> We are Many > by Mr Dorito > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Too much pain > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Darkness Where am I? Where is the Merchant sending me? I heard him say he was sending each one of us to different places. Is that light ahead of me? Please be salvation. I was blinded by the light and when it all cleared, I was falling towards the ground. "FFUUUUUUUUUUCCCCCCCCCC-OOF!" I shook my head and stood up, shaking dirt and grass off of my body. "Ugh, where the fuck am I?" I looked around and I was standing in a clearing within what's most likely a forest. No shit Captain Obvious. "Wait, didn't the Merchant say I would gain my character's powers? Then why do I still sound like myself if Ermac sounded like a bunch of voices talking at the same time?" Looking at a rock, I stretched my hand towards it trying to make it levitate, but nothing happened. "FUCK YOU MERCHANT YOU FUCKING LIAR!" In the distance within the treeline, I saw a small glowing green orb floating towards me. "What the hell is that?" I saw another one appear near the first one. Then I saw another, and another, and another until the entire treeline surrounding the clearing was full of these orbs. Oh shit Without warning, they all flew towards me. I tried to swat them away with my hands, but they all seem to bypass them and went into my chest. By the thousands, they all went into my chest and I started getting a huge headache and a burning sensation from my chest. Visions started appearing. I saw Humans, where rags, in chains in what appears to be an auction house. The people selling them and in the audience appear to be equines? They all have different colors. Some had wings, some had horns, and some had neither. Another vision showed a bunch of humans lifting cinder blocks and were forming a wall, while a white equine in golden armor was supervising them. Each vision was worse than the last. I even saw some showing humans being eaten by dog-like and bird-like creatures. My headache increased as I heard voices in my head. Kill them all We must free our brethren Avenge those who have died Show them no mercy The pain increased and I screamed, but my voice sound different. More like, multiple voices screaming at once. Ponyville Twilight was heading home with her human, Osiris, after getting some groceries. "So what's the plan for the rest of the day Twilight", asked Osiris. Twilight looked at him and answered, "Nothing much, the girls are gonna come by later with their humans. Rainbow has been trying to get me put a cloud walking spell on a human so she can keep it. I kept telling her that spell doesn't last very long on a human." "RAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!" Every pony and human jumped at that demonic scream. Twilight was shaking like a leaf and said, "Wha-what was that scream?" She looked around and saw all of the humans clutching their heads in pain. "Osiris, what's wrong?" Osiris was clutching his head in pain and then all of the humans chanted, "Our savior is here." Twilight observed the humans chanting the same thing over and over again. After chanting for about a minute, the humans got up and roared, while attacking every nearby pony. Twilight stared in horror as ponies were being killed or beaten up by the rebellious humans. She looked behind her and saw Osiris with a horrified look. He picked her up and ran to the library. "We need to inform the princesses quickly!" Everfree Forest The voices won't stop talking, all of them telling me to kill. Then, all of a sudden, one of the voices yelled, SILENCE! The voices stopped and the pain was gone. "Who are you", I asked. "I am Horus. Emperor of what used to be the United Terran Empire. I see our savior has finally arrived. "Wait, savior? What are you talking about?" Thousands of years ago, the United Terran Empire used to be the strongest nation on the planet. Surrounding nations waged wars with us to conquer us, and have failed many times. Then one day, the Equestrian princesses Celestia and Luna gathered the leaders of these nations and formed an alliance to defeat us. For years, we fought against impossible odds and we made them pay dearly for every inch of ground, but alas, we did not have the manpower like the allied nations. Everytime we killed one enemy, ten replace them. It all came down to me alone against the world leaders and many soldiers within my throne room. I took down as many as I could until Princess Celestia stabbed me on my back. Heh, good thing I ordered the entire palace to be primed with explosives. As I was on the ground, dying, I pressed the detonator and blew up my palace. Everyone was killed instantly, but unfortunately, it looks