I'm sorry that things like that happen, that mare probably had a family or something of the sort. It was a shame that such a thing happened to cause an innocent life to end." Celestia stated, too tired to manage different tones.
"I am sorry that you have to see us in such a state, a state in which we cannot fight off a single attacker. We had not long before you found us defeated a pack of Sin-empowered timber-wolves, with an Ebony Alpha. We're both a week without sleep, and the royal bath has evaded us for some time as well. We are wounded as well, take us to Twilight Sparkle, we have an idea that might save our land." Luna explained.
She didn't notice that by the time she finished her explanation, the Books & Branches Library was already in front of them.
Looking all the way up, the two sisters fainted at feeling small compared to the behemoth product of arboriculture.
Both alicorns unconscious, Applejack jumped out of the cart and opened the door to the library.
Twilight was inside, her sarma, an old method of making a magical staff, made by magically growing a tree branch lengthen and expand, twisting its way to hold onto a large gemstone. The nature essence of the wood offset the input-output ratio, the gemstone acting as a catalyst, easing the burden of casting magic and increasing the efficiency. The result was less input for more output. The magical staff lay across the center table, where the lavender unicorn was also reading a book.
It amplified her already mammoth skill and capabilities of magic, since she used a silver-wood, a rare and very magical wood, and a large diamond, the hardest and most magically capable of all gemstones.
"Hey Twi, ah gotcha an early Hearth's Warming Eve present." Applejack joked, the few pleasantries and formalities she and the princesses shared eased her nerves greatly, but she still made futile attempts at lightening the grave mood.
"Ooh, what is it?" Twilight asked, turning her attention from her bland (even for her) book to her friend.
"Not just one, but two princesses, horns, wings, crowns and regalia included." the orange farmer revealed, bringing in the sleeping sisters on her back, despite her joking words, she was actually doing a headcount of everything the princesses had, making sure that they still had their fancy shoes or, more importantly, their wings and horns.
"Oh my, this seems serious." Twilight stated cautiously, looking intensely at the princesses. She was trying to keep calm, but the floodgates opened and she began to bombard her farmer friend with questions.
<<Ironic Gilligan Cut Transition>>
"Okay, this is serious." Luna stated cautiously, looking intensely at the 6 mares in front of her.
After the duo was laid on a spare bed, slept, awoken, bathed, and fed, all of the Element Bearers were gathered at the library for the important meeting.
"I have an idea on how to stop the Sin, this is what we will do. Since Twilight made a sarma staff, it will be easier. My sister and I will channel our magic through it, and through all of you. Since all ponies have innate magic, even though the methods of its use vary, we can use the power of each of you to bring to us, 'Warrior(s) to fight the creatures of darkness'. We may even be able to bring multiple beings through at a time, the idea is to bring in help from another world, a world in which hopefully the warriors in question have more experience, more skill, more power, more weapons, and just overall more ability to fight this evil. Will you help us in the acquisition of more help?" the goddess of the night debriefed, looking at each of the ponies before her.
A few moments for the words and implications to sink in were had, then the myriad of agreements.
"Yeah, we need it anyway." Rainbow Dash said, landing and looking determined.
"Oh my, it seems dangerous, but we'll definitely die if we don't do it, so I'll go with the lesser evil here, I agree." Fluttershy considered her options before siding with the plan.
"Mighty simple solution, but it might not work, but like Shy said, we'll definitely die if we don't do it, so I'm all for it." Applejack piped up, agreeing wholeheartedly
"Ooh, this seems so exciting, but scary, but exciting too, oh, I'm saying YES!" Pinkie bounced up and down while she spoke, the words came quickly and loudly, followed by a silent grin and shaking hooves, though she had stopped bouncing.
"Darling, in a decision between chance of life and definite death, I'll choose life every time, thank you very much." Rarity gave her eloquent approval.
"I'm willing to do anything to stop this cruel, impious, lurid madness, I'll do it." Twilight thought hard, she really wanted her peaceful life back.
"Very well, everyone gather around." Celestia instructed, placing her sword crossed with Luna's against the sarma as it stood upright on the floor.
Magic, lots of magic, like, several fuck-tons of magic, I can't even provide proper narration because of how much magic their is.
It's like, enough to blind someone, a myriad of colors, the sarma shining like a star, the library could catch fire like this if it wasn't magically fireproofed.
When the light faded, everypony was more than a little tired.
Their efforts were not in vain though, something had come from the spell.
A lot of somethings, actually.
Red, White, Black, Yellow
Yellow again with some black and red, Maroon (kind of) and Gold (kind of), Green and a bit of pink, Pink and a bit of black.
Green with some blue, Ocean blue with some white and some gray, Gold with lots of white and some gray, Darkness black with some sparkles and some gray.
Green, a lot of it, Black/White/Purple, and some Black and Red yet again.
Luna and Twilight counted fifteen figures, each with a different scheme of colors and all seemed dangerous.
Wait, one of them is standing up now.
"Ugh, where am I... huh? What the....*LE EPIC GASP* PONIES!" the girl shouted, her silver eyes full of mirth and joy.
Quick note, thanks for the love and criticisms, anything to help make it better, I've also seen some doubt about these possible OCs, I can say, I took every precaution in making them balanced, mark my words....
Thanks for all the favorites, as of the moment I write this, the story has 269 favorites... now let's get to said story.
Vytal, a few minutes before the teleportation spell.
Team JNPR was in a full-team spar with Team VOID
Jaune Arc, Nora Valkyrie, Pyrrha Nikos, Lie Ren, they were faring well against the other team, though the rapid volleys of bullets could be a problem if they weren't stopped.
Vermillion Star, Oscar Comet, Ivan Trench, Daniel Mortem, they were doing well against the other team, but Pyrrha's dead-eye and Nora's explosives kept them on edge.
Vermillion, despite his name being red, actually wore green, a green denim jacket with crescent moons on the shoulders and a full moon on the back, worn over a green tank top, with blue jeans and blue boots with gold soles. His hands were covered by blue gloves. His weapon, something similar to Adam's sword-in-a-gun, was at his side, he was itching for an opportunity to use it.
He was currently attempting a martial arts fight with Ren, but the other green clad man had him matched, if not in speed, then in martial arts skills.
Oscar wore a white hoodie with blue trim and blue lining, blue jeans, and red and blue All-Star shoes. His soul gave him a lot better vision and reflexes, which helped with his weapon choice.
He was currently hanging back, using his sniper barreled SMG to spray his foes with small, yet accurate bullets
Ivan Trench, a young man who didn't care about cutting back or things in moderation, he wore a white shirt with gold trim and lots of gold accessories. A gold watch on both wrists, a few gold chain necklaces, gold shoulder guards, gold elbow guards, gold colored pants, and yellow sneakers.
He took advantage of his immunities a lot, like right now he was smoking a cigarette while blasting his .50 BMG rifle at his opponents from a distance.
Daniel Mortem, a sick man with sick goals, he had necrophilia turned up to eleven, even the process of killing got him off, he wore a black shirt, gray pants, and black shoes.
He had gotten into a stalemate with Pyrrha, the Milo had made his buzz-saw staff stall and, luckily, the engine had turned off rather than shorting out.
Jaune was fretting about what to do, Vermillion would take him down with speed, Dan wouldn't stop at K.O.ing him, Nora was distracting him with her absent-minded singing while she fired grenades, and he was the only one without a ranged weapon.
He closed his eyes and prayed for help, for assistance from a god or maybe one of his ancestors.
He felt heavy, like a great weight settled onto his bones.
Then suddenly he felt lighter, unconscious even, everything was muffled.
"OWIE!" Nora complained after receiving a volley of 7.62s and .50s directly to the.... well..... everywhere, the hits bringing her aura gauge down to almost 'incapacitated', the level at which she would be forcefully removed from the battle.
He looked to her, he could hear whispers among the near silence.
He was glowing with soul power, but he couldn't control his body as he steadily walked over to Dan and Pyrrha. The latter turned and saw him, she gave a nervous smile and nodded a gesture at the saw wielding young man, Jaune's invader of body control apparently knew what that meant, and so did Daniel.
The black clad man backed off of the Milo.
Big mistake.
Two blades stabbed him through the chest, reducing him to incapacitated as he was forcefully removed from the arena by a referee tentacle-arm-hand thing.
Pyrrha turned Milo to rifle form and fired several of the custom 6.35x70mm rounds at Ivan, eliminating him.
Jaune started picking up speed, rushing at Oscar, the other boy had just ran out of ammo, struggling to reload quickly, dropping the magazine, he braced for impact.
Decking him with his shield and a rain-strike with his sword, bringing the blade down fast on several areas of the body, Oscar was eliminated before he could blink.
Ren and Vermillion were still at it, Ren remembered something, Nora saying something, but unlike the nigh-infinite amount of drivel she rattled off, this was something important.
"Let's BREAK his LEGS!" she had said aloud, he was surprised Cardin hadn't heard that when she said it in the cafeteria.
Ren jumped into the air, he could not just feel, but hear her presence as she closed in.
Vermillion looked up and readied himself to catch Ren on the Moon's Eye, but was caught in the knees by an explosive smash from Nora's Magnhild.
The whole of Team VOID was downed, Team JNPR was victorious.
"Well, good show, nice job on those blocks Ren." Vermillion suddenly said, the fighting was over, so there was no longer any need for hostilities.
He was calm, he knew that his fellow students were not competitors, they were comrades. He wouldn't fight any further if Team JNPR stopped as well.
He shook hands with Ren as they both gave a small, honorable bow, then parted ways.
"Ah dammit, I wanted to see some blood." Daniel complained, the buzz saw weapon reduced to the size of a normal pizza cutter, he was aggressive, addicted to his own mentally ill pleasures.
"Calm down Dan, or I'll let you see your own." Ivan hated his fellowman, since said fellowman was a psychotic murderer, the man always wanted to get to the killing part, not enjoying the journey that was fighting itself.
"Well, time for more training." Oscar had calculated the results in his mind, he needed to perfect every move, let nothing catch him off guard, he was the best-case-scenario of a perfectionist, he had a reason to be improve himself to perfection.
The two teams were about to leave the stage, when a small (relative to the fully grown one) Nevermore came in through an open window.
It took a few seconds to flap its way within threat distance, as it was carrying another figure.
Team RWBY jumped into action, but before anyone from Team JNPR, VOID, or Ozpin or Glynda could react, a blinding flash of light overtook the room, leaving only the young Nevermore and its rider's bag of bird seed.
It landed calmly and began eating the simple food, after consuming its fill, it picked up the bag and returned home.
It was a good pet, after all.
<<Transdimensional Transition to the current moment>>
"Ugh, where am I... huh? What the....*LE EPIC GASP* PONIES!" Ruby shouted, her silver eyes full of mirth and joy.
The sheer volume of her shout was enough to rouse her fellows slightly, but she didn't notice that, all she noticed was the cute little ponies, and the weapons.
She had seen horses, and heard about miniature ones, but these just looked so cute and cuddly, and they even had WEAPONS.
A purple one with a horn had a gemstone staff, it looked like it was made of white wood, like that one staff from that white wizard guy from that Master of the Ring movie.
A white one with a horn had a stylish knife, like the ones used by members of the Malicious Alliance Federal Intelligence Agency, or MAFIA for short, good guys who pretended to be villains to get info on crimes and crime bosses.
An orange one had a huge revolver that it had just pulled out from under its hat, a quick look at the barrel told her it was a .500S&W, impressive for something that was three feet tall.
A pink one had a grenade launcher similar to Nora's, though this one looked less customized and probably didn't have a war hammer form.
A cyan one with wings and a pretty rainbow mane had a small, automatic rifle that looked like it could shoot a lot of bullets really fast. It probably had a REALLY high rpm, like maybe three thousand rpm, but it was chambered in a .45ACP, so that would explain actually handling it.
A yellow one with wings, *GASP* OMG, a sniper rifle, and she was really cute too, the rifle looked small though, it was a 7.62x51mm, cool.
Two really big ponies, taller than her even, though that wasn't really hard seeing as how she was five feet and four inches tall, the two big ponies both had swords, one was a Zanbato, the other was a Zweihander, if she remembered correctly, then the latter was named so because it requires two hands to use, and the former meant...
......
............. Horse-Slaying sword.
"Pony NOOOOO!" she cried out, grabbing the black and silver katana and keeping it far away from all of the ponies.
"What is the MEANING OF THIS? WHO AND WHAT ARE YOU!" Luna slipped into Royal Canterlot Voice for a moment, outraged at the snatching of her weapon. She calmed herself before listening to the young girl's explanation.
"I'm Ruby Rose, Huntress-in-training and fighter of the Grimm, and.... did you just talk?" the young girl felt her nervousness set in, along with more excitement, talking ponies!
"Yes, of course I can talk, I am a fully grown mare, Ruby Rose, what is a 'Huntress-in-training'?" Luna was postponing any freaking out until formalities had been dealt with.
"Aw, who's dis wittle guy?" the red clad girl cooed, giving Rainbow Dash a cute face and a scratch behind the ear.
The cyan pony slapped Ruby's hands away.
"I am a fully grown mare as well, I'm not a stallion and I'm not a foal, shut up." RD blushed slightly at the embarrassment of being mistaken for male, she wasn't THAT tomcoltish, was she?
"Huh? But, I thought the loud one was a fully grown pony, SOMEONE MAKE SENSE PLEASE!" the scythe wielder was getting nervous, all of this conflicting information was hurting her young mind.
She slowly reached for Crescent Rose, taking time to weigh her options.
This small pony was an adult, and this huge pony was an adult, something didn't make sense here.
This was not a logical size difference, this was unnatural, how was the big pony so big and the little pony so little, yet they were both adult ponies?
"I am an alicorn, Rainbow Dash is a Pegasus, alicorns are, by nature, larger than normal ponies, as we are a combination of all three races, Pegasi, Unicorns, and Earth Ponies. Now that I have explained what I am, tell us what you are." Celestia patiently explained in her motherly voice.
"I already told you, I'm a Huntress-in-training." Ruby felt more at ease from Celestia's words, not what she said, but how she said it, she felt safer already.
"Your species, child, what species are you?" Luna simplified, speaking a bit slower in case this strange creature was mentally ill.
"Oh, I'm a human. We're strong, wise, and resourceful, as the legends go." Ruby recalled part of the legend of the creation of people.
"Okay, formalities are out of the way, now then... does anypony have any questions for Miss Rose?" Luna opened up the proverbial flood-gates.
"How can you walk on two legs?"
"Why is your mane so short?"
"Are you a filly or a colt?" the one who asked that received a few glares, and an especially hard one from Ruby.
"Do you have a weapon?" Ruby brightened at that one.
"I have this thing." she brandished Crescent Rose, unfolding it to full size, the scythe part made a *CLUNK* against the wooden floor.
Everypony jumped at the noise and the sight, this weapon was even bigger than HER, how she even used it normally, much less in an efficient manner was beyond comprehension, unless it was actually lighter than her. which was highly doubtful.
"By my mother's wine-red mane, what the hell is that?" Luna swore, leaning back and away from the massive device of destruction.
"Crescent Rose, it's a scythe, and it's also a highly customizable high impact sniper rifle." Ruby explained.
"A what?" Celestia asked, still confused.
Ruby tested the slide-cock, "It's also a gun." she simplified.
"Oh, that makes more sense, okay, you should GIVE ME BACK my weapon NOW!" Luna demanded, finally realizing the Lunar Zanbato had been stolen.
"Not, me, I am immune to its blade, it is my own weapon, after all." Luna revealed, levitating over the massive katana without waiting for Ruby to respond.
She latched it to her flank, even with the hilt on her rear, the blade extended into her line of sight if she moved her eyes down.
"Oh, that makes sense, I guess that means your sa-AAAFE!" while stepping backwards, Ruby had tripped over something and fallen,
*groan*
Tripped over someone, it seemed like.
"My back, oh my back." Jaune complained, feeling Ruby falling onto him.
"Sorry Jaune, wait... Jaune?" Ruby looked at the other unconscious bodies that she finally noticed.
She felt that they needed to wake up and see the ponies.
"Everyone WAKE UP, THERE'S ANOTHER NEVERMORE!" she shouted the false warning, causing every one of the Huntsmen and Huntresses to jump.
"Miss Rose, control your volume, we are all within 10 feet of you." Ozpin said, causing everyone to turn to him.
He held a fresh cup of coffee in one hand, the other hand held his cane, the screaming demon head that made up the top of the cane was grasped tightly.
"I hope you don't mind, Miss Sparkle, but I used your coffee maker." he apologized, gesturing to the steaming pot of coffee that was on the machine.
"Why and how did you....?" Twilight could only manage those words in her sudden confusion.
"I needed some coffee, that's why I used the machine, and you have notes to yourself on the fridge, that's how I knew your name." Ozpin explained, taking another sip of the hot, dark brown drink.
"Ozpin, you're always getting yourself almost into trouble. You should have asked permission before taking that coffee" Glynda criticized, readying her wand/riding crop to slap him.
"You should know that since I can't process the paperwork to fire you, I will be forced to simply murder you, Glynda. Put the D.A.S. down." Ozpin threatened, his voice lowered and his eyes glowing with his own soul.
"Humph." Glynda didn't want to trifle with Ozpin at the moment, especially with him so serious all the time, doubly especially about his favorite drink.
The other ponies looked at him like he had grown two more heads and said heads were now arguing over the price of fish.
"What? I don't joke about my coffee." the green clad man clarified, taking another drink.
"Sir, with all due respect, that's harsh." Ren said nervously, standing up and steadying himself in the process.
"Oh man, it feels like I hit the liquor harder than I hit the sack, if you know what I mean, hehe." Yang complained, pushing herself up and looking around at the books.
"Where are we?" Weiss and Ivan asked at the same time looking around at the library walls.
"I sense others nearby." Pyrrha, Blake, and Oscar said together, looking around as well.
"I'll take my coffee with extra blood, please." Daniel spoke like he was ordering from a restaurant, he suddenly also had a coffee mug in his hand, looking around at books and papers for something to kill.
"Jeez, oh man, my back, my everything, I'm tired, what happened, where am I?" Jaune was confused and aching, he stood himself up slowly and holding his head.
He couldn't remember much after his body stopped obeying him, just that he kept moving somehow, and then his team won.
"Sis, Blake, Weiss, everyone, look down, look at the PONIES!" Ruby insisted, jumping up and down a little bit and pointing downwards at the small beings.
Every human in the room turned their gaze downwards, now it made sense, they were all so much taller than these ponies that when looking forwards normally, from this distance the cute creatures were below their field of vision.
"Whoa, cool, hey look, these ones' have horns." Jaune noted, gesturing to Twilight and Rarity.
"The musculature on you is quite impressive, and the hat is nice." Pyrrha complimented, kneeling to be eye level with Applejack.
Ozpin and Glynda stood off to the side with an old friend, the other old man was a former teammate, part of DOPG, pronounced dopple-gang.
David Ozpin, Orchid Qrow, Peter Port, Glynda Goodwitch, they were once a team together
Qrow was a faunus to a major extent, he had long black feather-like hair. He wore a black long sleeve shirt, on his back was a pair of black bird wings, which he could use to fly rather well. His legs were covered by black pants while his feet were adorned with black combat boots with toe spikes. He held and leaned onto what looked like a walking staff with a silver bottom and a rectangular silver head with a slit ran down the side.
"So, how's the young ones been?" asked the black clad man to his former teammates, looking at the group of young Huntsmen and Huntresses in training.
"You're niece sometimes doubts herself, but she is as good as you, Qrow. The others are just fine, Miss Nikos keeps her fellows up-to-date, though Jaune seems more and more likely he has suffered a brain injury. He chronically forgets things like names, his locker number, faces, his locker number, documents, his locker number, classes, his weapons, his locker number, oh, and did I mention that he has lost an information slip stating the number of the locker in which he stores his equipment almost FOUR HUNDRED times?" Ozpin listed the large number of things Jaune had failed to remember, the most common was quite irritating after the first twelve times.
"David, how did he even get into the school anyways?" Qrow queried, counting in his head how many times his niece faced him and failed to notice him.
"His transcript records stated he was the most coordinated on the battle field, that he violently usurped it for his own. But so far, he has proven that he can hardly handle turning his sheath into shield form." Glynda recalled the abhorrently incorrect filing.
"And don't call me David," Ozpin complained at the use of his first name, "I didn't become a certified teacher/master huntsman to be called David Ozpin, I did so to be called Professor Ozpin."
"Hmm, it seems that the documenters were probably wrong, but I wonder.... ugh, screw it, RUBY!" the bird-faunus, ignoring Ozpin's complaints had had enough of Ruby failing to notice him, and called to his red clad niece.
"Huh, UNCLE!" the young girl glomped him, nearly toppling him over if it wasn't for his staff.
"Hello Ruby, how has Yang been." Qrow queried, the girl in question proceeded to send her uncle and her sister to the ground.
"Uncle Qrow, how've you been?" the blonde young woman asked, helping pick Ruby and Qrow back up.
"I'm fine, got the wind knocked out of me, but I'll be okay." Qrow assured, laughing a little bit.
Twilight looked a bit disturbed, she could see the weapons that each of them had, a few looked like they were very recently used.
"You, coffee thief, I want you to answer some questions." she turned to face the eldest human in the room, his eyes were sharp and wise, he had to know a lot.
"I am willing to answer questions, please, lead the way." Ozpin wasn't fazed by the small, talking ponies, he had seen weirder and more frightening in his time.
Twilight led him to the kitchen levitating over a few lengths of parchment and some pencils, this was a serious time.
"Listen, Miss Sparkle, you are not my psychiatrist and I do not want you to be my psychiatrist, if you have a long series of questions, write them down in a test format and I will answer accordingly. I believe things will go quicker if you do." the old man smirked to see Twilight already using his suggestion, quickly writing down questions with her magic, passing them over when she had written as much as she could on the front and back.
Ozpin frowned suddenly, he felt younger, sure, and that was good, but he also had to take a test, which even he hated doing.
This would take a while.
<cut away>
Ruby was busy hugging everypony in a circle, they were SO CUTE!
Yang just gave a goofy smile at her sister, having decided to talk to Rainbow Dash about their lives.
Glynda was monitoring Ozpin and Twilight in the kitchen, a sly smirk across her visage, Ozpin had to take a test, it was a bit humorous to her.
Ren was conversing with Rarity and Weiss, happy to have sane people to talk to, even if one of them was a talking unicorn.
Pyrrha was discussing battle tactics and information on the enemy with Celestia.
Oscar was guarding the doorway, unsure of what might attempt to enter.
Ivan and Daniel were arm wrestling, having nothing better to do.
Applejack and was with Qrow, asking about the others.
Jaune was making small talk with Fluttershy at a small side table, the two yellow socially-inadequate warriors-in-training of a sort had a lot in common.
"Oh, at least they're all okay, I couldn't live with myself if my little animal friends were hurt by those awful Sin monsters." the butter yellow pegasus was still a bit worried, but she had gotten over it, mostly.
"Well, if they aren't hurt, what's the point of worrying, like my mom always says, 'If you can solve your problem, what's the need of worrying, if you can't solve it, what's the use of worrying.', she said that to me a lot." Jaune recited his mother's wise words.
"Your mother sounds like a smart lady, I bet she's proud to have a son like you." Fluttershy complimented.
"Yeah, over the past year she's been really disappointed in me, and I don't know why, but she never spares me her wisdom." the nervous young man said, he didn't really understand his mother practically throwing him aboard the airship to Beacon academy, it was like she wanted him gone.
"Oh, don't be sad, here, take one of my little friends, you could use it." Fluttershy hoofed over a small robot doll.
It was 3 inches tall, it had the name 'Freckles' scrawled on it in tiny letters, it looked so small and fragile.
Like the hope of a good future.
"Thank you, it's.... nice." Jaune put the small toy in his hoodie's stomach pouch.
Over with Applejack and Qrow.
"So, wha's the condition of yer... niece was it?" she paused, Qrow gave a nod, "Yer niece, wha's the condition up in her noggin?" the orange farmer didn't really know how to word it differently.
"Are you asking about her mental health?" the black clad man paused, Applejack gave a nod, "Ruby is quite naïve and I doubt she even understands death, but she is good-hearted and a well-spirited, she's young, and energetic, do you have a little sister Applejack?"
"Yessir, mah little sister Applebloom is a lot like Ruby, ah guess, she's really young though, only 12 years old." Applejack thought about her sister in a new light.
Over with Luna and Vermillion.
Vermillion looked at Luna, at her mane, her face, her wings, her horn, her cutie mark, he just smiled.
"Why are you staring at me like that? Are you expecting a show? I am not a common harlot, young man, I am a princess and will be treated as such by the likes of you." Luna rebuked, shaking the green clad man to get his attention.
"I am merely a fan of the night, I am almost nocturnal, with the way my sleep schedule has been arranged, I love the dark, I love Stargazing, I am a fan of the night." Vermillion went on about his love for nighttime.
Luna felt a bit better, she had a fan, having fans was nice.
Fans meant admiration, and even some could ascend to friends.
Over with Yang and Rainbow Dash.
"So what you're saying is," Yang looked out of the window, seeing a rainbow streaking across the sky, ", is that you can break the sound barrier with ease, by yourself, no devices or anything, just bare coat and buff. Not only can you do that, but whenever you break the sound barrier, you make an explosion of rainbows?" the busty blond recited the explanation of the Sonic Rainboom.
"Yep, I can do all that, and more, I'm the fastest flier in Equestria, after all, I can do any trick, stunt, or move in and out of the book." Rainbow Dash boasted, tossing her man back and giving a confident smile.
"That's cool, I have these." Yang activated the Ember Celica, the 11g 2.75 inch reduced number, or Rednum, shells shone with their slightly reflective plastic casings.
Rednum was the opposite of Magnum, magnified number.
Rainbow Dash looked at the yellow gauntlets, giving a gulp at the possibilities.
"What do they do?" the cyan mare asked, unsure of the extent of what she was actually looking at.
"I usually load them with phosphorous compressed powder charges, but normal incendiary slugs the occasional missile, fireworks, and if I'm really mad, Dragon's breath. All those types of shot I have fired." Yang counted on her fingers how many items she had listed "You see, the convenient thing about shotgun shells, is that they're practically universal, so I could use anything in these puppies, it's pretty cool." the young woman looked at the yellow plates, for the first time in a long time, she admired her handiwork, since she, like Ruby, had designed and forged her weapons by herself.
"That's really cool, actually, almost as cool as me, but I'm always the coolest by.... about... say twenty percent." the speedster pegasus could hear groans of agony in the distance, but shook it off as her imagination.
"That's a claim." the brawler-style warrior stated the obvious.
She had a habit of stating the obvious and understating a lot of important things.
Over with Pyrrha and Celestia.
"So, the enemy is quite like the Grimm, but from a different source of life and of different species, that is quite interesting." the dark red haired warrior repeated what Celestia just said.
"Yes, indeed, so, you are all on teams of 4, who is on your team." Celestia asked, trying to get each of these humans organized.
"Oh no, it's not my team, it's Jaune's, he's the leader." Pyrrha corrected, willing to put herself in a subordinate position for the sake of her comrade.
"The boy who just accepted a doll from Fluttershy?" Celestia noticed the interaction between the 2 yellow fighters.
"Yes, he's a bit callow and fearful seeming, but I know that he hides great skill, it may not look like it, but he has the most impressive musculature I've ever seen." Pyrrha had a barely noticeable blush, she had been practically ogling Jaune's physique when she saw it.
"How impressive?" Celestia wished to know more about this... callow and fearful leader.
"I'd say you could grate cheese on his abdominals and sharpen a blade on his pectorals, that's how impressive." Pyrrha actually had a bit of confidence in her claim.
While Jaune didn't seem like it, he was incredibly strong, in the several weeks they had been on a team together, he had managed to bust out of a high tensile rocket powered locker, cracked the steel bolts on the cafeteria door just by opening it, and lifted a whole bunk, which meant the frame, mattress, sheets, Ren, and all, to find his classroom supplies, yes, Ren was on the bunk when Jaune lifted it.
He was a social inadequate, yes, but he had a heart of gold and muscles of tungsten carbide cleverly disguised as meat.
"Well, it seems he will fare well against the Sin, if he keeps his head on his shoulders and his heart inside his chest." Celestia gave her best wishes that this assistance would be useful.
Fourteen out of fifteen wasn't bad, but Qrow, Ozpin, and Glynda looked quite elderly and underequipped, so eleven out of fifteen.
But Jaune was quite lacking in skill, apparently, and might get mauled, and Lie Ren seemed unarmed, so nine out of fifteen.
Then again, Yang didn't seem physically built for battle, and Oscar's weapon seemed cool, but inefficient, as did Ivan's large rifle. Ivan's rifle must have had abysmally low magazine size, and while the rest of him was strong, he wasn't very fast, she could see. She could also see the lack of power from Oscar's SMG, as well as physical inadequacy, so six out of fifteen.
Weiss's weapon didn't seem like it would do much, unless it had secondary functions, still six out of fifteen.
Daniel seemed just as likely to kill ponies as he did to kill Sin, which was terrible, five out of fifteen.
Ruby seemed kind of stupid, not offensively, but like Pinkie Pie, too cheery, naïve, callow, and un-serious to be a good fighter, so four out of fifteen.
Blake seemed nervous and hesitant, a prime candidate for cannon fodder, while that wouldn't happen, it still left three out of fifteen.
Vermillion, Pyrrha, and....
"Where is the last of your group?" Celestia asked, seeing only 14 humans.
"Hmm? Oh, what? Hey Ren, where's Nora?" Pyrrha called out to the green easterner.
"Nora? I don't kno-" Ren was cut off
"Where's Pinkie Pie?" Rarity asked, noticing the pink party animal is gone.
"Is she pink, crazy, lively, with an unholy amount of energy?" Ren queried, scared by this development.
"Yes, why do you ask?" Rarity blinked, noticing a cartoonish cloud of dust where Ren was just standing.
The green ninja had run off, Rarity ran outside and followed him.
Oscar followed as well, seeing as how he was supposedly guarding the door and had failed at that task.
An explosion in the distance was not a reassurance of safety.
It was a reassurance of insanity
<cut away>
Nora and Pinkie were getting along fine.
All the ponies were happy, their screams of joy could be heard throughout the town.
Nora gave a semiconscious laugh as she sailed through the air.
Right now, she was demonstrating to Pinkie how to do a proper rocket jump.
As the pink pony bounced up to Nora's level, she shouted in joy to her new orange haired friend.
"Hey Nora, do you know what this calls for?" Pinkie asked as the pair landed on the ground.
"No, what does this call for, what what what?" Nora countered, getting really close to Pinkie's face.
Both of the pink females smiled as they gave each-other a *boop* on the nose at the same time.
"It calls for a PARTY!" Pinkie cheered, bouncing up and down with joy.
As she bounced, she had forgotten to put on the safety on her MGL32 grenade launcher, the weapon misfired, blowing up the town center fountain, a nearby bench, and the ground under her, sending her flying high into the air again.
Quick note, thanks again for all the support, and the 419 favorites I'm seeing as I write this, I love you all in the most heterosexual/homosexual way possible, also, David = Agent Washington, the other character the VA for Ozpin voices, in case nobody picked that up, now let's get to the story.
Ren was running through the streets of Ponyville, his Jade Dragons were out and set to Taser, he was fretting over the situation in his head.
"Gotta find Nora, gotta find Nora, gotta find Nora, gotta find." his mind was racing, "NORA, NORAAAA!" he shouted, hoping to catch her attention. She always came to him when he used his angry voice.
"Come on, where is she, I hope none of the ponies found her first, no telling what kind of trouble she'd get in." his thoughts turned morbid as he imagined his redheaded companion getting caught by the law, then escaping prison with a washcloth, a tube of toothpaste, a fermented piece of fruit, a wire brush, a coat hanger, and a TV screen.
He had the unfortunate experience to know that she had done so before, and in the exact same way.
"Where could she be, let's think, Sweet Apple Acres, no, Applejack was at the library, Carousal Boutique, I don't even know where that is, the Librar-that's just stupid Ren, you just came from there, what about that cloud house Rainbow Dash was talking to Yang about? Wait...." he looked up into the sky. He could see the cloud house from here, and it was right where he expected it to be...
Among the clouds, at least five hundred meters into the air. He knew that even while Rocket Jumping, Nora could only reach one hundred meters, or three hundred twenty eight feet, as she claimed, but Ren didn't believe in SI units, only metric.
"Okay, not there, so where? Fluttershy is staying at the cloud house too, with that Rainbow Dash guy, I wonder if they're together.... Ren get focused, you could run headfirst into a pole or something if you get distracted like that, come on, think, who was that pony who was missing, Pinkie Pie, oh hell, she had a grenade launcher too. This is bad, this is bad, this is very not good. What am I going to do." Ren stopped when he heard a screaming coming from above.
"WHEEEEEEEEE-" he looked up, seeing a ball made up of various shades of pink falling down towards him.
He moved to the side, the ball move to the side.
He kept running, the ball of pink was chasing him while falling.
He was too preoccupied trying to avoid the pink cannonball, and as a result tripped over the town square fountain's rim, sending him sailing over the broken centerpiece and landing hard on his back, head dipping down into the water.
Attempting to right himself, or at least get into a more comfortable position, he quickly conjured up some soul energy to un-injure his spinal cord.
Brushing the dust off of his back as he stood up, the green ninja looked up.
To his horror, the pink ball was still above him, he flared up an aura shield to protect himself.
He braced for impact, and....
"Nice moves." Pinkie congratulated, landing softly onto the platform/aura shield.
"Where's Nora?" he interrogated, getting straight to the point was one of his fortes, dispelling the shield and catching the pink pony in his arms, he held onto her tight to make sure she didn't get away.
Pinkie merely climbed into his shirt, reappearing a few feet away.
"What the? Intradimensional space slipping?" he half-asked, confused and turning to face the escaped mare.
"I guess so. Well, Nora is hiding, but she asked me to tell you to roll this." Pinkie hoofed over a twenty sided dice to the easterner, Ren caught it with ease.
"Okay then," Ren tossed the icosahedron to the ground, looking at it, "It's caught on a crack," he tapped it with his foot, causing it to roll over to a twenty, "Now what?"
"NORA, HE ROLLED A NATURAL TWENTY, NOW WHAT?" Pinkie shouted to the empty streets,
"Is this town abandoned or something, I swear there should be more ponies here." the black and pink haired boy began scratching his head in confusion. He was really concerned, had his and Nora's presence scared all the ponies off?
Well, mainly Nora's presence...
Okay, it was entirely Nora's fault, he hated to blame her for anything, since she couldn't help it, but there was no way around it.
This was her fault.
"She says you have to call out to her to make her appear." the master of ceremonies informed, looking up at the exasperated Huntsman-in-training.
"Are you kidding me?" he looked to the windows, alleyways, and doors, no sign of his childhood friend, "NORA DON'T MAKE ME DO THIS." Ren was disappointed, he really didn't want to have to do what he was sure he had to do
No response.
"Fine," Ren took in a deep breath, "KOERRRRRAAAA, KOERRRRRAAAA." he made the call of what Nora believed to be a sloth.
Nora jumped out of the broken fountain centerpiece.
"YOU REMEMBERED THE SLOTH CALL!" she shouted cheerily as she glomped her black haired friend.
"Nora, please, don't ever run off like that again." his voice was weary, but wizened, he knew she would disobey his advice soon enough, but he still bothered to give it.
"Alright, I'm sorry, I followed Pinkie because she taught me that in-a-dime-convention telephone thing you said, watch!" the explosives expert front flipped into the ground, disappearing and walking out of a nearby door.
"See? It's so COOL!" she cheered, as Pinkie joined her in a series of consecutive teleportations.
Ren chose that this was a good time to repeatedly bang his head on the rim of the fountain.
<cutaway>
The whole of team RWBY, team VOID, the JP of JNPR, Qrow, Glynda, and four of the Mane Six, along with the princesses, were now on a trip to Town Hall, it was time to introduce Ponyville's new residents
Jaune, Pyrrha, and Daniel were tasked with finding Ren, Nora, and Pinkie.
It was easy enough, town square was the first place to check, and it was also the last.
Ren rolled over, his head laying on the rim of the fountain. He brought out one of the Jade Dragons and held it up to the trio frame-first.
"Guys, please help me, I want you to take the blade, and jam it right here," he pointed to his throat, "Don't hold back, just kill me already." he sounded more exhausted than usual, like he was really trying to give up on life, maybe even will himself to death.
"Ren, you're going to have to try harder if you want to kill yourself with your mind, you have to really want to do it, and unlock certain things in your mind, and then you have to think of three things all at once, then you die... like.... Orange Monkey Eagle!" Jaune faked having a brain hemorrhage to help his humor, but no matter how hard he tried to lighten the mood, Ren's sadness was too heavy and too dark to be touched by the enlightenment.
"....... Well then, if you insist." Daniel suddenly said, taking the bladed machine pistol and raising it high, bringing it down towards Ren's neck.
"Daniel NO, he wasn't serious, he's just depressed." Pyrrha caught Daniel's wrist and took the weapon from his hand.
"Aw, that's no fun." Dan replied, sounding unnervingly sincere.
"Jaune, could you help me up please." the blonde's muscular gloved hand grabbed the ninja's own slender one, pulling him up with little effort.
He could feel energy flowing through his body again. After dusting himself off and fixing his clothes, he turned to his teammates.
"Alright, is there someplace to be?" he sounded better, but still a bit quiet.
"Yes, town hall, everyone is being introduced by the princesses, so you should get be there." Pyrrha informed, turning to find Nora standing in front of a nearby window.
Ren followed the gaze and shouted to his companion, "NORAAA!" he used his angry voice. It was a voice that he always had on standby one that always made her appear and sometimes beg for forgiveness, even when she hadn't actually done anything wrong.
"COMING REN!" the pink-loving, somewhat scatterbrained girl called back, jumping into a window and appearing beside him.
"I think I have this in-a-dime thing down." she praised herself.
"Just... follow us, we're going to get introduced by the princesses." Pyrrha and Ren said at the same time.
Team JNPR was on their way.
<cutaway>
"Hello, everypony, thank you for coming out, I am sorry that the initial impression of our guests was... less than reputable, but I am here to explain." Celestia spoke diplomatically into the microphone, she could tell the tension was being offset, "For the past year, we have been experiencing an unprecedented time of war and death, my sister and I believe that by acquiring help, we can tip the scale to our favor, the Sin have all but extinguished many points of life in our world, but a new hope has been summoned, quite literally so, and we have 15 beings with unbelievable combat experience and records of victory, I would like to introduce, the..." she looked at the paper that was written for her by Pyrrha and Glynda, "Human Union of Nefariousness Termination and Equus Revival Legion, or HUNTER Legion for short." the crowd was still silent.
Ruby, Weiss, Blake, and Yang all came out on stage and took stood at the designated position, which was their letter painted on the floor of the stage.
Jaune, Nora, Pyrrha, and Ren all came out and took their positions.
Vermillion, Oscar, Ivan, and Daniel came out and took positions.
Qrow, Glynda, and Ozpin stood at their positions, which were much closer to the podium.
"Now, I will let Qrow, Glynda, and Ozpin take the spotlight." Celestia announced, moving to the side and allowing Qrow to come up first.
"Well, look at all of you, a world once so lush and full of life, now on the brink of destruction, unfortunate, but we're here to make it better. We are here to inspire hope and confidence in you all, so that you may also fight this darkness. The world of Equus may seem hopeless, but my own world, Vytal, seems the same way, but I haven't stopped fighting yet, and I will do so until I am completely incapable of it. I will now allow my former teammates to speak." Qrow gave his speech and stepped away from the microphone.
"Hello, my name is Glynda Goodwitch, as my companion Qrow has said, we are here to fight with you, not against you, all we request is acceptance, and we can do our job, I thank you in advance for such assistance, as we cannot help you if you do not let us. All will be well eventually, and when the time comes, you will be able to ride the metaphorical bicycle by yourself. We may not seem like much, but with our skills, abilities, and knowledge, we will beat back the Sin until they are gone." Glynda's voice was calm and gentle, when she was done, she stepped back, she saw Celestia look at her doubtfully, she pretended like she didn't notice.
Ozpin stepped up next, clearing his throat.
"I'll... keep this first speech brief. You all must be feeling well, like your knights in shining armor have come to save you, but when I look to you all, from the ponies to my subordinates, all I see is wasted effort. You think that we can save you, but in the end, only you can save you, we are here to help you with the first step." the gray haired man stepped away from the microphone.
Ozpin gave a small, knowledgeable smile at seeing the fresh wave of humbleness he had sent through the crowd, he took a sip of his coffee and waited for his next turn.
"Um... fillies and gentlecolts, do not despair, they are, after all, here to help, now I would like the younger members of the HUNTER Legion to introduce themselves." Celestia waved over team RWBY.
"Hello ponies, I'm Ruby, the leader of TEEEEAM RWBY, as leader, I will do my best to fight off these Sin things, can I get a CHEER!" Ruby shouted, everypony liked her energy, and they threw their hooves into the air and cheered.
"Right, I'm Weiss, Weiss Schnee, and as an invaluable member of team RWBY, I'm going to be fighting alongside my comrades in defeating this Sin menace. I'm sure you all are afraid of them, they are monsters, demons, yes I'm sure they have many names, but to me, they are only prey. A wise old man once said that to me, and I will use his words as my own." Weiss recited Professor Port's claims.
She always felt he was a boisterous man, but he had a good heart and was nice enough. Plus his 'when I was young' stories were at the very least entertaining.
"Um, hi, my name is Blake, Blake Belladonna, there's not much to me, but I'm on your side, so don't be hostile, okay?" Blake was, even as a little girl, always shy around new people, but she opened up quick.
"Sup, I'm Yang, Ruby's older sister, I'm here to, pardon my Sanctum, but I'm here to kick some ass and take some names. Delivering a beat down to the Sin and back home in time for... whatever I feel like doing in the afternoon. I'm going to turn the mic over to ol' Celestia now, see ya later." the charismatic blond received a very good reception from her intro speech, a few ponies even cheered and some whistled.
"Right, that was team RWBY, one of three teams of the HUNTER Legion ready to kill the enemy, now I would like to introduce team JNPR." Celestia stepped back from the microphone.
Jaune was the first up, he stood in front of the microphone and tapped it, "Um, is... uh.... is this thing on?" he could hear himself echoing from the speakers, "I guess so, uh, hello, ponies, my name is Jaune, Jaune Arc, I'm here with my team to..." he turned and whispered to Celestia "What was I supposed to say?"
Celestia facehoofed and whispered back, "You're here to fight the Sin."
"Oh right," Jaune recalled his appointed task, "I'm here with my team to fight the Sin things, and um, that's pretty much it, Selena and Lily here summoned us, but that's all there is to say." Jaune felt like he had gotten the princesses' names wrong, but he simply stepped away from the microphone, scratching his head.
His mind blanked again, he kept forgetting snippets of memory, but he didn't know how or why.
"Hello hello hello, I'm NORA, NORA VALKYRIE, I love this place so far, all the buildings and the sights and all you ponies, ooh you're all so cute I could just hug you all day, I'm gonna fight some monsters, YEAH, this is gonna be REALLY FUN! WOOHOO!" the redhead cartwheeled away from the podium, taking her place between Jaune and Pyrrha.
"*ahem* Hello, my name is Pyrrha Nikos, I graduated top of my class at Sanctum, so I would say that I am fairly skilled at what I do, which is protect people from monsters, normally I fight things in a much bigger environment, but I feel like this might be easier. I will fight for freedom and honor, thank you." Pyrrha gave a kind smile to the crowd before stepping away.
"Right, I'm Lie Ren, surname first, so just call me Ren, I don't talk much, but I do my job, that is all." Ren sounded tense, he didn't like speaking in front of so many of what he still saw as strange creatures.
"Okay, that was team JNPR, now for team VOID." Celestia announced, not even stepping behind the podium for this one.
"Hello, I'm Vermillion, I'm here on Luna's command, seeing as how she was the one who thought of getting help, there's not much to say other than the obvious 'I'm going to fight the Sin', since if I wasn't, I wouldn't be here, now would I?" Vermillion walked backwards away from the podium, narrowly avoiding bumping into Oscar.
"Private Oscar reporting for duty. It is my honor to serve alongside my fellow men and women on the field of battle, I will do everything in my power to send every single Sin creature possible, directly to the Gates of Hell." the blue schemed soldier marched away from the podium.
Ivan stepped up to the podium, lighting a cigarette and taking a drag, breathing out a cloud of smoke, "Ah, I love that cigarette. Hi, I'm Ivan, I'm with these guys and we're here to kill some monsters, it's literally no change from what we've been doing for the past two months back at Beacon Academy, if I wasn't going to kill some shit, I wouldn't be here, now would I?" he asked, looking at the crowd with an agreement provoking expression on his face, "I'm part of Team VOID, as you could tell by Celestia's announcement, that's all there is to say about me, I'll turn the mic over to my friend Daniel now." Ivan jogged back to his spot, on the way he did a front-flip, both for style and because he could.
"I AM HERE TO KILL EVERYTHING, THE STREETS SHALL BECOME RAGING RIVERS, AND THE BLOOD OF OUR ENEMIES SHALL BE THE WATERS, THIS I SWEAR!" Daniel shouted a lot louder than necessary, everypony looked disturbed by his enthusiasm for killing.
"I hear a lot of claims of fighting, but I don't see much potential, I am starting to feel like this 'help call' was a waste of time." Celestia whispered to Ozpin.
Ozpin did a quarter turn to face the sun goddess, "Don't be too hasty, Celestia, you can't doubt us so quickly, if I'm not mistaken, then we haven't even been here for a full hour. I wouldn't be at the position of authority I am today if I wasn't the greatest fighter I could be, nor would any of these bright young minds be under my responsibility if they did not possess the skills to defeat creatures many times their size and strength. Trust me, when the time comes, you're going to see some shit." Ozpin lectured the mare of many millennia with a wizening tone.
"And that shit is going to be awesome!" Qrow added, despite his age he still acted like he was a first year Huntsman-in-Training. It was his way of fighting aging, by resisting to be old.
Their old team was a mish-mash of ages before regulations were put into place.
Ozpin was in his early seventies, Port was in his sixties, Glynda was in her late fifties, and Qrow had recently entered his fifties.
Despite their slowly withering bodies, the long-standing Huntsmen and Huntress team had the abilities of people half their age.
"*ahem* I am back at the microphone because I have no doubt that you all have many questions, you want to get to know us as people, luckily for you, Miss Twilight Sparkle compiled a list of questions that I have already written the answers to, and now I shall read off what was put down." the list was brandished, straightened out, and read.
What are you? (species) We are humans, similar to primates but with more intelligence and less hair.
Where did you come from? The world of Vytal, humans were born from the dust of creation, and we fight for our lives every day.
Do humans have magic? No, not really magic, but our souls can be used as an aura, to protect our bodies and shield our minds.
Are there multiple types of humans? While the soul varies from person to person, there is only 1 variation of the humans, the faunus, just like humans, but they also have animalistic traits, most often irregular hair growth and animal ears.
How are you able to walk on two legs? The physiological structure of our skeletons allow it.
Do you have cutie marks? What the hell is a 'cutie mark'? A physical symbol depicting your special talent, like doing magic or building things. In that case, no, we do not have cutie marks.
What are some advancements recently made by humankind, I ask this as a way to establish a technology level comparison. I will say that we have recently made advancements in gunpowder and firearms, you have seen some of our latest models for weapons first-hoof. The commercialization of ornithopters, the highly compressed storage methods and devices for Dust, and some new firearm thresholds are all advancements that have been made in the past century.
What is this 'dust' stuff? A crystalline substance that comes in full crystals or powder, there are many different elemental variations of Dust, another note is that full crystals are more stable, but weaker, while powder is more volatile, but more potent.
What was your career back on Vytal? I am the headmaster of a school made to train Huntsmen and Huntresses, I gained my position through my own power and ability at the task of slaying the Grimm and leading my fellowmen and women.
How long will you be staying in Equestria? As long as it takes to get the job done.
Will you be staying overtime? No, we will be leaving at the soonest possible chance once our mission is complete.
