My name is Phoxjes Rome. I am a Mark of Babylon, and this is my story. My world... THIS world... Equestria, has fallen into disaster. One pony has destroyed everything, and hurt the ones I care for, so now I will reflect that pain onto her. Twilight.
Princess Twilight Sparkle. A very gifted young alicorn, from the information that I have collected. However, I can no longer permit her to continue spreading harmony over the world, as she has brought disaster in doing so, even if it requires death: the same death that she and her friends have unintentionally caused in my Babylon. You may or may not understand my reasons for doing so in this tale, so proceed if you desire. Either way, I will understand. Many are hurt in this story I have to share, innocent or otherwise.
"Yes, tonight is when we pick up where Vance left off. The traitor is as useful to us now as the fallen faction. Still, it was rather cruel of the princess of the sun to strip him of his free will."
"'Bout bloomin' time in all. Been waiting to get me hooves dirty wit' them lot."
"The princesses may have survived for this long based on their magic. However, provided they haven't any insight on OUR biographies, their time may be cut short. I shall identify everything on the spirits primordial data, so that I can replicate his defeat."
"Yeah, yeah, science, magic, blah blah blah. While you're doing whatev, I'll go in and make 'em a little storm to get 'em gathered at the castle. You guys can take it from there, can't cha?"
"We can. However, we must remember the objective is to warn the Elements of Harmony of our arrival. We have not been instructed to murder anyone yet."
It was but a regular day in the peaceful harmonic wide wide world of Equestria as nopony was up to any thing suspicious. Well, almost nopony; we never know, a store could be being robbed right now, or a fire could be burning down a hotel.
All of the mane six but Rainbow Dash were in the town at Sugar Cube Corner talking about their anything and nothing. When you've been friends for this many seasons years, the fundamental physics of string theory could be a veritable subject. But, as of right now, the ponies were discussing the events taking place at the sleepover that night.
"You know..." Began Twilight. "It seems like years since Starlight Glimmer came about and ruined almost everything by taking away our cutie marks. Time sure does fly nowadays."
"Yeah." Replied Applejack. "Even though it were only a fair few seasons ago. But it's all sorted now."
"And what a craaaazzzyyy season that was! The 100th episode, five year anniversary, and time travel to past episodes." Pinkie Pie turned to the camera.
Rarity then turned to sip her tea. "So, why do you think that Celestia called Spike away; what do you think she needs him for?"
"If I know the princesses, it's probably something related to duties and courts, or it could even be about dragon biology, who knows? But regardless, he's away and he should be back tomorrow." Twilight answered.
"And while he's away..." The others turned to Pinkie, only to have a loud bang and balloons and confetti blown in their faces. "It's party time for us!!"
"Pinkie, please don't ever do that in our faces ever again." Twilight wiped the party decorations off of her.
"You're right Twi; I should save it for tonight!" Pinkie said in excitement.
"Not what I meant..."
"Um... Where's Rainbow Dash?" Fluttershy chose to speak up.
"Teaching Scootaloo some more of her tricks." Twilight answered again.
"1094th time this month." Applejack laughed.
"Well, I mean, it's not like you can blame her; they are close like family. And we all know how much we love family!" Pinkie cheered.
Their conversations continued for what seemed like hours on end, until Rainbow came down.
"Rainbow Dash, how'd it go?" Twilight asked, smiling.
"Fine. Er, Twilight, we've got a tiny problem." Rainbow told her in a nervous manner.
"What?"
"I know this is kinda outta the blue, but... There MAY be an scheduled and dangerous storm forming in the sky, and MAYBE it's heading for us." She pointed at the sky in the north.
"A storm? coming to Equestria?" Fluttershy looked worried.
"Not Equestria; just Ponyville. It's literally only heading in one direction."
"Why didn't you mention this sooner?" Twilight asked her. "Aren't you supposed to know about this?"
"I wasn't told a thing, until I saw it. I even asked Spitfire and the other Wonderbolts. They got nothing either."
"Really? This had better not be some joke of yours." Applejack warned.
"It's not! The rate that these clouds are approaching, I don't know how I, or ANY Pegasus, could even catch up with those clouds, never mind play with them!"
"What'd ya mean, you don't know?" Asked Applejack.
"I mean, that I've been trying to move the same clouds over and over again to get this storm outta the way, but then another one comes in the same spot. It's like almost like whenever I move one, some pony else puts more in the same spot. I can't control them."
"Um... Do you mean those clouds?" Fluttershy asked as she pointed to an incoming black storm approaching.
"You two can argue later, right now we need to head for the castle and get ahead of that storm."
"Agreed!" The two of them said in unison.
Without wanting to waste another second, the six of them decided it was best if they head on back to the castle, hoping that everything they would need was there.
They had to get a move on, as before they knew it, a heavy downpour began, and the whole town was soaking in a matter of minutes. The common townsfolk were on their way inside as well, as soon Ponyville went from its common population to looking completely deserted.
Eventually, after approximately two minutes of running, they ended up at Twilight's home they immediately rushed in to avoid the freezing weather condition.
"Hurry! In here! Now!" Twilight rushed her friends in as fast as she could. Once they were all in, she levitated some nearby towels and handed them to her friends.
"Where did this storm come from!?" She called out to her friends, as the wind and the rain alone were almost blowing her away.
The natural disaster only become stronger by the second, sooner practically flooding the town.
While she and her friends were inside, about 100 ft. above her was someone that she was going to have a lot encounters with in the near future. He was in the clouds above, glad that his contribution to the plan worked. Without any one else in the world knowing he was there, he pressed his hoof up to his ear.
"Hadad to Gibil. The targets have gathered in the spot, ready for your strike, over." An Italian-accented pony said into his ear, before flying upwards.
"Well." Rainbow dash began. "This came about quickly. Any thoughts?"
"You know." Rarity commented. "It's amazing how much work has been done to this place, looking back on it."
"I know! Let's play something!" Shouted Pinkie. "How about... Truth or dare!?"
"Sorry, we can't Pinkie." Twilight replied.
"Aww, why not?"
"Easy. Rainbow Dash is here. I'm not sure about you, but I don't wanna end up having to fill out an apology note for ponyville hospital, explaining why all their calender's have been turned into Daring Do and Wonderbolt posters."
"C'mon Twi, let's play!" Applejack stepped in.
"We do need to do something in order to pass the time." Fluttershy joined.
"Oh... Fine!" She sighed.
"Alright Dash, truth or dare?" Pinkie started.
"Dare, obviously."
"Okie dokie lokie! I dare you to..." She looked around for a bit, until she saw Owlowiscious eating his supper. Then the idea came to her head as she pointed at him. "Eat some of Owlowiscious's's's's's food!"
"Seriously?" Rainbow asked her in a confused tone.
"Yup! You could forfeit right now and I'll-"
"You call THAT a dare?" She finished, as flew over to the bag, picked up a small hoof full, and scoffed it down.
"Hah! She did it!" Applejack congratulated.
"That's absolutely repulsive..." Rarity muttered under her breath.
"Good; it's my turn. Twilight, truth or-"
"Truth! Truth. Definitely truth. Absolutely sure. I pick truth." She cut her off, before the second option was even given.
"Coward." Rainbow whispered.
"What was that?"
"Nothing. Alright, those guys from Ourtown: Double Diamond and Party Favor. Which one would you date?"
"W- What!?!"
"Looks like she found a way around ya, eh Twilight?" Applejack nudged her friend.
"*gasp* Can I answer that!?!" Pinkie asked.
"No, for two reasons: one, she asked Twilight and two we know who you'd pick." Rarity answered.
"So Twilight?" Fluttershy waited for an answer.
"W- Well, they both seem like really nice stallions. But Party Favor gave himself up when we were trapped, whereas Double Diamond technically was the reason how Fluttershy was able to find our marks. But altogether, I think Favor might be a little bit too much of a wildcard for me, so Diamond it is."
"Yes, he quite the catch, wasn't he?" Rarity said, thinking back to him.
"Heh. Rares, ya havin' any regrets?" Applejack asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Hey, while we're on the subject of stallions..." Pinkie started.
Her story went on for a bit whilst in the cold dark rainy atmosphere outside a black outline walked slowly to the top of a ledge that gave him a good sight of the house. Lightning struck in the background so an extremely brief picture was shown of his true figure.
He had a red color coat on his face which was barely seen underneath what appeared to be a a mask. Nothing else was revealed. He got a good enough view on the house when he took sight of twilight through her window. He carefully examined the infra red sight of Twilight's body. Some kind of strange red radiation flowed straight through his body as his hooves began to radiate a glow. The illumination at hid hoof then traveled above it, which created a floating aura of fire.
"Condemn me, princess Twilight Sparkle." His deep quiet aggressive voice said.
The fire instantly grew bigger as he pointed his single hoof at her castle.
"And then I said "Oatmeal, are you craz-"" Pinkie tried to finished, but was cut off.
"Pinkie, for the last time we've all heard the end of thi-aaaaaaAAAAHHHHH!!!" Twilight screamed as something hit her castle tree, breaking off a wall and causing several objects inside to become ignited on fire..
"WHOA! WH-Wh-what's happeni-"
Before she could even say anything else another one hit the house, not as big as the last one, and followed by a few more each second.
"RUN FOR IT!!!" Twilight then shouted heading for the door. The others came out quickly to avoid any further attacks, but this danger didn't make it easy for them.
They bounced through the double doors, but then saw that the threat they just left was only the beginning. The corridors ahead weren't anything supporting their survival.
The fires seemed to be seeping through the walls like some kind of liquid, destroying more of the inside of the castle.
More explosions and fires bursts at out nowhere, looking like they were aiming at the girls, rather than random parts of the tree castle.
"What's happening!?" Rainbow Dash asked, flying down the hall to open the doors in advanced.
"I don't know! Maybe a dragon!?" Twilight shouted, using her magic to move all obstacles out of the way.
"Oh no!!" Fluttershy whimpered, now even more afraid than the rest of the girls.
"C'mon y'all, the exit's right there!" Applejack yelled, looking at the last set of doors.
Without another second wasted, they burst open, and the six girls escaped to safety.
Once evacuated the six of them looked at the tremendous burning before their eyes, as the princess's home was collapsing in flames, the rain not as horrific as it once was, which would've been better in any situation other than this one. The downpour didn't even seem to cool the flames, and the fire itself didn't look like a normal fire either.
They just stood there observing the tremendous fire, before Twilight fired her magic at the blaze. However, this came to no avail; the magic hadn't even touched it. Now realizing that they couldn't do anything to help, the six just watched the disadter, questioning what the cause of this was.
"Owlowiscious... The cutie map... My home... No... Not again." Twilight whimpered.
"There there darling, we shall get to the bottom of this soon enough." Rarity said trying to calm her friend.
"Gaze upon this cause!" A different voice shouted from above. They all looked up to see who it was.
It turned out to be three different stallions wearing masks on a ledge above. The middle one dropped down and the other then two followed. The got a closer look at him as he approached them. He had a red coat on his fur, but appeared to be wearing clothes all over. They were black and leather. His mane appeared to be black as well.
They couldn't, however, picture his face as he was also wearing his mask. The mask was black, and had eyes like a tiger, a beak like an eagle, and ears like a dragon. It didn't, however, cover the mouth so the wearer could still talk. In addition it had a small red jewel on the forehead.
All across the mask it had red lines in the shape and direction that they were part of a bigger symbol. The red line was diagonal from the bottom left to the top right, and there was a big backwards C with the back of it touching the line.
His signature seemed to be a cavalier hat completely black with a white lacy trim around the end and a white feather sticking out of the top.
"Princess Twilight Sparkle of Equestria. I have awaited the day when you and I would cross paths. However, I did not prefer it to be in this manner." He said to her when face to face.
She felt scared at first after having half of her home wiped out, and by talking to a stallion who was just a little bigger than Big Mac, then puzzled by his words indicating that he knows her.
"What you see before you is the result of an imbalance; your residence and stronghold falling apart, with your resources and memories dying with it."
He raised his hoof to his face, as a small ball of the same strange fire emerged from his fore hoof, and she instantly became angered.
"WHO ARE YOU!?! HOW DO YOU KNOW ME!?! AND WHAT GIVES YOU THE RIGHT TO DESTROY MY HOME LIKE THAT!?!" She demanded to know. The others backed her up.
"You vile being! How dare you come near us to attack for no good cause!" Rarity shouted.
"If y'all want ta scrap, then do this right 'ere an now!" Said Applejack, wanting to avenge her friend's property.
Just then the other two dropped down to counteract their comments. One with a black mask with a yellow symbol facing Rarity, and the other had brown lines on it looking at AJ.
"Please ladies, remain calm. We merely wished to release our anger out on the ones who caused our suffering so many, many years ago. I can ensure you with certainty that we are here for a good enough reason." Rarity's opponent said.
"If anypony knows 'bout doin' a bad thing fer no good cause, then y'all would be more qualified than anyone in this lil' town ya call yer home. Nah, what we're doin' is fer a better cause than a worse; this fire outta restore a lil'." The stallion facing Applejack said.
"If all follows as expected, then it shall. Now then, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna should be aware of our arrival. Otherwise, inform them that myself and my colleagues were here before we return, as she will likely find great interest in our return." The red stallion explained as the three then escaped using different elements; the red creating a fire wall which he walked through, the yellow had a blinding light behind him which took him away, and the brown had a hole in the ground forced open and he jumped through.
"What in the name of Celestia just happened?" Rarity asked to herself out loud.
"Those guys didn't look like much fun. Maybe they needed a party to cheer them up." Pinkie replied trying to shed some light on the problem. It failed.
"They said something about revenge for their suffering, so maybe now they'll be satisfied and leave us." Fluttershy timidly said.
"No." Was Twilight's simple statement. "You heard what that red guy said to us: 'before we return.' That must mean that they know for a fact they'll be back."
Meanwhile, as this devastation was taking place at this castle, there was a spectator at another castle, watching this disaster unfold.
Princess Luna was standing on the edge of her balcony, feeling what was happening to the elements with her own magic. She began gasping and getting dizzy from the new sensation.
Although she couldn't see too clearly what exactly was happening to the girls, she knew it was more than just a bonfire. She could feel them all in pain, which somehow caused her to be in the same agony.
"Sister?" She called to the room behind her, thinking that it would somehow be able to summon her sibling to her quarters.
Surprisingly, it actually worked, as the current ruler of the sun arrived to the same balcony. There were two guards behind her, holding spears upright.
"You feel it too?" Celestia asked her, placing her hoof on her heart, knowing that Luna felt the same unwelcome sensation.
"Yes, and I fear the worst for our young friends." Luna answered, looking back over the balcony to where the smoke was coming from. "They are all alive enough, I am sure of that."
"That may be true. However, if they return then that might not be the case for too much longer." Celsetia commented. Luna looked at her, confused at that remark.
"Oh? Doth thou know of these stallions?"
"Of one of them, yes. As I recall, he had a somewhat close connection with a stallion named... Tetran?"
Just then, Luna looked shocked, before turning away and blushing at that name.
Celestia then looked out towards the Balcony again.
'Still, although Vance was held responsible, it shall not be his doing that they have come for him.' She thought, looking at the ground far below them. 'Twilight, I shall be there very soon.'
Celestia made a quick U-turn and tried to run off, out of the room.
"Sister? Where is your destination?" Luna asked.
"I have to go to Twilight and her friends; if they haven't returned I can call them to order." She answered, looking in front of her again to the ponies that escorted her there. They saluted her as she looked at them.
"Your highness." They said in unison.
"Ready my vessel for Ponyville."
"Yes, your highness." One of them replied.
"I'm afraid that can not be done for you right now." The other one said to her, catching the other three's attention.
"Oh? Whyever not?"
Suddenly, his expression turned into a sly smile, looking like a predator.
"Because that would violate my orders." His voice was entirely different, sounding older and more croaky.
"Excuse me? Your order was to-"
He raised his hoof, and a white flame emerged from it, before he flung it to the ground.
"Stall you and allow my superiors to carry out their methods."
The white flame began to multiply, and soon enough surrounded Celestia. They began to look less like a flame, and more like a wisp.
"What're you doing?!" The other guard asked him, pointing the spear at him.
The other guard didn't respond to him, and instead just looked at him with his smile faded away, then looked at the spear.
Without a moments hesitation, something flew right out of his body, and into the spear, and he fell to the floor unconsciously.
"What in the-?" The guard asked, as his spear began to levitate out of his hooves, and whacked him in the face numerous time.
In a few seconds, he loss his consciousness as well, and fell down, as did the spear.
"Who's thi-" Celestia said, before answering her own question. "Walker, was it?"
"Indeed. You remember me. How flattering." The voice said to her, before a white figure began to form out of thin air. It looked like a pony, but his face was covered up by a scarf, a hat and shades. He also donned a black and white type attire to him.
"Yes, I remember you. The last time I saw you, you were attending Starswirl's seminar on Ectoplasmic Fortification. I must admit that I wouldn't have expected you to have shown up to that; I assumed that you would've known about that already."
"Never assume anything, dear girl. But yes, you'd be right; I only attended that to hear him share his thoughts."
"Enough small talk, Walker. What've you done to my student?"
"She and her allies have not met my acquaintance as of yet, however they will. I am unaware of what has happened from this distance. You, however..." The wisps around her began to inch closer to her. "I can not let go."
"Sister!" Luna called out, walking up to her. "Who is this creature?"
"Yes, my apologies." He said, suddenly disappearing into thin air. A second later he reappeared in front of her, tipping his fedora to her. "My name is Walker Soul. Your family and I are well acquainted."
"Yes, we caught onto that."
"Very good. Now then, back to you, Celestia dear."
The sun princess looked at him, ready to fight.
"Understand this, dear. I do not intend to eliminate you. At least, not right now. However, you must leave Twilight and her friends to settle this battle on their own."
"And if I were refuse?"
"Then I can make life very... Difficult for everyone."
"Hmmm..." Celestia grunted.
"Do not give in to his threats, Tia." Luna ordered. "'Tis only a bluff."
"A bluff with much evidence provided to it." Yet another voice was heard behind Luna.
They sisters turned around slowly, this time both knowing who this was.
"I trust you have not forgotten me."
Luna slowly walked up to him standing on the edge of the balcony, looking upwards at the tall, pitch black figure.
"Ah reckon they took it rather well." The brown stallion said, as the three made their way over to some kind of broken temple made of rubble and ancient material. In fact, everything around them looked destroyed in one way or another.
"They certainly could have taken our little visit a lot worse." The yellow pony was walking next to the tall one, not even looking away from their destination.
"It matters very little about the reaction that they held at that moment in time, for what they may try in the near future is far more important to us, is it not?" The red guy told them, stepping into the temple.
The three of them walked up the stairs, climbing to the highest point that they could reach, being careful not to fall through the damage and cracks that were scattered everywhere.
"Now then, can we make this meeting brief? The rainstorm that Calsuricxs caused has made my hair..." The yellow pony ran his hoof through his mane softly "...Disturbing."
"Yer hair, face and outfit is yer biggest priority, and ya wonder why some ponies don't know who ya are?" The Texan responded, as the three made their way to the top, walking towards something big and red in the distance, along with some ponies next to it.
"Hmm. My priorities are none of your business, old friend. Even if they were, you'd know that my biggest priority is the lovely miss Rarity, and the lesson that I have yet to teach her. Surely she of all ponies would need to know this more than all of her darling friends."
"Yer tryin' ta do her a favor, and expect her ta thank ya fer it? C'mon partner, ya know what those girls are like; they wouldn't thank ya if ya saved her life."
'It does not matter to me if they are grateful or not once we save their world. All that I am concerned for is that we are able to save them.' The red one thought.
"To me, 'partner', I believe that my reason for going after miss Rarity has more logical sense than why you're trying to take on the Apple family."
"Those ungrateful little ingrates cut me off; after everythin' ah did fer them, they woulda let ma best friend get put down. Ah just gotta make sure that they pay fer that." The brown pony looked at the Unicorn with the mask.
"You already did THAT, mate." Some other stallion said, as he appeared from above him, Pinkie Pie style, and looked down at the three boys. "After you killed them off the show, and killed them off in another way. Bit much honestly, especially for someone like you."
This pony was dark purple, with a brown mane. He had a mask on as well, this one black as well with purple marks around it in the shape of a backwards C with a sideways V attached onto the back.
"As ah've already told y'all about 30000 times now, just 'coz ah was present at the time, don't mean that it were mah fault. Matter o' fact, ah tried mah best ta save those two." The brown guy said, as he reached up and pulled the purple pony down from wherever it was that he was hanging from.
"I'll bear that in mind, mate. Anyway, his highness is waiting for us." The Cockney British pony said as they walked over to the large red figure.
"Don't just "bear that in mind", ah want y'all ta accept it." The Texan told the boys, just before the four got on their knees in front of the being in front of them.
"Did the Princess and her friends receive our message?" The large figure asked the boys, looking down at them. He was a lot more than just some kind of average royalty: he was a dragon.
The red dragon was about 30ft. high, with its light blue wings spouting from its spine to the ends of the stand that it was placed on. He was on all four legs, which all had three black claws extending from each of them, as well as a blue and red tail. Additionally, there were eight spikes extending from its head, poking out from its skeleton, accented by the purple lines across its neck, torso and spine.
"They did, sire. Their reaction was what you had expected, and they are all aware that we shall return to Equestria in time."
"I see. You have yet to disappoint me, Phoxjes." He said to the 30 year old looking masked pony. Despite being complimented by someone who was clearly of a high authority, the pony did not smile in the slightest.
"What's next, boss?" The purple stallion asked the dragon above him.
"Now, one of you six Marks must go back up into Equestria in the morning, and continue to emphasis our point to the girls, and their friends. Well, that, and to keep them away from Vance. We can't risk him creating any more disharmony in the world than what we need, after all. Any volunteers?"
Silence spread among them, before the Texan spoke up.
"Ah'll go, yer majesty." He said clearly.
"That's mighty supportive of ya, partner." The dragon said, mocking him. He then turned to see the pony in the blue-marked mask. "So have you replicated the power for Vance yet, Sandy?"
"Almost, your highness." A mare's voice came from the strangely shaped mask. The marks on this mask were like the purple pony's, but backwards and blue. "All that's paramount as of now is to appraise and diagnose the magical viscosity of the harmonic connection paralleling the redi-"
"Why don't you look up the word 'yes' sometime?" The dragon somehow said to her inside of her head, without having to open his eyes. "I think we'd all love to hear you just say that."
"Your highness, will Vance- Or the creation we once knew as "Vance", know of our presence and/or arrival once we return to Equestria?"
"I doubt it. If Dr. Expherient lost contact of him when he left, I don't see how he could stay in contact at all."
"Good." The pony in red announced. "So then we are agreed on the plan for tomorrow: While the Elements, and any other Equestrians are occupied at the farm, we shall eradicate the spirit and prevent him from opposing us further."
"Better git some rest, then." The Texan responded, walking away. "Ah'll be up a' the crack o' dawn, ready when y'all'll be."
After a traumatic night of an attack seemingly from out of the blue, the six of them separated back to where they came from.
The next morning eventually came round, with Twilight spending the night at Fluttershy's cottage.
It took about 2 hours of trying, but she finally let herself fall asleep after the amount of concern for her castle. Thankfully, Owlicious was spared, and went with her at the time of the attack and went with her to stay with Fluttershy.
'Thank Celestia that Spike wasn't there at the time.' Twilight thought, thinking back to the previous night.
As soon as she went to see her she was greeted by a plate of daisy pancakes; her favorite.
"Good morning." Said Fluttershy as she beamed at her awoken friend. All she saw in return was a sad frown.
"Hey, Fluttershy. Guess you slept better than me."
It took her a little while to understand what was up, but then she remembered the events of last night.
"I'm so sorry about what happened, Twilight. I know that this isn't going to be easy to go through. But I want you to know that you, Owlicious and Spike are welcome to stay here as long as you need to." Twilight then smiled properly and was about to say something, but was then cut of by a familiar voice.
"Thanks, Flutters." The princess sadly replied, letting out a sorrowful sigh.
"Well, that's an option..." Twilight and Fluttershy then turned around to see their favorite (and only) Dragoniquis, swinging from the ceiling with his tail, pink dressing gown on and cup of coffee in hand, defying the laws of physics.
"Or to save on time and bits, I could just use my magic to repair the damage." Discord finished, taking a sip from the upside down mug.
"Really?" Twilight asked, conflicting about whether or not to trust her former enemy.
"Why, of course. Would I lie to you?" Discord asked, seemingly innocent in his tone.
"Yes." Twilight bluntly said to him. "And if I go back, and see my castle has been turned into a funhouse, or a giant milkshake, or an aquarium or anything other than the way it was, I WILL encase you back in stone."
"Twilight!" Fluttershy quietly snapped. "There's no need for threats; he's only trying to help."
The princess took a deep breath, exhaling to calm herself down.
"You're right, I'm sorry." She said, looking back at him. "Will you fix it, then?"
The Spirit smugly looked at her in response, before swinging back onto his feet.
"I'll do my best, ma'am."
A knock on the door interrupted them.
"Now who could that be?" Fluttershy wondered as she approached the door to answer. The other two followed. When she opened it they saw the sight of Applejack, Spike and the former crusaders.
Her assistant ran up and hugged her tightly. It took her a second. but she returned it.
"Twilight, are you alright?" Her concerned assistant worried.
"No need to worry Spike; I'm fine." She calmly said.
"We heard what happened and thought you-" Sweetie said, but Twilight just continued to smile.
"Sure did have a strange night then." Applejack stated. "Anyway, ah prepared a cider for ya two. Why not come down mine an we'll try ta find out more on them stallions that came last night, Sugarcube?"
"Sounds good. Thanks AJ." Said Twilight.
"Yaay." Replied Fluttershy. The seven of them went down to Apples farm as Discord disappeared in his flash of light to fix Twilight's castle.
As the flash of light reappeared a moment later, the spirit saw the crowd of ponies stood at the castle observing the devastation that recently took place there.
"Well, it's a good thing that this story didn't spread(!)" He said, leaning over to the camera and telling the audience.
As the crowd continued to observe the destroyed tree, the loud clamour of a fire truck siren blared behind them, making everyone cover their ears. As they turned around, they dodged out of the way, watching Discord driving the vehicle, donning a firefighter suit.
"Stand clear, ponies! The unqualified hero is here to save the day!" He shouted stepping out of the truck.
He waltzed up to the tree castle, picking up a fire axe. There was a serious expression on his face, as he was about to swing it at the front door. Before he brought it down, the axe opened, revealing another pair of arms, holding another axe, followed by another, then another.
The dragoniquis was about to strike the tree with the extended weapon, before he tossed it away, and instead snapped his fingers.
'Now that was easy, wasn't it? So someone came for a raid on her castle?' Discord thought to himself, walking away smugly. 'Well, looks like the precious little princess Twilight really HASN'T brought peace and friendship to Equestria. I can't imagine how much longer that would've taken had the Elements tried to-"
He was cut off from his inner dialogue by the sound of ruble collapsing behind him. Discord slowly turned around, and to his surprise saw that the damage was still there.
"Hm? That's peculiar." He remarked, snapping his fingers again. The flash happened again, but still the same result. He tried again and again, but nothing was getting through to it.
"Never before has my power over chaos been so cruel as to betray me, than as of right now. Oh, woe is me!" He declared, falling to his knees in an over-the-top dramatic fashion. As he looked defeated, he tried snapping his claws again, but still nothing. "Oh, come on!"
He got back up and placed his hand on the tree castle, but regretted it in an instant when he felt it burn him. "Ooh, crispy."
Suddenly, his hand then caught on fire, but the pain wasn't present. He turned his other hand into a fire extinguisher and snuffed it out.
"Hmm... A little too well done for my taste, but It's something." He told himself. "Now then, who could be doing this? If even my magic isn't enough, and the elements aren't aware of these vandals, then they have to be something quite special."
"Vance!"
The millisecond that word reached his ears, everything that he joking about was completely out of the window. His goat face turned white, his deer and dragon legs felt weak, his snake tail stood on end, his gryphon and lion arms were shaking and his pony heart sank at the name he just said, and the pony that just said it.
Slowly, after hearing hoofsteps approaching him from behind, he turned around, and he felt his own emotions have a war with each other over how to feel.
Happy? Sad? Angry? Betrayed? Scared? Relived? Powerless? Cocky? Even more scared? Either way it didn't matter, he knew full well that only two outcomes would happen in the next few seconds.
Five ponies. Five ponies that he recognised from a deep and personal history with them.
As soon as the girls got to the farm, they were immediately greeted by the sight of the other elements. They noticed the other six walk up to Sweet Apple Acres. Pinkie was the first to notice them and rushed over with a cider dish.
"Hey there Twi! How was your night at Flutter's? I bet it was really great spending more time with her, cause I've never slept at hers myself, although I did hear that she once baby sat the crusaders, and believe me, babysitting is no easy task, like I remember this one time when pumpkin and pound went to go-" pinkie aimlessly rambled. She was cut off by Twilight again.
"Pinkie, not the priority right now." Twilight said, fed up with this unfinished conversation. "Thanks for bringing the cider."
Twilight, Fluttershy and Applejack joined the others at the table site. They got straight down to business as they thought of all possibilities of who the mysterious stallions could be.
"So how many known stallion enemies do we actually have besides the ones we've beaten or befriended already?" Twilight questioned. As expected none of her friends had a ready reply and silence flew across the area.
"Well..." Rainbow Dash started. "We don't really know their back story. For all we know they could be doing this for a good cause after all."
"Yep, because nothin' says 'Ah'm a good guy' like terrorizing and vandalism(!)" Applejack responded, taking a sip of her cider.
"I guess anything is possible." Spike replied. "As long as they don't do anything else bad."
As if it was on queue, they then experienced a large magnitude beneath them. This caused everything around them to shake and a small amount of the barn to peel of, drinks to get knocked over, crops to become damaged, and generally cause devastation..
Applejack rushed over to her home and tried to stop anymore of her property from getting wrecked. Luckily, she wasn't alone, as Big Mac, Applebloom and Granny Smith also rushed out of the barn to help with the sudden property damage.
"What in tarnation's goin' on out here?" Granny Smith exclaimed, holding what she could in her old hooves.
Once the quake had finally ceased another strange cause occurred out of nowhere. A massive rock statue in the shape of a dog rose from the dirt beneath and was facing Applejack.
Everypony (and dragon) just stood there and gazed in awe as nothing else happened, until it did.
The jaw snapped off and fell to the ground as from the mouth fell a new and familiar face. Once the dust cleared the Mane six stood in shock when they all saw the 'face' of who it was.
"So how's yer day goin'?" The apparently Texas pony asked Applejack as he walked up to her.
It was him. From last night. The same coat, the same clothes, the same voice, the same hat, the same grey beard, the same grey mane, but no mask. They could see his clothes more clearly now, which consists of blue jeans, light brown chaps, a brown cowboy top, and black waistcoat, along with his black cowboy hat.
Every article of his clothing appeared to have either a dog, or a dog emblem on it.
"Y'all are either mighty brave or mighty dumb to show yer face round these here parts." She counteracted and became furious.
"That's just all talk from ya, Applejack. Y'all got the muscle ta back up them there fightin' words?" He laughed. He didn't seem to be taking Twilight or any of her friends seriously.
"Nopony goes round messin' with ma friends. Ah'm gonna avenge Twilight by any means."
Suddenly then, a light started to emit from Applejack's body and seemed to be absorbed by him into his body. The light was similar to Twilight's but was as brown as the stallions coat instead of blue. The enemy seemed to smile as it appeared to make him stronger.
"If ah were you, Applejack, ah'd make sure ah knew who it were that ah was up against, before goin' straight at them. Heck, if we were given tha order an' permission last night, the boys an' ah woulda ripped y'all ta pieces." The Texan responded to her, walking over to her family.
"Hold it right there!" Applejack commanded the stallion, to which he ignored completely.
"Ah see ya haven't aged a day, Granny Smith. Except every single day you've been alive. Heh heh heh." He said to the elderly pony, as she squinted her eyes even more than usual.
"Er... Ya sound mighty familiar ta me, sugar. Do ah know ya?" She responded, getting a feel of his face.
"Aw, Smith, ya hurting mah heart. How can ya not recognize this pretty face, even after all we've been through?" He asked, putting on a puppy dog look. He took her hooves off him, and took a step to the side.
"Well, I'll be a sonova goat-snap; Big Macintosh." He looked over the big red pony.
"...Eeyup." Big Mac said sternly, facing him with a strict look in his face.
"Heh. Haven't seen ya since y'all was just a lil' foal, sleepin' on the hay. Koowee, ain't you grown up since then." He replied, staring right back with an cocky smile.
"How do ya know ma family, mister?" Applebloom asked the older pony, hiding behind Big Mac as she did. Smart move.
"Ah never forgot 'em, Applebloom." He answered, looking down at her.
They both then heard a growl from next to her, and he looked down at it, a warm smile appeared on his face.
Winona was growling at the stallion, as he just stared down back at her. He then reached into his pocket and pulled out something small and crunchy, and handed it over to her.
The dog then sniffed it, before taking it into her mouth, chewing on it happily. It looked to be some kind of dog treat, which was questionable as to why he was carrying it around with him.
"Yer such a precious one, Winona. Shame yer on the wrong side, isn't it? Yesh it ish." He said, rubbing her head, as she panted in delight.
"Ah thought that ya were here fer me, not them." Applejack reminded the Texan, as he walked back over to her. Suddenly, the same brown light that matched his coat reappeared, and he breathed it in again.
"Truth be told, lil' lady, ah was gonna be here fer Buttercup and Bright Mac. Am ah a bit late to the party?"
Applejack and her family gasped at the mention of these names. "WHAT did ya just say!?!"
'Whewee! This cowgirl's gettin' more and more riled up by me by the sec'. Gotta make sure she stays obsessed wit' gettin' me outta here.' The stallion thought to himself, before speaking again. "Ah said ah came 'ere ta see the REAL owners of this farm."
