Prologue: Sacrifice

10,000 Years ago….
Future site of Ponyville
213 DR (Discord's Reign)

Celestia blasted a mutated earth pony armed with what looked like a giant toothpick aside as she and Luna advanced, anger in her eyes at what the God of Chaos had done to the ponies she and her sister were about to lead. Around them, pieces of land floated in the air while a town lay ahead, the ramshackle buildings lying in ruins.

Behind them, two cloaked figures followed, hoods up, both the same height as the two Alicorns, but they both walked in a bipedal fashion, and as their cloaks shifted, the glint of sunlight on armor could be seen. One of the figures looked up to reveal two blue eyes that narrowed at the chortling Draconequus sitting on a throne on a hill nearby. A distortion appeared around it before eight blades suddenly appeared around the figure and hovered point first around it. Each blade shimmered with a strange energy, as if the natural light was held within each blade.

Sensing a disturbance, Discord stopped laughing and looked towards where the four were advancing from. Jumping off the throne, he said, “Well well well! If it isn't the so called “Saviors of Ponykind”, here to stop me and save the ponies!” He put emphasis on the word stop as a stop sign appeared in his paw. “Please, as if you could really stop me!” He then noticed the two figures behind the two Alicorns and his eyes suddenly widened in shock and fear. “Oh no, not you two!” He groaned, “As if I didn't have to deal with Sunbutt and Moon Pie here, you two blowhards show up!” Both Celestia and Luna snorted in annoyance at the names Discord gave them.

“Sorry for crashing the reunion, but the four of us have one thing in common, we don't like people lording it over others.” The figure with the floating swords said, its voice revealing it as female. She then pushed her hood back with gauntleted hands to reveal a face that had a shock of long white hair on top of her head, but the rest of her was furless. Her blue eyes glared at Discord as he glared back. “And what you’ve done to these ponies is unforgivable.”

“Oh please, I'm just having a bit of fun! But I'm not in the mood for dealing with you four, how about you deal with these…” Discord snorted before he waved his hand and a flock of 20 bird-like bipedal creatures appeared in from of him, electricity coursing through their wings. “Harpies! Bring the thunder!” He ordered before turning back to his throne

The Harpies flew towards the four only to scatter when the second figure suddenly leapt into the air and spread its own wings, only these were made entirely of electricity. It then tossed its cloak off to reveal a lightly armored creature with a skirt that reminded the two Alicorns of what the ponies of Roam wore and like the first figure, it had hair on the top of its head, but its face and the rest of its body was furless. But while the first figure had long white hair, the other had tawny brown short hair. It glared at the Draconequus with golden eyes before it drew a single sword that coursed with electrical energy. “Not this time Discord!” It snapped, revealing the figure as female also. “You’re not getting away from us any longer!”

Discord turned his head and snorted. “Let's see how well you’ll fight without those paws you call “Hands”.” He said before he snapped his fingers and both figures suddenly vanished in a burst of bright light. When the light cleared, two very different figures were seen. The cloaked figure stumbled, her eyes wide with shock at her new appearance. Where she had been a bipedal creature, she was now a unicorn with a white coat, mane and tail, and on her flank, hidden behind the cloak, were two blades crossed behind a crown. The figure in the air had also been changed, only to a pegasus with a light brown coat, and a tawny brown mane and tail. On her flank was a Phoenix over a lightning bolt. She still wore her armor, but it had changed with her, her boots and gauntlets now covering her hooves and her chest armor covered the entirety of her barrel, while her tail poked from her skirt.

“What… what did you do to us?!” The Pegasus asked, her voice shaking in shock and anger.

“You both seemed to like the ponies so much, I changed you into one, and at least in this form, you’ll prove less troubling than your original forms.” Discord replied with a smirk.

With a roar of rage, she swooped towards him, electricity suddenly blasting from her wings at him. His eyes widened in shock before he dodged to the side, a Harpy taking the brunt of the blasts. It screeched in pain as it was blasted back, falling unconscious after smashing into the ground.

The unicorn meanwhile had taken off her cloak, revealing her armor. Like the pegasus, she had a skirt below her chest armor, but this one was covered in white feathers. Glaring at Discord, her horn began to glow a cyan blue before the swords from before appeared around her. She then advanced, using the blades to strike out at any Harpies or discorded ponies in her path, as they struck, a flash of bright light both blinded and burned those the blades hit.

Discord growled in annoyance before he snapped his fingers again and a massive Halberd appeared in his paw. Gripping it with both his lion’s paw and eagle claw, he prepared to engage as the unicorn charged forward. With a ring of steel on steel, the two crossed blades, Discord managing to block the unicorn’s swords before delivering a thrust at the mare, only to have it blocked by the eight blades. “For someone that's not from here, you’re a real pain to deal with!” He growled.

“I’ve gotten that a lot, but at least I’m fighting to protect!” She retorted as she blocked another thrust. Seeing an opening, she thrust one of her blades and stabbed the God of Chaos in the arm. He yelped in pain and stumbled backwards. He glared at the mare as his arm healed. His eyes then widened as he saw what looked like blue crystals appear and float towards the unicorn before getting absorbed by her. Her eyes glowed briefly before they returned to normal, while her swords seemed to crackle with more energy.

“I forgot about those blasted things…” Discord grumbled. He then held his weapon in his paw before he fired a blast of Chaotic magic at her. Still not used to her new body, she tripped and was sent flying into a nearby house by the blast. “That should take care of her…” he chuckled before he was struck by three blasts of lightning. “Oooh, I’m really getting tired of you two!” He growled as he turned to face the pegasus.

“Well too bad, because we’ll be that last thing you'll see!” She snapped. He then noticed that two blades were now mounted on her wings and he groaned.

'I knew I should have gotten rid of that blade when I changed her…’ he reprimanded himself as the pegasus swooped towards him, her blades aimed at him. Just as he readied the halberd to swat her out of the sky, eight impacts caused him to stumble, a burning sensation following the blows. Wincing in pain, he turned his head to see the unicorn limping towards him, the impact having dislocated a shoulder. Her blades dripped with his blood, having been psychically recalled back to her after she threw them.

This proved to be a mistake for him as the pegasus smashed into him, her blades sinking into his chest and delivering a massive jolt of electricity. He yelled in pain before backhanding her into the ground in front of him. “This time, I'm going to make sure you don't interfere with my plans!” He snarled as he raised his halberd to deal a death blow to the mare.

“Cassie! No!” The unicorn yelled before her horn suddenly glowed and a bolt of magic smashed into Discord. He stumbled before turning to her, his eyes narrowed in anger.

“To quote a certain character in your world: GET OVER HERE!” He growled before she found herself yanked over to where her friend was.

“Rayla, Sefia, ye needst get away from him!” Luna yelled as a rainbow ring appeared around both her and Celestia.

Discord spun around and his eyes widened before he shouted, “Oh no you don't!” But before he could take a step forward, the unicorn stepped in front of him, followed by the pegasus.

“You’re not going anywhere!” She snarled as a blast of harmonic energy rose from the two Alicorns behind them and streaked towards the three. She then turned her head to Celestia and Luna and whispered, “Good luck you two…” As the blast from the elements struck, she turned her head and closed her eyes before everything turned dark as the three were turned to stone.

Both Celestia and Luna looked at the now stone forms of the two ponies and Discord, their minds reeling from seeing the two sacrifice themselves to halt their foe. Luna broke down after a few minutes, her sobs echoing through the ruined town. Celestia herself had tears pouring down her face as she realized that the two would never be able to see the world again. But what she didn't know was that in a place unaffected by Discord, a single earth pony prophet would write down a prophecy that foretold the return of the two when Equestria was at its darkest moment, when a more ancient foe would appear… and Gods… would fall…

When the Four Fallen appear, destruction seems near, but do not lose hope, for the two who slumber will awaken, and even the gods will tremble at their names… and the universe shall reveal their destiny as protectors of a new land….

Brave Frontier Equestria

Chapter 1: Awakening

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10,000 years after….
Canterlot Castle, Canterlot
1514 CLR (Celestia and Luna's reign)

Celestia jerked up from her bed with a gasp. She looked around frantically before she recognized her surroundings and relaxed, her breathing slowing down. 'What… what was that dream?’ She thought with a shudder, 'Ponies being attacked by creatures under control of some… malevolent being… was it some sort of vision of things to come? Or was it just some random nightmare…’

A small knock on her door caused her head to turn towards it. “Sister? Art thou awake?” Luna's voice asked. Celestia noticed that her voice was shaking, as if she had just gotten a fright.

“Luna, are you alright?” She asked, her own voice quivering a bit. The door opened and Luna stepped inside, her eyes showing her fear of whatever she had seen.

“I… I had a dream that Equestria was under attack by… some unknown foe. Ponies were being killed by creatures like what we saw back in Discord's time.” She said shakily.

Celestia's eyes widened in shock. 'She had the same dream as me?! This can't be a coincidence…’ she thought. “I had the same dream… but what does it mean?” She said.

“I don't know… but I think we must prepare for this new foe… because if we don't… Faust help us all…” Luna said as she looked out the window. Little did she know… in an another part of Equestria, her nightmare was becoming a reality...

Unknown town, near Fillydelphia

“Little Leaf, run!” A unicorn mare with a grey coat, red mane and tail, and a bird and binoculars cutie mark yelled to a earth pony filly with a white coat, and a brown mane and tail. Behind the mare, a host of creatures smashed through the town, and occasionally, flares of fire emanated from their mouths, incinerating both houses and ponies in their path.

The filly was sobbing in fear as the two ran towards the direction of Fillydelphia, the mare looking back now and again to make sure they weren't being pursued. The light from the burning town could be seen for a few miles, but unfortunately, from where Fillydelphia was, it couldn't be seen at all.

As the two ran, they didn't notice the pair of blue eyes that followed them from a nearby thicket before looking towards where they had come from. They then narrowed before disappearing as the owner of them headed towards the town, as it moved, the moonlight glinted off a steel blade before it then vanished into the darkness. 'Salamanders, I'm guessing… ugh, I can't deal with these alone, looks like I’ll need to get Seria and deal with them…’ it thought before it headed deeper into the nearby woods.

