An ongoing series inspired by the success of another one-shot, this story looks at one of the many wars fought between that universe's Bureau and the rogue nobility seeking to rule
A prequel to the The Conversion Bureau Oneshot: Multiversal Counterstrike, this series follows various worlds on which a rouge noble or noble family has set up a barrier and bureaus in an alternate universe, seeking power, with the newfoals created as their loyal and obedient minions.
They all fail, but what damages do they leave in their wakes?
First FimFiction ongoing story (as opposed to Fanfiction), so advice on how to do things here appreciated.
The sky quaked, the sound resonating across the peaceful, yet to be conquered tranquil fields, cities, racetracks, scorching deserts, high mountains, horrifying ghost infested lairs, and other pleasant locals as the great wooden airships flew across the sky, almost like a fleet of sky pirates in design.
All manned by the followers of the mighty, fearsome, and all powerful king of Koopas, Bowser. Said Koopa standing at the front of the lead ship, arms crossed and determined.
Some might call him a turtle, and that would be correct. Bowser was a shelled creature, his body was scaly yellow and his shell dark green with sharp spikes, and these spikes being surrounded by red markings. His massive hands could crush boulders, his feet break floors, and his horns impale those who irate him. His flowing red locks were the envy of all hairless Koopa, and his mouth loaded with sharp fangs kept sparkling light by his flames burning away any food scraps left in them.
As to why the great Koopa’s airships were flying, it was quite simply you see.
Perhaps not how they were physically in the air, for that involved astrophysics. No, the statement was meant as to why they were in the air, not how they were in the air.
Bowser would take the castle of Princess Peach for himself. He would also take the princess, and with it control over the Mushroom Kingdom. The Koopa Kingdom would reign supreme.
He would of course be a quite benevolent ruler: all his loyal minions would be given castles, land would be redistributed among the non-Toad populations somewhat marginalized by the Mushroom Kingdom (a fact he had used to his advantage in many of his past attacks). The Toads….well he wasn’t sure what would become of them, but he wasn’t going to order them killed or anything.
He’d probably just rob them of all their coins, powerups, and treasures. He may or may not also turn them into blocks with his dark magic talents, it really depended how quickly they took to bowing to him.
And yes, it was technically the……
At that thought, the Koopa’s pose turned from intimidating to contemplative.
What attempt was this, exactly? He'd been trying to take the Mushroom Kingdom over for a long, long while now.
As he pondered that question……the airships suddenly halted. The pondering Koopa nearly lost his balance and fell to his demise, though he managed to rebalance himself quickly enough.
Sure, his demises never did stick, but he didn’t particularly like falling to his doom. Doom hurt.
About to yell at the pilot for why their advance towards the castle had stopped, Bowser looked ahead and got his answer without having to scar some poor Rocky Wrench moles into hysterics: again. A giant, glowing energy barrier seemed to swirl around where Peach’s Castle had been. A blue dome, Bowser was unable to look through it to see what was inside.
“Alright….” Bowser growled darkly “Who stole my gig!” attacking the Mushroom Kingdom was his job, and no one elses!
It better not be one of those Fawful, Cackleta, Shroob sort of things. He had just gotten through all of the repair work after the Paper-him incident.
The sound of fluttering wings was heard in the distance, growing ever closer.
Bowser narrowed his eyes as something emerged from the barrier. And lo and behold, a chariot being pulled by a duo of winged horses emerged, the two of them having colorations that reminded the Koopa a bit of some Toads he had encountered working with a certain pair of plumber brothers: one was white and blue and the other white and yellow. The chariot fluttered in place before him, and from there Bowser got a good look at who they were pulling.
It was another horse, but instead of wings the horse had a large horn on its head. A unicorn, Bowser believed they were called. The unicorn had light blue hair, and a mark on it’s rump that resembled a Fire Flower, if the colors were just a bit off, being more orange than red.
“Who’re you?” Bowser demanded as the horse looked at him with narrow, disdainful eyes.
“I could ask you the same thing.” The horse replied with a female tone of voice. A mare then?
Well, as long as she didn’t possess his body, he could care less.
“Me? Me? You don’t know of me. I am the great and terrible Bowser, King of Koopas. King of the Track, King of the Court, and soon to be ruler of the Mushroom Kingdom!” with that last one, he noted the energy dome currently covering the castle “As you are clearly unaware of this, allow me to explain it to you clearly: I conquer the Mushroom Kingdom, not random horses. So, take down your little lightshow and go bother someone else. Might I suggest a family of apes?”
He still needed to get back at that oversized ape for beating him in the last golf tournament. Surely this horse would be sufficient.
“I am Tigerlily of Equestria, the new ruler of this world. This world is now my domain. Submit to my rule and undergo Conversion, or perish” the now named competitor to his role in the world stated snidely.
Bowser just eyed the horse in disdain for a few moments, before noting with alarm that the barrier behind her was getting wider and wider.
It was growing.
With a discrete hand signal, he called for his airships to start backing up. No need to throw away his men’s lives pointlessly just yet.
“So, you’ve taken over the Mushroom Kingdom?” Bowser questioned “Well, congratulations. I’m sure I’ll have a quite easy job taking it myself after that damn Plumber drops the floor from underneath you and throws you into the lava pits….”
“The Plumber known as Mario, has been converted” Tigerlily told the now shocked Bowser. “Princess Peach, Luigi, they are all my servant Newfoals.”
It took a few moments for those words to sink in.
Mario….was defeated……by a horse.
Mario was turned….into a horse.
A horse…..
Horrific fury rose up in Bowser, as fire billowed forth from his jaws. As the torrent flew at Tigerlily, her horn glowed and fired a laser blast.
The two attacks met and were evenly matched, though the advancing wall getting closer and closer made his warship back down first.
As the battle between horse and koopa ended, Bowser glared at the shrinking form of Tigerlily in the distance.
This wasn’t over. Far from it.
Bowser had been denied his favorite hostage. He had been denied his final showdown with his mortal enemy. He had been denied….well Bowser wasn’t sure what to say about Luigi, but the fact remained.
Heads would roll for this. And they would possess manes.
…..
A month later found a now grim looking Bowser reading report and report that continued to make him grimer and grimer.
It appeared Tigerlily had not been kidding. She was quite serious about wanting to take over their world, and given that in the span of the month the barrier had kept growing and growing, and now the space within was easily 10 times what it had been when he had first found it.
All over the world, conversion bureaus had sprung up. Tigerlily had declared to the world that there now were only two options: convert into an Equestrian, or die when the barrier makes contact with you. Everywhere from Isle Delfino to the Sprixie Kingdom seemed to have a conversion facility known as a Conversion Bureau in place, all staffed by the turned themselves.
They were getting steady business. Particularly among the surviving toads following the reveal that Princess Peach was now a horse.
Of course, the fact that being turned stripped you of your free will was not reported. And only the Koopa knew the truth.
Of course, the Koopa were not exactly trusted. It said something when the people of the Mushroom Kingdom and beyond trusted a magical talking horse who had appeared out of nowhere and starting taking over the world more than them. Heck, he was having enough trouble ensuring the Goomba’s loyalty to him, and at least a thousand of the mushrooms had already willingly turned.
He still had a solid pool of minions though, though how long he could actually keep feeding them would be a concern for the long term if that barrier started to get closer to their territory.
His throneroom, decorated with banners and lava (the mark of a true ruler) had echoing footsteps across it as two of his most trusted men came before him.