Applejack stormed up to him and pointed her hoof in his face.
"Mah parents have got nothin' ta do wit' YOU!!" She roared.
"Wrong call, cowgirl; Buttercup and Bright Mac got a lot ta do wit' me. Well, at least, they HAD, until the accident."
"Who are you!?" Twilight shouted from a few feet away. "What do you want from us, and how do you know Applejack's parents?!"
The stallion looked at her from afar. The eye slots on his mask lit up for a second when he got a better look at her.
'Don't look like somthin' ah couldn't handle mahself. If she's the one that took on Vance and Tirek, then ah guess we could make a Ingen-'
He stopped his inner monologue when he got a glimpse at Spike.
'Well, ah'll be a son-ova-rattlesnake, that one's his fourth! Xerv's gonna hear 'bout this.' He looked back at Applejack and moved her hoof out the way.
"Ah reckon we could make a bargain right here 'n' now. Fight me and win and I'll tell you all ya need to and be on ma way out." This time the look in his mask's eyes seemed different; as though he was getting what he came here for.
She noticed this straight away and replied.
"So if ah fight you, y'all will take your friends and shoo from Equestria?" She asked with a bit of hope.
"We'll see what happens. IF ya win." She wasn't sure if to trust him or not, but she felt as though she had no choice. A great force of mistrust shot straight through her mind, and as it did a dark yellow aura exerted out of Rarity's chest.
"All right then partner, ya got a deal." Was her final statement before they each took different sides of the field to begin their rumble.
"Oh, and one more thing." he added as he pulled something out from his trouser pocket. It appeared to be a small hand sized yellow glass panel with a faint rainbow at the bottom-left and top-right corners. Now Applejack looked nervous. "What in tarnation is that?"
Just then the panel flew up as he shouted: "Babylon Mummu-god of purity!" And within seconds they were both trapped in a circular brown field with the shape of a symbol on the floor with no walls or ceilings.
The symbol was the same brown lines as the one he wore on his mask, which were a curve from the bottom left to the center right which had three brown spikes shooting outwards.
"This looks dangerous!" Rainbow declared as she prepared herself for a strike. "Come on, let's help her out!"
The Pegasus rushed over to attack him.
'This outta be funny.' He thought, with a smile on his face.
"Take this you little- BWAAAHH!!" She shrieked as she was shocked, a nanosecond before she was knocked back from it.
It seemed no-one could get in or out of the field.
"That coulda gone a lot better fer ya, sugar." The stallion merely laughed at her efforts.
Her friends were then about to help her back up when they noticed something about the barrier. From where Rainbow had just touched it, their was a kind of vibration on it, evident by the light on it rippling.
"Oh and ta answer one of yer questions from before, princess, mah name's Pounce. Roranxoa Pounce. If it makes it any easier. But y'all can just call me Xoa if ya want."
"Well, what exactly do you want from us, Xoa?" Twilight asked, hoping that she could get some answers.
"Oh right, like yer gonna give me what ah want just 'coz ah told ya. Ah know that that's not how it works, princess; ya gotta earn what ya want in life, not just get it."
"Maybe, but at least let us know what it is that you're after." Twilight responded.
"All in time there lassie." He smugly answered, before turning to Applejack with a somewhat serious face. "But fer now, let's see what cha got!"
He then ran up to Applejack directly, stopped in front of her, jumped up, and tried to slam her with his forehoof. She dodged out of the way by rolling to the side. As his impact landed on the ground, another vibration emerged.
She and her friends were shocked at first as they had not witnessed this power before, especially from an earth pony.
"Whoa nelly!" Applejack said, as she struggled to keep standing. She turned around, and raised an eyebrow at him. "How'd ya do that?"
"Ah guess ya could say that ah had a good teacher. Kinda reminds me of a certain farmer that y'all used ta know." Roranxoa answered, as the two were circling each other in a standoff fashion.
"Who do ya mean, Xoa?"
"Who'd ya think, 'Sugarcube'? Ah'm talking about that ungrateful hoarder YOU call a father."
Applejack's relatives all changed their facial expressions from just anger to shock at the fourth mention of his name.
"Back off! Mah family and its business has nothin' ta do wit' ya, got it!?"
"Yer family business has got EVERYTHIN' ta do wit' me, mah sweet." The tone in his voice was sounding as if he knew what he was saying was astonishing to them.
However, even more astonishing was what he did next: raised his hoof high, and as he did, chains broke out and rose from the ground. He moved his hoof slightly and the chains then followed, until he forced them forward to attack Applejack.
She managed to turn around quickly to buck the first chain and knock it down. However, she wasn't as fortunate with the second one, as it grabbed her by the hoof and wrapped round her.
"If it weren't fer him, then ah'd be livin' the life that ah wanted. But, looks as though it weren't ta be; yer ma and pa didn't want me to get on wit' mah life."
The chain around her then picked her up and threw her against the floor, then to one side of the force field wall, then to another, then to the floor then released its grip when it threw her in the air. Once she had hit the ground the chain went back under.
"What...*cough* What do... mah parents got ta do wit' ya Xoa?" Applejack asked, staring at the sky above her.
"Ah have a funny feeling that ya couldn't care less even if ah told ya. If yer one of their offspring's, then some of that ungrateful blood is still running through yer veins."
She somehow found the strength to stand, but by the time she had Xoa was ready.
"Catch!" Xoa called behind him, as a pillar made of rock was formed in front of him and he bucked it straight in to her.
"Gah!" She shouted in pain, as she fell to the ground again.
Meanwhile, on the outside of the barrier, the Apple family had made their way over to the rest of the girls.
"What's goin' on, Twilight?" Applebloom asked, sounding scared for her sister's well-being. "How does that pony know mah parents? How does he know US?"
"I wish I knew, Applebloom." Twilight answered, looking concerned for it, too. The blue light shined from inside her again. "But this is only the second time we've seen this guy."
"And it looks like he's too scared to take us all on, without his friends." Rainbow added, before trying to get Xoa's attention again. "Hey, cowboy! If you wanna fight, let me tag in for her!"
"Yer not mah target, Rainball!" He replied from inside, before picking up Applejack.
"What've ya got against mah family!?" Applejack asked him, trying to break free from his grip.
"Ah worked mahself ta the bone fer them, an' they just shoved me off fer it!"
Roranxoa proceeded to throw her away onto the ground.
Not giving her the chance to get back up, he pounced above her. It looked like he was aiming to slam down on her, preferably with his power to shake the ground in mind as he landed.
Fortunately, she was able to dodge out of the way and get back up before he slammed on the ground. The vibrations still shook the floor, but now she was in prime position for her to kick him right in the face with her back legs.
She did so, kicking him in the face and knocking him to the ground.
"Oof! Heh, not back." He said, stomping the ground with his back hoof, propelling himself back to standing on all fours.
"Darn right! Ah don't know what ya want with me or mah family, but ah ain't goin' down without a fight!"
"That's what ah want. C'mon, let's see ya using that muscle, kid!"
Roranxoa stomped his hooves on the ground again. This time, the ground below AJ started to shake, before rising from the dirt and into the air on a pillar of some kind.
"Whoaa, hey!" She yelled, as she ascended into the air.
"Catch!" She heard him yell back to her, as she could see something approaching her from below at a rapid pace. It was another chain.
"Whoa!" She muttered as she dodged the incoming metal. However, she once again fell bait to him, as another chain bound itself to her back leg.
"Uh-oh..."
The chain pulled her down from the pillar, dragging her down the slope as it did.
"Oof! Arg! Ow!" She mumbled, hitting the rocky pillar numerous times.
It took a few seconds, but she reached the bottom. However, that didn't mean that the chain would cease.
Instead, it pulled itself further into the ground, trying to take her down with it.
"Arghhhh..." Applejack strained to break her leg free of the bind. "Gahhh!"
It took a few moments, but she found herself free of it.
"Heads up." He said from behind the pillar next to her.
As she turned to see him, looking ready to face him still, her ears dropped and her eyes shrunk when she saw what was about to happen.
Judging from the heavy bucking sounds and the amount of stone and rubble falling from the pillar, he had just kicked it down right on top of her.
"Oh no..." Was all she could say, before the pillar came crashing down on her, smashing into the ground below.
There was no mistaking the result: Applejack was done.
"HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!" Roranxoa maniacally laughed.
After he had finished, others immediately ran up to Applejack.
The forcefield seemed to get smaller, until Roranxoa shouted out "INVERT!", then the field disappeared completely.
"Aww... Now ya don't look like a happy farmer." He tried to restrain his laugh.
He stopped Twilight and said "If ya still want answers, she'll explain everything."
Twilight then looked confused, as it wasn't clear who he was indicating. Before she could ask, he was pulled away by someone.
"Ah'm gonna break you." Big Mac said to him, his snout inches away from his, the look of anger in his eyes, and his hoof grabbing onto his clothes.
"Listen, handsome." Xoa said, as he calmly got Big Mac off him. "In answer ta Applebloom's question, ah know y'all 'cause ah used ta do a lil' business with yer ma and pa."
Big Mac's face turned slightly less angry and more worried for a second.
"Before that scumbag cut me off, Ah used ta fight yer pa all the time, and ah won each time. He was much older and much stronger than ya are now. Plus, y'all just saw what ah did ta the Element of Honesty, ah think ah can take on any raw muscle."
As much as Big Mac wanted to, he knew that, if what Xoa just said was true, he couldn't just go at him head-on.
Regretfully, the big bulky stallion backed off a few steps, instead turning to tend his injured sister.
Knowing that he not only beat one of the saviors of this world, Xoa then turned to Twilight.
"How could you do something like this!?" Twilight fiercely asked the cowboy. "What did she do to you!? What did any of us do to any of you!?"
"That's on a need ta know basis, princess." The Mark answered back. "An' if yer princess hasn't told y'all yet, then she clearly don't think ya need ta know."
"That's not true at all! I'm sure the princess will tell us everything we need to know straight away!"
"Yeah, ah doubt that. If that was ta case, she woulda done hen she knew about it the second we arrived at yer castle."
This earnt a grunt from the princess, before she shook her head in denial.
"That's not true! You're a liar!"
"Believe what cha want, princess. But unlike y'all, ah at least know what ah'm up against."
The others that heard him say this turned to face the pair, with a look of concern and/or anger on their faces.
"Next step, Traitors ain't taken lightly." He finished, ready to punch the ground again.
He did so, re-enacting the vibration that had tremored several times before. With that, the same hole that appeared last night came.
"T..." Applejack weakly murmured, trying her best to painfully reach her hoof out. "Twi... Li..."
"Ah'll see y'all again real soon." Roranxoa announced, turning around to face Applejack. "You especially, Apples."
"W... Wai..." The Element Of Honesty once again wheezed out, trying to make herself heard.
Ignoring her plea, the cowboy jumped down into the hole he created, allowing it to close itself and restore the ground to what it was before.
"Applejack!" Twilight called out, running over to join the others. "Are you alright!?"
"Gee, I don't know(!)" Rainbow Dash sarcastically answered on her behalf. "Does she look alright to you!?"
"Girls, you're not helping!" Rarity snapped at the pair. "We need to get her help, now!"
"Rarity's right, we need all hooves on deck! Fluttershy, what can you do!?"
"I-I-I can try my best! I can probably tend to her injuries, but-"
"That'll do!" Twilight responded again. "Get as much equipment as you can and do whatever you can!"
10 seconds had passed after he left as AJ seemed to be coming to. Everypony (and dragon) was then relieved until something else came to worry them.
Not too far away, round about Twilight's house, a rainbow shot out of the ground and impacted beneath. As soon as they saw it they recognized it instantly: it was the same magic that they used to seal Discord away. But had a dark aura all around it. This could only mean one thing, and they were right.
Soon enough they heard Discords shout in the distance. Spike, AB, Sweetie, Scootaloo and Big Mac stayed to heal AJ. Everypony else went back to Twilight's.
The 5 of them arrived at Twilight's house only to see that what they feared was true. The spirit of chaos was oncve again restrained in his prison; Discord was turned back into stone.
"Oh no!" Twilight yelled, looking over the misfortunate marble. Stranger still, it looked almost identical to the way it did when the Elements themselves did it.
As if this alone wasn't bad enough, they were then greeted with a familiar sign. The same bright light that took away one of the three stallions last night came back and shone in the corner of their eyes, and from what it looked like some pony went in with it.
Only, for some strange reason, of looked as though they may have been FORCED in.
"What in the..." Rarity said, squinting her eyes to look closer at in with the other girls.
As soon as the distant light began to fade away, a flying carriage flew over head and a certain friendly face dropped down from it.
"Illiux!" She shouted as the light faded.
"Princess Celestia!?" Twilight shouted in astonish.
The monarch turned around.
"Ah, Twilight my faithful student. How are you dear?"
"I've been better." Twilight replied.
"I'm sorry I couldn't get here last night; I had a few issues with... Something important. Speaking of which, I trust by now you've become acquainted with my old "friends"?"
"If you're talking about who I think you're talking about, then yeah. I think I may have met one of the others. This one had a black mask with brown symbols. Also he had some western clothes on and a black cowboy hat. He said his name was-"
"Roranxoa." She finished for her, already knowing who she was speaking about.
Celestia then looked straight up and sighed. She made sure that she had every ponies attention before continuing.
"Well five of you are here, so we need only wait for Applejack before all is revealed."
"Um, your highness? Applejack is sort of..."
"Right 'ere!" A southern voice came from behind them, to see Applejack being carried by her legs lifted by Spike and her sister.
"Applejack!" Celestia questioned, seeing one of her elements covered in blood, plasters, and dirt with chain marks at her waist. "What happened to you?"
"Roranxoa, that's what happened." answered Spike.
She looked concerned, then sighed again.
"It should never have come to this." She looked sad as she pulled out something she was holding. It looked small, sharp and red, like a horn. It almost appeared to be connected to a hoof size ring.
"Very well, Marks of Babylon. If you wish to start a war with me and my ponies, then so be it!" She looked to face the eight of them.
"You will all need to hear the story. You see, as you already know, Equestria is made up of lots of different unique and special places. But of them all, there is one that is forbidden not by my order, but by my parents."
"Your parents!?" Twilight asked in surprise.
"Indeed. It is know as Babylon and is located in the very center of the world. It exists out of the cosmic balance of harmony and chaos. However, several millennia ago, that balance was tipped, and Discord, who is from that Babylon, was sent here to put it back together."
"So Discord's home is literally right beneath us? And it needs to be balanced to survive?"
"Correct again. This was when I had first met him at night in the royal gardens and we became good friends. Until that one fateful day when he was reminded of his reason for being there and stole the elements of harmony. When he did the Babylon regained some of its former loss and began to rebuild itself. But once me and Luna turned him to stone, it had crumbled again. So we had to make an important decision of who was going to suffer: my home, or his."
"So you chose yourselves? We understand." Fluttershy said to the royalty.
"I was truly sorry for what we did, but couldn't afford to release him at the time."
"That's horrible, but does that give them the right to destroy MY castle?”
"And because we were the ones who had turned him to stone, they were unable to break him out. Seeing as how he's now reformed in their eyes as well as our own, they no longer trust him, so they turned him stone, And we can't break him out because of that."
"So in a sense..." Rainbow looked depressed while saying, "...You could have saved them, but you chose not to."
"Wow!" Said Pinkie. "That was a really long story."
Rainbow Dash looked at her when she said this.
"That's nothing to be humorous about. This is a serious matter with several hundred innocent creatures having their home demolished because of this idol."
"Rainbow, that was rather sophisticated." said Rarity. "Especially for you."
"Perhaps, but this needs to be said. How could one remain calm when another has just reminded them of the suffering of their society, and your pompous pink peon just laughs?!"
Twilight picked up on these words. "Wait a minute. Reminded? Peon? Your not the real Rainbow Dash, are you?"
"Hmmm." Just then her voice became much deeper, much smoother, a hint of a German accent, and very familiar. "Nothing escapes you, does it miss Sparkle?"
"A Changeling?! Impossible!" She said, getting ready for anything.
"You're absolutely wrong." A bright yellow light then emerged from right in front of 'Rainbow'. "It's nowhere near impossible."
"AAHHH!" Twilight shouted as she covered her eyes with her legs, along with the others doing the same, save for Celestia, who just looked at it.
"But, in this case, it's not true." The new voice said as a light came and flashed around and hit Rarity into the tree wall. When they all got up a several more of those yellow glass panels that Xoa used came out of nowhere. This time they were a lot longer and just taller than Celestia was. They surrounded him and rotated until they vanished. It turned out to be another one of the stallions that raided last night.
"You should be careful who you put your trust into, after you've met me, mein libeste."
It was the one with a black mask with yellow lines. He was wearing blue jeans with a light red thin hoodie over a green traced sweater over a polo shirt.
"Illiux." Celestia bluntly said. He took a slight bow before her.
"Celestia, you look divine. Why, for so many years, you haven't aged a day. Oh my apologies, neither have we. Simply honoring to see you again."
"... The pleasure's almost likewise." She said as he rose. "I see we're still up to out old illusion tricks."
"Rupolenics, dear. Rupolenics."
"What's it been? 1000 years?"
He raised his hoof to his chin. "1173, but who's counting?"
"Where's Rainbow Dash? What have you done with my friend!?" Twilight demanded to know.
"All in good time my lavender beauty." A voice behind her came. She looked behind her in confusion to see that he was standing behind her now, turned back to where he was standing and saw he was gone from that spot. She raised her hoof in shock at this, he saw it, grabbed it with one of his, and gently kissed the edge of it in a gentlemanly manor.
"I don't believe we've had the fortune before. So sorry. Illiux Lure. Illusionist, tailor, etiquette teacher, clothes designer, prep faction leader, Mark of Babylon Mistrust and light element of the Babylonians."
"Um..." Twilight said, looking confused by the mixture of his actions and the elegance of his behaviour. He let go of her hoof a second later, and got back up to look at her.
"From what I've been informed, you and the other Elements of Harmony have little to no information concerning us. I would love with all my heart to explain, however there are other concerns that require my attention. Now if you'll excuse me, I must be off." He rose his hoof up to his face, revealing another of the glass panels appeared, before a bright light flashed before him. With that he was gone.
"What was...?"
"So now you've become personally acquainted with two of them." Celestia started after he had left. "They seem to know more about the powers of the Elements then I recall them doing. However, some good news is that they shouldn't know who ALL of you are. And knowing their lust for fighting, each one of them will come after one of you each. You see, the Elements of Harmony also wield some counteractions."
"Uh... You wanna go a lil' more into detail about them first, yer highness?" Applejack asked her.
"Certainly. Long before the Elements of Harmony even had their original owners, six other ponies had been chosen to wield powers of a different variety. They were similar to the Elements, but had very different properties and visual effects. As you've seen, they wear masks as opposed to necklaces, and are black instead of gold. Also their representing images are imprinted instead of crystals."
"Well, we've seen that already." Twilight reminded her. "What about the actual ponies wearing them?"
"Yes, of course. Well, similar to yourselves, they not only wear the masks with pride, but their magic is amplified by having them on. I'm, sadly, unable to give you their specific names and details due to... Promises." Celestia replied, think back to last night. "However, they will come after each of soon enough."
"So they're coming after us each, one at a time?" Rarity said as she walked back over to the others.
"They think of themselves as their own elements of harmony, but consider themselves Neo and superior to yours. These include Dedication, Faith, Honor, Knowledge, Respect and Acceptance. However, they also hold powers of disharmony of their own as well. These are Obsession, Mistrust, Fear, Worry, Destruction and Sacrifice. So once you find Rainbow dash, convince them to break Discord out immediately." Celestia finished.
"Um, your highness?" Fluttershy asked. "How long do we have? That is, if you don't mind me asking..."
"No time at all. Take a closer look at the statue and you'll understand why." They did just that at saw what she meant.
This time, Discord looked as though he was in pain. Suffering. Being hurt from the inside.
"You see, they are harsh beings." Celestia continued. "They believed that the elements of harmony had no balance between good and evil, so Discord was sent up to reset the balance. Now they consider him traitor."
"This is bad." declared Twilight. "We must stop them before anypony else gets hurt/taken. If we don't, then we-"
"Hey, sis?" Applebloom questioned, grabbing all attention. "Where'd Spike go?" The seven ponies looked around for him.
"He was here a moment ago." Said Celestia. "... Babylon."
"Spike!?" Shouted Twilight.
"Spiiike!?" Called Fluttershy.
"Darling!?" Shouted Rarity.
"Are ya' there?" Called Applejack.
"Bad time for a surprise!" Said Pinkie.
As if it was on cue, they all heard a scream in the distance. Not just any scream, his scream.
"SPIKE!!" they shouted in unison. Just then Celestia received a letter sent via dragon breath. It was like Spike's, but had numerous differences such as that the fire was purple, not green, the paper was black, not yellowish-white and was written in white rather than black ink. Celestia saw this and realised only one word: trouble. She began to read it out.
"Yo Cel, baby, it's the sypher man! Got any time for ya ol' boy?" The others looked in shock that princess Celestia had just said THAT. She continued.
"Guess what I've just got my runny claws on. Give up? It's your old friend the Spike Meister. Now I've caught my handsome self some good 'nuf prey in the past few centuries, but this lil' dude's wicked! So if ya want to ever see 'im again, you and princess Lunatic best be rolling through the Babylon ridge tonight at mid. And don't bring any pony else.
See you there babe!
Lots of love, Xervint."
"There are tons of thing I wouldn't expect you to say," said Pinkie. "But I never ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever thought she'd say THAT."
"Not my preferred dialect, no." Celestia folded the letter away and put it under her wings, before she signalled for the carriage to return.
"What should we do?" Twilight asked, as the sun princess hopped onto the vehicle.
"I know this may sound unideal for the situation, but you should let the Babylon come to you. If you try to find them by yourselves, you'll only make it easier for them."
"But, princess." Applejack spoke up. "If we just sit aroun', won't those guys jump us at the first chance they get?"
"Usually, yes. However, I know how the Marks of Babylon think, and they'll have too much respect to just finish you off in a single day or so."
"What about Spike?" Rarity interjected. "The poor dear could..."
"Myself and Luna must get to the ridge tonight. If they stay true to their word, then you'll see him again before tomorrow."
"But, how will you get there? You said that only a Babylonian can-"
"I have one waiting." She interrupted. "A pony with... Unique abilities, that came to myself and Luna last night."
"What? Why didn't you mention them earlier? We'll just get to Babylon with you."
"That, although undoubtedly helpful, would not be possible."
"Why not?"
"I gave him my word. My word that I would not do anything to assist you in this matter, unless directly invited to. I'm sorry, but I must be going."
"... Alright. But before you go, who was this pony?" Twilight asked, as the chariot began to take off.
"His name is Walker! You'll see him soon, I'm sure!" Celestia shouted, as she soon vanished from the scene.
Night did eventually come round and they all stayed in Celestia's castle while she and Luna went to this "ridge".
"Alright then." started Twilight. "If they are going to stay here, then we'll need a plan for this upcoming war that the princess mentioned."
"Well, let's start by seeing what we already know." Said Rarity. "We know that they blame us for anything and everything that may have happened to them. We know they have Spikey wikey and most likely Rainbow dash too, and are keeping them hostage. And lastly we know that the princess knows more than us about them."
"Right! So first, it might be smart to-"
She went silent at the sound of fighting in the distance outside. It sounded more like someone was just kicking the others plot as opposed to actual fighting. It came closer and they sooner than later saw the cause as it crashed its way into the room.
When the smoke cleared, they all saw Spike lying down on the floor only hanging on by a thread. They wanted to help and were about to until, out of the newly formed hole in the wall, Illiux stepped in with some more panels around him.
"You are aware, dear boy, it does not have to end for you like this right here!" He shouted across the room. "Merely stand down and tell me WHO and WHERE miss Rarity is."
This grabbed all attention in the room as they all suddenly realized what was happening.
"I-I-I'll ne-n-eve-er tell y-y-y-yo-ou." He weakly said.
"Then I am sorry Junger Drache, but this where you leave us." He walked slowly to the barely conscious dragon.
Rarity wouldn't allow this to happen, knowing what he was trying to do. She was ready to stand and fess up.
"I-"
"I'm Rarity!" Shouted a purple Alicorn as she got straight up.
"Hmmm..." He said, until a yellow glow radiating out of the white unicorn's chest flew right into his mask. Fortunately, for them, he didn't see where or who it was coming from.
"And ponies insinuate that I'M a liar." The Unicorn said to them and fired another laser from his panel, knocking Twilight into the back wall.
"Now, let the fun continue." He grabbed Spike with his magic and readied his hoof to attack until a blinding light shone down from the ceiling and called his name.
"Illiux!" The deep voice boomed and he quickly released his grip on the young reptile so he could bow before the light. "If you're alive, we require you back at the ridge for immediate departure."
"How trivial." He said after it had faded and he had gotten up. "So this would appear to be farewell. But first..." he used the magic emitting from the yellow glowing horn to force himself and Spike closer to each other. He then slipped something in to his claw.
"Hold onto that for me, my boy." He whispered as he faded from the light again.
The five looked in relief that he'd gone, then back in concern of the fact Spike is just lying there almost done for as he dropped what appeared to be a key from his hand.
"We simply must get him to help immediately." Rarity instructed the girls, lifting him up onto her back.
"So, how was your little day out, 'me old chap'?" The British pony in the mask with the purple markings asked the Prep stallion, as he could hear him walk into the chamber.
"Fairly entertaining, 'mate'." Illiux replied, stopping a few feet away from the tough-sounding pony. "At least, more entertaining than whatever you would get up to in that trailer you call home. And for your information, there was a miniature fight happening during my time."
"You were fighting? And you didn't invite us? Mate, you're lucky to get out alive, knowing you." He replied, seemingly mocking him.
"Oh, I'm flattered to know you've got my back(!)"
Meanwhile the giant dragon was still in the center of the room, observing this conversation. "It's true! Friendship DOES conquer all!" He joked.
"Wie auch immer if you must know, I was facing the girl who the key to you-know-what."
"You what?!" He snapped, now sounding serious. "You gave it away?!"
"Yes, I bestowed it, and unless you get it back, your friends are going to stay in their little crisis, because of what happened to my colleagues."
It had already been almost twelve hours since their last encounter with Illiux, yet it felt like two minutes. Twilight looked concerned at her Assistant's well being as he was laying there on a hospital bed because of the information that he held and refused to give away to him.
"First Rainbow, then Applejack, then Discord, now this."
"The poor darling couldn't even walk after what he had done... Because of me." Rarity said with a depressed tone.
Twilight turned to her.
"Rarity." She began. "It wasn't your fault that Spike tried to defend you. Who knows? Maybe Illiux was planning to do a lot worse if it were you instead if him. I know he's hurt, but Spike may have been happy to go through that for you."
"Yes I would." A masculine voice sounded behind them and they all turned to him.
Twilight and Rarity walked close, but Rarity went closer.
"Rarity." Spike began. "I- I didn't mean- it wasn't- he was- I only-" Spike continued to stutter at her expecting her to lash out at him, but it was quite the opposite; she wrapped her front legs around him tightly and began to cry softly.
He was taken back by this at first, until he hugged her back and looked sad, then mouthed something that looked like 'Thank Celestia.'
Twilight and her friends merely chuckled at the gesture.
"Your love for a young lady is as touching as ever, dear boy. However, to miss Rarity, you are destined to be a friend and nothing more, I'm afraid." Said a voice that was as familiar as it was unwanted.
The ponies all turned to the doorway to see Illiux standing there.
However this time he had some good news.
"Rainbow Dash!!" They all shouted in unison.
"Hey girls. Wassup?" She simply said, looking as though she was struggling to stand up properly.
"What's up? What's up!?! Didn't they do anything to you there?" Applejack seemed confused.
"Oh you wouldn't believe it! They stuck me inside this tube thing and-" Rainbow Dash tried to explain, right as Illiux pulled some kind of small capsule out of his pocket, and opening it in her direction.
Just then, a bright light hit her in the face, the capsule vanished, and Rainbow covered her eyes for a second.
"Uh... What? What was I just talking about?" Rainbow then turned to see Illiux. "Hey! you're that stallion from Twilight's place."
"Okay, now I'm really confused." Pinkie shared.
"That was a combination of magic that even Princess Twilight is not aware of. The first is called Gift Of The Diviner, and the second is Memory Mangle."
"I've never even heard of those spells before. What do they do?!" Twilight demanded from him.
"In good time." Illiux said. "Now then." He turned his head from them and walked towards the bed.
"Hey!" Pinkie shouted as she got up on two legs and stood in front of Rarity. "You stay away from our Rarity."
"Ah, I see." He walked up to her smiling. "So YOU'RE Rarity."
"PINKIE!!" Spike and Twilight shouted at the same time.
"Oops..." She smiled nervously.
"Anyway, I came here for two reasons and fraulein Rarity is not one of them. Yet. First off: Guten tag Spikey-boy, how are you feeling?"
"Well, I'm doing terrible now."
"...Understandable. However I could not truly be a gentlecolt if I cannot even be a GENTLE-colt. So I brought you some gems to dine on for fighting me."
The seven looked puzzled at this.
"Wait so..." Twilight began. "First you attack my house, then your friend Xoa beats up Applejack, then you kidnap Rainbow dash, then you fossilise Discord, then you kidnap Spike, then you abuse him for information, then you hospitalise him, and now you're bringing him a gift?"
"Are you loco in that coco?!" Asked a confused Pinkie.
"Nein, I'm Germane." Said Illiux passing Spike the box of gems.
"And the second reason I'm here is that I'm looking for miss Pinkie Pie. Now I can estimate it's one of you two, and I have a way of guessing who."
The unicorn looked over to Pinkie and Fluttershy standing next to each other. As he walked up to them more a light shone from inside of him, and within seconds he created an illusion in the shape, size and form of a giant dragon.
The dragon was pale white, shiny and had razor sharp yellow spines. He roared loudly at them and Fluttershy whimpered off behind a chair, whilst Pinkie did nothing.
He reverted back to a unicorn, smiled and went up to her and greeted her with the same way that he greeted Twilight.
"Is it you? Oh, foolish question, I know it's you seeing as how your friends shouted your name when you tried to defend miss Rarity. Anyway, my dear, I come with a warning: you will be fighting your opposing Mark next. As you hold the resemblance of fear, Caxpe (pronounced Cape) shall be your opponent."
"Hey, I never said I was gonna fight anypony." She said with a bit of seriousness.
"Would you be calm if I said he has the ability to make chocolate rain from cotton candy clouds?" He asked being cocky.
Suddenly, Pinkie's face turned from determination to excitement. "Really?!"
"Jawohl. In fact, it was him who taught Vanc- I mean, "Discord" how to do that."
"Ooo... That does sound nice!"
"Pinkie." Twilight said. She looked at her and then looked back at him.
"Sorry, but I already have a friend who can do that. So I'm still not gonna fight."
Illiux heard this and had a serious expression behind his mask.
"Either way miss Pie, miss Applejack and master Spike didn't have a choice so what makes you so certain that you have one?"
She and her friends had no ready reply for this.
"Farewell for now mein ravishing darlings." He said as he prepared his escape, but then decided to use the door instead.
"So let me get this straight." Rainbow dash said, after her friends brought her up to speed. "These guys are mad at us because we wrecked their home, and now they want to wreck ours?"
"Correct. And princess Celestia said that each of us would be assigned an opponent, and from we've gathered, AJ, Rarity and Pinkie already have." Twilight continued to explain.
"Well Spike." Began nurse Redheart. "From looking at your results it would appear you're ready to leave."
She started to walk out of the door when, at that same time...
"Hey you!" A voice shouted from in the hallway as the doors opened. He entered the same time that nurse Redheart left.
A stallion with a light brown coat and a matching light brown pompadour hair do walked in. He was wearing a blue T-shirt and blue tight jeans with a brown thin leather jacket over him.
"Oh... This looks bad." said Spike as he got out of his hospital bed.
"Hey you're Pinkamena, right? My boss Caxpe wants to see you outside." Despite how this pony looked, he sounded surprisingly angelic.
"Then tell your boss Caxpe to come in here." Replied Twilight. The stallion pointed at her in a tough manner.
"No-one tells Caxpe Fear what to do; Caxpe Fear does the telling."
"Yeah, well, I'm not gonna let him to us what to do. Now leave before you make a mess." She was trying to push him out the room.
"I said he needs to see this rat!" The pony said, trying to stand still.
"Do we look like a wrestling group?!" He then got off her and walked out combing his hair with his hoof.
"You're gonna pay for this!" He called out to Twilight as he left. As he was leaving, he heard something trying to speak in his head, and he was quite reluctant to answer it.
"Well?" A cockney voice asked him, sounding serious.
"I tried, boss, really I did. But she's being difficult, just like you said. You might have to get to her yourself."
"Did you get it, though?"
"Nah. I didn't even get to bring it up. I'm heading back to you, man." He said, walking away.
Back in the hospital room, the protagonists were discussing briefly.
"So what're you gonna do Pinkie? If you go out you could end up like how me and Applejack did." Said Spike.
"Still, better go see what he wants. Maybe it's a surprise party!" She gleefully said.
Within minutes the seven of them were outside looking for Caxpe. They searched for a bit but to no avail, until...
"So you came." A deep voice came from behind. They turned around.
They saw a dark Purple Stallion with a dark brown pompadour mane wearing a mask like the others with a Purple lining on it for a symbol. He was also wearing tight black jeans, a torn white polo shirt, covered by a blue sweater, underneath a baggy black leather jacket. He also had biker gloves on his fore hooves and his left ear pierced.
"Yeeaahh..." Said Pinkie a bit worried.
"Good, 's about time. You think you can whatever you want, do ya? Think you spread peace and all that stuff on the world, and no pony's gonna care!?"
"Not really. Not exactly, anyway. Well, sorta. Alright, yeah, we do."
"Yeah? My whole world's come crumbling down, cause of you. Me home, my mates, my bikes, all my work, everythin' we've done, all of it's in vain, 'cause of you!"