It was only a few hours later that a platoon of Royal Guard found the two hiding on the outskirts of Fillydelphia, exhausted and half dead with terror. It was then that the horror the two had seen was told, and a single pegasus flew back to Canterlot to deliver the news of what had happened.

Canterlot Castle, the next day...

The sound of the doors slamming open caused Celestia to look up as a pegasus guard ran in, a look of panic on his face.

“Your majesty! We just got news that two survivors from an attack on a town near Fillydelphia were found!” He said as he came to a stop.

Celestia's eyes widened in shock before she got off her throne and gave the guard an order as she headed to her chambers. “Wake my sister up and tell her to meet me here. I need to send a letter to Twilight.”

The guard nodded, but as Celestia left, he winced. Luna was not going to be happy about being woken up.

Ponyville, Golden Oaks Library
A few minutes later…

“Twilight, what's so important that all of us need to be here?” Rainbow Dash asked in annoyance. “I have other things to do!” She and the other four mares had come running as soon as they had heard from Spike that Twilight needed them and that it was urgent.

“I just got a letter from Princess Celestia, she says it's urgent.” Twilight retorted before she levitated a scroll over to where the six mares were gathered. “Apparently she wants us to come to Canterlot immediately, and for me to bring… a copy of The Tale of the Blade Queen and the Thunder Phoenix… why would she want me to bring a copy of that book?” She said, sounding confused.

“Maybe she wants to see the prophecy at the end!” Pinkie said, bouncing up and down. “Or maybe Company Master Sebaste has something else planned!”
(Throne damn it Pinkie! Don't you dare spoil anything!)

The five others looked at her in confusion before passing it off as Pinkie being Pinkie. “So whut are we waitin’ for? If Princess Celestia wants us over there, y’all can bet that something’s up.” Applejack said.

“I agree with Applejack, but why would Celestia want to have you bring a story about the two heroes who sacrificed themselves to stop Discord?” Rarity asked.

“That's what we're going to find out…” Twilight looked out the window. “But something tells me that we may find out that there's more than meets the eye with this…”

A few hours later, the six were on the train to Canterlot. As the train clattered along the tracks, Rainbow turned to Twilight in the car they were in. “So what's so important about two so called heroes?” She asked.

“These “so called heroes” were real ponies once, they were known as Blade Queen Sefia and Phoenix Thunder Rayla. Sefia had the ability to summon blades of light, while Rayla was able to call down lightning with every strike she made. They helped Celestia and Luna during Discord's reign, eventually stopping Discord and sacrificing themselves by being turned to stone with him.” Twilight said, “But recently, I found what looks to be a prophecy concerning these two: When the Four Fallen appear, destruction seems near, but do not lose hope, for the two who slumber will awaken, and even the gods will tremble at their names… and the universe shall reveal their destiny as protectors of a new land…. But I'm sure that's just something the author of the book made up.”

“Maybe, or maybe the two were weird creatures from another universe that got sent here to save us from some big bad meanies!” Pinkie interjected.
(Pinkie, I swear to the Emperor that if you spoil anything…!!!)

“Anyways… I'm sure that whatever the princess needs us to do,we can do it.” Twilight finished. What she didn't realize though, was that some legends… were more than just that….

Canterlot Gardens

Darkness… that's all Cassandra “Cassie” Dayros knew. Ever since she and her adopted sister Miriam “Mira” Dragos had been sealed in stone while stopping Discord, she had no clue of what happened in the outside world, instead, she was trapped in an eternal slumber.

A sudden jolt made her shift in her shell, but as she did so, pieces fell off from a fracture in it. In seconds, the stone shell had fallen off, and she toppled off the pedestal she had been perched on, her eyes still shut in slumber. Mira followed after, the two human turned ponies laying side by side as they slept near the pedestals they had originally been on.

After a few minutes, Cassie's ear flicked as a breeze blew through the garden and she began to stir. 'Wh… where are we?’ she thought sluggish, her mind still slowly waking up from her long sleep. She yawned and stretched, spreading her wings as she got the kinks out from her body. But as she looked up, her eyes widened at the sight of the castle in front of her. “M-Mira? Wake up, you need to see this…” she said, poking the unicorn. Mira groaned as she stirred, but she was soon awake and shakily standing up.

“Cassie? What's going o-” She began to ask before she too saw the castle. “Wh...Where are we? Last thing I remember was us being on that hill when the Princesses used the Elements….”

Before Cassie could answer, the two heard voices approaching where they were, two of which they recognized. But as the two headed towards where the voices were coming from, their legs still shaky from being encased in stone for who knew how long, a pair of guards in golden armor halted them. “Identify yourselves.” A unicorn mare ordered, while a pegasus stallion readied his wing blades.

Mira stepped forward and said, “I am Blade Queen Sefia, and this is Phoenix Thunder Rayla.” She finished, nodding towards Cassie.

Both guards snorted in disbelief. “Yeah right, they were turned to stone with Discord. You obviously aren't them, but where did you get the Nightmare Night costumes, at a store?” The pegasus scornfully said.

Both of the mare’s eyes narrowed in anger. “I would choose your next words carefully…” Cassie growled, flashing her own wing blades and letting bolts of electricity course through her feathers.

The unicorn’s eyes widened at the display, but before she could say anything, the pegasus rolled his eyes and retorted, “Please, like that's gonna scare me. Why don't you go back to the costume shop where you two belong?”

Mira growled in anger before the air shimmered and eight swords appeared around her, their points directed at the now nervous guard. “Care to run that by us again?” She asked, her tone soft.

As the pegasus opened his mouth, the unicorn stuffed a hoof in his mouth. “I think you’ve proven who you are…” she said, glaring at the stallion. “Private Cliff Wing here sometimes has a running mouth and that usually gets him into trouble. I'm Lieutenant Black Blade of Princess Celestia's Solar Guard.”

“It's nice to meet you both.” Mira replied, nodding her head to the two while giving a small glare at Cliff Wing.

“The pleasure is all mine, I honestly wasn't expecting to meet the Blade Queen and the Thunder Phoenix.” Black Blade chuckled.

“You said Princess Celestia, does that mean she's the leader of Equestria?” Cassie asked, her eyes curious. “Last I knew, she was only trying to save the ponies from Discord.” She then realized something. “How exactly did you know about us?”

“Both she and Princess Luna rule from here in Canterlot, the capital city.” Cliff Wing said after Black Blade took her hoof out of his mouth. “Honestly, how do you not know this?”

“Gee, maybe because we were trapped in stone for who knows how long!” Cassie snapped.

“It's been 10,000 years. But 1,000 years ago… Princess Luna turned…. Well, she’ll tell you what happened when she sees you.” Black Blade said. “As for how we know about you, there have been stories about your bravery and the sacrifice you made to stop Discord.” The two mares looked at Black Blade in shock before a new voice cut in.

“What's going on over here?! Lieutenant, Private, why are you two not on-” A white unicorn stallion with a dark blue mane and tail that had light blue streaks in them and light blue eyes in more ornate armor walked up to the guards, intending on reprimanding the two before he spotted the two mares behind them and his eyes widened before he regained his composure and asked, “Who exactly are you two?”

“They say they're the Blade Queen and Thunder Phoenix, but I don't honestly believe them.” Cliff Wing said with a salute, Black Blade also giving one.

Black Blade then facehooved while the two mares glared daggers at him. The unicorn stallion arched an eyebrow at that. “Maybe we should take this to the Princesses, see what they think of the situation.” He said, giving no sign of his shock over the two names Cliff Wing had given.

“Make of what situation?” Celestia asked as she, Luna Twilight, Spike and their friends appeared. The three guards saluted as they approached.

“Shining!” Twilight happily cried before running to the stallion, who grabbed her in a hug.

“Hey Twily! Wasn't expecting to see you here, what's going on?” Shining Armour asked.

“Something about some evil force and a prophecy concerning two ponies that got stoned.” Rainbow replied, rolling her eyes.

This caught both Mira’s and Cassie's attention. They pushed through the three before Mira asked, “What exactly are you talking about? What prophecy concerning us?”

Instead, they got astonished stares from the the seven in front of them. “Rayla? Sefia? Is that truly you?” Luna whispered.

“Wait, how do you know these two?” Rainbow asked in confusion.

“Because we are the ones who helped them stop Discord while sacrificing ourselves by turning to stone with him.” Cassie answered.

“You mean you're…?!” Twilight asked in astonishment.

The two nodded. “We are the Blade Queen and the Thunder Phoenix.”

“But when exactly did you appear here?” Twilight asked excitedly. “History doesn't mention you until the end of Discord's reign!”

Mira sighed before answering, “It's a long story, and some of it may surprise you. Our story begins a long time ago…”

As Mira started her tale, Pinkie looked up into space and said “What surprises lie in store for the ponies gathered? What is their secret? Find out next time on “Brave Frontier Equestria”!”
(EMPEROR DAMN YOU PINKIE!)

Chapter 2: Arrival

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“We weren't always ponies, we were turned into what you see now during our fight with Discord by the Chaos god himself. Back then, we looked very different, and where we came from… well, that's where our story begins…”

Cassie groaned. “Why do we have to attend this stupid Frontiercon? Couldn't we have gone somewhere else?”

Mira rolled her eyes. Both the 17 and 19 year olds were dressed as two of the summoned characters from Brave Frontier, Blade Queen Sefia and Phoenix Thunder Rayla. Mira thankfully looked the part as she had been born with white hair and blue eyes, while Cassie had to dye her black hair to look like Rayla's. Both had their armor custom made, along with the prop blades.

The reason for Cassie's complaining was where they were, the local FrontierCon convention, one of the few places where fans of the RPG game could meet the creators of the game and pose for pics. It was held in a local mall, and the place was packed with people, all dressed as different characters. Mira spotted one person that was dressed as a Flame Legend Vargas, while Cassie saw a pair that was dressed as Karl and Seria. As they walked through the stalls, Mira noticed what looked like a Battle Crystal in one stall. But as she picked it up, it suddenly began to glow. “Mira, put it down!” Cassie yelped, grabbing the crystal to take it from her friend before something happened to her, but as she did so, there was a massive flash of light and the two suddenly vanished.