You're not giving me much of a base for a trustful alliance, how can I know that you all can handle the job?
Ozpin paused, then cleared his throat to continue, "....This one took a while to answer, but I will say this now," the professor cleared his throat again, "We poison the air and water to weed out the weak, we set off fission bombs in our only biosphere, we NAILED A GOD TO A STICK! Don't doubt us, we will unleash terrors and violence the likes of which will drive even demons to madness, and don't cross us, or you'll end up far worse than dead." David Ozpin, a usually calm man, had a vicious and poisonous enough expression painted across his face to make many ponies faint in fear.
He took a drink of his coffee, then stepped off the stage, a thin trail of a blacker-than-black smoke following him, causing the podium to rot and the microphone to rust.
The old man could easily imagine watching the world burn, and he didn't care if that was what it would come to.
The flow of favorites has reduced to a trickle, but still more than 420 favorites is more than I could ever imagine, remember everyone, in the words of Ray Narvaez Jr.: "Just Blaze!".
Now on with the show.
Ozpin walked through the field south of Ponyville, his aura still blackened by intense negative emotion.
He finally noticed this, and calmed himself, returning his aura to its normal green color and loosening his grip on his cane, which had been releasing its deadly smoke.
The elderly man could hear monsters approaching, ravenous for an easy prey.
He would show them that he was far, FAR from their expectations.
Drinking the last of his coffee, he reared back his hand, ready to strike.
"I'LL KILL YOU WITH MY COFFEE MUG!" he shouted at the oncoming enemies.
The mug shifted and expanded, the open end closing into an axe blade and the solid end becoming a hammer.
As he swung it at an oncoming dog-man type enemy, the handle expanded, turning into a long handling shaft.
The beast was struck before it could reach out at him.
Swinging his hammer-axe around in circles, he struck the beast's skull again and again, giving it no chance to retaliate.
He was a master of the hunt, that's how he got his job.
The job of the Jagermeister.
Running forward, he swung his hammer-axe around again, sweeping up three Sin wolves and tossing them up into the air, doing an uppercut with the axe head and cleaving through their fleshy bodies.
More wolves, dog-men, and even some bears surrounded him, he only smiled.
This would be fun.
A whirlwind attack knocked them back from his immediate death range, giving him time to prepare another blow.
A smash to the head, a chop through the neck, his coffee mug turned hammer-axe was a deadly weapon, but not his deadliest.
The Jagermeister had gone completely berserk, taking out monsters left, right, and center.
An Ursa Minor approached, its starry fur turned black as the real night, the stars changed to all manners of white, yellow, orange, and red.
It was Sin-empowered, and it wanted him to get in its belly.
"Damn, let me see what I have for you!" Ozpin shouted up to it, using the axe side of his coffee mug weapon to climb up the face of his new challenger.
He was thrown off, but his aura stopped him from going too far, he faced the foe's head with his cane's head.
The screaming demon head blew out a quick moving cloud of blacker-than-black smoke.
The Ursa took the cloud head on, causing said head to dissolve and evaporate, killing the giant beast immediately.
Landing softly on its voluminous fur, the green clad man began to walk away, feeling a lot better from the skirmish.
"Oh what ferocity, the Jagermeister, the demon shall scream pure death to thy enemies, it was said to me, and I took it for my own, and so was named the Master of the Hunt, the greatest Huntsman in the world. With the dust mixture of darkness, poison, lightning, and wind, the smoke produced will destroy almost anything." He recited the tale of the Jagermeister, told to him in dying words.
The only way to become the new Jagermeister is to kill the old one.
<battle end>
Celestia had left the decisions of housing up to Pyrrha, Ren, Oscar, Weiss, and Yang.
The latter three were actually discussing housing and residence, or in other words, where they would sleep while they were here.
Pyrrha was trying to cheer Ren up.
"Ren, if you wouldn't mind at least talking about earlier-" Pyrrha was silenced by a quick finger on her mouth.
"Listen, I really care about Nora, and I'm the one who has to keep her in control, I've been doing so since we were kids. When I saw how much she needed to be reined in, I took initiative, and here we are today. Sure she's still crazy, but at least I can keep her alive despite her unquestionable stupidity. I hate to insult her or blame her for anything since she's just so naïve and cheery all the time and can't help it, but sometimes even I can't justify it. Earlier, when I saw that there was basically TWO of her, and that together, they were worse than three or four of her, I lost hope for a little bit. Don't get worried, I feel better now, I just have a bit more on my plate now." Ren explained. When he was finished, he looked at Nora and Pinkie with a slight smile.
He really did care about her, and while the one-now-two mostly-pink females nearly drove him to insanity, they still had an osmosis effect with their inexhaustible happiness. They made him feel better, if at the cost of being tired.
He had a particularly good memory of an exchange they had while in the Emerald Forest.
"Nora, why do I still bother trying to keep you out of trouble?" he had asked, glancing over to his companion.
Nora glomped him around the ribs and replied, "BECAUSE I LOVE YOU!" with her usual, almost un-depressible demeanor.
Ren had almost put his arm around her to hold her closer, almost, before she saw an Ursa and got the idea to use it as a transportation mount.
He knew that she didn't mean it in a romantic way, they were just really close friends.
Really close....
He shook his head of the thoughts that arose, he swore he wouldn't get too close, for both the fear of his remaining capacity for logic and sanity, and the desire to not take advantage of her. Just because she might let him, didn't make it any more acceptable in his eyes.
Oscar was busy with the task assigned to the quintet, "Listen, I say we should divide amongst the 5 homes, some of us should take that Fluttershy mare's old cottage, some of us can stay at the farm, some can stay at the Sugarcube Corner, some can stay at the Carousal Boutique, and some can stay at the library." he proposed the setup with confidence.
"Oh really, tell me, Mister Real Estate, who would go where?" Weiss argued, she disagreed almost entirely with his plan, she thought that they shouldn't split up.
"Weiss and me at the Boutique. Daniel would be at the cottage, and maybe Ozpin too, one of them would kill the other, and I'm not sure which death is better. That Qrow guy could stay at that Rainbow Dash guy's cloud house, since he can fly, at least I think he can. I saw him fly earlier. Ivan, Yang, Ren, and Nora could stay at the farm. Vermillion, Glynda, Jaune, and Pyrrha at the library. Ruby and Blake at Sugarcube Corner. Simple as that, place people with people that they at least not kill, if not like to be roommates with, and in environments that suit them." Oscar listed off each group like it was nothing.
"Oscar, those groups, I'm not sure if they're going to work," Weiss was sure of herself on this ", they'd probably end up fighting each other more than the monsters. It should be cut into pairs or thirds. Me and Blake, Ruby and Yang, Jaune and Pyrrha, Ren and Nora, You and Ivan, Vermillion and Daniel, and have that Qrow guy with Ozpin and Glynda." she rejected his idea and substituted her own.
"That makes SEVEN groups, Weiss, and we only have FIVE known residences, how will you deal with that?" the military man challenged.
Weiss tapped her chin in thought, listing each place in her mind.
It had been almost another hour since their arrival, and by this time the residence decision group had been informed of the available locations. Everyone had, much sooner than that, come to the consensus that this was not the weirdest thing that they had ever witnessed. Everyone DID have minor freak outs upon the discovery of their involuntary emplacement and where exactly they had been emplaced, and it would be acceptable to freak out more if they saw anything even weirder, but for right now everything was calm.
"Alright, um, the teams will be at the different locations, team JNPR can take Sugarcube Corner, team RWBY can take the library, team VOID can take the farm, and I guess Ozpin, Glynda, and Qrow can have the Boutique, or maybe they can stay at Town Hall. That cottage out near that other Emerald forest is too dangerous for a trio of elderly people, even if they are highly experienced." Weiss may have reformed her idea, but she still held fast to it.
"That would work very well, the farm is, well, a farm, and should have plenty of space. Our squad will have plenty of training ground to work with. I like this idea, Weiss, I give it my stamp of approval." rather than pulling out a stamp, Oscar simply gave a thumbs up, since who in their right mind carried a stamping block or an actual mailing stamp with them at all times?
"LOOK!" Ruby shouted, getting to the front of the convoy of warriors and ponies.
They had, during this time, been trekking to Canterlot, the princesses felt it necessary to centralize the 'world-saving' efforts there.
Ruby had pointed out the fact that they were almost done with the five mile walk, as the base of the mountain was within seeing distance.
"It's been quiet, too-" Pyrrha was cut off by Jaune's hand roughly covering her mouth.
"Shhhhh, don't tempt the monsters, I prefer to NOT be eaten." the blond young man shushed.
Pyrrha froze and tensed up for a few seconds, then relaxed and nodded.
Over with Blake, Nora, and Pinkie Pie.
"So, Pinkie, I heard that Ren said you can do... some sort of teleportation?" the black color schemed Huntress-in-training half-asked.
"He said it was Intradimensional Teleportation, but that's just a bunch of hooey, I'm Pinkie Pie, I do what I want!" despite sounding bright and happy, Pinkie's words carried quite a bit of conspicuousness and a hint of arrogance.
"Okay, I'll accept that, you play by your own rules." Blake immediately knew that prying further would more than likely hurt her brain and maybe even jeopardize her sense of logic and sanity. She had a very strong sense for detecting danger.
Over with Ruby, Yang, and Twilight.
"Heehee, this is going to be SO EXCITING! We're going to a fancy city with fancy stuff and fancy buildings and fancy food and even fancy ponies. This is going to be AWESOME!" Ruby shouted in a giggly voice, she was, after all, excited to be here, even if she wasn't entirely sure where 'here' was.
"Calm down sis, we're here to fight monsters, not play tea party or something." Yang, despite trying to rein in her little sister, was almost just as excited as she was. She had quite a penchant for horses and ponies.
And Ruby was right, these ponies were really cute and probably really cuddly too.
Luna and Vermillion were talking, well, more like Vermillion talking and Luna occasionally nodding.
"So, how much dedication would I need for you to grant me some cool stuff, I could really use some awesome night-themed armor." Vermillion had noticed that Luna hadn't been speaking, and decided to try and coax her into turning this monologue into a dialogue.
"That would require eighteen hundred points in your faith stat, if you wish for some of my personal armor. For a basic blessing with stat boosts, seven hundred points minimum." Luna had remembered one of her guards speaking with such terms. Then again, the stoutly strong stallion had a habit of rolling a twenty sided dice whenever possible, as though the outcome of a situation would be decided by the number it landed on.
That was silly.
Just plain silly.
*clacka clacka*
A group of three guards descended upon the group.
"Your highnesses, a dragon has been sighted travelling towards Canterlot!" one of them shouted down.
As the quartet of knights landed, Celestia rolled the information over in her mind.
A dragon, coming to Canterlot, the number three, she wasn't sure about that last thought, but the number three gave her a sense that something bad would soon happen.
"Has the dragon given the signal of peace?" the alabaster alicorn was speaking quickly now.
"No, we have confirmed that either it is either ignorant of the peace sign, or it has come to attack, which gets worse if it is Sin-infected." the guard gave the dire news with a shaking hoof .
Celestia's jaw dropped in shock.
A dragon with Sin empowerment, a normal dragon could tear the Canterlot Castle apart, a Sin dragon, dear mother....
She turned to the group of warriors.
"Alright, it's time for you to prove yourselves, when we confirm the status of our new arrival, it may be time to attack." Celestia wasn't really sure about how effective they would all be.
Jaune lacked confidence in basic communication, no telling how much worse he was in battle.
Ren and Yang didn't look like they were even armed.
Weiss and Blake had lighter weapons, which wouldn't do much to the dragon's tough scales.
Daniel would probably attack even if the dragon was peaceful.
Oscar had an SMG that she had found was actually small. The barrel was attached to the main frame, which looked similar to the Hoofler & Koch MP7, but bigger. That didn't say much, though, and the weapon was more than likely not going to be very effective.
Pyrrha's spear-rifle seemed okay, though, and Ruby's high caliber rifle scythe too, Nora had a grenade launcher, which was good. Ivan had a really powerful automatic rifle. Vermillion had his vibration-razor sword and gun sheath, at least he SAID that's what it was, if he was telling the truth, such a weapon would be most effective. Daniel had his buzz-saw, which would help too.
The main tactic would be to grind off the scales, exposing the slightly-solidified leathery skin underneath, ripe for attacking.
The dragon approached closer, not flashing the peace signal nor slowing down.
Wait a second, it wasn't slowing down....
"IT'S GOING TO ATTACK!" Celestia shouted as loud as she dared to, which gave her about half a mile's distance of effective volume.
The dragon got very close, flashing a gold and silver smile and coiling itself around the mountain.
Celestia, who had decided that walking would give time for the others to get to know each other, as well as sort out information, now re-decided her plan, and teleported the group up to the nearest balcony.
The dragon looked at her with bared teeth, several of them were gold, and several more were silver, he/she lowered his/her head to eye-level.
A simple eye patch covered its right eye, barely distinguishable from its scales.
"Oi, I ain't 'ere for no attackin', I'm 'ere to complain 'bout the magic fluxuation the younglings detected, an' I'm 'ere to ask 'bout them info-things ya promised." the elder dragon's accent was thick, but understandable.
It made sense now, dragons often started with white scales, slowly changing to a color, darkening that color, and finally they had black scales.
Each decade's shedding made way for darker and stronger scales to grow.
Elder dragons invariably had black scales, as well as being gigantic, which was evident in this case.
Parton Axial, the oldest known dragon alive, was in her presence, and his titanic size wrapped around the mountaintop several times.
"Hello Parton, nice to see you again after so long." Celestia greeted.
"Tia, where's yer mum? I need to talk to her." Parton asked, looking around for the pony in question.
"She has ascended to a higher plane of existence, my sister and I are the rulers of Equestria now." the alabaster alicorn explained in a slightly irritated tone.
"Nice ta know, if only you lasses would write ta me sometime, listen, mah younglings went on detectin' magic fluxes, and I came 'ere to see what was up, who are these things?" the pirate-like diplomat finally noticed the humans.
"They have been summoned from their world to help defend ours, they are humans." Celestia spoke only in general terms, as much more than that would confuse her old ally.
"Humans? Like in the legends? The creatures of unprecedented, unmatched, and unrelenting cruelty and ruthlessness? The same creatures who killed off the highland variation of ponies because of an INSULT to their LOOKS, and then immediately sought peace with the rest of ponykind? The same creatures who could be at each other's throats one minute, and be happy-go-lucky buddy-buddy let's-get-an-ale friendly the next? Dear Dovah, Tia, yer bloody insane, and I like it!" the boisterous reptile laughed uproariously, slightly shaking the town with the force of his chuckles and guffaws.
"Thank you, I think. I must ask, why did you approach with such velocity and with no signal? I am sure that we sent the new policy updates to Vulcan Complex." the solar goddess queried.
"Oh that, I'm really sorry 'bout that. I got this eye patch 'ere, an' no depth perception! Couldn't bloody tell iffin' I was close to the city or not. T'was hard to tell when the time was ta stop and when ya could see mah signal. Again, I'm really sorry for that." the black scaled dragon apologized.
"Right, okay, I am sorry for the attack we almost launched at you, I have the information charts here." Celestia levitated said parchments from her work desk to the diplomat's neck-bound storage bag.
"Thank ye lassie, I'll be off then." Parton excused himself, taking to the air and flying off.
The now-exasperated princess turned to the group of humans, staring at them with a slightly weary look in her eyes.
"Right, now then, that map of the world." she got the metaphorical train back onto the metaphorical track, "As well as the centralization of your efforts, your residence will be in Ponyville, I have decided, so I hope a decision has been made on that. You may feel free to use any materials and facilities that we have for personal training, as well as sparring with the guards. Everypony will be informed of your presence and your purpose here. I have only one hard-set rule for your stay, please don't cause any unnecessary trouble." the daytime diarch delivered the speech with a formal, yet friendly tone.
"I believe we may have a problem, princess." Glynda pointed to the face of the mountain, which was being shaken by an unseen attacker.
A quick teleportation back down to the ground revealed that the mountain was being clawed at by an Ursa Minor.
A Sin-empowered Ursa Minor.
Luna blinked, then looked at the humans, each of them was preparing for the oncoming fight.
Celestia couldn't believe her eyes as even Yang and Ren summoned up weaponry.
Yang's bracelets expanded to form a pair of some kind of golden gauntlets, and Ren brought forth a pair of pistols with blades on them from his sleeves.
The rest of them brought forth their own weapons, prepared for battle.
The rulers of the land merely stood back and watched as their summoned warriors began the deadly dance of war.
Ruby launched herself up to the head of the thing, slashing at its skull with the scythe portion of Crescent Rose and firing the one-and-a-half by eight inch caliber cartridges at point blank range, which had to hurt.
Blake and Weiss went in unison, striking the hind- and forelegs of the beast.
Yang took it by the spine, punching with her fiery missile shells going off like popcorn.
With the Ursa sufficiently under attack, it was time for things to suck.
Another dragon, much smaller than Parton, and not here for diplomacy, swooped in from the sky.
It was Sin, and it wanted the tiny creatures below to die.
Team VOID took on this one.
Another level of sucking was added, as a bestial roar sounded out.
A giant beast, like a pony, yet clearly not, stalked out of the nearby tree line.
It was about twenty feet tall, the normal hair-tail had been replaced with a vicious, stinging scorpion one. The flat teeth had broken and fallen out to form sharp, jagged shards that were ready to tear into something. The eyes were red, evil, and scrutinizing. Everything else was just a lot bigger and stronger.
"I'm getting a slight sense of Deja vu." Jaune remarked as he finally drew his sword and shield.
Pyrrha opened fire with her six point thirty five by seventy millimeter hunting rifle, the magnum rifle rounds had been designed for extremely high velocity, and pierced the skin of the pony-beast with ease.
Ren had a harder time doing damage with his forty caliber pistol rounds. Since they had a lower muzzle velocity, he had to find weak spots for the shots to hit.
Nora was practically floating, Jaune had charged at the monster and slashed at its hoof, making a decent sized gash, while Nora attacked the tail, tearing the strong slabs of tendons that supported the stinger down to mere strands with the force of her grenades.
Ren took the opportunity to sync with Nora and jump off of her grenade shot, launching him high into the air.
Grabbing the explosive from underneath his foot and throwing it at the back of the pony-beast's head, he landed on the tail, ripping it off and sending the venomous stinger into the monster's flank, injecting it with its own poison.
Jaune was stuck, the pony was staggering, and he was right under it.
"Remember what Pyrrha said, you make a great leader, oh but I'm not, what was it my dad always said to me?" he was seriously thinking while standing under this thing, waiting to be crushed.
"Remember son, always befriend girls named Sheila, they'll carry you far." no, no, that wasn't it, "Strangers are just friends you haven't met yet." no, that was his mom, "I love my best friend, the church is my best friend, FOREVER!" his dad said a lot of stupid stuff, Jaune realized.
Then it hit him, "Remember son, if you want to be the best, ya gotta get ANGRY, ya gotta get MEEEEEAANNNNN!", that was it, his dad was a genius, bless his soul.
He closed his eyes and thought angry thoughts.
Getting his shield stuck in a doorway.
The feeling that was like a nail getting hammered into his nose when a sneeze didn't come out despite being RIGHT THERE.
Cardin Winchester, oh god how he hated that guy, he never really hated anyone else in his life, but Cardin brought out every bad emotion Jaune could muster.
Kittens, young people, his wife dying, losing an arm, these strange new thoughts that didn't really apply to him entered his head and amplified his feelings of rage five-fold.
Eyes still closed, he started wildly swinging his sword while letting out a brave, loud, deep-voiced battle cry.
He soon felt encapsulated in warmth, a dreamy, bubbly feeling, it was also wet....
He opened his eyes and realized that he had sliced the giant pony to pieces, and was now thoroughly soaked in its blood.
Pyrrha was shocked still, she had aimed the Milo in spear form, ready throw it to pierce the weakened skull of the monster, but then Jaune pulled off that whirlwind move, no, it was more than that, it was a raging tornado of sword slashes.
She gave a smile at her leader, there was the skill that she was sure was what got him into Beacon.
She was sure of it, after all, getting into Beacon must have meant that he had a lot of skills, even if said skills might not have seemed to be there.
Team VOID attacked the dragon, Oscar taking the lead and jumping onto its head, taking a huge gout of fire to the face with no ill effect. Sure his clothes were scorched, but he was a dragon-faunus, it didn't hurt hit body at all.
Ivan began blasting out volleys of fifty BMG rounds at the beast, successfully landing several shots and doing decent damage
Vermillion joined Ivan with his gun-sheath, shooting at a faster rate, but with less power.
Daniel joined Oscar on the dragon, his buzz-saw spinning fast and scraping at the scales.
It was time for mode two.
Oscar gave a last salute to his comrades, rearing back his sniper-Uzi by the barrel as it sprouted a medium sized spearhead perpendicular to the top of the frame, he brought it up and swung it down, striking and latching onto the dragon by the top of the inside of its mouth.
Twist the blade around, the blue-color-schemed man shot as many bullets as he could down the throat of the beast, holding the jaws open as long as he could.
Unfortunately, the dragon had stronger jaws than a Nevermore, and Oscar had less physical strength than Yang.
The monster crushed him and chewed viciously, breaking his bones and his weapon, effectively ending his life.
Daniel used his own secondary function, his eyes went red, the buzz-saw thickened to about three feet wide, turning it from a buzz-saw into a bladed steamroller, and slammed it down on the beast's back, grinding the scales off and tearing into the flesh underneath.
Lucky for the dragon, it had landed and used a wing to flick Daniel off and break the engine of his weapon, effectively disarming him.
It stomped its large foot on his body, stopped briefly by an aura shield, but Daniel's aura shields weren't nearly as effective as Ren's, and he was crushed.
Ivan charged as Vermillion provided suppressing fire, swinging his weapon around, he butt-stroked the dragon.
Meaning he 'stroked' the dragon's face with the 'butt' of his gun's stock, and by 'stroked', I mean 'swung ferociously at'
It had little effect, though, and the only thing that broke was the stock of the rifle, Ivan ran to the open wound on the dragon's back and started shooting.
The mighty black beast jumped up into the air and flipped over, smashing Ivan onto its back, killing him with its weight.
Vermillion was the sole survivor of team VOID, he charged up his soul and ran under the thing's head. His soul would fuel the overclocking function on his sword, and swung upwards, the vibrating-razor-like blade severing the dragon's head.
The head landed harmlessly in front of him, he stopped to catch his breath, as he had used a lot of soul for that.
Big mistake, as the fire gland from the dragon's body was now flowing, pouring liquid fire onto the night-loving man.
He threw off his jacket and weapon as he flailed around in pain, burning alive, and in less than fifteen seconds, burning dead.
The dragon, as well as all of team VOID, were dead.
Team RWBY was not faring as well as JNPR, but at least better than VOID.
Everyone was alive, but the Ursa was still so unharmed that it began to climb the mountain.
"Ruby, come on, you know how to do this." the red clad girl heard the familiar voice of her uncle.
She stabbed the blade into the skull of the beast and looked to the sky.
Qrow flew up to the head of the monster and prepared to dive down.
He spun his staff around quickly, the speed of the rotation opened up a slot with a button on the bottom shod of the staff.
Slamming the button down on the thick-yet-short fur of the Ursa, his weapon activated.
The large slit on the top shod of the staff released a three foot long scythe blade.
The special part was that the scythe blade was made of energy, like a lightsaber or something.
Raking the energy blade down the whole of the creature, slicing a massive opening into its back, Qrow front-flip stabbed in quick succession, mountain style clawing his way back up.
Yang continued punching the spine, the fur had since burned off, leaving only reinforced flesh.
Weiss called out a "SWITCH!" to the blond brawler, and they switched position.
Yang smashed at the Ursa's leg, breaking it much easier than her attempts at the spine.
Blake shot a hole through the other leg, swinging herself around on her weapon's ribbon and rapidly kicking it, spreading the wound open wider and draining the beast of more life fluids.
Weiss stabbed the spinal cord, not hard enough to do anything scale-tipping, but enough to discharge magic into it.
Ice, fire, lighting, etc., she assaulting the Ursa's senses with pain.
Ruby and Qrow were assaulting the monster's head with slashes and a few bullets, but no significant damage had been done, as if it did, the Ursa would have fallen.
It was too late, the vile creature had climbed up onto the city, and it wasn't going to leave on its own.
Yang, Blake, and even Weiss had fallen off from the sudden shift in velocity, leaving them on the ground, landing a bit hard, but no worse for wear.
Qrow was swatted off, one of his wings struck hard and injured. Incapable of flight or any other means of stopping, the faunus man was launched into Canterlot town square, his impact softened by the giant fountain in the middle, which was even more massive than the one in Ponyville.
Ruby was in the air, falling so slowly it was like she was floating.
She had one thing to end this.
The Dark Energy cartridges, which she had a magazine full of.
She loaded up the magazine, which was marked by a black circle with four arrows pointing inwards at it.
Turning the Crescent Rose around, she fired, launching herself at the Ursa with extreme speed.
The force of the impact knocked the beast off of the Canterlot city platform, with the scythe catching its neck.
She fired again, forcing the blade through the neck and severing the monster's head, another shot launched her backwards into the air, landing safely on the edge of the platform.
Standing as tall as she could and with as much pride as possible, she looked down at the specks on the ground.
The Ursa Minor fell to the ground, disintegrating into ethereal rose petals, which then faded into nothing.
Down on the ground below, team JNPR, the rest of team RWBY, Glynda, Qrow, and the princesses all looked up at her in awe.
By the time the Ursa had completely vanished, Professor Ozpin finally rejoined the group, slightly sweaty from his delayed trek.
"Did I... happen to miss anything?" he asked, looking at the others, then up to Ruby, taking a sip from his recently refilled coffee mug.
<battle end>
The ceremonial hall of Canterlot castle had seen many celebrations, many honorings, many weddings, and many more guests of all sorts of shapes and sizes, but nothing like this had been witnessed by the several-centuries-old walls of this almost sacred structure.
The eleven remaining humans walked up the red carpet that ran down the middle of the large room. Many witnesses to the events of the three-way battle were there, the element bearers were, of course, present, and posted at the altar to the sides of the two princesses.
Twilight, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash were on the right, with Celestia.
Rarity, Pinkie, and Fluttershy were on the left, with Luna.
"We, the princesses of Equestria, give this honor, to the humans, those whom we have summoned, the hunters, warriors of light, and more recently, heroes of Canterlot." Luna began, bringing out several badges, "I hereby appoint all of you, as a new Special Operations division, H.U.N.T.E.R., the Human Union of Nefariousness Termination and Equus Revival. You shall wear these badges as a sign of your position, your honor, and your skills. I thank each of you for the valiance and vigilance that I have no doubt that you will maintain throughout your time here." the midnight blue alicorn gave the speech in a formal tone, pinning the badges to each of the humans.
The badge itself looked pretty cool, a bow drawn back with a sword in place of an arrow, a pair of actual arrows crossed behind the sword, a pair of rifles crossed over the shield, and the word HUNTER printed below.
The whole thing was about two inches wide and three inches tall, but it was still really cool nonetheless.
"I believe that this shall be the beginning of a wonderful alliance." Luna was optimistic in her words.
Things were starting to look up, to get better, the evils of the world were weakening.
<cutaway>
The evils of the world were most decidedly not getting weaker, quite the opposite, in fact.
Blood red flames wreathed a pillar of black standing in the middle of a field of dark nothingness, though the flames shed a surprising amount of light to a group of figures.
One stood tall and proud, he wore a fancy black suit, his wings were gray, but his coat was a beautiful tan-orange, with a mane and tail that were bleach-blonde. He drank from a glass of red wine.
Another was tense and ready to kill, he had a vibrant red coat, his hind legs wrapped in brown, furry leather, mane and tail were petroleum black. His eyes were filled with malice.
A quite portly one with a bread colored coat and white and red speckled mane. He was practically inhaling a plate of spaghetti.
A shifty looking one with a golden coat, silver mane and tail, bronze unshorn fetlocks, and platinum eyes. He was counting up a pile of bits.
A sleepy looking one, with a sand colored coat, a pale yellow mane and tail, and cloud white unshorn fetlocks. He was wearing pajamas and holding a cloud pillow and a teddy bear.
An irritated one, he looked at the others with his impossibly green eyes, his mane and tail were a light, pale blue, and his coat was a dark aqua, but his eyes were every shade of green rolled into one. He looked at the others intensely, just staring at them.
The last was something, it wasn't a female or a male, but both, with a peach pink colored coat, a long flowing mane of brown, yellow, red, and black stripes, and a short white tail, this thing was an oddity. To its sides, rubbing against its flanks, was a mare on the right, and a stallion on the left, both of them looked flushed and hazy-minded. The most-likely hermaphroditic pony was smiling a most mischievously charming smile.
The wine drinker spoke up, "We have to act sooner, ol' Celly and Lulu have brought in some friends."
"*snort* I HATE EVERYTHING! I'll CRUSH them with my BARE HOOVES!" the red coat one shouted in his vicious voice.
"Om nom nom." The portly one rarely made a sound other than that.
"First, we steal the gold, then we steal anything else valuable, that'll leave them hanging onto poverty, a perfect plan, and I call dibs on everything." the shifty eyed one proposed his plan, careful not to lose count of his precious money.
"Why should YOU get everything 'mon, what if ol' Levi' here wants something?" the green eyed pony argued.
"Can I go back to bed now?" the pajama wearing stallion whined, hating to be interrupted from his hourly nap.
"You can go to bed with me~." the double gendered pony offered in a tempting tone.
The sleepy pony merely held out his for protection, backing away lethargically, slowly teleporting away.
"Dammit A, can you go five minutes without thinking about sex?!" the suited stallion asked in a grating tone.
"We're all the most powerful of sin, and I'm the best sin of all, lust, I love everything, you only love yourself L." the pink.... thing claimed.
"Shut up, I'm pride, of course I only love myself, now listen to me brothers." the tan-orange alicorn stallion looked over the massive expanse of emptiness, turning the darkness into light with his magic.
"We're gonna need more monsters." he stated simply, opening his death-gray wings and taking off from the pillar, his wine glass tucked into his suit jacket.
He wouldn't stop until the world was his, he was going to rule it all, and the Blood of the Damned was going to cut the path to kinghood wide open.
More than 450, I'm going to say that it has finally happened, I have lost track of how many favorites I have, but I'll say it's about 450.
On with the show.
Luna stood in front of the four tightly packed gravestones, giving a sigh.
For the past week, she had been visiting the graves of team VOID, their death did not hit the group lightly.
While Ozpin was somewhat proud that they at least died in a dignified manner, Glynda and Qrow were decent enough to frown at the bad news.
Respects had been paid, and the bodies were buried.
She and the medics had done their best to restore some semblance of aesthetic pleasantness to the corpses, but it was difficult, due to how they died.
Oscar had been eaten, Ivan and Daniel had been crushed, and Vermillion had burned to death.
She recalled the not-so-recent induction of a second army force, not the HUNTER Legion, they were Spec Ops, no, she was referring to the Soldiers.
It had taken a while, Celestia claimed, to gather them up and organize the new policy, there were two forces of the military, and their division was simple.
The Guards would stay posted at their locations, such as Canterlot, Neigh York, or Ponyville.
The Soldiers would be sent out of their post to other locations, like a Ponyville soldier coming to Canterlot, or a Neigh York soldier going to Bearussia.
This meant that there would always be protection for these few, last remaining locations of hope and peace, and that a shift in protection would never leave a place undefended.
It also cut down on paperwork, about five or so documents were needed to transfer a single guard, and more than one would require even more paperwork.
A whole battalion soldier could be reassigned with a single list and a few signatures.
She thought back to team VOID, she remembered that she had made sure that each of them were dressed in custom made attire.
Vermillion wore armor like the Lunar Watch, Oscar wore a lightweight armor-fabric suit like the Soldiers, Ivan wore a golden armor suit like the Solar Guard, and Daniel wore a simple black robe.
She gave another sigh, her thoughts and mourning done with, the princess of the night went back to the training grounds.
<cutaway>
Ozpin smiled at the crowd of guards, he was happy to deal with such people.
None of them were prestigious, at least in his sense of the word.
Each and every guard had the whole field of all weapons to learn about, none of them had prestige or specialization in any particular weapon, they were average all across the board. This was good, as it meant that their main strength would be their lack of weakness.
"Attention, EVERYPONY ATTENTION!" he shouted, causing all the guards to look in his direction, "You are all here, under my rule, because frankly, you SUCK! I say this because you have a lack of specialization, but don't worry, this is good. This means that you will be trained with every weapon in the Equestrian arsenal, from axes and swords, to bows and pikes, to rifles and pistols, along with everything in between, now, you're not here to get good at A weapon, you're here to get good at ALL weapons. Now, let's begin, I hope everypony brought a writing utensil." he started by descending from his balcony and walking over to a conveniently placed desk, picking up a large pile of papers.
"Here's your first test in training, an AKS test, or 'Assessment of Knowledge and Skills' test, you each have two hours to complete the test. You shall start when it is confirmed that everypony has one." the teacher inside of him was cackling like a madman, he loved this part.
Most of the guards merely shed their armor, sat down, and began the test.
Ozpin was hopeful, what would it say about the system, about the country and its rulers, if the guards couldn't pass a simple weapon anatomy test?
It would say a metric fuck-tonne about everything, and maybe reveal why the guards couldn't defend the land when they outnumber every enemy by a ratio of ten to one.
The old man heard giggling, like little schoolgirls, or something of the sort, he turned and saw a trio of retreating forms.
"My my, methinks there be intruders, I'll deal with these younglings." he said quietly, walking in the direction of the retreating ponies.
<cutaway>
The other ten warrior were charged with taking their own specialized skills and teaching the other guards and soldiers the more advanced maneuvers and techniques that they knew.
At least none of the guards or soldiers had to take written tests.
Jaune was disappointed, though, as almost every one of his 'students' surpassed him within a few minutes, leaving him at the bottom of the barrel in both the fields of swordsmanship and shield usage.
With nothing else to do, he walked to training field C, as Ozpin had taken A with the jack-of-all-trades guards, and B was where the specialists were.
Alone in the field, Jaune pulled out the controller that was given to him.
It was a simple device, though it had a lot of buttons, changing the training field setting to C, he pressed a button.
A simple training dummy was summoned, formed out of magic.
He smiled, maybe he could do this for a while.
About five more were summoned, and Jaune was about to charge, when all six heads exploded.
He looked to the side to see a pair of stallions sitting like humans against the wall and watching him, one had a sniper rifle, the other had a sword.
He ran over to the others, sitting down with them.
"Hey, I'm Jaune, and you are?" he asked, trying his best to be friendly.
"I'm Lieutenant Evening Warden, from the Lunar Watch, and this is my buddy Lieutenant Jeering Mareon, also from the Lunar Watch. By the way, I just rolled a natural twenty on my snipe." the somewhat stout stallion introduced the duo with a proud voice.
"Oooooh boooooy, it's so exciting, you rolled a ten on every stat on that 'character sheet' of yours, you are practically the definition of average." the other stallion had a nice voice, even when he was, well, jeering someone.
Evening Warden had a light scarlet coat, cold and calculating hazel eyes, and a dark blue mane, his armor was slightly customized with dimly glowing runes, probably protection magic or something.
Jeering Mareon had a tan-brown coat, warm and friendly brown eyes, and a short cut black mane with a little crest in the front, his armor was black, probably his own work, it had a glassy sheen, like obsidian.
What was odd was that Jeering was a pegasus, and Evening was a unicorn, but their cutie marks were practically switched.
Evening's cutie mark thing was a black lightning bolt coming out a white star.
Jeering's cutie mark thing was a red-outlined yellow circle with an S made of red sparkles.
"So, what was your name again? John or something?" Evening rolled his twenty sided dice again, and got a ten.
"It's Jaune, Jaune Arc, nice to meet you, what's that packet?" the blonde man noticed the packets of paper to the sides of the two stallions.
"Oh, we're with Ozpin's group, but he gave everypony a test, and we didn't want to take the test is field A, so we came here to C." Jeering explained, looking at Evening's watch.
"Well, lucky you, I have to train others, and they're already better than me." the swordsman sighed, he felt awful.
"How are they better than you? I though you were part of the HUNTER Legion?" Evening interrogated, rolling his twenty side again, it landed on a sixteen, "Did you lie your way to your position?" he asked the armor-piercing question.
"*sigh* Yes, actually, I did." Jaune gave up, he couldn't keep up the ruse any longer.
"Oh damn, that's bad, how'd you do it?" the black maned stallion asked.
"I got some fake transcripts, and they said I'm a forceful fighter, that I usurp the battlefield into my ownership, and that I'm a good tactician too." Jaune recited the untrue words.
"Why did you put that on your transcript? Why did you even get fake transcripts in the first place?" Jeering pressed on with his hard questions.
"I thought it was something I could try to do, and be alright at, enough to keep up the lie, but I failed. I got into Beacon, the school for warriors, because I'm the only man in my family who isn't a revered fighter. I was tired of being the one who can't even land a strike without calling upon god or some ancestor to help me out. Tired of being picked on, and ridiculed, and mocked, and bullied, and sucking at what I do, and, just, EVERYTHING! I can't do anything right." Jaune laid back flat on the ground.
Jeering and Evening stood up and walked over to where Jaune's face now lay, sitting down on their haunches and looking down at him.
"Yo Jaune, y'alright?" Jeering asked in a casual tone.
"No, I want to just go home, not just back to Vytal, but back to my family. Actually, now that I think about it, they probably wouldn't let me stay because I'm such a failure.
"Don't say that, at the very least you're a decent liar, and you've got more muscle than me and Jeering combined." Evening tried to reassure Jaune of something good, he was good at reassuring ponies of things, he had gotten a lot of practice with his sister, "You just need proper form, like this." he rolled his twenty side yet again.
He suddenly pulled a face like both princesses had offered to be his sex slaves, or something else equally impossible and insanely amazing.
Jaune looked at the small dice, it had landed on the twenty side.
Evening jumped into the air, pulling himself into a sitting position, he then promptly started floating five feet off the ground, going all over the stone field at a medium velocity,
Jeering and Jaune looked at him with, not sure if this was actually happening.
Evening finally landed back in front of the J-named pair.
"It's as simple as that, but proper form for swordsmanship is probably harder than just rolling a natural twenty." the runic armored knight said, looking down at Jaune again.
"You're a lot like my little sister, like ol' mom and dad say, she just needs proper form, and she'd be flying like the wind." Evening said, looking up at the sky and smiling.
"I'm not really understanding this whole setup here, Jeering is a pegasus with a magic cutie mark, you're a unicorn with a flying cutie mark, and you have a pegasus sister?" the blonde man's head hurt with all of this conflicting information.
"My cutie mark is about white and black magic, I'm a star at white magic, the magic of defense, and I'm like a bolt of lightning at black magic, the magic of offense. My dad was a pegasus, and my mom was a unicorn. When my sister was born when I was about ten years old, I was already doing magical spells and wanting to be in the military like my dad, since he was in the navy. I did my best, and here I am today, a lieutenant with my buddy Sparkles over here, everypony called him Sparkles because his special talent is being a Sparkle of positivity when morale is low, as well as being bright minded with good morals." Evening explained, reminiscing his old memories brought him joy.
"Well, that explains it all, and he's still no older than twenty two, but he joined up at sixteen, anyways, we should probably get going." Jeering looked at Evening's hoof-watch again.
"Oh, your," the scarlet coated stallion checked his watch, "...right, our time here is done, thanks for the nice conversation Jaune, I hope to see you again soon." Evening gave the farewell as the stallions put their helmets back on.
Magic activated and turned their coats gray and their eyes yellow as they trotted back to their post, it was the standard for the Lunar Watch to have certain colors. Jeering's red rimmed sunglasses were obviously not under protocol, though, nor was Evening's twenty sided dice.
Jaune, for the most part, was slightly surprised, the helmets must have had illusion magic, it was probably the most efficient method, or something.
He wasn't sure, he had memory problems, like when he forgot his locker number.
Bringing up more training dummies, he got ready to attack.
It was time to finally develop some skill.
<cutaway>
Ozpin was now fully running after the small ponies that were trying to evade him.
Finally, after some time, they stopped running, tired of either moving or not letting him catch up.
Huffing and puffing, Ozpin leaned down, grabbed the three ponies, and came to a stuttering stop outside into the light.
A small courtyard was their current location, and the probably dying old man set the ponies down gently, sitting in front of them with his lungs ravenously breathing in more air.
"*huff* Please don't *huff* make me run *huff* like that, I'm rather *huff* old, I may be *huff* fast, but my *huff* cardiovascular health *huff* isn't what it *huff* used to be." Ozpin managed to speak, but only barely.
As his lungs greedily drank in more air and were slowly satisfied, he looked at the three fillies that were staring at him in amazement.
They were probably no older than twelve years, had no cutie marks, and seemed somewhat familiar, like he had seen somepony like them before.
"Hi, I'm Applebloom." the pale yellow one introduced.
"I'm Scootaloo." the orange one said with pride.
"I'm Sweetie Belle, nice to meet you mister Pinhead." the white one greeted.
"It's Ozpin, not Pinhead, I have no idea how you came to that conclusion, so, why did you tear me away from my duties?" the green clad Huntsman queried, now sitting in a looser version of the fetal position, with his arms resting on his knees rather than wrapped around them.
"We saw that awesome stuff that you did, and I got my brother to get us tickets to the portal to Canterlot." Scootaloo proclaimed.
Ozpin was about to ask what she meant by awesome stuff, but was silenced by Pinkie Pie, who jumped out of the cracks in the stone.
"Look at the flashback." she instructed, pointing off in some random direction.
Somehow, the images of Ozpin's fight with the wolves, dog-men, and the Ursa Minor showed up in a quick, sight filling montage.
"Oh, that, right, so, you wanted to talk to me?" Ozpin asked, sounding as nice as he could, he liked young children, they had an osmosis effect with their youth, it made him feel younger.
"We want to be," they each took in a deep breath, Ozpin braced for ear-based impact, "CUTIE MARK CRUSADER MONSTER HUNTERS, YAAAAAAY!" they shouted in unison, the force of their brief yet powerful verbal assault rang in the old man's ears.
"I wanted to go as long as possible without needing a hearing aid, and I fear that you may have forced it, but enough of my woes, you want to become Huntresses?" the CMC nodded in unison, "Do you have weapons?" he was sure they would fail this part.
Low and behold, as Celestia doubted the humans, and they proved themselves, so did he doubt the CMC, and, well, actually, only Scootaloo had a weapon, due to her connections in the military.
Scootaloo had a S&W500, attached to the barrel was a Japonese Tanto dagger blade. It was a simple revolver knife.
"I am surprised you can even hold those, very well, I am a man of my word, the next requisite is, do you have training?" Ozpin wasn't sure about this, he could never live it down if he let a child join his personal army and they got hurt, or worse.
"Yep!" the little pegasus said with cheer.
"Well, then, let's prove it, shall we?" Ozpin stood up and stretched his tired bones and muscles, walking back to Training Field A.
On the way there, the three fillies were chatting nonstop about how they would get their cutie marks in hunting monsters.
The professor gave a smile at their cheer, he couldn't put enough emphasis on it, he loved children, such energy, such joy, such innocence, in fact, if Ruby had been any younger, he would have kept her out of Beacon to protect her from the corruption of war.
His body may have been weakened by age, but he was still quite healthy, and being around young people helped him stay awake and active.
His thoughts became deep, he had the health of man half his age, but when younglings were around, about the perfect age of seventeen to twenty four, when they were at their physical peak and their minds were ready to compete, he loved joining them, if only to feel better about himself.
He had made more mistakes than any man, woman, or child in all of Vytal, even with everyone else combined, they looked nearly perfect when compared to him.
So much loss, so much pain, so much conflict, so much stupidity, and weakness, and damn it all he hated himself for the things he'd done. He felt unfortunate that he wasn't dead yet, but relieved that he had time to make up for some of his errors, maybe have a heroic net gain by the time he finally metaphorically kicked the proverbial bucket.
Only time would tell.
<cutaway>
Every one of the trainers was having a surprisingly easy time, within a few hours they were ready to move on to more advanced things.
Blake had dismissed her troops for the day, choosing instead practicing her ninja skills. She felt she needed to keep them as fresh as possible.
Pyrrha had done the same, the maroon haired young woman had quite a knack for conveying information. Noticing Blake departing, she decided to follow, maybe converse for a bit.
"Hello Blake, I can see your knights have completed their tasks for today, no?" Pyrrha wasn't actually sure why the yellow eyed swordswoman had begun to leave.
"Yes, actually, they were quick learners, I'm heading to field C, to train for a while." Blake tried to be nice, she and Pyrrha had exchanged words a few times before, so their friendship was still relatively new.
"That sounds like a great idea, hey, how about we spar?" the spear wielder offered, such a training event would be a lot more effective than simple target practice.
"Are you sure? I'm still working on how to use this thing." Blake brought up the Moon's Eye and Stargaze, Vermillion's rifle-scabbard/vibro-sword.
"Did you steal that?" the young veteran combatant put on a more patronizing tone.
"No, it was the only thing left of Team VOID, besides their, uh, corpses." Blake was starting to back away now, wanting to escape the sudden harsh gaze.
"I see, well, is there any reason why you chose to take it?" the green eyed girl softened her gaze, noticing how Blake had become tense and slightly afraid from the intensity of her piercing glare.
"It reminded me of an old.... friend, my one and only friend before coming to Beacon." Blake walked away as soon as she was finished, training was now the last thing on her mind.
Pyrrha frowned a bit, but decided to let the black haired ninja go, she had more important things to do right now, and someone else on team RWBY could comfort the saddened sword wielder.
Turning to the still-lit hallway that led to the C field, she navigated her way outside.
Jaune was there, attacking some targets.
Silently joining him, the suddenly-formed duo took down the ten targets in less than half a minute.
"Gah! Pyrrha, w-w-what are you doing here?" the blond was nervously stuttering now, confused by the seemingly causeless arrival of his subordinate.
"I chose to train as well, and I could see that you were doing poorly, very poorly actually." the armored huntress-in-training tapped her chin in thought, "Wait, Jaune, what are you doing out here?"
Jaune stopped moving, the armor piercing question had come sooner than he anticipated, "I was training, you said it yourself." he was bluffing.
The maroon haired warrior wasn't buying it, "I could see that Jaune, but usually one does not take two minutes to destroy twelve stationary targets." the second round of armor piercing question came like a bolt of lightning.
"Ah hehe, hehehe, aw I give up, it was actually twenty targets in about ten minutes, I'm a terrible fighter, I'm awful, I'm lousy, I'm every type of low-quality in the book. I don't deserve to be the leader of team JNPR, I don't even deserve to have any team, or even be a part of a team at all, aw hell, I don't deserve to even be at Beacon, or here, for that matter." Jaune just let his negativity flood out, hoping that Pyrrha would do her 'Pyrrha Thing' and make him feel better.
"Jaune, you got into Beacon academy because you were good enough to get in, that says a lot about your skills, it says that you have what it takes to be a great defender of the land." reassuring green eyes met suddenly cold blue eyes, Jaune was about to protest, and he was going to protest hard.
"No it doesn't, Pyrrha, I don't know if you've noticed, but I am the worst person in the school, the only one who isn't better at fighting than me is the janitor, if even him! I didn't get into Beacon because of my skills, I got into Beacon because I faked my transcripts, I made them up, I put down lies on official documents that sealed my fate to being a meal, a meal waiting to be eaten, Cardin was right, I'm just a loser, a loser who's family precedes him. My dad, my grandfather, my great grandfather, and my great great grandfather, who's sword I now carry," Jaune pulled out his sword and shield, "They were all heroes, I'm not. I'm sick and tired of being the damsel in distress pinned in some way to a tree, while my supposed 'subordinates' go to fight the enemy without my help, and they do better for it. I'm TIRED, OF ALL OF THESE EXPECTATIONS!" Jaune was glowing white now, something serious was going down as his soul activated, "OF ALL THE PEOPLE WHO EXPECT ME TO BE GOOD BECAUSE 'the blood runs through my veins', well it DOESN'T, and I'm sick of PEOPLE KNOWING ME FOR MY FAMILY, not for ME, Jaune Arc the Fifth, the latest in a line of great warriors who own the battlefield and banish others from it with an unprejudiced blade of force. I just want to be ME! GRRRAAAAAAAAAAARGH!" Jaune was overtaken by rage, his soul aura glowing bright white.