One, a spitting image of himself in his younger years, his pride and joy Bowser Jr, the other a blue haired Koopa, whose youth hid his impressive intelligence: Ludwig von Koopa.
“Lord Bowser, we have returned” Ludwig greeted. Bowser gave an acknowledging nod, prompting him to continue.
“My mission to the Kongo Jungles was successful. There is no evidence of the activities of Tigerlily there, and the Kongs are willing to negotiate an alliance to aid in stopping the barrier. However, the Kremlings were less interested in hearing me out”.
Bowser growled at least statement. Damn it, couldn’t K. Rool be helpful for once! His mood calmed as his son began speaking.
“My mission to the Galaxies has shown that the barrier is not expanding upwards: space is clear. I’ve sent instruction to the space crews to begin increasing the size and strength of the fleet.” The reason why they’d need a larger fleet of airships ready to take them into space was left unsaid, but Bowser was willing to at least admit the possibility that something could go wrong.
Also, he had been letting his space fleet sit idly by for too long anyway. Space was the final frontier, a perfect space for his power to grow.
He had originally planned to ask his son to retrieve him some power stars so he could reach gigantic size and punch the barrier to bits, but after the first Koopa casualties he had decided that such a method would not work in stopping it.
Bowser, however, had found a potential method to fix it. It had been damaged during earlier conflicts he had with Mario, in space, but he knew how to repair it. It had been done before, after all.
“A job well done, both of you. Ludwig, did you find it?” at that question, the Koopaling nodded.
“Yes sir. It’s in the vault”.
“Excellent” Bowser growled as he stood from his throne. “I trust your fellow Koopalings will find the rest. Until then, we will attack the barrier!”
The world would see that the heroes of the world were the Koopa! A horse would not be the end of him.
…
Tigerlily had been a minor noble in Canterlot, her family having ascended to noble status following her late father’s success as a railroad baron, unable to move through the system. Blocked at every attempt at rising from the inflexible older money nobles, she had resigned herself, reluctantly, to never having much influence. Though the ambition in her soul burned like fire, waiting the day it could be realized.
That day had come when the Heartstrings had shown her the truth. They were not alone in reality, there existed other worlds.
Worlds meant to be ruled by Ponies, and those ponies would be the ones denied power by the likes of Prince Blueblood.
This world was given to her to rule, and rule as she saw fit. Having arrived in secret not long after the return of Princess Luna, she had first spiked the royal cake with the first of the masterpieces of the Heartstrings: the Conversion potion. With the so called ruler and heroes of this world turned, she used the last of her initial supply to affect the water supply of the royal servants, before setting off the barrier in the castle courtyard to begin wiping this world clean and make it into something more….homely.
No more floating blocks and supersizing mushrooms, only Equestrian controlled skies and trees.
She had, however, ensured that the castle of Peach Toadstool was not destroyed by the barrier though. While magically coating an entire castle had been a chore, so was building yourself a castle from the ground up.
She had put her converted and controlled subjects to work turning the castle into something fit for a being of Equestria, of course. Those painting and murals simply had to go!
After ensuring the castle was secure, she had made arrangements to have more potion delivered from the facility run by Stormfront, who was put in charge of the process following his brilliant removal of the human factor in a single day in his ruled world, and had thus given him the manpower to take over as primary supplier for all 52 worlds. With it, she would handle the rest of this world.
BOOM!
“Um, Lady Tigerlily” the red Earth Pony with the odd accent stated to her right “It appears thata Bowser is attacking”.
Tigerlily rolled her eyes. She had achieved the barrier, set up a steady supply of subjects from the idiotic local populations, and commissioned artistry of herself. She had no need to worry about some overgrown turtle. Nothing he could do could stop the barrier.
“It is nothing important” she snapped, startling both him and the nearly identical Green Earth Pony on her left “Bowser is no threat to me. He cannot destroy the Bureaus outside his own kingdom, he has no allies, and the barrier is immune to his efforts. He can attack it all he wants, it will do him no good. Now” she noted the fans both brothers had “keep waving those fans!”
“Yes Lady Tigerlily!”
…..
Pointing a clawed finger at the barrier, Bowser let forth a challenging roar. His airship armada burst forth a swarm of flying black bullets the size of Equestrians: Bullet Bills.
The flying bullets flew right at the barrier and made contact: some by exploding on it, others by being disintegrated by it.
Nothing.
….
With a fury, catapult after catapult launched a whole storm of Bo-ombs at the barrier, aiming to detonate on it with the fury of a meteor shower.
There was no visible effect.
…..
Hammer Bros. sent hammer after hammer into the barrier, though every hammer that hit seemed to only dissolve.
….
Boomerang Bros. were not much better.
…..
Taking one look at the barrier, a tie wearing ape shook his head. He had no ideas on how to deal with something like that.
……
Closer to the barrier than they’d prefer to be, a legion of Fire Bros charged up fireballs.
Along with Bowser’s fire breath, a great inferno was let loose on the barrier.
This actually went through. Apparently magical fire wasn’t blocked.
Bowser’s grin could make a Yoshi tremble in fear.
Finally, a hole he could exploit. Apparently magic fire worked where artificial fire, fire bombs, and zombies did not!
It had only taken a week of experimenting to figure it out!
“Koopas! Smoke Fire Lily out of the Mushroom Kingdom! Continuous bombardment! Also, send word to the Magikoopa forces, I do believe their services will be also required”
…..
Four months later, and Tigerlily was starting to get irritated.
“Even as the barrier continues to grow, I still able to smell the wildfires they are causing on its edges! They burn for mile in, no matter how much our Pegasi keep the rains going. It is as if their fire can burn underwater! Worse, the fires are messing with potion quality and, cough, cough, cough” the unicorn had a sudden coughing fit “It’s starting to affect my health! Why has no-one managed to Convert that damn Koopa!”
The old looking Earth Pony next to him shook his head “believe me Lady Tigerlily, if we knew how to get him to stop, we’d have done it years ago.”
Oh yeah, he was an old advisor to the Princess. He would know about that sort of thing.
Growling to herself, Tigerlily summoned a flask of potion and called for her chariot.
….
With a burst of fire and magic into the barrier, the siege of the barrier continued. In the months since the battles had begun, Bowser had not let off on the attacks, not even for a moment.
Red Fire Bros. to his left and blue robed Magikoopas to his right, this barrier was going to give, either by them breaking it with the Magikoopa attacks, or smoking out it’s masters with the Fire Bros.
Any attempt by the converted to get at them with the potions was foiled by his Bullet Bill snipers. Only Mario could dodge his metallic sonic minions! Well, maybe Luigi…..
The fluttering of wings ended him silently admitting to Luigi being capable of something.
The chariot that had first introduced Unicorn to Koopa had returned, now flowing by a very annoyed looking Unicorn with a floating flask of Conversion Fluid in hand.
“I have had cough cough cough” the Unicorn began violently coughing, causing the Koopa to grin victoriously “quite, enough, with your antics. Prepare to embrace Conversion!” the flask uncorked.
“Well I have a surprise for you as well, a far better one than yours” Bowser informed the Unicorn smugly. He held his arms up high and dramatically, briefly making Tiger Lily believe him to be surrendering.
The picture became much clearer, however, when the yellow-green stars began falling to the earth. They began hitting the barrier, which visibly shuddered.