“We woke up in some strange forest, clueless to where we were. But this wasn't the only thing we found out…”

Mira groaned as she woke up, having been knocked unconscious after the massive flash of light. As she propped herself up, she looked over at Cassie and froze in shock. Jutting from her friend's back were two wings, made entirely of electricity. 'Those weren't there before!’ she thought before she noticed that her blades were gone from her back and were now floating in the air in a circle around her. ‘What's…. What's happened to us?’ She then looked around, noticing that their surroundings were much different than before. 'And where are we? I don't remember being in a forest…’

“Cassie, wake up!” She said, shaking her sister's shoulder. Cassie muttered something before she slowly woke up.

“Mira? What's going on?” she asked before she saw Mira’s swords floating around her and scrabbled back in shock. “How… How are you doing that?!” She asked, her eyes wide.

“I don’t know… But did you take a look at yourself?” Mira asked. Confused, Cassie looked down at herself before shrugging. But as she did so, she suddenly felt something out of place on her back. Turning her head to either side, she gasped as she saw the wings flare out from behind her.

“M...Mira? What’s happened to us? How am I the real Rayla from the game?!” She asked, panic starting to take over.

“I don't know, but right now we need to figure out where we are…” Mira replied.

“What are you talking about? We’re still-” Cassie began to say before she noticed the trees surrounding them. “What the…?!” she gasped as she looked around. “W… where are we?!”

“Some sort of forest… guess whatever that flash from that battle crystal did, it caused us to appear here.” Mira said with a shrug, but as she did so, she felt something odd on her back. She turned to see what it was and gasped as she realized she also had wings, but they were too small to let her fly. “Maybe we should look for a way out. If we do, I bet someone can tell us where we are.” However, when she turned around and stretched out her wrist, there was a brief flash as something cut through the tree that was directly in front of her before going behind her.

“Well… that’s new…” She said, realizing that by focusing control through her hands and arms that the blades that were behind her could move to her will… only by trying to do the same motion a second time by wildly shaking her arms aimlessly and for the swords behind her to not move an inch. Turning towards Cassie, she then spoke up. “Come on, let’s get out of here before we attract any attention to ourselves.”

Cassie nodded before the two headed deeper into the woods. Unaware that two pairs of eyes, one blue and one Magenta, looked on in surprise and shock from their hiding place.

“ A week passed, and we hadn’t seen any sign of habitation. I remember seeing what looked like floating pieces of land in the sky, but when we finally encountered something… It wasn't what we expected.,..”

The two girls had been walking through the forest for a week, but other than spotting what looked like wooden wolves, they hadn’t seen any other sign of life. But they had noticed that the world they were in… Was unlike anything they remembered from back home. There were floating pieces of land and rabbits with ridiculously long legs, and the paths were made out of soap. “What kind of whack job world is this?!” Cassie asked, baffled. “It’s like something out of a cartoon!”

“I have no idea, but we need to find a town or a city that has people that can help us get home.” Mira said before she heard a shout.

“Thou shalt not harm our ponies!” A female voice said before the speaker cried out in pain.

A new voice spoke up, this time the speaker was male. “Oh please, I’m not gonna hurt them, but I am considering turning the both of you into toads if you keep interfering!” He said, his voice both amused and annoyed. Both speakers sounded like they were a few feet from the two, hidden by the trees.

“Who was that?” Mira asked herself.

“Who cares? We haven’t met anyone in almost a whole entire week! We can finally ask someone for directions!!” Cassie told her, going on ahead despite Mira telling her to wait.

Cassie soon burst out of the foliage and stopped in shock at the scene before her. In front of her were two winged horses with a single straight horn on their heads, one was alabaster white and had the symbol of the sun on its flank along with a pink mane and tail and her magenta eyes stared at Cassie in surprise and pain as it laid on its side. The other was smaller than the first and had a navy blue coat with a light blue mane and a symbol of the moon on its flank. Facing them was one of the weirdest creatures Cassie had ever seen. One that looked like a… very messed up version of Frankenstein with a lions paw, eagle talon, dragon like body, goat like head and various other parts. Mira soon arrived and stared at the creature.

“Good god, do I really want to know what gave birth to that?” Mira gulped, a little disgusted at first.

“I beg your pardon?! Leave my mother out of this!” The creature said in an offended tone as it turns to face the two, only to stare at them in surprise. “Well, well, well… I don't recall seeing you two here before…” It then said, a mischievous look on its face. “In fact…” it frowned, “I don’t recall seeing your kind here in Equestria.”

“Uh… We’re just looking for someone who can give us directions.” Cassie replied, causing Mira to facepalm. “We’ve been stuck in that forest for the last week and just out now to find some weirdo with a creepy grin and some… pegasus/unicorn… people.”

“Cassie, shut up…” Mira whispered under her breath. She then raised an eyebrow at what the creature had said. “Equestria? I don't think I’ve heard of that nation… yet what I did here was you threatening to turn people into toads and…… that sounds kind of pathetic if you are trying to be the bad guy. No offense.”

“Moi? A bad guy? I’m just someone that likes to have a bit of fun! Discord, God of Chaos and Mischief at your service.” He said. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to be off!” He made an attempt to leave, only for his path to be blocked off by eight swords as the two ponies watched Mira block off his escape route.

“I don't think so. You’re hiding something that you don't want us to know about.” She said, seeing something fall to the ground by Cassie’s feet. “And I heard someone cry out in pain, which means you were attacking someone.”

“Hunh… League of Villainy Registration card…” Cassie replied as she began reading the information off of it out loud. “Says here that he has a crush on someone named Celestia… Who’s that?”

“That would be me,” The Alabaster pony then spoke up… shortly before Cassie began to burn into a fit of laughter. Mira meanwhile stared in shock.

‘Talking horses?! Oy, this just got even weirder…’ she thought.

Discord quickly snapped his fingers and the card vanished in a flash of light, startling the two and causing Cassie to groan. “Aw man…”

“As much as I would like to stay and chat.. I need to go.” He said, his tone becoming annoyed. Mira stood her ground as he glared at her.

A blast of energy smashed into Discord from behind, causing him to stumble forward. He turned his head to glare at the blue pony, her horn glowing. “I’ll deal with you after I take care of these two party poopers.” He growled as he turned back to the two humans. He then snapped his fingers and a single ax appeared in his lion’s paw while his eagle claw coursed with unknown energies. Cassie unsheathed her own weapon, the blade etched with electrical runes that coursed with power. Raising his talon, Discord launched a blast of dark energy at Mira, who used two of her blades to block it before charging and swinging her left arm upwards. Two of the leftmost blades swung towards Discord and slammed into him, emitting a bright flash of light that blinded him and left a burning sensation from where the blades hit. “Yeowch! Ooh, you’ll pay for that!” He snarled as he fired another blast of dark energy in her direction. This time, the shot sent her flying into a nearby tree. He began to turn, but as he did so, a single blade slashed into him before a massive blast of electricity smashed down on him.

His ears ringing, he saw what looked like blue crystals floating on the ground before they started to float towards Cassie and being absorbed by her. As she looked up, he saw her eyes glow briefly before she then yelled, “ THUNDER BLADE: YELLOW SILK!” She then slashed with her blade and an arc of energy smashed into him before multiple electrical blasts rained down on him. As the dust cleared, Discord was laying on the ground with cartoon stars circling his head. He shook his head to clear it and and got back onto his feet.

“It seems I’m a little outclassed… You may have won this time, but don't think you’ve won the war. I’ll make sure you don't interfere with my plans…” He said before he vanished in a flash of light. Cassie glared at the spot where he had been.

“And we’ll make sure you don't hurt anyone else…” She muttered. “Wait, what was that about a war?”

“He means we haven't stopped him.” Mira said, before turning to the two ponies.
“Are you two okay?” she asked. They nodded, but Celestia then winced as she stood up and stretched her wings. The blow she had received from the spirit of chaos had taken a small toll on her as it made her body sore. But nevertheless, she fought through the pain and began to speak to both of the individuals who saved her.

“Thank you both for driving off Discord. My sister and I have been trying to stop his madness for two centuries… with no success.” She said. Cassie and Mira stared at her in surprise.

“You said two centuries… Just how old are you two?!” Cassie asked, flabbergasted.

“318, Luna’s 314.” Celestia replied. “May we ask who you two are?

“I am Blade Queen Sefia, She Who Wields Eight Blades, and this is Phoenix Thunder Rayla.” Mira said.

“Tia, art thou done speaking with these two? We need to find a way to defeat Discord and save our subjects, and these two are holding us up.” Luna asked, her accent sounding like that of a medieval speaker. “Not to mention that you need to recover from that blow he gave you.”

“Subjects? You mean the both of you are royalty?” Mira asked, her eyes curious.

Celestia sighed. “It was something that was thrust upon the both of us… And stopping Discord is our first true test as rulers.”

“And we don't need thy help in stopping him.” Luna said, glaring at the two. “While we art thankful that ye helped us, thou wilt only hold us back.”

Cassie opened her mouth to retort, but was stopped by Mira’s hand over her mouth. “Just leave it Cassie. It’s obvious they don't want our help.” The white haired girl said. “We’ll leave the two of you alone, but I have a feeling we may be working together to stop Discord sometime when you least expect it.” Luna snorted at that.

“We’ll see… I highly doubt it.” She said before she turned and began to trot away. “Coming Tia?” She asked.

Celestia sighed before she said, “I wish you both luck. And forgive Luna if she seems a bit rude, she’s not as open as I am.”

“Thank you, and it’s fine. It was nice meeting the two of you.” Cassie said. Celestia gave a small smile before she turned to join Luna. But just as the two were disappearing into the trees, Mira called out to them.

“Celestia, what are you exactly?”

Celestia turned her head and replied, “We’re called Alicorns.” And with that, the two sisters vanished into the woods.

“Over the next few months, the two of us encountered creatures from Brave Frontier, some were allies, others were foes. The soon to be Princesses we encountered a few more times, while Discord kept trying to stop us from foiling his plans over and over with little success. It all came to a head in a ruined village, the Princesses had obtained six unknown gems that thrummed with power, and with our help, we gave them time to enact a spell that would turn Discord to stone. But during the battle, Discord turned us into a Pegasus and Unicorn. Just as the spell was cast, we held Discord back, sacrificing ourselves by being turned to stone with him. And for 10,000 years, we had been trapped in stone, until now….”