The aura was five times brighter than other auras, like the other men of his family had added their souls to his own.
His sword glowed with an ivory light, the metal coating insufficient to contain the full glowing power of the force dust crystal underneath.
It had been forged out of one of the largest force dust crystals ever found, the crystal was cut down to size, then coated with steel to protect it from expending or shattering.
The now uninhibited warrior unleashed another hatred filled roar of a battle cry, followed by a powerful whirlwind swing that shattered the training dummies..
Pyrrha was lucky enough to have ducked beforehand.
Crying angry tears of liquid gold, Jaune absolutely annihilated the next forty targets that he had summoned.
Large, distance eating steps were taken, his shield was raised, it's own dust activated, a minor transformation adding a small blade sticking out of the front.
Smashing another target to pieces, forcefully slicing his way through another, and blowing one of them to pieces with a powerful stab, he was unstoppable.
Jaune Arc the Fifth was gone, replaced by a lord of the battlefield, he was only Jaune Arc, and with five souls compacted into one, this beast was not stopping anytime soon.
Pyrrha stared in slight fear, slowly preparing to pin the unchained fighter to a nearby wall.
Throwing the Milo in spear form using the shot-speed throw mechanism, she did not anticipate what would happen next.
Jaune whipped around, catching it with his shield, but the result was the same, he calmed down when he saw what had happened.
Letting out a groan of pain, Jaune quickly put away his sword and shield, looking at Pyrrha with suddenly bleary eyes.
"Thanks, I lost control there, I just don't know what went wrong." he picked up the Milo, looking at his friend again, she looked... proud.
"Jaune, if a bit frightening, that was amazing, your form, your stance, your moves, everything. At first I thought I might wet myself in shock, but after seeing what you could do, I'm proud of you, you're not a failure, you just have to get angry to get your warrior instincts to kick in." the huntress-in-training was beaming a huge, bright smile, almost happy enough to rival Nora
"Why thank you for the compliment, and I'm sorry about that, but if what you say is true, then I shouldn't have to worry." he readied to throw the Milo, pulling the trigger to activate the shot-speed throw mechanism, though accelerating from a speed of zero gave it quite the slow-down.
Pyrrha caught it with ease, her expert fingers grabbing it from the air and putting onto her back again. "Nice throw." she commented.
"I guess everything is coming up Jaune!" Jaune walked with pride, though he stepped in slightly-the-wrong-way, pressing a button on the remote in his pocket.
The button caused a training dummy to shoot up from the ground under him, its head giving him a head-butt in the... well... the butt.
Faceplanting immediately afterwards, he resigned to never say something like that again, and stood up, turning around and punching the target's head off to dismiss it.
"Okay, I don't like everything coming up Jaune." the swordsman groaned, earning a laugh from Pyrrha.
The pair walked through the halls, finding their way to the dining hall.
It was a massive room, the whole castle was surprisingly gigantic on the inside, especially the training fields, which were about a quarter mile across, and dodecagonal in shape.
The three tables could sit about one hundred ponies on both sides, and two on each end, with a smaller table for the princesses and twenty four of their chosen dinner-mates, if they had any, that is.
Six hundred and twelve soldiers of all shapes and sizes sat in the dining hall, the other nine humans sat at the princesses' personal 'two dozen' table.
Along with team RWBY, the N and R of team JNPR, Qrow, Glynda, and Ozpin, the element bearers were there, and a young orange pegasus as well, speaking lividly to Ozpin.
"It's kind of sad that Applebloom and Sweetie Belle didn't get to stay, but maybe the next time they see me, I'll have an awesome cutie mark to show them." Scootaloo gave a bright, flashy smile, so happy at the simple thoughts.
"Well, they lacked armaments and training, they did not have the requisites to join us, but don't worry, I'll make sure you can write to them or something." Ozpin had a small smile, to him, Scootaloo was just so dang cute.
"Right, I'm lucky then, my brother is in the army, part of the Lunar Watch, and he sent me pieces of my weapon, he called it the Archangel's Smite, because it has a cool magic thing in it." Scootaloo hit a tiny button on the large revolver, the metal seemed to ice over, the silver finish looking like pearl when it was done. It was charged with a rune that activated holy magic, smiting her foes with bolts of divine retribution.
"So *nom*, speaking of *nom* your brother, is he *nom* in the room?" Ozpin asked between bites of the delicious, hearty meal prepared by the castle chefs. He looked at the revolver closer, seeing that the handle was made of a violet colored wood.
"Yeah, he's sitting over there, next to his friend Sparkles, my bro's name is Evening Warden." Scootaloo pointed out the scarlet coated stallion with the blue mane, putting away her weapon into it's saddlebag-style-holster.
"Funny, those two were the only ones to pass the weapons knowledge test, do you know how?" the professor asked in a kind tone, leaning down to eye level with the filly.
"My brother plays a lot of those tabletop games, like Temples and Terrors, and stuff, so he learned about a lot of stuff having to do with weapons, so he could play his games better." the pegasus reminisced her old memories, thinking about some of the stuff that the knight had sent her, a few diagrams of various weapons, poems, songs, some money, and more recently, parts of her own personal weapon.
"EVENING WARDEN, SPARKLES, FRONT AND CENTER!" the green clad man suddenly commanded, feeling that shouting was necessary.
A flash of light signaled the teleportation of the two soldiers to the front and center position.
"Lieutenant Evening Star reporting for duty, sir." the jack-of-all-trades of a unicorn said in a formal tone.
"Lieutenant Jeering Mareon, AKA Sparkles, reporting for duty, sir." the black maned pegasus gave the standard quote.
"Well, Lieutenants, you're both promoted to the rank of Captain, Sparkles, dismissed." the wise elder gave the order as strictly as he could.
"Evening, your little sister has been inducted into my legion of huntsmen and huntresses, she will be fighting as a soldier from now on." Ozpin drank some of his coffee.
"Scoots! Hey sis, how've you been?" the newly-promoted captain broke stature to greet his younger sibling.
"I've been good, bro. Hey, I got your gift, both of them." the orange pegasus brandished the revolver knife and the portal ticket.
"That's good, I made that just for you, an awesome weapon for an awesome little sister, rolled a natural twenty on my crafting check." the orange unicorn revealed, giving Scootaloo a nudge and sliding over a box labeled 'S&W500' and a book labeled 'Basics of Flying'.
"I would normally be reprimanding you for fraternizing with a citizen, but this moment is just really nice and I don't want to interrupt it." the veteran huntsman whispered.
"Ozpin, we need to talk." Glynda grabbed the old man and dragged him to the side of the room.
"Why did you have to rip me away from that, I was enjoying the moment." Ozpin reprimanded.
"Listen, you cannot seriously want to sign up a child for learning to become a huntress, that's insane, I could understand Miss Rose, because she showed great skill and potential, but this Scootaloo has shown us nothing, and she's even younger, explain to me exactly why you've made this decision and maybe I won't make you revoke it." Glynda put up with a lot from her old team leader, but this was what crossed the line.
"She shot a one and a half inch pattern with a fifty caliber revolver loaded with six shots at a distance of twenty meters in a time of ten seconds, at the age of twelve, imagine how much of a sharp shooter she will be when she gets older, and has more muscle and more resistance to the kickback of the firearm, I would say that she shows plenty of potential, potential that needs to be chiseled away at until it reveals the statue of prodigal skill." the Jagermeister explained in as much detail as he felt he was obligated to give.
"When she gets older?. David, how long do you plan on being here? You said it yourself, we would be here just long enough to complete our mission of destroying the source of the Sin as quickly as possible. Do you think that will take a long time? Long enough to watch a young, inexperienced pony bloom into a not-so-young and much more experienced pony? I thought you hated it here." Glynda used Ozpin's own words against him, so appalled that she even used his first name.
"Don't ever call me David. I have changed my mind, we may quite a while to go before we can clip this deadly flower at the metaphorical stem. I'm starting to like these ponies, so maybe I don't want to rush our departure? I say that when you hurry through life, you only get to the end faster. If you'll excuse me, Glynda, I still have some food on my plate, and I'm going to eat it." with that, the cane-wielding huntsman walked away from the wand-wielding huntress, back to his seat to finish his dinner.
Blake and Yang were making a bit of small talk, though it mainly Yang's monologue rather than a proper conversation.
"So, all those brawlers were really good, they're technique was a bit odd, but they looked really good..." Yang had finally stopped her half-monologue-half-rant about the troops, and now daydreamed about said ponies.
".... Yang, are you really thinking what I think you're thinking? Because if so, that's just not right, and you should stop making me think that you're thinking about that." Blake pulled off the semi-tongue-twister with ease, looking at Yang with a mildly disgusted expression on her face.
"Did you say something Blake?" Yang asked, snapping out of her intense thought.
"Never mind." the ninja replied, choosing to drop the subject rather than push on.
Pyrrha and Celestia were discussing tactics, they had become a bit close from all of the discussions they had.
"So, I've confirmed what Jaune's skills are." Celestia widened her eyes at Pyrrha's words, motioning for her to continue, "Brutal, unprejudiced destruction of the enemy, he even blocked Milo, however, he can only do it when he gets really angry."
"It's like the Hulk, or some other emotion based superpower." Qrow piped in from above, flying upside down. The maneuver was easy for ponies, but hard for him, due to bipedalism and the structure of his bones because of such.
"I saw you two, that shit was awesome, especially when he went all like, RAWR, and started breaking the dummies, breaking them, not cutting, breaking, like he was using a hammer, and that whirlwind that exploded some of them, and then you were like 'oh no, Jaune's out of control, I need to get him to stop, aaaahhhhhh I'm scared.' and you threw your spear like 'HIYAH, BANG' and Jaune was like 'You want to pin me to a wall? Not today.' and blocked it, but he still calmed down, and that is what mattered." Qrow paused from his childlike rant for a small wheeze.
Taking in another large breath, he began again "Oh man, Celestia you should have seen it. It reminded me of a training exercise that Port made up, he may not look like it, but he's a fucking genius. So basically, he said, 'LLLLLLLLET'S TRADE!' and Glynda was like 'What do you mean trade?', and Port said 'We should take some time to train with eachother's weapons, doing so while we're all still alive, so if one of us should be KIA, as it were, then a perfectly good piece of war-machinery won't go to waste', and I was like 'That is one goddamn good idea', and so we traded weapons. Celestia, you should see our weapons. Ozpin's got the Brewler, the idea is that his coffee mug turns into a mix of a warhammer and a poleaxe. That is smart, that is really smart, for real, Glynda's magic wand of a riding crop is called the 'Disciplinary Action-Scene', that's just really a really clever name, Port's weapon is a blunderbuss and a battle axe, so it was called the 'Buster Axe', like the legendary hero Claude's 'Buster Sword', and my weapon, is the Grimm Reaper." Qrow spun his staff around, opening the slot for the button, and turned on the laser blade. He held it in plain sight.
"Are you flying upside down?" Celestia asked, reacting to the most minor thing that the black-clad faunus was doing.
"Yes I am, thank you for noticing." the scythe wielder thanked, turning his weapon off and turning upside up again.
With everyone seated, the conversations were all over the place, from how magic works to the plans of where and when would be the best places and times to strike against the Sin, to more simple things like the weather and how good the day was for some people.
The past week since the humans arrived had been a tough one.
So much planning, so much paperwork, and the introductions, oh dear faust the introductions.
A very sensitive issue to start with, it only became harder, seeing as how they had many beings to introduce themselves to, including television broadcasts sent to Neigh York and Bearussia, a massive gathering for a speech in Canterlot, Ponyville had already been informed, messengers were sent to Vulcan Hold because the dragons were invaluable allies, and it was all very difficult to arrange.
The Sin had been quiet for the time being, which was good, as it allowed the bringers of the light to plan and calculate what they would do and by what means it would be accomplished with.
The candles flickered for a moment, before becoming brighter than before.
Nobody noticed this, even when they magnified to about five times the normal luminosity.
Weiss was the first one finished with her meal, and chose to excuse herself and retire to the quarters that were assigned to team RWBY.
<cutaway>
The heiress walked through the halls, which were lit by light crystals.
The crystals grew stronger and brighter when she entered, a resource management system that had been installed, when the light was below a certain level, and there was living beings inside the hall, they would light up brighter, through this method, magical energy waste would be minimized.
The crystals grew even brighter, however, to the point where they hurt her eyes, and they became brighter still, until it was blinding.
When the light faded to tolerable levels, the white clad fencer found herself standing on a flat cloud platform, surrounded by golden sky and the cleanest, healthiest air she ever breathed.
"Doppelganger transformation, Weiss Schnee, hello." a fancy, dignified, and very masculine voice greeted suddenly.
She whipped around to face a strange man, his eyes were red, his hair was bleach blond, his skin was a healthy tan, and his clothing was a fancy black tuxedo with a blood red tie. The oddest parts about him were the markings covering his hands and the dead-gray wings on his back, like an angel.
He was big, almost nine feet tall, and carried himself with enough dignity and pride to put a politician to shame.
In his right hand, he held a wine glass, which, despite him taking a large drink from it, never got any emptier.
"You are wondering who I am, well, some call me a demon, some call me a monster, but I am the bringer of light, the light that will burn the land to cinders, the light of the high heavens brought down to Equus, by the way, this human form is quite odd, but these fingers will be useful." the behemoth, angelic, humanlike creature answered her unasked question.
He had apparently satisfied his thirst, as he transformed his wine glass into a glass rapier with a very wide basket hilt.
"What is a man? A woman? What is any sentient creature? A miserable little pile of secrets and ambitions, of evils and goods. The most powerful weapon you have is choice. My choice is that I am done speaking, so ENOUGH TALK, HAVE AT YOU!" his voice turned demonic for this part, as his glass rapier filled with wine again.
Weiss brought out Myrtenaster, checking the dust capsules, they were all full, but no telling what this other rapier would do.
He was a demon of light, and he wielded the Blood of the Damned.
His weapon, a blood-filled rapier made of glass, was waved around, sloshing around the fluids inside with every sudden movement.
The pair started fencing, both attempting to strike the other while deflecting the other's sword, which was hard.
The glass blade broadened, becoming a Zweihander of a sort, with a blade almost as tall as the light-bringer himself, and about as wide as his shoulders.
Weiss stumbled, this was too familiar.
"Do you fear the dark, Weiss? Do you?" the demon taunted, swinging at her with impossible velocity, his broadsword might as well have still been a rapier with how fast he could maneuver it.
"So what if I do?" she countered, getting in close.
She stabbed him. Releasing a dust shockwave of wind, she removed her blade and used her skating skills to strike him with several slashes, causing massive amounts of bleeding.
"Hehe, those who fear the dark have neverseen what the light can do!" the tall blond shouted, and brought up his hand.
Weiss backed off, trying to prepare a shield or some sort of spell, but she couldn't.
Clouds formed above, turning into pure light and striking down like bolts of divine retribution.
The white haired huntress-in-training decided one thing, she needed Sir Vacantus for this. Conjuring runes, she attempted to dodge both the rain of lightning-like beams and the slashes from the massive sword.
She failed, and was struck across the stomach, her soul almost depleted, she received a large, shallow cut. It wasn't very serious, but she soon began bleeding, and that was bad.
Her spell hadn't cancelled, so she continued it quickly, the symbols forming fast, it was almost completed.
A body length mirror formed, coming up from the ground and going past her, for a brief moment, she could see the suit of armor worn by Sir Vacantus.
It was a powerful spell, the Form of Truth spell, and it summoned one's inner demons.
And so came forth, Sir Vacantus.
He was practically empty inside, a layer of skin supported by nothing and protected by a hard, cold outer shell. His sword skills were sloppy, but he was very strong and quite nimble, despite his gargantuan stature.
The embodiment of Weiss's negativity and inner demons.
He swung his sword around, easily breaking through the light bringer's defenses and striking him, following up with a punch to the face and a grapple.
Punching the creature that was half his size repeatedly, only to be blocked by a hard-light shield that greatly damaged the metal fist.
Weiss went into action, slashing at her opponent rapidly, her knight pinning him by pinching his shoulders.
The unnamed blonde warrior did a front flip that practically oozed style, using his powerful legs to lodge his feet into Vacantus's eye holes on his helmet.
With a great display of core, arm, and leg strength, he compressed his form, and his feet ripped Vacantus's helmet off, severing the thin, black, leathery skin of his neck. Even though his body was a skin filled with emptiness and covered with armor, he was still as liable to die as a normal human.
Weiss watched in horror as her ally fell, his form crumbling to dust as a sign of her own hidden weaknesses.
Her soul went into overdrive, she sped up, slicing her foe almost a hundred times in twenty seconds, and finishing him off with a armored fist punch to the face, lacerating a large patch of skin down across his right eye and a final stroke-slash.
Said stroke-slash made her blade pass through his body like she had sliced through thin air.
He smiled, coughing a few times before turning to her.
"Well done, but I'm not dying until there's no way for me to live, you were simply divine in your for-AGH!" he cried out in pain as the blood caught up to his head wound.
Wiping away the orange, bile-like substance, his visage turned to one of rage.
"My face, my beautiful, unmarred face is unmarred no longer, you will pay for this, Weiss Schnee, you will pay justly and with great pain, I shall take your eye as you have taken mine, for I am the true king of the land, and I will burn everything that stands in my way with my holy light!" the prideful bastard flew off, his wings functional despite their ragged, rotting appearance.
The cloud arena faded, leaving Weiss in the hallway, holding onto her stomach as she bled from the large, horizontal wound.
Sparkles, the newly promoted Captain, happened to be walking down the hall at the time, and he turned around as he heard her hit the ground.
"Oh dear son of Celestia, that's bad, that's really bad, don't worry, just try to stay still and calm and I'll get you to the medical bay." the black maned stallion assured, getting a bit frazzled and panicked at her wounds.
He picked her up bridal style and flew as fast as he could to the medical ward.
<battle end>
Weiss had been bandaged up and administered some morphine to ease the pain.
When she finally woke up the next morning, the pale skinned girl looked around, the smell of antiseptics and metal tools immediately told her where she was.
On the table next to her, she saw a plate with a few cookies on it, with a note on top.
Picking up the note, she was surprised when the paper started speaking.
Hey Weiss, I got you some cookies to help you feel better. I'm sorry about what happened, even though it wasn't my fault, but don't worry, you have us, and we'll find the jerk who did this and BREAK HIS LEGS!!!!, sorry, Nora tried to get in on my note, I should stop speaking out loud when I write, but like I said, don't worry. We have your back, so you're not alone on this. - Ruby and Nora
Weiss read the note a few more times, her eyes kept drifting to the three words that seemed to stand out the most.
"You're not alone." she looked forward blankly, then up to the ceiling, then down to the floor.
She smiled, she wasn't alone.
She wasn't alone anymore.
She could feel Sir Vacantus inside her soul, the demon of a knight weakened as she felt better about herself.
Standing up, she walked with a more honest pride than before, leaving the medical bay to see her teammates.
Episode 13, it was good, a lot of time progression and a bit on the short side, sure, but good nonetheless.
My only wish is that Cardin is so stupid from having Jaune do all of his work, that he tries to make the Rapier Wasps sting our favorite sword-and-shield user, but forgets that, since he's the one covered in the sap, he gets stung instead.
460 or so favorites, let's move on to the story.
Weiss joined everyone in training field C, each of the humans were lined up, and she could notice that nobody was armed, even her own rapier was missing.
"Attention EVERYONE, I will be temporarily taking over this assignment. Since I am in charge, you know that this will be awesome, for the next few days, the soldiers and guards will train amongst themselves while we have our special little program. You may recall Professor Port, he was once on the hunting team DOPG, or Doppelganger, that stands for David Ozpin, Orchid Qrow, Peter Port, and Glynda Goodwitch. We did this same exercise, we will now watch a demonstration of the results of this exercise." Qrow turned to the empty center of the field.
From a pair of contestant squares came Ozpin and Glynda, facing each other.
Ozpin walked perfectly fine without his cane. He didn't really actually need it, but it was the deadlier of his two weapons, so he often carried it with him, not right now though.
Glynda had foregone her usual documenting devices, looking a lot more threatening as she was. walking around the large circle in the exact middle of the field with Ozpin on the other side.
They brandished their weapons, ready for their sparring match.
In Ozpin's hand was the Disciplinary Action Scene.
In Glynda's hand was the Brewler.
The announcing system was activated, as Qrow spoke into the microphone.
"THREE!" he shouted, getting hyped up for this.
"TWO!" he yelled, his heart rate was climbing, and he could tell that his teammates' were as well.
"ONE!" he hollered, his palms sweaty from anticipation, his eyes wide.
Glynda charged, swinging at Ozpin with the hammer-axe.
The older man ducked and slapped the woman across the face with a flaming swing of the riding crop.
Doing a backflip, he sent bolts of lightning to strike his foe down.
The green eyed mage blocked the bolts with the ceramic surface of the polearm, going in for another swing.
The green clad warrior took a hit, flying back several feet.
Swung at, Ozpin tried to dodge, duck, dip, dive, and dodge, but his age-induced lack of agility was his undoing.
Taking a huge horizontal hit, he flew back again, going several more feet away.
He felt like resorting to what many may call 'dirty tactics', he didn't care, whatever got him a win was a good move, method, or maneuver.
He ran at Glynda, jumping high into the air to avoid the uppercut, he did something that was just really damn cool.
He drop-kicked her in the face.
Getting on top of her prone form, pinning her shoulders with his knees and sitting on her stomach, he didn't allow her to move as he slapped her in the face several times with the leather band of the magic wand. He even went so far as to start directly punching her in the nose and mouth.
It was obvious that these two had a lot of unresolved tension that was coming out and finally being solved.
Glynda wouldn't go down so easily, dislodging her arm, she performed a swift, precise uppercut to the elderly huntsman's jaw, she pushed him off of her.
Pinning his chest firmly under her foot, she brought the hammer's head down on face, dealing a great amount of damage, bringing the hammer-axe up halfway, spinning it around and giving him a neck-chop.
Ozpin blasted her off with a magic missile. Brewing up a storm of fireballs, the Jagermeister would not let his title be mocked by a loss.
Glynda squinted her eyes slightly, compressing her gaze as flames rained down around her.
She hit a fireball with the hammer, knocking it towards her foe like a baseball.
A water shield was formed, then frozen into a large chuck of ice. The chunk was broken into pieces and the pieces were sent flying at the huntress like arrows.
Taking several hits, Glynda wasn't sure who would fall first, her scroll read that Ozpin was at the edge of the yellow, almost in the red, and she was the same.
She did the only thing she could, she spun the Brewler around quickly, blocking Ozpin's magical attacks.
Ozpin kept blasting, he could tell what she was doing, and conjured up a laser blade around the wand.
The two weapons were thrown through the air, a latent form of a shockwave spell erupted from the Disciplinary Action Scene as it collided with the Brewler.
The duo ran at each other, jumping up into the air, they lashed out at each other in rather harsh single-stroke collision.
Glynda, herself not afraid to use dirty moves, kicked Ozpin in the crotch.
Ozpin, his brutality in full swing, double-punched Glynda in the throat.
With a loud ringing, the two fell from the collision, hitting the ground hard as their auras were almost depleted.
"AND THE WINNER IS, NOBODY! IT'S A TIE!" Qrow announced into the microphone, gathering the two's weapons and allowing the pair to stand up.
They shook hands, and then immediately parted ways, Ozpin was sort-of-limping, Glynda was bowing her head.
Even with their auras protecting their bodies, even when it was not fully depleted, some damage could still be dealt directly.
<battle end>
A few quick healing spells and they were back again, wielding their own weapons once again, Ozpin drank from his retransformed coffee mug.
"So, can anyone tell me what you just witnessed?" Qrow asked, his voice still in 'exciting announcer' mode.
"A couple of old farts beating the shit out of each other?" Yang answered, not really sure what sort of education could be gained from the witnessing of the sparring match.
"I'm sure Miss Rose knows the answer, she is a fan of weapons." Ozpin chose to ignore Yang's slight against the two professionals.
"Oh, RIGHT, you were using Miss Goodwitch's weapon, and she was using yours!" Ruby answered, happy that she more-than-likely got it right.
"That is correct, we exchanged weapons for the battle, now then, who can tell me why?" Glynda asked the next question.
A few mutterings of 'uh' and 'um' were the only responses.
"Allow me, what if, say, tomorrow Glynda were to get eviscerated by a monster, what of her skills? Those would be lost, yes, but what of her weapon? Since Ozpin knows how to use her weapon, and she knows how to use his, a powerful device of battle would not be rendered useless. Now, sure we could train with it after they died, but that would take some time to build up the minimum skill level required to use it efficiently, and with the original user still alive, various tips and tricks could be given to raise the skill level far higher than it could go on its own in such a short time." Qrow tried his best to explain why they were doing this, but he could tell that some of the younger fighters just weren't getting it.
"Alright, allow me to give a relatable example, REN, WHAT WOULD YOU DO IF NORE SUDDENLY KEELED OVER!" he shouted at the easterner.
"I would be sad, sure, but I would eventually move past it, eventually." the green clad ninja answered.
"WHAT OF HER WEAPON?" Qrow demanded the information.
"I guess, I, would... take it?" Ren wasn't really sure how to respond, but from what Qrow had said right before, he felt like that was the right answer.
"YES, OF COURSE, TAKE IT, she can't really use it anymore if she's dead, or even just hospitalized, NOW, HOW WOULD YOU FIGHT USING HER WEAPON?" the old master was practically interrogating the young man.
"I guess, I would fight like she did? I mean, she's a master at it." the lightweight didn't know the answer.
"WRONG, YOU SHOULD FIGHT LIKE YOU DO! Now, if you trained with Nora's hammer-grenade launcher, you would develop your own skills with it, skills that will no doubt vary, in some form or fashion, from her own." Qrow corrected with great rebuking.
"Now, this is an exercise that I call 'friends close, arms closer'. Each of you will be doing some training, but rather than with your own, you will practice with each other's 'arms', or weapons. The goal is to know each weapon and how to use it. Now, for some of you, this may be at the very least, say, uncomfortable, as you may treat your weapon like it's your child and you don't want someone else to handle it. Well, that needs to put aside for now. It is time to learn more than what you know." Qrow pressed some buttons on his training field creation controller, dismissing a few walls that concealed a pair of tables.
There were two tables, one had the weapons of team RWBY, the other had the weapons of team JNPR.
"Now, we will start by moving one step forward, which means that everyone should stand in front of your weapon." Qrow instructed, waiting for everybody to do so, "Now, take a step to the right, if you are at the end of the table, go to the front of the table." Qrow watched as everyone followed the instructions, "Now, arm yourselves with the weapon in front of you and turn around." he directed, watching as the others obeyed.
Some of them looked a bit miffed, seeing someone other than themselves with their armament of choice, but the feelings were put aside for now.
Ruby had the Myrtenaster, Weiss had the Gambol Shroud, Blake had the Ember Celicas, and Yang had Crescent Rose.
Jaune had Magnhild, Nora had Milo and Akuou, Pyrrha had the Jade Dragons, and Ren had the Sword and Shielth.
"Okay, so, uh, um.... have fun." Qrow wasn't sure what else to say, he made the tables move off of the training field with a few button presses, giving everyone space to move about.
The new arms felt odd in their grips, shifting them in their hands, they were a bit stuck, seeing as how they had no idea where to start.
"Just do what comes naturally." Qrow gave the top, moving to a higher position to observe.
And so it began.
<cutaway>
After dividing up, they each went for the most simple fix to their being practically illiterate at their current armaments.
Training dummies that needed to be destroyed.
With Ruby, she was contemplating how she would, say, be proficient at using Myrtenaster.
The rapier was small, that was the only thing she could see being a major problem.
Looking it over, she found an arrow symbol pointing to a green dust capsule gauge, from what she had seen from Weiss, it was powered by soul.
Focusing her soul through the thin sword, she saw the dust chamber mechanism light up, she went through the various sides, observing each one.
Pale green was wind dust, dark blue was water dust, bright cyan was ice dust, medium yellow was lightning dust, medium red was fire dust, dusk purple was darkness dust, and ivory...
... ivory dust was one of the two rarest dusts there was, it was holy dust, the power of creation.
Testing out all of the dusts, Ruby used the elemental powers to move around the battlefield, destroying her targets with several well timed strikes.
With Weiss, she was having a harder time.
The sword part was easy, not much else on that needed to be known.
The pistol-whip part, that was where it got hard.
The ribbon had a small cube for a handle, she probably sustained head injuries from her futile attempts.
The formula went; attempt to manipulate the whip, fail and hit self in face, resolve to do better next time, repeat.
She heard Blake walking over, looking up at the original wielder of the weapon she held, her eyes pleaded for help.
"Weiss, you're trying too hard, just let it move freely, only manipulate it when the ribbon gets tense." the ninja gave the tip in a kind voice, propelling herself back to her own area with a double blast of impact shells.
Letting the weapon move, she started spinning it around, pulling it closer when a target was closer, using her aura to control the position of the pistol, she quickly and carefully delivered headshots to each of the targets, eliminating them one by one.
Her style didn't change, it just... adjusted to fit her new armament, she was precise, careful, and calculating.
Blake was having an easy time, all things considered, she even put a mixed load of shells loaded into the Ember Celicas.
The ninja had an advanced perception of space and depth, and a really good memory to boot, she knew each of the shells she had loaded, what they did, and when they were next in the chamber.
Delivering several quick, perforating punches, she blasted herself into the air, delivering a few jumping kicks to her training dummies, keeping herself in motion, the black clad girl dodged the strong, swift attacks she had set her dummies to fight with.
The bookworm adjusted easily, she never really had a problem with change, even in the past when it was necessary for survival, she had simply grown up knowing that change was needed.
Yang was stuck.
In all the initial hubbub with Ruby making her own weapon and how cool it was and what it was made of, she hadn't picked up a particular, crucial detail.
How does one fire the Crescent Rose?
She pointed it downwards, not wanting to accidently blow a hole in the castle masonry with the massive one and a half inch thick bullets.
Using her expert fingers, she moved every part she could, trying to find the trigger, or at least whatever acted as the trigger.
She took a hit when the weapon finally fired, the kickback was like a raging bull, rising up so far it struck her in the head.
The gun portion dealt with, Yang started brutalizing her training dummies, slashing and blasting them to pieces.
This was how she fought, getting up-close-and-personal with the enemy, giving them a face full of buckshot, well, usually, now she was giving them a face full of rifle-blast.
The scythe was built strong, it WAS sharpened, but not to a great extent, about the cutting power of a steak knife.
The blonde woman's muscle-bolstered arms made quick work with the suboptimal edge, slicing and dicing the targets with .
Team JNPR was having a similar situation.
Jaune's excesses of muscle gave him a great advantage with the war hammer, but he hit a snag when it came to firing it.
Finding the trigger was easy, the battling afterwards was easier.
Mainly using knockout tactics and horizontal slams, the blonde man's moves quickly became smoother and more fluid, swishing the polearm around like it was just a stick.
With Nora.....
Nora used the twenty five caliber, three inch long casing, ultra-velocity cartridges of Pyrrha's rifle to launch herself at the enemy.
She always felt a sort of high when she moved with her weapon, giving an absent minded laugh she stabbed and smacked the dummies with the Milo and Akuou.
With Pyrrha.....
The machine pistols were simple in design, obviously their creator favored function over form, the rule of real over the rule of cool.
They were chambered in forty-SW, a small, but decent cartridge, not much in perforation, but they pack a punch.
The twenty round magazines were emptied within a breath or two, which left the question of how they were reliable.
Then she found the answer, the fire select.
Safe, Auto, Soul.
Using the 'Soul' setting, her aura was projected in rapid volleys, the energy projectiles were dark red, signifying that it was, indeed, her own soul being utilized.
The bolts seemed to home in on the targets, even without aiming and wielding the guns akimbo style, she shot a three inch wide pattern, impressive for what was basically a bladed TEC9.
The blades, however, where a bit of an issue, they were sharp, yes, incredibly so, but the problem was the possibility of chipping or breaking them, she didn't want to abuse the weapon, but she was concerned.
Stabbing the dummies in all of the vital areas, slashing off heads and severing limbs, her skills improved quickly, she was a master of the fight.
With Ren.......
The slim ninja kept on his toes, bouncing slightly, ready for movement, he had set his dummies to move, to have the highest skill setting and a medium speed setting, as that was what he'd be fighting.
Using the slightly-sharp edge of the shield, he countered a punch and did a quick stab, puncturing the false pony's throat, leaving it dead.
He let his enemy come to him, that was his style, Lie and Wait, it was the reason why he was called Lie Ren, in his hometown, surnames were assigned based on skill, his people put a lot of emphasis on huntsmen and huntresses.
That was why Nora was Nora Valkyrie, her style was the kind of take-action violent ways of the barbarians.
The history classes had been interesting, there used to be more kingdoms, including the current four, and one of them was snuffed out by its flaws.
Burning the forests around, giving no chance for retaliation, the problem was that all the fighters left at the same time, when they got back one day, everything was destroyed, and they were slaughtered.
Ren was snapped out of his reminiscing by a punch to the chest that knocked him flat on his ass.
Using the sword to parry as he flipped up again, he kept fighting.
He often worked so hard that there wasn't much energy for anything else, his excessive thinking had led him to many injuries, he could recover quick, but it didn't take much to knock him back to the medical ward again.
After slaying all of the dummies, he summoned some more, he had work to do.
Qrow watched all of the young people for about twenty minutes, then he grabbed his megaphone again.
"ATTENTION, IT'S NOW TIME TO SWITCH AGAIN, GO TO YOUR TEAM'S TABLE, PLACE DOWN YOUR WEAPON, TAKE ANOTHER STEP OVER, AND PICK UP THE NEW WEAPON, THEN RESUME TRAINING!" the megaphone was exciting, it was hard for him to put it down.
The next switch went by quicker, with everyone rearmed again, the practices continued.
Ruby learned the whip more easily, having a similar expertise in motion, and utilized the pistol-whip in a new way, rather than a harpooning her enemies, she used it like a grappling hook.
Quickly pulling her tiny frame to the targets, she shot and slashing with the gun and sword parts, it was easy, though for many foes it would be inefficient.
Weiss delivered her punches with the finesse of a professional boxer, striking when she could, though the way she went about it allowed the manifestation of defenses, the enemy could brace themselves for whatever impact she might bring.
Her style had always been about patience and skill, she was calm, cool, collected. Weiss Schnee didn't let much phase her.
Blake had it a bit rough, but after the minor bump of finding the trigger, which was explained to her by Yang, it was smooth sailing.
She used the rifle form to its fullest extent, putting out headshot after headshot, the scythe was used in its straightened form, the one lined up with the barrel, rather than perpendicular to it. She stabbed and slashed her conjured opponents, melee prowess too much for the relatively weak foes.
Yang was hacking and slashing, just hacking and slashing, not much else to say, the dust mechanisms only aided her destructive fighting style.
Team JNPR was, again, a similar, yet different story.
Jaune had moved on to Pyrrha's weapons, the Milo and Akuou, spear and shield.
While they lacked the simplicity-equals-reliability factor of his own rudimentarily forged weapons, they had a more modern-day level of integrated intricacy that couldn't be found in other, older styles and models.
The rifle form was useful, in less than a few minutes, with Pyrrha's guiding hand of course, he had managed to build up a par level of marksmanship.
'Par level' meaning the thin line between efficient/skilled and wasteful/incompetent.
Sending the spear through several heads in a row, Jaune's skills had transcended the boundaries of death.
His fathers' skills were being filtered through him, through his powerful body, his quintuple soul, and his malleable mind.
Jaune Arc the First, Jaune Arc the Second, Jaune Arc the Third, Jaune Arc the Fourth, and himself, Jaune Arc the Fifth, they worked as one, even with the latter being the only one in pre-mortem.
His soul had transcended mortality, infinite in breadth and distance, unbound by death, all of his fathers' souls joined his own. He was a machine, a machine that was never truly completed, it merely added more and more parts with every new person in the line.
The machine was known as Jaune Arc, a legacy of a ruthless, blood-stained, usurper of a king and master of the battlefield.
Rage, anger, fury, hatred, indignation, chagrin, irritation, displeasure, vexation, all forms of hostility, these were his most powerful weapons.
Nora was a different story entirely, her proficiency came from her lack of a grip on reality, while Jaune had a stranglehold.
She merely sang a little tune as she shredded her targets with the machine pistols, the aura function using her candy-coated-plutonium of a soul as its fuel, spitting out thinly-jacketed missiles of pain and violence.
Pyrrha was used to the style of the sword and shield, her own weapons weren't very different, though the laminated carbonate alloy of her shield would bend, where as the simpler ivory-coated metal of Jaune's shield was very much the opposite of submissive.
The sword could be powered by soul, a plating of a simple formula of steel over force dust was the entirety of its design, it was well-sharpened, the formation of it, the metal covering the dust, prevented the dust from being expended, but the thunderous effects were never exhausted.
Smashing up a few targets, she tried a spin attack, shattering several enemies at once. The shield was used to, well, shield her from oncoming attacks. It was a big case of SSDX, same shit, different face.
Ren was having a bit of a fun time with Magnhild.
The explosives part, he wasn't too keen on, but he launched himself into the air a few times, he felt like he was flying, the wind running through his hair, he came down on his targets like a bird of prey.
Blocking a few punches, he countered with a smash, this was easy, so he turned up the difficulty again.
Qrow couldn't feel his side, but he shook off the feeling of something wet on his upper portion of his left hip, he looked at Ozpin to ask his opinion, but only received a fiery scowl from the older man.
Ozpin had a lot of pent up anger with his two teammates, as least he got to beat the shit out of Glynda, but Qrow was a different story.
The age gap was about twenty one years, Qrow having recently turned fifty, and Ozpin being seventy one.
Qrow turned back to the warriors, activating the bullhorn setting on his megaphone, damn he loved that thing.
"Alright, YOU KNOW THE DRILL, TABLE, WEAPONS, STEP, WEAPONS AGAIN, GO!" he was practically lecturing at this point.
"Qrow, why won't you stop SCREAMING!?" Ozpin was a bit hypocritical, but the younger man never really pointed out such mistakes.
"I'm not screaming, David, I'm lecturing, something that I understand that you have grown fond of." Orchid used the professor's first name just to irritate him.
"Don't call me David." David replied, his eyes narrowing in a growing anger.
"But's David is your name, David, if I shouldn't call you by David, that being your name, the what should I call you by, David?" it was moments like these that Qrow lived for, making people he knew get mad, he was just too cool to care.
Ruby, on the other hand, was dealing with the heat, she berserker-ed her way around, striking her enemies and using the force to launch herself at other enemies.
It was tough at first, and a few times she ended up shooting herself over into Weiss's area, but after a brief explanation and a few tips on using Crescent Rose, the red clad girl resumed the action.
Weiss had the same problem the other two had, finding the trigger, but Ruby had been kind enough to come over, rather forcefully and comparable to a missile maybe, but she was helpful, being not only the wielder of said armament, but also the expert, and the creator, so she knew what she was doing.
With the knowledge she needed, the white-clad young woman began almost dancing with the scythe-rifle, slashing and shooting her foes, the force wasn't enough to launch her larger frame around like Ruby did, but that was okay, the heiress understood that she wasn't here to master her comrades' weapons, just learn the basics.
Blake swung Myrtenaster at a great velocity, timing her dust actions almost perfectly, lashing out and striking with ease, swordsmanship was one of her fortes.
Yang was having similar problems as Weiss, the pistol-whip, but a few wise words from Blake, and the blonde was whipping the pistol around and shooting her enemies.
She hypothesized that the original intent of such a design was for a speedy fighter, and maybe barricade surpassing.
Using the bladed sheath in the offhand position, she mainly stuck to melee form of the Gambol Shroud, using the pistol at point blank range.
Team JNPR, again.....
Jaune had stopped training the second his quintuple soul ended up scorching the barrels of the Jade Dragons, it didn't help that a nearby tower had been de-roofed from about a twenty shots in a single second.
He had left to go inspect the damages he had accidentally caused.
That was something about him, there were a lot of things that could snap him out of his rage.
Nora was propelling herself a lot like Ruby did, using the force dust of the sword to knock herself around like a bouncy ball.
After one such bounce, she ended up launching herself through Pyrrha's area, skidding to a halt a couple of feet away from Ren.
"Nora, that's not really the best way to move in an encounter." the green-clad easterner informed lightheartedly.
"Boop." Nora replied, holding Jaune's sword by the blade and poking Ren on the nose with the pommel.
Ren just gave a small, somewhat goofy smile, getting low, and using his foot to push on Nora's feet to slide her back to her zone.
Pulling a Chuck Norris and swimming on land, the redhead reached her zone and resumed training.
Pyrrha took a brief break to watch this display of disregard for the laws of physics, but then again, she was Nora, and what brief experience Pyrrha had with Pinkie Pie had taught her not to question any breakage of physics or logic when in Equestria.
The Magnhild was surprisingly lightweight, which wasn't saying much since she expected it to weigh at least as much as her whole body, exposure to these ponies and their less advanced culture led to brief lapses in memory.
After the invention of mythril, shadowite, and blood-steel, many weapons were improved by vast degrees.
Shadowite was basically super steel, the highest tensility of the three alloys, and great malleability to back it up.
Blood-steel was named after its dark red appearance, it was the easiest to make, simply steel with some copper and bromine, both elements contributed to the color and the cost-efficiency. The performance was twice that of normal steels, but about a tenth of shadowite.
Mythril was a hell of a lot harder to get, since it was a blend of iron, titanium, ivory, gold, cobalt, and platinum. True mythril was typically light green, but somewhat weaker, yet much cheaper, forms ranged from white to gray in color. It could be beaten like copper and polished like glass, molded like tin but stronger than the hardest of normal steels,
Ruby's weapon was made of all three, mostly blood-steel, but the black portions were obviously shadowite, and the light gray blade was easily distinguishable as mythril.
Her body went on training even while her mind was distracted, the less-conscious parts of her mind memorizing the skills she developed.
Ren was still working hard, the Milo and Akuou were fine weapons, he just recycled a lot of things he learned while training with Jaune's sword and shield.
The rifle function, though, that was useful.
His aura worked like a really powerful force-field, and also as a limited ability of telekinesis, he wouldn't be able to lift anything heavier than himself, but anything lighter was quite maneuverable.
Ren spun the spear in the air, giving it a much wider range of attack than normal, bringing it back to his hand, using the shield to cut and block his fake foes.
Blocking a rearing stomp from the large illusionary pony, he stabbed it in the throat with a quick, simple move, negating whatever the AI had planned.
These magically summoned targets were quite advanced, there was a lot more to them than just soul, Ren could tell, soul wasn't this flexible, maybe it was magic? In Vytal, just saying the word 'magic' without 'is not real' or some variation of such following or preceding the word could get one branded insane, possibly in legal trouble, all over the word 'magic'.
Magic wasn't real, at least not in Vytal, but here in Equestria, the easterner knew that the thing powering the training fields, the source of energy for the light crystals that illuminated the halls, to just seeing it for himself, he knew that magic was real in Equestria.
He was the last of the warriors to accept magic, the others had simple thoughts on the subject, Vytal doesn't have magic, Equestria does, end of story.
The green ninja often found himself overthinking things, that was why he slept like a rock, he didn't snore because his body was too tired to enter a condition where he would snore.
The way he overworked himself probably facilitated the biological response.
"TRAINING TIME DONE, the period of the hard limit is over, is you wish to continue training with your own weapons, feel free, but it's dinner time, see ya later, suckers." Qrow soared off as quickly as he could, which was a lot faster than before thanks to his professional flight training from the pegasus guards.
It was time for food.
<cutaway>
Jaune had faced a great deal of 'OH COME ON' when he arrived at the top of the thirty story tower.
There was an elevator.
There was no reason for an elevator to be there, no logical explanation, the only reason that this particular elevator was placed at this particular point in space was simply to give the cruel being known as luck yet another chance to shit on him.
Stepping into the large, roofless room, he found a pony standing in the middle of the floor, holding a teddy bear with little horns.
He had a coat like sand, with a pale yellow mane and tail, cloudy white unshorn fetlocks, and black irises.
The pajama clad stallion walked over to Jaune, rearing up with his teddy bear placed comically on his head, he simply hugged the blond young man.
"Um, what are you doin-" Jaune was shushed.
"Shhhhhhhhhhh, sleeeeeeep." the sand colored pony said, rubbing Jaune's back with a hoof.
Jaune suddenly felt a sharp pain in his spine, followed by a feeling of pleasure and a wave of fatigue. He began to doze off.
The demon pony smiled, he had used his weapon, the Eternal Slumber, a small dagger laced with narcotics, analgesics, lots of poison, and various caustic substances.
It was called the Eternal Slumber because the target fell asleep forever.
As is they're dead.
Jaune's other fifths of soul pleaded for him to stand and fight, to not be put down so easily.
A wave of adrenaline washed over the swordsman, he was lucky that his aura healed him, or he would be at shareholder level with an aspirin company for all the headaches his chronic anger would cause him.
He grabbed the sleepy pony, stabbing him up the diaphragm.
This was a fatal move, because as long as the blade stayed where it was, the stallion would be physically incapable of breathing, much less speaking.
"Scream for me." Jaune demanded in a morbid tone, his attitude took quite the turn for the worse here.
"The path of righteousness is beset on all sides by cretin like you. I shall lead the others through this valley of darkness, for I am truly my brother's keeper, the man of many souls. And I will strike down with GREAT VENGEANCE and FURIOUS ANGER, YOU, and ALL THOSE who attempt to POISON, and DESTROY ME and MY BROTHERS. You shall KNOW that I am the WRATHFUL FIST OF GOD, when I lay my vengeance, upon you." Jaune quoted the Book of Hunters.
The Book of Hunters, a practically religious peace of bibliography detailing the rise of humanity from the oppression of the Grimm, ascending from slaves to rebels, from rebels to warfighters, and eventually one day, from warfighters to conquerors.
His name didn't matter, but his powers were severed, the creatures of Sin would lack the essence of.... tiredness?
Wait, was that a good thing?
The Sin lacking..... um, exhaustion, maybe the power of laziness and lack of action, this death would energize them.
Jaune decided to let the chips fall where they may, grabbed the Eternal Slumber as a memento, and go to the dining hall.
His aura cleansing the toxins from his bloodstream, the blond trekked off.
<cutaway>
Everyone was having a good time, a little celebration was taking place, it was some twin sister guards' birthdays today.
There were two cakes, one for just the twins and one for everyone else.
It was of utmost quality, made by the head chef Growling Roar-say.
Though the chef was a bit of a prick, and a douche, and he yelled a LOT, but he claimed to make food that would make Demonus and Angelus cream their pants, if the former ever wore any, so he was put to the test, and passed with flying colors.
"Who is Demonus and Angelus? They sound important." Ruby asked Luna innocently.
"Allow me to explain, here in Equestria, the only problem one has with the afterlife is managing their affairs before they get there. There are many forms of those who control the good and bad afterlives, Heaven and Tartarus, Angelus and Demonus are the managers, they deal with who comes in and who goes out, there's more, the ones who control the actual contents of the afterlife, the gatekeepers, and there's Death, he's a really nice pony when you get past the whole 'alicorn of death' part." Luna explained at ends.
"Speak of Demonus and she'll come a runnin', how's it goin' cousin?" a lurid looking stallion jumped in from the open window, landing in front of the pair.
Ruby looked at him in amazement, the musculature, the hanging black mane dripping ethereal petroleum that dissipated when it hit the floor, the pale gray coat, the skull and crossbones cutie mark, the leather wrappings on his front hooves, the bone helmet that made him look like there wasn't any skin on his head.
The blood red eyes, the sharpened horn, the lack of wings.....
"I thought you were an alicorn?" the red clad girl asked the controller of death itself.