"Listen mister Caxpe." Began Twilight. "I know you must be upset about your home, but believe me, it had..."
Her words were slowed by what she had just saw. It was him opening his jacket and two arms made of darkness came crawling out and were holding something. One had a box of cigarettes, and the other a lighter. He began to smoke right in front of them.
"...Nothing..."
"...To..."
"...Do..."
"...With..."
"...Us..." He turned to face Twilight.
"Oh really?" He turned back to Pinkie, and released some smoke straight into her face.
"Did cha bring the key?"
"Key? What key? Ooo is it a key to a party?"
He then laughed at her stupidity, not her idea.
"Think your funny, don't cha?"
She smiled until what he did next: he used the darkness arms to grab her by the throat and lift her up.
"WHERE ARE MY KEYS, YOU WORTHLESS PINK RAT!?!?!?! The whole life of my first ever friends depends on that, now give me that key!!" He shouted at the top of his lungs.
The others rushed to help, but were then cut off by something familiar.
"Babylon Tiamat-goddess of chaos!" He shouted as a force field that matched his coat emerged and knocked them all back.
"Where is the key?!" He said through his gritting teeth.
"I don't have any keys." Pinkie managed to choke out.
He then threw her down and slammed her info the ground.
Once she had gotten back up, he lifted her up and threw her into one of the forcefield walls.
He then ready to pounce on her with a body slam, until she rolled over to the side and stood up straight.
"Augh!!!" He grunted, and slammed his hoof into the ground and got up.
"Hey Caxpe!" She called.
As he turned around he was hit in the face directly by a well aimed shot of confetti and balloons, knocking him onto the floor again.
This was followed by Pinkie using her party cannon to launch another shot, and another, and another. This went on until he used the confetti to his advantage.
He lifted his cape over him, and he somehow vanished from it.
"Huh?" Pinkie wondered as he disappeared.
"Heh heh." His voice chucked from literally right behind her.
"Aah!!" She jumped.
"You almost made me drop me cig. Idiot." He scoffed as he inhaled, the exhaled in her face.
She prepared to fire her weapon again, but this time he lifted his cape above his head, then quickly brought it straight to the bottom left. It touched corner of her cannon, and chipped a bit off.
"Woah! Well that's not fair!" She complained.
He ignored her and whipped his cape to the right, cutting off the top half, then he used his left hoof to go straight for her, breaking the centre, connected by the same hoof making a full circle destroying the whole plastic party cannon.
Pinkie tried to back up, but realized she was now up against a wall. This was his perfect time to strike, as his back was turned to her, and he swung his came again, going directly for her neck.
"Eep!" She squeaked.
Luckily she dodged by ducking, and he sliced the forcefield wall. However, he wasn't done yet. He tried to punch the ground where she was with his left hoof, but again she dodges by jumping to the side. But then he saw this and used his right hind hoof to kick her away.
"You not had enough yet!?" He called as he walked up to her.
She was panting on the ground, until she turned around with an angry outburst.
"AAAUUGH!!!" She roared as she attacked him and pinned to the ground. As soon as she touched him, her mane literally exploded, and flattened. Her mane as well as her coat went noticeably darker.
He wolfed whistled at this style.
"Alright Pinkameina?" He asked, as he also inhaled his cigarette and blew it in her face again. She pressed him harder.
Just then, his cape grew darker underneath him, and he was absorbed into the ground in a puddle of darkness.
The puddle then transformed into a rectangle, and then a black fist rose under Pinkie, launching her into the air.
She then fell onto the ground, the fist disappeared, and Caxpe was standing where the fist was, wafting his cape over him as he appeared.
This time Pinkie didn't get up, until Caxpe lifted her by the neck again with his darkness arms, and brought him closer to him.
As he finished off his cigarette, he burned what was left of the butt into her body.
"Augh!!!" She screamed in pain.
"Where is the key Pinkie?!"
"Hey!!" Shouted the young dragon. He turned to him with an uninterested look. "Lay off her, Grease ball!"
That got his attention. He released his grip on Pinkie and went over to the edge of the forcefield where Spike was.
"You what, mate?" He said surprisingly less angered than before.
He reached behind him and pulled something out.
"This what you're looking for?" He asked waving a key in front of Caxpe. He looked surprised now. "You can have it if you leave now."
"You're a cheeky little muppet, aren't you lad?"
He then deactivated the forcefield and took Spike's key. Also, he swooped his jacket over him and a shroud of darkness appeared and took him away.
"Pinkie!!" The six of them shouted in unison. They ran over to check on their choking friend on the floor.
"Hey, are you alright?" Asked Rainbow.
"No. *cough* everything hurts."
"Come on now. We should try to stay focused on one task at a time. Right now Discord is still turned to stone because of the Babylonians. If we break him out we can use him to-"
"Yes? Use him to what?" They turned around to see and hear Discord. Fluttershy (of course) rushed over to hug him and he hugged her back until...
The others stared in fear when he pulled out his claw in front of him, and one of Illiux's illusion panels showed up. Even more frightening was that it started to glow in Fluttershy's direction.
"FLUTTERSHY NO!!" Twilight screamed when she pulled her away and he almost attacked himself.
"Whoa!" He yelled when some familiar yellow glass panels appeared on their own surrounding him, defending himself from himself and showing that it was really Illiux with the same illusion powers as before.
"Not you again." said Rarity as she looked down. He got up.
"Nice to see you too."
"Why are you here now?"
"Why, to see you miss Rarity." He pulled out a another smaller panel and shouted something they really didn't want to hear right now.
"Babylon Abzu-god of primeval!" And he and Rarity were trapped inside of a dark yellow forcefield. No-one could get in or out of it and they knew this by now. "We never did get round to our fight, my dear. And if you lose then your freedom becomes mine."
Now they became even more worried.
"If that should happen..." Twilight began. "What would you do with her?"
"I would train her to join my faction of the Preppy and convince her to oppose the rest of you for us."
"...You say that with a tone in your voice that you've done this before. Have you?"
"Your highness, like you and your lovely friends, we will do whatever we have to in order to save this planet.."
"Taking over ponies minds and forcing them to do your bidding is an act of kindness to you!?"
"Miss Twilight, kindly stay out of this!!"
Their fight began. He rushed at her and slammed her into the ground, then threw her into the forcefield wall.
"Are you truly so Petit and weak that you cannot fight? Or are you simply afraid of me?" He said waving his hair. That did it.
"Okay, you asked for it! Take this." She charged up her horn and fired a nearby rock at him. It hit, but did nothing and faded. He smiled as if he expected that. She looked puzzled and dropped a tree branch on top of him with her magic, but that just bounced right off him.
"So sorry, but our Babylon magic has existed long before Equestria was even founded! Your little stage tricks have no effect on us what so ever; we're immune to your powers. Now then, shall we continue?"
He formed another Glass panel just a little taller than him was to fire a laser at her. She was knocked back.
Then he kicked right behind him, but hit her for some reason.
"Rarity, are you okay?!" Twilight asked her friend inside of the force field.
"Nah, she'll be 'right." A male British voice told her from right behind her. The girls looked around to see Caxpe.
"Him again?!" Rainbow Dash asked, not getting a reply.
"Illiux in't that hard, your mate's gonna be fine." He told the girls, getting another cigarette out of his jacket pocket and lighting it up.
"Ah, Caxpe. I see that you've managed to get out of you're fight alive. Maybe you should have asked me for assistance, to watch me finish what you started." Illiux said to the polar opposite pony.
"Would've done it sooner, if you hadn't nicked this off me." Caxpe responded, showing him the key he had retrieved a few moments ago.
"I felt as though you had to have the favor returned after that little stunt you pulled in my refectory."
"What did Caxpe do, Illuix?" Twilight asked him, suddenly interested in their relationship status.
"The most vile and uncouth thing you can imagine: He and his friends thought it wold be funny to pour glue into my Hoof Sanitizer." Illiux answered, looking at his hooves.
"Ha ha! Nice." Rainbow Dash said, laughing at the thought of that.
"Yeah, and you got us back for it after you nicked the key to me quarry. Me and the lads were stood there freezing outside trying to get in for an hour, coz of yous."
"You would know all about being left outside in the cold, wouldn't you Caxpe? After your youth, and everything you've been through, correct?"
Caxpe looked at Illiux, with a face of extreme anger.
"I'm not going back there, you posh muppet. And you ain't doin' this to us again, you hear me?"
"Justifiable, honestly. It's not my fault that the spell can inly be undone by the key crafted from it." Illiux said, before turning around.
'I might need to take note of all this new magic.' Twilight thought.
"Now then, back to the battle..."
He followed his previous attack by hitting nothing, but still Rarity felt it. He continually hit nothing beside him and Rarity felt it.
This went on until she dodged one and hit something invisible right next to her. Illiux, on the other side of the field moved his leg upwards to block the hit, and now they understood why. The place where they thought he was faded, and he turned visible where Rarity just hit.
"Clever, for figuring out my special talent of illusions. However, it shall not help you for this!"
He ran at her and tried to jump kicked when she guarded her front. Then, before he did attack her, he vanished and reappeared doing the same jump kick right behind her and knocked her down.
She tried to get up, but he put his hoof on her head and kept it down.
"It appears, that I have reigned victorious."
"First time for everything..." Caxpe whispered to Applejack.
He got off of her and the forcefield shrank, allowing Illiux to pass through and stayed over Rarity.
"Perhaps in your new life, our paths will not cross in this manor."
A light shone up from the ground and she could feel her soul being stripped from her body. She tried to escape but couldn't get out of the field. She eventually gave up, until...
The forcefield let her go, but for a certain reason: she was being pushed out, and she saw by who.
"Spike no!!!!" Screamed Twilight. "What are you doing?!?!"
He turned to her smiling with tears in his eyes.
"You're an element of harmony, Rarity. Equestria needs you... Twilight needs YOU more than ME, so I'm letting the Marks of Babylon take ME instead."
"SPIKE!!! NO!!!!" Rarity screamed, but it was too late. He fell to the ground unconscious when the forcefield disappeared.
"NOO!! MY LITTLE SPIKEY WIKEY!!" Rarity sobbed with her friend in her hooves. She and her friends ran over to help him and wake him up, but his eyes remained closed.
"Spike! Can ya hear me?!" Applejack yelled, trying to shake him awake.
"Come on Spike, get up!!" Rainbow ordered, hoping to get him to hear her.
"Spike! Please be ok." Fluttershy whimpered.
"Spike... No..." Twilight quietly muttered, feeling the tears well up.
Before anymore grieve-driven words could be spoken by the girls, they saw a bright light appear around Spike's body, and more illusion panels appeared.
The panels then spread out so that the girls were thrown away from his body.
"What? The boy sacrificed himself? For you? Preposterous!" Illiux was holding a small glass panel in his hoof, with Spike's emotionless face on it. He seem puzzled at his actions and did something they really wanted to see: He magically made the panel vanish, and moved his hooves to hold his mask, and then took it off.
He had dreamy light blue eyes with excessively large pupils, and the front of his mane was fully washed, dried, and combed, blonde and with a parting down the center.
"Nevertheless, his will is mine. Although I must admit if I was going to plan on kidnapping some pony close to you, it most likely wouldn't have been him. Come, my dear boy, we have much practicing to get on with."
He rose without question and stood there with no pupils in his eyes. Illiux went up to him and took him with him to his light escape.
They all just stood there after beholding the sight of losing their friend. AGAIN.
For the most part of Equestria, all was normal. Waking up on schedule, getting ready for the day ahead, going to work or school, or staying at home, occupying themselves.
Alas, that was not the case for everyone. And everyone, in this case, is the Mane Six. For them, a great loss had just been bestowed upon them all.
A loss that they would work night and day to rectify.
It was three days later after Spike had sacrificed himself to save Rarity and her soul, and the mane six went back to Ponyville. After much sobbing, weeping, and talking about him, they decided to go to the princesses to see if she knew anything else that could help.
"Alright girls, the chariot service is down; something about a formation blocking a passage." Twilight told the girls as they headed for the Ponyville Station. "If it was any other time we could help out ourselves, but right now we gotta see Celestia. So it looks like we're just gonna have to take the Friendship Express instead."
"The Friendship Express." Pinkie repeated. "The only service that runs on smiles and joy!"
"Yeah... Which raises the question why they still charge ponies to board it..." Rainbow muttered.
After a minute, they arrived at the station and took a look at the time schedule. The next ride to Canterlot was in less than five minutes.
"We've got here in time." Twilight stated. "Alright girls, let's get moving! Next stop, Celestia."
They each brought train tickets and climbed aboard, only to see that every seat were filled with other passengers. They searched around the train for a bit, but there were little to no seats available; every last one of them, save for a few were taken by other ponies. Most of which none of the girls recognized.
"Isn't there ANYWHERE to sit on this thing!?" Rainbow exclaimed. "Why's it so busy, anyway? The train's usually never this full."
"Hey Girls!" Pinkie exclaimed. The five of them turned around to see her pointing at a pair of seat rows. "I found an empty one!"
"Finally!" Rainbow rolled her eyes. The mane six then took their seats, just as they heard a whistle blow outside and saw the doors close. The train began to move forwards.
Meanwhile, on the outside of the train, a pony with a dark yellow coat, brown mane and old timey mustache was staring at the giant standing clock, waiting for it to departure. Once it left the station, he turned his head to see it and make sure that the six girls were all on it.
"Clockwork to Schedule." He said to seemingly no-one. Before anypony noticed him say this, he got a reply in his head.
"I hear you." Another pony's voice answered him.
"They've left the station; they're heading to the capital. I'm ready at anytime you are."
Back to Twilight and her friends, they would normally be messing about on the train, either playing or doing whatever they did in their spare-time here. But knowing how serious these Babylonians were being against them and that a friend's life may be at stake, they could only focus at the task at hand.
Speaking of which, the girls were now recalling the better times they had with Spike.
"They could be hurting him for some more information again, or maybe even trying to get him to fight us so they can watch." Said Twilight, when the dark blue light emitted from her chest again. This time when it did, it followed through to the drivers room.
"If Celestia can't help us, then I'm willing to go straight up to Illiux myself and get my Spikey back." said Rarity with a focused tone.
"Rarity, we might not-"
"Twilight, because of me, Spike's been in danger twice. I need to set things right."
"They didn't hurt Rainbow Dash when she was down there, so he could be merciful on him." Hoped Fluttershy.
"We can only hope for now." Twilight answered her. "I'm angry too, but we need a plan first. Celestia knows more about this Babylon than we do, so only she can tell us anything."
"What's the first thing we wanna know 'bout this Babylon thing?" Applejack asked.
"If we want to get Spike back, we'll need to know how to get to this Babylon, so we can confront them sooner."
"We already know it's underground." Fluttershy continued. "But it's not as if we can just dig our way down there... Could we?"
"I'm up for it!" Pinkie announced, popping up from the side, holding six shovels in her hooves. "And I think I speak for all of us when I say we're ready to go dragon digging!"
"Uh... Maybe not all of us." Rarity replied, backing off from her a bit.
"Besides, something tells me that it's not going to be that easy, Pinkie."
"-BZZZ- Attention all passengers, this is your conductor speaking -BZZZ-" An unfamiliar male voice came through the monitor. He sounded dull and bored, but was definitely not sounding like anyone they knew. "-BZZZ- We appear to experiencing slight malfunctions with the gear box, so the trip may take a few minutes longer than expected. We apologize for any inconvenience that this may cause. -BZZZ-"
"Well, great." Rainbow Dash spoke up. "Now I have to wait even longer before I kick Illiux's plot."
"Hey, we have bigger things to worry about right now." Pinkie said.
"Such as?" Twilight asked in response.
"Well, call me crazy, but I thought that we weren't the only ones on this train."
"What're you talking about of course we're not the only-" She and her friends looked around to see everypony who was on the train was now gone. "Hey! Wasn't the train completely filled with passengers a second ago?"
"First the conductor about the gearbox, and now this." Applejack spoke up.
"But... But I thought this train... Didn't have a conductor." Said Fluttershy.
"Wait... She's right! This train is magical; it moves on its own." Said Twilight.
"-BZZZ- You managed to deduce that much quicker than anticipated, your highness. So your brain agility isn't as slow as imagined. However a deserted train is only the least if your problems as of now. For if you wish to see your little dragon again, that is. -BZZZ-" the monitor said again.
"Tell me where he is now!!" Demanded Twilight.
"-BZZZ- His location can be found on the roof of the train, princess Twilight Sparkle. My mistress is expecting you there at once. -BZZZ-"
"Let's move!" Twilight ordered her friends.
In an almost uncharacteristically fashion, she bolted from her seat and charged to the nearest roof hatch at a speed that Rainbow herself might've called excessive.
They wasted no time and climbed flew to the top of the Friendship express's carriages.
They saw someone in the distance, but wasn't who they were hoping for. It was likely another Babylonian. They had a mask on their face as well, similar to the ones the Marks wore.
"Are you a Mark!?" Twilight asked the pony in the distance.
They didn't answer.
Twilight stood on the roof as well, balancing herself, before her friends followed suit. The girls moved a little closer to get a better look.
They had on a dark blue sweater over white polo shirt, tied with a red bow tie. They also had a matching extended skirt on, reaching down to the side of their legs, so as not to blow it over their barrel, indicating that this Mark was most likely a female. They finished up the look with white knee-socks and black Mary Sue shoes.
"Alright then, whoever you are!" Twilight shouted to her, as she smiled under her mask with the fast wind running through their hair. "We're up here like you asked, but I'm not seeing my friend anywhere!"
"Of course you're not. That's seemingly because he's not up here."
"WHAT!?" Shouted Rainbow dash. "But you just said-"
"My colleague, Rail Works, informed you that 'His location could be found up here!' He didn't clarify he WAS here. An elementary mistake on your part, Princess Twilight Aurora Sparkle. That is truly part of the reason why I chose to come here: to test how high your IQ truly is. So far, your first test has resulted in failure."
"You lyin' dirty no good little..." Applejack shouted.
The mare's horn then lit up for a second, before dimming again a second later.
"From what I recall, he is already in Canterlot. He'll be fine; he's on his first mission already."
"Oh great!" Said Pinkie. "Of all the messes Spike could have made, this is the one we've been unable to fix."
"I can relate to cleaning up messes that dragons can cause, especially ones of his breed." The mare said to them.
"What? You're saying that you know about dragons?" Twilight asked, somewhat interested about this.
"That is correct. I know about his species, his purpose, his adaptation to life, and likely a lot more than you and your friends know."
"How does someone like YOU know about that kind of thing?" Twilight questioned her.
"Simple. As you are likely already aware by now, I have been alive for thousands of years, and as opposed to the likes of Caxpe and Calsuricxs, I have decided to use that life time to learn and study about all that a common being would not know. That is why I founded the Ingenium Faction to begin with."
"The likes of Caxpe and whom?" Rarity asked her, keeping her leg above her head, so that the wind didn't ruin her mane too much.
"Another Babylonian, miss Rarity." She answered. "However, staying on the subject of your former assistant, I'm reluctant to tell you that due to my capacity of knowledge involving his breed being superior in comparison to yours, Princess Twilight, he would be better of staying with me and my faction."
'Faction?' Twilight thought about that word.
"Yes, faction." The mare replied, shocking Twilight.
"Did... Did you just read my thoughts?"
"Indeed, I did. It was a magic that I learnt when I was a little hundred years older than yourself." She answered again.
"Anyway..." Twilight shock her head. "Back to what you said, you're not keeping Spike with you! He's my fami- my best friend! I'll do whatever it takes to get him back with me!"
"Is that so? Then would you give yourself up to join our cause for the Babylon? The two of you would be back together then."
"NEVER!" Twilight snarled at the mare.
"WHO EVEN ARE YOU!?" Rainbow Dash yelled to the mare at the other side of the train.
"My name is Xandra Beswick. I am the fourth Mark of Babylon, as you may or may not have deduced at this point." She said as she then lit up her horn in a dark blue flash, and she fired a magic beam into the sky.
The beam the turned into a shield like form, surrounding a small portion of the train track.
Suddenly the train they were standing on ran into the bright light she fired and emerged over an ocean.
It seemed as though that they were all trapped on an endless track, above an ocean in the middle of nowhere, with absolutely nowhere to go but ahead.
The mane six looked at this power. Some looked in shock because of the power, others in amazement because of the scenery.
"From what your former assistant has told me, your majesty, you pride yourself on being a strong Alicorn, with both your magic and friendship being your strongest element. Is this true?" Xandra asked her,
"That's none of your business!" Twilight retaliated in an angry tone.
"Keep calm, as a princess should be. I'm simply clarifying if what he's informed me is correct." They could tell she was smiling under the mask.
"Stop stalling! Where's Spike!? Undo this spell and let me see him!"
"Hmm. Curious, really." She started to slowly approach Twilight on the other side of the train.
"What?" Twilight questioned.
"It almost sounded as though your actually concerned about him. As opposed to the dozens of times in his life that you either left him alone at home, put his life in danger before your own, or both."
"Ho- How dare you talk to me like that about him! HOW DARE YOU!!"
"Oh?" Xandra looked puzzled, as she stopped walking.
"You have no right in telling me how to bring up my family!"
'Family? Interesting.' She thought.
"What happened to your Babylon is between me and you, so leave Spike out of this and deal with me about it, one on one!"
"You Elements of so-called 'harmony'. Tell me, do you get tired of being incorrect and naive all the time?"
This made Twilight even more enraged.
"This wasn't just about you and me, Princess Twilight. This was about the six of us and the six of you, until Rarity was so generous of giving the victory to Illiux. Then your- pardon, my dragon stepped in and gave away his freedom as opposed to hers."
"That doesn't give you the right to steal him from me!"
"Incorrect once more. We saw that he had the heart of a hero, which is exactly what we need right now."
"Take me to him! Now!"
"But we have yet to start our battle yet. I still need to analyze your magical capacity, so..." Xandra lit her horn up again, not exactly showing what she was doing with it. "As Illiux might say: Shall we dance?"
"I didn't want to ever have to use my magic this way..." Twilight said, putting her head down, sighing, and looked back up at Xandra. "But if this is the only way to save my friend, then bring it on, Xandra!"
"Excellent." Xandra confidently said, before she raised her fore hoof, and the ocean beneath began to rumble, and a tsunami rose and formed into a giant water snake-like being that crashed on Twilight.
"Twilight!!" Her friends shouted in worry. When they did the dark blue light appeared from Twilight and went straight into the mare's mask. Hers was with blue lines in the form of being part of a bigger logo.
"Hold up..." Said Applejack. "I've seen this here trick before when ah faced Xoa! So yer the Element of Worry, are ya!?"
"I am not an Element; I'm a Mark, Applejack." She replied, as her horn started to glow.
Another wave came from the newly formed ocean and slammed into the side of the train knocking Twilight off the side, hanging on by a hoof. She then flew her soaking wet self up and looked directly at her.
"Alright, now I'm mad." She weakly said as she charged up her horn for an attack of her own. She released the magic beam and, like before, no results came about her.
"I see." Xandra stated.
"You see what, Xandra!?" Twilight demanded to know.
"You'll have to forgive me, but it seems as though I've overestimated your powers. For the pony who supposedly defeated lord Tirek, you certainly don't seem to have quick enough reactions to my skills, your highness." She said.
As she commented on her efforts, something else came from out of the vast water beside them: it looked like a shield with six spikes pointing in different directions on the curved top. It had four diagonal lines across the center to the corners, two from each corner, and one line across the bottom separating it. It also had razor sharp wings on the side of the shield.
It took awhile, but the six finally got it and they figured it was what the different lines on each Babylonian masks were a part of.
"XANDRA." It shouted. She bowed before it as it called her name. "I REQUIRE TO SEE YOU AT CANTERLOT IMMEDIATELY." It then faded.
"Well, how fortunate that our magical showcase has come to an end. Or, perhaps this is unfortunate, depending on your perspective of this strife." she said to Twilight and her friends. "Although, despite my requirement to leave now, this does not necessarily mean that we will not see each other later today."
"Where is Spike!?!" Twilight practically screamed, still trying to get the information out of her.
When she said it, the same brown light emerged from Applejack again, and faded a second later, showing how obsessed she was getting about him.
"I believe that I already told you that, your highness. You should really begin to open your ears more often, as opposed to thinking that you can know everything simply by asking the same question."
The girls all stared at her angrily, before Xandra spoke again.
"I give you my word that your friend will not intentionally be hurt whilst he is with me in Babylon. However, any accidental cause of conflict is entirely reasonable."
"YOU TOUCH ONE SPINE ON MY BABY DRAGON, AND I'LL-" But Xandra had already jumped into the ocean.
"COME BACK HERE YOU-" Rainbow dash shouted as she tried to jump into the ocean as well, but the same light came as before and they reappeared at the Canterlot station where Rainbow hit her head against the platform.
"So Spike's already here..." Said Rarity as she looked around.
"Hey I think I know why he's here!" Pinkie said optimistically. "What if he's actually devised some sort of secret undercover plan to save us from the Marks of Babylon!?"
"Pinkie..." Rainbow unsatisfactorily said. "That's a little insane, even by your standards."
The six hurried to the palace and immediately went inside to the Princesses room.
"Your highness! We've come across some... More... Of..."
She was nowhere to be seen in the room. The other elements came to witness this as well. They took a look around for any sign of either of them. They stayed for a bit, but then they thought it would have been better if they tried elsewhere.
Eventually, they ended up in an empty throne room.
"Hey, maybe she's still at that ridge thing that she was told to go to." Pinkie reminded them.
"Oh, yeah." Twilight said looking depressed.
"You're still worried about him, aren't you dear?" Rarity comforted her friend.
Twilight didn't respond, only stared at the ground some more.
"Don't be. It was me who lost to Illiux; it's my fault."
"Rari-"
The six of the then turned to hear the sound of the door to the elements of harmony being opened. From the inside.
Suddenly, they looked in amazement at the sight of a young Drake Twilight was talking about not too long ago.
"Spike!! You've returned to us at last!! See?! Told you it was all a secret undercover plan." Said Pinkie full of hope, and she and her friends saw some certain jewels in his claws. "What're you doing with half the elements of harmony, my clever little friend?"
"Stealing them, trying to get away from here. What does it look like, you pig?" He answered with a confused look.
"Oh. Well, it defiantly looks like that, but I still think that maybe this is all some secret undercover plan..." She whispered and Twilight used her magic to grab her closer.
"Pinkie!" She shouted. "He's stealing our elements! How can even you POSSIBLY not understand that!?!"
"W-well, Twilight I'm-" Pinkie looked in extreme fear of her supposed friend.
"Forget it! Just let me handle this!" Twilight threw Pinkie onto the floor, causing Caxpe's dark purple aura to flow from her body, showing her fear.
"Turning against your friends already? Nice. Now out of my way if you want all of your bodies still in tact!"
"I can't believe they did this to you! My little Spikey Wikey on the side of evil!?" Rarity exclaimed. He ignored her and carried the elements to the doorway and attempted to make a break for it, when the others came and blocked him.
"Evil, Rarity?" Spike asked. "Caxpe was right. Not only do you look like a marshmallow, but you're probably as thick as on too."
"Spike, stop!!" Twilight worried. "We're your friends; we don't want to hurt you!"
"Oh, what a shame, 'cause I WANT to hurt you!" She shouted as he held the three elements in his single claw and pounced on Twilight using his available claw to rip across her face.
His claws caused a large scratch mark of her face, as she squinted in pain.
She looked in shock that he'd willingly do that. He was about to attack again until he felt a lasso around his arm. He turned to see his former friend Applejack rope him tight and trying to pull him closer.
He used this to jump up high enough to pounce on her and slam her into the ground. This was followed by Rainbow grabbing him and throwing him off.
"Come on, squirt!" She said. "This isn't who you are! You'd never do this; you're on OUR side!"
"Rainbow, stop messing with my head and just fight!" He replied annoyed. He then did something they never saw him do before.
He held out his palm and he created a small green flaming meteor in it and let loose to fire.
It hit her and knocked her over. Applejack got back up and readied her lasso again. The two began circling each other.
"Jus' think, Spike. What's more harsh than turnin' a couple o' old friends against each other? They stole ya after that fight at tha hospital." She said.
"Not like you didn't any better in your fight, Applejack!" He retaliated by grabbing the lasso end and quickly wrapping it around her, catching her off guard, and knocking her down.
"You're more than this, and you know it! Remember, my little Spikey wi-" Rarity was cut off.
"STOP CALLING ME THAT!!" He lashed out tackling her. When she was down he headbutted her and caused her head to get bruised. When he did this gave an opening to allow Twilight and Pinkie grab him by his arms.
"GET OFF ME! GET OFF ME!" He roared. They kept their grip on him as he struggled, until suddenly, a large magnitude shock everything around them.
The vibrations intensified, and large gush of water flooded the room from outside, and the floor.
The water then formed into a fountain, and out the fountain, a certain mare popped out and knocked Rarity down again and stood on her.
"You look as though you could use a bit of help." Xandra said to him as they stood there.
"Gee, whatever could've given you that silly idea(?)" He replied, clearly pleased to see her. Her smile faded quickly as she turned to the others and focused all of her power on her horn and released.
"Farewell." Xandra said, and the whole room began to vibrate when the fountain lid imploded and surge of water shot out at Twilight. This caused the room to flood. Spike then used his available claw to get Pinkie off him as well.
He jumped over to Xandra and struck a battle pose as she did as well. He then used his fire breath on the water causing it to turn into steam and aiding their escape.
The steam then flew directly at their eyeholes, blindly them momentarily. 5 of them then got straight back up, whereas Twilight just knelt there, crying her eyes out.
"-ZZ- sigma up and running. Raider, Sawbones and Kitten.destroyer, you are clear for come down, over -ZZ-"
""-ZZ- double copy, VXZ, we have platforms 2, 3 and 5 ready in sight. -ZZ-"
Many radio communications were shared over the com. lines somewhere in the storm riddled sky above.
In what one could make out of the fog, something big, hot and metal was approaching something in the sky. Suddenly, the fog was pierced and three fighter jets made their way to an aircraft carrier in the Babylon sky.
"-ZZ- VXZ we are prepared for landing, clear any and all threats approaching. Over -ZZ-"
"-ZZ- Nothing on the radar, boss. Over -ZZ-"
"Alright baby, let's do this!" Called their apparently boss. He charged into full gear and landed on the carrier drifting on the deck.
Before the jet had even fully stopped, he deployed the hatch and jumped right out onto the deck boards. He proceeded to walk on letting the engines cool down, not caring about the safety of the plane, or how it landed at all.
As soon as he was in sight, every single pony instantly metaphorically and literally dropped what it was they were doing and began applauding the young stallion.
The stallion was green with a black tail that looked as though it hadn't been so much as touched in the last 8 years. He was wearing a golden, soft, cold pilots jacket zipped up over his black vest with regular kids shorts. He was also wearing a pair of golden/yellow/beige shades over his eyes, which could only just be seen under his pilot helmet.
He only continued to smile smugly as he chewed his gum and walked on through the corridors.
"Spanner!!" He called.
"A'up Cal, mate!" A British working stallion in overalls replied as "Cal" walked up to him and bro hoofed him.
"Right bro, I'm heading down Ant's, grabbing a sharp split in 10. You wanna rev out with me?"
"Aye, getting me new piston for me back wing, in all."
"Right arrivederci lad!" Cal finished up and proceeded to walk into his main room. There he got a surprise.
"H-Hey amico, doin' alright?"
"I trust you have only now returned." A deeper posh voice facing the wall replied.
"Yeah ragazzo ricco! So what cha need from me?"
He slowly turned round to face him.
"Calsuricxs. Have you ever heard of the element of loyalty, Rainbow Dash?"
Calsuricxs went over to a small fridge and got out a bottle of *insert bottle name here*. He smashed the top of it against the edge of a table as a quarter of it leaked out and some of the glass shattered over the floor.
"Nah, she don't ring a bell. Why?" He drank some from the broken lid which he held in his deployed wing.
"Dear friend, we've been over this discussion so many times. Our plan of ridding the world of these "villains" Phoxjes constantly mentions."
"Erm... Know what, I might have 'bout them guys."
"...They're girls. What do you have then?"
"'S in the cupboard. The keys for it's the box. Cupboard, bottom draw."
He then turned around to see a metal cupboard behind the eight pizza boxes and several sport mags.
Illiux cringed, as he barely found it in him to slowly reach through what he considered a dump that Calsuricxs calls a room, and levitated a small bronze key.
After that he unlocked the cupboard door and all at once the few thousand unread, discarded and/or improperly stored files of paper flew out onto Illiux's face as his eyes widened at what he already expected.
"Ya found it?" Asked Calsuricxs.
Illiux slowly appeared from the scattered clutter, not amused.
"Yes, I found it(!)"
"Oh that's good; thought I might've needed to help ya, pal."
"Allow me to explain. But you have to listen to me."
Calsuricxs slouched down onto his practically broken couch.
"Right... So I'm supposed to listen to what the mark of mistrust is telling me about some random kid I've only now been told about... Illiux, I'm not following you."
Illiux looked back at him, after he climbed out of the mountain of trash.
Calsuricxs then pulled out a dark gold heptagonal pendent with a green jewel shaped like an eye in the center and proceeded to put it on.
"Will you relax, Twilight?" Asked her lazy cyan colored friend lying on a cloud hammock.
"Spike... What have they done to you?" Twilight looked to the sky. "You were my best friend. And maybe you still can be."
"C'mon Twilight, Spike and that, er, Sandy girl was 3 days ago. We haven't heard anything about them since."
"Rainbow dash! He's like my brother, I couldn't live without him. It doesn't matter how long ago it was. I JUST WANT HIM BACK!"
Rainbow Dash slowly backed off, knowing that has just offended her friend greatly.
"I'm sorry, Twi."
"No, I should be sorry."
Just then, a dark green light started to come out of Rainbow Dash's chest and flew up above them.