Mira then fell silent as the ponies around her and Cassie looked at them with shocked looks over what they had heard. Celestia sighed as she remembered their first meeting. ‘So many years have passed since our first encounter… and now they’re being called upon to face this coming darkness. May Faust protect them both…’ She thought as Twilight and her friends began to ask questions. But what they didn't know… was that things were about to become more complicated….

Chapter 3: The Rune Slayer and the Summoners

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Crossover with "Magic and Machines" by Frost The Wolf

“So wait… you two were beings called 'Humans’?” Rainbow asked after Mira had finished telling her story. The former human nodded in response while she cleared her throat before coming up with a proper response.

“It was quite a shock when Discord turned us into ponies. We… still have a lot to learn about our new bodies.” she replied, “But it hasn't changed our powers or abilities.”

“You said you two were thunder and light type units… What exactly are you able to do? And what exactly are 'units’?” Twilight asked, her curiosity piqued.

“In the game our characters are from, There are six elements, Light, Dark, Thunder, Earth, Water and Fire. Each affects another, so if I was going against an Earth unit, I would be very weak against it.” Cassie explained, “And units are the creatures/team members that decide to follow you or that you summon from certain gates.” As she said this, she suddenly felt something strike the back of her head. “Ow! Okay, who threw that!?” She growled, turning to the guards behind her.

They shook their heads, confused looks on their faces. Mira looked down to see a single flat stone with what appeared to be an unusual marking on it. As she picked it up with a hoof, she suddenly heard a single voice ring out in her mind. “I am Nicko. The Rune Slayer with a kind heart. The power that's in my grasp and that you control will become the power that the darkness will fear. May there be light on the roads that you travel.”

She dropped the stone in shock, stepping back while Cassie turned to her with a worried look on her face. “Mira? What happened?”

“I… I just heard a voice from that rock… Someone named Nicko and something about a Rune Slayer…” Mira said, her voice shaking a bit and causing Cassie to arch an eyebrow while looking at her..

“You mean from Elsword? Please, that's impossible. There no way there's someone that's from that game here. It's probably just a prank.” She then picked up the stone and said, “Nicko, or whoever you are, mind dropping in for a sec? I need to have a few words with you…”

At that exact moment, Pinkie yelped, “TWITCHY TAIL!” The two mares looked at the others as they suddenly backed up several feet away from Cassie in the process. Making her confused as to what was actually going on and why were they looking at her like she just did something wrong.

“Um… What's going on?” She asked in confusion, while Mira just shrugged her shoulders, just as confused as her friend.

“A-anytime that Pinkie says that, s-something always falls.” Spike told them as he looked up at the sky and around him before looking back at them. “If I were you Cassie… I would probably move from where you are right now…”

Cassie snorted. “Seriously? That is the most ridiculous thing I have ever hear-!” She didn't get the chance to finish before something did actually crash on top of her. Coughing up a cloud of dust as they heard a new voice speak up.

“Oww… J-just what the hell did I land on top of-?” This was an immediate surprise for not just Cassie and Mira, but also the ponies, including the princesses and the baby dragon that were with them. First off, the voice that they heard was that of a male. Second… when the cloud of dust began to subside… who they saw immediately caught their attention.

“Vargas?! I… I thought Cassie and I were the only Brave Frontier characters here…” Mira said in a shocked voice. “But since when did you shrink?”

“Uhh… Who the hell is Vargas?” The figure first asked, before realizing the second statement that was said and gritting his teeth, trying to compose himself. “Would you care to repeat that last remark… I did not quite catch that…”

Sensing that repeating the statement would only anger him more, Mira decided to change tactics and say something different to ease any tensions. “I'm sorry, I wasn't meaning to anger you-.”

“You sure? Because it sounded like you called him short!” Pinkie shouted out, only to receive glares from her friends and Mira… that only seemed to just confuse her. “What? I was just telling the truth? What’s wrong with that?”

What was wrong with it of course was seen once the figure deeply growled a bit. “Great, first I get summoned and end up flat on my ass with god knows what breaking my fall and now I’m being insulted…” He spoke before getting off of whatever he was on and straightening himself up. One thing that Mira could tell right away from this guy was that his hair matched that of the actual Rune Slayer class from Elsword. Even if he did remind the two of them of Vargas. “What a day I’m having so far.”

“Owwwww…. That hurt….” Cassie groaned as she scrambled up and flared her wings to get rid of any aches in her body from the impact. She then noticed the new figure next to her. “Who’s the Edward Elric impersonator with red hair?”

“I have a name...” He deadpanned, looking back at the Pegasus. “Besides, wouldn’t you know that since you summoned me here in the first place?”

“Summoned? But you're not from the Brave Frontier world… where exactly are you from?” Mira asked, a confused look on her face before she shook her head. “I'm sorry, I'm being rude, what is your name?” She thought that by asking for his name, it could help clarify some things and answer some questions that were inside her head.

Unfortunately, all that did was have more questions begin to form inside her head instead of less. “My name is Nicko Nocte… May I ask for your name, miss?”

“Miriam, Miriam Dragos. And that Pegasus you landed on is Cassandra Dayros.” She replied, stepping forward so that Nicko could see her clearly. She then realized something. “Wait, that was your voice that came from that stone??

“Well, you did use my summoning token to bring me here in the first place.” The Rune Slayer did mention to her, thinking that they had some sort of idea as to what a displaced was.

“Not to mention that you did ask for him to drop on in.” Rainbow snickered, only leading to Pinkie sighing deeply as she turned to face her friend.

“Leave humor to the professionals, Dashie.” Pinkie Pie told her before bouncing around a little to try and get a better angle at the Rune Slayer himself. He was directly facing Mira and Cassie, meaning that the only thing that the earth pony could see was the back of his cloak.

“Token? What are you even talking about?” Cassie asked. That soon caused Nicko to sigh as he looked back at the two of them. He personally had thought that they had met another displaced before… but as it turned out, they had no prior experience whatsoever… just the perfect position to be placed in.

“You two have no idea at all about the Displaced, do you?” He asked them, knowing personally that they were going to shake their heads no.

“Never heard of them, and we still need to catch up on what’s happening after being turned to stone to help stop Discord…” Mira said, “Not to mention we need to find a way to change back into our original bodies…”

“Well, let me make this quick… I’m going to take a very wild guess that you were originally humans and that through some random series of unfortunate events, you’re now here.” The Rune slayer guessed as he waited for the response that followed.

“We were sent here after Mira picked up a battle crystal and it started glowing. After that, we had to avoid some of the creatures while we learned about our powers. We met Celestia and Luna a few weeks after, they had just suffered a defeat from Discord, we had our own encounter with him a week before and we barely managed to defeat him before he retreated. A month later, Celestia, Luna, Mira and I fought him at a ruined town. It was there-” Cassie managed to explain before Mira interrupted.

“Wait, How do you know about us originally being humans?”

“Two things… First, you did say you were trying to find a way to change back into your original bodies like five minutes ago,” Nicko pointed out to them. “Second, the same thing ended up to me… just with different circumstances and in a different Equestria… and before you ask, yes… The Multiverse is real.”

Those four words only had one proper reaction from a particular unicorn that was listening as Twilight almost fainted from her brain overloading from all the information she was trying to process.

The two former humans looked at Nicko in shock. “So there are other Equestrias? That's… that's impossible!” Mira stammered.

“You may think that, but I’m telling you two the truth.” Nicko told them, shrugging his shoulders. “However, what you think about it isn’t really up to me… Both of you are Displaced… or dimensionally misplaced for short. So am I and almost the hundred to possibly thousands of other people out there that have also been displaced. Hell, some people aren’t even displaced as humans.”

“We didn't ask to get turned into ponies, that was Discord that turned us into them.” Cassie growled. Nicko sighed, walking over to them and getting down on their level.

“Let me fix that… fair warning though, this may sting.” Nicko told them, before having magic form in his right hand as he delivered a quick backhand smack to the two of them “Enchant Break!”

It may have hurt temporarily, but there was a reason Nicko did the ability in the first place. Enchant Break was a skill that removed any elemental buffs in exchange for damage. But Nicko had went a little further with experimenting when it came to this skill so it would also work against status effects and with the extra magic that was applied… included transformations as well… at least, that’s what he thought. When he saw the magic he applied did work though, he breathed out a sigh of relief. “ Oh thank Artemis that actually worked.”

Lying on the ground were now two human females wearing light armor and skirts. But the big surprise was that one of them had wings that were pure electricity. Cassie groaned before she saw that her hoof was now a hand. She leapt into the air in shock and surprise, and quickly felt her face. “I'm… human again…” She whispered. She then landed and saw that her blade was sheathed at her side. Pulling it out, she saw that it crackled with the same energy her wings were made of. Pure electricity like that from a thunderstorm. Mira meanwhile had also gotten up, and while she was also shocked, she controlled it better than her friend. She then closed her eyes before the air around her shimmered and eight swords appeared around her. With a quick wave of her hands, she then caused them to vanish.

“Well that’s something you don’t see everyday.” Nicko smirked.

“And I thought you hit them because you were still a bit mad at when they called you short.” Applejack spoke up.

“Yeah……. That’s just a small bonus.”

Cassie snorted and rolled her eyes. “Seriously, has anyone told you that you have a temperament like Edward Elric every time someone called you short?” She asked as she sheathed her blade. “Because you acted just like him when you got mad, minus the anime signs of anger.”

“Try being in a home for adopted children for 12 years and having all of your talents and skills overlooked because of your height,” The Rune Slayer told her. “Then you would know how I feel.”

Mira winced. “I can understand that. I was teased in school because I was born with white hair, among other things. It… wasn't a good time for me.” She said, rubbing her left arm.

Hearing this made Nicko think of something before speaking again. “Then I think you would love meeting my niece, Faith. She has white hair as well and is a Code Queen. Has two nasod drones with her wherever she goes.”

Cassie chuckled before she replied, “It’s honestly been awhile since Mira and I have played Elsword back on Earth. So sorry if we confused you with someone else earlier.”

“Nah it’s alright… In fact, now that you mention it… you two look a lot like some characters from a game I used to play myself… I think the name of it was Brave Frontier if I remember correctly. Sorry, my memory’s a bit shaky… Especially when I accidentally got turned to stone by the elements sometime back.” The Rune Slayer replied, scratching the back of his head. “It’s a long story and it involves a psychotic Diabolic Esper who went mad with power.”