"My powers don't work when I'm in the mortal world of Equus, or when I'm in a physical form, but in heaven, tartarus, or the spirit plane, I'm the real deal." Death extrapolated, gesturing to a bit of black cloth wrapped around his back.
The apparent alicorn looked at his watch, "Well that's enough living for today, let me check the time," he brought the watch closer, "Yep it's about that time." he jumped into the fireplace and burned to ashes.
Ruby was shocked, but Luna gave a chuckle.
"That's something he does a lot, young Ruby. You'll get used to it, don't worry though, Death never dies." the midnight blue alicorn imparted the wisdom, walking off to prevent her sister from hogging all the cake.
Ruby ate her cookies slowly, thinking about Death and his few words, she didn't think about the concept of death, she never had, and hopefully wouldn't have to for a long time.
"Oh man, these are, these are really good looking, yeah, yeah they are." Jeering looked at the plate, motioning to one of the servants to bring in more cookies.
"Hi, aren't you Scootaloo's brother?" Ruby asked, looking at Jeering questioningly.
"Nope, that would be me." Evening said from behind her back, vaulting over the table and sitting across from the scythe-wielder.
"Oh yeah, I see it a lot now, so, Jaune told me about you two, you have a sniper rifle too?" she asked Evening, wishing to talk about weapons.
"Well, yeah, but I stowed it away, right now I'm packing heat in the form of a shovel." the stallion brought out said shovel.
"Ooh, that's a lot of potential." Ruby complimented, looking over every inch of the tool/weapon.
"It is, and it's inconspicuous, who assumes a murderer uses a shovel?" the helmetless scarlet unicorn's words made Ruby start thinking again.
"Oh well I use a sword, I'm gonna legacy the legacy with my gold-iron alloy." the act of the pegasus brandishing the sword made Evening hiss.
"Dude, I may not be a squishy wizard, but keep that thing away from me." the magic knight chastised.
"Oh right, sorry, the gold is for electricity, and we both know this, but you still are cautious about me using it on you, we're friends, though, and I do not, I do not do that, that is, my least favorite thing to do." Jeering, upon further conversation, sounded less cool and more mentally unstable, yet wise in his own way.
"What are you talking about, what's wrong with gold?" Ruby asked, her round eyes wide with curiosity.
"It's a common misconception that iron and magic don't mix, that's obviously wrong since I said it was a common misconception. Quite the opposite, in fact, as iron is the most magically receptive metal there is, the problems are the royal metals, copper, silver, and gold. Blood exposure to one of these three metals will cause a block in the innate magics, magic is everywhere, but it can be evicted. If a pegasus gets cut with a silver blade, they will be unable to fly until their body processes and disposes of the silver, the magic in pegasi make then light and able to produce lift with their wings. If a unicorn is cut by a gold weapon, they can't cast magic until the gold is expunged. Earth ponies lose their earthly vitality and strength in the poisoning of copper. We each have weaknesses, but luckily all of those metals are soft, and the perfect alloy between all of them can only be made with magic itself, the only case is the infamous Crowned Zanbato, a sword forged in an eldritch location, only the mentally insane can wield it, so I'm pretty close to a user." Warden laughed at the end of his explanation, a kind of hard, debilitating laughter that left him shuddering with each mirthful exhalation.
Ruby laughed too, Jeering said "Oooooooh booooooy." before joining them.
Glynda looked at the laughing trio, somewhat relaxed by how they were at least enjoying themselves.
She smiled to Ozpin, Ozpin smiled back.
That fight earlier really shattered a lot of tension between them, the result was calming.
Jaune and Pyrrha were happily chatting away, talking about what they would say when they got back, how they would get back, how they would fight the Sin, but they were very positive about it.
Nora was monologing to Ren, but the green-clad young man spoke back more often than usual.
Even Weiss and Blake warmed up to the ponies, it helped that the ponies were very warm, friendly folks.
Yang was currently talking to a very large pegasus soldier, she looked content.
Qrow had returned, getting between the older hunters and resting his elbows on their shoulders, Scootaloo was standing on his head, their adventurous and energetic personalities quickly made them friends.
"Off, on an adventure across the SEA, come fly with me, let's fly AWAAAAAAY, to the lake and fly across it like it was the ocean, because we're both really fucking awesome and super badass to boot! So this way, follow me Scoot." Qrow half-sang-half-announced, running off quickly, nearly leaving Scootaloo behind before she clung to his head, her revolver's holster poking him in the ear.
Everyone was having a good time.
Today was a good day.
Didn't even need to bring in any AKs.
<cutaway>
It was time for things to suck, a lot.
Who knew that there was more to this place than that damn, dirty forest.
"Come on, we don't have all day." a calming, yet condescending voice insisted, moving the quartet on.
Walking on his two feet, accompanied by a third 'leg', the suave man directed his allies to the strange, old-style town.
"Activity is abundant within those walls." the other man pointed out, his eyes could see a lot of physical things, though his mind wasn't the smartest in guessing intentions.
"Why are we doing this?" one of the two girls asked.
"Because, I am a man of humor." the white-clad man began, turning to his makeshift team, "and I only laugh at things I like," he reared his head back in laughter, "and HAHA, ORGANIZED CRIME!" he gave several loud chuckles, firing his weapon into the air.
"You're really weird, dude." the other girl remarked, brushing back a lock of her black hair.
"Shut up, you M&M, I do what I want, because I can." the redhead countered, turning back to the town.
He was going to burn the town, burn it to the ground.
It was time for a fireworks show that these people would never forget.
Some 480 faves, I love everyone, really I do, I love you all in the most heterosexual/homosexual way possible.
The title 'dozen and a quarter dozen' means fifteen, 12 / 4 = 3, and 12 + 3 = 15
Dozen = 12, quarter = x / 4, and = x + y, for those who don't understand middle school level math.
Enough breaking immersion, ON WITH THE SHOW!
Roman was confused, really confused.
Not only was this town filled with what he could only describe as 'half sized horses', they were also sentient and even accepted him and his associates without asking any questions, or even so much as batting an eye.
Junior chalked it up to, "We may not be the first ones here, maybe they think we're friendly based on precedents."
"That's stupid." Miltia remarked, inspecting her fist blades.
"No, it's lucky, we'll get a lot farther on a lie and good reputation than a lie alone. So shut up Red." Roman's suave voice had a patience to it, a patience that had quickly been wearied by the Malachite twins.
They had been together for about half an hour, suddenly and randomly appearing in the middle of a dark, dank forest, navigating their way out and finding this 'Ponyville' place.
Roman took the proverbial bull by its metaphorical horns and dubbed himself the leader.
His cane was now tapping against the cobblestone streets of Ponyville, they had been accepted on the lie that they were there to fight the evils of this world.
"I just don't get why we're doing this." Junior complained, damn he was whiny, and damn he needed to shave.
His beard had reached an ungodly length, Roman, with his far-beyond-the-gutter mind, concluded that if Junior grew a miniature beard off of his penis, it would still not reach as low as the voluminous hair stretching from Junior's lower face.
Roman was walking backwards while going over his plans for the third time, yet there was still confusion from the others.
He wasn't watching were he was going, and bumped into something. The thing is, these ponies were about three feet tall, which was about waist level, so somepony's head ended up bumping into his rear-end
"HEEEY HEY HEY, watch the backside." he chastised to empty air. He looked down and realized that he had bumped into some random mare, a pegasus, and she dropped a pouch on impact, the contents of it spilling out.
He looked down at her, observing as she rubbed her head with a hoof. He noticed the 'money', and proceeded to do a double take at it, it was a bunch of gold coins.
He wanted those, a lot, and suddenly seemed to be very interested in coming off as a good guy.
Squatting down to be eye level with the mare, he spoke.
"I am sorry miss, I wasn't watching where I was going, I hope you can forgive me." he was quite the actor when he needed to be, and at this time he put on a very gentlemanly tone.
"That's okay, we all make mistakes, myself included, I've noticed that I make more mistakes than usual, it seems." Roman inspected the pegasus as she spoke, she was gray with a yellow mane, leaning to the side dexterously, he found her 'cute mark', or whatever it was, to be bubbles.
Finally he looked back at her eyes, she looked a little ticked off.
"Keep your eyes to yourself, buddy." she rebuked, finally starting to pick up her coins.
"I am sorry, I did not mean to come off creepy, you are a very pretty mare, Miss...." Roman was putting on every act he could, all in an attempt to get a hold of at least one of the coins.
The mare didn't say anything, just blushed a little bit, Roman gestured for her to tell him her name
"Ditzy Doo, but most ponies just call me Derpy Hooves, they're kinda mean for doing that." Ditzy sounded put down by her own statement, looking to the ground and gather her money quietly.
"Of course they are mean, that is not a nickname that anypony would be proud of, look up at me," he lifted her chin with a finger, truly taking in her eyes for the first time, "Your eyes, they are..." he tried to find the right word.
"I swear, if you say 'crossed', ooh." the pegasus prepared herself to get forceful, she didn't like getting forceful, but had learned that doing so was necessary to 'get by' in life.
"I was going to say gold, your eyes, the irises are gold." the mobster corrected her, taking his hand off of Ditzy's chin.
"Oh, right, sometimes I forget about that part of them." the blonde mare was relieved that this gentleman wasn't going to make fun of her, in fact, he seemed completely unaware of her condition at all.
"Let me help you with the mess I've caused." Roman prepared himself, this was the moment he had worked towards.
Deftly grabbing the coins in quick succession, he placed them into the bag at a speed that Ditzy couldn't track, which was good, as he palmed one of the golden discs where she could not see it.
"There you go, good as new." the hatted man assured, standing up again, stretching his legs and popping his knees free of the stiffness they had built up from the extended period of squatting.
"Thanks, mister...." Ditzy motioned for the redhead to continue where she had left off.
"Roman, Roman Torchwick, a dignified businessman, here to help." he gave a bow and Ditzy returned it, not sure what else to do, the gray pony flew off, and Roman began walking again.
The others sat on a nearby bench, watching the almost diplomatic act their temporary leader put on.
"Come on, fools, we have work to do." the white-clad man commanded, continuing his walk down the street.
And there went the diplomacy
The others followed, Roman slowed down to get in line with them, showing the coin.
He bit it, it bent, "Alright, it's real gold, this is excellent, excellent indeed. Now to find a bank, rob it, and get the fuck out of here." the mobster planned, turning to his comrades for their approval.
Nods from all three of the black haired clubbers was all he needed, and he began swaggering to the nearest directory.
<cutaway>
Everyone on team RWBY, team JNPR, and the recently formed team DOGS, looked at the portal cautiously.
The structures had been set up recently, about two days after their arrival, there were three portals.
One led to Ponyville, one led to Neigh York, and one led to Bearussia.
The dozen warriors were heading back to Ponyville, their teaching, training, and re-training complete, it was time to settle where they would stay.
Walking through the portal labeled 'Ponyville', they hadn't been charged the fee since they had been pardoned, the fee was only a few bits anyways, but Luna insisted that they go through without having to pay, they were heroes, they shouldn't have to pay to go through a simple portal.
They had made the final decision on residence, the system would be to alternate locations every-so-often, to keep things fresh.
First rotation, team RWBY would be at the Carousal Boutique, team JNPR would be at the Books and Branches Library, and team DOGS would be at Sweet Apple Acres.
Ruby couldn't wait for the next rotation, team RWBY would stay at Sugarcube Corner after this.
All the cookies she could eat, and then some.
Yang only shook her head, giving a slight grin at her little sister's enthusiasm.
Nora was talking to Ren about getting new outfits, unfortunately for her and maybe fortunately for Ren, the green-clad young man was unconscious. He had exhausted himself in the previous day's work, when the work was done, he practically deactivated like a robot.
Pyrrha and Jaune made small talk, a few notes about techniques were exchanged.
Jaune's memory problems had been erased with the newfound control over his battle power, his fathers' words, the shield users established the basic form of eachother's power.
Jaune was strong, but unskilled. His lack of skill was mainly because he had never received formal training, and so his proficiency in swordsmanship was low. Sure he did a lot of damage, but these lucky strikes where just that, lucky, and his stance was shit. His strength made up for it though.
After all, would you criticize the Hulk for his poor form right after he ripped out a large chunk of asphalt and smashed someone flat with it?
Pyrrha was weak, but skilled, her training made up for the lack of real power in her attacks. Sure she did honest damage, which is damage that is not mitigated by defense or negated by missing, but the damage she dished out wasn't much. Her skills made up for it though.
After all, would you comment that Bruce Lee's punches are relatively weak when he punches you twenty times in about five seconds?
Force dust empowered attacks at the cost of not knowing how to optimally use them.
High velocity armor piercing rounds at the cost of caliber, and thus a smaller momentum.
They were equal, sort of, if you were to grade their statistics in an academic test, then find the total of those stats, the two numbers would be the same.
Blake was feeling good being here, the very air in the small town seemed to have an effect on all of them.
It was as if Equestria itself smelled of happiness, friendship, and good times
The Mane Six were leading the groups to their respective locations, following the longest path they could manage, so as to get in some conversation time, learn more about the humans.
"So, Scoot, any reason why you're riding on ol' Qrow's head?" Rainbow Dash asked, hovering upside-down next to the orange filly and the feather haired man.
"We're adventuring buddies, we do lots of exciting stuff, and some awesome aerial maneuvers too." Scootaloo spoke with excitement in her voice.
"Oh, that's pretty cool, it's nice to know you've found someone to carry you around when I can't." the cyan pegasus stated simply, unaware of the unfortunate implications of her words.
"Are you suggesting that I can't fly?" the orange pegasus interrogated, a bit miffed about what her idol was suggesting.
The violet maned filly started up her wings, hovering above the spectral maned mare's upside-down form.
"Scootaloo, I hate to say it, but it's obvious." Rainbow Dash had her eyes closed, but from behind her lids, she noticed that the sun got a lot darker suddenly.
Opening her rose colored eyes, she saw Scootaloo hovering above her, looking down upon her.
Rainbow Dash stopped for a few seconds, Scootaloo started doing tricks and stunts, her youthful flexibility and agility allowing her to pull off incredibly tight turns and flips.
The older pegasus was stunned at this seemingly sudden development, she didn't really pay much attention to Scootaloo and her affairs, but now she wished she had, if only to see her doing this stuff earlier.
Qrow cleared his throat, "*ahem* Miss Dash, I must say, you're not a very good role model if you can't do in almost three years, what her unicorn brother stuck in the military did in three days. Young Scootaloo is a great flier, I'd say just a notch below you, if the way she raved on about you and your skills was anything to go by." Qrow lectured, laughing at the shocked expression RD had on her face, "You should spend some time with her, do some bondage- I mean, bonding, sorry, my mind sometimes stops working right for a second or two. Nonetheless, at least talk to her and do stuff." the black feathered man suggested, fully conveying that he wasn't truly demanding anything from the rose eyed speedster.
Blake, Weiss, and Rarity were making their own small talk.
"I must say, I do very much wish to replicate your wonderful outfits, darlings, I believe it would be a big hit in the other havens." the fashionista raved, admiring the white and black schemed clothing closely.
"That sounds, nice, I'll allow it." Weiss replied, a bit of a skip in her step at seeing this new scenery, she hadn't been to this part of town before.
"What about you, Miss Belladonna?" the white unicorn continued.
"Um, sure, I can get behind that." Blake answered, not really sure how to respond.
"Wonderful, simply wonderful, I must say I love your headband, are those cat ears on it?" the indigo maned mare asked innocently.
Blake faltered for several seconds, trying to think of some excuse, "Um, yes, yes those are cat ears in my headband." she told the truth, at least.
Those were cat ears in her headband.
A strange stallion ran past, shouting.
"OUT OF THE WAY! I need to get to the bank." he said to the group, blinded by his goal to notice the humans.
Blake analyzed him in a second or two, seeing everything about his appearance.
His coat was like gold, mane and tail like silver, eyes were like platinum, and unshorn fetlocks like copper.
His hooves were tensed, galloping didn't do that to a pony, she could tell he had evil intentions.
"I'm going to follow him." Blake announced quietly, taking off and climbing a building a couple of seconds.
Using her ninja skills, she ran after him, jumping across rooftops to keep up, even jumping across whole streets.
Finally he stopped in front of the bank he had said he was going to.
He walked inside, Blake used her stealth skills to see what was going on without being seen herself.
The stallion was pissed off though, after his brother Belphegor was killed by that Jaune guy, he stepped his game up, moving from petty theft to, well, bank robbery.
He was pissed off, not because his dear brother was dead, no, Belphegor was a lazy sack of shit, he was mad because somepony else was already robbing this bank.
Roman had his Veno-Vulcan aimed at the tellers, the cane/firework-missile-launcher was named so because the name meant 'Beautiful Fire', which was a perfect description of fireworks.
Junior had beaten down all of the guards, taking a pair of pistols, since while smaller, they were more conventional and would blow up things that he didn't need blown up.
Melanie and Miltia were cracking the vault, hoping that there were lots of lockboxes in it.
Junior was launched past Roman, the other man's heavy frame knocking out one of the tellers.
Roman looked at the golden stallion that faced him, grabbing a pistol from one of the downed guards and firing.
Mammon wasn't having that shit, he absorbed the bullets with his Greedy Charity, a cross between a leaf-blower and a Ghostbusters plasma cannon backpack.
He used the doppelganger spell, turning into a dapper, almost foppishly dressed man with a golden suit, silver hair and top hat, and copper shoes, his eyes stayed the same platinum color, though.
He shot the bullets back at Roman, missing each shot as the mobster turned around and shot at him with the Veno-Vulcan, the firework's explosive properties countering the absorption of Mammon's weapon, blowing the other man apart.
Mammon wasn't going down so easily, he grabbed his limbs and reattached them, the severed flesh reforming and the limbs began to move in accordance with his mind.
He held out his hand, his greed powers were nigh infinite as he stole the other man's weapons.
Aiming both the pistol and the cane, Mammon watched as Roman said a quick prayer.
"Oh father in heaven, forgive me of my sins as I forgive this asshole for killing me, blessed be thy name and thou shalt bless me too." Roman spoke at a mile a minute, bracing for impact.
He heard the familiar whistling of the firework missile, the bullet missed, but he was still going to get hit.
*BOOM*
*SHING*
*BANG*
Blake slashed the greed demon with her sword, finishing him with a bullet to the neck.
She watched the smoke clear from around Roman, his aura had protected him, he had gone so long without getting hurt, that he had forgotten about it.
"That makes us even, Torchwick." she spat at the old acquaintance, not proud to have known him.
The redhead opened his eyes to see a familiar face.
"Blake, how've ya' been, huh? How's that Faunus Civil Rights been going?" he greeted cheerily, recognizing her as an old client.
He reminisced the past
It had been a few years, yes, but he remembered the young girl coming to him. Being the local crime boss of Vale, he had connections, and she and some wolf faunus named Adam had come to him, needing armaments to assist their goals in uprooting various corrupt corporate plans.
They had brought a small heist's worth of lien to pay him for his services, he took the money, along with a picture of him and the two faunus, he liked faunus, they seemed really cool to him.
After that, the two were hooked up with weapons, for the young cat girl, a sword/pistol with a sharpened scabbard. For the few-years-older wolf man, a ninjato with a rifle for a sheath.
He looked at the picture of him and the faunus pair, thinking about how Blake wore a ribbon with holes for her cat ears, pretending like it was just a fancy bow.
The white-clad man put the picture back in his wallet, smiling and looking at the girl, now a lot more grown up.
"Well, I'll consider your saving my life as a full repayment." he said, his voice returning to its usual suave, smooth tone.
Blake nodded, about to toss the criminal his cane back, when she saw some girl poking her head out from the teller's stall.
"Hey Roman, the vault is cracked, you have to check this out, there's a ton of gold in here, I think it might be a literal tonne, too." Melanie informed, going back to the vault where the twins were working on how to transport the immense mass of the precious metal
"Wait, you're robbing this bank?" Blake knew the answer, but asked, in order to give the man a chance to redeem himself.
"Yes, there is so much gold here, you have no idea, have you even seen these things? I think they call them bits." Roman tossed over a gold bit.
Blake dexterously caught it, examining it.
On one side was a fancy sun symbol, with the phrase 'In Celestia we trust' along the top curve, and 'Praise the sky' along the bottom curve.
On the other side was a fancy moon and stars symbol, with the phrase 'In Luna we trust' along the top curve, and 'Praise the sky' along the bottom curve.
It was perfectly circular, one inch in diameter and a quarter inch thick. Doing some quick math in her head, using a tonne of gold as a goal for the volume, which was fifteen inches cubed, that would be fifteen by fifteen by sixty, since they were a quarter inch thick, the total of that multiplication would equate to......
.... Thirteen and a half thousand bits.
The conversion rates would mean that if they did have a whole tonne of pure gold, then the price of that would be.....
.... Forty eight point two million lien.
"I can't let you do that." she said, pulling out the Stargaze and Moon's Eye.
"Do you really expect to hurt me with a weapon I recognize? That's just stu-" Roman was cut off with a strike to the forehead from the handle of the blade.
Blake zoomed forward, grabbing the blade backhandedly and slashing with it, firing several times with the automatic rifle.
Putting the pair of arms away, she pulled out the Gambol Shroud, slashing Roman several times with both blades, shooting him with the pistol a few times.
"Okay, okay, I give up." Roman said after nonchalantly stepping backwards from the attacks, putting his hands up in surrender.
Blake stepped back, her pistol/sword aimed squarely at the redhead's face.
Ruby and Yang ran into the bank through the broken windows on the front wall.
"Hey! It's YOU!" Ruby shouted at the familiar face of Roman, noticing he was unarmed, she pulled out Crescent Rose and aimed.
"Ruby stop, he's my business." Blake protested, looking away from Roman for a couple of seconds.
That was all the mobster needed, as he kneed the black haired girl in the wrist, grabbing Gambol Shroud and punching her hard, knocking her backwards.
Flipping to recover, Blake looked at Ruby again, the look on her face practically screamed 'I repeal my previous decision'.
The whistling of several missiles whisked past the white and black pair, sailing through the air at Yang.
"You're going to pay for what you did to me, blondie." Junior threatened, the Batzooka primed again, he fired at her.
Yang dodged the missiles, giving a cheeky grin at Junior, firing her Ember Celicas at the bearded clubber as Blake dodged out of the way.
Roman took a few hits, but shot Blake a few times, aiming at Yang at shooting her as well.
After another fourteen or so shots, the pistol clicked, it was out of ammo.
Blake and Roman wrestled at each other to get the Gambol Shroud, the weapon was clearly the most conventional out of team RWBY.
Conventional was a useful attribute for a weapon in Vytal, conventional meant that one could rely on it to do a wide field of normal tasks in a normal manner, the pistol/sword would slash and shoot with the capacity and functionality of a regular sword or regular pistol, but without the hassle of carrying both at the same time.
It was simple, reliable, and the only thing that would need periodic maintenance would be the ribbon whip function.
Blake reloaded the twenty round magazine into the gun, trying to aim at Roman and firing two shots in the process, one knocked off his hat, the other grazed his hair.
The white-clad man proved to be stronger, as he wrenched the weapon from Blake's grip, shooting her in rapid succession, draining her soul quickly.
He did not expect to get shot in the side by a massive bullet, which struck with such force that it knocked his own aura down to zero.
Blake noticed this, grabbing her weapon from the weakened criminal, slashing him across the chest.
The fighting was interrupted by a sudden flash of light accompanied by a teleportation sound
*SHA-WING*
Twilight appeared in the bank from her powerful teleportation, peering around quickly, as though she was looking for something.
She had detected evil inside the walls of Ponyville, and readied herself for action.
Her saruma staff hovered in the air, the gem transformed into a hammer head.
She saw the robbers, using a soul alignment divining spell to detect evil, they all had an imbalance of darkness. In combination with the fact that they were obviously robbing a fucking bank, classic criminal actions.
She wasn't going to allow such filth in her field of authority. She mapped out in her head where the criminals were, then advanced.
She struck the redheaded criminal in the chest.
*BAN*
She teleported behind the teller booths and struck Junior
*BAN*
The unicorn moved to the twins in the vault, sending the saruma spinning horizontally at them, striking them both.
*BANBAN*
Grabbing the staff again, the lavender unicorn snorted in a bit of rage, she was mad that such scum had entered her town.
So she had brought out the Ban Hammer.
<battle end>
Teleporting back to the main room, she looked at the three warriors, making sure they were okay.
"I could have taken them." Yang assured, compressing the Ember Celicas down into bracelets again.
"I'm sure of it, sorry for intervening there." the streak maned mare apologized, rubbing her head and placing her staff on her back.
"That was COOL, don't be sorry, you did great, the way you were all like 'Not Today' and you went BAM, SMACK, SMACK SMACK SMACK, it was awesome!" Ruby dramatized the events, making explosion gestures with her hands and looking starry eyed at the somewhat impressive display, "And then you tried to be all humble like 'It was nothing' and then I started describing how awesome it was, and.... hey look, Roman dropped his cane." Ruby picked up the Veno-Vulcan that had been left behind by the banished mobster.
Storing it away on her back, she turned to Twilight.
"*sigh* Do either of you know where they came from?" Twilight asked, she felt suspicious at the unrequested and unwanted appearance of these four new humans.
"I have no idea, I followed the golden pony here, I could sense that he had ill intents, but these other guys were already here for some reason." Blake acted like she didn't know Roman, pretended that she wasn't slightly saddened to not be able to at least have some sort of conversation with her old acquaintance, if only to catch up on things, but she kept her mouth shut so as to not look like a friend of the enemies of the law.
"I see, get Weiss and Glynda, then follow me to the library." Twilight had a hypothesis, a hypothesis that might result in some major problems if it was correct.
With that, the orders were given to clean the place up and restore the peace, while the humans and the mage set off to see what was going on.
<cutaway>
Twilight levitated the large scroll that was heavily laden with glyphs into view.
"This is Runic, the language of magic, anyone can read it because it is a symbolic language similar to equish but tuned more to the arcane aura that surrounds the planet like the atmosphere. rather than a language used by the average pony." the mage began, bringing up a second scroll, which was written both in equish, as well as with neater penponyship, "This is the spell that Luna composed, the one she, Celestia, and me and my friends used to summon you all here." Twilight cleared her throat, preparing to read the spell.
"In the times of overwhelming darkness, I, the princess of the night we the protectors of both the Light of Hope and the Maintenance of Harmony, do desperately humbly send forth a summoning aura, to bring some heroes no more or less than fifteen heroes Warriors of Peace Light to help us not die beat back the evils of the world, should we fail at it ourselves undoubtedly need it. Should one or more of these warriors get killed fall in battle, a new warrior shall be summoned to take his/her place, being brought to Equestria no sooner than one (1) week and no later than six (6) months. Sister stop trying to read my scroll over my shoulder, that's really rude." Twilight forgot to not include the last line, realizing her mistake, she just turned around and trotted over to her chalkboard.
"Right, so, I have been able to calculate what exactly the spell did. When the spell was cast, a link was formed between our world, Equus, and your world, Vytal, I think it was. This link will act as a 'Self Fill-No Overflow-Lower Limit=Upper Limit' gate, which means that if the number of your people in Equestria is below the lower limit, it will summon more humans, seeing as how we got four random criminals, I would assume that the link lacks a guidance system for determining the 'Warriors of Light' requisites. tell me, is the title 'Warrior of Light' common in your world?" the lavender unicorn explained, though her question held a lot of weight to it.
"Just about every human being in Vytal is considered a 'Warrior of Light', as we all possess light and darkness, where as the creatures of Grimm, which as you know is our world's version of the Sin, are nothing but darkness. If your calculations are correct-" Glynda paused for a moment to adjust her glasses.
"And they usually are." Twilight added with a little laugh.
"Then we will indeed have to regularly inspect who is here, so as to make sure that no, as you put it, criminals or other such dark-dominant humans stay here long enough to do something nasty." the elderly woman summarized.
"So, I've learned during my time here, that the best we can do is prepare for what may come, I'll get my assistants in," Twilight turned to the staircase, "SPIKE, I NEED YOUR HELP!" she called out, tilting her view to the basement door, "JOAX, YOU TOO!" she announced.
The little purple dragon came running down the stairs, a few seconds after he stood front and center, a tired looking unicorn emerged from the basement door.
He looked like a complex kind of guy, his brown mane with a lavender streak running through it, his piercing amethyst irises with abnormally white sclera, his purple-brown coat, a black facemask covered his muzzle almost up to his nose, a black cape draped over his back, withers, down to his flank, the cape and mask were connected, made of some sort of leather, probably leather from the Sin, if the purple eyes on the back had any meaning, a gray shirt covered by a white lab coat trimmed with lavender, brown hind leg boots, his cutie mark was a purple and black double helix with sparkles and smoke in the middle.
"Everyone, I'd like you to meet Joax, Joax Hellstorm, he's from what was once Shoeden, in the Scandineighvia area. He's an expert in illusions, wards, alchemy, and enchantments, so I've recruited him in assisting me in protecting the town. His name may be pronounced like hoax, but it's spelled with a J."
"It's the way we spelt it back in Shoeden, if there was one thing we Shoedish are good at, it's fucking," the hunters could feel his cheeky smile, but he continued anyways, "But the other thing is spelling things slightly different in order to distinguish ourselves." he laughed, levitating out a dagger as his laughing quickly became dark, ending abruptly with him having ascended to insane cackling and flinging his dagger into the air, the bowie-knife-like blade landing perfectly in its sheath, he was silent the second the *SHICK* sound of the dagger being sheathed was heard.
"Sorry, I lose control like that sometimes." he apologized, looking at a trio of necklaces he just pulled out of his shirt, one was a green-dominant turquoise orb on a thin golden chain, one was a cyan jewel capped with a dark blue pearl on a silver chain, and the last was the oddest, a pair of pink hands holding a red heart, on a copper chain.
It was odd only because it was clearly human hands, from a woman, but the human part was more important.
"Yeah, I help with magic stuff while Spike here helps with general household stuff." Joax looked sad.
"Hey, cheer up, nice... cape, it goes well with your.... eyes?" Yang wasn't really good at cheering people up.
"Thanks, I carved it off of a Daemon pony, an evil creature formed solely from hell essence, an embodiment of evil, I carved off its skin and made it into a cape and mask." the stallion told his tale, drinking a bottle of some sort of potion through his mask, as though it were intangible.
"Anyways, enough of your tannery, Spike and you need to prepare the populace for any humans that might arrive, Joax, since you're good at asking hard questions, you'll be organizing things, Spike will be doing the talking." Twilight instructed, gesturing for the pair to get to work.
She would have done all of this herself, but more pressing matters needed to be tended to.
"Alright, let's get you all to your proper temporary residence, and then we need to properly formulate a plan to engage the Sin and destroy them." the mare stated in a businesslike tone, walking towards the door.
"Let the Sin come to us, we can handle whatever they can do." Weiss was confident in not only her own, but everyone's abilities to fight these monsters.
Twilight gave a sideways glance at the white-schemed fencer, 'well, she seems... sure of herself' she thought, continuing to the door and opening it.
When they were out roaming the streets, a lot of ponies gave frightful glances, and some even dared to give nervous stares.
One look and gesture from Twilight asserted the knowledge that these four were good guys, but keep an eye out for any humans that nopony recognized.
Trekking through the streets, they reached Carousal Boutique, the lavender unicorn giving a few knocks on the door before entering.
*VORP*
"Twilight, I have discovered the philosopher's stone." Joax teleported in front of the group, levitating a shiny, magenta colored orb into view, the 'stone' glowed with red and yellow energy.
Glynda couldn't believe her ears, if this stallion was correct, then this orb was a defiance of nature and physics.
"Joax, how much time have you spent on making that thing? Can you prove that it works?" Twilight was skeptical.
"Let the man explain, I'm sure he knows what he's doing." Pyrrha interjected, team RWBY and team JNPR switched places, seeing as that was how they were assigned.
Walking back to the library, Joax went on about his exploits in alchemy, "So, I've been willing to let a bit of science into my magical methods, so I've finally answered the question to why unicorns bother using swords with handles when they can just levitate it. The answer is torque, the force of rotation, with a larger leverage, the sword actually becomes a lot easier to wield, despite being a bit heavier. Now watch me pull a miracle." the enthusiastic mage levitated the magenta orb into view again.
Lumps of black rock, coal, were put through the stone, turned into lumps of red rock that glowed yellow and were covered in yellow runes, bars of iron were turned into gold, the gold was turned into crystals, diamonds to be exact, if the blinding flawlessness of the clear gem was anything to go by, the red rocks and the diamond were combined in the stone, making a small ball of a new, impossibly dark material.
"Hoo boy, this is tough to levitate, then again, dark matter is known for its celestial density, a single cubic foot weighing about five tonnes, or ten thousand kilograms." Twilight nearly stumbled at the statement, looking at the small ball.
"Joax, you're slipping into dangerous territory in magic, if that really is dark matter." Twilight was nervous, were such impossible seeming arts really so simple?
The stallion paid no heed as he continued, bonding the dark matter to more powerful runic materials, forming ungodly things, things that shouldn't exist, but have been made by a mind of fire and eldritch desire.
"Darkness, then redness, then whiteness." Joax stated in an unnecessarily epic tone, turning the dark matter red, then the red matter white.
The new white matter gave off a glow of black, it was a reverse magnet, repelling things rather than attracting them, offsetting even light.
"I have no idea what has gone through your head." the lavender mare said exasperatedly.
Team JNPR was trying to ignore these deviances from nature, trying to hold their own conversations, and did surprisingly well.
"Twilight, what's the point of having friends, if in the end, you have no idea what they might do if they think their life is about to be over, only the purest of pure wouldn't stab you in the back and twist the knife." Joax coughed, "Sorry about that, I had to cough, what I meant to say was, are you aware of the law of conservation of detail?" Twilight felt half-offended-half-utterly confused at her assistant's words.
All she could muster was, "Wat." her mental facilities had been abandoned.
"If what I here is correct, when Gondor calls for help, Frodo's exploits won't be for naught, and the citizens of Narnia will rise up against the reign of Lord Voldemort, and Luke Skywalker's influences over however many people he ever met will inspire them to join her to defeat the Fire Nation, all in the name of The Great Gazoo." it was clear that the dark purple pony had not only lost every single one of his marbles, but also lost the jar to put them in, along with his entire fucking brain.
"Wat." Twilight repeated, still brain-stunned.
"All of them, Team VOID, Parton the dragon diplomat, the two soldiers, Captains Warden and Sparkles, myself and Spike, and more to come, when the time comes, we will be there to help." the insane unicorn was cryptic in his claims.
"When will the time come?" Twilight chose to ignore her assistant's supposed knowledge of others for the sake of getting to the point of his ramblings.
"You will know, because of the proverbial Shit. Shit will become real, in becoming real it shall be subjected to gravity, then Shit will go down, in the process of going down, Shit will hit the fan, and the resulting mess will be absolutely awful unless we are smart enough to get our Shit together, and tough enough the get that Shit done, and not end up like a common Shithead, do you understand this shit?" the member of the Hellstorm family asked, Twilight wincing slightly each time he repeated the word 'shit'
"Y'know, they say that if you say, read, or hear a word too many times without giving it a rest, it stops seeming like a real word." Nora made her statement.
"That was surprisingly thought-inducing statement, Nora." was all that Pyrrha could muster, the idea was undeniable, as she herself had felt that at least a few times before.
"I have another question, WHAT IF.... YOUR LEGS...... DIDN'T KNOW, THAT THEY WERE LEGS?" the redhead said aloud.
"And there goes the thinking." Pyrrha tried to be polite, but she just ended up face-palming.
"Here we are again." Twilight announced, informing everyone that they were now right in front of the library.
"The first time around, I never noticed how big the tree is." Pyrrha muttered under her breath, calculating that the tree must have been at least fifty feet tall.
"Let me give you a tour." the unicorn mare offered, without waiting for an answer, she spun around and faced the four warriors.
"This is the foyer." Twilight began, pointing her hooves at the various doors and openings, "Kitchen, bathroom, side room, reading room, relaxation area." she pointed to a recent addition, a vaguely circle formation comprised of a couch, a two-seater, a chair, a fireplace thickly lined with brick, and a table in the middle, holding many books, "I got it added because I had to do some major research soon after the Sin struck, and sitting on the floor for three to seven hours typically ranges from harshly uncomfortable to flank numbing, anyways, that's the basement." she pointed to a door beside the staircase.
"You can usually find me down there, working, on more magic, don't disturb me, I'm working on something that might help turn the tide of this 'war', as some call it." Joax added, his eyes on his philosopher's stone.
"Anyways, it's a lab down there, next we have the upper floor." Twilight continued, bringing the tour up the stairs, "This is the loft, with a few doors, one leads to the bathroom, one leads into a closet, one leads into the observatory, and that second staircase leads up to my bedroom, this glass door here leads to the balcony." Twilight paused to catch her breath, then added, "We've recently had a lot of renovations, so even I am a bit turned around, but we'll all get used to it." the breathless pony concluded the tour by falling flat on the ground, with jaws full of pain and lungs emptied of air.
She wasn't in the best physical shape, and attempting to speak at great lengths wasn't an easy task.
With everything settled, each of the four went about deciding on their individual sublets.
<cutaway>
Team DOGS was still in tour mode, as there was a lot to cover on the farm.
"... and here we have our other products, y'know, 'sides apples, it's not really smart to grow only apples, y'know," the earth-pony mare showed the four warriors the alternative fields, upon further examination, Sweet Apple Acres was actually about two-thirds, maybe five-eighths apples, the other third dedicated to a lot of other crops.
"So, now then, that concludes the tour of our fine farm. I'm sorry, but we only have one spare room, the rest'a y'all will hafta sleep in the barn I guess, like I said, I'm sorry 'bout that." the orange farmer had a small frown, but soon wiped it off her face and began walking away, "Whelp, I gotta get back to work, I'm sure you four can organize them snoozin' arrangements." with that last statement, she trotted off.
"SCOOTALOO! HEY!" the quartet heard a young voice calling out, Scootaloo flew off of Qrow's head towards the voice's owner.
"Applebloom, hey, what's up?" the orange filly asked her friend, hovering a half meter above the ground.
"I heard that you four are gonna be staying here, c'mon Scoot, it'll be like a long sleepover!" the yellow filly cheered, the young pair exchanged a high-hoof and went off to the Crusaders' Tree-house.
"Well, there goes my friend, dammit, I already feel older being around you two." Qrow joked, flying into the sky, "As much as I would love to share a room with you, my dear sweet David, or Glynda, I can walk on clouds, so I'll sleep on them too." with that, Qrow flew off to gather some clouds.
"Hmm, it seems as though our team is very easily separated, even by such simple things as where to sleep, next thing you know we'll have a formal debate over what to eat at breakfast time." Ozpin observed, he tried to stay upbeat, but with only Glynda with him, it was quite the difficult task.
"Don't be so melodramatic, professor, it only seems that our teammates, little Miss Scootaloo and Orchid Qrow, are lacking discipline, if we could organ-" Glynda was cut off by Ozpin's sudden response.
"Discipline, my ass!" he wasn't one for discipline, sure doing things in an organized and self-controlling manner was really goddamn efficient, but he hated the term 'discipline'
Glynda responded by smacking him on the ass with her Disciplinary Action Scene, aka her magic wand/riding crop.
He jumped in surprise and turned to her, a coy smile on his face, "Oh ho ho, so that's how you want to play it?" he asked, his voice suddenly filled with youth, energy, and emotion.
"What are you going to do about it?" Glynda had the most shit-eating grin on her face.
"I'll tell you something, come closer," the green-clad man lowered his voice to a whisper, beckoning the bleach-blond woman to lean in, "Closer, come on, closer." he coaxed her further.
So close now, his mouth was nary an inch from her ear, he slowly snaked his arms around her neck, grabbing her shoulders and gently squeezing.
Suddenly his grip turned harsh and he took in a deep nosy snort of air.
"TOUCH ME LIKE THAT AGAIN WITHOUT MY CONSENT, AND YOU'RE FIRED!" he shrieked, sending Glynda tumbling over in shock, blown backwards by his voice.
"Duly noted?" he asked afterwards.
"Du-d-dul-duly n-no-no-note-ted." Glynda could hardly speak properly from the ringing in her ears, but she understood the question.
Ozpin walked away to claim his spot in the apple family home, leaving Glynda to the barn.
If it weren't for the actively-unresolved sexual tension between the two, they would be having lust-induced heart attacks.
<cutaway>
Rarity was glad to have her guests over, after laying down the few ground rules she had, she giddily began working to copy the RWBY team's clothing.
One after another, while the others set about claiming the few spare rooms the fashionista had in her boutique, said mare was working down the line with her guests-turned-models.
Ruby was quite hesitant as Rarity measured her form and diagramed her clothing, "I take it you've never done this before, darling?" she understood, most clients were a bit squeamish and squirmy their first time getting measured. Maybe it was just how close they were to her. Maybe the measuring tapes were cold. Maybe it was how Rarity needed her to remove most of her clothing, leaving her standing there in nothing but bra and panties.
Nonetheless, it was soon over and the fashionista had a sketch of Ruby's clothes and measurements, and soon enough the red-clad girl would have a brand new outfit to wear. The unicorn hoped to make something a bit more weather-tuned and comfortable.
Next came Weiss, who stood stock and still while the tapes floated around her. Not once did she flinch, and not once did she speak.
Blake stayed quiet, but occasionally jumped when the cold metal bits touched her exposed skin.
Yang was another story, she was enthusiastic about this, so much so that she had stripped off even her undergarments, leaving her stark form completely exposed to the pony.
"Lift your arms, please." Rarity's skills had come from a long career, starting when she was just a little filly, no older than her sister was now, she had long ago learned about 'full range of motion' that would be needed for properly fitted clothing, so a set of simple commands long since memorized were given out every time.
A few more commands, only this time, Yang was responding.
"Right, now bend your back forward." since the humans' forms were different, she had to add a couple of things.
"Whoa, I'm not really a fan of this position, if you know what I mean." Yang replied, bending over anyways.
The system had been pinned down with Ruby, so the fourth time around was quite easy.
"Okay, now spread your legs..." the white mare remembered Weiss's single complaint, did Rarity really need to measure how flexible these four young women were?
"I'm not sure if I should like where this is going." the naked blonde responded, doing a jump in place and pulling off a splits.
"I don't really know where I'm going either, that should be all though, you can put your clothes back on now." Rarity put her most insistent tone on with that last clause of her statement.
Yang donned her outfit again and set about setting up her room.
Rarity breathed a sigh of relief, and stowed away the charts on the shelf.
She needed to have a lie-down.
<cutaway>
"FAILURES! BOTH OF THEM! They're dead because they were FAILURES!" the head of the demon ponies shouted to his brothers.
The angry red one snorted out a plume of fire, "Maybe you just SUCK! Ever think about that, Lucy?" he taunted, he had chronic rage, and his brother's blaming session was giving him a headache.
"Listen, Belphegor was a lazy sack of shit, and Mammon was only in it for the money, useless shit. All we have left is myself, you Sad, Ass, Bees, and Levi." the suit-clad stallion began assessing the situation, "If we divert forces to take out these Traitors of Light, then we can snuff out the last four beacons of hope, and the world will be MINE, uh, I mean, OURS!" he shouted in a morale-boosting tone.
"I was about to say, what if I wanted some of the world? And how come those humans are traitors? At least you have light to be betrayed by, what do I have? Water, a shitload of water." the sea-blue stallion complained, his incredibly green eyes meeting his brother's ichor-yellow ones.
"There are four beacons left, Ponyville, which is where these vigilantes who call themselves 'heroes' are, they dare to defile MY light with their so-called 'righteousness', Canterlot is where the princesses are, I can't wait to stand over their corpses in victory and carve their bodies into a throne." he stopped to imagine the sensations, it sent a wave of satisfaction through his veins.
"I can't wait to rape them after they surrender, to assert our dominance, of course." the hermaphroditic demon-pony breathed in through his noise and exhaled through her mouth, a sigh of lust escaping its lips.
"Try not to cream your pants yet, Ass, we still have to assess the other two strongholds. Neigh York is one, they have that old-ass 'Statue of Harmony, Peace, and Freedom' from Prance, those timid faggots were the first to surrender, and the first to die. The other is the hardiest country we've faced, Bearussia, they've been mostly unaffected by our forces. The intense cold is deadly to all bur a few of our minions, and we cannot use movement magic in places that we haven't corrupted, so we can't just do it ourselves. Vulcan Complex is run by dragons, but they can wait, most of them have entered their 'century of sleep', so we won't have to worry about reinforcements. Out of Neigh York, Bearussia, and Vulcan Hold, Neigh York is the easiest target." an ethereal map appeared on the meeting table, a map of Neigh York,
All of it was colored in, the luminosity of the map was brought down by the bleach-blonde maned stallion to allow his brethren to see it clearly.
"We burn it, simple as that." the red eyed stallion suggested.
"Not that simple, it's a concrete jungle, no fire would spread past one building, however, with what we've been able to see, the best plan of action would be to either attack the Statue here," the leader pony pointed his hoof to the statue, a pale green mare in a flowing robe, holding a book and a torch, with a crown on her head, "... or here." he pointed to another structure that stood out.
It was blurry, but it looked important.
<cutaway>
Celestia flew around the castle, looking at various ways to improve the defenses of Canterlot.
She needed to relax, but so much needed to be done before she could even rest.
Peering about the landscape, she looked to the towers of the castle itself.
She saw a smudge of pink on one of the balconies, it was Cadance.
Descending to speak with her niece, the solar alicorn landed and stood beside the princess of love.
"Hello, Cadence, wonderful day we're having, isn't it." the alabaster pony greeted, trying to stay in some semblance of happiness in these still-tense times.
"Yes, the sky over Canterlot hasn't been corrupted, and everypony seems to be well off, so I would say that today is quite wonderful." Cadance replied, adjusting her tiara and looking down off of the balcony.
The view from her tower included every single military facility in the Castle Canterlot, she took in a breath of the warm, pleasant air and spoke again, "Right now I'm watching Shiny try to stay awake while reprimanding Captain Warden and Captain Mareon for equipment and policy violations." she had a coy smile on her face, remembering what had made her husband so tired.
"I see, well, I wonder what exactly they're being yelled at for." Celestia replied, looking down at the trio of knights.
Down below, Shining Armor looked at his two brothers-in-arms, disbelief plastered across his face.
"I can't believe *yawn* that you would actually consider this *yawn* a, a good idea!" he half-yelled at Evening.
The light-scarlet coated stallion had, on his body, a large telescopic sight, an full form M79 grenade launcher, a large pistol with a heavy silencer, a bipod attachment, a 'mega katana', and an oversized crowbar, and a lot of ammo, all of this weighed a total of about one hundred and fifty pounds, which was more than Evening himself weighed.
"I'm working on it, bro, don't worry." Evening nonchalantly responded, checking his katana.
"Don't call me *yawn* bro, Warden, I am your *yawn* SUPERIOR!" the blue maned stallion retorted in anger, struggling to keep himself awake.
"Actually, with the sparkly sparkles of my sparkle-ful charm, Hunter Ozpin promoted us to Captains, so sparkle the sparkle and suck your wife's nipples, broooo, you can't pull rank on us, L-O-L." Jeering countered, it was a complete mystery how he had even gotten into the military.
"Well, Captain, if you *yawn* would not bring *yawn* Cadence into this, *yawn* that would be great." Shining was fighting the oncoming waves of exhaustion with all of his might, "How does *yawn* Ozpin's *yawn* word carry any *yawn* weight? He's Spec Ops, he shouldn't have any authority" the white unicorn blinked a few times, he had gotten quite the workout earlier, but was now getting a second wind of wakefulness.
"It carries enough weight to promote two lieutenants to captains, apparently he was also appointed at the equivalent rank of General, so he's got the power, but I think that no one man should have all that power." the tan stallion smiled, he almost never stopped smiling, he was quite photogenic when he smiled, and thus was chronically handsome.
"I don't understand it though. The old guy doesn't even prove his worth, and he gets to be a general, meanwhile I've dedicated more than half my life to the army and I'm a captain. Do you know how much flank I had to kiss to get where I am? I should be a colonel at this point!" the unicorn's unshorn fetlock of his foreleg tapped against Evening's body armor every few words.