like Celestia and Luna survived. "Wow, nice history lesson, but that doesn't explain why you called me "savior". "Simple, before the allied armies mad their final push into the capital city, every human, including myself saw a vision of a dark hooded human with green eyes standing on top of a pile of dead ponies, griffons, minotaurs, etc. "I don't have green eyes, you must be mistaken." Oh really, go check that pond over there. I walked over to a nearby pond and looked at my reflection. My eyes widened in shock as I saw Ermac staring back at me complete with the green eyes and mummy-like skin. Do you believe me now? Now what is your plan of action? For a moment, I stared at my glowing hands. I spotted a rock and stretched my left hands levitating it. Without realizing it, I crushed the rock into dust when I formed my hand into a fist. Walking to a nearby tree, I punched it causing green energy to flash where I punched it. The punch caused the tree to buckle and topple to wards my direction. I quickly floated out of the way. Wait, did I just float? I looked at the ground and I realized I was floating in the air. Chuckling, I forgot that Ermac floated in the air almost all the time. "So, Horus, you know any nearby pony civilizations?" > Expect the Unexpected > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Don't worry girls, Celestia said she's sending some guards here," Twilight said as the Mane Six sat in the library with their humans. Meanwhile, Rainbow Dash looked out the window, watching the humans running around rampant. "Ugh, we should be out there stopping them. We can take them on." "Sorry sugarcube, but have you seen how many humans are out there" asked Applejack. "What I want to know is, why did all of the humans start chanting" Twilight asked. The Mane Six turned to look at their humans who were looking each other nervously. Applejack's human, Jonathan stepped forward. He was very tall for a human and looked almost looked like her brother, Big Macintosh, except with brown hair and was wearing a white t-shirt and blue jeans. "Well, after I heard that scream, I just felt a massive headache. Than for a few seconds, I saw a vision." "What did you see in that vision darling" asked Rarity. Jonathan looked back at the other humans and whispered to them, "Should I tell them?" A woman with dark hair, a black t-shirt with Rarity's cutie mark, and white jeans answered back. "Just tell them. They'll find out sooner or later." Jonathan turned back to the Mane Six. "I-I mean we, saw a vision of a dark hooded human with green eyes holding Celestia by her neck and raising her up in the air. On the other hand, he was holding a beaten up Luna by her horn while standing on top of a pile of dead ponies, griffons, minotaurs, zebras, you name it."(1) The Mane Six looked at each other with worry while Fluttershy hid behind Rainbow Dash. "Why would some meanie-face do that" asked Pinkie Pie. "Don't worry girls, as long as we stay calm, things will be okay. See? Look. The Royal Guards are here," said Twilight pointing to the window where they can all see Guards charging into the town. Everfree Forest So what's the plan of action? "I don't know. I guess I'll just go in there and free any humans. Probably kill everything that tries to stop me. You sound like Magnus. One of my generals. A good man who can take on entire armies by himself, until he fell to Celestia's sword. "Don't worry Horus, maybe you'll meet Magnus again. I did just absorb a few thousand souls. He might be one of them." Maybe. I must ask, what do you plan to do after freeing all of us? "Well, I planned to create an army and then recapture our homeland. Don't you worry Horus, I swear on the souls of mine, and my friends Greg, Nathan, Andrew, and Isaac." Isaac (Erron Black) In the Badlands, a man wearing a stetson rode a giant lizard when all of a sudden, he felt a cold shiver on his back. "What the hell was that? It's suppose to be a hundred degrees out here." He took out a piece of paper with a picture of a Noble pony. "Oh well. Onwards! To Canterlot!" Nathan (Tremor) A hooded figure lay sleeping on the floor of a metal room deep inside a mountain near the Crystal Empire when a cold shiver in his spine woke him up. "Wuzzat?" He looked around and saw he was alone as usual for the past few thousand years. "I hope a ghost didn't decide to live here. That was some Ghost Adventures shit." He then heard something bang on the side of the room. "Hey, I found a metal wall here" said a voice outside. "Showtime." Andrew (Kenshi) On an empty field, a blind man with a sword cut off the head of another one of his enemies who surround him when he felt a cold shiver down his spine. "Hmmm, probably nothing. So, who's