Tigerlily’s eyes went wide with shock as Bowser grinned even wider.
“Behold, the result of assembling the Seven Star Pieces together once more, the Star Road is re-forged! The Wish Stars once more fall to the world below, granting the wishes of the world and those who desire them! Behold, my wish! My son’s wish! My minions wishes! The end of your barrier!”
The stars continued to impact into the barrier, which was now starting to crack. Now horrified, Tigerlily sent the flask flying at Bowser.
He didn’t even bat an eye as a Bullet Bill intercepted it, disintegrating away and taking the vial’s contents with it.
As Tigerlily entered another coughing fit, Bowser promptly devoured a super mushroom and leapt from his ship.
The resulting giant claw swiped the chariot in half, sending her Pegasi in a spiraling fall to the ground. He meanwhile, now even larger than normal, restrained the Unicorn in one hand as he hit the ground with the gentleness of a small earthquake.
He was fine of course, which couldn’t be said for the barrier. The stars continued to impact it, until it shattered like broken glass.
As the stars began to fly across the world, now targeting the wishes of others freely, Bowser grinned evilly as he saw the converted lands before him.
Much of it was on fire, and all of it was……not what had been there before. It looked like something out of Wendy Koopa’s imagination.
“Koopas! All Forces, advance on the castle! Take it , defeat all who stand in your way!” the Airships flew forward, into space that had once been under the barrier only moments before. From the airships spilled out Koopas and Goombas, and all others who had followed him in his mission to save the world. He even saw a few Kongs and Yoshi among them.
“If you hope to reverse the Conversion, you are sadly mistaken turtle.” Tigerlily told him defiantly.
“So, Mario’s going to remain a horse forever?” (Pony!) Bowser noted blandly.
“Yes, and there is nothing you can do about….”
“I can live with that”.
Flames billowed in his gigantic jaws after having interrupted Tigerlily’s last comment, ready to see what happened to a serpent when you burned off the head.
….
52 worlds had been invaded by Pony Nobles, each seeking a land to rule as their own.
At the 5 month and a week mark, Tigerlily had lasted 129 days.
Meticulous Planner was a dull colored gray Unicorn with a addition mark cutie mark, who had gained a foothold in Canterlot following a 3 year long investigation into corruption in the Philydelphian banking communities.
Many hailed him as a hero for doing so, for striking against the corrupt establishment and sticking it out for the little Pony.
In reality, he had simply been trying to ensure that his home wasn’t foreclosed because the rate had been raised behind his back. But, hey, whatever caused Fancy Pants to invite him to fancy shindigs.
Of course, any visions of raising himself further in Canterlot Society were stopped by a number of illogical factors: like social behavior.
His name was Meticulous Planner, not Social Butterfly. Social Butterfly was an annoying airhead he knew in his school days. Plans fell awry when dealing with ponies.
Perhaps humans were simpler creatures, as creatures without magic or wings surely they were uncivilized and easily winnable by a simple and meticulous plan.
He had discovered their little plan while he was trying to determine if Blueblood was committing bank fraud he could expose to remove him. While Blueblood didn’t seem to be guilty of anything involving numbers (except perhaps the ability to actually count with them), discovering the plan to rule other worlds as one sees fit was certainly something he was all for.
A world without annoying social behaviors that constantly made his life and existence far too complicated. A world where people were not expected to hold up such as annoying and illogical virtues, such as generosity, kindness, and laughter.
And perhaps, if he was so able, a world where ponies would not randomly burst into song.
This world would be ruled by him, his way, and for him. His mindlessly obedient subjects would be ordered to focus solely on their jobs, not attempt to make life better for themselves, others, or anyone but the collective whole of his end goals.
It was the logical solution: his goals were the machine and they, the new foals, would be the cogs in that machine.
And rule it he shall, for he had a simple, yet effective plan to do so.
According to Stormfront, who was the leading expert and manufacturer of the Conversion Potion, the potion could be transferred through water, much like a virus. Unlike a virus, however, it was not so easily filtered, and would even conduct itself within precipitation.
If he continuously dumped potion into the oceans, the sky and the waters of the world would be his weapon. Mankind would be efficiently turned, and he wouldn’t have to do anything until it was completed.
Though…..
Noting the black volcanic expanse he had come to for his throne, a island born from fire emerging from water know as Surtsey, whose volcanic expanse had remained even as the barrier had engulfed the entire island, Planner turned to a pile of black volcanic rocks as his horn glowed.
His abode would not build itself. He could merely wait for newfoals to do it for him, but it would not be efficient either for time, or skills.
Apparently humans no longer built castles. After he obtained a few humans, he would determine why they had stopped housing their leaders in castles and from there determine if he himself should change his housing plans.
Until then of course he would build the foundations for his abode, whatever it would eventually be.
……
When a barrier of unknown energy formed to the south of Iceland, the people of the world began to freak out.
When some people who had been fishing the waters not far from said barrier got splashed and suddenly turned into pastel colored horses and began swimming towards the island the panic grew worse.
Of course, horses freeze in the icy waters, and now would be nothing but food for scavenging creatures of the icy depths. Science would not have a chance to determine what the hell just happened.
There had been reports of someone turning into a Pegasus, but no one was quite sure what happened to that fellow.
But where the unexplained happened, when something needed to be done in the shadows, several organizations existed to handle it.
One resided in the shadows of the Vatican, and another in a dark mansion within the United Kingdom.
The leader of the British was named Sir Integra Fairbrook Wingates Hellsing. A dark-skinned blond woman, dressed in impeccable suits and a cigar in her mouth, and a cigar always within reach, Integra did not find people turning into sentient horses at random to be all that unusual.
She had seen far more terrifying things in the past. And the present. Also the future. One even lived in her basement.
However, she should probably deal with it before it became a problem. Her job was to protect Her Majesty’s realm from horrifying things, and what was a advancing wall of doom if not a horrifying thing.
“Walter” Integra spoke as a dark haired butler with reflective glasses emerged from the corner as if he had always been there.
“Yes my lady?”
“Prepare transport for Alucard. He is to destroy that barrier and anything inside it with all necessary force”.
“As you wish….though I do feel the need to remind you that he will most likely use great amounts of unnecessary force to do so”.
Integra took a deep puff of a now lit cigar as she noted her butler’s words. They were quite true after all.
“Frankly if Cthulhu is in there I’d rather be 100% sure it’s not coming back”.
….
“So, Hubrisc is dead? It’s only been a week?” Reading a letter that had been sent to him, Planner shook his head even as he noted the barrier begin to reach the much larger island of Iceland.
Apparently his world had some sort of being on it who could kill a pony if said person knew his name and his face. Kira, or something like that. Kiba? Kita? Cira?
Apparently, Hubrisc hadn’t even set up the barrier before gloating to the entire world about how he was going to rule them and how there was nothing they could do to stop them.
40 seconds after he had stated this, he had a heart attack and now that world was cheering Kira on as a savior.
The Conversion formula left behind had then been stolen apparently, apparently by some human named L.
L……what a strange name. Was that a human thing?
Well, obviously some worlds had some rather dangerous things in them. Thankfully it seemed that this world was perfectly safe.
“Safe? Oh, this world is many things horse, but safe isn’t one of them”
A gravely voice, the likes of which Tartarus would shudder to hold suddenly even if the one who spoke with it was as harmless as a bunny, wafted through the air.
Turning, Planner found his gaze beholden on a most strange creature.