"You mad bro?" the blue and black maned stallions replied simultaneously, with huge shit-eating grins plastered across their faces.
"Yes I'm MAD. I'll admit it, I'm really xenophobic to everything, I was five seconds from issuing the attack on that dragon a couple weeks ago, I don't trust those humans, and I don't trust anything that comes out of that HELLHOLE we call the DARKLAND!" the blue eyes knight was seething at this point.
"He's super mad, I think his jimmies are also really rustled, maybe he's butthurt too, Shining, why are you so racist?" Mareon formulated, it was evident that he wasn't exactly 'all there', so to speak.
"I AM NOT.... ugh, fuck you, seriously fuck you, dude, I can't take this, get your horsefly ass OUT OF HERE! Off is the general direction in which I need you to fuck." Shining slurred the glasses wearing stallion, pointing to the sky.
"I will not stand for this racial subjugation, Evening I will cut you if you support him." with that, Jeering flew off from the pair of unicorns.
"Wow dude, not cool, he's my friend, not just my brother-in-arms, not just my fellow-pony, he was my friend, my comrade, and you had to be a giant dickface to him, way to go, Shiny, way to go, talk to me when you stop being a faggot." Evening teleported away. He hated racism, he felt that if ponies would just stop talking about it, it would finally go away.
Any continuation of racism was both idiotic and destined to be scorned and ridiculed.
Back up on the balcony, Cadance had stopped watching and backed up into her and her husband's room, she felt something, like hundreds of voices were crying out, and then were silent... for about one second, then kept screaming, she felt few tears being forced out of her eyes, cold tears, tears that tinkled against the floor.
She looked down, her tears were crystals, a few had shattered, spreading miniscule, icy shards across the floor.
"Crystal tears, it has happened." Celestia knew this sign, the sign of a rebirth, "The Crystal Kingdom returns, Cadence, your kingdom has risen from the blackness, this is wonderful news!" the white alicorn was joyous, a new beacon of light, and one so far north, it was bound to boost morale in all areas.
"I have a kingdom?" Cadance asked, she had been unaware of such an arrangement.
"You're not just the Princess of Love, Cadence, you're the Crystal Princess, that's why your cutie mark is a crystal heart." the princess of the sun revealed, poking Cadance's cutie mark for emphasis, causing the other mare to flinch and wince.
"Oooooh, I thought it just meant I was a good matchmaker." the pink alicorn replied, looking at her flank, which was quite sore.
"You must go, Cadence, with Shining Armor, to reestablish your power as the Crystal Princess, before the Sin seize the Crystal Kingdom for themselves." the pastel maned mare decreed the goal, it was necessary to do this.
If they were successful, the milestone might chip away the wall that held back the flood of power that threatened to turn the tide of war towards the ponies' total victory.
"So, I should start packing, then?" Cadance received a nod, signaling that she was right.
"The sooner you get there and assess the situation, the better." Celestia assured, taking off from the balcony and leaving Cadence to pack up.
<cutaway>
Twilight had recovered from her exhausting tour, and now settled down for the evening with a good book, this one was about engineering, she felt the need to understand how these weapons wielded by the humans were able to do some of the awesome shit that they could.
Compression technology was limited in pony technology, but even Pyrrha's Milo was amazing with its ability to turn from a full rifle into a heavy spear in only a few seconds.
Long into the night she read, recalling details from the battle she witnessed, she had concluded that, if Ruby had built her weapon herself, then she must have had a Master's Degree in Construction and Engineering, as well as a commendable skill in origami.
She read late into the night, falling asleep with her face in her book.
When the lavender unicorn woke up the next morning, she awoke to the smell of pancakes, she got off of the couch and did her morning routine.
"So, how did you all sleep?" the lavender unicorn greeted, sitting at her usual seat, she found a plate in front of her, placed by a nervous looking Spike.
"Is there a problem, Spike?" she asked the young dragon, all the purple reptile did was hand her a pamphlet-thingy.
"Castle Canterlot Meals and Cuisines, Carnivorous Inclusion version? Spike, how and why did you steal this from the castle?" the mage interrogated, it wasn't exactly a serious thing, since it was only a dining menu, but the principle of theft should be discouraged.
"Ren gave it to me." the little dragon still looked disturbed by something.
"There's something that we've decided that you ought to know, we already explained to the chefs why we would be better off with this menu." the green clad easterner announced, pointing to the title again.
"Castle... Cuisines.... Carnivorous Inclusion?" it clicked it Twilight's head.
It wasn't the most welcome news, that these humans ate meat, but it was vital nonetheless, and it explained the presence of canine teeth in their wide array of dental endowments.
"Well, any more surprises for today?" Twilight seemed a bit grumped by this news, it didn't seem like today would be a good day.
At that moment, Spike belched up a letter from his messenger flames, Twilight caught it in her telekinesis and read it.
"Dear Twilight... come to Canterlot.... important assignment,,,, even I learned this earlier this morning.... it may test the limits of your skills? This doesn't seem good." the striped maned mare wasn't confident about this.
"Let's see, PS, please bring at least one, but no more than four of the Light Warriors with you." she read, looking at the four Light Warriors in front of her.
Nora inhaled whatever pancakes she had left, the redhead was ready for action.
<cutaway>
"ENHANCE, ENHANCE, MOTHERFUCKING ENHANCE DAMMIT!" the light-powers wielding demon stallion yelled at the projected 3D image.
Soon enough, his desired target was revealed.
"We attack here, it has always been a signal of trust, of good times, of hope, and of peace, we need to destroy it, all parts." the bleach-blond maned pony informed.
The red stallion smiled as he fixed his eyes upon the target, it was bold, and he needed something to demolish.
The hermaphrodite just fantasized about copulating with it.
The fat one looked at it while stuffing his face with cookies.
The grayish-blue stallion felt like he deserved something like it.
The tuxedo-clad leader only smiled at how smart he was, how clever he was, and how he was undoubtedly better than his brothers.
It would take a lot of time to prepare, they would need a dragon, the only thing both fast and hardy enough to handle the task.
This would be the ultimate attack, one that would be remembered for decades, maybe even centuries to come.
Their target was confirmed. Well actually, more like.... targets, as in plural.
The targets were impossible to miss, after all, as they were both about nine dozen floors tall.
I got some positive reception, and that's all that really matters. I still love all of you. Almost 500 faves, I'll do a special episode when I actually reach 500, like a celebration.
By the way, just..... hoooollllyyy sheeeeeeeit at this weeks episode, it was FUCKING EXCELLENT, but I feel like Blake's statement was taken out of context, further info in the Author Notes.
THE SHOW GOES ON!
It had been exactly one full day before six of them were dragged off to Canterlot again.
Twilight had chosen carefully, while she didn't want to bring more than Celestia sent for, she felt that with six ponies and six humans, nobody would be left alone in case danger arose, and so whatever task the solar diarch wanted complete, it would be easy enough.
Walking through the streets of Canterlot proper, the group of twelve received a mixed response.
The more humble residents at least gave a passing 'hello', but the main portion of the populace only either turned up their noses or gave a 'hmph' of distrust.
"Ugh, it really irritates me that these ponies can't even show a little bit of hospitality." Applejack really didn't like walking through any part of Canterlot, it always aggravated her.
"They've always got their noses turned up so high; I'm surprised they don't drown when it rains." Ozpin and Scootaloo added at the same time, sharing a laugh.
The six chosen warriors for the task at hoof were Ruby and Blake representing team RWBY, Jaune and Nora representing JNPR, and as evidence shows, Ozpin and Scootaloo representing DOGS.
It wouldn't be wise to take all of them, in case there was a difficult journey with a significantly high chance for someone to expire.
Putting all of their eggs into one basket was not something they could afford to attempt.
Twilight was the only one to enter the castle building itself, though, and the rest of them stayed outside.
"So, do we just wait, or what?" Jaune asked, unsure of what to do.
"I guess so...." Ruby trailed off, almost drifting off to sleep with the sudden wave of boredom that overtook her.
The others either sat or paced, finding their own way to brace themselves for whatever news they might receive.
<cutaway>
Celestia read and reread the letter she had received from Cadence and Shining Armor, a report about the state of the Crystal Kingdom.
It was in social shambles, almost literally, as apparently the crystal ponies shambled about, practically lifeless and depressed, they occasionally looked up at the Castle Crystal, would gain a small glitter of hope in their eyes, then immediately flinch, cringe, and go back to their state of nigh catatonic-ness again.
Her millenniums old ears caught the sound of hooves, not clanking, heavy, or hard like the guards, but softer and lighter, she looked up and saw Twilight calmly approaching the throne.
Something clicked, Twilight wasn't trotting, she was making walking motions, but inponily fast, it was like how some horror movie monsters would move in abnormal ways, combined with being in the 'uncanny valley',
What was frightening was that, in tandem with the movie monster stride, the smaller mare's mane appeared to fade from dark blue with pink and purple stripes, to black with blood red and ichor yellow stripes.
Behind her stood a pair of familiar faces, one was furious and red, the other was smug and tan.
She had seen them before, she knew exactly who they were, they were two of the seven brothers who led the Sin, they were the unspoken leaders, as their power and skill outmatched all of the others' combined.
The demonic Twilight summoned her saruma, the crystal head turned into a wicked blade.
"Do you fear the dark, Celly? Do you?" the smug stallion asked as he stabbed his red equal in the throat with a glass rapier, stealing the purple obsidian gauntlets he wore and walking towards the solar diarch, prudence and disgust painted across his face.
Celestia was speechless, she was actually feeling fear, fear of loss, fear of this creature, fear of the oncoming darkness, "Yes." she admitted, her gaze falling from the tall, evil alicorn to the now dark purple unicorn.
"Well then you're lucky." she said maliciously as she launched the wicked spear-like weapon into Celestia's abdomen, missing all of her organs and a good deal of arteries, but this was apparently her goal, as the white alicorn was overcome with debilitating pain as the half-blood-half-ichor mixture that flowed through her veins flowed out of her body, staining the white marble floor with its pale red color.
"*evil laugh*, oh Celly you fool." His face went deadly serious, if looks could kill, the pastel maned mare would be mutilated, eviscerated, garroted, decapitated, dissolved in acid, six hundred feet under, covered in molten steel, and the molten steel would have set whatever little amount of body that remained on fire.
"Those who fear the dark, have never seen what the light can do." his magic blew the roof off of the throne room, revealing the blood red sky of corruption.
Celestia looked up in fear, finding that her precious sun had been stolen from her control, turning from yellow to a blinding white.
It was getting bigger too, soon enough the very light of the sun burned away the corruption of the sky, covering almost half of the now-gray expanse.
She raised her sword, the Solar Zweihoofer, in a futile effort to protect herself, but her effort was just that... futile....
...Futile, everything was hot, practically on fire.
And then the light won, and took them all away.
All she could hear, was a quiet, concerned voice.
"Princess, princess come on, CELESTIA!" it cried out, though it seemed very muffled, as if it was being shouted through a wall of water.
Her whitened vision faded to black, and then she opened her eyes.
<cutaway>
Twilight had come into the throne room to find her mentor asleep, after a brief giggle of mirth, she quietly approached, taking a lot longer to get over tot he throne itself.
She felt a bit mischievous at the moment, gently levitating the snoozing alicorn off of the throne and sitting down in the luxurious cushion.
It was the most comfortable thing the stripe maned mare had ever felt, like silk-hooved angels were massaging lavender haunches.
Smiling and doing a few impersonations of both Celestia and Luna, the mage looked back to the still-asleep royal.
Upon closer examination, the lavender unicorn saw that Celestia seemed troubled in her sleep, she removed herself from the throne, and quickly trotted over.
Brandishing her saruma, she cast a quick scanning spell, lighting up the crystal head and laying it against the larger pony's abdomen. She was trying to find any sort of anomalies or discrepancies that would belie the problem.
She could hear whispering, something eldritch and powerful, ever the curious scholar, she listened closer.
"Are you afraid of the dark? Fool, those who fear the dark, have never seen what the light can do." it was silent for a few moments.
"Blinding Smite, Instant Death." two chants of spells, Twilight quickly cast up a defensive barrier to protect her mentor, and she was almost too late.
Celestia gave a grunt and a groan of pain, weakened a bit, but not dead, which was infinitely good.
"Princess, princess come on, CELESTIA!" she cried out, a few tears forced out of her eyes by her panic, blurring her vision and she almost violently shook the larger mare.
"Ugh...." the alabaster alicorn groaned, slowly but surely waking up.
The first thing she saw was the face, the normal face, of her beloved student, regaining control of her legs, she slowly pushed herself into a stand, rubbing her head.
That dream, while it was only that, a dream, it was unnaturally vivid and intense.
"Twilight, it's a pleasure to see you again, you look well, how have you been?" trying to lighten the obviously tense mood, the solar diarch rubbed her eyes to clear her vision and looked at her student, who was now sitting on the throne cushion.
"I've been feeling alright. You may not have noticed, but I've been getting some exercise, mainly cardio and speed running, but a few strength training sessions here and there to keep myself balanced. How have you been recently, princess?" the lavender unicorn recalled her decisions.
She had received a letter from Captain Evening Warden, who she had then found out was Scootaloo's brother, it had said only a few things.
"Greetings, Miss Twilight, this is Captain Warden, the brother to Scootaloo, one of the warriors in the HUNTER program, I have been informed of the depth of your magical studies, and took the liberty of doing some math for you:
A unicorn has the magic of 1, a cutie mark gives a talent multiplier of 10, since your cutie mark is magic itself, you (by default) have a magical power of 10, the Elements of Harmony, their energies amplify the powers that they are based on, again, you are magic, so your base power is 1000, with all of this power at your disposal, you must realize something important.
Long ago, when the Black Mage and the Black Knight attacked the Castle Canterlot, the last one to fall before their banishment was Starswirl the Bearded, here is an account of the exchange between the Black Knight and Starswirl:
'My my, I expected more resistance from the Archmage of the Royal Magic Academy.'
'Well, I am sorry that I have spent all of my life unlocking the secrets-, taking control of the essences-, and learning the magics- of the universe, rather than, say, jogging.'
After that, a blade went through his bearded face, so here's my point.
Go out and do some fucking jogging, get in shape, I'm sure that you can cast the increased health improvement and muscle memory spells that I've made, I've taken the liberty of including them in this letter.
Now GAME ON!" the letter was one of the talking letters that were surprisingly common in Equestria.
Since that day, about three weeks ago, she had been working out, and the effects were evident as Celestia was obviously ogling the lavender mare.
Her form was a lot sleeker and much stronger, a bit of pudginess in the right places, sure, but she already had a few layers of lean muscle, strangely enough, her diaphragm looked visibly healthier, as if such a thing were able to be seen without an autopsy, nonetheless, this was the point in time at which the millennia old alicorn finally recognized that her student was a full grown adult, even if she maintained several youthful attributes.
Both of them realized their mutual 'distraction', though they would both probably call it 'examination of eachother's physiques' and turned away.
"So, I have a mission for you, only a day ago, the almost-forgotten Crystal Kingdom arose from the shadows. My first thought was for a fifth beacon of hope and life, I sent Cadance and Shining Armor over to scout out the situations, and the reports are grim, the citizens are nigh lifeless, the only way to keep the place from falling to the Sin is to maintain a barrier, which Shining had to make, and Cadence has, as the rightful ruler of the Crystal Kingdom, has maintained that barrier all day and night, she won't be able to last a very extended period of time." the alabaster alicorn sighed, looking out one of the few normal windows in the throne room, looking at the train tracks heading north.
"Twilight, take these next words with an open mind, as they may very well shatter whatever foal-like perception of the world you may maintain. Even though Luna and I are alicorns, the conglomeration of all three races of pony, and while we are powerful, we are not immortal." Celestia removed the illusion spell she was using to conceal her scars, one on her flanks, one down her eyes, and the last on her wing, "Far from it, while we are as hardy as an earth pony, swift as a pegasus, and wizened as a unicorn, with a thousand times the power of a normal pony from any of the three, we are still mortal. We're not even ageless, I may be six millennia old, but I am the equivalent of a mare in her mid-thirties. Luna is three and a half millennia old, in case you were wondering, she is about the equivalent of a mare in her early twenties. Twilight, look at my scars," the pastel maned princess turned to show all of her claw-shaped scars.
Twilight was stoically standing there, taking in the marring of her mentors otherwise flawless coat, "I.... I...." she didn't know how to respond.
"Listen, Twilight, there is something else important in the story of the alicorns, while my sister and I could stay awake for a week straight, Cadance isn't like us, she is not a natural alicorn. She was once a pegasus, and she achieved great feats in her youth, and had earned a single wish. One wish, very liberal rules, so almost whatever she wished for, it would come true, and she wished to be a princess of love, and so it was and now she is. Something important to know is that, while she has great power, she can only stay awake for two days on average, three if she really tried. I need you, your friends, and the humans you have chosen, to save the day again, we've managed to burn a line through the corrupted land, and set up a train track going towards the kingdom. I am counting on you, please help them." it wasn't an easy task to give the lavender unicorn such a difficult one, but Celestia knew that Twilight had the ingenuity and capability to do it.
Celestia had accepted that she would have to live with a lot of mistakes, with her scars, and with the knowledge that she would never be able to wield the Elements of Harmony again, she had once held three of them, Loyalty, Generosity, and Honesty, while Luna held Magic, Kindness, and Laughter.
The white alicorn was haunted by what she had done, an absolute shattering of her control over the Elements of Harmony, it was her own fault that her sister grew angry and belligerent, it was Celestia's own betrayal of her of her other two elements, her refusal to allow change and her lies that she tried to use to justify the refusal. It wasn't an overnight thing, Luna had been denied dozens of times before she finally decided to use force. The white alicorn remembered it like it was yesterday, and she had spent over a thousand years to forget it.
<flashback start>
"Sister, it is nine in the evening, and the moon has just been fully risen." the young blue alicorn notified her sister as she trotted past.
"I noticed, I'm off to bed, have a good night Lulu." the older-but-still-quite-young alicorn dismissed.
"Tia, I know I've asked you this almost three score of times, but does the day have to extend so far past the evening? The night is only from nine in the eve to six in the morn, do the commoners truly need so much time with the sun?" Luna tried to reword her question to at least get a more acceptable answer, even if that answer was a 'no'.
"Luna, do not ask me about the length of the day, Equestria as a nation is still young, barely two centuries into its life, the night is dark and provokes creatures of the Everfree and other such places of horror to attack the peasants." Celestia tried to give a more logical answer.
Luna was appalled at the assumptions thrown directly at the core of her domain, "The night is NOT a TIME OF EVIL, SISTER, I refuse to let it be such, the commoners have many long hours of work and play, why can they not have a bit more time to rest and love?" the younger sibling knew the implications of the usage of the word 'love', she had very quickly become well acquainted with the activities of the night when she took up the duty of Dreamscape Guardian, making sure that the ponies' sleep was pleasant and free of nightmares, which were regarded as horrible, horrible things of great and terrifying power.
"Listen very carefully to my words, sister, the night will not be extended under any circumstances, am I understood? You will not ask me again this silly, foalish request, I will now go to my chambers to sleep, do not interrupt my slumber." Celestia said harshly.
Luna almost shed a tear, and when her sister merely turned and trotted away without another word, the little blue alicorn practically bawled her large pony eyes out.
Why was Tia so selfish with her daytime? Why couldn't the night have some recognition beyond 'The sun is gone, so it's time to sleep'? As sadness was slowly replaced by anger, Luna formulated a plan to make sure that the ponies would undoubtedly know about how glorious the night was.
So she spread the word to the servants, "My sister does not wish for her slumber to be disturbed, do not wake her up tomorrow." the maids and guards did as she obeyed, she was a princess, too, after all.
The next day, when Celestia finally woke up, she looked to her grandfather clock, finding it to be almost noon.
She looked out of the window, the moon hung high in the sky, ever-so-slowly descending, as though it was an hour or two beyond the middle of the night.
It was a shocking revelation, shocking, and infuriating, the white alicorn stormed out of her room to the throne room, it wasn't that far of a walk.
Upon arriving at the unrecognizably changed room, Celestia was shocked to see Luna sitting on the throne, her coat as black as an elder dragon's scales, a set of expertly crafted armor adorned her frame, obviously hoof-made with moon rocks and sea salt.
"Under no circumstances, you said, the night won't last longer, you said." the ebony creature mocked.
"Luna, what has happened to you?" Celestia already knew, but she wanted to be wrong.
"YOU happened to me, YOU tried to subjugate me and my beautiful night with your wretched, burning sun. No more, I am no longer Princess Luna Nightstone of Equestria," Celestia's worry greatly intensified at Luna's usage of her full name and title, "I AM, Nightmare Moon, the mighty being of power and authority, I am sorry that I'm not sorry, but your reign will end, Celestia Morningflame." Nightmare Moon stood before her so-called-sister with a mighty stature of, as she had proclaimed, power and authority.
"Don't do this, Luna, think-" Celestia was cut off by a slap to the face, she stopped talking and gave a soft whimper as she held her stinging muzzle.
"I am NOT LUNA, I am NIGHTMARE MOON, GET IT RIGHT YOU IMPUDENT FOAL! You only wish to negotiate now because I have the upper-hoof, I'll humor you and be a better sister than you were, spill forth your woes to me, Celestia." an over-the-top gesture of putting a hoof to her ear to better help her hear was the icing on the proverbial cake.
"Please, do not do this, sister, this isn't you, this is exactly like what happened with Discord, but it is all up to you to prevent Equestria from being taken over by a evil lord, or lady in this case." her attempts were pitiful at best, absolute bullshit at worst.
"You are wrong, I will admit that I have desired this position for some time." Nightmare Moon paused, spreading her raven-like wings of dark glory, activating the switch for the Royal Canterlot Voice accompanied by glowing turquoise eyes.
"In place of a Evil Lord, you shall have a QUEEN, not EVIL, but BEAUTIFUL AND AS TERRIBLE AS THE DAWN, THE CONTROLLER OF THE SEA, STRONGER THAN THE FOUNDATIONS OF EQUUS ITSELF. ALL. SHALL. LOVE. ME. And they shall be enraptured by my beauty and power, for I am the mightier and the more benevolent ruler, and you are just a fool who can't even reason with her sister, much less the commoners or anypony else important." the mighty proclamation was punctuated by the verbal smackdown, and Celestia's face was covered in horror by what she had just heard.
"I.... I........" the solar diarch couldn't muster any words, only thinking to flare up her horn and hope to her mother that a magic blast would fix this, or wake her up.
"You have denied my attempts at diplomacy, so I have been forced to resort to intimidation, " the black alicorn started, sending a freezing wave of water at Celestia, causing the fiery aura to dissipate before it even properly formed.
All doubt was removed from Celestia's mind as the bloodcurdling cold struck her full force, causing her to briefly shriek in terror and pain before whimpering in suffering.
"*ahem*♪Cruel moon bring the end~..... the sun shall never rise~... again~♪" the teal eyed monstrosity sang.
Celestia did the only thing she could think of right now.
She decided to simply use the Elements of Harmony.
<flashback end>
A single attempt to save Equestria, made out of ignorance, desperation, and all of the things that had previously doomed it, had cost her a thousand years alone. Even now, she felt alone, she would understand if Luna never fully forgave her for banishing and locking her away on the moon, rather than being more sincere-with/caring-about her, because in the end, it was really and truly Celestia's fault, she only hoped that Luna could at least partially forgive her.
She may have felt that putting this great weight on her student's capable back was not one of her many mistakes, but she still felt awful, she composed herself and resumed, "*sigh* Enough of my woes, go, Twilight, please, just go." Celestia could feel her tears welling up, she had drifted from the task at hoof, and now she had depressed herself.
Spreading her wings and taking in a deep breath, Twilight watched the solar diarch teleport away.
"She doesn't seem alright, ohhhh, I want to stay and make sure she's okay, but I have a mission to do." the stripe maned mare was torn between her duty and her mentor.
In the end, she decided that the Crystal Kingdom was significantly more helpless, and thus required her more immediate attention.
Exiting the throne room and navigating her way to the door she came in from, the lavender pony found all of her friends and allies waiting for her in various emotional states.
Blake was standing on top of the doorframe, Jaune and Ruby had dozed off, Nora was counting the blades of grass, Ozpin was dealing with a servant who had brought him more coffee, and Scootaloo was flying in circles above the group.
Rainbow Dash was pacing, Applejack was also snoozing, Pinkie Pie was helping Nora count the grass, Rarity was admiring the structure of the castle, and Fluttershy was talking to a few of the garden animals.
The mage decided to wait, not ruining this peaceful moment, Blake looked graceful as the wind billowed her long, black hair, Ruby and Jaune had actually embraced in their sleep, looking peaceful and quite cute with their little smiles. Pinkie and Nora were quiet for once, mumbling the numbers they had reached, Rarity's eyes were wide with awe, Rainbow Dash's lithe musculature made her paces quick and somewhat nimble, Applejack had somehow found a single stalk of hay, and was sleeping with the end of it in her mouth, Ozpin seemed calm and in a good mood, Scootaloo was smiling, Fluttershy never stopped being adorable. All of it was like a little machine of goodness.
All good things must come to an end, unfortunately, "*ahem* Everyone, we have a mission." she announced, startling several of the others and drawing all attention to her, "I'll explain more when we reach the train station." she added.
She focused her mind, remembering Evening's words, she had great power, but if she did not acknowledge it, she wouldn't be able to use it.
Everyone was entrapped in her telekinetic grasp, floating slightly. The next step, the mage summoned all of her skills to scan the area within a one mile radius of their current location, finding the train station easily, she teleported everyone there.
After a quick explanation to the conductor, they all boarded and took their seats
All eyes were on Twilight, and she cleared her throat in preparation for the miniature speech she had to give.
<cutaway>
The train stopped chugging its engine as the station came into view, the leftover momentum allowed it to slow to a halt in the middle of the platform.
Twilight had explained the situation, it was a normal enough hero mission, protect, cheer up, and save the ponies of the Crystal Kingdom.
Except this wasn't the Crystal Kingdom, they got dropped in the middle of a frozen wasteland.
"Does the 'Crystal' part mean ice? If it does, then I think we're close." Nora chimed, gazing out into the seemingly endless fields of snow.
"I guess this is were I'm lucky I grew up in the north." Ruby mumbled, pulling up her hood.
"I'm not seeing a kingdom to save." Jaune announced, pulling his own hood up.
"At least I brought a scarf." Rarity had even brought extras, passing out scarves to whoever looked the coldest.
"HEY!" they heard someone shout.
It was Shining Armor, treading the snow, when he got close enough, he jumped onto the platform, landing in front of the group.
"It's great to see that all of you got here early. You all look well enough, so come on, we have to get to the kingdom before the-" he was cut off by the sudden whipping of the wind and an onslaught of snow, "...blizzard starts... shit." he trailed off.
He turned and motioned for everyone to follow him. Placing his protective mask over his eyes, he led the way.
It took a good several minutes of bone-chilling travel-by-foot to be able to see the forcefield in the distance, however, from the snow came.... things....
Dangerous things.
<cutaway>
"Alright, listen up everypony, they're within seeing distance of the forcefield, we have to stop them from protecting the Crystal Empire, or Kingdom, or Whatever-the-fuck-it-is. I have my own idea, but anything else can also help." the leader demon-pony had a map showing the heroic group's travels.
"We turn off the snow, and burn them to death, simple as that." the raging red stallion suggested, using his brown furred hind legs to break one of the lampposts off of the brothers' platform over the abyss.
"It's still all made of ice, Sad, even we have to obey the laws of physics." the self-righteous stallion countered, flicking his usually perfectly styled mane back into its perfect style, "Any more suggestions?" he was sure that the rest of them would be stupid too.
"We rape them to death, all of them, even the old guy, the swordsman, the knight, and the filly." the wide-eyed hermaphrodite licked her lips in anticipation for his brother's response.
"No, just... no, no, NO, NO, NO, NO NO NO!" Lucy composed himself, "Shut up, shut the fuck up, a million times shut your mouth, you have lost your speaking privileges for a month, now go fuck yourself, literally, if need be, GET OUT!" he shouted.
He may have been the leader of the Sin, he may have been a demon-pony, he may have even betrayed Queen Faust herself, but even he had standards of evil.
"Does anyone have any ideas that won't get them slapped across the face and grounded for a month?" the suited stallion punctuated his statement by slapping the peach-pink lust demon across the face, followed by chugging a bottle of wine and breaking it against the same face.
The multi-color-maned thing shuddered in masochistic ecstasy, she had turned around before bottle smashing, and thus received a load of broken glass to every single one of his genitals.
Blood and sexual fluids leaked profusely from her backside and he teleported to her bedchambers, wishing to remove the foreign objects and sooth his wounds with some cake, like the sick food fetish she had.
All fetishes, really, the only thing that didn't turn him on, was when someone used the word 'rubbish' when referring to 'trash'.
"Ugh, so, Bub, got an idea?" the drunkard asked, downing another bottle of wine.
"Um, well, I was looking for something in the Badlands behind Canterlot Mountain Range, some cactus juice, and I found this guy taping TNT to the main mountain. when I grabbed him up, he wouldn't stop screaming, so I gave him a throat infection, he'll heal up in a few days, though." the fat pony levitated up the accused stallion.
A medium sized earth pony, tan coat like Lucy but with blood red eyes like Sad, his muzzle was covered by a dark red leather mask covered with chainmail, a red-trim hoodie covered his head, forelegs, and some of his body, but a dark brown mane poked out of the hood. Blue jeans covered his hind legs and black, steel, spiked shoes covered each of his hooves.
He hissed and growled at the demons, a bow strapped across his body, a pair of bandoliers held poisons, throwing knives, lighters, a flint and steel, a thin folded-up map, and at his side was a sword made of a carved bloody-meat colored stone with a purple glassy edge, on his back was a folded up toy, a quadrotor helicopter toy with a few 'attachments', and a small sack seemed to lead to a pocket dimension that was full of explosives.
He lashed out at the four Sin commanders.
"Mother of Celestia, my soul scanner shows that, despite being pure, he has as much Sin essence as us, mostly due to his mortal capabilities of dedication, we're dealing with one rude dude. Sloth and pride caused by the gluttony and greed of reaping the remains of those caught up in his lust of enacting his wrath on others induced by envy.
"RAAAAAGCH!" the raging stallion choked out, trying to reach the sugar-breathed fat demon.
"You'll be useful, go and kill those heroes, will you?" Bub was about to teleport the earth pony away, when Lucy stopped him.
"Wait, I have my own idea, there's this guy, he's like darkness itself ponified, he claimed the Crystal Kingdom a thousand years ago, so listen, I freed him from his ice prison a minute ago, and he should be attacking these 'heroes' any second now." the bleach-blonde pony looked at the map, only to find that the heroes had vanished inside of the forcefield.
"DAMMIT! Send this new guy out NOW! Kill them, kill them all." Lucy and Sad shouted at the same time.
A flash of yellowy-white magic and the silenced stallion was gone.
<cutaway>
Shining could see that something was attacking, quickly running through his mental library, he remembered it to be King Sombra, the old ruler of the Crystal Empire, his power over corruption had little competition, and right now he was a cloud of black smoke ready to attack the group.
He hurried everyone inside, his militant duties commanded, "Should the time come, you must sacrifice yourself, so others may live.", the statement recited itself in his head.
His white coated form stood strong, covered in thick layers of muscles, he prepared a shield to cover everyone.
Sombra bore down on his magical forcefield, cracking its hastily made surface easily.
Shining stayed strong, keeping the beast back long enough to ensure everyone's safety.
The shield broke, and he was struck....
...
Everyone else was inside, staring at the Crystal Kingdom in awe.
"Whoa, it's like a fairytale or something." Ruby and Scootaloo said simultaneously, looking at all of the shiny stuff.
"That castle is shiny as hell." Ozpin mumbled, drinking from his thermos of coffee.
Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Jaune, Ozpin, and Blake were the only ones not entranced by the beauty of it all.
"GAH!" Shining was forced through the sky-like forcefield by the blast he received.
"Shining Armor!" Twilight was ripped from the lovely view by her concerns for her brother's physical wellbeing.
Groaning as he stood, the white stallion grasped at his head in pain, black crystals had sprouted from his horn.
"Your horn!" Twilight's mind was racing, she didn't know what would come of this.
The blue stripe-maned pony tried to flare up his horn, but the violet energy was blocked by the crystals.
"Ugh, I can't do any magic." he concluded after trying and failing to cast a spell, he looked weakened.
"Come on, we need to get you to the castle." Jaune surprised everyone with his taking-charge.
Lifting the large equine over his shoulders, the blonde young man started for the castle with the knight on his back.
Everyone followed, though it was made evident that Jaune had the lowest level of both cardiovascular health and marathon conditioning out of all of the humans, as he was reduced to a huffing and puffing mess by the time he reached the castle's underside.
Slumping to the ground with a thud, Shining Armor returned the favor by carrying Jaune up to the throne room on his back.
Breathing heavily, almost wheezing, the swordsman managed a "Thank you." to Shining.
The heavily muscled young man was almost twice Shining's weight, and thus was a lot harder to carry.
Twilight was sure that the two males would recover without a problem, she looked to the throne.
"Cadence!" she greeted cheerily.
The pink pony brightened up, "Twily!" she replied.
They two got closer, then "NORA!" the redhead shouted her own name, appearing between the two.
"PINKIE!" the pink earth pony popped out of Nora's hair.
The two got levitated away as Twilight and Cadance enacted their greeting ritual.
"Sunshine, sunshine, ladybugs awake, clap your hooves, and do a little shake." they laughed.
"Oh, Twilight, we need to meet up when the fate of Equestria isn't hanging in the balance." while the princess of love tried to stay lighthearted, she was tired, and couldn't maintain a smile.
"Cadence has been up all night and day maintaining her shield, I was helping her keep it up, but now that my magic is being blocked, I can't." Shining had recovered and now joined the conversation.
"Shining, direct me to an infirmary, I think I have an idea for how to fix your condition." Ozpin let the stallion lead the way.
The two left, with Twilight and Cadance conversing.
"Okay, how was the empire protected in the past?" the unicorn asked.
"The Crystal Fair," the alicorn began, stopping to yawn, "It's a tradition to make the crystal ponies feel the happiness and love in their he-" she was cut off by Rarity.
"THERE ARE CRYSTAL PONIES?" she was amazed, she needed to know more!
"Yes, you can't really have a kingdom without citizens, and the Crystal Kingdom has the crystal ponies. As I was saying, I don't remember what all went on at the festival, but maybe you can find some information from the-" she was cut off by Twilight.
"The LIBRARY! Great idea Cadence!" the scholar turned to leave when Cadance interrupted.
"I was going to say, from the crystal ponies themselves, they were here when King Sombra took over, so they ought to have some useful information." the multicolor maned mare was met with confused looks.
She explained the story of King Sombra, about how he was basically the Discord of the Crystal Empire, in the sense that he took over and was overthrown, and now he was even returning like Discord did, hopefully the two villains had so much in common that Sombra would be defeated again, too.
"Divide up the responsibilities how you may, but please act quickly, it gets harder and harder to keep up the shield as time passes." the princess insisted, "Go!"
With that, everybody left.
When they reached ground level, standing around in the central area beneath the castle, the stripe-maned unicorn began thinking.
"Okay, I'll check the library, Rainbow Dash, you're really fast, so you should help me. Nora and Pinkie, keep Cadence awake. Ozpin and my brother are out of the picture. The rest of you should gather information from the crystal ponies. Alright everyone, let's g-WHOA!" Twilight stopped when an arrow bounced off of the ground in front of her.
The frightening part was that it came from directly above, she looked up and found a strange pony attached to the bottom side of the castle by a bungee cord wrapped around his middle.
The earth pony disengaged his bungee cord belt from the one attached to the hole in the castle.
This had the unfortunate side effect of making him fall on the ground "WHAAA-*thud* *hacking coughs* Sorry about that, I needed your attention." he croaked, his red eyes leaking tears from both his infection and a good bit of pain.
He had fallen about twenty feet, and landed on his head and flanks at the same time.
"Who are you and why did you attack us?!" Ruby said, aiming Crescent Rose at the pony.
"Whoa, calm down, I just needed your attention, listen, I have a throat infection, can anyone fix that up so I can talk normally?" his voice was creepy and croaky, like he had smoked and inhaled various drugs until his vocal chords grew spikes or something.
Twilight cast out an aura of magic, a healing spell, clearing the disease from the hooded pony's esophagus.
"Thanks, okay, allow me to introduce myself, my name is Skull Cruncher. I got kidnapped by the leaders of the Sin, and they've sent some evil darkness dude to come and wreck this place's shit, I heard his name was King Sombra." the stallion's voice was now smooth and pleasant sounding.
"I'm sure you can understand my hesitance in trusting someone named Skull Cruncher." Rainbow Dash had her hooves out ready to lay a smack-down on this guy.
"Don't try anything, please, I don't want to fight the people I'm trying to help, now listen, I have skills, skills that make me the antithesis of a construction worker. These skills aren't particularly useful in this scenario, but in a fight, I'm the baddest motherfucker who ever wielded a bow, here's my calling card." the tan pony hoofed over a small badge-like object.
A heavily cracked skull with a banana in its mouth, the whole thing was made of gold.
"Ponies want to Banana Skull because I'm just too cool, too hip, too fly, too awesome to be stopped, anyways, time to bounce, betty." he pulled out some sort of mine and explosive-jumped away, his strange sword making a fire trail behind him.
"He'll be back, but hopefully he'll be on our side." Blake was a great judge of character.
"Come on, let's go, that Skull guy isn't important enough to delay ourselves over." Rainbow Dash insisted, even she knew that they needed to move.
There was a wordless consensus as everyone left to do their jobs.
It would be hard, maybe, but it was worth it... maybe.
<cutaway>
"Spare time is a luxury, spend it wisely, it is said." Twilight recited, she had once read of book of wise quotes.
"Yeah yeah yeah, Quoth the raven, Nevermore, c'mon Twi, we need to find that..... what exactly are we looking for?" in the process of zooming around, trying to find the book they needed, Rainbow Dash had somehow forgotten what she was looking for.
"Look for anything that reads History, Crystal Kingdom Celebrations or Traditions, or better yet, The Crystal Fair." Twilight reminded.
And looked they did, searching and gazing, scanning and peering, Twilight mulled it over in her head that her spectral maned friend must have probably read poetry, a simple detail, but Twilight felt proud that her seemingly muscle-headed friend seemed to enjoy more intellectual things.
"Ugh, wait, I remember something, Joax and I are skilled sages, and in a think-tank we did a while back, we made a searching spell." the lavender mare recalled, beginning to recite the incantation, "Naysayers say 'not enough', not enough items, I say, gaze to the lines, gaze to the field, and see... Crystal Fair." it was an easy enough incantation, and suddenly, a few books began to glow in a bright yellow light.
"Here we go." the mage breathed a sigh of relief, she had probably saved almost an hour's worth of searching.
Now it was time for her favorite activity; reading.
<cutaway>
Blake was quick in all that she did, this, coupled with the shining glorious practicality of the evolutionary devices known as hands, had earned her the role of being the one writing down the infinitesimal information the others received.
Ruby had gotten good at public relations, she was professionally diplomatic at best and pleasantly friendly at worst. She still failed.
Rarity attempted to rouse the crystal ponies' spirits with gossip, but she failed as well.
Applejack was direct, asking questions about King Sombra and what he did.
Scootaloo relayed information from the others to Blake, which meant that her job was boringly easy, seeing as how there was barely a notepad-sized page's worth of information that wasn't already known.
Jaune tried to be smooth and subtle, but only ended up being awkward and confusing to the depressed ponies, they just didn't understand.
Fluttershy just hung back and stayed out of the way, she opted to talking to one of her 'little friends'.
It was cute, watching the butter yellow pegasus speaking to the little figurines that she carried around in a bag, she had several of them.
She had read, and experienced, that humans were nice creatures, so she had her figurines modeled after them.
"So, mister Solid Snake, how are you feeling today?" she asked the six inch tall Spec Ops man, taking in the details she had added when crafting it.
She had considered turning him on, but decided that it wasn't a good idea to do thatright now.
"Okay, Fluttershy right? Have you managed to gather any information?" Blake asked while walking over.
"No, I think I'm just going to stay out of the way, I mean,um, if that's okay with you..." the pink maned mare trailed off, looking down at the table.
"It's okay, just, try not to get too caught up in... playing with your dolls." the black haired girl stifled a laugh, this mare was supposedly twenty three years old, and she still seemed to act like a little girl.
"Um, they're not dolls, they're my friends..." Fluttershy tried to argue, but she couldn't muster up the decibels.
Blake's keen ears didn't pick up what the timid pony had said, and she went back to the castle's underside, waiting for the next relay.
Rainbow Dash was the one who arrived, "Blake, me and Twilight found something!" the speedster informed, "C'mon, we have to get to the library, quick!" she was anxious to get this celebration started, she knew that it would be awesome!
Blake smiled, this was a nice change of pace.
<cutaway>
*ahem* It was time for a song.
"What?" Ruby asked, looking around in confusion.
"Shhhhh, please don't interrupt, this singing thing is kind of a big deal, darling." Rarity shushed.
"*ahem*♪ Princess Cadance needs our help Her magic will not last forever I think we can do it But we need to work together♪" Twilight began
She continued, "♪We have to get this right Yes we have to make them see We can save the Crystal Ponies with their history♪"
"♪It says that they like jousting♪" Rainbow Dash sang. "♪They flew a flag of many hues♪" Rarity continued. "♪Made sweets with crystal berries♪" Applejack added. "♪They had a petting zoo with tiny ewes♪" Fluttershy's quiet singing voice piped up.
Now it was the chorus, "♪We have to get this right Yes we have to make them see We can save the Crystal Ponies with their history♪"
"♪There was a crystal flugelhorn That everypony liked to play♪" Pinkie chimed "♪And the Crystal Kingdom anthem Can you learn it in a day?♪" Twilight rounded off.
Chorus again, "♪Oh we have to get this right Yes we have to make them see We can save the Crystal Ponies with their history♪" they encouraged the hunters to join in.
"♪I'm not good with diplo-ma-cy, but I'm certainly not a liar, the hope for a free tomorrow, will spread like a wildfire♪" Ruby began.
"♪Friendships start weak, but they grow strong, trust alliances, 'cause they are life long, divided we fall, united we stand, and together victory will be grand♪" Blake tried her best.
"♪The world is unforgiving, but don't let that get you down, we're here to make it better, so let's get a smile instead of a frown♪" Jaune tried his best as well.
"♪I'm not afraid, not afraid, to take a stand, take a stand, everybody! Everybody! Come take my hand, take my hand~♪" Nora probably stole that line from someone.
"♪The only thing stopping us is us, the only thing to fear is fear itself, stay strong, and robust, and send your weaknesses, straight to hell♪" Scootaloo had sung that, she looked to Ozpin.
"Do I have to sing?" the old man asked, he didn't want to sing.
"Well, if you don't want to..." Pinkie replied, looking downtrodden by his refusal.
"Alright, I'm not singing." little did he know, that in some far off, parallel universe, he did sing, and everyone was shocked by just what is was that he sang.
<cutaway>
"Everything is perfect." almost everyone said at the same time.
Indeed it was, from the jousting rounds raving on, to the flags waving proudly, to the crystal-cooked foods which were surprisingly edible to the normal ponies, to the petting zoo with the cute little animals, to the music, which seemed to be turned up past eleven, all the way to twelve.
Twilight had even crafted the all-important crystal heart, carving it out of very large Volcano Amethyst, she picked it because hearts were supposed to be mostly red, but were also a bit blue.
"Alright, check, check, and check, well Twilight, you've done a good job." Blake commended.
"WOOHOO, THIS IS FUN!" Nora shouted, attempting to joust while on one of the crystal pony's backs, like a knight.
"Hey Twily, this fair is looking pretty nice." Shining Armor had recovered, he still had black welts on his horn, but his magic wasn't completely blocked anymore.
It was a simple procedure, Ozpin merely broke the crystals off of his horn. Simple, yet effective, the most useful kind of plan there was.
"Yeah, Shiny, it is, thank you, we all tried very hard to make it work." the lavender mare replied, looking at all of the ponies that literally brightened up at the festivities.
"Well, that hard work paid off," the white stallion assured, looking at the decorations, his eyes settled on his sister's carving, "Hey Twilight, what's that?" he asked, unsure of the dark statue.
"Oh, that's the crystal heart thing that's supposed to be the center of the festivities, I made it out of Volcano Amethyst." the mage explained.
"Um, Twilight, I think we have a problem." the knight looked at the carving for a few more seconds, then threw a tarp over it.
"What's wrong?" the younger sibling asked, she was ready to deal with whatever would try to set back their plans.
"This isn't the Crystal Heart." the older sibling started.
"... what?" was all that the stripe-maned mare could manage.
"This is a crystal heart, we need the Crystal Heart, it's not just a rock, it's a Crystal Kingdom relic, it has great power, fueled by the crystal ponies, without the real Crystal Heart, all of this will be in vain." Shining continued, "You have to find it, I need to go, Cadance's energy is almost dried up, and I need to help her preserve it, my magic may work now, but it's still weakened." with that, the stallion left up the stairs, staying long enough only to give a "Good luck!" to his sister.
Twilight tried to not panic, but she had to act fast, some of the crystal ponies had started to gather around the heart and its pedestal.
She brought Applejack over, explained the situation, and took off.
Welcome to the Goal Achevemient (that's how Millie says 'achievement') super special episode, an interlude.
The viewer was at least somewhat confused, when they had seen the new chapter, they were expecting the second part of 'Shatter like Glass', not to end up in some sort of park.
At the gates was some sort of absurd creation, a human woman who looked like no thought beyond 'sex and sex stuff' went into her design, with D cup breasts, a quite large backside, and a submissive, lusty, glazed-over look in her eyes.
"Hello, sir/madam, please enjoy all that we have to offer." she greeted, shuddering at the simple movement of doing a half-turn to face the park itself.
Walking inside, the viewer found themselves in a strip of simple buildings.
"FUCK YOU, THAT'S BULLSHIT!" someone said, looking over revealed it to be Ivan from team VOID, standing up quickly from a poker table, his white shirt was currently clean, but it seemed like it would soon be stained with blood again.
"Please, I swear, I didn't do it, I'm too fluffy to cheat!" a winged version of Gabriel Iglesias half-wailed, holding up his hands in defense, which would have been more serious-seeming if his hands weren't spattered with cake frosting.
"Derek Ganter, sit down and calm your balls, dude." a guy who looked like Oscar replied, putting parent-like emphasis on the other white clad man's name, an unfamiliar weapon on his back.
"Shut up Blue Comet, if it weren't for Shanka, we'd probably still be alive." Ivan/Derek pointed a golden pistol made of some sort of aura or hard-light at a man who was obviously Daniel, but was apparently named Shanka.
"Do I need to get out all of my tools, Derek?" it was Joax, still a pony, sitting at the table, playing poker.
"I want to know who slipped Abriel here a few extra cards." the viewer thought it best to leave this group alone before the warmonger that was Ivan came out, and the reader-of-many-stories knew that Daniel's cidophilia would soon follow.
Continuing to walk down the street, more people were there, most were humans with weird mutations, some had wings, some had hand markings that ranged from a single star to complex tattoos that trailed up both forearms, and a few just looked, quote, "ripped as hell", unquote.
A strange quartet, father and son, twice, two pairs of male family, though one of the pairs looked younger than the other. All four were winged, and they seemed to be going insanely fast, I'm talking at speeds that would make Rainbow Dash's head spin.
"Oh Gray, you're doing wonderful, keep it up, yes, there you go." looking to the side, it was a blush-inducing sight, some guy who looked like a white-haired Captain America, and the very voluptuous woman who had been watching the gate, were engaged in public sex.
Disgusting to some, arousing to others.
Jogging several feet past, the viewer saw that, judging from the seemingly never-ending line of buildings, it would probably be a very long journey to the end of this path lined with growing madness.