“We just got free of being statues ourselves. We still have 10,000 years of history to catch up on, but sacrificing yourself to stop Discord will do that to you…” Mira chuckled.

“Yeah it does… Good thing I still have my magic and don’t have to start from scratch,” He replied, having a rune form in his hands before dismissing it. “That would suck if I had to start over-.”

“What the hay was that!?” Twilight asked, shocked to see the new figure that had arrived only seconds ago being able to perform magic… and high level magic no less.

“That’s my power. I have control over Rune Magic and where I’m from, only my friend Moondancer and myself have control over it. The only other pony that was capable of doing it was Starswirl the Bearded and he died before being able to complete his research on Rune magic. Plus, I’m the only one that can read his notes.”

Celestia then cleared her throat. “The reason I had brought the Element bearers here is because last night, both Luna and I had the same dream. Ponies under attack by creatures we saw back in Discord’s time, but controlled by an unknown enemy. And just recently I received news of an attack on a town near Fillydelphia, two survivors were found on the outskirts of the city. From what they described, the town was attacked by a group of four legged creatures that spat out fire.”

“And these creatures aren’t dragons at all?” Nicko then asked, folding his arms. “Because some dragons don’t need to have wings, but can be just as deadly on all four legs.” Scratching his chin, he thought of something for a moment before looking back at the two princesses. “Did the two survivors give a description of the beasts themselves? Like help the guards compose a rough sketch?”

“They mentioned that every time the creatures breathed fire, their whole body would go up in flames also. They were a dark red with glowing yellow eyes and a crocodile like mouth.” At this, both Mira and Cassie looked at Celestia in shock. While Nicko himself could only think of one thing in his head when he looked back at the two princesses.

“Salamanders…” He said before looking at Mira and Cassie. “You two thinking what I’m thinking?”

They nodded before Cassie said, “I think so, but where are we gonna get a pool table at this time?” That just caused Nicko to look back at her before facepalming himself and then turning his gaze towards Mira. He adjusted his gear and then summoned one of his own weapons as it released a warm red glow from it as he looked back at both of them.

“Something tells me we got a lot of work to do first before you get that.” Nicko mentioned. “I may have other objectives to do back home, but I can’t just leave when you guys are in need of help.”

Mira nodded before her blades appeared around her. She then turned to Celestia and Luna and asked, “Where exactly is this town?”

“I do not know, but one of the survivors, a unicorn named Bird Seeker can lead you to it. But be warned, she’s still traumatized by what happened to it.” Luna answered.

“And what of the other survivor? Are they still recovering?” Nicko then asked them.

“Yes, the filly is still recovering, but it will take a long time before she can talk about this without going into a panic attack.”

“Well, maybe we should start with the filly,” He suggested. “Don’t worry… I have an idea that can work. Just let me try it and see what I can find.”

Celestia nodded. “Very well. I wish you three luck.” With that, Nicko let both Mira and Cassie guide him to where they needed to go before having the princesses help them out. He believed that since they knew more about their world then he did, the Rune Slayer would let them guide him to where they needed to go first.

After getting directions from a guard, the three stopped at a small building where the two were staying. Mira then knocked on the door and stepped back. After a few minutes, the door opened and a timid mare peeked out. “Yes? May I help you?” She asked in a shaky voice

“Would you happen to be Bird Seeker by any chance?” Nicko asked the mare, making sure to do it softly and not try to intimidate the mare accidently. “We wanted to talk to you about something. Can we come in please?”

She nodded hesitantly before she opened the door wider to allow the three inside. The room itself looked to be a small home that had a big living room and kitchen area. One in with the mare guided them too and asked if they could have a seat at the table. Nicko himself dismissed his weapon so that way he didn’t give off a bad and intimidating impression to the pony that he was trying to help.

As Mira sat down, she saw a filly peeking out from the hallway, peering nervously at her and her companions. Nicko noticed the young filly as well, but shortly after seeing her, the filly scurried off down the hall and into her room, closing the door behind her. He was wanting to ask Bird Seeker about it, but held off in doing so. Thinking that Mira or Cassie could help by starting off the conversation.

“We… heard of what happened to your town… and… well… we wanted to try and help you somehow… Can you try and tell us what exactly happened?” Mira asked. “We’re not asking for much. Just only what you can remember… if that’s okay with you, Ms. Seeker.”

Bird Seeker nodded before she began to explain, “I was on my way home after visiting a friend a few blocks down. After a few miles I suddenly heard screaming, and as I ran up to where it was coming from, I saw the entire south side on fire. Ponies were running for their lives from the blaze, and what had caused the blaze was stalking up behind them. They were these big dark red lizard like creatures with yellow glowing eyes and a crocodile like mouth. They spat jets of flame, and any pony or anything that was caught in those flames…” She shuddered in fear. “I saw Little Leaf, the filly you just saw, looking for her parents. Unfortunately, her parents were killed when a burning building collapsed on them as they ran through the town. Both she and I were the only ones to make it out alive.” She then fell silent. Both Mira and Cassie looked at her with horrified eyes, Mira holding a hand to her mouth.

“Dear god, that sounds horrible…” Nicko commented.

“I… I’m so sorry….” Mira whispered, her voice sounding shaken. Her mind flashed back to a memory she could never forget, the cries of people trapped in a burning building, her crying out for her parents in a strange room. Cassie noticed her adopted sister starting to freeze up and knew what exactly was happening.

“Mira, snap out of it. That happened a long time ago.” She said gently, while putting a hand on her shoulder. “You had no control over those events.”

Seeing that Cassie was tending to Mira, Nicko thought of something and decided to speak up and ask her something. “What was the name of the town where this took place?”

“Sun’s Hollow.” Bird Seeker replied. “Why did you want to know?”

“Well… My first thought would be if there was anything the town that might’ve attracted the monsters to attack in the first place. From my experience, some monsters don’t attack unless otherwise provoked so if there was something there that was luring them in the first place, maybe that might explain why they came to the town in the first place.” He explained, looking at Cassie afterwards. “It’s just a thought, but right now, it’s the only thing we got. I would only think that by going there would we find out why they attacked in the first place.”

“You… You want me to take you three to where the town was?” She asked nervously.

“Not exactly take, but maybe tell… do you have a map of sorts?” Nicko asked.

She nodded and said, “I do, it’ll take some time to find it.” before leaving the room.

Mira then slumped in her chair and groaned. “I’m sorry for freezing up like that, hearing what Ms. Seeker just described brought back some bad memories…” she said.

“Nah, it’s alright.” Nicko insisted. “I understand what you mean. I met some people that have had that happen to them and early on when I was displaced, I had to go through something like that myself. Why do you think that before I was displaced, my brother and I were in an orphanage for roughly twelve years?” Both of them were silent at that for a moment and Nicko himself was quiet. Trying to not interrupt their thought process. But by the time they were going to say something, Bird Seeker had returned with the map that was requested.

“The best way to get to Sun’s Hollow is from the train station near Fillydelphia. There should be a path leading to it, but… please be careful. Bandits hide in the woods near it.” She said as she handed the map to Nicko. He noticed some of the scribbles that were on it and also looked at where she circled the town itself… and placed x marks on other locations that she determined as danger zones. However, there was one zone in mind that was close to the mountain range nearby that was relatively close to the town itself. And if that was not relatively off putting… the name was.

Firelight Ridge

“Thanks Bird Seeker. This will help us a lot.” He thanked her, letting Cassie and Mira examine the map themselves.

“You’re welcome. And… I hope you avenge the lives lost there.” She replied. “None of this should have happened…”

“We will make sure to get to the bottom of this, I promise you that.” Nicko replied to her as he put a hand on one of her hooves to comfort her. “Whatever it takes, we will make sure to find out why they came, avenge the fallen and help those souls be at peace.” With that, he stepped out of the room, taking the chance to get some fresh air and allowing for both Cassie and Mira to process the map a little bit longer.

The sound of hooves suddenly made him turn around and he saw Little Leaf hesitantly walk up to him. “Is it true you’re going to my home?” She asked, her voice squeaking.

“Y-yeah it is…” He said briefly. The Rune Slayer was unsure if the young filly overheard their conversation at all, but he did not want to make things sound overly complicated. Especially when telling a young filly who basically lost everything. Including her friends, family… and her home.

“So you and the Blade Queen and the Thunder Phoenix are gonna fight those monsters?”

“Yes we are” He answered, not trying to go too much into detail. He was talking to a child after all and long explanations would either not make sense or bore her unintentionally. “Hang on… Blade Queen and Thunder Phoenix? Are you referring to Cassie and Mira?”

She nodded. “The Blade Queen is known for wielding eight floating blades while the Thunder Phoenix has wings made of lightning that disappear after she makes her attacks but return afterwards. Most ponies know about this!” She said.

“Well, I’m not like most ponies,” He mentioned, which was true. “In fact, some may just consider me as a traveler here… I’m capable of many great things, but I’m not from here. I come from somewhere far… different to put it simply.” He honestly thought of continuing, but at this point, he thought that he had already spoken enough. Didn’t exactly want to tell a little filly about the multiverse… course she probably wouldn’t understand it either but it wasn’t his job to try and complicate things.

“How exactly are you not like most ponies?”

“Well… that’s not so easy to explain…” Nicko replied. “But to make things simple, I’m just as good with a sword as I am with sorcery.” To demonstrate, he showed her one of the simple runes he could form from an outstretched hand as he had it disperse a few moments later and had the magic scatter like dust.

Before she could ask more, Bird Seeker’s voice called out from the house. “Little Leaf, it’s time for dinner! Come back inside!” The sound of footsteps was then heard as Cassie and Mira walked out, followed by the unicorn mare herself. She chuckled as she looked at Nicko and the filly. “I should have warned you, she has quite an inquisitive mind.” She remarked.

“It’s never wrong to be curious,” He replied. “She looks to be pretty… interested in some of my magic.” He looked to Cassie and Mira shortly before asking them something. “Do we have everything that we need?”

They nodded. “Ready when you are.” Cassie said, holding up the map.

“Let’s go then… I’m following you guys since you may know more about this place then I do.” He admitted, scratching the back of his head in a bit of embarrassment.