While it was a biped and a human one at that, it didn’t seem to be a normal one. For one thing, it was really tall and pale, with hair as black as Nightmare Moon.
It’s clothing were as red as blood, with a had that looked like it came out of some overly fancy boutique. It’s eyes were shielded by orange goggles, from within glowed blood red orbs.
The creature smelled horribly of death, blood, and darkness.
“Greetings alien, my name is Alucard. I’ve been sent to destroy you and this barrier, and frankly all this happiness and cheer on the affected parts of Iceland. Really, you have no idea how painful it is for me to be in here, let alone walk through that barrier…..”
Not wanting to deal with this thing trying to kill him for any longer than he had to, Planner threw a bottle of Conversion potion on the being, which caused it to dissolve mid-sentence into a blood red Alicorn with dark bat wings, still wearing that ridiculous hat.
He was not going to sit back and wait for it to have stopped talking and start doing…..whatever it was it was going to do to him.
Plus, he now had an Alicorn under his control. This was most fortunate.
Meticulous Planner felt a rush of an alien feeling when the Alicorn once known as Alicord gave a wide, unnatural smile, his mouth dominated by fangs the likes of which a Hydra would be envious of.
“Oh, that was interesting. Some sort of transformative elixir I see, with a healthy dose of mind control. Did you plan on turning all of humanity into magical horses? I must say, that is a new one, rather creative really. But I’m afraid I must inform you…..” the Alicorn was still grinning like something out of a nightmare, as darkness began to spew from his wings, a multi-eyed, mouthed, snarling darkness.
“That this world is not yours for the taking! My souls broke down your little controlling filler, and now I'm going to break you!”
Meticulous Planner, in his last moments as the darkness began to encircle him, discovered what fear felt like.
He wished he had never felt it at all.
……
“So, that’s the end of it?” Integra questioned her most effective and most dangerous associate back in her office the day after the barrier had been destroyed.
“Yep” The Vampire grinned, back in his human form “Sure, he wasn’t nearly as tasty as humans or even vampires, but he won’t be bothering anyone again, and his barrier has been destroyed. I can’t say how many hapless Icelanders, Canadians, or Irishmen will randomly turn into horses over the next few months, but unless they are in Northern Ireland it’s not my problem and frankly I’m sure people will find something to do for them”.
The dark skinned Englishwoman took a long draw of her cigar at the thought of how Alucard handled his problems. The problems never really appreciated it, and it sent more than a few of her soldiers into therapy.
And it was rather hard to find a therapist who was able to deal with that sort of trauma. It was cheaper to import her Cigars.
“Very well, the Queen and the Council send you their regards and thanks for saving the Earth, and I have personal congratulations from everyone from the President of the United States to the Vatican. The Vatican has even offered you a place in Purgatory instead of the fiery pits of hell for your efforts of saving all of Christendom”.
Alucard muttered something about ‘damn Catholics’.
“Now then, just because the extra-dimensional ponies are no longer a problem doesn’t mean we don’t have more issues at hand. There has recently been a report of a likely vampire in and around Cheddar Village. I need you to go and investigate”.
“By investigate, I do believe you mean kill it until its properly dead?”
“Of course. You’re hardly Sherlock Holmes”.
…..
In another world, Meticulous Planner’s plan would have succeeded. With enough potion, the world would have fallen to him with little resistance.
He just happened to have gotten the world with one of realities most powerful beings in it to go and ruin everything for him.
The world of Alucard was the second world to be liberated from the Conversion threat, after the world of Kira by only 2 days. 50 worlds still remained at risk though.
….
The short, blond man eyed the now captive once Icelandic Pegasus before him with a maniacal grin.
“Oh, this is interesting” he said in a German accent “We could make use of you….oh yes”.
….
Of course, just because the Barrier was no longer a threat didn’t mean that some freak of nature wasn’t going to commit crimes against humanity, ponies, and most everything else that exists somewhere, somewhen, and somehow; using elements of the plan in ways it was never meant to be used.
Gold Roger, the King of the Pirates, attained this and everything else the world had to offer, and his dying words drove countless souls to the seas.
"You want my treasure? You can have it! I left everything I gathered together in one place. Now you just have to find it!"
These words drove men to the Grand Line, in pursuit of dreams greater than they could ever dare to imagine! This is the time known as the Great Pirate Era.
However, as they sought their dreams, they collided with the forces of order, the dreams of others, and the natural dangers of the world.
From this, was born chaos.
And from that chaos, came Ponies.
…..
The world was divided into 5, or some may argue 6, oceans.
The 4 that existed on the outside: the Blues North, South, East, and West, the Grand Line, and the New World that some considered part of the Grand Line and others considered so dangerous that the already dangerous Grand Line could not be compared.
It was the West Blue, on an island once known as Ohara, that Ponies had come.
When Nor’easter had landed on the island, it had been a burned out wreck, devastated as if by a long ago war. Even its lakes and rivers seemed to have been burned away, even after however long it had been.
The barrier itself seemed to struggle with purifying it of the violence. However, it had given him time to create his castle.
2 months after he had arrived, the ice white Pegasus found himself looking over everything this world had revealed to him.
Pirates who sailed the waters seeking their desires at the expense of others. Marines who enforced order at the expense of happiness and freedom, serving a corrupt group of nobles that made the dwellers of Canterlot seem far more like Fancy Pants than they had any right to be. Revolutionaries who sought to change the world, regardless of the risks. Humans and humanoids, all at war with each other, destroying everything in their wake and bringing pain and suffering to all they encountered.
A savage world, where even the tamest oceans were home to sea monsters that could swallow entire ships, weather raged in unpredictable manners that made even the fabled Everfree Forest seemed tame, and where people ate cursed fruits and became freaks the likes of which even the Princesses would fear to face.
And he, the son of the Pegasus in charge of Canterlot’s weather, certainly couldn’t defeat this world with simple brute force.
Even now, the world seemed to fight back against him. As his barrier grew and took more Islands in the West Blue underneath it, all three groups who fought in this world seemed to be against him.
If it wasn’t Pirates attacking the barrier, it was Marines. If not Marines, it was Revolutionaries. If not Revolutionaries, one of the native Sea Kings popped up in one of his taken villages and swallowed his workers before vanishing back into the depths.
He was seriously going to have to look into recruiting some horse with pest control abilities for those things. Sadly Stormfront didn’t let him borrow his giant pet fish to deal with them.
What did that Pegasus even need it for anyway: he had already done it. His world was human free.
Sure there were those things in it, but certainly they were no where near as hard to kill as giant sea serpents in the ocean?
The Sea Kings could be dealt with later though, right now he needed to deal with the world’s sentient races.
And so the Pegasus spent many an hour sitting and thinking, thinking and sitting. Trying to find a way to expedite the end of humanity.
After many hours though, Nor’easter grew bored, with no possible ideas in sight.
Perhaps a flight would help him think more?
….
Okay, perhaps less ‘flight’, and more leading an army of converted Pegasi to Conversion bomb an entire town a few miles away from the barrier, but you get the idea.
What was once a human hamlet was now free of humanity, and his Pegasi were taking his new subjects into the barrier before those damn Marines arrived and took more of them away for experimentation.
He however, stayed behind to read the humans newspapers: such articles did not survive the barrier and he had some faith in their ability to possibly give him relevant information.
After all, who suspected that the future Pegasus ruler of their world would bother having learned their written text?