A guy who looked like the Director from RvB, but younger, was handcuffed to a guy who looked like a goateed stoner.
"Sykes, why are we still handcuffed?" oh hey, there was the Grimm Reaper, Qrow's laser scythe.
"I don't know, but I need to walk around, these red flip-flops on my feet, and these jeans that I wear below my ass-crack, while going commando, aren't going to air themselves out." oh god, keep moving, this guy was either really depraved, or too stoned to give a fuck.
Two large warrior guys and a girl who looked like Ruby, but in pink more casually dressed, were sitting together, the first man had wings and a pair of hand-scythes, the other was much larger, had hand marks, and an enormous poleaxe.
The girl seemed to have what was Crescent Rose, but as a halberd rather than a scythe.
Next was what looked like an Egoraptor clone and what looked like an Eminem clone, the Egoraptor one even had a crystal ball staff with a raptor's foot in it and the Eminem one had a pickaxe that looked like the Minecraft easter-egg from Skyrim.
Next was a guy who looked like a tattooed-with-no-wings copy of the fathers in that group of four earlier, what was odd was that he carried a Browning M2 fifty caliber machine gun, but looked about as timid as Fluttershy.
Johnny Depp with a herculean build, wielding nothing more than brass knuckles.
Two guys, one was using troll physics by jumping off of his own foot in order to have infinite jumps, the other carried a somewhat skull-shaped warhammer.
Lee from the Walking Dead by Telltale with nature-based magic and a glass dagger, Doc Brown from 'Back to the Future 3', in his old west attire and carrying a pocket-watch tasseled revolver.
Joax again, but as a human this time, with many magical relics floating around him.
"Hello." the mage greeted the viewer.
Not sure whether to break the fourth wall in reverse, or not, the viewer just continued.
Dante rip-off wielding a suitcase with a large Uzi in it, an modern military version of the Dovahkiin, Gassy Mexican with a cactus sword and riding some sort of quadruped demon wolf, whose collar read 'El Chupacabra', Draven from League of Legends with a golden badge that read 'High Executioner'.
Whoever made these people didn't bother backtracking up the uncanny valley to be more unique for most of them, as the obvious cloning of other characters, yet the lack of said characters' key characteristics, made it hard to not form a negative first opinion of them.
A Japanese guy, a German guy, an Italian guy, an American guy, a French guy, a Russian guy, a Mexican guy, an Australian guy, an English guy, and a Canadian guy, all in the same place at the same time.
Maybe it was surprising that none of them had killed any of the others.
The most generic, un-unique person the viewer had ever seen, so forgettable that what his face looked like was forgotten immediately after he passed by.
A classy looking woman who played the violin, a middle-aged scholar guy, a guy who looked like a politician, a clone of SlyFoxHound with wings and a robotic arm, leg, and eye,an Albert Einstein clone, a Felix Baumgartner clone, a young gray haired mechanic looking guy, and finally a con-artist looking guy who seemed to wield a lot of syringes of various bad stuffs, most notably 'HIV', 'Cyanide', 'Sexual Organ Shrinking Steroids', 'Diabetes', 'Super Diabetes', and 'Lemon Juice (for stinging the veins like hell)'.
The next table had another poker game that looked to be proceeding normally.
A second Derek/Ivan, another Blue Comet/Oscar, a second Gassy Mexican, another (and more closely resembling) Ruby clone, but this one had long hair, another Johnny Depp with an Adonis build, another Dante clone with the Uzi in the suitcase, yet another Joax-looking-guy, though he wore a maroon, gold buttoned jacket this time, another of the goofball pair of mildly evil guys, looking slightly more goofy, and a fuck-tonne more evil.
Another of that father guy with the gold and chocolate striped hair and the head-spinning speed, the wings on this version were large like an angel's, an archangel's more likely, they could probably send him across the known universe in about ten minutes, despite the vast emptiness of space.
A new section of this strip of buildings, changing from mostly white to mostly gray, the first people that could be seen were a scientist guy, some girl with a lot of gunblades, a magic girl who looked like the super-heroine Storm with pink hair, a cross between Azekahh the commentator and Phoenix Wright the lawyer, the last of this five was a guy who looked like a young Starswirl the Bearded, with bleach blond hair that made him look really good, even if he was just Starswirl the Goateed at this point.
A tall, skinny guy with a paintbrush and a platter of food, a dapper gentleman in gold and his classy lady-friend in purple, Knuckles the Echidna as a human, PaperBatVG with a paper-bladed-sword, ImmortalHD with a red Optimus Prime helmet.
Sylvester Stallone with icy colored fingernails, Skylord Lysander from the Yogscast: Shadow of Israphel series, the Joker with a cane shotgun.
A magic girl who looked like she was locked in a constant state of relaxation and maybe high on ecstasy, just like the Ruby clones earlier, and the other was a shakily hovering girl whose wings were hardened in what was obviously arousal, she was probably a winged version of the sexy chick earlier, judging from the... oh lord the front of her pants were wet.
Rushing farther ahead to avoid more of these excessively manly men and too-gentle-and-high-on-ecstasy women.
Finally, there were four men standing in front of a gate that lead up a hill.
They each had nametags, they read:
Omega Ombl
Xero Termveli.
Hank Whispers
Hay-zoos Kristeson
"The Lord has permitted your entrance." the one named Omega says, opening the door with his crimson magic,
Finally an end to all of this stupidity, useless information, and perversion of concepts and copyrights...
.... Hopefully.
<cutaway>
Up the hill was different, it contained the only remarkably ornate structure in this makeshift town, a throne made of gold, platinum, gems, silks, and downs.
A dark-red-haired winged man floated by the throne, attending to the one sitting in it, he had an arm towel, kind of like a butler.
Far off to the sides were pedestals, with the many ponies standing on them, though upon closer examination, they were merely colored statues.
The Mane Six, with Fluttershy, Twilight, and Pinkie Pie wearing golden shoes, and Rainbow Dash, Rarity, and Applejack wearing silver shoes.
The Cutie Mark Crusaders, with Scootaloo wearing gold shoes, Applebloom wearing silver shoes, and Sweetie Belle wearing copper shoes.
Some background ponies, Ditzy Doo, Vinyl Scratch, Octavia, Lyra, Bonbon. and Doctor Whoosh, which was just Doctor Whooves as a pegasus.
Much closer to the throne, though the ruts in the ground and mounds of dirt belied their recent repositioning, was the teams, RWBY, JNPR, and DOGS, with four more pedestals, clean and ready to hold another team of four in the future.
The throne itself held some sort of godly figure, he was about ten feet tall, with an intricate attire.
A powder blue hoodie with a topaz zipper and string aglets, the front had a few markings, with a set of three feathers on the belly pocket, a small orange one, a medium pale yellow one, and a large dark blue one. The man snapped his fingers and stood up, turning around to show his back-side.
Three fancy looking pairs of golden colored wings were emblazoned on the back of the hoodie, the hood was like one from Assassin's creed, wide and peaked, with a dark blue lining. His pants were simple gray denim jeans, with a thigh sheath with a knife in it on the left leg, and a thigh holster with a pistol in it on the right. Broad, thick leather knee guards were sown into the jeans.
Finally came his size eighteen shoes, which fit well with his thick, rippling muscled form, the shoes were red Converse(tm).
On his back was a large pair of wings, almost like a cross between an angel's and Luna's, they shone like gold, but the way they rustled told that they were normal fluffs-and-stalk feathers rather than metal castings of feathers.
This ability of perception was much higher than the viewer thought possible for a normal person, before being able to ask the question of this newfound ability, the regal man merely nodded and pointed over to a diagram.
Below it read, "Collaborative efforts from Pinkie Pie, Bill Cosby, and Gavin Free." which only made it more hilarious.
"Oh wait, no, it's that one." he pointed to another diagram on the other side.
The other chart showed a six pointed star, almost like the Star of David, but the bottom point stuck out far further than the others. the arms were labeled.
Top read Spirit, upper left read Fire, upper right read Air, lower left read Earth, lower right read Water, the middle read Power, and the bottom read Knowledge.
A circle was around the five points, the bottom one was only partially encased, the circle read Creation
"It is the Nexus of my power, the symbol of intelligent and creative powers, and the glories and beauties that can be made with them." the man said after having returned to sitting in his throne.
There were some things clinging to him, the sun adjusted itself to shine the light down on him more revealingly.
On his left shoulder was Scootaloo, looking happy as she hugged the side of the winged god-avatar's head, she had her cutie mark, a pale orange star with a long streak of violet lightning trailing behind it, a pair of black-outlined orange wings to the sides.
Fluttershy was hugging him around the right side of his muscled torso, his right hand was around her, returning the hug.
Luna was sitting across his lap, curled up in comfort as his left hand idly scratched being her ears and rubbed her back.
"So, you are probably wondering who I am, I am Lord P1, and yes, my name is P1, it's short for Player 1." the man said, swishing his short locks of brown hair into view and putting on a pair of aviator glasses with his sand-colored magic.
"I have brought you here because I am very particularly happy about something, look here." he nodded to a wall covered in all sorts of logos from video games, TV shows, movies, even music artists.
"Oh no wait, SHEEEEEEEEEIT, it's that one." he nodded to another wall covered in statements.
PRODUCTION:
Make 1 story [X] Make 3 stories [X] Make 5 stories []
FAME: Have a story get a few comments, likes, and faves [X] Have a story get a lot of comments, likes, and faves [X] Have a story get featured [X] Have a story get featured multiple times [X] Have a story get someone doing a 'reading of' video for it [] Have a story get a TVtropes page [] (note: nigh impossible)
The lists ended there.
"I have reached my goal in faves, and so for your contributions, I shall give you a reward." P1 informed, looking to the sky and breathing in the cool, crisp air.
The ponies clinging to him kept him nice and cozy warm in the fair, yet slightly chilled weather.
"So, here is a brief insight in video form, not really video, since we lost P4 and he was like our own personal Monty, anyways, let's begin... THE SUGAR!" the tall player raised his fatherly voice, shrouding all of sight in darkness.
Next thing the viewer knew, they were sitting in front of what looked like a stage.
Know they knew the true purpose of this plane of existence taking the form of a 'park'
It was a Trailer Park, and it was time for Trailers.
The stage began filling up with content that seemed to have been waiting an abhorrently long time to be viewed.
Twilight stood in the middle of a field, a branch from the legendary Starwood Tree held directly below a pure, clear diamond, its fractal edges severing the sunlight into several blinding rainbows upon the grass.
She had spent a long time gathering these two items, but it was worth it, now she would have a saruma, an ancient way of making magical assistance staves, done my magically growing a tree branch around a large gemstone, typically one bigger than one's hoof.
It was done, she looked at her weapon.
At that moment, a few dozen Sin broke through the foliage, having picked up the scent of pure flesh nearby, ripe for the taking.
They weren't counting on the mind that moved the flesh to fight back.
Twilight blasted a lot of them with magic missiles before they got close enough to do harm, her highly advanced mind moving at top speed.
Reacting quickly, she side stepped a few clawed strikes, though one punch landed and she was sent flying several feet.
Rolling onto her stomach quickly, the stripe-maned mare got up and used her hard-light spell to create a blade on her staff, slashing up quite a few of the wolf-like foes before getting charged at again.
*SHA-WING*
*POOSHV*
She teleported out of the way, trying to keep her cool, but attempting to maintain telekinesis while teleporting sent a pang of agitation through her brain.
Another hard-light spell, a hammer head.
*BAN*
*BANBAN*
*BANBANBAN*
Several more creatures were banned from the very plane of existence they had resided in, Twilight's ability to perform this spell was of eldritch explanation, as it was a little known (she was probably the only one) fact that not even all three Princesses together could cast the spell, and yet she had just done so more than a dozen times.
Magic worked differently for different ponies, so that may have had something to do with it.
Only a few were left, the lavender unicorn drove her saruma, topped with a hard-light spearhead, through two of them, the last getting close, but not close enough.
Casting out a shield, the fighting mare blocked the black wooden beast, the impact of head-to-barrier sending it into near-unconsciousness.
"I feel bad for having to do this, but this is how it has to be." a hard-light axe head formed on the saruma, and it was driven down, severing the monster's head.
The Sin bodies melted into the ground, and Twilight, breathing quite ragged with anxiety after her rather violent victory, walked back to town.
On the way, she got out a book to read.
Classic Twilight.
HRMONY: Raspberry Trailer
Pinkie Pie looked around at the black and red skinned scum, the party mare didn't seem very threatening, not even with the skull-for-a-crossbar claymore on her back.
As far as the many Daeponies that surrounded her were concerned, she was just trying to delay her death.
She reared up on her hind legs, a red longcoat appearing around her, something shifted, and her bipedal stance became more relaxed and natural looking.
Her sword was gripped in the magnet-like grip that pony hooves were capable of.
She ran over to the nearest daepony, thrusting the blade through its spine, bringing out one of her pistols and blasting another's head off.
Being chambered in .44Remington gave the desert eagles great power.
For the time being, her sword had drained the Sin power from the impaled monster and used it as fuel to power its Virtue abilities.
A set of seven buttons were set onto the skull, she pressed one of them.
Appraisal, a virtue to counter Envy, she could 'appraise' that these daeponies were barely tougher than regular ponies of their races.
A conflagration of fire was launched at her, and Chastity, the virtue version of (kinda obviously) Lust, allowed her to shake off the normally debilitating pain of the unholy immolation.
Several slashes had powered up Diligence, the virtue counterpart of Sloth, and the pink mare sped up to about half the speed of sound.
Virtue powers had just as much effectiveness as Sin powers, like Humility, the opposite of Pride, turned her invisible.
Only streaks of light were seen as more daeponies dropped, slashed to bits, their beastly cries shaking their fellows' minds to the core.
The number of the monstrous pony-like creatures was proportional to their morale, so morale was leaving fast.
Her combo counter was in the hundreds.
Suddenly, in a wild swing of its wicked knife, one of the beastly ponies struck Pinkie, ending her combo of over two hundred and fifty.
They weren't prepared for the announcer, as breaking combos was subjective, so the higher the combo, the more exaggerated the announcement of its shattering.
*NOPE*... as Satisfaction, the virtue form of Gluttony, was activated, protecting her combo count.
Temperance, the opposite of Wrath, temporarily prevented her from being damaged by physical means, useful when under attack by the hellish blades of her foes, as she had to stop to recover after Diligence had been cast.
A whole several daepony's worth of vile energy, ready to be converted to righteous energy and used for Virtue powers, was used up for her mighty finisher.
Charity, the opposite of Greed, it was her most powerful attack.
"Oh great Faust, bless this, the Holy Hoof Blast of Charity, thy generosity and mercy." she recited the instructions for the Holy Hoof Blast of Charity.
Her demon-draining blade was placed on her back again, and her hooves crackled with clerical energy, she struck the ground with a mighty shockwave.
Everything in the radius of the shockwave was blasted off of whatever they stood on and popped into black flakes that fell to the ground as light permeated the area.
Pinkie smiled, her spine readjusting to normal, longcoat disappearing, and her pistols fading into the mysterious place that hero's items go when they're not needed.
She sat back on her haunches and resumed eating her cupcakes that the daeponies had interrupted her from.
They were so rude, attacking her when she was in the middle of eating some delicious cupcakes.
The screen faded to black as the blue eyed mare happily (and loudly) munched on her pastries.
HRMONY: Magnolia Trailer
Rarity trimmed the ribbons on a dress she had been making, singing a tune.
She looked to the cracks around of the general 'front' of her boutique, remembering what had caused them, which induced a flashback.
*FLASHBACK*
Rarity was actually putting the very ribbons that she was now trimming onto the dress she had received a commission for
Screams could be heard outside, and a very large spider tried to force its way through her front door.
Luckily, she happened to have a very large balisong on hoof, about eighteen inches long, the same as the length from one of her hind hooves to her tail, the massive weapon was used to quickly and effectively slash the monster's face.
Its brain scrambled, the beast died too quickly for the god of music to bother with the brief scuffle.
*FLASHFORWARD*
The alabaster mare had gather a lot of precious silk from the spider, but moving the body was a hassle.
Luckily she didn't have to haul it away, seeing as how she more than likely wouldn't be able to.
It was a short encounter, but at least it was useful... somehow.
HRMONY: Orange Trailer
Applejack had been faced by a partially corrupted minotaur, in a shootout at high noon.
In front of the Town Hall was where it would take place, and as high noon came around, both combatants started.
The duo had stood back-to-back as much as possible, and walked forward twenty paces.
Well, actually, at nineteen paces, the minotaur spun around and fired.
Applejack heard his shifting, and buck out, time seemed to slow down, showing clearly how her apple-bucking skills paid off by deflecting a three-five-seven magnum round.
Applejack pulled out her own gun, a S&W29, and fired a few shots, causing the avulsion of the partially-corrupted bull's right arm, and the perforation of his left leg.
"GAH!" the minotaur screamed, squealing in pain, "I will find you, and I will kill you and your family." her threatened.
"Do you feel lucky?" the orange farmer asked in tranquil fury, aiming her revolver at the minotaur's head.
"I'm not sure, but I'm feeling an overwhelming need for revenge." the black coated bull replied.
"Well ya got yerself in a pickle, tell me, did ah fire four, or five shots?" the earth pony asked, her tone implying bad things to come.
"I don't know!" the beast had gone from smug to frightened in only a few seconds.
*BANG*
"It didn't matter, pardner, its a six-shot." she informed the corpse.
The earth pony mare dragged the body out of town, making sure that she was quiet about it.
"*sigh* Just remember, pardner, iffin' I ever gotta kill you, you'll be awake, you'll be facin' me, and ya'll will be armed." Applejack warned, throwing the body into the forest, waiting for it to 'melt', and turning around.
She walked back to Ponyville with her hat tipped down, her day had been made.
HRMONY: Nophoto Trailer
Rainbow Dash was flying through the sky to clear her head, she had been experiencing a growing feeling of anxiety when she entered the Cloudsdale Weather Factory.
She didn't want to do what she had to do.
Most ponies that weren't in the 'inner circle' of highly trusted workers or the most disciplined of guards had theories about 'making rainbows'
It was a closely guarded secret of the pegasus race, how to make rainbows.
Most outsiders thought that rainbows, being what they were, were made of 'Sugar, spice, and everything nice'.......
It was closely guarded because anypony competant enough could make their own rainbows for free.
A giant glass container was the device, it was filled with water, then the sugar and spice were added.
The sugar acted as a prism that divided sunlight into a rainbow, and the spice absorbed the color, producing the desired rainbow color.
The colors were then divided, filtered of the sugar to prevent color contamination, and recombined in a controlled manner.
When fully processed, a rainbow's colors would keep themselves separate.
Rainbow Dash was actually here to complain about the details of the workforce.
She entered the office of the weather factory's CEO, clearing her throat to gain the mare's attention.
The figure that turned around to look at her was an unfamiliar one.
"You're not Toaster...." she trailed off, something about this platinum eyed, gold coated, silver maned, copper hooved stallion was off, almost.... demonic.
"EQUISH, MOTHERFUCKER DO YOU SPEAK IT?!" he suddenly shouted, catching her off-guard and sending her backwards onto her haunches.
"Sorry about that, I was slightly confused by your saying that I'm not a toaster, but you said it in a grammatically incorrect way. So, what can I do for you, and what can my brother/sister do you for?" Mammon may have been greedy, but his siblings were the only exception, and even they were only a minor exception, he wouldn't be charitable, but he would at least share.
"Um, I was going to speak with Miss Wooden Toaster about the conditions of the workforce here in the factory." the speedster explained civilly.
"You can... *gasp* suck a dick! I don't give a shit about improving the conditions, so long as I get profits, it's all good." his eyes briefly flashed with fire.
This incident didn't go unnoticed by Rainbow Dash, she could now feel a foreboding aura coming off of this weirdo.
"My name is Mammon, prince of Greed, ready to take everything you have, and then some." he gave a sarcastic bow and threw the desk out of the way with a single hoof.
Rainbow Dash clenched her eyes shut at the sudden, un-prepared-for noise, when she opened them, she wasn't in the office anymore.
A mostly flat field of golden grass, lit by a silver sun, a few burnt patches of now-iron-colored grass also revealed the copper dirt.
"Welcome to my vault, where all types of wealth will be held at the end of the world." Mammon had some sort of leaf-blower on his back, the nozzle of this strange device strapped to his hoof.
Rainbow Dash prepared herself for whatever this demonic seeming pony was going to do.
As it turned out, he wasn't really much for battling, and a leaf-blower/vacuum wasn't a practical weapon in the slightest, well, at least not in his sticky hooves.
All that the athletic mare needed to do was give him a hind hoof to the face, which was enough to nearly knock him out.
"GAH! Listen now, you young, foolish mortal, you should prepare for what is to come, for the Sin shall strike soon, and we will not stop until the world is consumed by our corruption." he shouted, turning his weapon to her, and using his demonic powers to send a conflagration of acidic fire at her before disappearing in a burst of golden light.
The fire didn't bother her so much, as pegasi had evolved to resist temperature induced damage, the level of which climbed almost up to Bunsen burner level heats, and dived almost down to dry ice level colds.
The bad part was the acid, which melted through a lot of her feathers and dissolved patches of fur, going so far as to melt a series of wide, shallow holes in her forelegs and hooves.
Luckily the acid had become saturated at this point, so she suffered no more than what she already had.
When she transported from Mammon's Greed dimension to the normal Equestrian plane of existence, she had, as though the 'powers that be' were in her favor, appeared in front of Cloudsdale Hospital.
<Time-skip 6 months>
Rainbow Dash was pissed off, to say the least.
Her injuries had kept her in the hospital for two weeks, the longest she'd ever spent cooped up in the bleached walls, her wings and legs hadn't fully healed until about two months after the Mammon incident.
Unfortunately for her physique, oh how the mighty fall, her hard-earned lithe, streamlined, high-velocity form had been crumbled like the cookies her recovering self had eaten so many of, much to her present self's chagrin.
Her flying skills were also shot down, so about three and a half months were spent rejuvenating herself and regaining her lost thresholds.
Unfortunately, the information that Mammon had given her was most decidedly correct as hell, and the Sin had attacked about one month after the fight with the demon master.
Dealing with all of this was awful, but the spectral maned mare pulled through as best she could.
Now she had not just a bone, but a whole fucking skeleton to pick with the Sin.
The cyan pegasus approached the remains of Cloudsdale, the city had been one of the first destroyed.
Pulling out a map, the daredevil did what she did best, do something quickly.
It was only a rough draft of the proper 'Map of New Equus', but it was still depressing.
This map was magically connected with dozens like it, it would update whenever somepony or someone of another species would update their copy of it.
Vulcan Hold was, as its name implied, (luckily) holding up, the dragon-only populace was composed of strong, mighty fighters, they could handle themselves.
The ponies... not so much, millions were dead, to be blunt.
Bearussia had remained relatively unscathed due to its climate, the weather was so harshly cold that even in the summer it snowed at least a foot.
On the map, the searchers had crossed out all of Istaly, Prance, and Spurn, the juggernauts of the Medium-Terrain Sea, situated between Zebrica and Steurope, Japone had been next, followed by Chineigh, even Ausaddlia and Germaney had fallen.
The closest nation allied with Equestria, Engallop, formerly known as Great Brimain, fell not too long before bits and pieces of Equestria were shrouded in the all-consuming corruption.
While industry had kicked into higher-than-high gear to fight back this oppression, more and more of the world had its life-forms eradicated, until only Canterlot, Ponyville, Neigh York, Vulcan Hold, and surprisingly almost all of Bearussia (snippets of the borders had been nipped up, but there weren't any significant chunks missing) remained.
Rainbow Dash was checking out Cloudsdale, which hadn't been heard from since the Sin rose up, and she was worried about its fate.
She was now standing on the heavy-with-rain clouds that once made up the walls of the Cloudeseum, now suspended amongst its floor.
It was at that point that several Sin creatures attacked, coming up from below the dark cloud layer and screeching at her.
These were harpies, pegasi, usually female, that had become husks filled with Sin corruption, using the once-precious gift of vocal chords to make squawks and screeches.
Several of them died as she whipped around, small bullets impacting their skulls.
Her weapon of choice was the Strafing Chainsaw, she had made a few tweaks to some odd assault rifle, the M249SAW if she remembered correctly, and not only sped it up, but re-chambered it as well.
While it was only nine by nineteen parabellum pistol rounds in what was supposed to be a rifle, that weakness was negated by the fact that it fired at twenty four hundred rounds per minute, or forty rounds in a second.
Everypony had been essentially forced to learn at least the basics of engineering, and she had taken up both machinery-setup and dimensions, which greatly helped her make her own box magazine, containing a belt of about six hundred rounds, giving her a solid fifteen seconds of continuous fire if she could manage it.
The other harpies shot forth, trying to claw at her with their jagged, cracked, partially broken hooves.
A few scratches and abrasions, not much damage because of Rainbow's thick hide, toughened by years and years of harsh training and more crashes than she could neither count nor cared to admit.
Swiftly dodging the failed melee strikes, she sprayed more hot lead at the beasts that used to be ponies, perforating their skulls in more than a few places.
They all went down before they could get close, and the spectral maned riflemare breathed a sigh of relief.
Then came the Valkyries...
Valkyries were stronger than the Harpies, due to their being corrupted from the undiluted source, the power of Sin, rather than a secondary infection from the Sin infected creatures.
They were not only stronger, but most of them maintained cognitive abilities, meaning that they were still sentient.
The Valkyries swooped down, trying to strike away at the cyan pegasus, but about three of the ten were shot down before they were too close.
She was running on well-developed endurance, which was further bolstered by a rush of adrenaline, which temporarily enhanced her reflexes.
Flying away from her pursuers, the speedster easily outmaneuvered the bulkier, less trained Sin ponies.
The area below the Cloudeseum was clear of actual clouds, if a bit muggy from the fragile-yet-effective dam of clouds above, its nearly black mass teeming with water and lightning....
Water... and... lightning..... yes.
Leading her enemies below the stormy floor, she grabbed one without the others noticing, quickly and gently going back up on top of the broad arena-like surface, choking it out.
"AND THE WINNER OF THIS WRESTLING MATCH... IS..." she began as the former-pony's struggles quickly became weaker, until it finally suffocated and died, "RAINBOW DASH!" she shouted, delivering a swift, dam-breaking buck to the clouds.
Zoomed out and at a side view, one could see that when she struck the cloud, rain and lightning struck the other six Valkyries, making a series of ringing noises similar to a bell, with the side effect of frying the Sin into crispy corpses.
Hovering above the now-much-lighter-colored cloud, Rainbow Dash pumped her hooves, "Aw yeah, I'm the best! WOOHOO! Yeah, can I hear an applause?!" she asked to the broken, empty stands.
Oh great, she reminded herself that her hometown was dead.
Dead and gone, it hadn't stood a chance.
Meanwhile in Canterlot, Princess Luna noticed that a tiny splash of staining marked out Cloudsdale, and a few more splashes confirmed that the surrounding area was heavily corrupted.
"Odd, I wonder if somepony thought it funny to pour water onto the map, oh dear mother, these things are important tools, not toys." she said, wondering who was haphazardly marking the landscape.
In Cloudsdale, in the deafening silence, one could hear quiet, mourning sobs, like somepony who had lost a good friend, or two, or a lot.
Definitely a lot.
HRMONY: Yellow Trailer
Fluttershy was picking flowers in a field, feeling good that the Sin influence hadn't reached the lovely plants.
It felt nice, the smell of water.... and.......
Blood, dust, ash, of darkness itself.
*CRACKA-BOOM*
Lightning woke her from the daze, a hallucination induced by a chemical trap.
She was disappointed by this, what awful tricks those pesky Sin tried to play on her.
Why, she ought to teach them a lesson.
She pulled out a pair of her 'little friends', the 'little friends' were a bunch of figurines she had made, most were inspired by the humans, creatures of myths and fables, it was said that they were the epitome of brevity, resolve, and moxie, the butter yellow mare tried to be like them in terms of a strong personality, but she often failed.
She had a lot of figurines, and the two she had picked out of her bag were great.
Her weapon was the best thing she could find, not many ponies knew, but she had a lot of bits from her (brief) modeling career, so she got the finest weapon on the market, after making a few modifications to it, utilizing her recently gained knowledge of sound physics, she had it, the Whispering Screecher.
It was nigh silent, the noise of the Barrett M82 rifle had been mitigated to, well, a whisper.
She threw out her friends, hoping that the magic that she had gotten Twilight to put in them would activate.
The magic did indeed activate, expanding the two figurines into full sized, fully motioned people, loyal to their wielder, Fluttershy.
Link, Hero of Time, and John-117, the Master Chief
They fought valiantly, John using his rifle and training and Link using his sword and shield, the two warriors protected her.
Using her rifle to pick off larger foes from a distance, she sent out some more 'friends'.
So came forth the might of Sonic the Hedgehog from the series of the same name, David Mason from Black Ops II, Lee Everett from the Telltale's The Walking Dead, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Mario from the series of the same name, and Conker the Red Squirrel from Conker's Bad Fur Day.
A loose, but very protective ring of summoned guardians surrounded the pink maned mare, allowing her to snipe the stronger enemies while the mooks were slaughtered by her friends.
Incoming Challenger: A motherfucking DRAGON!
Any D&D nerd would say that she rolled a natural twenty on intimidate, with the dragon getting a natural one to resist, because she flew up to the dragon, stared that sack of shit down, and WON.
"Get..... out." she said at normal pony speaking volume, which was quite loud for her.
The dragon, too entranced in the tormenting fright of 'The Stare' to resist, flew back the way it came.
With the (relatively) small dragon gone and the attacking Sin already dispatched, the bearer of Kindness floated down to the ground, her guardians returning to statuette form.
She felt proud of herself, and took in a mighty breath of air.
"*breath IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIN* yay." she cheered in happiness.
With that, she took what few uncorrupted flowers she could, and went back to town.
She still had a few animals to care for, after-all, even though about ninety percent of them were set free when her cottage was excluded from the town's borders, and she would feel just awful if she left the cute little critters waiting.
"There is more to come, it's not over yet." P1 warned the viewer, the god-figure laughed for almost a whole minute.
He waved his hand, bringing up the next set of trailers upon the stage.
JNPR: Jaune Trailer
Jaune had exercised a lot, thinking that his lack of efficacy with his family heirloom of a sword was due to his lack of physical strength.
He had heard of others taking months to get into shape, much longer to get a great deal muscle, maybe he had good genes, because in only a couple of weeks, he had gone from average build, to a phrase that his mother quietly muttered, "fucking ripped".
His height helped, when he was a bit younger, he thought that his massive stature, a solid six feet six inches, was freakishly gargantuan, not now.
No, not now, in fact, the worries of the past had been converted into confidences of the present, which was useful right now.
Right now, he was using his immense strength of about two hundred pounds of hard packed muscle to cut through some Ursas.
He had peerless skills with a claymore, and with his shield work, his healing factor was made almost superfluous.
His shield changed from a shield to a katar, AKA a knuckler grip push-dagger, and stabbed an attacking Ursa's paw before using his sword to blow its heart out.
The thing that was a major enhancement to his already existing badassery, since he was a killing machine before he even learned how to properly manipulate it, the 'thing' was the force dust forged into the blade.
It was an old weapon, and forging dust itself into an alloy itself was the only well-proven way to enhance weapons with dust at the time of its creation.
It was known as the Breaker Sword, for its tendency to burst things into pieces.
The Feinting Steel was his shield, and transformation dust was forged into it.
An easy example was that the blonde man had transformed it from its default shield form into a katar.
Now it was a celica, AKA a battle gauntlet, and the swordsman used his great strength to shatter the bones of his enemies with extremified punches from the 'brass knuckles' portion of the finger coverings.
Blade and covered fist met bodies, and soon the lives of these Ursa were snuffed out.
With these Ursas taken care of by his badassery, he left the field of battle a winner.
It was then that he noticed his old friend Pyrrha.
"Hey there, hunk." she greeted playfully, ever since their graduation from Beacon and their becoming a full blown Huntsman/Huntress, they had both managed to drop a lot of formalities.
"Hey again, Pyrrha, so, what brings you to this neck of the woods?" he asked politely.
"Well, I just wanted to see you again, talk for a bit, y'know, catch up." the spear wielder replied, she frowned for a second when she remembered, all four of them had been separated after a few tragic events shortly following their promotions to true Hunters.
It was unfortunate, and it seemed like the whole quartet couldn't manage to get back together again.
"Listen, remember when you told me about how you faked those transcripts, and got into Beacon, then you proved yourself worthy, and turned those fake transcripts into truth?" Pyrrha listed the happenings in chronological order.
"Yes, I bet you're wondering who gave me the transcripts in the first place?" he knew what she was going to ask, she had been waiting for a while, "Well, I'll tell you, I got them from Ozpin, as part of one of this little 'experiments' to see how the not-so-average would handle his school." the
For a few seconds of silence, both Hunters examined eachother's forms.
Pyrrha noted Jaune's intense musculature and negligible fat count.
Jaune noted Pyrrha's very much sheared down form, which was funny, considering that she looked older at seventeen that she did now at twenty three, she was a normal bloomer, with the average time, but a very well endowing blooming extent.
Puberty and piles of fat were no match for the power of reductive surgery, though, and her form was much more combat capable than before.
"So, blondie, what do you plan to do, as our 'Glorious Leader'." the redhead suppressed a giggle at how un-ironic the term had become.
"Simply, ya redhead," the blonde looked to the sun, and then too the moon over the horizon, it was dusk, "We're getting the gang back together.
With that, the badass man and the super-warrior woman set off, they had a quest to reform their divided team.
JNPR: Nora Trailer
The burning landscape was..... no wait, it wasn't burning, it was just daylight out.
Silly Nora, get your head out of the clouds.
"Hoh hum, I wonder where Ren is?" she thought, the ginger greatly cared for her quiet friend, and very actively tried to make him un-quiet, just like he tried to make her un-loud, but both of them just weren't able to pull it off.
One of the more humorous attempts was Ren duct-taping her mouth shut, with her responding by gluing a sound amplifier to his face so that no matter what he said, it would always come out a lot louder than normal.
They had lots of fun like that.
Not right now, though, Ren had run away from this fight, mainly because he currently had a broken arm, which would have spelled out his doom.
Nora was left to fight off the menace of the Grimm, Magnhild did her talking for her.
"...take THAT, and THAT, and some of THIS, don't forget THIS TOO!" she shouted as she blasted the Ursas with her grenades.
Taking a moment to eject the spent casings of her grenades and swapping them out for fresh ones, she noticed that one of the monsters was coming at her..
She dodged out of the way, she was good at dodging, and changed Magnhild to its hammer form.
It was easy to crush the beast's skull, especially with her explosive smashes.
Looking around, she found that all of the Grimm were dead.
"YAY ME! I did it, I did it, I deed eet, I deed eet, I win, I won the Hunter Games, WOOT!" she cheered at her great success.
She ripped out the things claws, watching the dark blood pool on the ground while she fashioned a knife, using it to carve off a majority of the furry skin, tracing the exposed musculature with her eyes, it looked tasty....
She decided 'what the hell.' and began eating the raw, freshly killed Grimm.
It was tasty, really tasty, almost perfect, but it was missing something....
"... AHA! It needs more wasted marrow." the pink-themed girl concluded, pounding her hammer on the skinned leg until it made a sick crunching sound.
"YAY, BROKEN LEGS!" the hammer-wielder ate with more vigor this time.
It was obvious that she wasn't at all in touch with reality.
JNPR: Pyrrha Trailer
The Sanctum Colosseum was packed to the brim with spectators of all ages and social classes, from young to old, and from poor to rich, they were here to see Sanctum Academy's top student, Pyrrha Nikos.
Pyrrha was sixteen years old, it was early summer, her birthday was coming up, and if she won this tournament, she would be admitted into Beacon Academy, the best Hunter School in the world, it had to be the best, because it was led by the legendary Professor Ozpin.
Professor Ozpin was legendary because he was literally the best Huntsman in the world, it was his title, the Jagermeister, the Hunt Master.
This was why the armored spear-wielder greatly wanted to win, it was for honor.
There were two sides to the tournament brackets, the 'Aspiring Hunters' side, AKA the people who were trained to fight, and the 'Notable Civilians' side, AKA the normal people who wanted to fight.
"ROUND ONE, MATCH ONE, Pyrrha Nikos, VERSUS, Sean Ligament," the announcer shouted, "FIGHT!"
The tournament was simple, it hadn't changed in its lifetime, single elimination, first to draw blood wins.
The latter part could be confusing, but the gist of it was that the two combatants fought until one of them had their aura levels dried out, then all that the other fighter had to do was induce bleeding.
For Pyrrha, it was easy, she was top of her class in Sanctum.
The first round went as follows: an initial charge, Pyrrha outmaneuvered her opponent, Pyrrha stabbed Drake in the abdomen, steadily bleeding out his aura, then he bled actual blood.
As drippings of the red life-fluid fell from Sean's midriff, the announcer confirmed it, and announced, "THE WINNER IS, Pyrrha Nikos!" he shouted into the microphone.
The redhead had plenty of time to recover from the rush of the first round, and before she knew it, it was time to fight again.
"ROUND TWO, MATCH ONE, Pyrrha Nikos, VERSUS, Harold Porous," the microphone wielder paused to take in a breath, "BAAAAATTTLLLLLEEEEEEE!" he almost screamed.
Almost immediately Pyrrha was pegged in the face by a garishly red grenade, which exploded into fire, igniting the redhead.
The spear-wielder gave a surprising infernal retaliation, that is, even though she had been set on fire, she still fought her opponent, while on fire!
She ran at the pyromaniac, Milo at the ready to pierce his face, Akuou protecting her from the high-pressure flamethrower that was being sprayed at her.
A single, heavy swing was all that it took to knock the fool over, his crude setup for his flamethrower bursting from the impact with the ground, sending him sailing over her preparedly crouched form, deflecting off of her shield, and crumpling to the ground several feet away.
Luckily for her, the pressurized wave of non-flammable propellant gas extinguished her own fire.
She was led back to her area, given a few shots of chemicals to make her recover from the flames.
She sat on a bench, draped in a set of simple replacement clothes while her armor was being cleaned of charring.
Another contestant sat a few feet away from her.
"Hey, motherfucker." he greeted in a casual tone, though his voice was familiar.
"You're Marshall, Marshall Math, correct?" the young woman asked, trying to make small talk during her wait.
"Yeah, Marshall Math, AKA Skittles, AKA, Tiny Terror, famous for my smooth voice and my so pwetty good looks." he coughed as he lit up a crack-pipe.
"What are you doing?!" Pyrrha demanded, appalled at this sudden change of activity.
"Don't question it, I'm addicted, yes, but I'm trying really hard to kick it, Pyrrha, can I call you Pyrrha?" Marshall answered.
".... Well fine, just keep that stuff away from me." the spear-wielder insisted, scooting away.
"Alright, so, I noticed that you used some sort of aura back in your match, what did you do to make that guy's tank blow up?" the addict questioned, holding his pipe in his mouth like a cigarette and cleaning one of his three weapons, an auto-rifle.
"My aura specialty is polarity, I made the tank's shell become very strongly singly-polarized, I'm not sure the proper terms, but the result is like a north and north magnet, the tank's shell was deflecting itself so much that it burst." the redhead explained, unsure of herself.
"Cool, my specialty in mental instabili-TEE!" he twitched and shouted midsentence, his tone changing, "So that these motherfuckers lose their minds and I just get a free kill, I'm unmatched, y'know, well not really, I got out of my second match a few minutes ago." his tone had shifted to a much more venomous one, he was now inspecting the second of his three weapons, a sledgehammer asphyxiated to the barrel of a shotgun, positioned so that the shotgun was the shaft of the hammer.
"Miss Nikos, it is almost time for your match." an attendant informed the fighter.
"Well, I wish you good luck." Pyrrha said, looking back at Skittles.
The facial expression the young man had on was one of a horror movie killer, it certainly helped that he had an axe in his hands, when they locked eyes, he gave a childish giggle with a murderous glint in his eyes.
It took all of Pyrrha's self-control to not sprint away from the psychotic man-child.
Redressed in her armor and armed with Milo and Akuou, the warrior reentered the arena.
"ROUND THREE, MATCH ONE, Pyrrha Nikos, VERSUS, Kane Wilson." the announcer took in a breath, "RRRUUUUUUMMMMMMBLLLLLLLEEEEEEE!!!" the loud voice finished, officially beginning the match.
Kane wore a gasmask, and his first motion was to toss out a pair of grenades.
Pyrrha cursed her luck, two fighters with Drainer fighting styles in a row, it always took her longer to recover from fights against Drainers, mainly due the fact that their methods involved debilitation.
Pyrrha thrust her shield out, reflecting the first one back, but the second one burst on impact, blanketing the immediate vicinity in smoke.
The spear-wielder coughed, the smoke was infused with dyspnea toxins, inflaming her brachial tracts and making it hard to breath.
She had to do it now, taking off one of her gloves holding it against her mouth and nose as a sort of crude air filter, all in an attempt to mitigate the effects of the toxins.
Milo was changed to rifle form, wielded in one hand, Pyrrha used all of her skills to load up an incendiary round with only one hand.
Luckily for her, Kane's other grenade was loaded with ethanol gas, gasoline fumes, and hallucinogens, which invaded his system through his eyes, debilitating him.
His aura wasn't being drained, while Pyrrha's was, the riflewoman took aim at the flammable cloud, using her polarity ability to shrink it down, but in the process increasing the pressure, and thus compressing all of the effect into a much smaller area. She took aim and fired.
*BOOM* the cloud rang out in a violent explosion of blue, red, and green flames, sending Kane flying away straight into a wall, a few splinters of bone coming out of his legs, hot blood leaking around the mostly-white shards.
"AND THE WINNER IS... Pyrrha Nikos!" the announcer ended the match there.
Back in the sort-of-locker room-sort-of-hallway-sort-of-waiting-room that held the remaining contestants, Pyrrha had been administered some medicines for the toxins, after a quick breathing test, she was cleared to fight again.
"That was awesome, Terror liked when the guy was so high he blew himself up." Tiny Terror, the other persona of Marshall, greeted.
Pyrrha was about to correct him, clarifying that she was the one who made the explosion, when she saw the bracket chart.
Marshall was on the other half of the chart, at the top of the bracket, and he just got out of round three, if he won his next match, she would be fighting him for the chance to get to Beacon.
She couldn't reveal her secrets to him right now, or else he would have something to use against her.
"Well, I'm about to get back into the fray, good luck on your next match, Marshall." her words seemed to have an effect on the other warrior, as his eyes seemed to brighten.
"Right, good luck to you too, Miss Nikos." he said kindly.
Walking onto the battlefield again, Pyrrha faced the other portcullis, which raised to allow her opponent through.
"ROUND FOUR, MATCH ONE, Pyrrha Nikos, VERSUS, Lilith Longington," the announcer took in a deep breath, "BRRRAAAAAAAWWWWWLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!" he screamed, beginning the match.
Lilith had a spear like Pyrrha, however, rather than a heavy spear with a rifle form, it was just a really long spear, about nine and a half feet for the shaft, and half a foot for the head.
"I would, indeed, touch you with a ten foot pole." the other girl taunted, swinging wide with her weapon.
Blocking the attack with her shield, Pyrrha got in close, far too close for her opponent to give any effective retaliation.
Several strikes, some stabs and a few slashes from Milo, along with a decking punch fronted with Akuou later, and Lilith was on the ground.
Pressing her foot down on her foe's stomach, the redhead spun her spear, gaining some momentum, before performing a hemorrhaging strike to Lilith's right shoulder.
"My only regret *cough* is that I have *cough cough* bonitis." the pike-wielder coughed out the joke before blacking out from pain.
With that, the announcer announced her victory, and Pyrrha went back to the waiting/prep room.
...
Looking around, all that she found was an almost depressing absence of people, she had won all of the previous matches, but now she would have to fight the toughest fighter on the other side of the bracket chart.
One of the attendants had just moved Marshall's nameplate to the final round slot at the same time that she looked over to the chart.
"Oh no..." she cursed her luck, she had let herself get friendly with the boy that she now would have to fight.
Walking through the hall-like structure and exiting the portcullis into the arena again, the redhead locked eyes with the blank-faced young man.
The announcer was lowered onto the field by a rope attached to his waist, he landed between the two warriors.
"THIS IS THE FINAL ROUND EVERYBODY, LET'S HEAR A CHEER!" everyone in the stands roared in applause, "YEAH, THAT'S WHAT I LIKE TO HEAR! This year, we have our final two contestants, on this side, we have the redhead with a red hot prowess, the girl at the top of the charts, we have, PYRRHA NIIIIIIIKOOOOOS!" everyone cheered louder, then calmed down to hear the other name.
"On this side, we have the verbal muckraker, the great Skittles, the Real Tiny Terror, the apprentice to Doctor Andre Beats, the one, the only, MARSHALL MAAAAATH!" everyone cheered again, then quieted down for the most emotional part.
"So, normally tournaments ask the winner what they will do 'now that they've won', but we like to ask both of the final contestants what they would do before they battle to the death so we know who might have a more noble cause, OH YES, I AM REMINDING YOU ALL THAT THIS FINAL MATCH, IS TO, THE DEATH!" he paused to breathe, "So, Miss Nikos, what will you do after you win, assuming you do?" he asked.
"I will be going to Beacon Academy to become a Huntress." the spear-wielder answered, bringing up a round of compliments.
"What a noble answer, what about you Mister Math, what will you do after you win, assuming you do?" the suited man queried.
"I'm gonna go get some cupcakes," he answered flatly, bringing up a round of laughter, "What? I like cupcakes." he added with a blank look on his face.
"Well, that's not a very 'worth it' reward for going through something so difficult, but everyone has their preferences," the announcer was now being lifted off again, "FINAL ROUND, THE LAST MATCH, Pyrrha Nikos, VERSUS, Marshall Math," the ascending man breathed in deep, "*GAAAAAAAAASP* kill." it was very underwhelming.
"I must ask you something, Marshall, are you on drugs still?" Pyrrha watched as the black-hoodie-clad man walked backwards from her.
"I'm on.... syrup, painkillers, cigarettes, weed, Hennessey, Vodka, hahahahaha.... I'm on everything, and yes, I'm on crack, I'm straight up B-A-N-A-N-A-S crazy." he pulled out a small, plus-sign shaped pill, crunching it down in his mouth and swallowing it.
Using his rifle, he shot several bursts at Pyrrha, most ricocheted off of her shield, but a few hit her, knocking off a few bits of her aura bar, she could see it in her Scroll, but the odd thing was that for some reason, Marshall had three health bars.
A wave of nausea passed through her head, and was suddenly replaced by chaos, it was as though the pieces of her cognition were now at war, trying to take full control of her body.
Through great determination, she calmed herself and looked at Marshall.
The young man reloaded his rifle and charged forward, gun blazing bullets, though they all bounced back and strafed him.
When his bar was almost completely empty, Pyrrha swung out, catching him and making a bleeding gash on the side of his face, to the left of his mouth.
He merely picked her up by the front of the neck and threw her several feet back.
With a bleeding wound on his cheek, his eyes suddenly went from warm and almost mirthful, to cold and very hateful.
He pulled out an actual skittle, putting the dark red candy in his mouth, chewing it up and swallowing.
He had changed into Skittles.
"It's time for a meta-mega-maniacal comeback, I'm making a comeback, like nut on ya spine." his tone was filled with venom and he pulled out his shotgun-sledgehammer.
"I'll merk ya with a Mossberg, pissed off get murdered, I'll chainsaw you with a maul, yer 'bout to get mauled, bitch!" he threatened, rapidly swinging at her.
Pyrrha blocked his sudden assault of hammer strikes with her shield, but it stopped, she waited, and still nothing, she looked up.
Skittles had quietly slid the barrel of his shotgun over her shield, and unloaded a shell of buckshot right into her face.
Her aura levels were cut in half, and then she had an idea.
Stabbing her spear into the ground, she used her polarity powers to steal the hammer-shotgun.
Her foe used his mental-instability powers to try to convince her to shoot herself.
She merely used her polarity powers to make him slap himself across the face.