next?" "For the Caribou!" Kenshi smirked as another enemy charged him. Greg (Raiden) Deep within the Everfree Forest, a man sat meditating on a boulder while balancing some rocks on top of his straw hat. "Focus, calm down, and breath deeply." He then felt a cold shiver on his back which caused him to lose concentration and letting the rocks fall of his head. Opening his eyes and with an angry look at his face, he commented, "Why do I feel like punching Mark on the face right now?" Mark (Ermac) You'd do that? "Of course, why wouldn't I" I said as we past a tree and saw a town in the distance. Ponyville Flim and Flam were not having a good day. First the humans ran rampant and now the Royal Guards are killing or capturing every human. Fearing they would lose the humans they were selling, they put their cages on a cart and prepared to leave. "We need to get out of here" yelled Flam as he turned around and was met with the sight of a hooded human with green eyes. "Ummmm, nice human?" Flam said as he started backing up to his brother. "Selling slaves? How disgraceful." The figure raised both of his hands in the air, causing Flim and Flam to float. "All slavers must die." He then used his powers to throw the both into the ground head first, and cracking both of their heads open. Walking to the cages, he broke the locks and freed the humans inside. "Look for others and tell them to wait for me at the entrance of the Everfree." "It will be done milord" answered a human who was bowing. He watched them run off, following his orders. Several Royal Guards came then came by and surrounded him. "On the ground now!" "Fools. You think you can stop me?" Ermac raised his hands in the air once again levitating the surrounding Royal Guards. "This human has magic?" said a Royal Guard. "You were all outnumbered from the start." He said as he crushed the Guards slowly causing them to yell out in pain until they were pulp. Ermac then threw them in the air making it look like it was raining blood. "Who's next?" > Divide and Conquer > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- As I walked to the center of the town, I noticed that there was an eerie silence. A few minutes before, I could hear sounds of Humans trashing the place and Royal Guards trying to stop them. I looked at the buildings and saw some of the locals watching me from the windows of the building. They all looked at me with either curiosity, fear, or disgust. That's when Royal Guards sprang from everywhere surrounding me and pointing their spears at me. They kept their distance away from me and one of them in purple armor shouted at me, "Get on the ground human!" Right next to him were six other ponies. One was a purple unicorn with wings and a crown, a rainbow haired pegasus, an orange pony wearing a stetson, a white unicorn with purple hair, a yellow pegasus with pink hair who seems to be doing its best to hide behind the rainbow one, and pink pony who's holding what seems to be a cannon. I thought these ponies didn't have cannons. Me neither milord. Looking up, I saw Pegasi Royal Guards and 2 more of those unicorns with wings. I advise caution, those two are the princesses. Oh, by the way, those unicorns with wings are called alicorns. The white one is Celestia and the blue one is Luna. "I said get on the ground human!" I look back at the purple armored Royal Guard, "You dare command me pony?" All of the ponies stared in shock as they heard my voice which to them, sounded like many voices talking at once. The white alicorn then decided to ask me, "Who made you like this human?" I stared back at her, "We were created by the pain and misery you ponies have caused to all humans. In short, ponykind created us." Hey Ermac, I see you're having trouble with the ponies in your universe. Merchant! What are you doing here and how are you speaking to me? Who is this milord? Do not worry Horus. He is just an acquaintance of mine. I can speak to you and your friends telepathically anytime I want. You don't seem to have gained enough power to take on all of them. Allow me to help. Right behind me, four portals opened up and each one of my friends were thrown out of them before closing. I stared in shock as I saw my friends get up. You're welcome. I'll be seeing you guys later. Erron Black spoke first, "Whoa, fancy seeing all of you here." The ponies stared with confusion at the newcomers. Tremor, with his size hugged both Raiden and Kenshi, "Guys! Holy shit, it's been to long. You guys don't know how long I've waited to see all of you." "This is a touching reunion, but we're gonna need some help here", I said. "What's going on here? Why are they pointing spears at you?" asked Raiden. "Long story short, the