"Girls, girls, you're both sorry." The two mares turned to see a young stallion swinging on a cloud above them.
He was definitely physically younger than the two of them, but looked older than Scootaloo. He flipped round to see them.
"But try as you might, you'll never be..."
"WHAT DO YOU WANT!!!" Twilight was just about ready to turn to her Rapidash form at the sight of him.
"Ooo, the princess was feeling grumpy today." He playfully replied.
"WHERE'S SPIKE!?!? ANSWER ME NOW!!!"
"Well he's not here." He laughed.
"THAT'S NOT HELPING!!"
He laughed harder at her outburst.
"I guess I could help you "find" him. If..."
She started to calm down now.
"If... What?"
"I'm looking for this chick... Um, Rainbow something. Tell me where she is and have 'er race me."
"Ha! A kid wants to race against me!? This is a joke!" She laughed.
"Eh! Don't chu laugh at me, kid! I'm the fastest in the center of the world! And I'm 3900 years old!" The Italian Pegasus flew down.
"Sorry, A grandpa wants to race me then!" She chortled.
"Forget about it! I'm still the second youngest in my Babylon." He argued, as he readied his (first) two wings.
"Fine if you wanna lose to a pro, bring it on." Rainbow looked at him in a determined expression.
"A pro? Where?" He looked around, jokingly.
"Hold on." Twilight interrupted. "You're a Babylonian, right?"
"Is your brother a big, white softy?" He answered back.
"So if you lose, I want you to tell me everything that happened, and where Spike is!"
"Stakes? Yeah, now you're speaking my language."
"Well?" Rainbow dash back off a little so they could start. "What do you say?"
"Hmm." He put his hoof to his chin and rubbed it for a second. "Alright, cool. But if I win..." He pointed at Rainbow slowly. "You have to go on a-" he stopped himself.
"So you two have to race from here to Ourtown, to back here. Is that clear?"
"Yeah." Rainbow replied, concentrating on this race.
"Let's do this!" The masked green over-haired colt shouted, eager to start.
"Are you two ready!?" The princess of friendship asked the two competitors.
"As always, Twilight!" Her friend replied.
"Bada bing, I were born ready!" Her enemy replied.
"Then on your marks!" The two readied their legs.
"May the fastest Pegasus win." He said as he looked at her.
"Get set!" They then bent forwards slightly.
"Sure." she looked at him, then back to looking straight forward.
Tension built up.
"...Go!"
There was a loud rush of wind soaring past Twilight, as a green and multicolored zoom charged directly past her.
"Augh!!" She screamed as she tried her hardest to stay in place, fighting the strong wind force.
The two of them started their race both wanting to get ahead from the start.
They constantly changed positions in the race, one second in front, and the next behind.
This went on for a few seconds, until Rainbow had an idea from a dark cloud she saw on the right in the distance.
She stopped in her own tracks and went straight for it.
Calsuricxs became confused by this and decided to follow her, catching up a decent enough speed.
"Hey, ya know Starlight and her friends are THAT way!?!" He shouted to her, pointing in the other direction.
"Yeah, I know that!!" She shouted back, picking up the thundercloud, then making a U-turn so she was facing him with it.
"But YOUR stop is here!" She kicked the cloud and fired the lighting directly at him.
"Ahh!! He screamed as he was about to become electrified, but suddenly his pendent began to light up yellow, and it absorbed the lightning completely.
"Ha!" He pointed at her and continued the race to Ourtown.
"Hey!" She called as she followed him.
The two of them still tried to advance ahead of each other, avoiding every tree, mountain, hill, anything. Eventually Rainbow caught up to him, trailing just slightly behind.
"I gotta say, I'm impressed you've kept up so far!!" She complemented him, preparing to tackle him to the ground.
"Unfortunately, this part of the race isn't available to kids like you!!" That was when she charged down from above in an attempt to slam him onto the ground.
However, as she did, she noticed his back moving slightly behind his wings and something came out from under his black vest, and he then accelerated further without a problem, dodging her slam.
"What the?" Rainbow wondered as she flew back into the race in the right direction.
"Yeah well, I'd be more worried about yourself, grandma!!" He laughed back at her, turning around and flying backwards, and he was still ahead of her.
"Hey, how did you-" she noticed that there was something else flapping underneath his wings, which looked exactly like another pair of wings.
"You have four wings!?!?!" Rainbow dash asked with her jaw agape.
"Nope! I have six!" He smiled and turned the right way again.
"No, that's cheating!!" She called in a childish manor.
A record-scratching sound effect was heard as he stopped in midair, allowing her to pass, and then he continued flying to be right next to her.
"You fly me off course, fire lightning at me, try to body slam me, and I'M cheating!? Hello pot, this is kettle: you're black!"
"Grrr. Kettle THIS!" Rainbow dash said as she squinted her eyes and flew even faster, trying to touch him.
He looked at that and flew slightly upwards to the left just as she was about to make contact.
"OK, that didn't even make sense." He then flew even higher and descended right onto her, wrapping his hooves around here and began smiling. "If you're gonna taunt me, at least do it right!"
"Let go! Let go! LET GO!!" Rainbow screamed as she squirmed.
"Okay~" Calsuricxs released her and threw her across the sky.
"Whaaahaa!" She cried, as she spun in the air. regaining her aerial balance, she noticed that that competition was getting ahead again.
"Later!" He spun around and looked at her, before he flew further. Rainbow noticed that Starlight's old home was currently in sight as were they.
"Ya know, it's been a lot more lively after receiving our cutie marks. Again." Double Diamond commented whilst polishing his skis, as Sugar Belle was bringing out the muffins she had made to him.
"I know, but we've heard what Starlight had to say and why she did it, and she apologized." She replied to him.
"Yeah, I know. But all I'm saying is we seem to be using our special talents a lot more now that we're even more grateful for having them."
Suddenly, right next to Double Diamond, a small explosion of balloons and confetti, as well as 'surprise' music appeared and out came their blue unicorn friend.
"And if it weren't for Twilight and her friends..."
"Gahh!!" Double Diamond fell off the bench.
"...We'd still would've had our marks in the vault."
"Hey guys!" Night Glider flew down onto the ground and greeted her friends. "Look who I found!" She turned around and pointed in the sky at Rainbow dash in the distance.
"Is that!?" Sugar Belle stepped forward to see her better.
"I think so!" Diamond exclaimed, standing on a bench.
"Hey Rainbow Dash!" Night Glider shouted to her.
Party favor then pulled out some balloons, blew them up and twisted them into the shape of a telescope.
"Look! She's waving at us!" Party waved back to her, noticing her hoof motions which were shaking about near them and pointing above them.
Diamond's smile slowly faded as he came to a realization.
"Uh, guys? I don't think she's waving..."
The other three then caught onto this as well.
"In fact, I think she's trying to warn us about something. But what do you think-"
"Watch out!" Night Glider tackled him to move him out of the way in the nick of time, as a green blur impacted the bench he was just on, crushing it and creating a cloud of dust with a loud boom.
"Thanks." Double Diamond got up again and helped her up as well.
"Hey, what's the big idea!?" Night Glider asked the blur at the broken table.
All they could here was the sound of uncontrollable laughter.
"That was cool!" Calsuricxs laughed as he caught his breath.
"Who are you!?" Sugar Belle asked the laughing colt.
"Awesome." The pegasus said as he got back up and on all fours again.
"She asked you a question, tough guy!" Night Glider said, flying above him and looking mad.
"Later!" Was all he said as he then charged off into the distance in the opposite direction.
"Come back here you!" Rainbow Dash called as she raced him back to Ponyville.
The two of them had vanished into the landscape barely a moment later.
"...Well, that was..." Sugar Belle broke the silence.
"Hmmmhmmhmmhmhmhmhmmhmmhmhm" Calsuricxs hummed out loud, while flying upside down, with Rainbow slightly trailing.
However, when he got up, he saw that she was catching up, so he turned round and flew normally, allowing her to catch up.
"I gotta say, I'm kinda disappointed, bambino." Calsuricxs was looking at Rainbow Dash whilst flying backwards with his fore hooves behind his head in a relaxed manor.
"What did you just call me!?" Rainbow yelled back trying to advance ahead of him.
"I mean you're meant to be the fastest, but so far I've either been ahead or next to you this whole race. Are you even trying, or is this a test?"
By this point Rainbow had enough of him, so she decided to show him something incredible.
"Fine! You want me to try!?" She stopped in the air right where she was, causing him to do the same thing in confusion.
She began to fly straight up higher into the air. Seconds later she was almost as high as a mountain.
"Uh, what are you doing?" He asked, thankful he was wearing his mask as the sun would've blinded him otherwise.
"You're about to find out!" She then began to fly down directly towards him at supersonic speed.
About halfway down from her descent a large circular rainbow blast exploded in the sky where she was, and her signature rainbow trail intensified.
"Whoa whoa whoa!!" He cried as he just figured out she was aiming for him.
She made impact seconds before he could fly out if the way, knocking him onto the ground below.
She was about to finish this competition between the two, until a final thought came to her head.
Was she about to feel bad about that?
As he was still laying there, she began to question whether or not using the Sonic Rainboom was a bit excessive.
She WAS the element of loyalty after all, so she couldn't just leave him here injured. Plus, in comparison, he did seem a little bit nicer than the other marks of Babylon so far.
On the other hoof, he was still a Babylonian; he still wanted to invade Equestria.
Her angel and devil both fought for her choice. The difference of what's right and what's easy is never a simple one.
What to do? That question still rested on her shoulders.
"Ughh..." She heard him groan in slight pain.
"Heh heh. Uh sorry..." She laughed off. While she didn't want to admit it, she was actually having fun in this race. Meeting another pony who could keep up with her, and find a way around her strategies.
"That. Was. Awesome." He managed to stand up. "Think you can teach me how to do that sometime?"
"Hah! No way! You're just a kid, this takes years of practicing and talent to do." She turned round and began to fly back to the finish line, until a stream of lightning struck her in the plot.
"Ahhh!!" She squealed as she was electrocuted down there.
After covering it with a slight blush she looked behind her to see him flying again with his pendent lit up in the lightning yellow color again.
It must have been the same lightning she fired a while ago.
"How's THAT for practice?" He asked as he began flying to Twilight again. "C'mon, we ain't done yet!"
Twilight was still waiting at the finish line for at least one of the two to actually show up.
She sighed.
"Where are they?" She wondered. "The two of them were fast at the beginning, so how come they haven't shown up yet? I mean Ourtown isn't THAT far away."
Just as she was about to find them herself, she heard the sound of wind breaking though in the distance.
"Huh?" Her ears perked up at the sound.
After squinted her eyes, she could just about see a rainbow and green trail approaching her direction.
"Oh no, not again." She whispered to herself and her horn lit up.
With the speed the two of them were travelling, she wanted to teleport out of there as soon as possible.
Her instinct was correct, and she teleported behind the trails as they literally just hit the spot were she just was, breaking the earth beneath them.
"Are you two alright!?" Twilight ran over to them in the ground.
"I'm good." Rainbow Dash then climbed to her hooves.
"Far out." Cal got up as well.
"Good. So who won? Rainbow, please tell me it was you." Twilight's expression turned from one of relief to desperation.
"Dunno. Looked pretty tight." She replied, looking unsure.
"It's a tie then." He smiled.
"No. It can't be. It just can't." Twilight became more depressed by the second.
Calsuricxs saw her face, and began to fly back onto the same cloud he was lying on when they first spoke, even though it was quite a way away by now. Once there, he appeared to pick up something and circle his way back down in front of her.
"Here." He smiled, as he handed something to Twilight when she turned to look at him. "Should tell you a bit."
It was a book. A very old, beaten, worn, dated documentary.
The title was 'Babylonian History. Vol.17. Kingdom Connections.'
"Thank you." Twilight looked shocked at his gift. "But what about you?"
"Eh, I got what I wanted already." He looked at Rainbow.
"Oh...oh." Twilight came to a realization, and it made her giggle a small bit.
"Just don't tell her, yeah?" He whispered.
"I won't." She whispered back.
"And don't worry about Spike; we ain't hurting him. In fact, we've given him something you honestly couldn't have done by yourself."
"And what would that be?"
"His fam-" He was cut off by his mask glowing green and a strong wind heading in his direction.
"Uh, sorry, gotta get goin." He began flying again and headed to the north. "Arrivederci!" He called as he flew away.
Twilight simply looked at the book.
"Goodbye." She said, opening the book.
"Oh great(!)" rainbow said, catching her breath and standing back up to look at it as well. "Exercise followed by storytime."
The pair looked over the documentary, with Twilight clearly the more invested one out of the two.
"So... What is it?"
"It's a history documentary about Babylon and it's past relations with new kingdoms. But what's this got to do wit-"
She stopped herself midsentence and looked closer at the top of the book. There was something sticking out. In was another piece of paper, this one looking new and crisp white. Obviously, it had been left there as some kind of bookmark.
"What's this leading to?" Twilight asked herself, turning the pages to see where it lead.
"Another page?" Rainbow sarcastically answered.
"I don't get it. It looked like someone speaking with another king, but there's nothing..."
Once again, Twilight had stopped herself.
""Nothing"...?" Rainbow urged her to continue.
Nothing came from the Alicorn still.
"Twilight?"
Still nothing.
"Twilight, what are you..."
As she peered her head to observe what had stunned her, she could see why. Taking up most of page 173 was a black and white photograph of a king standing in a large throne room, with some obvious Babylonians speaking with him.
What was hard to decide as more surprising was either the room that they were in, or who one of the Babylonians was.
"Isn't that...?!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed.
"It looks like him... But what's he doing in the Crystal Empire!?"
"This just doesn't make sense! How can he be there all that time ago, and still be alive today?"
"I'm not sure, but maybe Cadence does. If he's somehow old enough to be alive then and in the present day, then there might be a connection."
"We don't even know if she was there when this happened. Heck, we don't even know if that definitely IS him. for all we know, it could be a doppelganger or just a lookalike, like his dad or something."
"It's worth a try! Go tell the girls, and pack your bags; we're going on a little trip to the Crystal Empire."
"Are y'all sure 'bout this?" Applejack asked, as the group ran from the train station through the streets and to the castle.
"It's our only lead!" Twilight answered. "Even if it's a small hope, it's still our best bet so far!"
"But you got that book from a Babylonian! Are you really going to go by their lead that they so willingly gave you!?" Rarity questioned the princess.
"If it means getting my friend back, YES!" She answered again, running faster.
Evening was fast approaching as they headed towards the castle. The sun was already setting, and the sky rippled with color.
As the girls made their way to the front doors of the castle, another figure had been observing them for as long as they had been off the train.
"...Heart." He began.
"What it would mean to possess a heart. How what we feel differs from what we believe we feel. Why those ungrateful enough to possess a heart live. Who does carry a heart and who should carry a heart. Where those who are ungrateful for a heart keep a heart. When those ungrateful realise how meaningful a heart truly is."
A stallion can be seen walking up a cliff in the dark looking at his mask in front of him. Once he was on the very edge of the cliff, he replaced his Mask back on his face.
"Decisions and opinions persuade me to follow back here." He said to himself as he prepared to jump from the cliff. "There is only one living creature in this world who I must test for their heart."
He forced out his wings.
"Fluttershy." He flew down to the crystal empire from the cliff where he was looking over. "If you do not prove your worth to me, then like many others whom I have faced..." He landed and walked up to the castle.
"I've never heard of it. Aunt Celestia has certainly never spoke of it, and as far as my knowledge, neither has anyone else in the kingdom."
"Really? Nothing at all?"
"So we travelled all the way here for nothing!?" Rainbow Dash asked, sounding irritated.
"I'm afraid that it appears so. I'm sorry; if there was anything I knew, I'd tell you."
"It's not your fault, Cadence. They would've never come to a war if he hadn't made the choice." Twilight explained to her friends.
"Who made what choice?" Asked Rarity.
Twilight place the book Calsuricxs gave her down so her friends could see as well.
She was on an open page with a silhouette of a stallion with a mask of the Marks of Babylon with red marks on.
They recognized him by his cavalier hat. It showed him standing on a pillar lifting a heart into the air above him.
"Normally, the Babylonians would've aged normally and passed away eventually like everything else, but one of them, Phoxjes, traded his heart for some ritual that keeps him and his friends young, alive and powerful forever."
"Oh great! First they're dangerous, and now they're immortal?" Rainbow Dash complained.
"So now he can't feel anything inside?" Asked Applejack.
"He can't, nor could he for the last thousands of years. I guess his friends just meant that much to him."
"Oh dear." Began Rarity. "Imagine how much he had to go through to keep them safe. And he may do the same to us or even Spike right now. Poor darling."
"I thought I told you to stop calling me that." Shouted a young dragon's voice across the room at the open door.
"Spike!" Most of them shouted at the same time.
When they took a look at him, they caught sight of the outfit he was wearing. The top looked like a black leather robe over his torso, although it didn't cover his right shoulder or arm. His pants were dark brown and made of fabric. Over the trousers they noticed he was wearing what looked to be a long leather komodo.
"Spike, what's with the getup?" Twilight asked in sheer confusion.
"The Marks said that if I'm gonna be a hero, then I better dress more appropriately for combat." Spike replied.
"THIS is a combat outfit?" Twilight continued to analyze.
"How did you get in!?" Asked Cadence.
"Wasn't too difficult." He smirked as he walked up to the ponies. "I had a little help."
"Your guards may be shiny, and the head may be Twilight's brother, but they can't really do much against thousands of years of training, as opposed to only about 2-5 years." He pointed at her.
"Look, what does the Babylon want!?" Asked Twilight knowing that this wouldn't end well.
"Well world domination would be nice." He joked.
"Spike..." Twilight growled.
"If I had it, I'd probably just hand it over to Illiux or Xandra. Then followed by a way for me to grow bigger other than by my greed, having Rarity as my wife, the great dragon migration under our command, and of course, the most important of all..."
The mane six and Cadence perked up.
"... Er, nevermind."
"Yes, Twilight was just telling me about some certain goals of theirs." Cadence started. "Or should I say, yours."
"Oh goody! Has she mentioned the part where it's apparently necessary to blow up the Crystal empire!?"
Cadence looked puzzled. "...No; that never came up."
"Oh in that case..."
On cue, a large boom and massive rumble from outside the castle caught their attention. Smoke entered the room from all available directions. More explosion sounds and vibrations came, each one getting closer to the throne room.
"... It's apparently necessary to blow up the Crystal empire!" He finished looking smug.
"Ahh!! My castle! Alert all unaware guards! We're under attack!!" Cadence continued to shout down the corridor.
The doors slammed open as a loud field of smoke and small traces of fire burst through them. As it did, Spike looked shocked at the sound, and then scared at what was about to come in.
"I trust you need no introduction for this young dragon." A stallion older than all the mares entered the room, walking in his black leather coat, jacket, jeans and boots, in addition to being soaking wet. He stopped next to Spike and placed his hoof on his shoulder.
"However, if you recall my previous presence, that would perhaps be more respectful, as you appear have more concern about my presence." He finished showing no emotion under his mask. Spike slowly nodded and backed off in fear.
"Wait, wait, don't tell me." Started Rainbow Dash. "You walked in, too."
"Partly, as I found it necessary approach you in a proper manor, your majesty. However, a small selection of your guards attempted to prevent me from reaching this room. As honorable as it was for them to do what they were trained for, I found it necessary to make my point clear that I will stop at nothing to obtain my objective, even if it requires injuring innocents."
"So you instead blew up some parts of a castle!?" Asked Twilight.
"Partially correct your highness. I chose to test some of your guards and their will to fight on. Whilst admittedly strong, clearly their wills were not strong enough."
"Excuse me, but what does that have to do with damaging my castle!?" Cadence replied.
"Princess Mi Amore Cadanza?"
"Yes. And you are?"
"Phoxjes Rome. Guardian, Mark of Babylon, Goth faction leader and self-proclaimed hero."
"Well it doesn't matter who you are; you didn't answer me before!"
"Every action is destined to have a consequence in return."
"Enough!! Why are you here!?"
"You clearly do not understand my true intentions, princess Cadence. I am here for more than one reason, one of them being looking for the Element of Kindness, miss Fluttershy."
"Yeah, well, you're never gonna get to her!" Shouted Rainbow as she covered Fluttershy underneath her. She then charged straight at him.
"Take this!" She shouted as she prepared to assault him with her flying kick.
He then prepared for the impact of her attack by countering with a head-on strike, but just then Spike then ran in front of him and blocked him from her using himself as a shield.
"Uh-oh." she called as she the purposely hit the ground rather than either of them. She then flew back to the girls.
"If I could feel pride, it would generate at this moment for what you have just done." Phoxjes complimented.
"Spike, what are you..."
"Do you understand?" He started to make his way over to the girls.
"Understand what!?"
"I have done nothing to your former friend. What he has just done then was of his his own choice. Now then..." He looked down at Fluttershy.
"Phoxjes Rome." He lifted his hat slightly to greet her.
When he did the ladies all noticed an unusual feature about him. He had what appeared to be shattered remains of a horn on his head. As if some pony or something had snapped it off.
"I am aware of who you might be, miss Fluttershy. You are, after all, the cause of more than 80% of my Babylon becoming annihilated."
"Um, well, I, uh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry!" She managed to stutter out in fear as he began to approach.
"I forgive you, Element of Kindness. In all honesty, I never accused you alone to begin with. Upon my analysis, the one who once meant more than the very world itself to me is the cause of my actions."
"Uh... Who are you talking about?" Asked Cadence.
"Princess Celestia, but it matters not."
"Why?" Asked Twilight. "What do you have to do with the princess?"
"Perhaps another meeting will answer that. But for now, I understand that you are rather proud of your magic and elements. However, what you do not seem to show any sense of responsibility or respect towards is the motivation and determination of your enemies."
"And you feel you do?"
"I cannot feel much, if anything. With all my victims I am able to show both manners and understanding, even if they only commit crime for their own selfish deeds."
"Okay, so you seem... Heroic, but that still doesn't answer my question." Twilight turned back to him and Spike.
"All that you require to know is that I have known Celestia longer than you may believe, or wish to believe." Phoxjes looked down.
"Moving on, miss Fluttershy." She also collapsed on his words. "I demand that you and I battle. If you are victorious, than I shall grant you and your friends one agreed possibility."
"Eeep!" She squeed.
"In addition, that was not a request." He began to approach her as Twilight tried to defend her.
"Hey! Stay away from her!" Called out Twilight. To their surprise, he actually did stop.
"Very well." He looked at her.
'Did... Did that actually work?' Twilight thought to herself.
"You will fight in her place. However, before we begin, perhaps you can answer this question. Why have you chosen to put your own life in danger, as opposed to allowing the element of kindness to feel possible pain?"
"Because, well... Because I'm her friend! And I'll never want to see my friends get hurt!
"So you are protecting her? Noble. Truly. However, shielding one from another only proves so much. If you were be killed in this battle, where would that leave her?"
"Wh-what?" Twilight felt scared at his words, as he has literally just said he could kill her right here and now, and in a very casual tone for him.
"She would become defenseless, an easy target. If you protect her now, it will only prove that you believe she is weak without you."
"T-that's not true!! She is strong! Strong enough to handle any pony! Or even a dragon! She proved that to us once, and she even convinced the spirit of chaos to change! She is strong enough!"
"That spirit was once almost considered a son to me, until you forced him to change his nature and join you against his will. I fail to see how what has happened to Spike is any different."
"If it helps, he turned evil again a couple of seasons ago!" Pinkie interrupted.
"So then, you say I am wrong? That this girl can survive, regardless if her friends are there for her or not?"
"That's right!"
He then took his mask off slowly, showing Twilight his Ruby eyes.
She saw the constant expression of anger in his eyes and eyebrows.
His eyes were very much different to anypony else's. They had the pupils, irises, and everything, but they had no white reflection. There was nothing there at all; it looked as they he had been hypnotized.
"If you believe she is strong, yet still wish to battle me in her place..."
"Wait!" Shouted her one time assistant across the room.
"Spike!?" Twilight had hope that maybe that talk the two of them were just having might of helped.
"Yes?" He turned to him.
"If they're gonna switch opponents, then can we as well?!" He asked enthusiastically.
"Hm? You wish to take my place against the princess of friendship? You understand that you will be fighting against your old mistress."
"SHE WAS NEVER MY MISTRESS!! Plus, I only want to do it because I wanna face Twilight at least once before you're gonna kill her."
"It is your decision if you wish to, boy; I am an honorable stallion. However, I ask you to recall what it was that I said about the use of apostrophes In my presence."
Spike looked in fear, realization and idiocy.
"Uh... Not to use them."
"Excellent. It is good to see that you can learn quickly. Now go forth and eradicate that element of harmony."
"Yeah! Alright Twilight, let's do this!" Spike called as he cracked his knuckles walking over to her.
"No. No, you can't really try this, Spike. Please, I'm your friend, not him!"
"If she was your friend, you would be trying to stop me rather then them. She cares only for her friends and herself, leaving all she despises to live in misery. It is beings such as her who are the cause of the collapse of our Babylon."
"AAAUUUUGGHHH!!!" Spike roared as he pounced on her and tried to fire his flaming breath directly in her face.
When he landed, he actually managed to slam her right down, and open fired. She did however cover her face with a magic shield, then attempted to buck him off of her.
He dodged and clung onto her mane and spun round her. He then grabbed her by her fore hooves and threw her away across the room.
"My..." She picked herself up. "Some dragon's certainly gotten stronger."
"Now she is mocking you, and declaring that you were weak in the time you had with her."
"Yeah, well, THOSE days are OVER!" He created the same small flaming meteor and sent it hurling at her.
"TWILIGHT!!" The others shouted in concern. Xandra's light then showed from her chest and faded once again.
"Come on we need to help her!" Ordered Rainbow Dash. They knew that the Babylon barrier hadn't been set up, so they had a fair chance, until...
"You shall not dishonor this challenge; this battle shall stand." Phoxjes flew right in front of them, preventing them from reaching the fighting two.
"No, you're just not gonna stop us!!" Rainbow charged directly at him. He prepared for this by flying up at her and grabbing her by the neck, then threw her downwards. She managed to stay in the air, but he then rammed into her, crushing the ground throwing her up and bucking her into Applejack.
"Ugh... Hey!" He then grabbed her by the back hoof and spun her around, knocking her into Rarity and Pinkie pie. He released and sent the three of them flying into a wall, cracking it.
Fluttershy looked in horror, then became enraged.
"How... How dare you..." She turned to him.
"HOW DARE-" He flew straight up to her, placed his left hoof on her shoulder, and forced his right hoof right into her chest, knocking every sack of air out of her, leaving her literally speechless.
"O--ow--" she weakly gasped out. Before collapsing.
Twilight and Spike were still fighting each other, until she saw what he had just done to her friends.
"You... You... You absolute..." She was about to release her true anger and power out on them, when she was reminded.
"You know Twilight, the angrier YOU get, the more serious and stronger HE'LL become!" Spike taunted.
She found it difficult to make a decision a this point: herself, or her friends.
She was almost brought to tears.
"You monster. You monster!" She charged directly at him.
"How dare you!" He charged back and overpowered her greatly.
She was sent back flying into a wall.
"Uh...ugh..." She weakly stood.
"You recklessly use your elements to defeat opponents you consider an actual threat, caring not about their fate..." He fired some sort of mostly red and black energy from his hoof at her, knocking into the wall again.
"Ah!!" She cried.
"You fight in the name of your ruler, without notice or consideration that she is either too weak or too much of a coward to battle in her own name..." This time, his hoof lit up in the energy again, but this time it was used to ram into her directly.
"Ohh!!!"
"You care not about the struggle and the strife of the ordeals that your opponents face..." Another attack.
"Ugh!!!"
"You allow your friends to suffer without cause simply because you believe that friendship will be the cure of everything, when the truth remains that the magic you are fortunate, yet ungrateful, to wield is the only real answer for you..." Another strike.
"Ugh..." She barely had any physical energy left.
"You treated your former assistant with the worse possible care of any other living creature you know or even knew, expecting him to accept this." Another energy attack.
"Agh...ah." She fell down, on the brink of unconsciousness.
"And yet you view me as the outlaw." He finished attacking.
"I understand why you do not wish for me to continue my path on restoring my Babylon; you wish for your world to become perfect in harmony, where there is no war, no crime, no famine or pestilence."
"That, young Princess, is exactly what me and my Babylonians intend to do; split this world in half!"
He lifted her head up slightly so that he could see her face wincing in pain.
"One half shall remain in peace and harmony, whilst we bring the other half into chaos and disarray. If this happens, my Babylon will have become restored, and perhaps then every pony can be happy."
He let go of her.
"True, I, nor any creature, can determine how this idea will result, yet I passionately believe that this will save Equestria and Babylon. The idea of it: Babylon floating in-between both halves of the world, restored and perfected."
"H-How can yo-you save a-an-nyth-ing by dest-destr-o-ying the w-w-world?" Twilight asked in between breaths.
"There is a distinct difference between destruction and sacrifice. I will not allow all that has been lost to be in vain. Perhaps, in the next life, you can understand my intention." He looked slightly miserable.
With that he reached for his belt over his tight Gothic jeans and pulled out what looked like a handle of some sort. It became more clear as he pulled.
It was a sword. An Eyelander in fact.
He turned round and prepared to put the sharp straight weapon to proper use. He raised his hoof holding the sword and struck it right down into her body.
As his swing came striking down into her flesh, a loud metal clang was heard on impact.
"I remember you." Phoxjes quietly told the newly arrived stallion looking him dead in the eye. "You are important to both of the princesses in this room; they both share the same feeling about you, one which I can no longer feel: love."
"That's right! Both of them are important to me, and I shall defend then with my life!" The captain of the guards tried to strike again with his spear, to which Phoxjes was quick to defend himself by blocking.
"Sh...Shin...y?" Twilight looked up with one open eye.
"D...dear?" Cadence walked back to the center.
"Twily! Cadence! It's alright; I'm here now!" He looked both relieved and worried.
"You may be here now to save them, but I am still alive and standing, meaning that my endeavors for victory shall continue." Phoxjes continued.
"You will not ever lay a single hoof on MY family again!"
"I no longer have a family. Because of that, yours is of no importance to me, Shining Armor!"
"Cadence, get out of here before they hurt you, or get to Flurry!"
With that, she began to proceed her way out of there as fast as she could.
They both charged at each other with their weapons and saw them clash. When they did they forced them into each other and stared at each other in silence for the longest time, neither one of them wanting to give up.
"Wow." Spike commented. "White and blue vs black and red. This could make for a good movie."
"Spike!" Twilight argued. "This isn't the time to be entertained!"
"I heart fully disagree; now is the perfect time. But then again Twilight, i shouldn't bring up anything i have an opinion on, should I(?) So unless you wanna take this disagreement to a personal level, stay outta this!" His claws once again glowing in a green fire as his fists clenched.
"*sigh* Spike, be honest. Do you really want to fight because you believe that, or do you wanna fight because the Babylonians told you to?"
"Be quiet! The Babylonians treat me way better than how you did! And they actually taught me to defend myself! Here, I'll show you!"
Spike prepared the flame meteor again and was ready to fire at Twilight again, until she fired a spell directly at his hand where the fire ball was, causing it to implode on him.
"AUGHH!" He screamed as he grabbed his wrist with his other hand while the burning pain lingered for a second. He then looked back at her and decided to attack her physically instead. He ran at her and tried to jab her, only to have her dodge out of the way.
He didn't let that stop him though. He attacked her again, yet she still dodged. She noticed that he was a lot faster than before, especially when it came to his reflexes in battle.
She had a harder time moving out of the way each time. Eventually, once she was against a wall had to resort to teleporting.
Unfortunately, she learnt that was an even worse idea as she then left herself wide open for an attack the second she reappeared.
The flash of light had arrived, and Spike let loose the fireball again. Twilight was hit, her body now burning from the attack.
Spike then smirked and began to walk up to her to continue his physical damage, but was stopped by a rope being wrapped around his hand again.
"Gotcha!" Applejack shouted with the rope in her mouth trying to pull him towards her.
"Woah!" He called as he lost his balance, being forced to walk there.
"Ha!" Rainbow dash then flew down and grabbed his other hand and pulled that as well.
His struggle then began, and both mares pulled at equal strength to prevent him from moving at all.
"Illiux, where are you guys?" He asked himself as he was still trying not to be ripped in half by the girls.
"What's that supposed to mean!?" Rainbow asked as she had a serious look on her face.
"Phoxjes! Are they ready with operation H.R.R. yet!?"
Phoxjes was in a one on one weapon press with Shining Armor with his sword against his spear, until he looked up and saw Spike in pain by his position.
He then ceased the press by pulling his sword away, moving to the left, therefore allowing Armor to fall forwards slightly, striking his Eyelander directly in between him and his spear and blocking him from using it. Phoxjes then proceeded to knee him in the face, causing him to turn round.
Shining was now covering his bleeding face with his fore hoofs. As he was turned round, Phoxjes then picked him up and threw him across the room, giving himself enough room to fly towards Applejack.
"Uh-oh." She said as she had to let go of the rope in order to try and block him.
As she readied her bucking hoofs, he landed when she tried to kick him, but instead kicked the air, as she was now vulnerable for him to pick her up by wrapping his left hoof around her leg, and his right hoof around her waist. He then lifted her up vertically, and threw her straight down headfirst.
While he kept her occupied, Rainbow dash then fell over as Spike was free to use the rope to wrap around her neck. Now it was his turn to pull. She got up as her instincts told her to, realizing she was currently being choked with her strangler on her back.
"Yee-haw!" Spike laughed, as he continued to suffocate her, until he felt a magic blast on his back, causing him let go and leaving Dash coughing on the ground.
He turned around to see that Twilight was standing again, her horn lighting up, showing she was ready to fight.
He smiled evilly as he got off of her and began making his way over Twilight again. Once Rainbow dash had finished coughing, she looked up and started to fly over to stop him, until she was hit by Rarity's body as she landed on top of her.