*CHIK-CHIK, BOOM*
*CHIK-CHIK, BOOM*
*CHIK-CHIK, BOOM*
*CHIK-CHIK, BOOM*
*CHIK-CHIK, BOOM*
*CHIK-CHIK, click*
She threw the weapon far off to the side, watching her foe.
The Scroll said that he had two bars empty, but the third was full.
Looking up, she saw that he had a strange look on his face.
His mouth was slashed so that he had a sort of Joker style scar smile, in his hand was a fireman's style axe, and his eyes were filled with childlike wonder.
He was sitting on the ground, though, "Won't the Real Tiny Terror, please stand up." he said, jumping to his feet with an insane grin to accompany his scar one.
Pyrrha took up a defensive stance, blocking a few axe swings, countering with a few stabs.
A powerful punch to the face with her shield dazed his weakened head.
She needed to finish this, or she would die.
The first four rounds were just to first blood, but the final match was to the death.
She fired nine of her ten shots from Milo's rifle form, turning it to spear form again for the final strike.
Taking careful aim, the riflewoman threw the spear, blasting out the last round to accelerate the weapon's speed far beyond what even her strong arms could manage.
Tiny Terror ended up pinned against the far wall.
Running over quickly, she looked at how the seventeen-year-old young man really did look tiny from this angle.
Pyrrha was five foot eleven, and Marshall was about five foot four.
"*giggle* You know, you really do look like a Tiny Terror like this." she remarked.
"Yeah yeah yeah, laugh it up, then you can go finger-fuck yourself, bitch." his tone was still dark, he knew that he was going to die anyways, so he might as say what he wanted to.
"You are quite rude, and here I was considering sparing you, given how funny you look, despite the spear in your body.
"Yeah right, I'm fucking funny, I'm a cute bastard too, I'm so humorous, I'm just really hilarious, yeah, I'm.... I'm just.....
... yeah, so this 'sparing me' thing, you'd really do it?" he asked, his face still mostly blank.
"Yes, you must act like you are dead, and I will that that I killed you, agreed?" she asked the small warrior.
"Sure, *ahem* OH WHAT CRUEL FATE! I HAVE BEEN SLAIN! *blargh*" he made a weird sort of sound and went limp.
Pyrrha removed her spear and returned to the center of the arena, her arms raised in victory.
"AND THE WINNER, of this year's Sanctum Tournament of Skills, IS, PYRRHA NIKOS OF THE ASPIRING HUNTERS SIDE!" the announcer returned to the field.
"AND SO IS SLAIN, the Real Tiny Terror, of the Notable Civilians side, he will be dearly missed." almost everyone shed a few tears at hearing that.
Pyrrha knew better, so she held a stiff upper lip, and accepted her prize.
In less that a few months, she would be attending Beacon Academy, and then she would be on her way to becoming a Huntress.
It was for honor, for justice, it was what she was good at, what she was trained for, and what she desired.
She knew that it would be tough, but when the going gets tough, the tough get going.
JNPR: Ren Trailer
Lie Ren, he treated words like valuable things, and thus didn't often waste them on superfluous details.
The young martial artist needed a weapon, he may have been born and raised in the Mistral Region, in the city of Mondoam, his father, the somewhat famous Lie Bruce (in his culture, surnames went first), was from Mondoam, but his mother, Linda Emren, was from Vale.
Even though Bruce was dead, and dishonoring him was the last thing Ren wanted to do, reaper-belt-level martial arts just wouldn't cut it with the Grimm, even though Reaper-belt was the equivalent of ten black-belts.
So the young Lie made his own art, and his own weapons.
His personal martial art was Homizu, the method of water, he practiced it for hours on end every day.
The core of it was negating damage by not resisting attack.
By moving with an opponent's punch, what would be a punch if you resisted movement, would be a mere push, the methods of moving in time, distance, and speed of your enemies' attacks required great sense, vision, reaction, and agility.
These things were his greatest strengths, along with his aura powers for shields.
His weapons were the Jade Dragons, modeled like the Colt M1911, but with the mechanisms of the Beretta 93R and the chambering of the Glock 22, and utilizing the extra space on the barrels to mount a pair of axe-like dagger blades.
He spent almost two whole days at the forge, working nonstop, shaping the barrels, forming the frames, customizing the grips, adding the impurities to the alloys to give them both the right color and the right balance of metal traits, the cartridges, which he quickly realized were quite weak against armor.
A pair of compensators were added for them to have negligible offset and recoil, and the magazines were oversized to allow more ammunition, a set of spare blades were made to replace the first two in case they were damaged, and four extra magazines were forged up.
The trailer ends with him in a dark room, meditating.
"I can't do this, I'm not full Mistral." he said suddenly, standing up, storing the Jade Dragons up his sleeves, and walking away.
Or at least, he would have walked away, if he hadn't realized something.
"I've been up for almost forty hours, I've been awake to work the forge, to make the shapes, to calculate the chemistry, and to create the Jade Dragons, and now that that is done............." *thud*
He collapsed onto the ground out of exhaustion, no, it wasn't like a normal falling asleep, no, not like that at all.
He was out like a light.
"Are you ready to fucking fly?" P1 asked the viewer in an excited tone, not waiting for a response, "Well TOO DAMN BAD, I say that you can't leave until you watch this, these next four are also pretty cool." he assured, though his face belied worry that he might have been unintentionally lying.
The stage once again filled up with content.
DOPG: David Trailer
Professor David Ozpin had been working towards this for twenty five years, TWENTY FIVE, FUCKING, YEARS!
Doctor Blazing Blazes was his opponent, a priest who attained the highest position of Hunter in the world.
The Jagermeister, the Hunt Master.
Blazes was an avid church-goer, his dedication is how he also got the position of Priest.
"Alright, Ozpin, you know the rules, no hitting below the belt unless you really want to, this is a fight to the death, no outside help unless your weapon involves summons, and do your best, because unless you are always doing your best, what reason do you give for others to follow you?" the white haired man instructed.
One last scratch of his glorious white beard, and Blazing was ready.
Ozpin ran a hand through his still-partially-brown hair, he was sixty years old at the moment, so his hair had been graying for a while now.
"So, what are you going to do, David?" the older man taunted, laughing, and then coughing, he was about eighty five years old, he had obtained the position of the Jagermeister when he, too, was sixty.
Ozpin hated being called David, he didn't spend an extra eight years of his life in additional schooling to become a professor for people to call him by first name.
"I'll kill you with my coffee mug!" the green-clad man proclaimed, gulping down the last of his coffee and changing his mug from mug form to hammer-axe form.
The younger man charged forward, the Brewtality at the ready to cleave or smash Blazing to bits.
Blazing had a sniper rifle, but his time as a doctor, then as a priest, had left his skills rusty........
.................
.................................................. and he missed every single shot.
EVERY! SINGLE! SHOT! How did he do that ONCE? It's a SNIPER RIFLE for god's sake, against SOMEONE WHO'S CHARGING AT YOU! This should have been INCREDIBLY EASY!
Switching to his pistol, he fired that....
...
........
................. and missed every single shot...........
...............................
....................................................... damn, Blazing, get your shit together.
A single hammer uppercut and the alleged 'Hunt Master' was down on the ground, a cleaving downward swing from the axe split his sternum.
Blood spilt from the wound in steady streams, and Blazing began speaking again.
"And so falls another Master of the Hunt, take my cane, the weapon of the Jagermeister, it is known as the Wraith of the Smoke, wield it with pride, Ozpin, for you are truly the greatest Hunter on the face of Vytal, the road ahead is tough, but so long as you battle, only your fellowman can slay you." the white haired huntsman spoke in a praising tone.
"I will battle with honor, Blazes." Ozpin assured the dying legend.
"*wheeze* Always do so." with his final breath made into words, Blazes passed.
A montage of Ozpin taking the cane, pinning a badge to his jacket, his hair fully graying out and lightening, and finally the acquisition of reading glasses.
"So, do you know who I am?" he asked his interrogatee, sipping some more coffee.
"Um, you look familiar, at least.... wait, you're Master Ozpin, the top Hunter in the world." Jaune answered, remembering seeing the elderly man from a few Hunter magazines he read.
"That is correct, and you are Jaune Arc the Fifth, the latest in the line of the Arc family, you're two greats grandfather fought in the Great War, and you now wield his sword and shield." Ozpin recognized the blonde hair immediately, Jaune Arc the First was in the Hall of the Jagermeister, because he was the one who founded it.
"Yes, that is correct, sir." Jaune sipped the juice he had been given, Ozpin claimed that all of his 'Sweat Session' victims received a bit of comfort while being asked questions.
"I knew it, you're hair is one hundred percent Arc, your eyes are even the same blue color, tell me, do you want to be a hero like your forefathers?" there was the hard one, the solid question that was supposed to make Jaune think hard.
That would be the case, if the blonde aspirer hadn't already made up his mind beforehand, "Yes, I need to carry on the legacy of Jaune Arc, which is why I want to go to Beacon Academy one day." it was a very honest answer.
"Well, I'm glad that you wish that, Mister Arc, because I have already drawn up some transcripts for you." the coffee-addict passed over the papers.
Jaune began reading the documents, finding that the basic things were already filled in, all that was missing was his skills, "I can't help but notice that I reportedly can't do anything of particular excellence." he remarked eloquently.
"That's your job, put down what you believe you can do best, and I will approve it, then you'll be on your way to Beacon." Ozpin watched as the blue eyed swordsman wrote his least-suckass abilities into the proper fields.
"Okay, my word says that you're in." to prove his point, the silver-haired man pressed an 'accept' button and Jaune's forged files were put into the system.
"Congratulations, Mister Arc, you've won, your prize is an all-expense-paid entrance to Beacon Academy, enjoy it." the green-clad man praised, standing up just as Glynda walked back into the room with a fresh pot of coffee.
"I don't understand why you needed me to wait and watch the coffee pot fill up, watching all of that pouring has made me need to pee." the blonde old woman looked to Jaune, "Oh, I didn't realize he was still here." she blushed slightly after realizing that the young juggernaut had no-doubt heard her quip about bathroom needs.
"Well, you know where the bathroom is, Miss Goodwitch, and Mister Arc?" he turned back to the other man, "We are done here, you can leave, but you'd better pack your bags, 'cause you're on your way to Motha-fuckin' BEACON ACADEMY!" the Jagermeister suddenly shouted in a tone unlike what either of the blonde warriors had heard from him before.
David merely walked down the hall, not looking back.
Ozpin simply did not have a fuck to give.
DOPG: Orchid Trailer
"Alright, Ruby, one more time." the faunus repeated, he had already said 'one more time' about a dozen times, but he was having fun.
"Okay uncle." the cheery young scythe-wielder, winding up again.
Ruby and Qrow both did the cool thing were they spun their scythe around to make it look awesome when they brought it out.
Ruby ended with the tip of her scythe embedded in the floor, Qrow ended with the bottom of the staff tapping against the floor, the energy blade shooting out with the sound of lasers.
"Excellent work Ruby, I'll call it there, then, do you need me to walk you home?" the black-clad man asked, fluttering his ebony wings to warm them up.
"No need, I'm going to my favorite dust shop." the red-clad girl assured, Crescent Rose locked up on her back.
"You mean 'From Dust Till Dawn'? That shop run by the old man?" Qrow went through his mental map of Vale, finding the small shop two blocks off of the beaten path, a safe enough distance.
"Alright, you go on ahead then, and tell Patrick I said hi." the middle-aged huntsman requested, turning from his niece to put away his Grimm Reaper.
The clacking of the door closing was all that the faunus needed to hear, and he began cleaning up his garage.
He was still young enough, only having recently turned fifty, it was common for humans to maintain great health well into their later lives.
Of course, Qrow wasn't human, he was a faunus, as anyone could tell.
Faunus had a series of 'classes', rating them from more human to more animal.
Class One Faunus usually had animal ears and abnormal hair growth, they were the most common.
Class Two Faunus were the veritable middle ground, usually having a tail to go with the ears, or maybe claws, they were also the middle ground in commonness.
Class Three Faunus, the type that he was, were mostly animal, he himself was (as his name somewhat subtly implied) a crow, with long, downy feathers for hair, shorter and slightly stiffer feathers for his beard, talons in place of fingernails and toenails, and even bird wings.
He could fly, yes, he was very able to do so, his wings were of great strength, and his bones were hollow, combined with his aura ability to lessen gravity's effect on him.
It didn't make him lighter, no, it seriously made gravity have a weaker effect on him, rather than the equation Mass x 9.8m/s2, his weight was the equation Mass x 4.7m/s2, it was the only cool thing that his soul did, the other thing was rather humiliating (especially how he found out), but it allowed him to properly digest seeds and grasses, it was humiliating because it was an undeniably animalistic trait, permanently cementing him as 'only a partial person' in the eyes of racists.
His garage, which he also used as a training room, was a mess, so the black hair-on-black clothes-on-caucasian skin man set to work on cleaning it.
His few tools were re-hung on the tool-board, a broom swept up bits of dirt and dust and launched them out onto the driveway.
His house was a typical house-in-the-suburbs, so it had a garage and driveway, front and back yards, and a second floor.
Whistling while he worked, he checked the tape that outlined the area occupied by the empty space where his car would be, if he had one that is.
One of the major few things left in the fight for Faunus Civil Rights, was, oddly enough, 'the right to own and operate motorized vehicles' AKA having a car and a driver's license.
He grimaced at the thought, if the right was gained in his lifetime, he would buy the most expensive, aesthetically garish car he could find, and be a 'sore winner' with it.
Walking into his living room, he plopped down on the couch and started watching cartoons.
<A Few Months Later>
Qrow had just finished watching the latest episode of Professor Who on Internet-Flicks, he looked at the time, it wasn't even ten in the morning.
"Scroll, Message: David Ozpin," the winged scythe-wielder commanded the device, he used the voice command because it was too far away to pick up, "Tell him......" he trailed off, going very quiet.
*sigh*
"I guess it's time to pay them a visit, send." Qrow concluded, standing up and walking over to his pet's perch.
Since he was just so badass, his pet was a motherfucking juvenile Nevermore, it currently had a wingspan of about eight feet.
"God, that sound, though, I wish you would never make it again." Qrow complained as he grabbed a bag of seeds and went back to Gavvy, who was perched on a bird-stand outside.
"Alright, Gavvy-Wavvy, let's fly." the black-clad man gently commanded, and the large bird complied, flapping its wings and taking off.
Qrow had a strange feeling that today would change his life....
Nah, he was starting to get crazy, he sighed at the comfortable feeling of the slightly blowing winds, and brandished his Scroll.
"Scroll, progress on the downloads?" he asked the machine.
"All downloads complete." the mechanical voice replied.
"Play download file one." the faunus smiled as the familiar music started playing, and he began whistling it.
"Da-da-da DO-doooo, da-da-da DOO-doooo, do do DO DOOO" it started....
And the rest is history.
DOPG: Peter Trailer
The young man had set out on a mission, an advocate for Beacon Academy would be coming to his town in a mere two days, and he needed to prove he was worthy.
He wasn't a good speaker, no, that was a skill that would take him many years to develop, but he decided to live an exciting life to tell his elder years' youths about.
Since he couldn't talk his way into Beacon, he would need to prove himself in a way that didn't require words.
He was going to capture a Grimm.
No, not kill it, capture it, take it alive. It would be a miracle to take it dead.
He had to do this, he had to, it was his goal- nay, his DESTINY, TO BE, a HUNTSMAN!
The red haired man trekked out into the forest, his pack filled up with supplies, both incidental and backup, including some food, water, and ammunition and gunpowder.
"Come at me, Beowolves, I am NOT AFRAID!" he was a brave youth with a great amount of stout strength.
Stout strength was his advantage, because even though he was fat, his fat hid a lot of muscle.
The wing blew past his small pencil moustache, which would one day grow into a mighty handlebar of facial hair, but for now he was content with what he had.
A single Beowolf, probably a scout, burst from the bushes in an attempt to surprise him and get in an attack of opportunity.
Peter swung the Buster Axe hard, severing the beast's head.
"HAHA! The first blood of the day." he proclaimed, his boisterous side coming through full force.
The blunderbuss portion of the Buster Axe was loaded, ready to fire at a moment's notice, and not a moment too soon.
Another Beowolf came out of the brush, and Peter pressed the stock of his weapon firmly against his shoulder, taking as much careful aim as possible.
*BANG*
The bundle of metal shards held together by 'glue' made from gunpowder that had been wet, clumped, then dried. The shrapnel tore the beast's neck to shreds, its body thudding to the ground, followed by its head a moment later.
*THUD*
*thock*
Reloading the blunderbuss with a regular bullet, loading up the gunpowder while walking, the black shirt and plaid kilt clothed young man steeled his nerves when he smelled the unmistakable smell of Beowolf urine.
"I see that they still mark their territory like common animals, it reminds me of Stockholm syndrome with my cow, Edmund." he took a moment to relive his recent memories....
...........
........................That moment took longer than expected, because would you look at that? Its already nighttime.
Taking a few minutes to hoist himself into a decently high perch in a tree, Port ate a small, yet satisfying supper, tied himself to the tree, and dozed off.
<The Next Day / Battle Time>
The ginger headed warrior had found the pack of Beowolves that had been terrorizing his town, they were all ripe for the slaughter.
One of the beasts ran at his full force, only to be slain by the hunter's axe to its spine, a fatal blow.
The Alpha growled at him fiercely, a tactic to make him scared, and thus less able to fight.
It would have worked if the monster had used it on anybody else from Port's village, but he had chosen the one man who was immune.
"ROOOOOOOAAAAARRR! YES, I am AWARE of YOUR PRESENCE!" the ginger responded, using his axe to kill another Beowolf, and the blunderbuss to kill another.
Three of the beast's remained, including the Alpha, which was easily five times bigger than the other two.
"I am a HUNTER, and you DEEEEMOOONS are my prey." the badass boast came right before he was struck across the chest.
The monsters looked in horror as their vicious claws hadn't even cut through their enemy's clothing.
"I am a HUMAN, my SOUL shall PROTECT ME!" Port explained, loading gunpowder into his gun.
The last thing that went through their heads was his axe, moving in a cleaving arc that hit both of them.
The Alpha was all that was left and a shredding cluster was loaded up.
"ROAR FOR ME! GIVE ME ALL YOU HAVE! I'LL TAKE ALL OF IT AND THEN SOME!" he yelled at the behemoth monster.
*ROAR*
*BOOM*
Its arm was blown off.
*ROOOOAAAAARRRR*
"That's not good enough!" Peter berated as his sliced off one of the Alpha's feet.
The beast fell with a mighty-
*RRRRROOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRR*
"YES, YES, GOOD." the man praised, using his flint and steel to set fire the demon's wounds, crudely cauterizing it.
He grabbed the Beowolf by the neck with his powerful hand, dragging it back to his village.
After several hours of walking, with brief bursts of jogging, running, or even sprinting, the ginger hunter was finally back at his small town.
Walking through the gates with his head held high in pride, all sorts of onlookers watched as he strode past houses and small shops, all the way into town square, where the Beacon Advocates were recruiting.
Everyone's eyes turned to him, dragging a living Alpha Beowolf into town.
Peter let it fall to the ground.
*YELP*
"My name is Peter Port, and THIS, sirs and madams, is my application to Beacon." was his only statement, his head still held high.
A few seconds passed, nobody moved or spoke, then:
"Congratulations, Mr. Port, you have been accepted into Beacon Academy." one of the advocates informed, writing on his clipboard.
"I am grateful, sir." the ginger replied, being as polite as possible, waiting to be excused.
When everyone was tallied up, the advocates informed them all about the grace period between when they were accepted and when they would be relocated.
The strapping young man returned home, to his small farm.
He was the spitting image of his father, so his mother said, though his father had passed away during his own time as a huntsman, so that left his mother and himself to take care of the place.
"I have returned, mother." he greeted as he walked into the house.
"Peter, I haven't seen you since yesterday, where were you young man?" Patricia Port, Port's mother, demanded to know, more than a little upset at her son's sudden vanishing.
The hunter was still riding high from his acceptance, "I have slain the menace of the Beowolves that have been terrorizing the town, and I captured their Alpha, on top of this great achevemient, I was also accepted into Beacon Academy!" he proclaimed, his mother was struck in awe.
"Oooooh, my big man is going to Beacon~" her motherly pride in him was evident, "How long until you're relocated?" it was an innocent enough question, "I'm going to whip up a nice big dinner every night until you have to go, your father gave me the idea when he got accepted, its to help you sustain good health while you're there, staying power and all." the thin old brunette rattled on.
His mother was a stick of a person, her tiny frame was absolutely dwarfed by her son's massive figure, Peter was rippling with young, steely muscles, years of genuine hard work and dedication to working the land.
"I'll get some meat." he insisted, taking a large cleaver and going out to the barn.
His stride was long, his form was strong, as he and his mother knew, working the land and performing animal husbandry was the main cause of the bodybuilding.
The main products of their little ranch were milk, beef, eggs, and chicken, occasionally pork, wool, and mutton too, but the farm's only consistent livestock was cows and chickens.
Quietly opening the barn door, then shutting it, he walked over to his favorite place in his whole home area...
The cellar.....
Opening the door and closing it behind him, the ginger said a quick prayer of thanks, then moved to his prey.
He was polite, taking care to wash it thoroughly before he ended its life, and making sure that his cleaver was as clean and sharp as possible, to make easy cuts through its glorious hide.
"I'm not really sorry at all for doing this, but it's time for you to go," he reminisced the previous prey, how they would make beautiful sounds of pain as he sliced their flesh open, spilling hot blood on the hard packed dirt floor, the rush of the butchering, "It's time for you to go......... Edmund."
*mooooooooo*
Peter was a gentleman, after all, he had at least waved goodbye to the poor bovine locked in his barn cellar, he remembered Edmund before Edmund, whenever Edmund escaped (that had only happened one time over a period of eleven years) or died (most often by being butchered), a new Edmund took its place.
Few people knew about this, and all of those few just didn't understand why it was never 'Edmund the second' or 'Edmund the fortieth', they were all fools, because it was very, very, very simple:
'Edmund' was the one in the cellar.
*moooo-*
*SHICK*
*SLICE*
*HACK*
*SLASH*
*THUD*
When all of the mess was cleaned up, another cow was led down there, down into the cellar.
Into the cellar, never to get out alive.
DOPG: Glynda Trailer
"...I just don't understand why you would choose someone so obviously irresponsible, Ozpin." the blonde old woman argued.
Her superior, the famous Professor Ozpin, had allowed not one, but two young warriors into the illustrious, fable-starting, the one, the only, the Beacon Academy.
The beacon of hope for freedom from the (relatively non-invasive) oppression of the creatures of Grimm.
A beacon that had been manned by a man who was gradually turning from a master to a maniac for the past thirty years.
"Miss Goodwitch, I must implore that you first shut your whore mouth, and that you second don't question my motives, even though I'll answer your questions anyways." Ozpin began, clearing his throat to prepare for the next statement, "Some people have great power, they may not realize, or even show that they have it, until they are forced to use it, I am willing to take a chance with these two students being hidden masters of their trades rather than having another two normal Hunters." the green clad man walked away without another word.
Glynda was about to make a witty retort, really she was, she had been a second from saying it, but her scroll interrupted her.
*EMERGENCY* *DEATHSTALKER ATTACKING THE CLIFFS!* *EMERGENCY* *DEATHSTALKER ATTACKING THE CLIFFS!* *EMERGENCY* *DEATHSTAL-beep*
The message disappeared with a simple press of a touchscreen button, Glynda knew that it would continue with the annoying and somehow-urgent-sounding jingle until she dismissed it.
Ozpin hadn't heard her scroll's message, this might have been an opportunity for her.
Without the older man's intervention, Glynda could finally do some real Huntress work.
How long had it been? One, two, four, eight months? A year? However long it had been since her last battle, it was too long.
Glynda discarded her heels in favor of sneakers, and ran to the aero-docks.
A few minutes of flying one of the fastest airships in the world, the JM1 'Pyro Slicer', a rather small jet capable of reaching Mach speeds with great ease, and she was at Beacon Academy's cliffs.
The area under attack was the Emerald Forest cliff zone, turning on the autopilot and ejecting herself from the jet, Glynda descended upon her enemy.
The Deathstalker, a giant, vicious, and very deadly scorpion creature, looked like it was attempting to break the base of the mountainous mesa-like formation upon which Beacon Academy was perched.
Descending to the ground at the speed of a falling feather, Glynda thought about the implications of this act.
If such an action were to be completed, Beacon Academy, as well as all of its resources, materials, and people, would end up collapsing into the forest, reduced to a state of impotency, just waiting to be destroyed by the Grimm.
The green eyed witch landed a few dozen feet away, turning to the mighty beast and shouting at it.
"AYE, STOP THAT, GO AWAY!" she had a very thin book of insults, but she would use what she had to her advantage.
"YOU, YES YOU, CEASE AND DESIST, YOUR MOTHER WAS A HAMSTER, AND YOUR FATHER SMELT of ELDERBERRIES!" it was offensive at an intellectual level.
The mother being a hamster, meant she was a fast breeding rodent, the insult there is obvious.
The father smelling of elderberries, in her youth, wine was most often made with elderberries, which meant that the father was a drunkard.
The Deathstalker turned around to face its relatively small enemy.
*HISSSSSSS*
Goodwitch the.... good....... witch............. fired off an energy missile.
The giant Grimm was stunned by the projectile's forceful impact, though not stunned enough to attempt to counter.
Glynda turned herself into a cloud of frost, travelling away from the stinger strike and reforming above, landing on top of its tail.
Casting a burst of poisonous rot infection through its prehensile appendage, causing a significant amount of flesh to either disintegrate or peel away from the stinger, revealing the tendons.
The witch slashed an energy formed blade through the tendons, severing the enormous stinger from its tail, the point of it jamming into the beast's face.
Flipping through the air, casting a supercharged magic missile to force the stinger through the Grimm's face.
Landing gracefully a few dozen feet away, Glynda watched as the Deathstalker writhed in pain.
Sending a prayer to the powers that be, she stared intently, hoping against the odds that this was the end of it.
Deathstalkers, if killed with their own stinger, had a fifty-fifty chance to either die, or mutate.
The writhing didn't stop, oh shit....
*SCREEEEEEEEEEEECH*
The ear piercing screech threatened to deafen the poor old woman, who watched in horror as the changes took place.
A few pairs of small, elastic-like tentacles sprouted from the sides of its horizontally-snapping maw, using their combined force to remove the stinger and put it back onto the tail.
The flesh sizzled as the tail repaired itself, and was then joined by another two tails to either side.
The bony plate covering its top side cracked and tore apart, making way for a thinner, weaker plate......
...and about four times more eyes.
The legs crackled and became over five times longer, supporting the body with, as Glynda could count, two dozen chitin spikes.
This was a crucial point in the transformation, when the two pincer arms became four, the weakest moment.
Why was this the weakest moment? Because the main body splint into two halves, top and bottom, to make it happen.
As soon as the flesh was fully yawed apart, Glynda fired off the intensely charged spell.
*NEKODAH*
A mighty, (not copyrighted in the slightest) blasting bolt of energy practically ripped the almost-formed Wraithhunter to pieces, then ripped those pieces into smaller pieces, then set those smaller pieces on fire, then extinguished the charred tatters with a highly-corrosive/non-flammable substance.
Essentially, the Wraithhunter ate nobs.
Glynda was, herself, a top rank huntress, she wasn't the best of the best, that title went to David Ozpin, but the still-blond woman was among the best.
Using the cloud-body spell, Glynda formed into a cloud of smoke, then reformed back at the top of the cliff.
She hadn't even realized it, but it was still nighttime, judging from the moon still in the sky.
Several gray speckles dotted her vision, she removed her glasses and wiped away the offending particles, immediately after the lenses moved away from her eyes, the world was wreathed in shadows.
With the lenses clean and placed once again in front of her perfect eyes, the world was once again bright as day.
Glynda didn't really need glasses, these were night-vision devices, but the Grimm didn't know that, yet they did understand the purpose of glasses.
The witch formed into a cloud of dust (the normal kind, not the energy kind), sped to her office, and began working on her paperwork again.
Huntsmen and Huntresses came and went, but the Grimm stayed, and they learned, while they didn't learn through organized means, nor with (apparent) communication, but they knew a lot about humans.
A lot about humans, their culture, their knowledge, and above all...
....their limits....
Glynda sighed, "Time to see who all shall die this year." it wasn't the best way to determine who could be a hunter, but it was efficient.
After all, if these younglings couldn't survive a journey into and out of the Emerald Forest, what did that say about their abilities as a hunter?
It only said a few things, and none of those few things were good.
"Now weren't those cool?!?!" the mentally-slipping deity asked feverishly, his hands shaking with the force of an earthquake.
He looked red in the face, as though he had spent weeks delaying the production of something, all in favor of reading a whole bunch of clopfics.
By his side stood Oscar/Blue Comet, the white hoodie clad man pointed to a golden five-pointed-star-shaped medal on his chest, over his heart, tiny letters read 'Medal of Honor'.
"I have been trusted by his highness to direct you to the next set of trailers." his militaristic tone was offset by a smile, as he pointed into the small theater-esque structure.
The empty stage instantly filled with new content.
WRHS: Warden Trailer
Evening Warden.
Lieutenant Evening Warden of the Lunar Patrol read the letter and smiled, his little sister, Scootaloo, with his material and moral assistance, had learned how to fly, a great thing.
Her excessive use of capital letters and exclamation marks told him all he needed to know, she was hysterically happy about her newfound abilities.
It was excellent, if the Sin attempted to attack her, she could now fully (and quite literally) utilize the 'fight or flight' response.
His sand colored magic set the letter down and took a minute to compose himself from the overinflated pride and joy in his heart, taking a few large gulps of ice tea helped.
Switching from the tea to water, washing down the calming taste, he needed a bit of energy.
'First tea, then water, then soda, reverse if needed.' the note above his desk read.
He got the drink habit and his mane from his dad, Blue Jay, and his coat from his mother, Big Red, thinking about her made him remember what had happened a decade ago.
He had received two letters that day, one said that his father had been promoted to a very prestigious position in the delivery industry, the other said that his mother had succumb to two strokes in her brain.
He didn't cry over it any more, he had done all of that when he cried himself to a blackout at the hospital.
The thoughts still made him groan in mental pain, his mother had developed diabetes, and even with the help of Silver Calling, a close family friend, her self-destructive eating habits ended up killing her.
He swore to be the healthiest damn stallion he could be, every day of the week, when his minimal required schoolings were over, he spent time exercising both magic and muscle.
About three years before the present day, Princess Luna returned, and he was enraptured in her grace and glory, and joined the military as part of the Lunar Patrol.
His ears pricked up as he heard his best friend, Jeering Mareon, knocking on the door.
He could tell it was his pegasus ally because words of song came with the knocks
Equipping his rune-laden armor, enchanted for at least some protection against everything, as his younger days as a gamer had told him 'you can never be too protected'.
His scarlet coat, azure mane, and red eyes shifted to murky grey coat, pale purple mane, and yellow eyes as the illusion enchantment in the helmet activated.
His weapon was the Storehouse, a weapons cage about twice the size of a bathroom sink mirror, it had several weapons inside of it, he had been working on his collection for quite a long time.
Jeering was knocking louder, singing a song, for some reason, it made Evening think of green foliage, which would be a lot nicer if the foliage wasn't cut into a penis-like shape, "Adrenalin level GOES UP, and then it drops and you could use a PICK UP, STAND UP and FIGHT, DON'T DIE ON ME, so now you're bleeding fast, half an gallon is left, but DON'T DIE, DIE DIE, die-die-die-DIE! COME ON EVENING GET YOUR ASS UP, THEY HAVE SCOOTALOO!" the tan pegasus shouted at his fallen comrade.
His red eyes shot open as they were bathed in the liquid hellfire known as 'guardian angel charge-in-danger response' his sclera became pink, pupils were maroon, and his irises filled up with an unholy amount of 'super red', his sand colored magic flared up in whips, tendrils, sprays, and bolts.
His mind raced at a pace well above nine thousand miles a minute, he had been struck in the head, knocked unconscious, and a merciful evil had allowing his head to be filled with sweet memories, even as his body lay prone for his life to be ripped away from him.
White magic, a silver shield, black magic, ebony balls of energy, and the most important piece:
The Storehouse.
The cage was summoned, teleported from a small pocket dimension his ally Joax Ryther Hellstorm had in a bag of holding.
The masked mage gave his leader a glance, a sigh of relief, and turned back to the raging fight.
A magical key of aura unlocked the thick, slightly ventilated metal doors, releasing the parts to his 'ultimate weapon'
Several clicks, a few twists, some slides, many turns, and it was constructed.
He had taken it upon himself to examine the constructs of the teams RWBY, JNPR, and DOGS, so he made his own 'crazy hybrid weapon', the ultimate 'crazy hybrid weapon', as when he was making it, he had pulled out so many stops that stops than didn't even exist were uprooted to make way for power.
"JUST REMEMBER, MEN," he started, before the black and white magic took over for his brief demonstration, the containment box doing all the speaking he needed.
A few hearty chuckles were shared by Evening, Jeering, and Joax before turning back to the skirmish, Skull wasn't laughing though, he merely kept aiming his rifle with his eyes squinted with focus.
In a brave-yet-quiet charge across the scorched field, past Jaune Arc, past Ren and Blake, past Yang, past Weiss, past Glynda and Ozpin.
Several suppressed *GLACKS* from the pistol part, as well as the grenade from the launcher cleared a ten foot radius from his sister, whom he guarded with a silver shield, taking her large revolver and levitating her unconscious form onto his back, he blasted away as many Sin as he could.
He casted 'Ball of Spell', creating an small, easily carried sphere that housed a special emergency spell, casting it had drained most of his magical energy, however, but he didn't worry.
He had taken some great perks upon character creation, and recovered from the exertion quickly.
"RUBY, CATCH!" he shouted to the red-and-black clad girl somewhere in the fray, launching the Ball of Spell to her.
He had to get out of there, it wasn't safe for his sister to continue being here, nor was it safe for him, as he had been knocked out by a hard blow to the head a few minutes ago.
Turning to the fighters, he gave a salute to the teams, Ruby, Juniper, Dogs, and his own squad Warhorse.
*SHWING*
*VORP*
Joax had given him some tips on how to teleport more efficiently, using less magic for the same distance, or more distance for the same magic, or both, preferably, but technically all three were the same, just taken from different standpoints.
Standing in the infirmary of the Castle Canterlot, he set to work immediately, for the battle still raged on back in the Far Fields.
Rolling a skill check for medicine, he got an eleven, but used her bonuses to get a solid nineteen, which was good enough.
Mixing a few things, stimulants and analgesics, about three attempts later he had a simple mixture of morphine and adrenaline.
Administering a shot to both himself and his sister, they were both overcome with a mighty surge of health and energy.
"Alright, Scoots, wait here, if any Sin attack while I'm gone, just shoot them." he handed over the Lovechild, his scoped grenade launching silenced pistol bipod attached katana handle crowbar, along with the other four grenades and two magazines.
Taking the Law's Edge with him, the scarlet unicorn ran through the halls, looking ready to fire at anypony.
Skidding to a halt and composing himself outside of the silver, blue, black, and gem-laden door, he gave a quick three knocks before gently pushing his way in.
Princess Luna, in her War-Goddess path chosen glory, stood in the middle of the room, meditating.
He had known of this development.
In a state of peace, an alicorn female can choose one of two paths, the path of fertility or the path of protection.
Celestia had chosen fertility, the way of making peace, creating love by dissolving hate, diplomacy, raising a nation on it's unsteady legs and making it big and strong.
The path is permanent, so in this time, Luna chose war, a mare bred for battle, with discipline and constructive force for her allies, and wrath and destructive force for her enemies.
The cobalt blue armor, crafted from moon rocks and sea-salt, was strong and cold, attempting to hit it would result in being defensively-offended with ice.
"You have fled the field of battle, retreated, why, great knight? Have you lost faith in me?" he words were spoken gentler than the implications they carried.
Breathing in, the blue maned stallion recited his pledge:
"It shall take little effort to wreck it. No time to see their eyes and feel sympathetic, Never regret it.
A true knight never stays a true blade. Never says 'touché'. But would forever lay, in blue rays, of weathered glades, to demonstrate his never-ending dedication to the crusade. The only reformation will be through flames.
But my faith shall never be tested. For I am, loyal beyond death." it was his pledge of the paladin, something that he strove to be with all heart, mind, and soul.
"I did not retreat, I merely postponed victory." he added, shifting his weight forward a bit.
"Very well, I understand, I trust that your armor, despite your enchantments, was insufficient for your defense?" the blue alicorn asked.
"Yes, I am willing to become like a thing unto glory worthy of your memories." the knight answered.
"Very well, you have two options, I shall dub you a paladin and implant upon your mind the magical spells of my holy power, or you may take the position of the mightiest of warriors, the Black Knight." the moon goddess offered.
Evening was at a impasse.
Become a paladin, and don't get more awesome physical skills, but instead awesome holy powers, or take up the position of the Black Knight, and don't get awesome holy powers, but instead awesome physical skills.
He remembered his weapon, the Lovechild, and that made it all the easier.
"I request upon you and all of your high, majestic glory, that you may bestow upon me magic, the likes of which representative of your power." he chose paladin status.
The Black Knight was the antithesis of the antithesis of the antithesis of the thesis, the thesis being Luna, Black Knight opposed the Light Bringer, who opposed Discord, who opposed Luna and Celestia.
The Light Bringer was only opposed because while he may have started as a valiant soul and 'The Great Liberator' who was given tribute in the design of the great and revered 'Medal of Honor', but he made himself wrong with his actions afterwards.
He did not have the right to take the reins of destiny into his own hooves, though he really, really wanted to.
Their horns touched tips, and great knowledge was passed on to his mortal mind. He felt not one, but two voids of power open up inside of him, nigh infinite in capacity, yet contrasting in tones. Then he knew the truth of dark magic.
There were two forms of dark magic, Sacred Darkness and Vile Darkness, he had access to both.
Sacred Darkness would be best represented by the colors black and blue, and a spell, say... a death bolt, made from Sacred Darkness, would make the recipient merely fall over, as though they had been put into a deep sleep, inducing a peace of mind as their bodies shut off and died.
Vile Darkness would be best represented by the colors black and red, and a death bolt spell made from Vile Darkness would make the recipient writhe in pain, tortured by suffering as their soul was dragged into the abyss.
The two voids, the voids of dark magic.
The Sacred Dark void came with the gentle, calming sound of wind. Its infinite expanse not scary, but soothing, as its power came from peace of mind, health of body, strength of heart, and purity of soul.
The Vile Dark void came with the horrifying screams of the souls of the damned, as its power came from anger, from sadness, from suffering, from greed, from all the Sins and all emotions of vileness.
No words, only dreams, a few short dreams of his nigh-infinite gratitude for his princess's acceptance, taking place on a beautiful backdrop of sacred darkness.
When Luna opened her eyes, he was gone, disappeared into a portal of his new powers.
"Gone.... just like Vermillion...." the war goddess mourned again, even though it had been many months.
......................................
And all faded to white.
WRHS
WRHS: Ryther Trailer
Joax Ryther Hellstorm.
Sin? Yes. Magic? Hell yes.
Hellstorm yes.
Eldritch magic of a purple hue weaved energies along a specific wavelength of power.
Holes in space were torn and patched with effortless ease.
*BAMF*
*VORP*
He had reached it once again...
He had reached The End.
The End was a place located between universes, its inhabitants, the Endermen, were capable of two types of teleportation:
1) Teleport from anywhere in any universe to The End.
2) Teleport from The End to anywhere in any universe.
Infinite in distance and unbound by physics, this power was both their, and his own, most useful of all.
He had witnessed great horrors within the bottomless vortex of their soul-sucking maws, along with a whole host of other monsters
The Blood Katar, a blade made of red matter, a material of even greater mass than dark matter, so much so that it willed light to follow it.
The sickly yellow glow coming off of it was the only light in The End, besides that of the Endermen.
In this place, he could be free of his Animal Morph spell.
Left and right, Endermen fell to the Blood Katar.
One of them was stronger than the rest, an Alpha-male, as it were.
Joax's ninja training allowed him to guard against the rapid-fire punches and kicks that were thrown.
The flames on its shoulder's burned soundlessly, it teleported away.
*BAMF*
*VORP*
"Bro, I can do that too." he responded, teleported to face the Alpha that had gone behind him and stabbing it in the diaphragm.
Twisting a blue-and-purple-glowing silver blade into the black beast's rib area, Joax smiled at the agony he inflicted.
It couldn't breathe, and it wanted nothing more than to scream.
It tried to teleport, but as its shoulder flames were extinguished, leaving it stranded, it only accomplished a few spasms.
It's only salvation from this painful death was much too far away, mounted atop massive obsidian towers that speckled the otherwise barren chunk of ivory rock, the Ender Crystals would save it, as they burned with pure, undiluted Ender Magic and would relight its shoulder flames with but a single touch.
By the time the dirty skinned man stopped grinning with glee, the Alpha was long dead.
*ROOOOOOOOOAAAAARRRRR*
There she was!
"She" was the Queen of the End.
The Ender Dragon.
This was it, it was either now, or not for a long time.
Hellstorm ran up to her, blade held low.
He brought himself up and.....
and.....
and..............
and?..........................
... and.... hugged the Ender Dragon around the neck, the Blood Katar clattering to the ground.
"Hey mom." he greeted cheerfully, "Sorry about the mess, my brothers just won't leave me alone." he apologized sheepishly.
*GROOOWOOAAH* the Queen of The End grizzled in response, though her son knew she meant "I know, they just hate you for your father."
"It's nice to see you again, I came by because I need some advice..." he started, releasing the hug and stepping back.
Putting his hands into the pockets of his patched-up, purple-trimmed lab coat, he looked down to his boots and kicked at the ground.
*groowooah?* his mother replied, curling a wing around to hug him for comfort.
"My.... my girlfriend died, you remember her, right? Zoom Proficiency?" he asked, receiving a small, gentle grizzle in response, "Well, I mean, I want to use necromancy to bring her back, but I'm not sure if the results will be.... desirable...." he realized how much that could be taken out of context, "I-I-I mean, n-not like I want her to be some sort of, sort of... eye candy.... n-no, no no no, not at all, I'm just... not sure if she will be... 'all there', like what if she's missing a leg? Or part of her brain is left out? Or something else? I don't know, I was going to ask dad for advice, but he's not really the best 'moral support' kind of figure, not like you." the mage explained.
It was true, being the Ender Brood Mother, the Ender Dragon had developed magnificent skills in comforting and supporting her children.
"Hey, I can be a really good fucking supporter, I say revive her ass, and the rest of her too." his father was there.
While his mother was a goddamn DRAGON, his father was the god of the void, Herbri, brother of Marper, god of creation.
"Ugh, I'm not doing this anymore, I give up on trying to have a normal family, fuck you two, I'll be back to kill you both later." he said suddenly, levitating out Enderbane, a bowie knife shaped blade with the six cuboids of an Enderman's distilled eyes as the crossbar, and Demonbane, a shortsword-like blade with a goat skull as the crossbar, its horns acting as a handle-guard.
"SAME GOES FOR YOU, LICH COFFEE!" he shouted to the blond haired, green flame eyed, goggle wearing, black robe clad skeleton man.
Lich Coffee merely shrugged and went back to his own world, a world where he was the Lich King.
Prince Ryther, his name was two parts, Ryth, which was Runic for End, and Ther, Runic for Void.
He was physically weak, due to the powers of mortality, neither possessing the indestructibility of a dragon, nor the powers of a god, but he balanced weakness with speed, and had spent a few centuries learning ninja and monk skills.
Despite only being ageless rather than fully immortal, he still had great powers, he could do plenty of magic, and teleport.
Speaking of which......
*BAMF*
*VORP*
Casting the Animal Morph spell again, turning into a pony, his light, pale brown skin replace with a medium purple coat of equine fur, hooves took the place of hands and feet, and his spine bent into a quadruped shape.
Sliding his facemask down, his Enderman mouth guzzled down a liter-sized bottle of water in about two seconds, his great thirst coming from the fact that he often forgot to eat and/or drink anything.
"Joax? 'sthat you?" one of his teammates asked, concerned for the sudden sounds of teleportation and the slurping of water.
"Yeah, it's me, I just got back from visiting my family." he told the truth, as it was an easy-to-believe truth, and walked into the shared dormitory.
"Oh? How'd it go?" Warden asked, smiling as he was no doubt thinking about his little sister, who was in this same prestigious place.
"It was.... well.... I spoke my mind and made a promise." he still wasn't lying.
"Okay, by the way, you can dispel your illusion whenever you want." Warden had rolled decently for his Detect Magic, and could sense a spell akin to illusions.
It was then that Joax realized that he hadn't put his mask back on, his Enderman mouth, with its jagged, demonic lips showing to any that looked.
Quickly putting his mask back on, he cleared his throat, "Rrrrrriiiight, yeeeeaaaaah, illusion." he said as nonchalantly as he could.
'Nonchalant' meaning that it sounded almost as if Patrick Warburton had read those three words out of a script.
Though he didn't have them at the moment, he still felt his fingers twitch.
This was going to be a looooong school year.
WRHS: Hellraiser Trailer
Skullcruncher Hellraiser Griefhoof.
He stood in the middle of the little building his squad had chosen to hide in until receiving the orders.
His rifle was loaded and cocked, ready to plug anypony up with hot lead.
"So, Pat, Bull, Arm, shall we?" the masked stallion asked.
His squad consisted of four members, himself, his good friend Pattern Maiming, a Brimish-raised guy by the name of Dune Bull, and an angry zebra with great dental health known as Alcohol Armor.
"Yeah dude, Roight Lad, LET'S DO THIS SHIT!" came the responses of his three teammates.
"Attention, enemy spotted, mission begin, take 'em down." the call came over the radio.
The skies burned overhead, the hunt for lesser creatures was on.
The abandoned desert town of Dodge Junction was reinforced with sandstone walls, some were broken or perforated, and mangled remains of ponies, little more than dried blood and old bones, were the only things left.
Moving from the cover of a four-walled sandstone building to the outside, distant roars grew closer.
"They're coming in from the north, the distraction machine needs to be activated if you're going to keep them there long enough to thin them out enough to be taken down by the ones still in the towns." the radio-mare instructed.
Just then, a helicopter flew over the town, carrying a crate. The crate was dropped and the pilot turned around and flew off.
Skull used his pickaxe to break a few holes in the wooden box, but with negligible process to opening it.
"Tell me that somebody brought something useful against wood." he looked at his team.
He himself had a miner's pickaxe, Dune had a claymore sword, Pat had a sledgehammer.
Armor stepped up, on his back was a firemare's axe.
"Let's DO THIS, MARINES!" he shouted, cleaving through the surprisingly flimsy crate in only a few swings.
Inside was a Magic Executor, and a Ball of Spell containing Lightning Strike.
The two were combined and, several seconds to clear the way later, a brilliant flash of lightning and a deafening clap of thunder lashed out, sufficiently drawing the Sin's attention.
Skull and Pat looked to the side, seeing an abandoned saloon.
Claiming the last non-stagnated mugs of hooch, and setting up flash charges on the walls, they walked out onto the street again.
The other two were nowhere to be found, leaving Skull and Pattern to deal with several Sin that looked at them curiously.
Skull put his great voice to use.
"So...." he began, clearing his throat.
I'm outside of the club, and you think I'm a PUUUUUUNK (yeah) So I go to my loaded TEC-9 that's, off in the TRUUUUUUUNK (yeah)
Oh, WHO AM I~?!?! SKULLCRUNCHER, MOTHERFUCKER!!!! ATEN-CHUUUUUUUUN, WHERE MY SOLDIERS MOTHERFUCKER?!?!
I'll give you a hole in ya head, me to YOU, SUCKA And I'll give YOU ONE, and YOU ONE, and YOU SUCKA! I ain't SCARED of YOU BITCHES! I'll put yo' BRAIN in STITCHES! This rap's for REAL, SUCKA For those who can't tell difference. Check out my resume, trick, I got that 'One-hitta-quitta' And you bastards ready to flee saying 'What's up with that zigga?'