humans here are slaves to the ponies and I might have caused havoc here." "More Humans! All of you, get on the ground." That guard is really pissing me off. The five of us got in fighting stances. "Do we have a gameplan here or are we just gonna kill them indiscriminately?" asked Kenshi. I thought about it and analyzed the situation. The Unicorns and regular ponies have us surrounded on the ground, the pegasi surround us on the air, the two princesses are both on the air, those two will be a pain in the ass, and those six other ponies are unknown. They don't seem to be guards, but the purple one seems to be a princess too. I have no clue on how to approach them. "Alright here's the plan, Kenshi, Tremor, and we will handle the ground forces. Erron, you'll snipe those pegasi guards, and Raiden, you handle the princesses." "What? Why me?" "You're the fucking God of Thunder, what's the problem?" "Hehe, well you see, those two are my daughters in my universe." "What? You fucked a horse?" Tremor yelled which the ponies seem to take offense at. "Well to be fair, the ponies at my universe are anthropomorphic and my wife and I knew each other for such a long time. One day-" "Can you handle those two or not?!" yelled Kenshi. "Fine, but I won't kill them and it will be on my terms." With that, Raiden sent a ball of lightning into the air and after a few moments, black clouds appeared. "CORRUPTION!" I looked at Raiden after he yelled he had this creepy demonic smile on his face. His eyes were red and red lightning sparked all around his body. In a blink of an eye, he was gone only to reappear above Celestia, and performing the Electric Fly sending both of them hurdling to the ground. This was all the Royal Guards needed to see as they charged us. 4 Royal Guards charged me and when they were close enough, I lifted them into the air. I looked to my right, there were 3 Guards sneaking up behind Kenshi as he cut some Guards in half with his sword. Right away, I threw the guards I was holding up to the ones sneaking up on him. *SPLAT* I turned around and saw the dead body of a pegasi guard with a whole between the eyes. 3rd Person POV More Pegasi guards dropped from the air like flies as Erron Black sniped them with his two revolvers. One pegasi mare saw the threat he was posing and dived at him. Erron Black noticed the danger and took out his Tarkatan Blade. As the guard flew closer, Erron sidestepped and swung down as the guard passed, severing her head from her body. More dived at him and he took out his revolvers, awarding all of them with a bullet between their eyes. A portion of the pegasi diverted their attention to protecting their princesses who, in the meantime, are being electrocuted by Raiden, Emperor Palpatine style. "UNLIMITED POWER!" Taking out his repeater, Erron picked off the pegasi going after Raiden one by one. Realizing too late, Erron could not react quick enough as another Royal Guard charged him from behind and is now only a few meters away from him, until a stalagmite appeared from the ground and impaled the guard. "You can thank me later." said Tremor as he was holding two guards by their heads and smashing them together and obliterating them. Next to him, an ax made entirely of green crystal appeared out of the ground which he picked up, and charged right into a group of guards. Cutting or smashing every guards in his path of destruction, the guards started backing away from. He stood among the dead guards and yelled, "Run little ponies run!" One guard behind him however, was very much alive. Receiving only a cut to his side, but nothing life threatening. The guard picked up a sword and charged Tremor from behind while he was distracted. Tremor heard the guard coming from behind and prepared to swing his ax, but when he turned around the guard had a sword sticking out of his head. The sword was pulled back by an invisible force and landed in the hands of Kenshi. "Don't get distracted, there's still some left." Kenshi looked at a house to his left causing the ponies inside to back away from the windows in fear. "How can you see around you if you're blind?" "That is story I will tell when we have the time Tremor. You go help Erron, the pegasi are starting to charge him in swarms and he's gonna need your help. I'll handle the rest." "What about Ermac?" There was a loud explosion coming from another street behind the houses to Kenshi's right followed by a shout. "WE WILL DESTROY YOU ALL!" "I think he's got that covered, go before Erron runs out of bullets." "I thought he never runs out." Tremor said as he jogs to Erron's position. "So" Kenshi says as he twirls his sword around and walks towards the group of guards. "Who wants to be first?" They