Rainbow then looked up to see that Phoxjes was still battling the other four at the same time, and winning. She didn't know who to help, when the light shone from under the balcony. This caught the eye of everyone there.
This blinding light came higher and closer, until Illiux jumped up onto the balcony ledge, followed by Roranxoa standing on a rising pillar of earth on his left, and the wind carrying Calsuricxs on his right.
"Is Xandra ready?" Phoxjes asked the three of them whilst he and Spike were walking to the balcony.
"Operation H.R.R. is ago, Herren." The non-accented German stallion said to the two of them.
"About time, guys!" Spike smiled as he hopped onto Phoxjes's back when he prepared to fly away with them.
"Wait! Where're you going!? And what's operation H.R.R.!?" Twilight wanted to know as she was ready to follow them.
"Hey, pooch! Ya know what curiosity did to the cat? The same thing what I do ta cats: feed it to ma dogs." Roranxoa called to Twilight.
The five of them then dropped down onto the ground outside. Twilight and the others then looked out to see the five of them heading towards Canterlot.
"So then, the elements provide the singularity source for the rainbow, then the harmony is emitted in Rainbow form to ascend, then descend onto the disharmony around it?" Xandra was still trying to figure out how the elements function from the three that she helped Spike steal.
She figured that the best place to do this would to be outside of the Discord statue, which had been moved back into the Canterlot gardens.
"If so, then the elements will have to prevent all recent quarrels among the wielders, otherwise the connection between them could become corrupted. Meaning that, with potential, the smallest argument, even in subconscious form has the capacity of obliterating the elements power."
She then continued to write down what she said on the notebook she brought with her.
"I'll need to share this with the other Babylonians then."
"If the girls fall out, the elements don't do nuttin'. Got it." Capxe was leaning against Discord smoking another cigarette and drinking his Pepsi. On the ground was four other cigarette butts.
"Fair way of putting it Caxpe..." She said under her breath.
"Xandra!" She heard several voices call her name as she looked up and saw the other five running and flying towards her.
"You're here!!" She stood up and hugged Illiux to greet him.
"Yes! Get in!" Capxe then greeted Xoa and Cal by using his darkness hands from his cape to high five them.
"This is not the time for a reunion. Xandra, you must initiate the plan as we rehearsed." Phoxjes bluntly stated.
"Yes, of course." She said as she walked back to wards the statue. The others proceeded to stand behind her.
"So this is gonna do, what, exactly?" Spike asked in confusion and excitement.
"I believe the visual will speak for itself." Illiux stood firmly while answering.
"Uh..."
"Just shuddup and find out, really." Caxpe then got out his E-cig and started with that.
Xandra then took a deep breath in and out. She used her magic to levitate her saddlebag up and place her notebook inside and pull out the elements of honesty, generosity and loyalty.
She moved the elements to one above her, one on the left and one on the right and to make a triangle with her horn in the centre.
"Here goes..." She whispered as her horn lit up, and three thin white magic beams connected very slowly to the three elements.
"So princess 'I can't do anything to run a country' isn't gonna follow us here?" Calsuricxs asked Spike.
"What're on about, mate? Celestia isn't in this chapter." Caxpe then laughed off.
"Hahahaha. No I meant Twilight."
"Oh, you meant Sparkle the useless!" Caxpe laughed again.
"Nah, she isn't coming after Phoxjes and I finished with her and the others." Spike replied.
"So you battered her?" Caxpe then asked, patting Spike on the shoulder, before looking back at Xandra. "Top man."
"Thanks. Uh... What did you mean 'this chapter'?"
"Look, she's ready." Illiux drew their attention to her.
The three beams then connected to the elements, which now had a same color glowing outline on the three of them, and the beams them made a circle connecting to the other two.
As they connected, the ground started to shake, the magic had a strong wind blowing away from it in all directions.
The circle then glowed a similar white color in the center of it, as Xandra then started to scream in pain from the new power.
"Xandra!!" Illiux shouted with his fore hoof in front of his face trying to block the wind as every pony's mane was blowing and their clothes flapping in the wind.
"Xandra!! Hold on!!" He shouted, as then tried to approach her.
"Illiux stop now!!" Phoxjes shouted to him, running in front of him and turning around on his hind legs with his forelegs out to block him.
"What are you doing!? She's in pain! A true gentlecolt does leave a lady in such peril!!" Illiux shouted to him.
"I am concerned about her as well, however we cannot interfere with the spell!!"
The circle then emitted a light blue ring in the center, which then expanded to the edge of the circle, followed by a yellow circle, which expanded from the center to the edge of the blue ring, then a light red ring which expanded from the center to the edge of the yellow ring.
"Guys!! What is this!?" Spike then asked the six of them.
"Operation H.R.R.!! Harmony Rainbow Refraction!!"
A loud boom sound was heard as well the wind faded and Xandra's horn stopped glowing instantly as she dropped to the ground.
The circle had fired a powerful Rainbow, which was heading in the opposite direction. It was similar to the Rainbow Of Harmony, but this one was rotating repeatedly so that it connected to itself, forming a spinning Rainbow beam.
Once the beam had traveled far enough, constantly piercing through walls, plants and even small animals, there was a rainbow colored explosion in the distance, which was spreading across the land.
"Xandra!" Illiux then ran up to her, and picked her head up in his hooves. "Xandra, bist du in Ordnung, mein fraulein?"
"Eh... Jawohl..." She replied as she smiled while her eyes opened.
Illiux was reassured as he smiled back.
"Oi, get a room." Caxpe said to them, as Illiux's horn glowed and a panel flashed in his face.
"Ahh! That hurt, you Muppet!"
"This power is phenomenal. If we use this magic on the right half, our plan can advance." Phoxjes stared into the distance.
"It came from outside!" A voice called from inside the castle.
"There they are! They're by the statue!" Two guards arrived at the garden arch as the Marks were spotted.
"Call for back up!" More guards arrived as they started to become surrounded.
"How many are there!?" "All of them! All six of them! The dragon is with them as well!"
"Hey! 'The dragon' has a name!" Spike shouted angrily.
"Yeah, yeah, another time mate." Caxpe then back up to the others.
"Hey, uh, Il? About now would be awesome..." Cal joined them.
Illiux's horn lit up again as the seven of them were then surrounded by rotating panels again. After about five seconds, the panels disappeared, and so were the Babylonians, and the discord statue.
Before his position started, due to the most recent physical damage, Captain Shining Armor was talking to his fellow guards about how they may need to increase their security, as well as other matters.
This continued until one of them needed to go to the John and left the others.
As he entered the empty bathroom, he opened the stall and to his surprise, some one was waiting for him on the inside, and immediately pulled him in. He tried to protest and call out for help, when an off-screen punch sound emitted, followed by a thud, and he suddenly went silent.
Meanwhile in the other room, it was almost time to start their day jobs and so Shining's colleagues went their separate paths. He was turning to grab his helmet, and as he put it on...
"Shining!" A stranger called out from behind.
He turned to see the unfamiliar voice. "Yo Shining!"
It was a teenage dragon wearing one of the guards outfits. His appearance almost made him gasp at first.
Imagine Spike:
Was Garble's age. Had razor sharp spines and claws. Had green spikes for spines all over his head like a porcupines back. Got a six pack. Was muscly Grew wings as big and long as a Charizard's. Had a mace at the end of his tail instead of that pointy thing. Had a 9 foot long tail. Grew a thin beard like an 18 year olds.
That's basically a description of what this dragon looks like.
"Name's Xervint, your new recruit." He began to approach Shining. "Just wanted to say that's gonna be awesome hanging with you, brah."
Shining wasn't sure what to make of this; he had never had a dragon used as a guard before, and he wasn't told that there would be any new recruits joining recently. Still, they may have needed the help of everyone at the moment, and he seemed nice enough.
"Um thanks?" He replied.
"Hey, don't sweat it. High five, man!" He offered his claw. Shining smiled and returned with a hoof, until...
As soon as he made contact, Xervint appeared to lightly wrap the front of his claw around his hoof, and Shining could feel energy flowing straight out of his body. He felt like something sucked the life out of him. All of a sudden, his cutie mark went dark.
Xervint smiled. "Hmm. See ya." He then walked off in the opposite direction to where Shining weakly trotted.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- About the same time as this, the apple family were just about to start their work routine, except for Applejack, who was still resting due to injury, left over from Phoxjes and Spike.
As Applebloom was walking past her sister's room, she felt scared at the sound of her sister's groans of agony, trying to move. She crept her head in the slightly opened doorway, and looked sad.
'How much longer til ah'm like that? Are they gonna come fer me as well?' The thought of being ambushed by the five stallions and one mare lingered in her head.
As she began to walk down the stairs, something was thrown into the corridor.
She jumped when it dropped on the floor behind her, but she reluctantly went to pick it up anyway.
It was a melted apple pastry. More worrying was that it was the pastry that SHE made yesterday. She noticed that there was a note attached to it.
'Hey AB baby! We haven't met, but I need ya for something. Meet Spike at the Collapsed Chasm in 10 minutes. Oh, and Bring your friends, just for the laughs.'
Yours faithfully Xervint.'
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Meanwhile, just outside of Ponyville, Twilight and Rainbow dash were walking together debating what they should do next about the Babylonians.
They continued their discussion, until they came to a mountain side and overheard some distant fillies above them.
"Hey, what're you doing up there!?!!" Twilight panicked.
"Heading for the collapsed Chasm! Spike said he'll meet us there! Scootaloo responded.
"And you really believed him!?!" Shouted Twilight.
"Don't worry, we'll be fine!" Called Sweetie. "Up here we're perfectly-" she was then cut off by the explosion caused right behind her and the other two by some mixture of green lightning and Shining Amour's magic.
The three of them lost their balance and fell off the cliff.
"NOO!!" The two elements shouted in unison as they flew up to try and catch them. And they were about to, but were out flew by a certain dragon as he caught two in one hand each and the third in his tail.
"Spike!?" Twilight called out surprised, and as she did he circled and landed them and himself safely on the ground. The other two ran up to him and once they stopped he turned his face.
"Nope, never heard of him." He stated. She hardly cared, however, seeing as how he just saved the lives of three young fillies.
"Twilight he looks exactly like-" Rainbow Dash whispered to her.
"I know. Should we go and talk to him?" Twilight whispered back to her.
"Hey, thanks for the save." Said Rainbow to the dragon.
"That was pretty cool of you."
"Seems as though we owe you our gratitude." Followed Twilight.
"Well, I'm flattered that you're grateful, but I just wish I could do what you do. I mean you're like real heroes or something! It's great to meant ya!" He said offering Twilight a hoof shake.
She took it and, like what he did to Shining, she felt a draining shock as soon as he wrapped his claw around her hoof. Now she felt power drained. Her cutie mark's light faded as well. He released.
"You too" he said to Rainbow, repeating the cycle over again. Her strength felt strange as well.
"Later~" he playfully whistled. As he walked off.
"Hey, Twilight? I'm not feeling too good." Moaned Rainbow.
"Yeah, me nether."
They both then found it difficult to stand up, and were about to fall over, until the other three girls tried to help them up.
"Just try again, Twi" Applejack said picking up a book and putting it on a desk.
"Come on, Applejack, this is the fifth time now." She moaned.
"Okay, I'll try." She then tried with all her might to use her magic to even shift the book at all, but to no avail. She only hurt herself from stress and fell down. Again.
"Huh...huh...huh...this is...as fast...huh...as...I can go...huh" gasped Rainbow dash while running at a regular ponies running pace on a treadmill. Her newly formed cramp forced her to stop.
"Well..." Said Twilight as she picked herself up. "The problem's clear enough. Rainbow and I are no longer in possession of our special talents. The question is, how?"
"Hey! You six!" The elements turned their heads to see Scootaloo rush in on her scooter.
"Scoootaloo, what're you doing here?" asked Fluttershy.
"You gotta hear this! There's been a massive fire started in the ever free forest, and it's about to hit Fluttershy's cottage!"
"What!?!" Fluttershy cried. "Those poor animals could get hurt!"
"Well then let's not waste any time!" Said Pinkie.
"Twilight, perhaps you and Rainbow Dash should stay hear and rest." Recommended Rarity. "You shouldn't strain yourself too much."
The other four galloped as fast as they could over to the cottage and saw that the roof was already on fire. But for 'some' reason, the fire was purple.
"Hey." Called Pinkie. "I thought that she said that it was ABOUT to catch fire." They all had to push their way in front of the crowd of ponies in front of them. There were a numerous amount of other ponies at the scene looking at the flames work.
"Alrighty then." Began Applejack. "I'm gonna see if I can bust out any of them lil' critters" she ran to the other entrance to break the doors open when she heard...
"Help!" She turned to the stream to see something struggling. "Somepony help me!" He said before going down. She had no choice but to jump in and try to save him.
As soon as she even dived in, she felt something grab her and drained something from inside of her. She was flown out of the water quite quickly. She weakly saw that she was in the arms of a certain dragon as he safely landed her onto the land and began his show.
The other three tried what they could to extinguish the flames, before they were shown up. Something was flying above them with incredible speed. He used a source of purple magic in his left hand and a somewhat pink source in his right to move some parts of the stream water over the fire.
"Here, let the people show you how it's done." He shouted as he zoomed around the house at Rainbow Dash speed putting out every inch of fire.
"Who is that guy?" Asked Rarity as a very exhausted Applejack walked on scene.
"Aw...heck if ah know." He suddenly rushed over right in front of Rarity.
"Name's Xervint! And I've always wanted to meet the most beautiful pony in Equestria." he said while taking her hoof.
"Oh! W-well-"
The energy drain happened again.
"You two, babe." he said as he let go and offered it to Fluttershy as she whimpered to the sight of a teenage dragon. He was about to grab her by force before, to his unfortunate surprise, the other ponies in the crowd carried him away.
"There he is!" "He saved the animals!" "Xervint!" "He's a superhero!" He was lifted and rode the crowd.
"Nah... Just a regular hero." He called to his newly adoring public.
"Then he touched us, and all of a sudden our special talents were gone." Rarity finished explaining to the others.
"Well it's clear what the problem is. Him." Replied Rainbow.
"On one hoof, he is using our talents to help ponies." Said Twilight.
"But on the other hoof, it's just stealing. And I want my speed back! Nothing that this guy does is gonna stop that."
"At the very least, Xervint acts as though..." Fluttershy was interrupted.
"Wait a minute. Xervint? Isn't that the name of the dragon who sent the letter to Celestia the day Spike got kidnapped?" Of course, only Twilight would remember that.
Before any pony could answer, three guards came running down the hallway, two of them carrying the third.
"Your highness! Captain Shining requires to speak to you straight away!" One of them called to Twilight.
"Shiny what happened!?" She asked as she tried to help him up.
"I'm the one who should be asking that." He said as he found the strength to stand.
"You should still be resting after that battle we had with Phoxjes a few days ago." twilight was still focused on that battle.
"Have any of you seen a dragon come by here?"
"As a matter of fact, we have. In fact, we're just talking about him." This got him to stand properly.
"He didn't touch you did he!?"
"Um... Maybe?"
He sighed.
"You see, this morning he came by the crystal empire and claimed that he was joining my command. He then touched me and I felt a strange power running through me. After this, I caught him with my own eyes abandoning his post, and flying off into Canterlot. I ran as fast I as could to follow him until my energy completely dropped. Even during passing out, I managed to see what he did next. He fired some sort of energy beam from his spines and caused a rock slide."
"That dirty little gecko!" Twilight shouted. "So first he stole your talent, then he caused a dangerous rockslide, then he rescued the crusaders and stole our talents, just so he could be famous."
"Yeah, an ah'm fairly certain he's the one who started the fire at the cottage where mine an rarity's talents went missin'" replied AJ.
"Well, I think that it's payback time!" Declared Rainbow. "Now let's find us a certain dragon."
Just then, they all heard some cheering in the distance. They looked out of the window to see tons of ponies gathering around a teenage dragon who appeared to be signing autographs.
"Well, that wasn't too difficult." Joked Twilight.
"Xervint!" "Over here, Xervint!" "Sign mine!" "Xervint, come on!"
"Easy, every pony!" He called. "My beautiful face is here to stay, so there's plenty of Xervint to go around."
"Oh, is that so?" A tomboyish voice called from behind the public.
"Better save the celebrations, Xervint, for the real magic show, because there isn't any power in you, is there? Cause the real Xervint is nothing more than a big powerless, uh..., Xervint head!" "Twilight only shook her head at this.
"Dash, that makes no sense."
"You stole our special talents, didn't you! Admit it: you're a big fraud!"
The ponies all gasped.
"You're not getting away again." Rarity finished.
"BHA HA HA! Stole YOUR talents!? Look, every pony, they're only jealous because for once, someone else can do something better than they can, and Twilight wants me gone for looking like her enemy!"
Unfortunately, the public was still on his side at this point.
They all started booing at the mane six.
"But I'm a nice drake, so I am willing to forgive and forget." He used Rainbow's powers to rush over to Fluttershy and place his hand on her shoulder.
"We can be friends, right?" He asked with a friendly tone.
She then felt her inner strength flow straight into his claw emitting from all of her body.
"Fluttershy! Get away from her!" Twilight called as she ran up and pulled her friend away too late.
"See? I thought she was meant to represent the magic of friendship!" He called as the crowd then began to boo at the mane six again.
"Alright, I've had enough of this super clown!" Rainbow shouted. She then whispered "Maybe if we rush him all at once, he won't be able to defend himself."
"Good thinking, dash." Twilight replied.
The six of them did just that.
He then used Rarity's powers to pull some gems out of the ground at use Twilight's to launch each one at them. This knocked them all back into one big pile.
"Any more thoughts?" Asked Rainbow.
"Man, they are totally out for me!" He shouted as he then charged up his spines and fired against some streetlights and trees nearby, causing them to fall on the girls.
"Ya see? I gotta defend myself!" The mane six each tried to avoid the rocks as they dodged each one. He was toying with them and they knew it well.
Then out of nowhere, a pink puff of smoke appeared on top of the rocks.
"Alright, captain suck-up! And I mean that literally. You may think you can do everything, but can you do..." She reached behind her and pulled out her infamous party cannon. "THIS!?"
"Hey, I thought Caxpe broke that toy!" He smirked back at her. She open fired and he flew out of reach, then back down.
"Sweet! But can you do this?" He said as his razor sharp spines lit up and fired the same energy beam from before directly at Pinkie.
"AHH" she shouted as some smoke was summonsed around her. Xervint saw this and took an opportunity and rushed over to her using Rainbow's speed.
"Gotcha." He playfully said when he wrapped his claws around the smoke, but to seemed to grab nothing.
"Huh!?!"
The ponies and one dragon then looked up to see her on top of one of the houses.
"Ha! Can you do THAT!" She mocked. He then rushed up a different house and charged right at her. He crawled down when landing, and tried to grab her, but she seemed to have gone again.
"Grrr" he snarled.
"Oh Xervint~" she called. She was now on a random ponies head. He charged again, and she disappeared again.
"Where are ya, Pie dude!?"
Twilight and her friends then smiled at Pinkie's usual randomness.
"Hey look! Pinks is actually getting to him." She said
"Seems like she's somehow evolved irritating to a special talent." Replied Rainbow.
Xervint was still looking around for her, when suddenly...
"Heads up!" A shout was heard from another roof. They all saw that she was using her party cannon again and was already launched directly at him. However, he was a quick thinker and got into counter position he jumped onto his hands and readied his legs.
"Back at ya." He shouted as he used AJ's talent to buck it away back to Pinkie. She couldn't move quick enough and was hit as well as sent flying off of the roof.
"Ha!" Came a teenage voice as it flew by and grabbed her. "Gotcha now party girl. How's it feel to be shaking and grooving in fear?"
A strange shock wave then flew right through her body and into his.
"What are we gonna do? Now that he's got my power, he's almost unstoppable." Whined Pinkie.
"You know, maybe what Phoxjes told us can help."
"You mean "Help is what he will have have, if his power you are to feed. Retrieve that power back, and help is what he will then need."?" Asked an uninterested Rainbow.
"Yeah, if we somehow find a way to steal our special talents back, maybe then he'll be completely powerless." Twilight brainstormed.
"OK so we have a plan. Now how do we get our talents back?" Fluttershy joined in.
"We do what they would've done. Go in there with as much brutal force as we can until we get what we want."
"Alright, let's draw him out with some bait first." Suggested Rarity. "And I believe I know where to find it."
"Xervint!!" Shouted Twilight as they reached the end of the tunnel. "We've come for our- woah." She stopped as she saw what Xervint had done to the cave.
There was gem and rock statues of famous dragons who Twilight and her friends couldn't recognise.
Xervint could be seen from the other side on a ruby, sapphire and emerald throne. Golden robes hung from the ceiling and the room floor was almost spotless from loose stones.
Everywhere was nicely decorated with gems and even regular paintings. Not to mention the room itself was now approximately 60-100 metres long and wide.
"What took you so long? Was wittle Fwuttershy scared of the big mean dragon, or did Rarity spend another five hours preparing her mane?"
"I love what you've done with the decor." Gazed Rarity.
"If you beat me, you can have it."
"We didn't come for a cave, we've come for our talents." Shouted Twilight.
"Bring on, Zelda!" He roared as he leaped from his throne and flew above and over them as he fired his familiar spine beam at them. They managed to dodge each one landing almost perfectly.
"Ha. Been practising? Well that won't help much against this!" He shouted as he fired all three magic sources of Twilight, Rarity and Shining from his hands and tail.
The six jumped out the way as it hit a pillar, causing it to fall on him.
"Heads up, Xervint!" shouted Rainbow. He gasped and flew out of the way.
"Wow! You're trying to mock me too! Keep it up Dash and maybe soon you'll be able to insult me."
"That won't be the only way you'll be hurt!" Charged Twilight. She jumped up and tried to slam him. He blocked her and threw her down.
"Bring it on! I've still got my old moves too!" He tries a few punches, kicks air strikes and slam.
This continued until she got behind and pounced on him, wrapping her hooves around him tightly. They struggled for a few milliseconds when...
"Ah, hooves off, kid!!"
A purple glow emerged from his body and began to slow transfer over to her.
Twilight's eyes then began to glow in the same colour of her coat. She could feel herself getting stronger.
He proved stronger still, and managed to throw her forwards, getting her off of him.
"Hey..." Her horn started to glow slightly. She had an idea.
"Hey Xervint, I've got a little present for you" Rainbow dash confidently said as she ripped out part of the ground and launches it at him having Applejack buck it.
He was still a bit shocked from having Twilight absorb him so he couldn't dodge. He was buried in the rubble.
"Grrr..." He snarled as he got back up and his eyes glowed up in the same colour as Rarity's magic as he lifted his left hand at the two and fired a light blue magical beam, knocking them down.
"Surprise!" Shouted a pink earth pony as she then had a ton of small rocks and boulders next to her. She then took cover behind them and her mane then activated like a launcher, firing each one at him.
"Oh, so that's how it's gonna be?" He reached behind him and pulled out "his" party cannon. He started to open fire at each rock, causing balloons to pop and confetti to scatter everywhere.
The other girls then took cover. Twilight then began to inform them.
"Girls, I know how to beat him. When I touched Xervint I felt my powers coming back."
"So that is why he won't let any one near him. He absorbs the powers through touch, so we can get them back the same way." Suggested Fluttershy.
The party explosions continued until eventually Pinkie ran out of rocks to launch and the cannon aimed right for her, knocking her back into the other girls.
"And that was extreme measures, Xervint style."
"Time for a little squeeze play. Come on, girls, altogether." Twilight declared. They all rushed at once.
He then punched Twilight to the left, punched Rainbow to the right, threw Applejack up into the air, knocked Pinkie pie away with his tail, grabbed Rarity and threw her down when he jumped and kicked Fluttershy away.
Applejack then looked down as she prepared to land on him by bucking. Xervint saw this and used Twilight's powers to teleport away.
"Uh-oh." she stated as she landed on Rarity and Xervint reappeared 4 feet away.
"Why don't you take a seat, Xervint(?)!" Shouted Rainbow as she picked up his throne and lobbed it at him.
"That's okay Dashy!" He replied as he used Shining's magic to pick it up and throw it back at her. He then picked it up and placed it back at the original spot.
He laughed and used Twilight's magic to pile them all together.
"He's never gonna let us get near enough to him, girls." Twilight whispered.
"Unless he don't see us comin'." Replied Applejack.
"Ahahahaha! Aww, the poor little moron six all fall down." He laughed.
"Yeah, well come closer and say that to my face." Ordered Twilight.
"Ha! I have Pinkie sense, remember? I know what you're up to!"
Just then a familiar red aura emitted from HIS chest. The girls all knew what this meant.
"Let's see(!) You're all failing, I'm getting stronger with each passing second, your world is in danger, and every pony is treating ME like a HERO. Does that sound at all familiar(?)" He pointed to a painting above his throne. The girls looked.
It was so many cities crumbling and falling apart with many ponies and dragons getting hurt. No one seemed happy in this. The mane six instantly knew what this was meant to be.
This was clearly Babylon.
"I've been where you are, and I'm NOT going back! You six are so over! Grrraah!" He roared as he looked up.
"Bloom, now!!" Applejack shouted across the room. Xervint looked confused.
"Order up, big guy!" Shouted a younger cowgirl from behind the throne. She showed herself and threw the melted sludge of what she once called her apple pastry directly at him. He turned around a bit too late.
"Ugh! Ah! My eyes!" He tried to wipe them as her then fired the two unicorn's and one alicorn's magic in random directions.
"Now! Rush him!" Twilight called out. The other five obeyed. They each grabbed onto a different section of him and stretched him wide.
"No!!" He cried.
"Oh yeah!!" Shouted Rainbow dash.
"No don't!!"
"Ahh!!" Squealed Rarity.
"Uhh ha ha!!" Twilight grunted.
"No!"
"Yes!!" Applejack pushed.
"Ahh!!"
"Hehehe!!"
They released their grip.
"Will all real powers stand up, and all phonies fall down?" Twilight playfully stated as Xervint fell on cue. They just left him their staring at him breathing heavily.
Xervint woke to find himself in a metal prison cell with him on the floor. He open his eyes more to see a certain white stallion hovering over him.
He placed his hoof directly on him.
"Ahh-ahhah!" He wanted to scream.
"I'll take my talent back, thank you very much." He started as he released.
"He-he- Twilight made you wait til I was awake to do that, didn't she?"
"Charismatic until the end, aren't we?" Xervint looked up slightly to see the goddess of the sun herself standing on the other side of the room to them.
"Cel baby!!" He laughed. Even she smiled.
"Hello, "Sypher.""
He tried to move, but quickly caught on that his hands were trapped in something. They appeared to be metal holders for his hands, preventing him from touching anything.
"Huh?"
"We shall release those and free you whenever you want. All you need do is hand Spike over to us." She demanded sounding serious.
"Hahaha. I would if I could- Well, actually no I wouldn't, but the point is that Spike is in no way of my control."
She sighed, then got an idea.
"Discord would've probably said the same thing..."
"Ah the old disc dude? Now that I could sort out with Phoxjes..."
"Alright Sweetie, this should be far enough." Rarity told her filly sibling.
"So, remind me again, why are we looking for anything valuable to give to them, instead of keeping it for ourselves?" Sweetie Belle questioned.
"Because it's all part of our new plan. If we are able to persuade the Babylonians to not only give back Spike, but to sign the peace treaty, then the less amount of problems we will have. In addition, because of what happened yesterday, we now have a cave all to ourselves."
"Well OK, but I still don't see why finding gems is- oof!" Sweetie then felt herself trip on something small and yet extraordinarily beautiful. She pulled it out after giving a few hard grunts.
It was the most gorgeous and flawless gen she had ever laid her eyes on. It was about the size of an infant's hand. It was intended to be white, but the center was radiating many different colours.
"Wow..." She still gazed in Awe.
"Aww, it's perfect dear sister. It is, however, still your first, so you should keep it for yourself." Rarity then used her special talent to levitate it out, via the already head sticking out.
When they got a closer look at the stone, they saw that it had some very small spikes coming out of the edges of the near end. The glowing heaven was flat on its top, then began to widen at the downward slide, then finally connect at the bottom with a somewhat sharp point.
Conveniently, it also had a long bit of string piercing through the end just below the spikes, perfect for Sweetie's size. She put it on Immediately.
Later that same day, the two sisters were on their way to the bank in order to keep the gems they discovered a secret from any pony else.
"Are you alright, Sweetie?"
"Yeah, I guess."
"LISTEN UP, PONIES!" A big deep booming voice came across the entrance.
He was on four legs with razor sharp claws on each of them. There was a lump on his back which looked to be almost a shell, spikes sticking out all over. This caught the attention of every pony there.
They all turned their heads to see a dragon, walking on four legs with muscles practically living everywhere.
Naturally, being a dragon, he was expected to be physically stronger than ponies, but he looked stronger than Big Mac, Iron Will and Bulk Biceps combined.
He seemed to be wearing a trenchcoat and fedora hat.
"I... Am Auxron!" He then used some sort of red and white aura from his front claw.
The magic lifted his coat and hat away, revealing that underneath he had on a thin black waistcoat with holes to fit his spikes out of, and bandit mask on his head.
"This is a robbery! I ain't leaving here without the gold!"
"Claws up!" The guard ordered, aiming his horn at the koumori.
"That's not gonna happen." He used his aura on the stallion's horn, and the stallion then found it extremely difficult to stand up as his horn then glowed the same colour as his claws magic, and dropped to the floor by having his horn pulled.
"Now why don't half of you reach for the sky?!" He shouted as he lifted his left glowing claw to the ceiling, and half the ponies in the bank were forced straight up, including the sisters.
"And the other half hit the floor?!" He shouted as he did the same with his right claw, forcing every other ponies weight to intensify.
"As you could probably see I'm into gravity. Well, that and money."
He made his way over to the vault doors.
"Hmm, five hoof thick steel titanium bolt layer bars. Heh heh, hasn't anypony in this world heard of the word challenge?" He chuckled as he aimed his magic claws at the lower bar and watched as it crushed into the floor beneath. He then did the opposite with the top bar, crushing it into the ceiling.
"Ah, there we are."
He looked at his newly found trophy: 10 million worth of bits and gold bars. He levitated it with him as he moved it with his gravity magic. He stuffed it into a bag and made his way out until...
"Hmm, hello pretty, where've you been all my life..."
He flew up to the ceiling when he looked at Sweetie Belle and, more importantly, her gem. He pulled hard at it until it broke off the string.
"Remind me to send a shout out to you for finding it again."
"Hey! That's mine!" She cried.
"Aww, I'm sorry. But every little bit helps." He smiled as he flew back down.
"No don't! Please!" Sweetie then began to cry at this.
"And one more thing..." He shouted as he walked out and turned around to the bank.
He dropped the bag and stood on two claws and lifted the front two up high, causing the magic to reappear. The building then loss balance for itself, and the ponies above fell to the ground. The ceiling was crumbling and fell apart as the whole thing then came down.
Inside of the rubble Auxron reached in side and dug out the still crying Sweetie. He lifted her up by the hind hoof and looked at her.
"So what did this particularly "special" gem look like?" Questioned Twilight, as she took notes on Sweetie's dilemma, watching her on Rarity's faint sofa.
"Well, it was white, shiny, glowing, spikey..." She began to sob into a cushion. "And it was MINE."
"Now there there, sweet sister." Rarity patted her sibling on her shoulder.
"We've got to get back at these guys soon." Twilight commented over to Rarity.
"Indeed. Nopony makes my sister cry. What could one POSSIBLY achieve in stealing from a defenceless filly?"
"So I get the pink 'un in me dark claws, 'old 'er up to a wall, get the field down, and Spike's the one who gives it to us." Caxpe finished his story in the ancient room from the first chapter with Spike and the other marks, as all but Phoxjes were still talking about what had happened.
They all had their masks on their faces, obviously symbolizing the importance of this room.
"Hahaha, yeah, well, that's coz I thought if you're gonna torture anypony, it should be some one who I hate." Spike replied taking a sip of his Gem related drink that Xervint gave him.
"Ha! Nah it's coz you're a legend, mate." Caxpe replied, sipping his soda.
"It might be 'coz Pinkie's an easy target fer anyone." Roranxoa intercepted the two, walking over a bit. "An' coz this boy's lazy, an' coz the mark o' light o'er there took his keys, Caxpe did what he does best: hurt somepony 'til he gets what he wants."
"I had to do what I had to, alright?!" Caxpe snapped at him, grumpily.
"Caxpe, your answer is usually violence for everything." Xandra told the greaser. "Although, that's not to say that it hasn't been progressive and successful over the years."
"Yeah, innit?"
"Miss Pinkie Pie certainly changed her tune when she saw your powers. despite having them seem absolutely meaningless at the time."
"You what? Pinks should know why I did what I did to her. Soon as I see her again she's goin' right back to her mum and dad on that stupid farm."
"Stupid." Illiux said, staring at the symbols on the walls.
"Eh?" Caxpe said.
"'Stupid farm'."
"What did I say?"
"Shupid." Illiux answered, correcting on his accent.
"Whatevs, right? Me point is, Pinkie's goin' right down when I'm finished with her. What about you then, eh?" Caxpe asked Illiux.
"What about me?"
"What you gonna do to Marshmallow? Why's she got aught to do with you?"
"Miss Rarity has something that I need. That is all you're require to know, Herr Fear. Although, In all honesty, she has more reason to come after me, rather than the other way around." Illiux responded, using his magic to bring up his panels.
"Why's that, money bags?" Xoa asked him.
"Her fashion company pales in comparison to mine, I understand the privilege of having a sister and parents, to which she never uses, I am much more popular than her, gents want to BE me, ladies want to BE WITH me, I have a rather irritating disability that has not stopped me, and I have exclusive access to a huge gem mining complex. Is that a suitable answer, Herr pounce?"
"So yer goin' after HER, 'coz ya want her to come after YOU?" Roranxoa questioned, getting a small laugh from Caxpe.