And the paper had a most…..odd word in it today.
“You” Nor’easter turned his equine head to one of the newly changed, a teal earth pony. The newfoal jumped, shocked by his sudden questioning of her “Tell me, what exactly is a ‘terrorist bombing?’.
….
“Well, this is just great” the dark haired dressed in a decorated white uniform growled at his desk. Next to him, a miniature white goat that was as cute as a shy Pegasus bleated in oblivious happiness “First some magical horse appears on Ohara of all places and takes over half of the West Blue in only 3 months, and now he’s got terrorists seemingly everywhere!”
In the last month, the Marines had been getting attacked left and right by some crazed group of civilian collaborators with that mad horse. They kept setting bombs of that strange substance that kept turning people, even giants, into horses all over the place: seemingly only missing the New World because any bombers they might send got eaten, burned alive, or lost. They attacked civilians, pirates, and marines alike with no discrimination. In fact, they seemed to want to take as many lives and turn them into mindless horses as possible.
They called themselves the P.E.R. Ponies for Earths Rebirth or something stupid like that: extremists who thought the only way to end the Piracy that was ruining the world was to turn every living thing on it into a magical pony.
“If the Marines can’t save the world, we will. That’s what they’re saying anyway” an older man with a gray hair and beard growled “What hogwash: they are no better than pirates. Hell, my grandson’s better than they are, and he’s a Pirate!”
“Yes yes, we all know about your grandson Garp.” The man with the goat stated with a irritation “No need to brag about him”.
“Well at least he doesn’t make his crewmates commit horrible crimes against humanity to join him. These P.E.R nuts are only allowed to turn themselves into horses is they set off a successful terrorist attack! Honestly, why don’t we just throw the Warlords and Admirals at the barrier and see if they can damage it at all?!”
“Because they are needed to end piracy”.
Garp glared at the goat man with annoyance “Look Sengoku, I want to end piracy just as much as you do, but I don’t think this is the best time to start a war with Whitebeard. All that’s going to do is weaken us in the long run: honestly I’d release Fire Fist Ace and deal with the looming end of the world first, then we can go and kill Whitebeard some other time”.
Sengoku, as the goat man was called, shook his head “I know you want us to release your other pirate grandson Garp, but if we do that we’ll just look weak.”
“We look weak too if magical horses take over the entire West Blue while we do nothing about it.” Garp countered. The two powerful old men looked about ready to start beating the crap out of each other now over their respective priorities…..
“Fleet Admiral Sengoku, Vice-Admiral Garp sir!” a white and blue dressed Marine burst into the room, causing the two men to stop looking ready to beat each other to a pulp, if only for the moment “There’s been another P.E.R attack sirs! In the East Blue”
“What!?” Garp shouted in fear for his own home ocean. Sengoku growled, feeling a headache coming on.
“Where?” He asked in a tense voice.
….
Having just escaped the shadowy conflict on Thriller Bark, the floating ship of an island run by the Warlord Gekko Moriah, a ship floated on and on as it continued its voyage to Fishman Island.
It was a sloop, red and gold and decorated with a mast head that resembled both a lion, a sunflower, and a sun at the same time to the contention of the poor shipwright. With a grassy lawn, tangerine trees, and a colorful demeanor, one could simply mistake it for a average ship sailing the treacherous grand line.
However, then you noticed its sails, marked with a skull and crossbones with a straw hat on top. The moniker of a pirate ship, specifically the vessel of the rising star in the pirate world Monkey D. Luffy.
300 million berries were attached to his name. He had defeated two warlords, devastated a league of assassins and government black ops specialists, saved the East Blue from a mad Fishman, and defeated a mad god of lightning on an island in the clouds. His body was rubber, and his punches hit with enough forces to leave anyone feeling it for days.
Ever garbed in a straw hat and cloths that seemed more beach ready than battle ready, the black haired youth seemed well on his way to the title he so dreamed of: King of the Pirates.
He was currently sleeping on a lawn chair, snoring loudly. Much to the dismay of the girl next to him, who was currently waiting for her newspaper.
“Dammit Luffy, why do you have to snore like a freakin’ whale” the red haired swore. The beauty was a budding young woman with short red hair and a body that seemed to only get more and more mature with each passing day, covered by a blue shirt with pink poke-a-dots and blue jeans. A compass like device was strapped to her wrist, as were a set of blue pipes on her hip.
Her name was Nami, Straw Hat Pirates Navigator, money expert, and holder of a 16 million berry bounty. She really disliked that last part.
At long last though, before she gave into her impulses to stuff something down her captain’s throat to silence him, the seagull came into view with the mornings paper.
“Finally” she sighed as the News Coo landed by her side, seeking payment “Maybe now I can finally ignore that loud oaf……”
Her voice trailed off, even as the bird flew away with payment, at the news headline.
COCOYASHI VILLAGE BOMBED BY THE P.E.R. NO SURVIVORS
For about 5 seconds, the navigator digested the fate of her sister, all the people she grew up with, and her mother’s grave. The P.E.R, that mad group obsessed with turning people into horses for some strange reason, had turned them…….and probably ruined everything.
The destroyed Tangerine trees her adopted mother had worked so hard to grow, the grave she had earned from her horrible death…….
The poor villagers, who had been finally freed from the horrible reign of Arlong the Fishman, were now under tyranny once more. A tyranny there was no escape from.
Her scream of despair was so loud that no Strawhat failed to hear it.
….
Three days later, a single marine ship landed on the sight of a reported base of the P.E.R deep in the grand line….to find it completely destroyed.
It had been leveled, every man in it beaten to a pulp if they were lucky, and the stores of Conversion Potion ruined and gone.
The survivors, after they realized they could not escape justice, told them what had happened, and this message was later relayed to Marine H.Q, where several leading officers found themselves rather conflicted about the news they had been given.
The Straw Hat Pirates were now at war with the P.E.R.
As the third month ended, the War with the denizens of the seas was still going strong, now with a new force operating against them.
With some thinking, I realized that this world can only be resolved by a bit of Deus ex Machina.
But hey, not everyworld has an Alucard. So I thought about it a bit and set up a little Deus ex Machina in the form of a fanon character who is good for that sort of thing. If you don’t like this, I won’t use him again and I’ll have to think of a new way to avoid this trap with any future worlds like it, but if you do like it perhaps he can show up in a few more worlds.
Let’s see though, shall we. At the very least this may be fun.
…..
Their world had seen many great and horrible disasters in the past.
The Great Flooding that wiped out all mammalian species, allowing the rise of Inklings, Octolings, and every other species that had once lived in the sea.
The First Great Turf War between the Inklings and Octolings over the diminished landmasses.
The brief cancellation of the Squid Sisters program due to Callie losing her voice, which had caused riots.
But this……
Well, the giant advancing wall of doom that had burst out of the Octo Valley was new to everyone, even Capn’ Cuttlefish.
The shriveled old Inkling, hunched over on his green cane, eyed the advancing wall of doom with great frustration. Turning to the octopus tentacle headed figure on his left, he pointed at the wall.
“Are you really out of Great Octoweapon to throw at it?” he questioned. The octopus descendant nodded.
He then turned to his right, where a short little fellow whose shelled head resembled that of his ancestors the Horseshoe Crabs, though they had only gotten to see what a horse was when this barrier arrived “And you can’t think of anyway to destroy that thing with what we have?”