“If it’s any comfort to you, we’re pretty much going in blind also. We still don't know many of the places here or what’s changed in 10,000 years.” Mira replied. He nodded his head while the two of them walked, acknowledging everything they said while they made their way to Canterlot’s gate.

“To be fair, the Equestria I’m familiar with is a lot different from yours… and not just by landmarks either.” The Rune Slayer told them. “Come on though, let’s get going before Pinkie Pie tries to throw us a going away party.”

Cassie landed next them and nodded in agreement. “To be honest, she creeps me out…” She said, shuddering. “If she’s that hyper, I don't want to know how much sugar she inhales on a daily basis…”

“She works at a bakery… I think that pretty much tells you how much.” Nicko told her as they went outside the gate to the Canterlot Train Station.

Cassie groaned and said, “Forget I said anything…”

Mira giggled at that as they arrived on the platform before turning serious. “Hopefully we’re dealing with just Salamanders and bandits… If not, we may be getting in over our heads…” She said.

“Trust me, you don’t know the kind of things I have to put up with on a regular basis.” Nicko mumbled, reflecting on all the challenges that he had to overcome over the years from the people he met to the monsters he had to defeat. Yup, there was definitely a lot.

“What kinds of things?” Cassie asked, looking over at Nicko.

“Well… let’s just say that a friend of mine is a Crimson Avenger who thinks the best way to get ponies attention is to make it look like blood is dripping from the walls and shouting “HEY KIDS, WANNA SEE A DEAD BODY!?!” to scare anypony, A lot of my family members ended up as other Elsword Displaced, my teacher is a Kaiser dragon who thinks the best way to train you by almost killing you, a lot of the displaced I met are good friends that can drive you nuts and back home, I need to fight back against a series of demons that are trying to control my home… Care for me to explain more?”

The two looked at him in disbelief. “That’s… a bit disturbing with what your friend did…. And you have a teacher that’s a dragon?! And I thought Sasha didn't make sense with his talk about a game called Warhammer 40,000… Wait, you said there were more of these ‘displaced’!?” Mira asked in shock. Cassie rolled her eyes, knowing that her sister had a small crush on the guy after they had met him and two of his friends back on earth.

“Trust me. There’s a LOT more. Some of them play the role of the hero, some play the role of the bad guy and sometimes, some displaced are like ‘screw the rules, I do what I want and I’m having fun while doing it’. It just honestly depends on not just what they are displaced as, but where they end up,” The Rune Slayer told them as the train soon arrived to go to Fillydelphia station. Once they were all on board, he soon picked up where they left off. “For my world, all the ponies and other creatures are anthropomorphic and Celestia has a brother named Artemis instead of a sister and for a friend of mine I know named Lance, Twilight and her friends in that universe are superheroes in a city called Maretropolis… and that’s only the tip of the iceberg.”

“How exactly did you encounter all of them? There must be like millions of Equestrias!” Cassie said, ignoring the surprised and amazed looks she was getting from the ponies nearby. “Unless they suddenly appeared in your Equestria, I’m finding it hard to believe that you’ve met all of those displaced in a day.”

“You summon them,” Nicko replied, pointing at the mark that was his token. “Each Displaced has a summoning token unique to them and by calling upon them, they can come to you. However, it works two ways and a displaced you try to summon can end up resisting and bring you to them instead. We can make you two a token later though. Right now, let’s focus on the task at hand.”

Mira nodded, the minute wings on her back shifting and causing her hair to shift with them. “Cassie and I have encountered Salamanders before, back in Discord’s time. They’re very territorial, but… I’ve never heard of them banding together and suddenly torching a town. They usually stay in their own territories.” She said, tapping her chin in thought. “It’s almost like someone took over their minds…”

“I have a feeling that might be what happened.”

Cassie frowned. “But the only one that could do that was Discord, and he’s sealed in stone!” She said. “So there’s no way someone else could have done it!”

“You do realize that there are more possible threats than just Discord himself right?” Nicko replied back, looking at them. “Remember when you mistaked me as Vargas? Maybe there’s someone from wherever you guys are that’s pulling the strings this time.” Before being Displaced, Nicko liked playing Brave Frontier on an old Google Nexus Tablet he used to have, so he had some knowledge of it. But it was only a small amount compared to what Cassie and Mira might’ve known.

The three of them rode the train all the way to Fillydelphia Station before getting off of it and scanning the area. They were warned about the possibility of bandits attacking them, but the three of them stuck to the path and Nicko did not feel the presence of any bandits in the vicinity. But he did smell the scent of something burning in the area… and from looking at an old wooden signpost and seeing the words Sun’s Hollow across the front of a sign pointing to the left, they all began to hurry.

The three crested the hill and stopped as they looked on in disbelief at what used to be a town, but was now a burnt shell. Mira gagged as she spotted the scorched skeletons of the ponies, Stallions, mares and foals, that never had a chance to escape lying in the streets. She turned her head as tears welled up in her eyes. Cassie had a hand to her mouth, her eyes wide with horror. “My god….” She whispered as she grasped her sister's hand.

While Mira and Cassie were horrified by what they saw, Nicko was all too familiar with it. He did feel sorry for those that lost their lives, but thought that something was… off. For one thing, why would skeletons be laying around outside in particular. He only had one thought as to why… and if that was they were undead.

“It’s not pretty, is it?” A voice spoke up behind them, causing them to spin around to see a young human male wearing blue clothing and silver armor. But what caught their eye was the massive halberd he was holding in one hand. “They were caught out in the open when those Salamanders attacked, they never stood a chance against that fire breath.”

“And who would you happen to be? You got some nerve to try and approach us from a possible blindspot,” Nicko pointed out, summoning one of his blades known as Ebalon.

“The name’s Karl, a summoner from Grand Gaia. And who are you? You look like Vargas, but a bit more on the small side.” The stranger replied. “Me and another colleague managed to drive the Salamanders off, but we were too late to save the rest of this village.”

The Rune Slayer remembered the name, but twitched a little in irritation once he heard him call him small. Cassie rolled her eyes before she then realized something. “Wait, you said ‘Grand Gaia’, how did you end up in Equestria?”

“Let me take a wild guess then,” Nicko replied, folding his arms before saying what was on his mind. “You were summoned here… Better yet, you mentioned another colleague, so it’s best to assume that right now you are not alone.” He had a feeling of this because if this were true, this colleague could be hiding somewhere else or viewing Karl from a possible vantage point if it were an archer.

“Tilith said that a world needed our help, but we weren't expecting a world filled with sentient equines.” Karl replied. That had Nicko think back to when he used to play Brave Frontier with the names that we’re being mentioned. But he still felt that he needed to investigate around the village to look for clues.

At that moment, a human female came running up and stopped next to Karl. “Karl, what do you think you’re doing?! We’re supposed to be watching these three, not interact with them!” She growled. She was dressed in red light armor and wielding a massive great sword that glowed with fiery runes. “Honestly, and I thought you wanting to help save that village was bad enough!”

Now that was a lot different than what Karl originally said… and Nicko was honestly expecting this. There seemed to be more to this summoner that meets the eye and now was when more details were coming to light.

“Seria, what was I supposed to do, not try and save those villagers? We may not have been able to stop the Salamanders, but at least we drove them back!” Karl snapped. Seria snorted before she turned to the three.

“So you two are the new summoners here? I’m not impressed.” She said, looking at Mira and Cassie before addressing Nicko, “And who are you suppose to be, Vargas the Midget?” She asked

Nicko grit his teeth, gripping his blade. “Do I look like him to you? Besides, if I tried explaining it to you, you’ll be too confused to understand.”

Seria snorted. “I know a rookie summoner when I see one. And I doubt you’ve seen combat. So leave the fighting to the real summoners, short stuff.” At this, both Cassie and Mira winced. Nicko was really beginning to not like how she was pulling the short card on him.

“Are you just trying to provoke me based on appearance?” Nicko replied, looking at her as they saw some of his magic radiating from him. It was strong and very dense as she looked back at him. “Because we have a job to do and all you’re doing is preventing us from doing the right thing, lady.”

Karl gave Seria a warning look before he said, “We won’t get involved in your mission, but a word of warning. It’s not just Salamanders that are around, I saw a few Slyphs also.”

Cassie nodded before she leapt into the air and hovered above them. While the two summoners were walking and leaving the area, Nicko soon got to work on examining some of the homes that had been burned down as well as some of the other building too. He was doing this on his own because he thought that Mira needed a little bit of time to process everything before pitching in.

Soon though, when Nicko was examining what remained out of the building that were left, he soon came across something after having to remove a fallen bookcase. Some of the debris from it fell on something that was metal in nature. Metal? That was… unexpected for most common homes… unless there was some sort of basement. He soon pulled out his sword and removed some of the debris that was there before looking at his discovery. “Son of a b*tch…”

“Nicko? Did you find something?” Mira asked as she walked up to him.

“Oh it’s more than something alright,” Nicko told them as he showed the two of them what he found. “It’s the door to a storm cellar. Locked. And judging from it’s appearance… it can only be locked from the inside.” Telling them this, he looked back at the two of them as he prepared some of his magic just in case.

“What do you think it means?” She asked.

[

“Well, if there weren’t actually any survivors… this would be unlocked… somepony must’ve ran and hid in here because right now, the door is locked.” He explained to them. “And with the debris that was originally on top of it, it would be impossible for anypony to get out with that much weight against the door.”

Just as he finished talking, all three of them heard a click! go off as what was around the door began to loosen. Soon, they saw the door lift up and what they saw come out surprised them. It was a young pegasus and a pair of unicorn twins. All of them around the same age as Little Leaf and they were at first scared to see them. “D-don’t be scared… We’re here to help you.” Nicko told them, shortly before the pegasus began to speak.

“D...do you know what happened to our parents? They had us hide in here before the monsters attacked… We… We heard their screams….” She began to break down. Nicko placed a hand on her shoulder, trying to comfort them in the process.

“I… don’t know. I’m sorry… Out of everyone in the town, you three, Bird Seeker and another filly named Little Leaf are the only ones who weren’t harmed. Are you three harmed at all? How long were you in that cellar for?” He asked them. Trying to help the fillies required for him to know this because he didn’t know if they had food or water in the cellar or how long they were in there for.

“Eighteen hours.” the colt replied shakily. “Bright Day has a sprained wing from tripping on the cellar step.” Nicko noticed the bandaged wing upon looking at the pegasus before turning to Mira and Cassie.