A harsh and disappointed glare from Armor, who took offense to Skull's usage of the word 'Zigga', as Armor was a zebra. He ran past, but he slowed down for a second when he saw that Skull's expertise in headshots led him to clear the whole street with only an M16A5.
"Take it Pat." the leader called out.
Coming up the main street, with loaded guns against hungry maws When we're done here, everypony will know who we are Y'know being a gangster, has got its pros and cons But the best part is: we got it goin' on
We haven't a single reason, why we should let you live We were sent to slaughter you all, and not even ponies can forgive Brought up by alicorns On this land we swore: We'd protect the soil Of our ancestors And we'll do this task and much MORE!
We only want our lives back, it can't get WORSE We may be speaking your language, but these are my WORDS: The earth will shake when we roar, and we'll make it HEARD If we can't free ourland, we'll see that it will BURN You think we're just mere prey, that won't put up a FIGHT We'll make your leaders believe, before the end of the LIGHT
It was inspirational, so much so that the heavens wept in emotion and agony at seeing the living going through Hell on Equus.
Skull had no tears left, he had cried them all out upon word of the first falls of civilization.
"More are coming from all around, keep it up though, they're thinning out." the radio mare piped up.
"Dune, you're up." Skull announced as light rain began making the ground slick and slippery.
"On it, chap." the Brimish soldier replied, taking the metaphorical stand as his somewhat posh accent took over.
We learned to band together And endeavor, Clasp our hooves together Ponies developed language, letters An incredible advantage Gettin' plans together... But would we stand the test of time, against the planet's reckless climate And it's angry weather?
The day breaks and the light changes Illuminating newer equine faces, as fights rage! The pony species is now facing the might Of dark masters who would write The history books, even if it took a knife's blade To find the right page
But the sun is coming, and we're watching it like a MOVIE REEL For a new era's here, it's as solid as HIGH STEEL No longer do we use a blacksmith AND AN ANVIL To craft weapons that bring our enemies to a STANDSTILL
Our world of wonder Was plundered And the only changes will be through FLAME And after the cremation, there'll be a NEW AGE For time's quill is quick to spill its ink onto a new PAGE
The faces will be the same as when in these days now gone But life will be cultivated, thus creating a Renaissance And we'll still be using steel tools to stay strong But we'll replace blades with greater trades Story, paint, and song And we'll revere the history of the methods Through which we managed to be self-liberated
I implore great leaders, to lead with all the grace Of which we're capable, and YOU be the AUTHOR of YOUR fate
Please band together, and endeavor Clasp your hooves together As our ancestors have, and...
Stand the test of time, forever
The light rain amplified into a thunderstorm that blotted out most of the sky, but the sun was still up though, and there was conveniently plenty of light by which to see.
The Sin were significantly slowed by the onslaught of refreshingly cool water that did little more than bounce harmlessly off of their black hides.
"Armor, let them hear it!" Dune called out to his zebra companion.
"I don't sing, faggot." came the zebra's response as he dual-wielded shotguns and blew many Sin monsters apart.
"Well then, it's back to me." Skull took off the initiative, as well as his pants.
Oh I'm runnin' 'round town, crazy pants-less I'm lovin' all these pyro-mances
I do what I want, from heartlands to ports, but even when I'm at the top, I'm always GONNA NEED MORE
yet I should have learned the awful truth by now I'll have to burn the whole world down Rain may wash away the frowns But the future is bleak, there's only four remaining towns.
Skull's rap was interrupted by the sound of Pattern getting torn apart.
Several explosions rang out, the brave soldier detonated all of his grenades and explosives in his last breaths, taking dozens of Sin with him.
"ALLY DOWN! Stay strong, only a few more waves of Sin, they're coming strong from the east!" the radio mare encouraged.
The skies were burning as the three alive soldiers took refuge in what buildings they could, the rain turning from droplets of cool water into tiny balls of fire.
The Sin were burned alive, weakening their resolves until only a single bullet took them out.
Potshots were had, but the radio mare was quick to smash morale into submission, "Dune is dead, I repeat, Dune is dead, Skull, do you read me? His life sensor has deactivated, either he's naked or he's dead, can you confirm?" the radio mare demanded.
"I can neither confirm nor deny that he is dead, I believe he was at the east end of Dodge Junction when that last wave came in, I will commence the cleanup." Griefhoof tried to stay positive, but two of his friends were dead, and that made it hard to keep his enthusiasm alive.
Bullets sprayed the weakened Sin, dropping bodies left, right, and center.
"Come AT ME, you BASTARDS!" Alcohol Armor shouted, his dual shotguns discarded in favor of a sawn-off sniper rifle.
Jumping into the air right before he fired, he did backflips every time the barrel spat out another high velocity leaded bolt of death.
A choke point provided him with about two dozen headshots in a single shot, a difficult achievement.
However, on one of the backflips, while he was upside down, he saw another Sin approach quickly from behind, and fired.
Bad mistake, while the advancing enemy was halted, on the grounds that it was missing an important part of its torso, Armor ended up landing harder than expected, stunned and laying prone on the ground.
"NOOOOOO!" Hellraiser protested cruel fate, as a group of Sin came in and mauled his zebra ally, the radio mare piped up and somehow made it even worse for him, "Princesses dammit, you're the only one left, Skullcruncher, this is the last wave, try to hold out." it was false positivity, he was doomed.
Letting out a battle cry, Skull ran through town, slowing his sprint only long enough to shoot more Sin.
Climbing the bell tower, he stood on the edge, using all of his weaponry, from rifle to pistol, to kill the Sin.
He felt awful for having to resort to hiding, but it was the only way.
"You can do it!" he could hear words of encouragement, all from his dead teammates, and it pushed him to do better.
Within a minute, the remaining Sin were dead.
"YES! I DID IT!" the tan stallion cheered, pitching all of his empty weapons, which was all but his pistol, all the way from the bell tower to town hall.
He waited, there was no call from the radio mare.
"Get them, there's still more!" she suddenly berated out of nowhere.
Skull only had one bullet left, if his calculations were correct, there was only one Sin left.
Where the fuck was it?
*GROOROAAAR* came from behind.
Time became slower, getting jittery and choppy, the last stallion raised his pistol.
Turning around just in time to be tackled by a black buffalo, he went flying off of the bell tower.
As his mind attempted to make sense of this, he fired the last pistol round into the Sin buffalo's head, blowing the cranium to bits.
It didn't make a difference, while its unnatural roar was silenced, he was still falling.
He was an earth pony, if he had wings he could fly or at least glide to safety, if he had a horn, he could teleport away.
He had neither, and it was his undoing.
Hitting the ground, Skullcruncher died how he lived:
"FUCKING, DAMMIT! If it wasn't for that LAG at the end, I would have clutched it and WON! DAMMIT!" Skull complained as he threw his Ybox Zero controller to the floor, the hard plastic bouncing off of the carpet.
It was a bravely fought match of 'Life vs. Sin' mode, but his clan simply didn't have the coordination to do it.
"Ugh, we were SO CLOSE, alright guys, we need to cut out the singing next time and just focus on killing the Sin, alright?" he proposed the idea with his head held in his hooves
"Good, I fucking hate singing, singing is for faggots, unless it's rap, then it might be cool." Armor replied over the party chat.
"Okay, chaps, my tea is done, so I'll talk to you buggers later, byyyye." Dune added, signing out.
"Yeah, my marefriend is here and she wants to play with me, alone, gotta go, later cockbites." Armor excused himself and logged off.
"I have work, so I'm going to have to go as well, I'll talk to you later, bro." Pattern piped up before his gamer-tag disappeared from the party chat.
Removing his headset, Skull got up and went over to his Ybox Zero and opened the disc tray.
The game disc was removed and placed back into its case.
"Ugh, I feel like actually trying to burn the sky, now." Skull thought aloud as he walked over to the other cases.
The latest in the series, Call of Cutie: Burning Skies, was placed back in its prestigious location on his games shelf, the cover was amazing, showing a ball of light in the form of a weapon-wielding pony, placed in the middle of a corrupted ground and a, as the name of the game says, a burning sky.
"Man, I'm going back to Haylo 4 for a while." the griefer decided, nearly tripping over his Flint&Steel and rifle on the floor as he went back to the Ybox and put the disc in.
Brushing off loose bullets for his M16A5, he plopped down, his pickaxe bouncing a bit before falling to the floor of his messy house.
He didn't care about the state of his abode, all he cared about was that, in Haylo 4, he was:
The Greatest Ever.
WRHS: Sparkles Trailer
Jeering "Sparkles" Mareon
"Oooooh boy, this is it." the black maned knight was excited, his sword glowing with customizations, his armor made of obsidian, his red rimmed sunglasses placed over his eyes, he was ready.
"Shut your trap, Captain, this is extremely important." General(4) Mogar Ragom commanded.
"Yes sir, oh-" Jeering stopped himself in the presence of the General(4).
Mogar was one of only three esteemed individuals who had the possibility of holding the rank of General(4), he was the pegasus, the other two were a unicorn named Darkened Gander, and an earth pony known as Arms Forger.
It was a position of power and authority, all four Medals of Excellence, the symbols of being a General rank, were present on his hat, the Horn of Wisdom, the Left Wing of Initiative, the Right Wing of Caution, and the Shoe of Might.
"Alright, here's what I need you to do, take this package to Ponyville, this is a very important package, top priority, so just a mailmare or a mailstallion, with a guard, won't be sufficient. Our job is to not risk innocent lives, so you'll be going alone." the larger stallion explained, halfway through he began cleaning a pair of identical shotguns
"Not even my team can come with?" he asked, staying as polite-sounding as he could, because his voice naturally had a jeering tone, which is not a tone you'd want to talk to your boss with.
"If I am not misunderstood, Evening relocated himself to Ponyville already, Joax is nowhere to be found, and Skull is... unreliable... and by that I mean absolutely shit... to handle things carefully." as a General of the highest class, Mogar didn't have to care about other's feelings when not in battle.
"So it's up to me, don't worry sir, I won't let you down!" Mareon stood up and saluted.
"Get your ass, and the rest of you, out of my office, Sparkles." normally Mogar would have just bashed him upside the head, but while jockeying his office desk, he felt like things could be a bit more casual.
"Shouldn't I take the package, sir?" the smaller pegasus asked, pointing to the smallish box laying on the middle of the desk.
"Yes, take it now." pointing with his shotgun staff, Mogar let out an angry snarl as Jeering slipped back into his usual voice, which was a mixture of condescending, and jokingly insulting.
"Okay, and might I say, nice helmet, sir." that was the left thing the sunglasses-wearing stallion said before zooming down the hallway.
"What?" Mogar took off his helmet and looked at it.
He had grabbed Forger's headdress, a bronze helmet with a pair of little bear ears attached (almost cute looking) to the top, placed there by the axe-wielding Arms Forger's affinity to bears.
"Great, I probably just looked like a fucking idiot, actually, now that I think about it..." he looked into his mirror, seeing himself, "I like it, I might make my own, at least I'm not as idiotic as Liberator." he reminisced his lime green friend, his gentle voice and caring hooves belied his tendency for doing/saying really, really, REALLY stupid things.
"At least I won't say things like; 'WhAAAt if, you're legs, didn't know they were legs? Celestia fucking Morningflame he can be so DAMN IDIOTIC!" his voice instantly raised to an angry shout.
He heard muffled laughter from behind the door, "GET TO PONYVILLE YOU FUCKING BASTARD JEERING!!!" he screamed in rage.
Jeering immediately hauled ass and flew away.
<cutaway>
Mareon didn't have the flying prowess to go the whole five miles, so he was now trotting quickly to Ponyville.
"Oh man, oh boy, oh wow, this is soooo exciting." he said to all of the nothing around him.
It was all either trees with black trunks and black leaves, or fields of black grass, at least the sky was still mostly blue.
He didn't fear the dark, he had bunked with Evening long enough to learn about the 'sacredness' and 'vileness' of darkness.
"Evening says that; if black is with blue, it's sacred, and it should be loved, for it brings comfort," the black maned pegasus heard a low growl, like that of a Sin beast, "... but he also said that if black is with red, then it's vile, and should be feared, for it brings horrors," another low growl, "... and now I wish that I didn't start speaking out loud, because I tempted fate when I did that, and fate is a... very.... bad-mannered pony." his jeers where mitigated by fears
"Ho-kay, this is bad, this is BAD, this is VERY NOT GOOD, I'm gonna.... I'm gonna die." his tone wasn't fear, he actually sounded like he was whining about dying.
"But I don't wannadie, I'm too handsome to die." he complained, accelerating into a gallop.
He saw a large black mass lumbering around up ahead.
"Looks like I'm gonna be a ninja, or at least a try-hard." the words were spoken in his usual voice, almost jovial, with painfully heavy amounts of sarcasm.
Jumping over the lethargic being, he turned around and ran backwards, gazing back at the thing.
It opened what was presumably its eyes, they were red.
"Black and blue, it won't harm you, black and red, it wants you dead," he recited, eyes growing as wide as possible as a giant mouth was opened up on its face.
"It's an Alver, its mouth is big enough to swallow four ponies whole, and I'm only one pony." he was a 'great mather' as he always called mathematicians, and with his 'great' math skills, he found that he had a one-fourth of the normal chance to be eaten.
"Jeering-3PO, never tell me the odds." the line was cheesy, easily over-doable, and poorly executed to boot.
Yet he laughed.
"Drawing his sword, Jeering asked," are you here to steal my stuff?
Wait what? Oh LUNADAMMIT JEERING, you pulled a Pinkie Pie and switched your speech with the narration.
"Sorry." Mareon apologized, correcting his metaphysical mistakes.
Mareon wasn't the most perceptive of ponies, no, that title went to somepony else, he didn't know who, because he lacked the perceptive ability to gain that information.
Still, he was a knight, a knight that was about a mile out from Ponyville, maybe a half, maybe a quarter, maybe a tenth, he didn't know, it wasn't his position to know.
His position was to wave a sword around, have a nice voice, and look pretty.
The last two were accomplished by merely living, the first one was harder than it looked.
His sword drawn and pointed at the black-and-red monster, Jeering interrogated, "Are you here to steal my stuff?"
*ROOOOOAAAAARRR*
"I'll take that as a yes, luckily I have my bow, the one that I use... sometimes." he shot arrows in the air.
"AAAAAAYYYYYOOOOOOOO buddy." he said as he charged the Sin, sword held at his side at the moment.
Getting close enough, Sparkles lashed his sword out, the handle held firmly in his hoof's magnet-like grip.
"I'm digging this Soldier Style." a series of X-cuts hit both of the small red things he called eyes.
Magical fire and force enhanced each strike, threatening to either set the monster ablaze, electrocute it, or choke it out.
"Ha ha, Mexicolt filly face, say 'Why not both', because the joke, it is, the funnies." the knight found what intelligence he had before lost to the passion of music.
"Oh oh-oh-OH-OH, and the castle feels SO good, I came to kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, yeah, unh, I'll BLOW IT UP, with some TNT, I think Skull has a lot of that stuff." his thoughts trailed off as he jumped into the air, his heavily serrated sword trailing wisps of fire, arcs of lightning, and poison particles.
"Enchanted diamond swords are, le bestness." if anyone were to hear him, they would probably think he had lost his marbles.
The two small red openings let out a shriek of pain.
"Ooooooh, silly me~, it's not an Alver, it's a Beholder, the big thing is the eye and the two small things are mouths." he said as a tentacle knocked him and his sword away.
The Beholder got closer, wanting nothing more than to turn this pest into stone.
*THOCK*
"Hmm?" Mareon dared not open his eyes, but he had heard an odd noise.
Jeering felt his body being washed over by a numbing sensation, like stone was being set around him.
Opening his eyes, he saw that there were several holes in the Beholder's main eye, all of its ocular fluids had gushed out and covered him.
"Oh ew~, thank Luna for my arrows taking so damn long to come down, but ew~." his arrows had, indeed, taken so long to fall down, that they had conveniently saved his life.
He wouldn't suffer the 'Encased in stone' thing like Discord had.
"I.... totally meant to do that." he would tell tales about it later, tales that painted him as a lot more valiant hero, but for right now he would think up these tales while trotting to Ponyville.
A border guard stopped him for a few moments, using a scanner device and going over him.
"Oh wow, I am the threateningest looking pony to have ever crossed the border of the town of this town of Ponyville, I am like a knight, but I am a knight, and I have a sword, a sword of swordiness and lightning, can I finish my delivery now?" the pegasus rambled, flaring out his wings and waiting for procedure to be complete.
"Well, Sir Flankhole the Sarcastic, you're clear for entry." the young mare said, putting her scanner back into her saddlebag and moving on.
"Right, okay, that is, the coolness." he wasn't exactly trying to be a flankhole, but not everypony understood that he:
A) had a job to do, and B) had a cutie mark for sparkles and jeers
Flying from where he was standing to the Books & Branches Library, it was very easy to find, seeing as how it was a giant tree in a town mainly composed of hay-thatch roofed houses made of wooden supports and bleached granite masonry.
Casting his eyes lazily to the tree itself, not just its presence, he noted that it was changing from brown wood and dark green leaves to white wood and azure blue leaves.
"Huh, Joax must be changing it." he observed, his eyes slowly moving from the tree to the ground from behind his sunglasses.
Despite all of the pressures that his superiors and Evening put on him, his life was actually really easygoing and slow-paced. In fact, it was almost like the only pressure he got was from the superiors and Evening.
Being a knight was easy, put on your armor, strap on your weapon, walking patrol or go someplace for a few hours, and you're done for the day. Of course Evening had insisted that knights had to live by things like 'Codes of Honor, Conduct, Chivalry, and Valiance, because we aren't just plain guards, no, we earned our position as better ponies through tenacity and living-through-things.
He wasn't about that at all, he was only a knight because he had heard that the job was very liberating and empowering, like learning an important skill, or drinking one of Joax's healing potions.
Giving the door a single knock before opening it, he walked inside.
The knock was only courtesy, some might say that it was rude to just walk in within being invited, to that he would say, "It's a public library, if I wasn't supposed to be allowed entry, the door would be locked or have a sign on it, if I am supposed to be allowed entry, then I can just walk in with no problems." receiving an odd look from Twilight after thinking that, he realized that he had been thinking out loud.
"Oh, sorry about that, I was thinking about how some ponies feel that they need to knock before entering, but it's a public library, so ponies are allowed to come and go as they please, within reasonable limits, anyways, SPECIAL DELIVERY from Canterlot, it's for you." Mareon greeted.
"Oh, thank you....." the mage motioned for him to introduce himself.
"Everypony calls him Sparkles." Joax came up from the basement, levitating a pair of gems and a few piles of yellow glassy-looking powder, as well as his trademark Philosopher's Stone, its magenta surface glowing with orangish-red energy.
"Okay, thank you Captain Spark-" the lavender mare was cut off.
"SSSCHCHCHSSSSSSHHHHHH! Don't rile up the reference spotters and copyrighters." Sparkles reprimanded, looking around fearfully.
"I was just being courteous, Captain Sparkles." the mare replied, a bit miffed.
*foaming and gurgling sounds* Jeering "Sparkles" Mareon fell backwards, his mouth foaming with frustration and rage.
"Is he going to be okay?" Twilight asked, suddenly concerned for the pegasus.
"He does this every time somepony says 'Captain Sparkles', he'll be fine, he always is, let's see what he brought, probably spell components." Ryther concluded.
"It's smells like such." Twilight and Jeering said at the same time.
Jeering was suddenly standing there, looking as lazily calm as he usually was, his front hooves were stained with Sin blood, it was how he dealt with rage.
Unwrapping the packaging paper with his magic, Joax looked intently as the contents fell onto the floor.
All three pairs of eyes went wide, Twilight felt sick, Jeering felt saddened, Joax felt a bit confused.
The only thing wrapped up in the packing paper....
.................................................................................................. the head of Vladimir Ursin, the leader of Bearussia.
"Well..... that's....." Jeering tried to hold the mocking remark in, looking at Joax, who glared at him in a violent way, as if threatening him to not say it.
"That's...... that's......" it was coming out, and the black maned pegasus couldn't hold it in, as if it was a full bladder and he had been holding it for hours, "That's....... unbearable!" the pun provoked an attack from Joax, who set about first removing the obsidian helmet, then smacking him across the face several times.
"OW *smack* OW *smack* IT WAS *smack* WORTH IT *smack smack* OH LUNA WHY DOES THIS HURT SO MU-*punch in mouth*" he stopped there, laying still as his eyes occasionally blinked.
"Hey you two, what's up with...." Evening trailed off as he walked inside, the first thing he noticed was Jeering laying on the floor in pain, but he stopped when he saw Vladimir's head.
"Well.... shit." he responded, it was an understatement.
"That's *cough* what I, wha-*cough* what I said. *cough* Jeering croaked as Evening did not realize that he was standing on top of the pegasus' stomach and chest.
"Well, I must say, Bearussia will be fine, same with Equestria." Warden and Mareon said at the same time as the unicorn teleported himself and Jeering to be standing beside each other.
"What makes you assume that Equestria will be fine, or even recover in the first place?" Twilight was shocked at their morbidly-high-seeming optimism.
"Well..." Jeering started, wondering what his last lime of the trailer should be.
"....... it's just a hunch." he finished as the background and background noise faded away..
Fade to black.
Trailer end.
"Alright, those had to be good, right?" P1 asked nervously while he was sweating bullets, no literally as soon as the sweat dripped off of his face it turned into a bullet.
The collective consciousness of the entity known as 'reader' no doubt had differing opinions.
"Well, here's the last batch of trailers, then I'll be off again, and you can leave." the ten foot man had regained some confidence in his abilities to please, and directed the reader's gaze to the stage again.
Another set of contents came up, and all vision was replaced with them.
Ponies: Celestia Trailer
Princess Celestia, known to a special few as Celestia Morningflame, was awoken by the sounds of screams.
It was night time, the time when she usually slept, who in the name of Tartarus was screaming at this hour?
Much to her own chagrin, she got out of bed and walked out into the hall.
Her warm, massage-like mattress was calling back to her, telling her to go back to sleep, and let the problem sort itself.
She looked at the Lunar Patrol guards stationed outside of her door, noting how there 'at attention' stance stares seemed a lot colder than usual, then simply went back inside.
She hadn't noticed the change of décor.
The orange walls were replaced with purple, the red carpet changed to blue, even the colored cracks in the polished marble floor were changed from yellow to gray.
The solar diarch laid back into bed, letting sleep overtake her again.
In Celestia's dreams
Her dream was a lot nicer than usual, the young alicorn was in a land of milk, ice-cream, cookies, and most of all, CAKE!
Messily eating everything in sight, even her pastel-colored mane and tail had reverted to pink, which somehow gave her a lot more stomach space.
Getting really messy eating cake and ice-cream, not to mention a little-too-enthusiastic drinking of yogurt, she washed her messy body in the milk river.
Looking up at the sky, she saw that it was night-time, she couldn't recall the last time she had seen the night sky.
It was awe-inspiring, amazing, fantastic, magnificent, glorious, and all sorts of beautiful.
The black canvas spattered and speckled with stars of all tiny sizes and colors, the moon providing a calming white illumination, not as intense as the sun, but it was much more comforting.
She shed a few tears, this was what Luna made, she had created it with her brilliant young mind, and all she wanted was for other ponies to see her masterpiece.
Regret panged the white princess's heart, she had so vehemently denied Luna the opportunity to show her craft to the world.
Very few ponies stayed up at night, those that did were mostly either astronomers who were too emotionally distant to appreciate it, or ponies lost out in the dark, too afraid to see the night as anything but a trap.
Taking a long time to simply absorb the sky with her eyes, she felt something trying to tug her away from it.
Oh yes right, she had to bring in the sun....
Could she though? Could she bring up the sun and hide away this beauty?
She had to, it was the only way to allow the kingdom to grow, the sun brought strength, the moon brought wisdom, she saw this now.
She tried and tried to bring up the sun, but her power faltered, she felt guilty for the way she had treated Luna.
She only hoped that Luna would not treat her the same.
A few hours after Celestia awakens to night after noon
It was awful, Luna, overcome by grief for her night, had lashed out in hatred, using magic that Celestia had no idea existed.
She tried and tried, but she found no answers to what beautiful horrors and horrible beauties that the dark brought against her.
*clank clank clank clank clank*
"Your highness, we have brought you those of the highest treason." the Solar Soldiers reported, before leaving.
Celestia looked up from her scroll, furiously written equations and notes scrawled all over it.
She was facing a group of silver armored ponies, four stallions and two mares.
"Who are you all?" she asked in an authoritative tone, trying to maintain face.
"We are her true majesty's chosen, we are Luna Nightstone's paladins!" one of them spat.
"I wish to know your names." Celestia reworded.
"I am Shank Grim, chosen for the v-void." the first unicorn spat back, his tone was gushing venom, his armor was black.
"I am Blue Comet, chosen for the stars." a noble looking pegasus stallion, his face was hard and blank, his armor was cobalt.
"I am Thorn Forger, chosen for the ice." a large earth stallion looked like he was trying to stay strong, but his eyes were full of worry, his shoes were missing.
"I am Joax Ryther Hellstorm, chosen for the s-void." the other unicorn had an apathetic tone on, he was the only one not wearing armor.
"I am Gray Starlight, chosen for the sea." the pegasus mare replied, her eyes watery and teeth grit, as though the warmth of the day was too much for her to handle.
"I am Shrouded Rose, chosen for the earth." the earth mare answered, her eyes half open in boredom.
She looked at each of the six for a long time, contemplating the situation.
They were now facing the sister/banisher of their chosen ruler, Princess Luna, who would not return to Equestria for an entire millennia.
A paladin swore to glorify their deity and dedicate life, thought, and belief to whom they believed in.
Essentially, Celestia had ripped these ponies sole purpose in life away from them.
"If you have a foal, keep your head raised." the white alicorn asked, receiving heads up.
She looked at the ones that stayed up, Shank Grim, the gray maned and white coated stallion, Thorn Forger, the white maned and brown coated stallion, and Gray Starlight, the brown maned and gray coated mare.
"You three may leave." the solar diarch couldn't bear to have three families who were no doubt already crushed by religious loss, burdened further by familial loss as well.
The three ponies looked at her in disbelief, then looked at each other, then back to her.
Undoing the leg spreaders on their forelegs, the shackles on their back legs, the copper choker on Thorn, the silver wing tie on Gray, and the golden magic blocker on Shank.
"I implore you to depart, leave your armor here though." surprisingly, they did as she said, removing their armor and then leaving peacefully, she looked to the remaining three, "Now then, you three, having no family, will be executed." her tone was now grave.
Blue Comet stepped forward as best he could, standing defiant in the face of certain death, all in the hope that death was not as certain as it seemed.
"I shall not back down, for I am a messenger of the goddesses and gods, smite me, oh mighty smiter, do your worst with your hellish light and exhausting heat." Blue cursed her, sliding his surprisingly thin hooves out of the leg spreader and removing his helmet.
Standing there in his white coat and red-highlights-on-blue mane and tail, his eyes golden as the stars, he stared at Celestia with impudence and fury.
"Well then, you have earned a fate worse than execution." Celestia would not stand for such defiance in the presence of the exacting rightful justice.
She gave a different-than-usual incantation, the sparkles in her mane shining like the stars that they were.
Blue Comet's façade of discipline was utterly shattered, he began to scream and rage to the heavens at what she was chanting, it was an outright bastardization of her majestic highness, the great Goddess of the Moon, Princess Luna Nightstone of Equestria's, beautiful, wise, and ever-holy glory.
Yet despite his protests, or rather in spite of them, the moon rose with Celestia's words, sending down a silver beam of energy and disintegrating the metal winged pegasus on the spot.
Levitating the earth mare onto the spot where Blue stood a moment ago, the solar diarch began the other incantation, the colors of her mane becoming like streaks of fire.
Vicious sun, End all,
liiiiiiiiiife
The dusk, Shall no longer cause,
striiiiiiiiiife
The sun sent down a red-shrouded beam of golden energy, the greatest of all light magic.
The Minaro Smite
Celestia looked to the only pony of the six that had been unarmored, his purple coat and yellow-stripe-on-brown mane and tail were very visible under his gray vest, brown pants, and black slippers.
"So, mister masked unicorn, what do you have to say for yourself." Celestia had done enough executions to make this part her favorite, finding out what excuses the guilty had to offer.
"I must say, those are impressive spells, and merely by witnessing them, I think I could do them, but enough talk, I cast this spell with a time limit this time." with that, Joax suddenly became a silhouette of purple light, his form shifting for a few seconds before the magic blocker and leg divider fell to the floor, the shackles removed in a second, then he was back to normal, uninhibited by physical objects.
"I must say, I will see you again, Celestia, I will see you again, eventually." he said, casually walking towards her.
The princess of the day was furious, she summoned the Solar Zweihoofer, kissing the crossbar and throwing its wavy blade at him.
He caught it in midair and responded with "Wow, that is a really shitty way to throw a sword, you should have lobbed it upwards, then gravity would be on your side." he dropped the golden massive golden sword and pulled a pickaxe out of nowhere.
"Now then, if you'll excuse me, I must make my leave to another world." he turned at conjured up a bit of purple magic, right before leaving he said, "SAYONARA, BITCH!"
*BAMF*
Celestia cast out a detection spell across all of Equus, finding nothing from Joax, she sighed in defeat, even when she won, she lost.
She won the fight with her sister, lost her sister for a thousand years.
Succeeded in finding the traitors, failed to execute four out of six.
She would manage to make it a thousand years alone, yet she wouldn't be able to deal with her sister when she returned.
She would find a student to pass her knowledge onto, but she would fail to reconnect to the rest of society.
She would help Twilight Sparkle grow, but she would fail to help her grow up.
She would live to face her sister again, but lose the fight when it happened.
That day a thousand years ago, the day when the sun rose at 1PM, was the longest day in normal history, because the sun didn't set until 7PM the next day.
A painful reminder disguised as a holiday every year, a shift of timeframes every season, a full moon every month, a 24-Pack of alcohol every week, a crying fit every day, a sigh every hour, a thought every minute, and a pang of regret every second.
It was this way for so long, that it had taken her until Discord returned to quit most of these habits, and until Nightmare Night a few weeks later to break the others.
Celestia had lived for many millennia, but she was aged like a mare in her early thirties, Luna was like a mare in her mid twenties.
The days passed by like the blink of an eye.
"So, great Light Bringer, tell me, why have you done this? You started in the right, you had so much glory and love that we designed the Medal of Honor in tribute to you!" she shouted at the smug-faced tan alicorn standing about five meters away.
She had brought him to a cloud platform in the Skyrealm, a place only accessibly by alicorns.
"You don't understand, Celly, I'm like you, I find it impossible to give up Pride, it is my Element of Sin after all." the suited bleach-blond stallion replied.
"You come to me on the day of reckoning, after KILLING the warrior known as Ruby Rose, and you accuse me of this? What do you think this is like? You think I'll be buddy-buddy and give you a hoof-bump, then we go to the bar? No, no it's not like that at all. This is life, in life sometimes you have to be cold, vicious, selfish, and mean, sometimes you have to be warm, friendly, sacrificing, and kind. This is not the latter, nor am I the former," she stopped for a moment, her horn charging up powerful magic, "I am Princess Celestia Morningflame of Equestria, and I will not stand for your corruption any longer."
"Very well then, have a medal, you brave, yet sinful bitch." the demon-pony pitched a small object at the white alicorn.
Celestia pulled the golden mass off of her face and looked at it.
"Oh yeah, by the way, the sun doesn't hurt me, despite me being the most corrupting motherfucker in the world, I'm still the bringer of light." he shouted before teleporting away in a brilliant shower of gold and silver particles that left light trails where they fell.
Celestia sighed, looking at the medal, then to the slowly fading cloud of radiance.
"You may have started off in the right, finding the Tree of Harmony and guiding us to it, all to defeat Discord, who had offered you power and wealth beyond your wildest dreams, but you put yourself in the wrong by trying to take it all for yourself, claiming that you had rightful ownership, such vileness cannot be tolerated." she said to the empty air.
Teleporting herself back to Equestria, Celestia sat in her throne again and sighed.
Luna's turquoise eyes gazed out across the vast expanses of nothingness, there it was, the Tower of Tyranny, the Capital of Corruption, the Bastion of Bastardization.
The Pillar of the Sin Princes.
Below her was the Vile Void, not the source of corrupt dark power, but the actual physical manifestation of it, the Sacred Void, alternately, was the infinites of outer space.
Still though, it was odd how they had all gotten here, who'd have thought that there was a tunnel to Hell underneath Canterlot Mountain Range?
Gazing back to the peninsular ledge on which the last three Hunters were, she saw them fighting vigorously with the last few demons.
The revered Ruby Rose.
The feared Jaune d' Arc.
The Jagermeister David Ozpin.
All three of them had made it this far, but now they would face the final test.
Landing with a clacking sound from her armor shoes, Luna observed the tower's peak.
A ring of flames (currently deactivated) covered the rim, in the middle was a set of seven chairs set at a triangular table, each of them with label.
A blood colored one inscribed 'Sad', a purple one inscribed 'Bell', pink marked 'Ass', green one marked 'Levi', yellow mark 'Mon', brown marked 'Bub', and at the base of the triangle was an brilliant orange chair with 'Lucy' written on it.
"Hello Lulu, nice to see you again." the smug voice came from behind her.
She whipped around to face Him, the last of the Princes of Sin.
The infamous Light Bringer.
The one known as.................................... Lucifer.
"So, you have finally chosen to stand and fight us like a true warrior?" Luna asked.
"Well, after all of you not only thwarted my schemes to take over the last bits of the world, you now have turned to the offensive position, so I have no choice." Lucifer explained, brushing some blood off of his suit and flexing his dead-gray wings.
"You were banished for a reason, not much unlike the reason that I was, but yet you insist on committing evils against Equus and all those who live on it, so you will be forced to pay the ultimate price." Luna stood her ground, turning into Nightmare form to be on eye-level with the demon lord.
The tan stallion only smirked, "You are very brave, y'know, they make medals for tha-" he was cut off by a tri-bladed slap across the face, cutting open his nose and cheeks.
"I know the story of the Medal of Honor, and it shall be remade for the glory of Equus United, after you are righteously slain!" the blue alicorn reared back and gave the tan alicorn another tri-bladed slap from the other side.
"T-t-that..." the red-eyed alicorn smeared his own blood across his face, "That will be never, I will not go quietly into the void, not at all." his slash wounds healed, but his blood had dried onto his fur, "You may have taken the rendered your sister powerless to unknowingly aid me, but I SHALL PREVAIL!" his pupils were now pinpricks in a sea of red irises.
"In place of a Dark Lady, they shall have a KING! NOT DARK, but AS BEAUTIFUL AND AS TERRIBLE AS THE DAWN! Treacherous as the SEEEEEAAAA! Stronger than THE FOUNDATIONS of EQUUS ITSELF! All shall LOVE ME.... and DESPAIR!" his eyes were filled with horrible orange light.
"I was prepared in case you might say something like that." Luna replied, a small smile forming on her lips.
Luna waited a few moments, listening to the enraged snorting of the Light Bringer.
The lunar diarch began the incantation.
Cruel moon, Bring the,
eeeeeeend,
Thy enemies, Shall never rise,
aaagaaaaaaiiinnn
A hole was blasted through the ceiling, a the moon had launched down a blue-shrouded beam of silver energy, the greatest of all dark magic.
The Majora Smite.
It was not her destiny to slay the lord of demons, the ruler of Sin, the master of corruption.
Destiny said nothing about her beating the ever-loving shit out of him for his transgressions.
Already in great pain, Lucifer was broken all the more by the strikes of shod hooves on his skin.
Luna swore each of this hits to someone or something.
*SMACK* for Celestia, after he had drained her of power, forcing Luna to do a grievous deed against her.
*SMACK* for Discord, who was the original victim of Lucifer's burning light, now that his chaotic powers has been re-directed towards constructive goals, he had been a really nice guy.
*SMACK* for Ruby, who he had driven into the void, even though the young girl came back with no problem, it was still a no-doubt traumatizing experience for the little Saint.
*SMACK* for the others, if it hadn't been for him, they wouldn't have been dragged into Equestria to begin with.
*SMACK* for her mother, Luna could feel her blue eyes, with their mixed emotions, gazing down at her desecrating of this abomination's body.
*SMACK* for herself, even though she was the one in control of it, he had been the one who cursed both Luna and Celestia with their super-powered evil sides, Nightmare Moon and Supernova Sun.
And one last *SMACK* that threatened to crack her hooves, that one was for all of the world and everypony, no, everybody, both alive and dead, that was or had been in it when this vile stallion had enacted his plans for domination.
Luna only hoped that Ruby, Jaune, and Ozpin, would be able to take Lucifer out.
As the blue alicorn flew up to the surface, she created a dark bridge across the vast Vile Void.
A few minutes later
Landing on the surface, Luna got her bearings and looked towards Canterlot.
She saw the ghostly images of her paladins, Shanka, Blue, Thorn, Gray, Shrouded, and even one from the still-alive Joax, she had learned of his agelessness not long before setting off into Hell.
The images dispersed as her new paladin, Evening Warden, appeared in front of her, a black-with-blue-trim cleric/bishop's robe worn underneath his platemail, a moon symbol placed at the front.
"Milady, I am here to see you safely to Canterlot." he greeted, looked down into the hole in the ground.
The blue trim turned red and he cast a maroon illumination into the hole.
Red returned to blue and the paladin turned back to his sworn.
Luna smiled at his slight naiveté combined with his boyish charm, not to mention his great faith in her.
"Well, my faithful paladin, lead the way." she commanded lightly as her armor faded into hammerspace storage, replaced by her black and silver regalia.
"Alright, follow me." he instructed, trotting towards Canterlot.
All throughout the night, the two enjoyed each other's company.
Luna felt truly loved and adored, she listened intently to his words.
"And so, in my song, the two ponies, Shine and Gray, despite being so different, they truly love each other, and Shine proves his love by taking the ever-beautiful Gray's maidenhead." Warden's life's motto was NATSTW (nat-stew), 'not afraid to say the words'
"So, they had sex?" Luna asked.
"Yes, yes they had sex, a lot of it, actually, the song actually goes into a whole verse about how much and how many different types and positions of sex they had, of course I'm sure that if I sang it, you, milady, in all of your wisdom and, *ahem* experience, would surely be able to tell me some positions that I missed." the scarlet stallion, for once, was actually blushing slightly.
"Actually, just wisdom, no experience, I can walk dreams, so I have seen many things." lunar diarch corrected.
"Oh, okay, no experience then, well.... um..... would you ma-" he was cut off.
"No, no I will not have sex with you." the blue alicorn declined.
"Okay, okay, I understand..... shit." Evening was willing to accept this loss.
"I have more important things to do than to copulate with my paladin." Luna added.
"I get it, I won't ask again." the armored stallion assured.
The rest of the trip was silent.
Later, at Canterlot
"Alright, you may take leave, loyal one." the lunar diarch gave the order as soon as her haunches met the night-themed throne.
The throne, rather than simply build two of them, was enchanted to be either day-themed or night-themed with a little bit of magic.
Evening eagerly shook his head yes, saluted, then teleported away, he had a sister to spend time with.
Luna smiled at him, at her guards, at the tapestries, at all of the things around her.
She felt it, she felt the love.
And love was all that she needed.
Ponies: Scootaloo Trailer
Flying through the sky, blazing through the sky, going so fast, soaring through the air, Scootaloo was loving it.
She was loving all of it.
Her Law's Edge and the more recent Phoenix Bullhawk were laying on the recolored grass below her,
It had been a couple of years since the end of Lucifer's reign of Sin, but the mightiest foe of all was Ontological Inertia, the Sin were still out there, still keeping the world suppressed, but they would fall eventually.
Her brother, Evening Warden, the one and only paladin of Luna, had helped her along the way to the present.
First he had sent her the parts for the Law's Edge, a SW500 revolver combined with a knife, it had also been enchanted with ice magic, so the large bullets would do even more damage since they would be going against a brittle target rather than a flexible one.
The next bout of help was a manual on the basics of flight, to which she facehoofed after learning a simple maneuver she had never been informed of.
After that, flying had been incredibly easy for her, no thanks to Rainbow Dash.
She had learned the problem with Rainbow Dash, flying came to her without thinking, so she only needed to learn the advanced stuff, leaving her clueless on teaching the orange filly about the basics.
In fact, if Scootaloo had wanted to fly in the first month of life in Ponyville, she could have asked Fluttershy and been off the ground in an hour.
The latest helping had been a series of packages with parts for a large weapon not unlike Ruby's.
The first parts Steyr AUG's bullpup body, with an extending stock, then the parts for an FN FAL's barrel and foregrip.
The next set of parts was for a half-halberd-half-naginata, the sword above the barrel came back several inches and protruded forward several inches, totaling about twenty inches in length, the axe blade on the bottom was a convex one, and went forwards several inches and backwards to cover the foregrip in such a way that left plenty of space for her grown-up hooves.
The last bits and pieces were for decorations, she had engraved an angelic wing onto the axe blade, an elongated image of a pegasus filly in a bucking pose on the foregrip, the word 'Dust' on the more frontal area of the frame alongside a front-facing skull with no lower jaw, a bull's-eye on the more read area of the frame, the word 'Scoot' on the bit from which the stock extended, and a small cloud-with-lightning bolt, small star-with-tail, and a small moon on the flat of the sword.
The Phoenix Bullhawk was named so because:
The word 'halberd' was close to the words 'Hell Bird' which sounded almost like a description of a phoenix, thus making it 'Phoenix'.
The rifle was a bullpup, and it was like a hawk, made for adequate speed and great precision, so the 'pup' in 'bullpup' was replaced with 'hawk', thus making 'Bullhawk'.
It was also enchanted with lightning magic and chambered in a custom thirteen-by-one-hundred-eleven millimeter cartridge, making it very, very powerful.
Why shouldn't she had a powerful weapon? It wasn't like the Sin were going to limit themselves, so why should she?
Her cutie mark had also come in, it was a day like when Rainbow Dash got her own cutie mark.
While she was twice RD's age at the time of her own cutie mark acquisition versus the spectral maned mare's cutie mark acquisition, it still didn't make it any less awesome.
In fact, it was almost like fate had been an asshole to her, just so it could be all-the-more generous later on.
She remembered that day as clearly as when she had lived it.
~~~Flashback~~~
Scootaloo was thirteen years old, starting today, because today was her birthday, and she was going to do something awesome.
Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, the other four of the Mane Six, and most importantly, Evening, Sweetie Belle, and Applebloom, had encouraged her to do something awesome, and she agreed wholeheartedly.
So now she was perched on a cloud high above the ground, the re-greened field north of Ponyville had a few lights carried by those who were watching, which meant her brother, her princess, the Mane Six, her friends, and teams RWBY and JNPR.
They had lights because it was night out, which she knew would only make her big boom all the more amazing.
Flying as high up as she could, Scootaloo could feel the sheer cold of high altitude, but it didn't bother her, not at all, she was a full blooded pegasus, so she could handle extreme temperatures.
Diving down, she thought of great things during her descent.
A quote by a wise stallion who had been dead for many decades.
"All great things are simple, and many can be expressed in single words: Freedom, Justice, Honor, Duty, Mercy, and above all, Hope, - Whinnyston Churchill." she recited as the speed ramped up greatly.
It was exhilarating, the feeling of the wind whipping past her.
The mach cone had formed and was getting narrower and narrower.
Scootaloo smiled as widely as possible, this was the moment that she had been dreaming and waiting for.
There was a mighty explosion, then she couldn't hear anything, she flew down a bit and turned back up to see the effect of her Sonic Flareboom.
Orange and purple fire raced out across the sky, Scootaloo, with her newfound extreme awesomeness, wrote her name in fire.
Scootaloo Hotshot
Letting her speed peter out before gliding to a gentle stop, the orange filly listened to the shouts and cheers of the others, the loudest of all being her brother's.
Then everybody noticed her cutie mark, a large, dark orange star with a long, thick trail of purple fire coming out of it, the multi-shaded flames trailing down her hind legs.
The celebration moved into town, where the already-going-on Winter Moon Celebration was taking place.
Torches lit with green, blue, and purple flames lined the streets, many ponies out and about, enjoying the stars, though they had been distracted by the wave of fire in the sky.
A single glance of little Scootaloo and the other eighteen ponies and humans following her, along with her somewhat glowing star-and-fire cutie mark, told them all they needed to know.
It had been the best day, and the best-er night, of her life.
~~~End Flashback~~~
After that, Scootaloo had built a cloud-house, cloud-houses were easy to make because it was literally just clouds, and clouds can be found anywhere above Ponyville.
Ponies thought that Rainbow Dash was loaded because she had a fancy cloud-house with rainbow waterfalls, but that was bullshit, Rainbow Dash had merely spent a lot of time making her cloud-house, adding extensions to it, the only thing that really cost much was the rainbows, which went for about five bits a gallon, which came out to the cyan pegasus spending about five hundred bits on rainbows, while she had probably spent about two days making everything else.
With the contemplation of cloud-houses over with, Scootaloo swooped down to grab her equipment, and missed.
She looped up and back around, then swooped down again, and missed again.
"Dammit." the violet maned pegasus cursed under her, landing on the ground and taking a minute to put the revolver in the holster and the rifle on the strap.
When everything was securely fastened to orange filly's person, she flew off again.
Flying through the sky, blazing through the sky, going so fast, soaring through the air, Scootaloo loved it.
Every part of it, from the complex emotions that flight gave her, to the fire trails she left behind, to the sheer speed of it all, to the simple feeling of wind whipping past her, she loved it with a great passion.
It had been the pleasure she earned, the home she adored, the one thing that never failed to make her smile.
A few minutes later
Scootaloo had returned home, placing her weapons in the small closet near the door, the cheery filly fluttered up the stairs, past her bed, out to her balcony, and laid down on one of the two chairs.
"It's starting soon, y'know." Evening said simply, gazing up at the night sky, counting the stars.
"I know, I got in with no problem, and I know Princess Luna made sure that you were completely barred from restrictions dealing with attendance." the young mare replied.
"I just can't believe, that even though they're gone, even though he's gone, we still have to do.... this, it's the final step to our transformation from a peaceful species to a violent one." the paladin contemplated, abandoning his self-given task of counting the stars.
"Well, sometimes you have to get angry, you have to get meeeean." from the way she said it, Evening could tell that that was a quote, and he knew exactly where it was from.
"I can't believe you watched the movie Dodgeball, I've seen it, I know what's in it." indeed he did, the contents of that particular cinematic production had left him laughing his flank off at the same time he was... *ahem* puking vanilla.
"Really? You of all ponies, the great King of Vulgarity, Evening Warden, you can't handle the thought of me watching a movie in which I can be checking out a few hot pieces of flank at the same time I'm getting tickled pink?" she was sixteen now, which was the legal age for ponies nowadays.
"It's just, you're my little sister, and as your big brother, I'm supposed to feverishly prevent the former and joyfully induce the latter." Warden explained, checking his cloud-walking spell and recharging it.
"Whatever, we should probably get some sleep soon, we ship out tomorrow morning." Scootaloo stood up and trotted back inside
"It's the one time I won't stay up late, the day that I head off to Hope Academy." It was the first year that the prestigious school for warriors would be open.
Laying in the spare bed, Evening drifted off quickly, he cast a sleep spell on himself and was out like a light.
Laying in her own bed, Scootaloo looked up at the moon for a few moments before drifting off herself.
Not in-universe, but in the editing, words appeared upon the moon.
OMNI
"Well, wasn't that great?!?" P1 returned to confidence, or maybe had just thrown fear (and maybe caution) out of the window.
The readers, as usual, had mixed reaction, but the tall god-figure sent them away to their homes again.
"Alright, Blue Comet!" he shouted, his voice booming throughout the area.
"Yes, my liege?" the metal-winged man replied, saluting immediately.
"Turn off the camera." P1 commanded.
"At once, milord." Comet reached over towards the screen, his hand going behind it, "Ah, there's the record button." he muttered, before flexing his arm slightly.