all hesitated until one got cocky, "Come on. It's only a filthy human. A blind one at that! He can't take on all of us!" The guard charged him until he was lifted up in the air. Kenshi then spinned Sento into the air, and slowly, using his telekinesis , pulled the guard into his sword turning his body into mincemeat. (MKX Tele-Copter Fatality) After getting his sword back, Kenshi ran towards the group of guards, all of them started running away in fear. Ermac POV "You are an insolent fool if you thought you can beat me." I said to the guard pony in purple armor as I held him by his neck. Before I could snap his neck, a purple beam hit me on my shoulder launching me into a wall. "Leave my brother alone!" I was dazed for a moment and when it cleared, I looked up to see those six unknown ponies from before. "Give it up human, you have no chance in beating us." The rainbow haired one said. "FOOL! You are but a mere six. We are thousands." The six ponies stared at me with confusion until I teleported behind the purple alicorn. "You are nothing but insects." I picked up the purple and threw her into the window of a building. "TWILIGHT!" The rest yelled for their friends whom they called Twilight. The rainbow one flew towards me quickly and I barely rolled out of the way. She's quick. Not even those pegasi guards flew as quick as her. Several beams of magic flew right passed me as the orange pony charged me. Like the one called Twilight, I grabbed the orange one by her neck and threw her, this time into the white one who was firing beams of magic at me. They both landed in a heap, but they were only dazed not knocked out. "Eat this meanie-face!" The pink one yelled as she fired some sort of cannon at me. I ducked as the projectile flew above me and into a wall. What the hell? Are those party supplies? "You think party supplies will stop us foolish one? We are Ermac! We are Many! You are but one!" "You mean Airmac?" "IT'S ERMAC YOU FOOL!" I said as I levitated her and pulled her towards me, right into my fist. She landed a few feet away from. As I walked towards her to finish her off I heard someone yell to my left. "YOU!" I felt something grabbed my face and I was turned around to see the yellow pegasi's face right in front of me, and she did not look happy. "HOW DARE YOU HURT INNOCENT PONIES AND MY FRIENDS! YOU THINK YOU CAN COME TO THIS TOWN AND HURT EVERYPONY? WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO SAY FOR YOURSELVES!" I feel like I should be scared like a child who angered his parents. So why aren't I? Because you're comprised of thousands of souls. Don't you remember? Oh right. I still need to get used to that whole thousands of souls thing. I stared right back into the yellow pegasi's eyes. "You think you can speak to us as if we are mere children? You think you can talk someone as powerful as me into backing down? You are an imbecile with a death wish." I punched her into her group of friends who are now standing together in front of me. As the purple alicorn helped the yellow pegasus up she said, "He's too powerful. Girls, we need to use the elements!" I watched as their eyes glowed and they floated into the air. This is bad. A rainbow beam just appeared out of nowhere in front of them, and it was heading right to me. It was too fast, even faster than that rainbow pony. I thought this was the end, until Kenshi jumped out of nowhere and deflected the beam into the air with Sento. A few light-years from the planet A white metal ball with one blue eye floated in space while singing a tune. "Oh don't you dare look back. Just keep your eyes on me." I said, "You're holding back, " She said, "Shut up and dance with me!" The metal construct looked to his left and saw some sort of bright object coming straight towards him. "Oh ho, finally!" He said joyfully before the beam disintegrated him. Ponyville "You owe me Ermac." "Yeah yeah, we'll get you one later." "Looks like I'm not the only one who owes Kenshi then." said Tremor as he came up to my life with Erron Black. "Great we're here." said Erron. "So where's Raiden?" Two objects crashed into the ground forming two craters near the six ponies. Raiden floated down to Kenshi's left with his hammer out and he didn't seem to be in his corrupted state anymore. "Pathetic, they didn't put up much of a fight." "I don't recall Raiden wearing a scarf to cover a face or carry a hammer." Kenshi said. "Raiden had a hammer in some of the earlier Mortal Kombat games. As for the scarf, I chose to wear it because it makes me look more badass." "Alright, let's finish of these fools." I said as we slowly walked towards the six ponies who were backing away in fear. To our shock, 5 humans came out of nowhere and