The inventor shook his head “I’ve tried everything I can think of. Everything! From giant Octoweapon mecha….”
…..
A giant metallic Inklingoid colored purple and green, with massive ink blasters on each palm and made up of several distinct types of sphere and cube, was engulfed and destroyed by the advancing barrier, leaving not even ink behind.
….
“….to weaponizing the Zapfish….”
…
A giant laser, outfitted with dozens of glass spheres holding a yellow catfish like creature inside, glowed electric yellow. From the tip of the laser shot out a giant burst of lightning, impacting the barrier to no effect.
Repeated blastings showed that barrages would not fix the problem.
…
“…even calling on every able bodied Inkling and surviving Octoling to attack it still hasn’t yielded results, not that they haven’t stopped trying….”
….
Dozens of the red skinned octopi headed, as well as by those with more squid like hair and colorations, attacked the barrier at will. Blasters, pistols, rifles, buckets, rollers, machine guns, and brushes were all used to fire a seemingly endless rainbow of ink at the barrier.
Even sonic blasts, ink bombs, bazooka attacks, and even ink nukes didn’t phase it.
….
“….They call it, the Last Great Turf War. They refuse to lose it, but even as one giant team…..” the horseshoe crab sighed in depression “At this point, I’m at a loss at what we could possibly do to stop it. Water, Ink, Electricity, it’s immune to everything we’ve got. Octavio gave his life trying to find a way to escape it, but frankly we aren’t from up high. We can’t flee there”
The assembled threesome were then joined by the world’s last remaining natural mammal: a plump black and white cat whose name was Judd. He eyed the barrier with concern, before adding his own two cents in.
“Yes…..the people from back when I was a young Kitten were able to reach the stars with their machines. However, the only places that were purr-fect to launch them are now underwater: trying to launch such a flight would be impossible without demolishing half of Inkopolis. Plus, I don’t recall how they let people breathe in space”.
“Um, is up high underwater then?” the Cap’n asked, not sure what the judge of all non ‘save the world’ turf wars was referring to “is that why the sky is blue?”
Judd looked like he was trying to figure out how to explain that space was a void of nothingness, when a sudden.
Vworp.
The gathered quartet looked around in confusion as to what had just made that sound. Was it from the barrier?
Vworp.
No, it didn’t seem to be.
Vworp
Judd leapt into the air with the startled noise only a cat, to be specific him and him alone these days, could make as a shape began to appear before them, seemingly from nowhere.
A blue shape.
Vworp
It almost resembled……a really primitive phone booth.
As the phone booth opened, the gathered gang of four was not expecting to find a brown one of them looking back at them.
“Pony!” Cap’n shouted the alarm as the now startled Earth Pony found himself having a blaster, a roller, and claws pointed at him thanks to the Octoling, Horseshow Crab, and Cat respectively.
“Whoa whoa whoa….peace!” the horse shouted, though he didn’t seem as worried as one should be when one had a roller pointed at you “Bah Weep Grah Na Weep Ninny Bong!”
They weren’t moved by his strange words.
“Oh, right….wrong world for that one” he muttered to himself, as he smiled at them “Well, I suppose I should try and make this whole thing less……hostile: my name is The Doctor, and I’m here to save your world”.
“We’ve heard that before” Judd hissed at him as the so called Doctor realized his faux pas.
“I probably could have phrased that one better….okay what about I want to help you get rid of the energy barrier that you have no chance of destroying on your own. Is that acceptable?”
The four eyed The Doctor for a few moments, before lowering their weapons and sheathing their claws.
“Excellent!” the Doctor stated with far more enthusiasm than one who was just threatened should “Now, get me 100 Inklings, some Octolings, and the Squid Sisters musical accompaniment. We shall strike the barrier from within!”
“And how do you suppose we’re going to do that?” The Cap’n questioned, gesturing towards the advancing wall of doom “Neither flight nor tunneling can get through it.
The Doctor merely gestured to his transport “Oh, but that’s the simple part my dear Inkling: Time and Space are relative things to my T.A.R.D.I.S”.
….
A strike force with musical accompaniment was procured from the current fighters of the Last Great Turf War, whose name was in fact quite immature as it implied that they were going to lose, in about 10 minutes.
However, by the time this force had been shoved into the T.A.R.D.I.S with as little complaint as possible, they were already in the midst of assaulting the lair of the leader of the attacking Equestrians and winning.
Of course, one could argue that the Unicorn in charge should be much harder to defeat for even a well trained army who fought primarily with paint. After all, one shielding spell and the worst that one could was trip.
But…..
Sparklecoat was a minor Canterlot noble through and through, hence her desire to get more power elsewhere at the expense of those she deemed inferior to herself. She hated mess and stains. A single drop of ink enough would have been enough to make her freak out.
The pure white unicorn getting blasted with half a dozen shots, bombs, and the tail-lend of a ink nuke of various colors to a point her rump could no longer show off her cutie mark beneath the stains and the caked on paint was enough to make her scream and run off in horror.
Her minions, the converted, were just….easily bound by rope and now were going to be a subject of a lot of moral debate of what to do with.
But as the barrier shattered and the Inkling world saved (if forever altered to a point several new Turf War sights would have to be made), the story wasn’t quite done yet.
The crying, terrified Unicorn had ran all the way to the edge of her converted domain, only to find a Earth Pony standing in her way.
A dull, drab, brown Earth Pony.
“Get out of my way! I need water, I need soap!” she shouted.
“No, you need a reality check” the Doctor told her bluntly, before whopping her in the back of the head with his hoof.
….
Coming to, the now bound Unicorn found herself in a strange, mechanical, alien interior….with that horse looking at her with a interrogators gaze.
“Now, tell me this….what is it you were trying to do here? Are you connected to the world I regenerated on, ending up in this four legged form while I was at it, where a similar barrier was being opposed by Avengers instead of Inklings? Who do you work for, and how many worlds are you attacking?”
“Why should I tell some overly independent newfoal of anything?” Sparklecoat demanded in a bratty tone. The Doctor merely rose an equine eyebrow at her defiance, before setting a course to a certain world that should help inspire her to talk…..
….
“EX-TER-MIN-ATE!”
“I’LL TALK, I’ll TALK…JUST SAVE ME FROM THESE THINGS!”
....
At 5 months and 3 weeks, the Inkling were the 32nd world to be freed from the looming threat of the Barriers, with 20 still fighting against it.
But for the Doctor.....well time was hard to really say for him. Who know how many more would follow?
That if they ever stop working for even a moment, be it for family, their health, or for another, all that they love will be torn away from them.
There exists a timeline where three heroines unintentionally discovered this curse, finding themselves in a future 50 years without them ruled and terrorized by their most fearsome foe, and all the blame on their error of judgement.
In another timeline, a young boy was told of his great power. As his life was turned upside down in all ways, he fled from his home with only his trusted steed. He promptly got frozen in an iceberg for 100 years, waking up to a world where his absence led to a horrible war.
But this is not about them. Their history with the Bureau is another story in of itself.
No, another hero, from a world not far from them in the grand scheme of things, had learned this lesson. On the call of heroism and of those who needed help, he had left his home planet of Earth to save another, and had been gone for a year.
And when he returned......
"A human?" the disturbingly smiling red horse that looked scarily like his grandfather, and sounded like him, told him a tone that was normally reserved for something repulsive "How is it you are still alive even in the barrier?"