"it is rather more complicated than that, but I wouldn't expect someone like you to understand that. Please, briefly remind me why miss Applejack and her family are your designated targets, Roranxoa? Herself, I can understand, but her family?"
"Ah already told y'all, those ungrateful apple-suckin' lil vermin cut me off fer the first and last time, after ah worked mah tail off fer them on that pathetic scrap o' land they call home. Now, they're gonna pay fer it." Roranxoa answered, looking up.
"I see..."
"It shouldn't matter, really." Xandra added to the conversation. "All I want is to teach miss Twilight the benefits of helping our Babylon, as well as fulfill my role of being a Mark."
"But you don't feel as though it may be a little difficult, considering that she is the princess?" Illiux questioned.
"Perhaps, but it's still a stronger motivation than Calsuricxs." Xandra replied. "If that truly is the reason why he has chosen to defeat Rainbow Dash."
"It will work!" Calsuricxs shouted up. "Me and her. It's gonna work, I'm telling you all now!"
"If you say so." Illiux responded, turning to see the last Mark in the room. "Which leaves Herr Rome with Miss Fluttershy."
*sigh* "Why are Xervint and Auxron not back yet? Even those reptiles, who I should expect this from, are not usually as late as they are now." Phoxjes finally spoke up.
"Woah... Ah done believe it, but the Foxy can talk to other ponies once in a while." Xoa called back, overhearing him. Before Phoxjes could reply, they heard a door open behind them.
"Auxron, amicco. You doin' alright, man?" Calsuricxs looked over his shoulder.
"Morning, boys. And Xandra." He waved to them.
"I trust you have reason to be late..." Phoxjes closed his eyes.
"Oh, yeah, wait til ya see..." Auxron reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a familiar necklace."...This."
Phoxjes turned slowly and opened his eyes even slower, and suddenly seemed interested as his ruby/emerald eyes widened slightly.
"Hey, innt dat..." Cal looked amazed.
"Indeed it is." Replied Illiux, gazing at the stone.
"Dragon." Xandra said, tilting her glasses.
"You have done well, Auxron." Phoxjes flew over and retrieved the gem. "I am almost happy to see that we can trust you to retrieve what it is that girl has lost."
"She is your family, Phoxjes." Xandra said to him. "Wherever she may be."
"By blood, yes we are still relatives. However, I disowned her many years ago, after she and her own faction had opposed what we are trying to achieve."
"She has the right to disagree with anyone. Everyone does." Xandra spoke up again.
"True." Phoxjes gave the gem back to Auxron. "Give this to your newest recruit, then return for your the initiation of Skixep, Auxron."
"Glad to know you remember I'm still here." Spike cheerfully chirped.
"Got it." Auxron said, grabbing the string again. "Spike, hop over here, mah homie."
Spike went over to the much bigger, stronger and older dragon. The two of them left the room, and headed out to Equestria again.
"So, uh, what's that gem all about?" Spike asked, flying on Auxron's back.
"It's nothin' ya need worry about. Just something that belongs to Virtuoso." Auxron replied.
"Okay." Spike said, as the both sat in silence for a second, before Spike spoke up again. "Who's Virtuoso?"
"So, any ideas?" Rarity asked, keen on helping her little sister in any way that she could.
"Well, according to what Calsuricxs has loan me, this one is believed to be called Auxron." Twilight read out.
"What can he do?"
"From what you've told me, and the damage in the bank, he looks like gravity's his specialty. The question is, is there a weakness to it?"
"Well yes, I can think of one in particular." Xervint commented hanging from the boutique ceiling.
"Thank you, Xervint, but we are capable of handling thi-AAAHHHH!!!" They screamed in unison to see him.
"How, you were, I mean- you can't- when did, you're-" Twilight tried to figure out.
"Well, remember when I said that you could have me cave if I lost?"
"Um... Yes?"
"Before that, I might have "borrowed" the doggies strength. That's how. Plus, I'm literally twice as old as the chaos dude, so really I hardly needed them mutts."
"Alright, well, what do you want now!?"
"I just wanna help you, babe."
"Do not call me 'babe', darling."
"Don't call me 'darling', sweetness."
"Enough!"
"Happy as ever, eh Zelda(?)" He smiled fiendishly.
"Why are you here, Xervint?" The two backed off a few paces, in case he tried to copy their special talents again.
"Well, I ain't here for your special talents again. Yet. Nah, I'm here for a little "favor" from you, Rares." Xervint stated clearly.
"A favor from moi? How very flattering, but what makes you so sure that I would help YOU?" Rarity looked like she was in complete authority.
"Because if you do I'll give you your element of harmony back."
This brought Rarity to a conclusion. If she got her element back, then would they still have an upper hand in terms of power?
"Are you sure you're not here for my special talent?"
"Yeah, your fashion isn't really my top priority right now. Besides, I already got what I need from you for Xiāoshī."
"Xiāoshī?" Twilight asked. "That's Chinese for Vanish, isn't it?"
"Yes it is. And I got what I need for her."
"Her? Xiāoshī is a girl?"
"If by "a" you mean "my", then..." Xervint then reached to his tail tip and grabbed a small black box with a faint glow radiating from the inside.
"...Yes." He finished with a slight blush.
"Awww." Both girls said in unison while placing their hoofs on their hearts.
Twilight was the first to snap back into reality.
"Wait, so you only needed our special talents just so you can propose to a dragoness?"
"Not quite. If I was worried 'bout the proposal, then I could've done it all by myself. So I did, before you even came in."
"Then why did you need the talents to begin with!?" Twilight asked again.
"For the ritual and the reunion of course!" Xervint replied.
"What ritual? What reunion?"
"I'd like to explain, but we're out of time folks. Here, I'll let Auxron explain, coz I know you two have had such a great start, Rarity."
"I beg your pardon?" She asked. "I don't recall becoming acquainted with any- oh no." She then came to a realization.
"Wait, you mean the one who robbed the bank!?" Twilight asked angrily.
"S'appinin?" A deep booming voice was walking right behind the two unicorns.
"There's my bro." Xervint had a wicked smile plastered onto his scaled face.
"Who these two mules?" He stopped walking.
"Mule!? How dare you!" Rarity turned around and faced the dragon.
"Aw, ya gonna cry like ya did with'em dawgs?"
"Dogs, not 'dawgs'. Twilight corrected.
"Yeah, come on then!" He snarled back to the librarian.
"Where is Sp- oh!" She became startled after turning around and looking at over muscled Drake. Her eyes widened as she saw the living intimidation right in front of her.
She couldn't decide what exactly it was: the black fangs, the excessively toned body, the body-piercing spikes on the back, the grand sized wings. He had the strength of Phoxjes, the fear of Caxpe, and quick wit of Roranxoa.
"You wanna know where ma home boy is? Man, you mules ain't got no respect for keeping a plan together."
"T-tell me where he is." Twilight almost backed off a little bit.
She knew by now that magic wouldn't work on him, his muscles on all four of his legs were over half the size of his head, they were about the same size, and after seeing and hearing what the other Babylonians had done, it wouldn't surprise either of them if he ripped either of them in half.
"Hahahaha. Look at this, a couple of four legged losers, thinking that their strength could do ME bruises.
Your magic don't work, your muscles are too flat. I'm gonna rip you a new plot, coz your old one's are too fat.
Spike hates you and he's on his knee to me. You got some serious guts to mess with MY family.
Step down now, or this is gonna hurt a ton. There's only one who's the best, all hail the Babylon.
You ain't got nothing on me, you're as useless as the sun. You outta know better that to scrap with me. Auxron."
Auxron finished by dropping a figurative microphone on the floor. Twilight and Rarity were staring with their mouths agape, whilst Xervint was laughing on the floor.
Both of the ponies took one line each into serious dedication. The only thing Rarity remembered the most was him calling her posterior fat. She then began to ran into her bedroom with a deep blush on her face and tears in her eyes.
Twilight's line, however, was much more confusing. 'His family'? But Spike doesn't have a..."
The Alicorn's pupils then shrank to the size of peas as she came to a startling realization.
Silence filled the room immensely, as she stood there with her heart skipping beats, and Auxron with spiteful smile on his face.
"Alright Ron, I better get off." Xervint then walked casually towards the door.
"Oh, you leaving then?"
"Yeah, I got to. My Chinese treasure's waiting for me." He finished with a wink and a laugh.
"Heh heh. Alright, see ya whenever bruh."
"Your... Spike is your..."
"My baby bro? Yeah man. What, ya never wonder why he and Xervint look like one another?" Auxron asked while flying on his back with his front arms crossed.
"I had no idea. I thought he didn't have a..." Twilight then looked down with her pupils returning to the original size.
"So you still want him back? You wanna take our family away from us again? Is that what you're saying, girlfriend?" Auxron asked her aggressively.
Twilight then took a deep sigh and turned back around slowly to face him again.
"Listen. Spike is your brother, and it's definitely going to be a while until I accept that. But I have a brother as well, so I understand what it's like to have someone that close to you, and how much they mean to you. And yes, I would never want to see anything happen to him that might take him away from me, for possibly forever."
Auxron time a deep yawn at this speech.
"I think I'm gonna fall asleep in a minute; can ya get to ya point?"
"Alright then. Spike might have been my best friend since he was hatched, but if you really are his own flesh and blood, then..." Twilight felt her tears beginning to stream down her face. "...Maybe you should keep him."
Silence hung in the room for a while.
Twilight felt like this wasn't the best place to allow her sadness to be exposed, so she slowly walked out of the boutique, bringing her tears with her.
Auxron just stood there with a confused gaze on his face.
"Hmm. Weird, honestly. Since when did SHE have a choice in what we do?"
Twilight stopped walking to her castle, but her trip down memory lane never ended. There was no light at the end of THIS tunnel.
She looked up, although it was tough to see through her tears. The castle was in plain sight. In fact it was the only thing she could see at this point. The castle which used to think she could call her own, never truly realizing that it wasn't, until now.
Now she realized that the one thing that made this castle not feel like an oversized isolation chamber was missing. She continued trotting towards her home.
As she came to open the front door, she decided that she wasn't even going to try to hold back her tears anymore, and used her magic to blast the doors open instead.
She ran inside as the doors closed themselves. She teleported to her bedroom and proceeded to throw herself on her bed in an attempt to cope with what she had recently just learnt.
Her tears were combined with he anger that had erected inside of her, and her magic began to spiral out of her natural control. Beams and blast hit a decent chuck of the bedroom, followed by her carrying a finale by shooting her most powerful magic at the chandelier above.
Eventually, her energy had run out and she was left with heavy breathing on her bed as everything went silent.
Suddenly, to her surprise, there was a calm knock at the door. She was curious as to who this was now.
"Y-yeah? What?" She tried her hardest to remain calm. As she responded, the doorknob had turned slowly, and the door was opened.
Her eyes had widened, then turned to extreme anger at the face of exactly who had come here at this moment.
"Good afternoon, your highness." He lifted his hat to greet her politely.
"Phoxjes...? Phoxjes. Phoxjes! PHOXJES!!!" She became more and more angry with every passing second at the sight of him, until she stopped caring about consequences and let the true beast out.
She jumped into the air, and let out the fire from inside as her body went white, her eyes turned red, and her mane and tail became ignited in flames.
Somewhere, in another part of ponyville, the red light in Fluttershy's chest lit up, and disappeared.
"YOU HORRIBLE EXCUSE FOR A HERO!!!" She charged with all her might at the goth and literally heartless stallion in front of her and attacked him head on. She started by hitting him in the face with her hoof, then by trying to wind him with her other one.
He did look slightly in shock by the assault. However, he continued to keep his expression of constant hatred on his face.
"I am not here to fight you right now." He commented to her. She simply ignored him and continued fighting.
"Last time you were here you destroyed my castle in several places! I won't allow you to do it again!! You're going to pay for what you've done!!" She tried more direct attacks to his face.
This was when he decided he needed to prove his point. He reached for his sword and wrapped it around her front hoof as she attacked again.
She was surprised by his movement, but then she tried using her other hoof, only to have him throw his Eyelander to his other hoof to block that as well.
He then threw it onto the ground, piercing the floor with the handle facing upwards. With her hoof still tangled in his, he slammed her face onto the ground, the launched her into the sky.
When she hit the ceiling he flew up to her and hit her back down using his front knee. She shot straight down and her spine cracked on the top of the handle where she landed.
She gave up already from this. She then reverted back to her original form and she expected to have Phoxjes to finish her here and now.
On the contrary, he instead flew down at a normal pace, and even helped her up from the injury, as he held her in his hooves and flew her over to her bed.
As she was then laying down on her belly, he reached into his lower jeans pocket and pulled out what appeared to be a small med kit and treated the dark purple inwards mark on her spine with some medicine spray of some kind. The majority of her barrel was then bandaged.
"Wait... Why are you helping me?" She asked through her agonizing pain and tears as she turned around.
"I do not harm beings for pleasure. I came here to offer you an opportunity." He remarked as he fixed her up.
"What opportunity? Is it to do with Spike?"
"Indeed it is. The ritual of Babylon, which you are currently invited to see if you desire." Phoxjes then stood up and helped her sit up properly.
"Spike is..."
"The dragon that you once cared for is going to be officially declared a Babylonian, along with his family. I trust you are still coming to acceptance with that."
"Yes." Twilight looked down and remembered the fact at hand. "Yes I am." She almost cried again.
From the same med kit, Phoxjes pulled out a small packet of tissues and passed them to her.
"Thank you." She whispered as she took one.
"I understand what it is like losing family at your age." Phoxjes began to slowly walk towards the exit of the room. "In addition, if you do not wish to attend the ritual momentarily, then that, too, is acceptable."
"You've... Lost family?" Twilight asked, not wanting him to leave yet.
"Correct. My parents became deceased when I was approximately your age. Perhaps older, yet still young."
"Oh. Well, I'm sorry for your accidental loss."
"You may find this understandably surprising, but it was not an accident; my mother and father were murdered. Additionally, the murderer was not the one who wished to perform the execution."
"Wh-What do you mean? Who was it?" She asked.
"...Me." He answered.
"YOU!? You killed your own parents?! HOW COULD YOU!?"
"I had no choice in the matter. Back in that time, I was... A different pony. Would you not sacrifice two creatures to save an entire village?" He asked her, remembering his own past.
Twilight thought on the question for a second. Suddenly, a lot more about Phoxjes was understandable to her.
"Do not misunderstand, please. I begged and pleaded to have my own life ended, and to spare theirs. The underworld Babylon god would not approve. I was forced. Tragic, indeed, but alas, such is the way of the world. Especially when you have responsibilities of being a leader. Perhaps in time, you may be faced with a burden such as mine. Would you sacrifice one or more of the elements to save Ponyville, knowing that you can not sacrifice yourself?"
Although her body was nearly physically healed completely by now, Twilight's mental pains intensified with his every word.
"Irrelevant. Your highness, there is another reason for me being here currently. You must go over to Sweet Apple Acres and warn your friends over there that Auxron will be heading to that location in approximately 15 minutes. He wished to not only rob the farm, but also to challenge Mr Macintosh."
"Applejack..." Twilight whispered in concern, as Xandra's light reappeared. "Wait, challenge Big Mac to what?"
"That is not within my knowledge currently, your majesty."
"Hold on! Why can't you just go and warn them yourself?"
"I am a noble stallion, as you may or may not believe, meaning in any other circumstance I would. However, the ritual of acceptance can not begin without all six marks of Babylon. I apologize."
"You'd rather help them than Equestria?"
"As the Famous saying may suggest: the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few." He started to head towards the door. "I shall pray for your injuries to cure in time. Farewell." With that, he was out the door.
Millions of miles beneath the planet's crust, lives the historical, sacred and now advanced ground that is Babylon.
For the majority of time, residents of this forbidden city spend their time enjoying their almost immortal lives attempting to repair what they can.
Right now, however, is an exception to everyone there. At this moment, every creature was gathered in the same room currently witnessing the accepting of the newest Babylonians to their society.
The room was know as the Tribute hall, as was generally unused for a long period of time, unless a sacrifice was required to satisfy the Babylonian gods, so that their rage would quieten. Either that, or today's occasion.
The door at the end of the hall finally opened, revealing Phoxjes as he took his seat next to Calsuricxs on the end of the bench, exclusively for the six Marks.
As every pony and dragon were discussing their own conversations with each other, a cloaked and hooded figure entered the room from the door next to the main podium and cleared their throat, causing the entire room to become silent.
The figure was wearing a clearly expensive silk robe, made from ancient materials from what looked like millions of years ago.
He/she/it was now standing behind the podium. It took off its hood. It was wearing a mask as well.
Their mask had markings on it, similar to the other six Marks of Babylon. However, this one was clearly the most important.
Their mask was bigger than any of the others. That was because theirs had all six of the other marks on it:
Roranxoa's and Illiux's on the top, forming a half brown/half yellow semicircle with three brown spikes facing the top left, and three yellow spikes facing the top right.
Caxpe's and Xandra's in the center, curving the symbol 1/5 of the way in each, carrying a half purple/half blue double lined X in the center connecting to the top on both sides, and the sides touching the edges of the curves.
Calsuricxs's and Phoxjes's on the bottom, making a green and red diagonal line on both of the curves, connecting them to the center bottom. Where the X had finished laid a half green/half red horizontal line, connecting the two.
Noticeably, to Spike anyway, this pony wasn't actually saying anything to anyone. They were just standing there in total silence, very slightly moving about a little as if they really were talking to the ponies and dragons in the room.
Even the ponies and dragons in the room acted as though they knew and could hear what this one was saying. Though the ears and minds of the actual Babylonians, however, what they could hear was along the lines of:
"Babylon. That word brings so much meaning to so many beings, regardless if they are yet aware or if they are still oblivious to their true heritage. Today is a truly pleasing day for us all. Today we welcome three of our newest recruits to join our soon to be perfectly balanced society."
A rather petit amount of applause vibrated through the large hall.
"Now then. Illiux Nusku Lure, will you kindly approach podium, in order to welcome your first member." The figure then stood aside, and raised what looked like a hoof as everyone looked at the posh Unicorn walk towards the stand.
"Good morning, my dear friends." He started. "This will not be the first time that a new member has joined my faction in this Babylon this year. Therefore, I must say how vital this introduction is for me, as it may be necessary to have our new friend welcomed ASAP."
Out of the door on the left of the podium he came.
RayCon.
The stallion walked towards Illiux and stood by his side. Despite the amount of audience members being more than what he would've preferred, he was able to keep his cool throughout the speech.
As expected, everyone in the room had different opinions about the newest arrival.
"(He's hot.)" A mare whispered under her breath to her friend next to her. She simply chuckled lightly.
"Welcome RayCon, to my faction. Do you swear, under the watch and the oath of Tiamat, Mummu and their 47 offsprings, that you will forever accept..."
Whilst this accepting was taking place, from behind the door which RayCon had just stepped out of, Spike and another pony were waiting, sweating, pacing in the small room, knowing one of them was to be next for the accepting.
"Auxron, what if I can't do this?" Spike asked his newly discovered older brother. "What if I embarrass myself? Or worse, what if I make a mockery out of Babylon?"
"Chill, bro." Auxron put a claw on his youngest brother's shoulder. "Ya gonna get though this, ya hear?"
"But what about-"
"Hey, I got through, didn't I? So why can't you?"
"I don't know... I mean I've been in front of thousands of ponies before, and I couldn't have made things worse if I tried."
"If ya on 'bout that Cloudsdale, then lemme just clarify for ya: one, I'm gonna bring that place down with my gravity soon 'nough."
Spike laughed on the inside at that.
"And second, bear in mind, brav, that you were still obeyin' Twily at that point. Just blame her for what happened, ya hear?"
At the name of Twily, Spike clenched his fist and the green flames in his palm were re-summoned.
"Nice... Plus, if I were you, man, I'd be more worried 'bout that brand." Auxron then pointed behind him, and saw RayCon with his front hoof out and Illiux pressing a brand into it, while he struggled to remain still.
"Oh... You... Didn't... Mention that..." Spike was now terrified.
"Heh heh. Man, you don't got nuttin' to be 'fraid of, boy. 10 bits says this ain't gonna even hurt ya. Speaking of which..."
Illiux looked as though he was now finishing his welcoming for RayCon, and Spike was next.
"Now then, upon exiting this hall, your weapon awaits you my friend. A Katana, as you requested. Now, please be seated, as we welcome our second member. Xandra, if you will."
Illiux stepped down from the podium and let the blue mare step forwards to the podium, and it was now her turn for applause. This time, the applause was mainly given by the faction of the hall wearing smart business outfits and glasses, slick hair, etc.
As the two leaders passed each other, they took each other's hooves and gave each other a polite kiss on each check, before continuing.
"Thank you, my old colleague. Yes, it appears as though another fortunate creature wishes to share my dream for knowledge over everything."
A small cheering session took place from the same spot as before.
"But this time, not just any creature! This time, finally, after so long, the dragolonians have their forth and final brother back!" Before she had even finished her sentence, the entire hall started to cheer at this celebration.
Backstage, Spike was blushing and smiling, because he knew that he was the reason that every creature there was happy.
"Transitioning all the way from Equestria to our great city of Babylon, please welcome, Spike the Dragon!"
"Go on then." Auxron shoved him out the door, waiting for him to walk to the podium next to Xandra.
As he showed his face, the cheering began to die down as everyone knew that he had to speak.
"Spike, do you swear, under the watch and the oath of Tiamat, Mummu and their 47 offsprings, that you will forever accept your true heritage to being in our Babylon, and forever acknowledge that you will be forbidden from ever abandoning these grounds in some feeble hope to return to whence you came?"
"I... I do." He promised.
"And are you prepared to provide your fellow historical family with your full and true service, wherever they may be, and whatever they may ask?"
"I am prepared." He stood firm.
"Spike the dragon, once you become an official Babylonian, your memories of you original home with Princess Twilight Sparkle shall fade, and reappear as much more tragic within given time. In addition, whilst you will still chronologically age, your physical body shall forever remain the same, unless you are to change it yourself. Are you ready to begin your new life, my boy?"
"This is my new life, beginning right now." He felt massively confident.
"Then by allowing me..." She used her magic to levitate the hot iron from the hot coal pit. "To forever scald you with this mark, you will forever place your loyalty to me, and the other marks."
Spike then took a deep breath in, then slowly exhaled, giving Xandra his hand. "Do it."
Then, it came, but as Auxron mentioned, it didn't hurt one bit. In fact, all it did was warm him up slightly.
He then remembered the reason why: he had cold blood.
As soon as the ritual was completed, he began to walk out of the room back where he came from.
"Boy, I do believe you currently owe me 10 bits." Auxron greeted his youngest sibling.
"Heh. Great... So what now?"
"Dunno 'bout you, but I'm getting me some hardcore cider."
"Hey, buy me something, yeah?"
"Bruh, I ain't gonna buy you nothin'."
"What? But Auxron-"
"Spike, I ain't gonna BUY nothin'."
"Oh, I get cha. OK, have fun." Spike waved as Auxron left. He then turned round to see Phoxjes take to the stand and began to speak.
"Fare greetings, fellow members of our great garden that is Babylon..."
"So we gonna scrap then, or just stand here?" Auxron was already at Sweet Apple Acres by the time Twilight had warned Applejack about what Phoxjes had warned.
"Ah shoot, we're too late!" Applejack and Twilight ran to the front of the barn to see the to older brothers squaring off with each other.
"This isn't good." Twilight commented. "This won't end well."
"Y'all done need ta worry, Twi. Ah know may bro can take this lizard out."
"Don't be so sure; this Auxron can be brutal."
The two of the males eventually started the wrestle, with Auxron taking an early advantage already. He had Big Mac in a headlock, and proceeded to body slam him. When they were on the ground, Auxron then grabbed his back hoof and threw him on the ground by lifting him in a circle throw.
While on the ground, however, Big Mac then used his free hoof to buck him in the face, causing him to let go. Mac then spun round onto his back, and the kicked him again with his back hooves. He was then able to tackle him onto the ground and started to beat him whilst on top of him.
This went on for about three seconds when Auxron dug out his claws and used them on his torso. This got Mac off and Auxron lifted him by his head and spun him round and threw him away.
By the time Big Mac had looked back at him, he was gone. Suddenly he heard the sound of tearing behind him, and turned around, only to see a part of the apple treadmill thrown at him as it collided with his face.
More parts were thrown at him, but he was able to avoid every one. This went on until something else caught Auxron's eye: he saw Applebloom and her two friends coming back from their old clubhouse when they were still blank flanks.
Auxron turned to her and smiled, whereas Big Mac had only just noticed what he was now aiming for. With most of his might, he was then about to throw his piece of metal at the filly, whereas her brother was rushing over the protect her.
As he launched, Big Mac was able to save her in time, causing the metal to hit him instead. Auxron then thought of something, and used his gravity intensifying powers to make the metal part float up, then crash down on him again as he still covered his sister. Auxron laughed and did it again and again.
After about seven hits, he flew over to him and lied on his side and grabbed the back of his head and smashed it onto the ground. He then followed up by using his back leg to kick away Applebloom and with his hind leg raised he used his tail to whack away Big Mac.
The stallion was laying down, with his back bleeding, almost unconscious.
Auxron then picked up the same bit of machinery from before and slowly walked up to him, and prepared to smash him to dust one last time.
Whilst walking he thought about what he was once told: "if it's worth doing, it's worth overdoing." He then looked over to the other parts of scrap and used his gravity to bring them over to him. With the parts in place floating right above him, he was about to let them drop, until-
He then felt a presence on him, as it appeared somepony had literally jumped him, as he then felt a filly with her leg around his neck and trying to pull him down.
"Yo kid, what you doin!?!" He asked as he tried to pull her off of him, not realising that as he did, the parts of levitated metal above Big Mac were slowly coming towards himself.
When he did manage to grab ahold of her, he had to release his gravity powers, and the pile of metal fell on his head.
Auxron fell down and had a bad vision because of Sweetie Belle.
Knowing he couldn't fight like this, he simply grabbed Big Mac and used his gravity force to transport into Babylon.
After spending countless hours pacing about in her quarters, princess Celestia finally allowed herself to carry off to her bed in a struggling attempt to sleep. Finally getting back to Canterlot from the Ridge that she was "invited" to, and she couldn't feel any less at home.
Knowing full well that she had just finished from helping someone she despises with a project that could very well mean the end of her, she worried about the outcome of her current concern becoming a success.
As she began to try to sleep, a small gleaming stream of light began slithering it's way into the room, and floated up to halt in midair.
Celestia noticed this and looked in slight confusion at the tiny blue flame levitating before her eyes, before she had an immediate idea of what it probably was. These suspicions were reinforced, and then confirmed once more flames had emerged in the corners of her eyes and began to connect with the center flame. The combination of fire then began to rotate horizontally until they expanded and form an orb.
It took a few seconds for the expansion to come to a halt, finally realizing that what they were forming was more than just an orb; it was a sun. A blue sun, similar to her own, except minus most of the natural heat, a lack of movement and just a few inches smaller than she was.
"I recall you saying that you finished with my services, Dr." she said with an exhausted expression on her face, looking up at the blue sun before her. As she finished her statement, a figure had stepped out of the sun and onto her floor.
"You recall correctly, my walking source." A somewhat feminine voice told her as she stood up to look at the figure. It was another dragon.
This dragon was slightly shorter than Celestia was, but still about average for it's age from looking at it. It was wearing a white buttoned up lab coat, white trousers, and blue sneakers. The dragon's face was covered by wide-eye googles and a gas mask. However, this one had a detail that Spike, Xervint and Auxron seemed to lack: a head full of hair. The hair was blue, flat on top, covered the left eye up to the chin and tied up at the back up to the center of the spine.
"Then WHY are you here right now?" Celestia demanded to know.
"As you may or may not know, your apprentice Twilight Aurora Sparkle currently processes the first of many archives of Babylon history." The dragon replied.
"Oh? And where did she get that?"
"Calsuricxs apparently gave it to her after a race with Rainbow Dash. Anyway, I appear to have left my... notes in there at the epilogue, and I would ve-"
"Epilogue?" Celestia cut the dragon off. "What kind of history contains an epilogue?"
"This one, my dear, and I would very much like it returned to me, if you please."
"Well, forgive me for your disappointment, but she isn't here currently, and her presence is of no concern of mine, so farewell!" She commanded, as she pointed the dragon to leave the room.
"Hmm." The dragon seemed ready to leave, as it was leaning out of the window and had wings deployed.
"Oh, before I leave..." The dragon looked back at her. "...When she finds out, tell your sister to at least give him a chance." It said before taking off.
"Tell him to dream on..." Celestia whispered to herself.
"So what do y'all make of these dragons then?" Applebloom asked her two young friends.
"Dangerous." answered Sweetie Belle. "Stealing talents is one thing to worry about, controlling something as big as gravity is another, being from Babylon is even worse, but now they have Spike."
"So what?!" Scootaloo interjected. "That's only more reason go after these dragons, isn't it?"
"What do you mean?"
"I say no more waiting around! It's about time that we bring the battle to them, instead of just waiting for another fight to start here! Plus, you two already took out two of those dragons, when am I gonna get my turn to fight?"
"Scoots, we didn't exactly ask to get involved with this, it sorta just... happened, really."
"She's right, ya know. Ah reckon if you took on Xervint or Auxron all by yer lonesome, you'd be signing yer death warrant."
"Hold on! Are you two saying I can't handle it?!" Scootaloo shouted.
"We didn't say that." Applebloom replied, looking apologetic, alongside Sweetie.
As they realized what they had just said, Scootaloo picked up her scooter and readied to shoot off.
"You didn't have to." Was the last thing she said before riding right out of Ponyville.
"Ohhh..." Sighed Sweetie Belle, looking sad as she saw her friend ride away.
"Well, that was entertaining." An entirely different voice came from the same Sweetie belle, sounding like a stallion about twice her age.
"I concur, she took it rather well." The same voice change appeared from Applebloom. "Now, shall we remove this illusion and get changed, good chap?"
"Yes, let's." With that, the two "fillies" left to find a spot to hide. As they began to walk away, the real two girls walked into Ponyville, in search of the third. Unfortunately, the fillies didn't see their doppelgangers, and just kept walking.
"Huh... she said she'd be here..." Sweetie stated.
"Too dangerous to handle by myself? I'll show them!" Scootaloo thought to herself, rushing to her one chosen destination on her scooter. Ignoring everypony that she rode by and even those that she happened to hit, nothing had stopped her.
"I'll make a change in this war. I don't care who I take on, I'll do it, and I'll win!"
Finally, after about 15 minutes of riding, she made it to where she wanted to settle it. She had made it back to The Collapsed Chasm.
"Hey! Babylon! Come and get me, if you got the guts!" She shouted out to the world, only hearing her echo in response.
"Hey, did you hear me?! I said I wanna fight you!" Still nothing but her own echo.
"I SAID I WANNA-" was all that was heard in the valley, right before the sound cut off, as if she had been grabbed.
"I heard what you said, Thanksgiving." A tough British voice came from right behind her.
"Gaahh!" Wailed Scootaloo as she was then thrown across the cliff, onto the rocky floor. As she got back up on her hooves, she looked to see that Caxpe had disappeared.
"Oi oi, chicken." A whisper said to her right behind her, making her heart skip a beat in fear. This was followed by him wrapping his fore hooves under hers, bending them upwards, behind her head and lifting her up. As she was held like this, his cape then began to creep around her and form some kind of metal bind that held her in place as he let go.
"Now, just as a small word of advice: when your hanging around places like these, you need to beQUIET, or else you'll get-"
"Hey, quit your whining, some of us are trying to sleep!" A faint voice called to them in the distance.
"Oh, mate, give us a break."Caxpe then whispered to himself. "Right, wait here for us, yeah?" He said as he walked to the edge of the cliff and looked down.
"HEY WHY DON'T YOU SHUT YOUR FACE, YA SMEGHEAD!?" Caxpe shouted down to what sounded like a fat hairy single middle-aged stallion, living in a rented apartment.
"WHY DON'T YOU COME DOWN HERE AND MAKE ME, TOUGH GUY?!"
"WHY DON'T YOU COME UP HERE AND MAKE ME COME DOWN THERE, YOU MUPPET?!"
"GO BACK TO BRITAIN, YOU VINDALOO SCOFFING TEACAKE!"
"GO BACK TO YOUR MUMS BASEMENT PLAYING W.O.W., YA FAT SACK OF BEER!"
"WHY DON'T Y-"
"Hold on, Scootaloo!" A mares shout interrupted the arguing pair, as all three looked up. "I'll get you outta there and away from-"
"HEY, SHUT YOUR MOUTH, YOU STUPID PEGASUS!" The other stallion shouted to her, as a tire screeching sound effect was heard.
"Hold on, one second..." Rainbow then landed and walked to the cliff alongside Caxpe. "YOU WANNA REPEAT THAT, PUNK?!"
"YEAH, MATE, SAY IT AGAIN TO HER!"
"I SAID SHE'S STUPID, JUST LIKE YOU, PAL!"
"I'M JUST HERE TO HELP MY FRIEND!"
"YEAH, SHE'S HERE FOR HER KID, MAN!"
"Daddy, we can't sleep..." A foal's voice came from the same place as the stallion's.
"Oi, don't let him kiss you goodnight, he'll give you his rabies." Caxpe laughed at him.
"YEAH, HE'LL INFEC- Wait, what am I doing? Scootaloo, i'm here for-" Rainbow Dash then looked to see her state, looking surprised.
She saw that Scootaloo was lying unconscious and free of the bind. However, what really caught her eye, was the more obvious figure standing there as well. It was a dragon, wearing a lab coat, goggles and a gas mask.
"Take her to aid, quickly." The blue dragon told her as it placed her on Rainbow's back, before she flew off.
As she was flying away, Caxpe turned to see her go, only to find the same dragon looking at him, disappointed.
"Oh, er, A'up doc." He laughed.
The dragon then walked away before finishing with "You're an idiot."