“Mira, Cassie, look around and try to see if you can find anything that we can use to help them. We need to get them back to Canterlot and fast.” The Rune Slayer told both of them before looking back at them and telling them to stay close to them and make sure to stay close to him no matter what happened.

The two summoners nodded before they searched through the ruined buildings for anything that would help them and the foals. Mira then noticed what looked like four green bottles and picked them up. Her eyes widened as she realized what they were. “Cassie, I found four Cure bottles!” She called out.

“Great! I just found a few Tonics!” Cassie replied.

That was a good sign if Nicko ever heard of one. Not only did it mean that there was something to heal them in the meantime, but also they had a few extra on hand just in case

But as Mira headed back to the house that Nicko was in, she heard the sound of wings and a female voice said, “Well well well, what do we have here? A summoner that lost its way?” Mira then turned to see a green skinned winged human female with hair that waved in the wind the wings created as they flapped. Three others like her looked on in amusement.

“I had a bad feeling that our luck would run out soon,” He groaned, looking back at them. “What do you want?”

“Our boss wanted us to make sure there weren't any survivors, and to take out anyone that tried to make any kind of rescue attempt.” One of the other Slyphs replied with a smirk.

“Oh really? Is that so?” Nicko replied, looking back at them with his weapon in hand. “And what makes you think I’m going to let that happen?”A sudden growl was heard as a pair of humanoid figures with bull heads wielding massive one handed axes that glowed with electrical runes flanked by three of the creatures that Bird Watcher had described stomped towards the two. “Please, like a stunted Vargas and a poor excuse for Blade Queen Sefia is gonna do much against us.” The lead Sylph chuckled nastily.

“Then how about we even up the odds?” Cassie’s voice said as she landed in front of them and drew her sword, Mira summoning hers as well.

“Please… what are you going to do? Get another stunted friend like this pipsqueak over here?” One of the Sylph taunted, causing the rest of them to laugh in response. That was… until a rune blew up in its face and caused the monster to drop to the ground.

“Say… that… again…” Nicko growled. “I dare you! Say… THAT… AGAIN!!!”

“Quiet you runt! No one hurts my sisters and gets away with it!” The lead Sylph snarled as her hand crackled with electrical energy. She then looked over at the Minotaurs and Salamanders. “Kill them! Their heads will please the boss!”

Now that was when NNicko got extremely pissed off. He had just about HAD it with everyone calling him short or runt to the point that his blood began to boil. “Cassie… Mira… get down.” He warned, shortly before having a rune be thrown above his head. It looked ordinary in scope, but it soon turned into a black hole that pulled all the monsters in as several runes imprisoned the enemies inside and massive swords made of pure magic soon took form “Shining… Rune… BUSTER!!!” He shouted, causing the swords to converge on their targets and for everything to explode. Defeating all the opponents standing there… and leaving the one sylph that was talking smack about them earlier.

“You… YOU WILL PAY!!!” She screeched before Mira charged forward and slammed her swords into the Sylph, the blades suddenly flashing and both burning and blinding the thunder type unit and draining her power in the process. Severely weakened, the Sylph fell to the ground and looked up at Mira. “What are you waiting for? End me….” She muttered.

“We have a few questions we’d like to ask you first.” Cassie growled as she grabbed the creature by the neck and lifting her up. “Why was this town attacked and most of the inhabitants killed?”

“Our master… She wanted to let the rulers of this world know that she will show no mercy to those beneath her!” The Sylph gasped. “So she had this town attacked as a warning!”

“Who is this ‘master’ you speak of?” Mira spoke up.

“Maxwell… She has fallen and is now hell bent on conquering this new world with the other three fallen Gods…” The Sylph said before Cassie tossed her to the ground. Looking at where the other creatures had fallen, Mira saw what looked blue crystals floating on the ground near the unconscious forms. Stretching out her hand, many of the crystals flew over to her before being absorbed. All but one, which she held in her hand and gazed at, her thoughts churning.

Nicko had a feeling that this was going to get ugly, so he had the kids follow him out of the room while Mira was interrogating the Sylph. Besides, after something like that, they must’ve been shaken a bit after almost having monsters try to harm them.

“If the four Fallen Gods are trying to invade Equestria, then they chose the wrong universe to invade.” Mira said, looking up from the crystal in her hand to the quaking Sylph. “Tell your master that the Blade Queen and Phoenix Thunder will stop at nothing to defeat her.” Her blue eyes flashed in anger as she finished, “And that she will pay for her crimes.”

“I can’t! She’ll kill me if I tell her that we failed to kill you!” The Sylph sobbed. “Take me with you, but I beg you, don’t send me back to Maxwell!” That was when Nicko remembered something. In the original Brave Frontier, some monsters you can encounter can also become units that you can add in your party. This Sylph was asking for her to join, even though of the wrongdoings that she might’ve committed.

“Why should we, after what you and your friends did to these ponies?” Cassie growled. “You cut them down without mercy, even going so far as to kill children!”

The Sylph bent her head in shame. “I never took part in the violence! I was just giving orders!!” She pleaded. “Please, help me…”

Mira sighed. “Very well, but you will serve time for what you have done by helping us stop Maxwell and the three other fallen gods.” She said. The Sylph sighed in relief.

“Oh thank Lord Lucius…” She sighed. “I won’t let you down.” That had Nicko relieved, but also made him wonder if either Cassie or Mira was going to remind her about what… irritates him.

Cassie then looked over at Nicko before saying, “Let’s get these three to Canterlot. And we need to let Celestia and Luna know what we just learned.” She then turned to the Sylph. “Do you have a name?”

“Serinisa, or Serine for short.” Serin replied.

Nicko acknowledged what he was told, but upon turning around was when he noticed that the children had actually found an old wagon that was still functional and big enough for Bright day because of her injuries. “Heh… smart kids.”

Cassie noticed that Mira was still holding the battle crystal and asked, “Everything okay?” Mira nodded.

“Yeah, just remembering when we first arrived here in Equestria. Who knew that the replica of this would send us to this world…” She replied, looking at the ruins. That part got Nicko to think of something. If that crystal sent them there in the first place… then there was the possibility that the crystal was indeed their token.

Cassie chuckled and ruffled her sister's hair. “Even though we got turned into ponies and stoned by six gems?” She asked, getting a small laugh from Mira.

“At least it’s not as bad as it was back home. I was getting tired of being teased about my hair.” Mira said.

“Hey, are you two ready to get back to Canterlot?” Nicko then asked.

“Yeah, we’re coming!” Cassie retorted good naturedly. That was a good sign as they began the long journey back to the royal city. It had taken a long time and some changes to be made once they got to the train station, but everything was able to hold out for the most part.

“Hey, Mister?” One of the children asked Nicko once they were on the train back. “Where’s that Serine lady?”

“Oh her? I think she’s in the last car on the train.” Nicko answered honestly as he looked back at Mira and Cassie… until Bright Day asked one particular question.

“Isn’t that the cargo hold?”

“I HAVE A FEAR OF TRAVELING IN CRATES IN TIGHT SPACES!!!”

The Rune Slayer himself was unsure of what to say and just shrugged his shoulders as he looked back at them. “To be honest, I’m not quite too familiar with what certain cars on this train are. Only been on some a couple of times and haven’t really had much time to look around to tell you the truth.”

“What happened the first time you were on a train?” Cassie asked while Mira sat nearby, her thoughts wandering as she stared at the crystal in her hand.

“Do you honestly want to know? For me, that was seven years ago and most of the train ride turned into a hostage crisis.” Nicko sighed, looking back at Cassie and Mira. “That and it involved a draconequus that was helping me at the time who had a weird sense of humor.”

“Another Draconequus? There’s more of Discord’s kind?” Mira asked, looking up.

“Depends on the world you end up,” Nicko explained. “For me, that was the first time I met Eris, Discord’s daughter… It’s a lot to explain but right now, she’s pretty important with how things are going for me back home.”

“Important how?” Cassie asked, her eyes curious.

“Well for one thing, she’s my fiance… second, she’s been there through every challenge I had gone through and we worked together as a team. She hasn’t been with me lately due to… reasons, but I care for her as much as she cares for me.” That… surprised both Cassie and Mira. But this made them also a little more curious as to what happened to Discord in particular.

“What happened to Discord?” Mira asked.

“That… well, that in itself is a little funny… but I’m not sure if I should say it because technically for me… what happens to him hasn’t happened yet.” The spellsword told them, which in turn, surprised both of them.

Mira then asked the question that had been on her mind for a while now, “How many displaced have you met or encountered?”

“A lot, that’s for sure. Kind of lost track after a while though.” He admitted, scratching the back of his head. “But out of some of the displaced I did meet, I met other magic users, a quincy from Bleach along with a Soul Reaper, quite a few dragons and even some guy that was Handsome Jack. Just to name a few.”

Cassie noticed the light in Mira’s eyes and sighed. “Cassie, there is no way Sasha could be in another Equestria. For all we know, he could still be somewhere on earth.” She said.

“The last time I heard from him, he and two of his friends were going to some Comic-con. A few days after that, I heard from another friend of his that they had disappeared after visiting this weird vendor…”

“That’s… actually what happens in most cases with Displaced.” Nicko replied, looking back at them and sighing a bit. “But I do know someone that might be able to help you guys if you have the time. I know that you’re new to this and a lot of Displaced are when they first get sent to their worlds. Fortunately, my friend Sun Wukong is doing something about it.”

“The faunus from RWBY?” Cassie asked.

“Yeah. A lot of the displaced in his world are based on RWBY and he’s actually set up a Beacon Academy in his world. The only difference is that this beacon is for newly displaced.” Nicko told them, smirking a little. “In fact, once I’m done with some of the things in my world, I’ll begin teaching classes there.”

“Hmm… Sounds like something for us to check out.” Cassie chuckled. She then frowned and asked, “Except how exactly does one enter this academy?”

“To do that, you need to meet Sun himself,” Nicko said as he took a gold medallion out of his pocket and duplicated it using his powers. “And the best way to do that is with his token. Once you are familiar with how to go to other worlds, you can use this to get to his. He’ll be sure to let you in if you tell him that you talked to me.”

Cassie nodded as she took the token. Mira then spoke up, “How exactly do you make a token?”