"Mana field in effect: recently installed protection protocols engaged" the watch on his wrist beeped, answering the question for him.
"Don't worry, we'll soon have that fixed" the creepy Grandpa pony smiled at him, a smile so demented that even his local vampire zombie clown (and yes he did have one of those) would find creepy, as the mockery began to approach him.
His face never changing.
Not a single bit.
....
His name was Ben Tennyson.
He was a Hero of Heroes. He saved the galaxy several times, with the lowest count currently on record being about 3 times.
He bore a device known as the Omnitrix, a powerful alien device that allowed him to take any shape he so desired.
Yet with all of this power, he had never once felt so alone.
But that is what a planet of mad horses would do to the world's last human.
It made you feel so alone.
So very alone.
....
As a young man, he had been many things.
As the fiends attacked, a being covered in flames and magma blew them away.
Cocky.
A blue blur impacted into them rapidly, again and again striking them down.
Showboaty.
A large yellow ball impacted against dozens of them, striking them harsher than any special effects in a temple production.
Lazy.
As a blur rose out of the ground, a blue freezing smoke rose up. The horned foes he faced found themselves trapped in a frozen prison.
This was not the time for that.
A large being made of stone held his arm out against a winged attack formation. All who approached him hit the ground with a thump, gravity turned against them.
He had to be different now. This was not an age for someone to have fun.
Green crystal impaled all who drew near.
This was not an age of heroes anymore.
A turtle, spinning like a fan, formed a mighty wind attack to strike at hundreds of the transformered
It was the age of avenging.
A growling orange Tiger roared over a pile of those he had torn apart.
it was no longer the time to be a human
A four armed alien held unicorns with severed horns in each hand, squeezing.
Over time, Ben 10 ceased to be.
An army of small, white aliens unleashed a might sound attack in all directions of a leading Pony.
The hero was dead.
As a dozen of the transformed slaved away at making more vile fluid, a green ooze seeped into the room, taking shape behind them. Then the shape flashed green, revealing a snarling orange beast.
A protector would rise in his place.
As a red manta like alien fly through the skies, several dozen Pegasi flew in pursuit. A dogfight with lasers and storms ensued.
He would go by a new name, a single name all his forms would be known as.
A metallic alien vanished, going back in time to before everything broke.
Ben 10,000.
As a barrier approached the coast of America, a giant being rose up from the waters in front of it ready to destroy everything about it, without mercy.
....
As the battle raged, one champion against an army the world saw the start of a new future.
A new Ben.
Many would cheer his praises.
His loved ones....would wonder what happened to the boy they loved.
....
The 10th world was saved, even as 42 more lay in danger (though given time travel one could argue the 10th world was actually the 52nd, but for simplicity sakes one will ignore the horrible future)
But who would save the savior? The one broken by the dark and horrible future.
A time loop would soon develop, temporally speaking at least: for one of the loved ones of the savior would snap him out of his dark and broody days with his younger self, who himself would grow to be broken by the Equestrians and need to be restored by his younger self.
It was a headache for the local time traveling professor to deal with.
"Magical Genocidal Pastel Horses From Another Universe Stream......even by my standards that is odd...." the white labcoated professor mused from the moon, even as he watched the pink light on earth shatter "What's next?"
"That is a good question."
Turning, the professor found himself staring at one of those very horses, but brown and seemingly not mad.
They looked at one another awkwardly for a moment, before the professor held out a pair of round balls.
In the aftermath of a series of mysterious events in Southern Europe, where entire boats of refuges, Balkan nationals, and Italians suddenly vanished following an unusual light formation appearing in the Adriatic, all was quiet in the world.
Sure, in the worlds of science people were dabbling, trying to figure out what had caused these mysterious events? Did the lights cause them to drown, to seizure and fall victim to scavengers?
Were they weapons created by the terrorists to the east? A weapon created by N.A.T.O or Russia with the intent to scare the other?
Global Warming?
No one really knew, but in trying to figure out the cause of it would employ many scientists for several years, and after that keep the conspiracy loving sector of humanity well amused and occupied.
.....
In a darkly lit room in a hidden lair within the Italian city of Volterra, a trio of men sat, robed in dark cloths as dark as night and as red as blood.
All of them were unusually pale, and looked eerily inhuman. Just as one could look into the eyes of a human made into a Equestrian and be able to pick up the wrongness of them, these beings were similarly off.
Their eyes, a blood red, did not occur in humanity.
Their gazes were cold, uncaring, ruthless.
Their skin looked less like pale Caucasian, and more like they had been carved out of marble and given life.
Of course, just like a man made into a pony, they would not answer your question in a helpful way.
If you asked such a horse, they would chant about the failures of humanity, their monstrous beings, and their hate. How they were superior.
These beings would not state these facts: they would just kill you. Eat you. Or worse, should they determine you to be useful, turn you.
For these men, these were the monsters of the Earth.
Ironically, they were the ones who had saved it.
"So, any revelation as to the origin of those creatures?" One of the men questioned.
The second one frowned "Sadly no, it appears only one of them was capable of anything resembling sentient thoughts. The others were mindless drones. They were disposed of, and their unusual barrier broken. We cannot determine how it was done though, so any attempts to use it ourselves is sadly lost".
"A minor loss. What use would we have for the extinction of humanity?" the third added in.
"Not as it was, but had it been modified to destroy Werewolves it may have proved useful. I also could see use of it's anti-technological capabilities to remove humanities weapons capabilities, returning them to a level that we are no longer in danger"
"Yes, that is a potential use of it, but how would we even do that?"
"Hmm.....good point."
"So.....the operation did reveal that the original horse, the origin of that plague, came from another world. The world had no humans, and from what that horse had shown they could very well try and destroy us again. Should we go in, and deal with them?"
The being who spoke first looked contemplative, before shaking his head "No, we lack the forces to take an entire world, and for a race whose blood is more suited for Carlisle's tastes? Hardly worth it. The moment we leave on such a crusade, we will find complete chaos when we return. No....it is better we merely keep watch for any more of those creatures. Now, anything else of pressing concern?"
"I feel an odd desire to speak of that human girl from Forks who seems to dominate virtually all conversations, should we discuss her again?"
"Oh, yes, certainly"
....
There was little if anything to say here.
These beings, these mysterious watchers over humanity, the shepherds of a massive and unaware flock of sheep destined to provide laughs, goods, and mutton, were the 5th world to be freed.
47 were beaten by them.
Those worlds all suddenly felt a sense of shame.
Of course, other worlds had much more effective commanders leading them, so perhaps the shame was greatly limited.
.....
"We appear to be suffering unexpected, defiance from the universe. It is as if Ponies are not the Master Race, how shocking. Though, I suppose that in infinity, the other manages something halfway decent on occasion." A Pegasus noted, standing on a marble platform as he overlooked a central, freshwater lake that lay within the sheer white rock walls of the island he had taken as his fortress.
"They were just lucky Lord Stormfront!" a converted human shouted behind him, as mindlessly obedient and positive as ever "They mustn't have had icky humans as their dominate lifeforms. After all, you managed to destroy all of humanity in this world in three days!"
"Yes, yes I did" the Pegasus smirked, his dark gray coat and black mane being that of a no-nonsense, ruthless, brutal military Pony. His cutie mark, a lightning bolt smashing into his target, exemplified his talent.
War.
Lightning Fast, Brutal, War. Any target he fought against, he destroyed, quickly, and without mercy.