"Oh... My head... ugh..." Scootaloo regained consciousness and looked around.
"You okay, squirt?" Rainbow Dash asked the tiny Pegasus, rubbing her head gently. The two found themselves in Rainbow Dash's room, expecting to be safe.
"Yeah, I guess so... What happened, anyway?"
"Hey, you were there longer, you tell me."
"Well, I remember wanting to fight a Babylonian, coz I wanted to prove a point to them."
"Whoa whoa whoa, hold on! You wanted to prove yourself to the Babylon, so you took them on by yourself?! That's suicide!"
"Not to the Babylon, to prove Sweetie and AB wrong; they said I couldn't look out for myself and that those other dragons would eat me alive."
"You'd be right, mein Hünchenpfanne." A stallion's voice called from the door frame. As the two saw who it was, they had different responses, preferably because only one knew who he was.
"Illiux! Can't we ever catch a break with these guys?!" Rainbow shouted as she got on her hooves and readied to fight, wings deployed and everything.
"Guten tag, miss Dash." Illiux simply bowed to her in a civilized manor, before he stood up and tried to walk up to her. He was still wearing his white long sleeve polo shirt with an aqua-berry sweater over in, along with dark blond jeans.
" 'Guten tag' THIS!" she yelled as she charged at him to kick him with her back hoof, only for him to respond by lighting up his horn for literally 5 milliseconds, and another one of his glass illusion panels to show up and have her kick that instead.
Thinking that she could break through, she took a shot at the panel, just to end with her being greeted with a sharp pain. It felt as though somepony had just shot her hoof in the middle with a nail gun, hammered it in further, and then pulled it out with a hammer claw.
Naturally, a scream of agony was welcomed from this impact, before a collapse and grabbing her injured hoof on the floor.
"Illusion optimized neon magical reinforced Plexiglas, Rainbow; you won't be breaking that today. No, scratch that; you won't be breaking that. Ever."
"Hmm... I appear to have hypnotized your friend." Illiux stated to her.
"Wh-What d- What did you do to her?!" Rainbow asked as she tried to stand back on her hooves. The key word being 'tried'.
"Here, allow me." He then stated as he actually got his fore hooves under her legs and back and lifted her up like a superhero saving the damsel in distress.
"Hey, put me down!" She demanded. He complied as he placed her on the bed alongside Scootaloo, who hadn't stopped staring at the stallion since she laid eyes on him.
"Are you quite alright, darling?" He queried.
"I'm fine, and don't call me that." Rainbow Dash replied, only to be surprised when he answered with "I wasn't referring to you."
"You-You're... perfect..." Scootaloo droned, with her gaze still fixed on him.
"Ah, another suitor for the prince." He smiled.
"WHAT?!" Rainbow nearly fell off the bed. "Squirt! He's the enemy!"
"Then I wanna be an enemy too..."
"Oh stop, darling, blush doesn't go with my outfit." He placed a hoof on his cheek like a lady after being flattered.
"Ugh, I think i'm gonna hurl... Scoot, you don't wanna be with him."
"Right now, she may wish to be with anyone other then miss Belle or miss Bloom."
"You know what happened?" She gasped.
"Perhaps I do, then again I may not. Those who spoke to you in Ponyville were speaking their minds. They were your friends, and they were not your friends. Perhaps an illusion best describes the thought."
"So, that's all Illiux said to you?" Twilight asked the pegasi as they were walking down the streets of Ponyville once more.
"Pretty much. If it's a riddle, we might be here for a while. All i know is that to him, i'm his 'mein Hünchenpfanne.'" Scootaloo said dreamily.
"Uh, Scootaloo? Being called a Hünchenpfanne isn't a compl-"
"Anyway, where's Pinkie, she'll help us, won't she?" Rainbow Dash interrupted, not wanting to crush Scootaloo's happiness.
"Yes she will!" Pinkie suddenly emerged from nowhere, as she does, making the other three jump.
"Pinkie, we've been over this." Twilight closed her eyes, opening them slowly.
"I know, but i'm just excited. About everything! So what's the problem this time? Time bomb? Robbery? *gasp* Murder mystery?!"
"No, thankfully.The problem, well problems, are-"
"Firstly Scootaloo has become infatuated with her enemy, Secondly Illiux found a way to stand on clouds without magic, Thirdly Twilight has something that shouldn't be with her, fourthly the war is still on, and lastly, thanks to Celestia, my experiment is nearing completion." A feminine voice came from behind the four of them.
"You again?!" Rainbow asked in surprise.
"Who are you?" Twilight asked the same dragon.
"I am Expherient. Dr. Expherient. I have come here to collect your dept, Rainbow Dash."
*gasp* Pinkie gasped. "A dept?" She whispered through her gasped gasp followed by another silent gasp. She then turned round and bent Rainbow down with her and whispered: "Dashie, do you owe something to the Dr.?"
The pegasus then pulled out of her hoof and flew back behind the girls.
"What? No, of course not."
"Oh, you're quite wrong about that." The dragon then walked towards the group. "You owe me something for allowing you to find your... sibling... alive, and in one piece."
"Hey, you hardly did anything!" Rainbow Dash stated. "Whatever you did, I probably could've done quicker."
"Again, you're wrong in what you believe. You may recall the last time you Equestrians attempted to beat our magic with brute strength and your own magic? If that didn't work the first few times, why would this be any different?"
"Because Caxpe is an earth pony; magic isn't available to him." Twilight interjected.
"Your highness, did you not read the history volume that Calsuricxs gave you?"
"Most of it, yes. But what's that got to do with this, though?"
"So you never got to the end? Good, then my research will be worthwhile after all. Where, prey tell, is the book as of now?" Expherient asked the princess.
"That's not your concern, Expherient." She snarled back at the Dr.
"I couldn't possibly disagree more; it's entirely my concern. Now you could tell me where it is, or you can get to work on Scootaloo's memorial."
"Hey, You touch one hair on her mane, and I'll- AAAHHH!!!" Rainbow Dash shouted in fear, looking behind her as Mr. Fear himself had grabbed her again.
"Don't lose her this time, Caxpe!" Expheirent shouted to the greaser.
"Hmm! HMMFF! The filly tried to yell, muffled by the much older stallion.
"I told you to wait there for us!" Caxpe aggressively whispered down her ear, pulling her away.
"Hold on, Scootaloo!" Rainbow Dash yelled as she charged at him, which he blocked by using Scootaloo as a pony shield. She then had no choice but to negate her own attack and stop herself in midair, which worked to Caxpe advantage.
He slammed the filly onto the ground, and proceeded to use her as a leg up to stand on and kick Rainbow in the face.
"Hey, lay off them!" Pinkie shouted as she tried to slide underneath him and grab Scootaloo for herself. When Caxpe saw this, he stood back on his hind legs, held Scootaloo in his left hoof, and used his right hoof to grab Pinkie's and throw her upwards.
"Uh-oh..." Pinkie exclaimed as she was thrown, then caught by the same guy, followed immediately by a headbutt which knocked her out.
"Caxpe, let her go. NOW!" Twilight walked over to him, hoping to calmly sooth him.
"Come on, then!" Caxpe shouted back as Pinkie fell and he stood back on four legs, using his extra shadowy hands in his cape to grab hold of her.
"It doesn't have to be this way, Caxpe. I'm sorry about what happened to your home, and I know you must be angry, but I can help you and your friends, if you let me, and so can Hughh-!" Twilight was cut off from talking as Caxpe used his cape again to grab hold of her by the throat.
"You what?" He began to walk towards her, as she noticed Expherient walk past her and up to him. "You actually, WHAT?"
He then passed the now unconscious filly to the scientist, as the dragon then flew away.
"Like, babes, I ain't Sunset Shimmer, I'm glad I'm not Starlight Glimmer, and I'm bit upset that I'm not Seafood Dinner, so these little friendship talks that you like to give to these "villains" of yours aren't gonna influence me, yeah?"
He finally let go of her as she fell down, coughing.
"Mate, I'm not smart or aught, and I have been raised without a family, but I'm not dumb or anything, like. In fact, if Bronies React have taught me anything, it's that firstly, Blackgryph0n is gonna be after my plot for hurting you, secondly this show has finally jumped the shark, and thirdly you can't and shouldn't force anyone to change how they feel or how they react to anything. Besides, I've waited long enough to not see summit blow up, for smeg's sake."
"You're mad, Caxpe." Twilight told the stallion.
"And Flash Sentry's a waste of animation, what's your point?"
Twilight then stood up again to talk to him properly.
"The reason why Sunset and Starlight became reformed isn't because they were told to." She explained, as he snorted. "They both knew that they could've done better with their magic, and that-"
"Right, I'm sure what you're saying is dead important, but we've gotta get back to the plot." Caxpe then shoved Twilight of the way and looked to the camera. "So basically, we kidnap Scootaloo, now back to German Maximilian Pegasus and I'm just a sweet Dragsvestite."
"So, the experiment might work this time?" Illiux asked the dark cerulean drake, as they walked down the hallway to the lab, while carrying the unconscious Pegasus on his back.
"We should dare to dream, old friend." Expherient replied as he continued to look at a clipboard containing some information.
"Your life's research, almost true, in just a matter of moments! So why are you not excited, comrade?"
"Well, about that..." The doctor put his claw on Illiux in a suspicious manor. "...There is, one small detail that I have waited until last minute to tell you about, that requires your assistance." Expherient finished with a sly smile on his face, causing Illiux to raise an eyebrow. "You see, to perform this start up I'll have to use several extracts of other material matter scattered around random areas of Equestria, most likely gathered in the Equestria geographical landscape group."
"OK, so I need to break in and steal them? Isn't that more of a job for Caxpe or Calsuricxs?" The unicorn then asked the scientist.
"No, not exactly. You see, to save on time, I found it much easier to have an insider help us, specifically one young, but experienced in this area, and of course female."
"Oh... You need me to flirt with somepony to have them help us? So what's the problem, having to meet new ladies and assisting you in your lifelong goal, whist boasting my own popularity?"
"THIS is your problem." Expherient replied as Illiux was then handed the clipboard, showing the pony's face and bio.
"O-Oh... Oh my... Wow, uh... What, er, What a lovely young, lady..." The prep looked in confusion at the pony. She was purple, wore glasses, had her frizzy ginger hair tied up at the top, an extended snout, buck teeth, and wore what looked like an average school girl uniform shirt and sweater.
"Her name's Frazzle Rock, and whilst her social status is less than average due to her interests, she appears to have high authority in this group, and should have the materials that're required for this experiment to work. The list for the gems are in her bio, so if you're ready I'll take your "chicken casserole" and keep it in the oven for you." Expherient took Scootaloo and continued onwards to the lab.
"So what does this ridge do, your highness?" Twilight asked the recently returned ruler of Equestria.
"From what I know, Dr Expherient needs this ridge to create and/or collect data for his lifelong work and dream: to create a second successful sun, after my own." Celestia replied after sipping her tea.
"He wants to create another sun? Wait, wouldn't that benefit Phoxjes's idea of splitting the world in half?"
"Yeah, that's pretty obvious." Caxpe answered as he drank his larger. "In fact, when he's done it, we've pretty much won this, really."
"What do you mean, Caxpe?" Twilight turned to ask the calmed down greaser.
"Apparently, he just needs the energy of a Unicorn, a Pegasus and an Earth pony so that it can start, so that's why he's taken your bird, your muscle and your dragon."
"He needs all three?" Celestia asked in return. "But Spike's not a Unicorn, so this won't work, will it? Also, why are you still here, Caxpe?"
"I brought your slave here, didn't I? Plus, we don't need Xandra's prodigy to be a Unicorn, he's still magic, init? So if he can replicate that kinda aura, yeah, we don't need a unicorn."
"Is that all you need my friends for? For one science project?! Kidnapping my friends just so yours can try something?!" Twilight stood up and walked towards him.
"Twilight, you must calm down." Celestia told her faithful student.
"Yes, my student." Caxpe answered in reply, as he appeared to be holding a microphone to his mouth, which edited his voice to sound exactly like Celestia's while mocking her. "You must quell your anger, as you can not defeat someone as good-looking and powerful as Caxpe. Not to mention his brilliant hair and perfect outfit. I wish I was as cool as him, but I know that's impossible." Caxpe finished with a snort.
"Whilst insulting, he raises a point Twilight. If your magic is nullified by him, and his physical strength is admitted far superior to ours, it would be better to avoid any conflict."
"Oh, trust me, I understand that. However, no disrespect to yourself, princess, but it wasn't his insults to yourself, or his mockery that angers me. The fact that he referred Spike to being "Xandra's prodigy" is what gets me irritated."
"Sorry, what'd you want me to call him then, some bloke who hates you? Or how 'bout Spike: Twily's scaled slave? Oh oh, better! What about Spike, my number 1 assistant?"
The last name, of course, angered her the most. This caused her to clench her hoof in anger and duck her head.
"Heh heh heh. Go on then, hit me. Come on." Caxpe laughed.
"Leave her be Capxe! Your ordeal is to be faced with me."
"Alright then, I'll face you. Ha ha: your a terrible leader and everypony hates you."
"I did not mean it like that, Caxpe." She whispered. "Say what you desire about me, but you can not blame her for what has happened and-"
"Yo-Yo, boss!" A street wise pony was heard down the corridor holding a sheet of paper. The three of them looked down to see him approaching. The pony was pale blue, had a thin blue fabric jacket which matched his coat. He had his black mane blown dried and gelled back, and a pair of black leather biking gloves on his hooves. His cutie mark was an arrow pointing left, with what looked like a door on the end.
"Yes, Left! What's happening?" Caxpe hoof bumped the other greaser pony.
"Take a quickie at this chick!" He stated as he showed Caxpe the paper, noticing how his face turned to looking as though he was about to throw up.
"Urgh, she is minging!" Caxpe turned his face away, putting his hoof over his mouth. "Who is she?"
"Right, get this: Illiux has gotta flirt with her, so doc can get his rocks!" Left laughed as he told him.
"You're joking!?! He's gotta get it on with that? With THAT? Oh mate, we've gotta see this!" Was his reply as he pulled Left towards himself and wrapping his cape over them, and vanishing as they did.
"Well, that's a load off our minds." Celestia muttered to herself. "Now Twilight, I understand that you're upset about what he may say, but understand this for me: these six do not have satisfying upbringings, unlike you and your friends."
"So just because they had bad lives, they think they can take and do whatever they want?" Twilight asked her teacher.
"It is more than just that, my dear student. You see, because of their backgrounds, they believe what they're doing, or at least trying to do is right. For example, Caxpe was raised in a broken and abandoned trailer site, without his family..."
"Find her before she escapes!" The guard shouted to his ally's down the corridor of the Crystal empire, on search for yet another intruder. This time, however, no pony actually knew where she was, or even what they were looking for.
"What does she look like?" Another guard asked while slowly backing up with a spear in hoof.
"No one knows yet; just keep your eyes peeled for anything moving!" The first guard shouted for the same guy, but got no reply. "Hey, did you hear me?! I said-" before being met with a thud and the sound of metal clashing.
"IT'S HER!!" Numerous guards shouted at once. Every one of them headed down the corridors to the sound. Once they arrived, they noticed him face down on the floor, with his back cut open by what looks like three knives.
"Was this her?" One of them asked in slight fear. As he did, he was met with a hoof on his shoulder. After gasping and drawing his spear, he turned around with his shaky hooves, only to see his captain.
"Pull yourself together, solider!" Shining Armor told him. "She just wants us to panic, so everyone stay calm. Spread out and find her, now!"
With that, every guard spread across the empire, trying to find this intruder, whoever she was. As two of them were backing up on their hind legs, about to bump into each other, they both heard the sound of something razor-sharp and metal being drawn right behind them. Following their instincts and training, both of them turned right around and attack with their spears.
When they realized that they had nothing to fear, both were put on ease, which left them open to having something beneath their hooves and trip them both over. As they fell, whatever was there had jumped out of the way and continued through the hallway.
"It's headed for sector 4!" One of the downed guards shouted to the others, right before the girl came back and threw a blade at his shoulder, possibly for knowing her whereabouts, but more likely because of being referred to as 'It'.
"Sector 4? But that's where..." Shining's face turned into confusion, right before his heart skipped a beat and his pupil's shrank. "... Flurry."
Shining then dropped all other thoughts in the world and charged full speed in the direction of his daughters nursery.
"ALL GUARDS MOVE TO THE PRINCESS'S QUARTERS NOW!! IF THE INTRUDER GETS ANYWHERE NEAR HER, YOU'RE ALL FIRED!! UNDERSTOOD!?!"
"Yes sir!!" Everyone of them shouted in reply. Hoof steps were heard trampling to the nursery from all angles.
"If only you could stay as quiet as this all day..." Princess Cadence whispered to her now asleep daughter in her crib. Flurry Heart's gentle snoring seemed to make the stress of getting her to do so all the worthwhile.
"While your daddy and I are ruling the kingdom, you're busy ruling the land of dreams. The simple life is the hard life, I suppose." The monarch smiled onto her little princess. Her attention was drawn, however, to the sound of charging towards this room. Unfortunately, this noise got Flurry slightly scared, as she began to whimper in her sleep.
A worried daughter equals a worried mother, so Cadence ran over to the door to stop this miniature mob.
"Shining, stop!!" Cadence loudly whispered to her husband, as the doors flew open and she saw the charge.
"Sweetie, watch out!" Shining yelled as he tried his hardest to stay put, causing a screeching sound effect. As he stopped right in front of her, silence came across between them for about two seconds, before the sound of crying of their child.
"Your fault, your turn." Cadence stated as she tried to force him into the bedroom.
"Okay dear." He replied as he withdrew his spear and turned to the guards. "Keep an eye out for her. Two of you stay here and keep watch."
As they both walked into the room, Cadence's attention was drawn to his words.
"Keep an eye out for who?" The princess asked her husband with concern.
"There's an intruder in the castle. Female and armed, but that's about all we know."
"I see... Well, right now, you can deal with this little dangerous female. Start with one of her teddy's."
"Yes dear." Shining then walked over to the shelf full of toys, only to be met with a particularly creepy stuffed animal. It was a white bunny with Chinese looking reptilian eyes, as well as a creepy razor-sharp teeth smile.
"Um, Sweetie? When did you get this?" The captain pointed to the creepy faced rabbit.
"Get what?" Cadence asked, before looking at the vicious toy. As she began to come closer, Shining was about to touch the evil-looking smile, but his hoof was grabbed by an invisible claw. As he gasped, he was lifted up quickly on his hind legs, spun around and kicked down onto the floor.
"It's her!" Shining said after getting up, somehow following the creepy face. The face had moved from in front of the toys to the side of the room, noticeable by the difference of the wall color and the yellow narrow eyes and white razor teeth. The smile appeared to be crawling around the room. "Come on out!" Shining Armor demanded to the intruder.
"We don't have to hurt each other, miss." Cadence told her, while still holding the crying child in her hoof.
She stopped moving, only to stand on all four legs, before only on two.
"Are... Are you done?" Shining asked her, before she replied by pouncing on him in the face and jumping on her, which they both learnt the hard way.
Upon falling, she threw Flurry in the air, who was then caught by the Chinese girl.
Once she had the baby in her claws, her smile faded and then, surprisingly, her whole face, hair, body and outfit became visible. She was what they hadn't hoped for: a dragon. This one was a Chinese hot pink Salamander, with 2 pitch-black 5ft. long hair braids coming out of her head. She was also wearing a Kimono, long light green with an ivy theme all across it. The sleeves were long enough to cover her arms and claws completely, with a long skirt at the front and back. Under the skirt she was wearing black leggings, with small green pumps which matched her outfit.
Upon seeing her real face, however, Flurry's crying appeared to have ceased. Likely because of her colors of her scales, or her traditional outfit, or even her calm yet menacing face. But whatever it was, Flurry was either too entertained to cry, or scared to move.
"Let go of my baby!" Shining demanded, snarling at the dragon. As he did, she got on one leg and did a quick twirl which caused her braids to smack him in the face, then stood up to face him on both legs.
When Shining was hit, he felt a sharp, literally and seriously sharp, pain slide across his face. Once he fell to the ground after wincing in agony, this raised a question: Was she hiding something in her hair?
This question was unfortunately answered with the girl holding Flurry in her left claw, and drawing her right Kimono sleeve down, revealing not only her claws, but also four dagger blades strapped to her arm. The blades alone would've been threatening enough, the fact that she had the princess in her hand was terrifying as well, but because the blades were pointing directly AT her made everything in the world seem as important as what's going through a worm's brain right now in comparison to this.
Somewhere, in another part of Equestria, a wormologist felt insulted by something.
"Don't. Hurt. Her." Shining told her after getting back up. Looking at this predicament, fear was the only thing either of the parents could feel.
"We'll do anything. Just don't harm her." Cadence begged the Chinese drake. She didn't even look at the princess and instead proceeded to look around the room some more, almost as if she was analyzing everything around her.
She was finished a few seconds after, and literally just handed over Flurry back to her father.
"Flurry, you're safe now." Shining Armor sighed in relief, as he held his daughter safely in his hooves. Before he was able to say anything to the mysterious girl, she appeared to be gone entirely, smile and all.
"Okay Twilight..." Pinkie Pie said to her, as she was pulled in to a earshot distance. "So let me get this straight: Caxpe grew up in a broken trailer site, abandoned by his parents, with no friends, and only a bike and jacket to rely on?" Pinkie whispered to the princess.
"Pinkie, you don't have to whisper only to me; the others need to hear us as well." Twilight replied, seeing as how they were all sitting outside at a table from Sugarcube Corner.
"Sorry~" Pinkie replied as she backed off. "It's just that this is where we were when we were wanted by Mr. dog, that handsome guy, a British lad, the token female character, some kid and one pony who wants to kill us... If only we knew their names..." She then got lost in thought.
"You're joking. right?" Rarity asked. "We know their names. We've met them all at least twice, and never for our benefit."
"Which brings us back to this:" Rainbow Dash butted in. "Kidnapping and interrogation. C'mon, first Babylonian we see, take 'em down and start asking."
"Rainbow, we ain't gonna kidnap anypony just so we can get a slight edge in battle." Applejack told her Pegasus friend.
"But Applejack, don't they have your, um, brother?" Fluttershy asked in return.
"You just had to bring that up, didn't ya?" Applejack turned to her, having a very serious expression on her face. This caused Fluttershy to whimper under her hooves.
When she did, Applejack sighed to herself.
"Ah'm sorry, sugar cube. Y'all can't understand what it's like knowing that ya might never get someone back, especially your family."
"Maybe not, but we've also lost Spike, Scootaloo, Discord and who knows who else. I know it must be hard not knowing where your brother is..."
""Um, Twilight?" Rarity interrupted.
"And that five stallions and a mare are having him do Celestia knows what..."
"Twilight?" Rainbow Dash said to her, rubbing her shoulder.
"Plus, he may be turned against us in a battle or something like that..."
"Twi." Pinkie said.
"But we can't be disheartened by that, and all it means is that we need to help them come to their senses, or even win them their freedom back."
"Twilight!" Fluttershy whispered loudly as she whimpered behind the table.
"Even if the magic of friendship isn't enough, we can't let the Marks of Babylon take over Equestria, or else everything we know and love could be gone."
"Would ya just turn around all ready!?" Applejack snapped at her. With a look of confusion on her face, Twilight looked behind her, only to see three figures standing there.
The one on the left was a scaly blue torso, in a lab coat. On the right there was a massive muscular body on four legs, with two black razor sharp clearly from a smiling mouth. In the center another scaly torso was shown, being green in the vertical middle and purple on the sides, which could just barely be seen by the cornflower blue parka coat.
"Gah!!" Twilight cried as she fell off of her seat after quickly realizing who they were.
"Ha ha." The middle one laughed as she hit the ground, still with his arms crossed.
"S'appining?" The bulky guy asked with his dragon wings spread out.
"Feeling well?" The last one spoke with a smile.
"Xervint! Auxron! Exphrient!" Twilight shouted in a mixture of surprise and fear.
"Twilight! Applejack! Rainbow Dash! Rarity! Fluttershy! Pinkie Pie!" Xervint replied by mocking her with a look of "Shock" on his face, backed up with the other two snickering.
"What are you doing here?!" She asked as she got herself back up.
"You don't think that line's a bit cliche?" Expherient asked.
"Answer the question!" She demanded, looking up at him.
"Uh-oh. Better do what she says, before she gives us a lecture we'll never forget(!)" Xervint whispered to his brothers, before turning back to the girls. "So, basically, we need Rarity."
A long silence drifted into the atmosphere, until one spoke up.
"You... need me?" Rarity asked in confusion.
"Well, no, not so much you, just your special talent." Expherient answered. "You see, there's a small little event that we're preparing for, and we thought that you would be useful, seeing as how THAT'S your destiny signature."
"Seeing as how that's her what?" Twilight then spoke up. None of the six of them knew what that really was.
"Her destiny signature."
...
"He means those nice-looking gems on that sweet rear of hers." Auxron replied, pointing to her. Upon hearing his words, Rarity immediately blushed and tried to hide herself behind a menu. Seeing her face like that, Pinkie and Rainbow then snickered to each other.
"Do you guys mean her Cutie Mark?" Applejack asked, looking at the three of them in confusion.
"Her Cuti-" Xervint couldn't even finish his sentence before he and his bros burst out into laughter.
"Did you just say-" Expherient tried to ask before resuming laughter some more. "- Cutie Mark?! You call those Cutie Marks?!"
"A-Alright then, we need her talent, cause her "Cutie Mark" says it's useful!" Auxron tried to say, his laughter growing stronger as he continued the sentence.
The three dragons were practically in hysterics, while the ponies just looked in confusion.
"Seriously, though, Rarity: Come with us nice and quiet, or come with us nice and quiet and unconscious." Xervint said to her as he cracked his knuckles.
Auxron and Expherient then backed up slightly as he walked over to her.
"Oh no you don't!" Rainbow Dash shouted as she tried to flew up and kick him back. Once she impacted him he look winded, with his arms around his stomach. Rainbow then backed up a bit in case he tried to attack her back.
"Nice trick..." He weakly said as he turned around slightly from the attack. Before she could even say anything, he felt her hoof being grabbed by a claw, only to realise that it was his. Xervint then stood up straight and looked at her with an evil smile on his face with his eyes glowing green.
"...Here's mine." He then said normally as his spines then became electrified, which then travelled down to his arm and then to his claw, which then electrified her entire body.
The other five knew that they couldn't just sit there and watch their friend in pain, so they each tried to rush him like they did last time.
Unfortunately, he still had back-up. When Applejack tried to buck him, she felt the gravity around her decrease harshly, and she was then lifted into the air via Auxron's magic.
Speaking of magic, Twilight then tried to use hers to bring Rainbow Dash back over to her. However once her horn lit up, she felt an instant sharp pain up there. Her magic was cancelled out entirely, as she found out that there was some sort of crystal in her horn, pointing to Expherient. She looked at him, noticing that the dragon was holding a weapon: an arrow gun of some kind, designed to shoot those crystals.
Xervint did eventually stop the energy surge, causing Rainbow's body to become limb as she was almost unconscious. Noticing that Rarity was trying to escape, Xervint had to act fast, so he threw Dash right at her, knocking them both to the floor.
Fluttershy, at first intimidated by the trio of beasts, saw the pain that they were causing her friends, and decided to get assertive on them. This, however, was quickly disbanded when she felt her gravity increase so much, that it her hurt her to stand up, so she fell right down. Looking at Auxron, it was likely his power keeping her down.
Lastly, Pinkie tried to attack the trinity with her cannon, only to have a tail wrapped around her torso and lifted slightly.
"Uh-oh..." She said as she came to the unfortunate realization, then followed up with the familiar feeling of having her talent drained from her. When Xervint was finished with her, he threw her up into the air, and slammed her down with the same tail, and proceeded to walk over to Rarity.
"OK, time to collect." He continued to walk over to the unicorn underneath the cyan Pegasus. When she saw him approaching, she tried to climb to her hooves and make a break for it, only to see that Expherient was already there right in front of her. Seeing him made her stop, turn to the left and try to run there, not noticing Auxron until she was about within 5 ft. of him. She then turned round and tried to run there, which was followed up with Xervint flying to be in front of her.
"So, you wanna help us or not? Not that I'm giving you much choice." Xervint commented to her as he began to walk forwards towards her. She then began to back up slowly, not really thinking about what was behind her; escaping his grasp was all that mattered to her at this moment.
He then stopped moving forwards, which caused her to become confused, and then worried as her tail was grabbed by a claw, and she was lifted into the air upside down Auxron.
"Unhand me, you ruffian!" Rarity demanded as she squirmed to get away.
"Okay~" Auxron complied, letting go and dropping her on her head.
"Oof." She said as she tried to get back up. When she was crawling to her hooves, she heard the sound of something reloading. Curious, she turned to see the source of the sound, felt an impact on her horn, and fell right down into unconsciousness.
The other five saw this and looked back at Expherient was still had the same arrow gun in claw, as he pulled it up to his mouth and blew the smoke away.
"C'mon, we gotta get goin' if we want dis done 'fore tomorrow." Auxron stated as he carried Rarity over his shoulder and began to walk over to Xervint.
"I'll drop her off when I'm finished with her." Expherient laughed as he snapped his fingers and opened his hand behind him. When he did, a large sphere of blur light emerged behind him. The sphere then concentrated itself, and formed itself into a sun. The three drakes then walked into the sun, which caused Applejack and Fluttershy to have their gravity return to normal.
"Oh no you don't!" Pinkie shouted as she run for it after them.
"Pinkie what are you doing?!" Rainbow Dash asked from further away.
"You're not getting away with MY talent!" Pinkie cried as she jumped into the sun the split-second before it began to disappear.
"PINKIE NO!" Twilight yelled as she and her 3 friends ran after her, only to see that the sphere was evaporating quickly, and had vanished before they got to it.
"Oh, not again..." Fluttershy whimpered as she realized that this was the forth time she's had someone she knows taken away by the Babylon.
"Tho, in concluthion, if our guild manageth to get the funding, our project might be capable for revolutionithing the geothermal induthry. Thank you." The purple mare closed with the meeting of the guild coming to an end. She was met with applause as she walked off the stage and out of the door.
Frazzle Rock mad her way over to her favourite little café. Being in Canterlot, it was needless to say to the food and drinks here were all above average. When she opened the door, she noticed a mysterious stallion waiting at the counter where she usually stood. Curious, she approached the guy to get her order. As she was about to get the waiter's attention, the strange unicorn spoke up.
"Side Order." The employee then turned around to face him. "Liquor Coffee for me, Honey-glazed tea for the lady, please."
"How did you know that?" Frazzle asked him.
"Lucky guess, darling." The blonde stallion answered. "Illiux."
"Um, F-Frazzle." She said with a blush after seeing his face. Like most females, aside from the mane six and the princesses, she found him gorgeous. Even the mares and fillies at the tables were shooting looks at him from afar.
"Sugar, sir?" Side order asked him.
"Latte, no sugar. I have something sweet already." Illiux replied, clearly indicating Frazzle Rock.
"Wow. Um, thank you. I, uh, I uthually don't have any boyth flirting with me." She said with her head facing the ground. 'Come to think of it, no boys really ever talk to me, except for the guys in the guild. And that dragon that one time.' She thought to herself.
"I find that rather hard to believe." Illiux complimented her again as they took their drinks. She continued to blush like crazy and remained silent, occasionally taking sips from her tea.
"Now then, my dear, the reason why I'm here, apart from having the privilege of meeting you today..." Illiux then drank his latte and took hold of her hoof with his own. "...Is that your assistance is required. What if I were to tell you that you, Miss Frazzle, could be a key roll in revolutionizing the entire world as we know it?"
"Um, how tho?" She lisped.
"I understand that you hold a high position of authority in a guild of geothermal rock analysis? Well, with your knowledge, a little experiment that a few friends of mine are working on may be able to succeed. It is his life's work after all, so please have a think about it my darling." Illiux finished as he drank down his latte, leaving his money for Side as he left.
Walking out the door, Illiux took a deep breath in, then exhaled.
"Hello Caxpe." He said while walking forwards.
"How's things with your bird?" Caxpe laughed as he appeared out of nowhere.
"They're fine. How're you doing with your lady? Oh, pardon me, you don't have one, nor will you ever." Illiux replied, taking out his golden hand mirror and checking his parted mane.
"Rather not have one then have her, to be honest mate." Caxpe retaliated. "Now come on, Better get started. Canterlot castle's waiting for us."
"Aww, Come on. Please? I just wanna see it! Aaaaaand maybe get my talent back at the same time, but mostly the first thing!" Pinkie pleaded to the dark lime dragon that pinned her down. Without her special talent with her, her options were even more limited than before.
"You're not getting in the way of Expherient's project." The dragon replied, keeping her on the ground with his foot and tail. Being right outside the laboratory, pretty much anything could be in there.
Wondering what was happening with Rarity in the next room, Pinkie couldn't hear the sound of walls and floors being pounced on, and that the sounds were approaching this direction.
"She's coming." A pale grey dragon said to them as he turned corner.
"Already?" The first one asked in response. As he did, he stood up straight, and held Pinkie in his arms, still keeping her immobile. The other dragon came to his side and stood in the same position, as Pinkie still tried to escape.
"Lady Xiaoshi." They both said, seemingly in union. Pinkie turned her head to him and tried to ask what they were talking about, but before she asked, she turned her head back forwards and saw a creepy smile right in front of her.
The smile then proceeded to come closer to her and the other two, then the dragons moved out of the way.
The doors behind her opened, and the smile appeared to walk through them.
"Uhh, what was that?" Pinkie asked the two dragons.
"That was my S.I.C., and my girl." A voice answered her question right behind her. She turned her head, and saw someone she really did and didn't want to see right now.
"Xervint!" She yelled in surprise. Even the guards holding her were surprised to see him appear like that.
"Boss, how'd you do that?" The grey one asked.