stood between us and the ponies. From left to right one was a tall white male with blonde hair, a white t-shirt, blue jeans, and was holding an ax. The second human was a white female with dark hair, black t-shirt, and white jeans. She was holding two knives. Another was a skinny male, tanned skin, brown hair, a purple t-shirt, black jeans, and was holding a sword. Probably picked it up from a dead guard. The next human was a short male, pale skin, wearing a blue jacket, red t-shirt, khakis, and was holding a butcher knife. Next to him, is a short woman with a white dress, and was holding a pan? Really? She thinks she can beat us with a pan? "Leave them alone!" The skinny man holding the sword said. "We don't have time for this." I said as I lifted them into the air. "May I ask a question? Why are you defending them? You are slaves just like just like the rest of your fellow humans." "You are wrong." The tall male said. "To them we are not slaves, we are family. They've treated us like family and have treated us as if we were equals." That got me thinking, if what they said was true, then we'll be killing actual innocents. It took me a while, but I have an idea. "Let's make a deal, if you can keep those six from entering any future conflicts between me and the other nations, then we won't kill them. If they are just caught in the crossfire then we'll ignore them, but if they try to do anything to hamper my operations, we'll kill them slowly and we'll make you watch. I dropped them and started walking to the Everfree. "You're just gonna leave them? You saw what they tried to do to you. They are a threat!" said Erron Black. "If we kill those six, then we're just proving those who are watching us that we are truly monsters." I said as my friends spotted ponies looking at us from the windows of the buildings. "Come on, follow us." As we entered the forest, a man wearing a hood came out from behind a tree. We sighed in relief since it was just the Merchant. "What is it now Merchant?" I asked. "I just came to congratulate the Fatal Five in their first conflict together." "Fatal Five?" Raiden asked. "Yes, that is what I've decided to call you five from now on. Anyway, here." The Merchant said as he threw five object to each of us. I caught what looks like a crystal ball with a green orb inside. Tremor was holding a shard of green crystal, Kenshi was holding a replica of Sento, Raiden was holding a copy of his amulet, and Erron Black was holding another revolver. "These are your tokens for the other Displaced to summon you. You are to say a message to these tokens and when you're done, a portal will open up for you to throw your tokens into. The token will end up in the void and will start multiplying, probably once a day, depending on your universe. Anyway, go back to your universe and do whatever you have to do. I've got some stuff I need to sell." The Merchant said before he jumped into a portal. Right after he left, a portal opened in front of us. "Looks like this is it." I said. "Nah, we'll see each other again. Don't you worry about." Tremor said. "I need to speak with the Merchant again and see if he can make a device where we can instantly travel to each other's universe any time we want. Too bad he didn't he left in a hurry." said Raiden. "Anyway, I need to go back before my pet lizard goes berserk after I left. I'll catch y'all later." Erron said before walking to one of the portals. The others walked into the portal, except for Raiden who turned to me. "Until next time Ermac. Take good care of those slaves you freed." I nodded and he tipped his hat before he walked into the portal. After a few minutes, I found a clearing where all of the freed humans from Ponyville sat waiting for me. Before I entered the clearing, I decided to send my token into the void. "We are Ermac. The fusion of thousands of souls. To many, we are a beacon of hope. To others we are the bane of their existence. If you require our aid, simply use this token to summon us, but beware, if you have any malicious intent we will end you." After I said that, a small portal opened up in front of me and I threw my token into it. Once I stepped into the clearing, all of the humans looked at me and then bowed. "There is no need to bow to me." "But we have to find a way to thank our savior." one female said. Milord, I believe I know a place where we can all stay and be protected, if it still exists. You see, we did have an ally back then, but they were a small population compared to the other nations and was neutral in the last great war. I don't think the Equestrians have ever found their location. Very well. Lead the way. "Come with me my fellow humans. We will lead you all to salvation.