He had loved his work fighting against bandits, criminals, and enemies from beyond, until he got bored with the opponents of his world.
So, he decided he'd conquer another.
And conquer he did: the humans were now completely dead. The other lifeforms here, possibly sentient and uniquely gifted were proving to be a challenge for him. They could not be converted, nor could they be tamed.
They hated him for what he had done to the humans, and the ways humans had tamed them in the past were unavailable when inside the barrier.
So, they would have to be destroyed in full.
It was no problem after all, it would be a fun challenge for him and the creatures former humans to catch them all.
Earth was not a stranger to horrible events, far from it.
For the Earth was a world of heroes. Champions of all orders, famous and obscure, who fought for the good of all. Aliens and men, wizards and warriors, man and woman, they could be found all over the world.
They had fought against alien conquerors and demons from beyond, criminals with guns and criminals with ice guns.
Not long ago the dead themselves had rose.
So when the mysterious energy barrier had formed on the edge of Star City, the world did not react as one might think.
They did not panic, they did not fear, for the superheroes were there.
....
On a hill overlooking the sea beyond, the waters and shore now covered by a ever growing wall of pink that destroyed all it touched, a man stood.
He was an odd chap, dressed in green and armed with a bow. He also had a goatee, a odd yellow thing.
"......Everyone's out?" he asked to one that did not appear to be there. However as he asked a red blur appeared behind him before slowing down, revealing a man dressed entirely in red, with a lightning bolt symbol on his chest.
"Star City's been completely evacuated," the man confirmed, sounding relieved about it "We have virtually no casualties".
"That's good......after we barely avoided that incident with Prometheus and I really am glad that we didn't just delay the inevitable." Looking up, the two masked men saw four men, masked in green and black with green auras, fly towards the barrier.
The four men took up sides around the barrier, before they formed a variety of giant green energy constructs (Swords, guns, drills, a giant robot with drill swords and guns), and began to hammer at the barrier.
It had no noticeable effect.
"Is that really the best idea Bruce could come up with?" The archer questioned incredulously. The man in red turned to the archer, an eyebrow raised.
"Hardly Ollie, this is only the first plan."
....
Meanwhile on a satellite in space, a dark and brooding man stood over a holographic display of the situation at hand.
(BLOW UP DAMMIT!)
"Gardner seems annoyed." A man in blue with a red cape, a large S crest on his chest observed.
"Then he is clearly fine. Zatanna, are you ready to give it a shot?"
"You got it Bruce!" A female voice announced from the holographic display, even as odd words began to flow from it (REIRRAB EVLOSSID!)
"So, we're already on plan B?" The S bearer questioned as the brooding man shook his head.
"Hardly. That implies I only have 26 plans. Speaking of which, you're going to be helping set up plan 13."
"Well if I can't punch the magic barrier....." the man snarked, before resolving himself to the task "Okay Bruce, tell me what this plan of yours is."
.....
"That plan is a horrible idea."
"Then hope that in the time it takes you to find it we'd have deal with this instead of resorting to such extremes."
....
Plan 5
A man in red with a white shoulder cape was flying along the top of the barrier, louding shouting the word SHAZAM. Lightning would fall as he did so, the man dodging the falling bolts and having them strike the barrier.
Have Captain Marvel fly over the barrier, shouting down the name of the Wizard to bring down powerful magical lightning to destroy the barrier. Results, ineffective
Plan 7
A giant kracken, larger than some countries, rose from the nearby sea. A man in gold and green stood upon the beast, and pointed at the barrier. The Squid promptly began to smash at the barrier, even as he and a dozens other emerging from the seas began to attack it with energy weapons.
Have Aquaman lead an Atlantean attack on the barrier with magic, technology, and giant sea monsters. Results, ineffective
Plan 12
A man in silver armor, a red mark on his chest, flew at the barrier at fast speeds, even as a caped man in a bronze helmet followed
Have Captain Atom use his energy absorption powers to drain the odd energies of the barrier that are not magical, then have Doctor Fate dispel the magical portion of the barrier. Results: Captain Atom unable to absorb the energies: Doctor Fate instead required to prevent explosion. Atom should return to us in a few weeks mostly unharmed.
Plan 15
A man in red and blue began to shrink rapidly in front of the barrier.
Have The Atom, not to be mistaken with Captain Atom, shrink down small enough to pass through deformities in the barrier and disable it from within. Result: Mission aborted upon discovery that there are no holes in barrier.
Plan 18
A man in yellow and orange whose hair was fire itself formed several glowing orange blasts of energy, striking the ground before the barrier. From each strike, a wall formed: each made of different materials.
Have Firestorm form a series of barriers made up of various powerful materials to test potential barriers to block barrier. Result: Nyth metal, Kryptonite, Radion, and other exotic materials not effective barrier material.
Plan 20
The helmeted Doctor fate, along with a blue man with horns and several people in wizardry garb, vanished into darkness
Have Doctor Fate lead a strike team into the barrier through Hell. Results: Barrier leaked into hell. So far has no sign of sucking barrier down into it, instead only expanding into it.
Plan 21
Have Wonder Woman get Greek Gods to deal with it. Results: Gods refused.
Plan 22
From the sky above, a trio of harsh lights fell upon the barrier. Great beams of destruction, leaving ruin in their wake.
Manipulate/trick/convince Lex Luthor to fire his satellite lasers at the barrier. Results; Ineffective, but Luthor is once more a wanted man for having illegal space lasers.
Plan 25
A scantily clad red-head with green tinted skin waved her hands before the portal. A duo of giant vines rose up, cracking the streets as they escaped the earth and lunged at the barrier.
Get Poison Ivy to aide us on carrot of barrier having unknown effects on plant life. Use plants to enter barrier and destroy source. Results: Plants successful in infiltrating barrier, but Poison Ivy unable to control them inside of it.
Plan 30
Dozens of heroes stood around the now swollen barrier, which now had removed about half of the city. Among them was the archer, but also a young man in blue, bug-like armor, a black teen levitating on a floating metal disc laced with electricity, a hispanic woman with green hair, a blond woman in black, a red robot, Firestorm, several of the men in green, a black man whose hands sparked with dark electricity, and a man dressed in a golden uniform.
Have an assortment of heroes blast the barrier simultaneously, unleashing a wide variety of power sources on it. Results.....
"Bruce! I'm coming in hot!"
Inconclusive, as a loud sonic boom shook the sky as the caped hero from before returned, a struggling gray mass in hand.
"Everyone, clear the area! Plan 13 is about to be implemented! Booster, quickly to me!"
Plan 13A
Have Superman find Doomsday, the Lifeform that recovers every time it dies , and throw it at the barrier.
Results: Ineffective, Doomsday dies on impact, bodily partially dissolves away.
Plan 13B
Have time traveler Booster Gold go to the future Doomsday revived in, bring Doomsday back, throw it back at the barrier.
Results.....Successful. Barrier and all lifeforms maintaining it destroyed. Attackers revealed to be magical horses. Resulting paradox removed the Doomsday from the future before resulting rampage in civilian areas.
Promptly begin recovery of ruined parts of Star City.
.....
Due to the world's experience in earth threatening crisis, this world of heroes was able to respond with the good will and cooperation of the civilians and local governments, being the 4th world saved from the Barrier.
48 more worlds still fear the dangers.
Among them another world of heroes: one that was not so fortunate.