"I have her talent." Xervint answered, pointing at Pinkie. "So, babe, what'd you think of Babylon? Pretty cool, I know."
"I've only seen this one corridor." Pinkie replied. "And to be honest, it's a kinda dump. Couldn't you have kept me held in a more suitable environment?"
"Firstly, since when have you cared about your surrounding environment? You lived on a rock farm for most of your foalhood. And secondly, because of you and the other elements, this room is actually one of the more appealing places in all of Babylon."
"Boss, aren't you supposed to be in Caterlot?"
"Not yet, man. Rare-bear isn't finished yet with the ring, so I gotta wait for her. Might take her a while." Xervint answered as he reached his arm out to the side of the screen and grabbed on to the next scene.
"Honestly, kidnapping me is absolutely pointless. They simply could've asked me to sort this ring out." Rarity complained as she continued to work on the small circular golden object.
"Just shut up and keep working." Left said to her, with a toilet pipe in his hoof. It was his job to make certain that she couldn't leave the room, which he was doing great at right now, much to her dismay.
"All I'm saying is that it seems absolutely pointless to keep me hostage down here, just so I can attach a gem to a ring."
"Look, I don't care if he asked you to bathe Auxron after he's finished a full day at the gym, they say something and you gotta do it. Capiche? 'Sides, that ain't the only reason you're here; someone's 'ere to see you."
"Oh, well I'm sure that I'll be delighted to see them too(!)" Rarity looked back at the ring, making sure that it had to exact measurements requested and a lack of scratches. "Okay, I think I'm finished. Happy now?" Rarity turned her head to look at him.
"Well, it's got literally naught to do with me, so no." Left walked over to her to see the ring. "Cool, but you're not finished yet. Turn around, babe."
"Would you mind not calling me 'babe'?" Rarity said as she complied. Her jaw then dropped slightly, and her hoof rose to her mouth when she saw who was standing there.
"He'll call you what he wants." Spike said with an evil smile on his face as he walked over to her, but then stopped half way across the room. "Babe."
"Sp- Spikey wi- ow!" Rarity was cut off by the feeling of a metal pipe being whacked in her head. "Don't call him that." Left loudly whispered to her, and then turned his head to see him. "Yo, Skixep!"
"What up, Left?" The dragon shouted back to the greaser. "She sorted it then?"
"Yeah, without using you as her personal slave this time." Left joked to him, which caused Rarity to become interested at both his new name at what he thinks he is to her.
"Hey, whe-whe." Skixep/Spike whistled to her as though she was a dog. "Eyes on me." He began to walk forwards again, and she looked at him.
"You got the ring sorted, now attach this." The dragon ordered, as he pulled out a luminous gem from his pocket. He was still wearing the same outfit as the last time they encountered.
On further inspection, this gem looked awfully familiar to her. Recently, somewhere, important to her and her sister.
Then it hit her: it was the same gem that Auxron stole from Sweetie belle at the bank. And now, here she was, about to attach it to a ring that she could possibly never see again.
Rarity couldn't believe her eyes, or the order she was just given.
"There HAS to be something in here that can tell us more about them. Anything." Twilight continued to scan through the one artefact that she had to might have even been close to a help against the Babylon.
"Look, if there ain't nothing in there, then let's just wait fer them to strike and then counterattack." Applejack suggested.
"That's not gonna work!" Rainbow Dash replied. "Don't wait for them to strike, just go for it."
"Um, I still think that we can talk them out of this..." Fluttershy interjected.
"Hold on a second, I'm trying to think!" Twilight silenced them all.
"There is a limit to thinking, Twilight." A male voice came from behind the four of them, causing them to turn around.
"If you overthink your strategy, you'll think too far ahead and leave yourself exposed for an attack." He said. The pony was a sort of Brown-barley color. He was wearing a white long sleeve polo shirt and a black and white tie with a pin to keep it from hanging low. He also wore a pair of light green glasses on his face.
"Who are you?!" Twilight asked the stallion. She was beginning to get sick of asking ponies that question.
"My name is rather fitting for your current situation: Checkmate. I'm Xandra's most trusted member and S.I.C. of the Ingenium faction of Babylon." He replied.
"S.I.C.?" Fluttershy asked him.
"Second In Command."
"Come here you!!" Rainbow Dash charged to the unicorn.
"A head-on attack?" Checkmate asked in somewhat confusion. As she was about to make contact, his horn lit up for a few seconds, and just then a giant vintage chess clock appeared behind him, and Rainbow Dash started to become much more slower.
Checkmate, however, then just walked right out of her way and walked over to Twilight. His horn lit up again as the clock vanished, and her speed returned to normal, allowing her to crash into the wall.
"The knight can move evasively, so beware its movements." He turned to face her on the floor. before he could talk to Twilight though, he felt himself being grabbed by two pretty strong hooves.
"Yeah? Well, ah'm not so evasive, but ah can make sure you don't go anywhere either." Applejack said as she tried her best to bind him.
"You just saw that brute force can't do much to me, and now you're trying this?" Checkmate asked the farm pony. "Interesting, but I feel I should warn you: Even a pawn can be more than a throw-away. Observe."
A chair was then levitated with his horn lighting up, as well as herself.
"Hey! Let me go." She demanded. Her demand was met with denial, as the chair was then rammed into her, knocking her away, and leaving the chair in perfect tact, and being placed back on the ground.
"Are you next then?" He turned his attention to Fluttershy. "Or do you know better?" He asked her, right before she backed up slightly.
"That's better." He whispered. "Now, I'll cut to the chase: Twilight, beat me in a game of chess, and you'll have Sk- I mean, Spike back. However, if you los-"
"I accept." Twilight firmly said, cutting him off and closing the book and dropping it on her desk.
"You... You haven't even heard the condition yet."
"Doesn't matter. I'm gonna win, no matter what and get my broth- er, assistan... no, my BROTHER back."
"Emotional. Very well, let's get it on." He said as his horn lit up again, and a pair of chairs, a table, a 64 place checkboard, a chess clock and all 32 pieces showed up.
"Who's first?" He asked as they took there seats.
"I want you to be." She replied.
"Very well." He said as he moved pawn from D2 to D4, and pressed the clock.
"Alright..." Twilight studied the board. She thought that he wanted her to move her pawn forwards so he could take it out, and then have her take that out, only to have something take that out. She wasn't going to fall for it.
She moved her pawn from C7 to C5.
"You've not played chess in a while, have you?" Check mate asked, as he looked at her in the eyes.
"What makes you say that?" Twilight asked as she pressed the clock button.
"You do know it's a rule that you must move your king once you're in check, don't you?"
"Yes, so what?"
He then took hold of his queen and moved it from E1 to A5. Looking at the state of the board, he smiled and sat up straight.
"Checkmate."
"What? It's not che-" Twilight saw her situation, and her pupils shrank. She could only move her king, and the only direction she could move it was diagonal, but it was the same direction that the queen was it. She was boxed in, and had loss.
"Well, that's no surprise." Checkmate said as he made the whole equipment then disappeared.
"I... I lost." Twilight said, with a large tone of disappointment and sadness.
"So you have. Tragic really, I thought we'd be here longer. Oh well, can't win everything." He said as he closed his eyes and shrugged his shoulders.
"Hold on! You're not taking this away from me again!" Twilight shouted in such a violent tone that even her three friends backed up a little bit. She then growled and ducked down slightly, then spread her wings out and tackled him to the ground.
"Oof!" He grunted as she pinned him down on the floor. Seeing this, Applejack and Rainbow dash walked over to him to help her keep him immobilized.
"We're done playing around now, ya hear?!" Applejack questioned the stallion on the floor.
"You're gonna take us to Spike and our friends right here, right now!" Rainbow added.
"You know what, girls? That's exactly what I'm going to do." Checkmate told them, causing the four of them to become confused.
"You... You are?" Fluttershy inquired.
"Well, no not so much me. You'll have to take it up with my leader. I have a feeling you've already met."
"Who is she?" Twilight asked as she got off him.
"Me." A very faintly familiar voice spoke from behind her and in front of the others. Twilight turned around and saw someone who filled her with dread right now.
"Hello again, ladies." She said to the four of them. She was in a business suit and skirt, wearing her hair straight, down on the right hand side of her face, halfway down her hooves. Her hair was nearly all black, with a few strands of blue across random sections of it. She also had a pair of circular black glasses across her face.
"Xandra!!" Twilight shouted across to the girl at the desk.
"Salutations, Miss Beswick." Checkmate said to her as he stood up.
"Checkmate, Xervint needs to see you for the plaid décor, if you please."
"Understood. Farewell." was the last thing he said before teleporting out of the room.
"Hey wait!" Twilight yelled as he vanished to who knows where.
"He said he would take you to your former assistant, I know. I can take you there myself, if you desire." Xandra calmly told them.
"I don't trust you with my life." Twilight turned back to her. "The last time you told us where Spike supposedly was, you almost had me obliterated."
"Almost, but not quite." Xandra replied, her facial expression remaining the same. "Now I'm going to see him, so are you four coming with, or would you rather not risk it?"
The four of them then looked at each other, in a way that they clearly didn't know what to do, so they had to reach a conclusion soon.
"I'm so glad you and your friends decided to accept this Twilight. Soon you'll all be seeing something truly life changing for all." Xandra said to her as the five girls all walked casually towards Canterlot castle.
"And what, pray tell, would that be?" Twilight asked her in return. So far they were halfway through the walk to where Xandra said that they would be meeting Spike. The problem was, that the place they were heading for was Canterlot's throne room.
"That's not my secret to share. I apologize, but you'll have to wait." Xandra told them as she didn't even look back, and continued to walk through the main street of Canterlot.
It was then that she felt her sleeve on her fore leg being grabbed by somepony. She looked back to see that Rainbow Dash had grabbed her, and lifted her off of her fore hooves as she grabbed the other leg. She then pinned her against the wall of the nearest building, and talked to her face to face.
"Listen up, Beswick." Rainbow snarled to her face. "We've waited long enough for this to be over, just so you and the other losers from underground can try and get even with us. Now tell us what's happening, give us back our friends, and get lost."
"Let go of me, please." Xandra simply told her as she looked her in the eye.
"Rainbow..." Fluttershy whispered.
"Let go." She firmly said as Rainbow refused to comply. When she was still held there, her horn began to light up.
"OK, OK fine, go." Rainbow ordered as she let go. After seeing what happened last time when Xandra used her magic, she really didn't want to risk calling a bluff.
"Good." Xandra got back on all four hooves, swept the dust off her clothes and started to walk back in the right direction, before stopping about four steps later. "However, you just referred to my Babylonian residents using an insult."
"Yeah, so what if I did?" Rainbow Dash asked her, while still in the air.
"I will not let you speak to me like that." Xandra replied as her horn lit up and, very quickly, as did Rainbow's flank. The others saw this as well and wondered what she was doing.
"Hey! What're you doing?!" Dash demanded to know. Her question was somewhat answered as her Cutie mark began to illuminate. The mark then appeared to become extremely thin as it traveled through her body. It stopped at her front, as it slowly waited for the rest of it to catch up.
Once it all gathered in one spot, a glowing blue and rainbow sphere of light escaped her body. Wondering what that was, she looked back at her flank.
"Hey, my Cutie mark!" She gasped as she saw that it had disappeared from her body. She then looked back at the sphere, realizing that it was indeed her cutie mark.
"This probably looks familiar to you, Twilight." Xandra said to her, and she knew that she was right.
"How are you..." Twilight pondered in curiosity.
The sphere moved over to Fluttershy, and as it touched her, the same transition happened, as her Cutie mark was then extracted from her as well.
"Ahh!" Fluttershy then squealed as she saw what just happened. The sphere then traveled across her body and eventually reached her flank. Another sphere was extracted from her body, and traveled towards Rainbow. This one was yellow and pink, and connected with her, travelling to her flank.
"What did you just do to us!?" Rainbow asked the mare.
"I simply swapped your Destiny Signatures, therefore also your special talents."
"What!?!" Twilight exclaimed, as she analysed the two of them. Sure enough, she was right: Their Cutie Marks were indeed swapped.
"That's not possible. It took Starswirl the Bearded almost a lifetime to invent that spell, how did you do it so quickly?" Twilight asked her, more fascinated than annoyed.
"I learnt this spell about 900 years ago. I believe it was called The Talent Trade spell, and it's proven to be more useful than I initially thought, as you can clearly see."
"That's impressive. You'll have to teach me sometime." Twilight said to her as she then moved to see Fluttershy's new mark. "But can you change them back?"
"Maybe later." Xandra said so casually, as if a kid just asked her for an ice-cream. The five of them then proceeded to walk towards the castle, just now approaching the staircase.
"So Spike, Rarity and Pinkie're just right up there?" Applejack asked the Babylonian.
"As far as I'm aware, yes." She replied to the farm girl.
"Wait, hold on." Twilight interrupted. "What do you mean 'As far as I'm aware'? Did they not tell you?"
"They did, but for all I know, events can play out entirely different from what we've been told. You should have experience with that just as much as we do."
"Well, true enough, I guess." Fluttershy interjected.
"But our friends always share everything with each other, and almost never go astray." Twilight told her.
"Yes, but that's mostly because you have better upbringings than us."
"What do ya mean?" Asked Applejack.
"Applejack, you and your family have always been respecting for each other, and you had your family's farm even before you were born, so you were naturally prepared for your future. Roranxoa ran away from his home at the age of 10, after stealing his parent's money of course. This was mostly because his parents were violent and ignorant, so he set off to find his own place to stay. Being unsuccessful for the first week, he came across a pack of stray dogs. Knowing that he could relate to these animals in terms of home, he decided to stay with them. Eventually, they become like family, he got his Destiny Signature, and realized his further destiny was to become a Mark."
"Must of been pretty rough, growing up like that." Applejack replied, now looking at the ground after hearing that story. The other three were no exception to sympathy. Twilight especially, because Celestia had already told her this once before.
"Yes, I should imagine so." Xandra then started to walk to her. "Ironic really; you got your Signature because you returned to your family, and he got his because he abandoned his."
"Abusive parents... That'd been unbearable." Rainbow Dash added.
"Still, some may prefer to have abusive ones, as opposed to none at all." Xandra continued.
"You're talking about Illiux, aren't you? About his adoption, and his heritage." Twilight replied, as they continued walking.
"Being raised in an orphanage for 8 years, with only his sister to help him, he learnt the hard way that there are very little ponies in the world that you can rely on, apart from yourself."
"Hold on, Illiux is adopted, and has a sister?!" Rainbow asked again.
"'Had', not 'has'." Xandra corrected. "Illiux HAD a sister, but she's tragically no longer with us. For now."
'For now'? Twilight thought as she continued to climb up the stairs to the castle.
"Now, I'm sure that Twilight has told you about Caxpe, and his backstory. Roranxoa had parents, but no proper upbringing. Illiux had no parents, but a good upbringing. Caxpe had neither of those. You see- Oh, here we are." Xandra stopped herself, noticing that they were at the top of the stairs.
"Good. Finally." Twilight exclaimed, as she rushed herself into the castle, if only to see her friends again. The other three then followed, leaving Xandra on her own.
"Well, no need to rush." She said to herself, straightening her glasses, and walking slowly after them.
"Please?" Pinkie asked, for what seemed like the 278th time to the same pony.
"For de last time, baby, no!" A male Jamaican pony answered her again. This one was dark brown and had a black slick pompadour mane. He also wore a red t-shirt and brown baggy jeans, which complimented perfectly with his black leather jacket.
"Please?" Pinkie asked again, now making it 279.
"Ask mi dat again..." The pony reached behind his chair, in front of the doors to the throne room, and pulled something out. "And I'll be cleanin' yo brains off dis in about 10 minutes."
It was a sledgehammer. A big one, at that. In fact, the head of the hammer was just bigger than his whole head, and he seemed to be about 4 years older than Pinkie and her friends.
"Whoa! Okay, I get your point!" Pinkie replied, as he put it down next to him. She still wanted to see what was right on the other side of the doors behind him. "But just onnnnnne question..."
"What?" He asked, clearly irritated. "If it's to ask 'bout the door, you're dead."
"When do I get my special talent back?"
"Xervint's in dere, about to ask a certain girl a certain question. If she says "yes", you can have it back. 'til den, your under dis guy's watch." He finished, pointing at himself.
"And hopefully, she WILL say yes." A voice came from behind Pinkie, causing them both to look behind her.
Xandra was now right behind her. She began to walk forwards, with her eyes closed calmly and her gentle breathing surrounding the now quiet room.
"Thank you Stonefort, but I'll take over from here. You should get back to your post in the throne room." Xandra ordered the stallion in front of her.
"You got it, miss B." The Jamaican said, before turning around and exiting through the door.
"Hey, you're that girl from the train, aren't cha?" Pinkie asked her, now recognizing her face. Xandra simply nodded, and her horn lit up.
Pinkie then heard a loud banging noise behind her. She turned around, and saw that one of the oversized doors had been slammed shut, leaving the other one slightly open.
"Hey!" Pinkie yelled as she rushed for the doors, now that the Jamaican pony was gone.
"Too late." Xandra told her, as the other door closed as well, leaving Pinkie to hit her face into the door. When she got off to rub her face, Xandra the continued to use her magic on both the doors, making them glow in her blue horn aura. The doors then had a massive lock shape in the center of them, before the aura had disappeared altogether.
"No!" Pinkie shouted as she tried to go for the door handles. When she touched the door, she had a magical, yet electrical zap jolt through her entire body, causing her mane to become more frizzy than usual.
"Small advice: don't touch anything that I've used magic on; you'll end up getting hurt." Xandra said, looking at Pinkie's damage.
"Now you tell me..." Pinkie whispered in return.
"PINKIE!" Four voices came from the hallway. Pinkie knew those voices all too well, and her hopes were somewhat restored.
"Girls!" Pinkie rushed over to where the voices came from. When she arrived, she banged heads with a Pegasus moving at an incredible speed.
"Owie..." Pinkie said, as she got back up, again rubbing her head. "Rainbow Dash! Boy, am I glad to see you. You've got to come see-"
"Um, Pinkie?" A timid soft-spoken voice came from the Pegasus. Pinkie turned around to see the girl she was speaking to was not the one she had in mind.
"Fluttershy?! But how did-"
"We'll explain later, Pinkie." Twilight said loudly, as she and the other two caught up to them. "Right now we need to warn you: Xandra's on her way up here, and she-"
"I'm already here, Twilight." Xandra said from behind Pinkie, as the five of them saw that she was walking up to them.
"What!? How!?" Twilight exclaimed, with her jaw hitting the floor.
"Three reasons: 1, Although a lady stereotypically isn't one to admit their way, I'm way older than you all combined, so my powers are advanced in ways that might seem impossible to you. 2, When you teleport, Twilight, you have to be able to see where you reappear. I don't, I just have to know where. 3, I was a major role in the creation of Va- Pardon me, Discord, and his magic was modeled after my own."
"Enough; stop toying with us! Why are we here?! And where are Spike and Rarity?!" Twilight demanded to know.
"Where's mah brother?!" Applejack asked in addition.
"Give me my talent back!" Pinkie Yelled to her too.
"Put our Cutie marks back." Fluttershy whimpered.
"And hand over Scootaloo!" Rainbow snarled.
Seeing the five of them team up against her from their friendship, Xandra scoffed.
"Patience, ladies. In time, you'll all have what you want back. Well, four of you anyway." She looked at Twilight.
"If you're talking about Spike..." Twilight threatened.
"His name is Skixep now, Twilight. And yes, I am; You're never having him back. That's not even being said as a cliché line either, it's a fact."
"You're not taking him from me forever!"
"Why not; you and your friends did the same thing to me." Xandra turned around.
"Wh-what?" Twilight and the other four looked puzzled.
"I said you turned- nay, FORCED my friend to your side, so I need to do the same thing to you. Difference is, Skixep has his family with him now."
"What're you talking about?!" Rainbow interrupted, causing the girls to look at her. "Spike doesn't have a family!"
"Oh, you're quite wrong about that." Xandra told her. "Xervint, Auxron, and Expherient. All three of them lost there youngest unhatched sibling from a war years ago, and have been looking for him since. I ran a DNA test with some of my colleagues. and it turned out to be a genuine match."
"Oh..." Four of them said unison, save for Twilight who already knew that. "Wait, what about his parents?"
"His mother has yet to hear the news that her baby has been found, and therefore has yet to return. His father is..." Xandra hesitated.
"What? His father is what?"
"Well, Pinkie, that young stallion who you just saw before I arrived?"
"The one with the sledgehammer? Yeah, what about him?" Pinkie asked, not noticing the other's look of fear at the word 'sledgehammer'.
"His name was Stonefort Wreckage. Stone is the second in command of Caxpe's faction of Babylon, the Greasers. The mostly spend their time either smoking cigarettes at the motorhome site, by the shops, whether it be for candy and soda, or their bikes, or out on the streets, starting a riot somewhere."
"What other factions have you got down there?" Pinkie asked, looking at the ground. If she still had her special talent, she would have slammed her head into the ground like an ostrich.
"Roranxoa's faction is P.B.F. (Pony's Best friend), Illiux's faction is Preppy, Caxpe's faction is Greaser, mine is Ingenium, Calsuricxs' faction is Skylord, Phoxjes' faction is Goth and Xervint Auxron and Expherient all have a faction of dragons each: Factions 1,2 and 3. Each one has a second in command, appointed by us personally."
"What's your point?" Rainbow asked in slight boredom.
"My point is, that like yourself, we all have a figure in command, similar to Celestia. Difference is, no one would even dare to DREAM about going head to head with our leader."
Twilight was ready to attack, before she backed herself up. Instead, she just asked "So Spike's dad is the S.I.C. to this leader?"
"Skixep, and yes. Needless to say, he's busy all of the time, so he also has yet to meet his son. In fact, Xervint, Auxron and Expherient are rarely seen with their old man. Look behind you."
"Just because he has a higher authority than all but one member of Babylon doesn't mean he can't find some time to find with his family."
"Look behind you."
"Either way, being with his family or not, I want-"
"Look behind you."
"-To see Spike again, even if you force him to try to destroy us."
"Look behind you." Xandra said for a forth time.
"WHAT!?" Twilight shouted, turning around, then quickly bringing her hoof to her mouth, gasping.
"Firstly Twilight, yeah, it kinda does..." Spike told her, now that she was looking at him.
"Spike..." She said quietly.
"Second, you should be careful what you wish for." He finished. The girls noticed that he was still wearing the clothing he had on from last time, but more importantly, he was holding someone in his claws.
"RARITY!!" The girls all shouted in unison, seeing the unconscious, beaten up unicorn in the dragons hands.
"Could you take her off me yet? She's a lot heavier than she looks."
The five girls rushed over to them, wanting to get the two of them separated. Twilight used her magic to take her out of his hands.
"Rarity, what happened?!" Applejack exclaimed, getting only faint moaning in reply.
"Allow me." Xandra answered for her. "We originally borrowed her so she would make a slight modification to something Xervint needs, but then we figured that we'd give her some alone time with your former friend. However-" Xandra stopped herself at the sound of celebration balloons going off from the doors.
This got their attention, and Xandra immediately unlocked the doors with her magic.
Once she did, the doors opened from the other side, and Checkmate reared his head from inside.
"Okay girls, before you go in, bear in mind that not only are all nine faction leaders in there, but you're about to see something that will change life as we know it. Got that?" Spike asked them.
"Got it. Now let us in." Twilight demanded from him.
Spike complied, and opened both the doors at the same time, using his newly found strength.
The elements expected the place to be completely clear, thinking that Xervint was there to, as Xandra said, make a proposal to Celestia about this war.
Not... this.
"Wh-wha... What is- Wha- how- were did-" The girls were all in complete shock, seeing what had happened to the throne room.
Before they could say or do anything else, they all saw a faint light glowing in the corner of their eyes, so they turned to see what it was.
However, once they turned their heads, the six of them were hit with a beam of Xandra's magic. This time though, they noticed that the beam had been refracted through one of Illiux's illusion panels, who was standing right there next to her.
When the light faded, the girls were all unharmed. However, they noticed that they had a warm feeling around their bodies. Looking at each other, then at themselves, they quickly found that they were all wearing Kimonos.
"Why are we wearing these outfit all of a sudden? And what did you do to the room?" Twilight asked the Babylonians. Their kimonos all matched their coat and mane colours.
The room was almost completely golden, with statues of Chinese ponies, and even dragons surrounding the walls. Red and green carpets with Chinese markings were laid across the floor, stretching from the entrance to the throne. Tables with white cloth had been placed up all around the room, and all of them were completely stacked with food, nearly overflowing at the top. There must have been about 60-70 tables of food in the room. In addition, crystal glass chandeliers had been hung by some pegasi on a temporary ceiling. Giant Chinese banners had also been hung on the walls, all with different markings and symbols. Even Discord's statue had been transported from the gardens to this room, right in front of the throne. Finally, above the throne on the other side of the room was another banner, but this one was the biggest of them all. It had the Mark of Babylon on it, representing the Marks them selves, who were all here in the room as well.
In addition to the Marks, the room was nearly cram packed with ponies and even a few dogs that none of the mane six recognised. However, given the way that they were dress, it was fair to say that they were all Babylonians as well.
"I thought Xandra already told you." Spike answered her. "Xervint's about to ask a certain lady a question that could change all of our lives forever, and we want you to witness it."
"I know that, but I don't see Celestia anywhere."
"What's with the Chinese decorations? Are you guys having a party or something?" Pinkie asked.
"It's not for Celestia, and you'll find out right about-"
"Twily!" A voice shouted from her left. Twilight knew that voice and that name all too well.
"Shiny!" She shouted back, turning her head. She was right, it was Shining Armor, Cadence and Flurry, also in the traditional outfits.
Twilight ran over to him, and they both locked hooves in a warm embracing hug.
"BBBFF, Why are you here as well?" Twilight asked the stallion.
"Well, it all started this morning. We heard that a dragon was intruding the crystal empire, so me and every guard in the castle went to go pursue her, but we had no luck. That is until she went on the offensive on a few of us, who are still in recovery." Shining told her, breaking the hug, allowing the other five to catch up.
"Before they found her, she wrangled her way into the bedroom, without us noticing at first. Turns out she can turn invisible, simply by smiling." Cadence replied.
"Is she dangerous? I'll take her on, no problem." Rainbow told the couple.
"No offensive, Dash, but last week you proved you can't even beat a colt at a race in flying, let alone taking on an assassin." A voice came from right next to the girls.
The ponies then turned to see him, now realizing that Xervint and his brothers were there. He and his family were also wearing the Chinese clothes.
"You guys are here as well?" Rainbow asked the dragons.
"RD, I'm hosting this entire thing, of course I'm gonna be here." Xervint replied.
"So then can you clarify exactly WHAT this thing is?!" Twilight demanded, still not being on the same page as them.
"If you haven't caught on yet, then firstly, you're stupid, and sceondly-" Xervint stopped himself, as he ducked down a bit, as the other girls noticed Pinkie trying to jump him from behind.
"No!" Pinkie yelled, as she missed, and was now right above his head. Knowing that she was trying to get her special talent back, Xervint reacting quickly as he grabbed her sleeve and threw her across the room.
She crashed into a table on the floor, and caused some sort of pudding to fall on her head. As she got the bowl off her head, she was approached by a small pack of dogs, who pounced on her and began to lick her clean.
"Boys, get off o' her." A cowboy told the dogs as they seemed to obey. Just as Pinkie was getting up, she felt something being poured on her. She picked one up and looked in annoyance at what it was: dog food.
Pinkie then looked up at the pony, and stared in even more annoyance at WHO it was: Roranxoa.
"Carry on." He said with a smirk. The dogs resumed their munching, as Pinkie struggled to get up. Roranxoa, Caxpe and their packs/greasers laughed at her.
Every pony suddenly stopped at the sound of the speed of light being shattered. Everyone looked at the window, and the young stallion flying through it. Calsuricxs flew into the room, and stood next to Xervint on the other side.
"Right everypony, Xiaoshi's coming! Clear the way for her arrival." The Italian colt announced to everypony. Upon hearing this, literally everyone in the room grabbed anything in the way, and moved it and themselves to one side.
"Already?!" Xervint exclaimed, his face turning from a smile to shock at the news. "She's not suppose to arrival for another 1/2 hour."
"Who?" Rarity asked him, looking around along with the other girls.
"His girlfriend, of course. Lady Xiāoshī, leading assassin and second in command of Xervint's dragon sector of Babylon." Spike told the girls.
"Could she be the one who entered the Crystal Empire?" Twilight pondered. As she was wondering, the sound of thin metal clanging lightly on stain glass caught the attention of everypony. More specifically, the clanging came from the stain glass window that showed Twilight and her friends using their elements on Discord.
Within seconds, the sound stopped briefly, and the a horrific noise of steel scratching on glass spread through out the room. Luckily, the noise was only heard twice, and now an obvious figure of a dragon could be made out from the three crosses in the window, clearly made by what looked like razor blades.
Despite what the dragon had just done to the glass, it was amazing to see that the glass had actually stayed in tact everywhere else, especially if said glass was stain glass, which this one was. But this only lasted for about 4 seconds, before the figure moved in attack formation and shattered the window almost entirely.
When she entered, everypony got up off the floor from the sound, and stood up straight to look at her. Unfortunately for Twilight and her family, it was indeed the same dragon from before. Same outfit, hair, scales and weapons. Not that Twilight knew that, of course.
"That's her, the intruder from before." Shining whispered to his sibling
"All yours, big bro." Spike whispered to his.
After opening her eyes, the dragon was about to take a step forwards and wonder why she was called into the room, and more specifically, why Phoxjes asked her to break that exact window when she did. However, she stopped herself even before she moved her foot all the way. The dragon took her time examining the room around, and getting a familiar feeling.
It felt like an eternity, but the silence was finally broken in the room with the sound of footsteps approaching the centre of the room. Every one looked to see Xervint walking towards her slowly, with a look on his face clearly showing how nervous he is.
Without changing her facial expression at first, she looked at who it was that decided to approach her. Knowing that her boyfriend was the only being in the world brave enough to talk to her in a room alone, then it seemed hardly surprising to anyone that he would do something like this.
The dragon smiled her trademark smile, causing her to become invisible again. Just like before, only her squinty eyes and razor sharp teeth were visible to everyone other than herself. Her swift movements caught nearly everyone off guard as she began to pounce about the room, on to several walls, tables and everywhere on the floor, until the teeth and eyes were right in front of Xervint.
Looking at each other in the eyes, they both knew that they were here for a reason. Difference was, Xervint knew what it was, whereas she had no clue. The smile began to fade, along with her invisibility until she was visible to every pony in the room.
With a sigh, he placed his claw on her check and began.
"Xiāoshī. For the past 450 years, you've made me live a fulfilling life. And by fulfilling, I mean you've put me in more danger than that time I let Lord Tirek borrow my powers, and my chainsaw." Ponies in the room laughed, whereas she just stared at him, with a slight smile.
"In that time, I've learnt a lot from you and your culture. What it means to try, how far is too far and what happens if anypony gets on your bad side. All my life, I've wanted to find that someone who helped me feel that I need a reason to keep trying in life, and that I need someone to love. I see now that someone... is me." More laughter. Even Xiāoshī cracked a smile for a second.
"But if anyone comes close, then yeah it's probably you." Xervint commented still. It was obvious that he was getting less nervous about the whole thing.
Twilight and her friends were now starting to catch on with what was happening.
"Now, needless to say, we've had some perfect moments in our home we proudly call Babylon. A prime example being when my mother and father managed to make contact with the Marbidrons of the 8th dimension parallel to this one, and I was given the honour of delivering the speech for peace. Though I still don't understand why I wasn't allowed to use the one I wrote." Even more laughter erupted from the audience.
"I think Xandra knows what I mean." He pointed, to which she replied: "Xervint, your opening line was "What up, dudes and babes? Sick scales alive here, ready to talk to you about myself.", So I had to."
Everyone turned back to the dragons.
"Still, You're the reason I carry on with what I do in life, because you mean too much to me. After all, you light up my life like nobody else, the way you flip you braids gets me-" Everypony kept laughing the more he continued. Xiāoshī placed her claw on her head and shook. As she was putting it down, she felt something gently grab her. She looked to see that it was Xervint, holding her claw with both of his.
"Anyway, I've had a lot of sad moments in my life that I've had to endure. I've had to slaughter my own pets for their own benefits, I've been expelled from school, seeing Brownman leave the Achievement Hunters, and I've even lost my baby brother for eight years." Xervint looked back at Spike, who then winked back at him.
"But, easily the most miserable moment of my life is right now..." Xervint got down on one knee. "Knowing that you're not my bride."
Upon hearing this, her eyes widened and she covered her mouth, knowing exactly what was coming up next. Twilight and the other elements weren't exactly oblivious to this either, seeing all the signs earlier. The girls had different reactions, including either covering their mouths at the news, tilting their heads in confusion, or placing their hooves on their hearts and "d'aaaawww"ing.
"Xiāoshī, my leading lady, my loyal S.I.C., my treasure from the caves, the lotus in my garden, my beat for my wingbeat and Chinese beauty, will you marry me?"
Xervint, for the first time since he could remember, felt a genuine feeling of nervousness spreading across his body. sweat starting appearing on his head, his wings starting to flutter quietly as Xiāoshī was staring at the ring he just pulled out. The very same ring that he had forced Rarity to modify earlier in the day.
Knowing and/or seeing everything that he and the other Babylonians had done for her, just for this one moment, really touched her heart that she rarely used. Without even having to look, she knew that all eyes were on her right now. However, being an assassin, she wasn't used to having the spotlight shining over her. luckily for her, she was blessed with her unique ability to vanish upon showing happiness.
This time, however, was a very rare occasion, as she actually did feel genuine happiness.
There wasn't much left to say or do right now, except for the obvious: give him an answer. Seeing those teeth open, everypony drew in closer; for the first time in their lives, Xiāoshī was going to reveal her voice to someone other than Xervint.