Nicko sighed a little, looking back at them for a moment before taking out his own token as an example. “Well, normally, you would pick something that represents you two, channel your energy into it and then say something. Normally, when you get other tokens, you hear who the token belongs too and how you summon them. Those other displaced say that before letting that token go into the void… don’t worry, you’ll still be allowed to keep your own token. It’ll send copies of your token into the void in which someone else will find and call upon you in times of need.”

“That sounds kinda complicated,” Bright Day commented.

“It’s actually a lot easier to show you rather than tell you, but we’ll have to make it once we’re back in Canterlot since that’s where they’ll be enough space to do this.” The Rune Slayer added on to what he originally said.

The two summoners nodded before Cassie turned to look out the window while Mira went back to looking at the crystal. She continued to focus on it for the rest of the train ride to the point that when the train did stop, she didn’t even seem to notice personally until the train moved to a complete stop and almost threw her onto Nicko in the process, hitting him on the forehead.

“O-oww…” Nicko groaned, rubbing his forehead. “That’s going to leave me with a headache… no pun intended.”

"Oh geez, I’m so sorry!” Mira gasped, only for Nicko to wave it off as he got up.

“It’s alright… though, I wouldn’t think of the same thing for Serine. Should one of us go check on her?” He asked.

“I’ll do it.” Cassie said as she walked out of the train. Only when they did arrive at the cargo hold, they saw her fall out with all the other packages that were in the back falling on top of her.

“Who’s idea was it to have her be in the back again?” Nicko asked.

“I think she was the one who wanted to be in the back.” Cassie replied. Which caused Nicko to roll his eyes. He was pretty sure that when she meant that she wanted to sit in the back, she didn’t mean all the way in the back like they assumed. But by the time the Sylph was able to regain her senses and the ponies they rescued soon came off the train, the Rune Slayer soon saw Twilight nearby… with Little Leaf. It looked like the Unicorn was trying to comfort the filly, but when they saw them come back… and the filly saw her friends… tears soon filled her eyes.

“Bright, Star, Shade, you survived!” She cried before the three ran up to where she was and hugged her. Of course, all three of them were happy to see Little Leaf again. But it was Twilight who was surprised that they actually were still able to find some more survivors.

Looking at Cassie and Mira, she then asked them the question that was on her mind. “How did you find more survivors? I thought that based on the guards reports that Little Leaf and Bird Seeker were the only ones that made it out of there alive.”

“Apparently these three were in a basement, their parents had them hide in there before….” Cassie said with a sad look towards the foals.

“Oh… I see,” Twilight sighed, looking at them herself before looking back towards them as she noticed Nicko offering a hand to assist Serine. “And just what in Equestria is that?”

“A creature known as a Sylph. They’re thunder type units that can call down a single bolt of lightning on their foes.” Mira replied. “Her name’s Serine.”

“Hunh… Interesting… And just when I thought that was the third strangest thing I had seen all day,” Twilight replied, looking back towards Cassie and Mira. “First being you summoning Nicko… Second being the group that was in town earlier and now this. What a day.”

“Group?! What group?” Cassie asked in shock.

“Well, it consisted of a male and two females. For a moment, when I thought it would be you guys, they turned out to be carrying different weapons, were way different in appearance and referred to Nicko as “The pipsqueak with the attitude problem”. They wanted to see if things were okay after the monster incident and said they were from some… Akras thing.”

“Akras Summoner’s Guild… This got a whole lot more complicated…” Cassie said. She then remembered what they were also there for. “We have something to tell Celestia. We know who ordered that attack on Sun’s Hollow.”

Twilight blinked a couple of times, trying to process what she just said. “O-okay, what?!”

That was when Nicko decided to speak up. “You heard her right. We found out who did it, but that’s something I should leave to you guys. I’ll wait out here with the foals while you guys go on inside.” With that, a nervous Serine flew over and joined them while the Rune Slayer watched over the foals. Both of them were talking for the princess for quite a while, but around thirty minutes later, things have seemed to settled down. Though Serine didn’t look too… happy to say the least.

“How did it go?”

“Well, Serine told us everything she knew…” Twilight first told him before she then spoke up. “And not only are Cassie and Mira living with me, but Serine was told to either stay with us until she could be proven trustworthy to the princess… or get banished to the sun.” The last one caught Nicko by surprise. He had heard of those who got banished to the moon, but how the actual hell would someone survive by being banished to the sun? That’s like the equivalent of the death penalty.

“She may not have been in the actual fighting, but she’s still responsible for killing innocent ponies.” Cassie said, glaring back at the Sylph before tracing her gaze back to him. “What Celestia is have us do is playing watch dog to make sure she doesn't step out of line.”

“Well, if she was really desperate in order to live, then I would think that she would take any offer that gives her a chance to survive without getting hurt,” Nicko replied, before looking at them. “So, I’m going to take a guess that you two got this and don’t need my help anymore?”

They nodded before Mira asked, “Before you leave, can you show us how to make a token?”

“Certainly. Just remember the instructions I told you on the train earlier with the crystal you have on you.” He informed them, pointing out the shard as a reminder.

Mira held up the Battle Crystal while Cassie put her hand on it also. After a minute of thinking of what to say, they spoke with one voice, “To those who are not afraid to see the light and rise like a phoenix to stop those who will harm others, use this crystal to summon us, the Blade Queen and Thunder Phoenix, and a brave new frontier will be opened, but for those who wish us to do harm to others that don’t deserve it, beware…” The crystal then glowed as the two put some of their power in it. Cassie then took her hand off as Mira tossed the crystal up in the air and it vanished in a flash of light. Shortly before one of them dropped into Nicko’s hand.

“That’s step one done… now to send it out into the void.” He replied back to them.

“How exactly do we do that?” Cassie asked. Nicko smiled a little, taking a bit of the energy and magic he had to summon a sword that was different from the other two he had before. This one had a void colored crystal attached to the grip of the blade and with a single slash, tore open a small pocket in the void. Tossing in the crystal for a brief second, both Cassie and Mira looked in shock and wonder as the single token that they had soon began to split apart and multiple in the void before Nicko closed the pocket. Taking out two crystals… one for himself and one for them as he lightly tossed it to them.

“And… done.”

Cassie caught the crystal before looking over at Twilight and bursting into laughter at her shocked expression. The Unicorn’s mouth was nearly touching the ground while her eyes were blankly staring at where the void tear had been.

“If you’re going to ask how that happened, this sword was a gift from another Displaced by the name of Void Edge. It was given to me so that way I can make sure to go to and from my own world safely without getting pulled into another one on accident. I don’t use it for combat like my other two blades since it’s only for transportational purposes.” The Rune Slayer explained, hoping to clear things up as a small tug on Twilight’s jaw caused it to snap back upwards like a window cover… or Genie's mouth in Aladdin. “Uh… is she going to be okay?”

“Of course, silly!” Pinkie said from behind him. “She just gets overwhelmed by new things!” Now Nicko would normally get startled by her just appearing out of nowhere… but given the fact that his brother was in a relationship back with his Pinkie Pie… he was kind of used to it by now. Especially with the random silliness you would normally expect from her. Then again, not everything you would expect from her is normal.

She then pulled a flat rectangular shaped device that both Mira and Cassie recognized as a tablet from earth out of her mane and began tapping at it. “Horsefeathers, I just can't beat this one boss in Trial 03! Curse you Abbadon!” This just made the two even more confused, Twilight even more so.

“Pinkie, what exactly are you talking about?” She asked.

“Oh, just a boss in this game on this tablet Company Master Sebaste left around his place.” She replied before stuffing it back in her mane. Twilight sighed, knowing that Pinkie was just being Pinkie. Nicko himself rolled his eyes as well, not even questioning what the mare was talking about because he rather not drive himself crazy.

Serine slowly backed away from the pink mare while Cassie shook her head. ‘I have a feeling I’m gonna be dealing with this mare a lot…’ She thought to herself, sighing deeply and regaining her composure. “I’m sure we’ve held you up long enough Nicko. It… It was nice meeting you.” She said, giving him a small smile. “I hope we’ll see each other again sometime.”

“Same here, feel free to call on me if you need help with anything,” He told her, shortly before using Void Edge once again to open a doorway home before having it close behind him.

Twilight then looked over at Cassie, Mira and Serine. “Let’s get these four to Bird Seeker and then head to Ponyville. I think we had enough craziness for one day-.”

“Hey look! It’s those two rookies we ran into earlier!!”

Cassie sighed. ‘I have a feeling that this world is gonna be full of surprises after 10,000 years…” She thought as she saw Seria, Karl and a new figure with them, giving them a wave.

“Oh hey look, it’s that goddess NPC lady!” Pinkie Pie cheered, bouncing in place and causing Mira to facepalm herself in response to what she said.

Twilight shook her head before saying, “You’ll get used to this. Let’s go.” She then began walking towards where Bird Seeker lived, the four foals and the other three following her. Mira looked up into the sky and thought, ‘I wonder what other displaced are out there… And who we’ll meet…’ before she sighed and walked on… to an unknown future.

Chapter 4: Bandit Troubles

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Unknown airship, 05:00 hours

“Boss, what is this heist doesn't work?” A bipedal figure wearing a brown skullcap with goggles and a bandana around her neck asked her cohort, who had an overcoat and hat with the same goggles. She and a few others like her were equipped with repeating rifles that had electrical runes engraved on the barrels. Standing alongside them were an assortment of earth ponies and Gryphons, both male and female. The commander turned and smirked.

“It’ll work. And here comes our target now…” he said, pointing at a trail of steam. “Alright men, ready yer weapons! We’ve got a train to catch!” The sky bandits cheered before the engines of the airship thrummed to life and the propellers began to turn. With a turn of the wheel from the helm, the ship turned and headed towards the incoming train. The captain gave a feral grin. 'Nothing like the scent of loot in the morning…’ he thought.

Ponyville Express

“How much longer do we have to be in this contraption?” Seria asked, her tone betraying her annoyance.

Cassie sighed. The swordswoman had been complaining non stop since they had boarded the train, and it was starting to grind on the party’s nerves.

Carl gritted his teeth and said, “Twilight said that we would be there in an hour or so. I would prefer if you didn't keep complaining the whole trip….”

Seria snorted and looked out the window. “Why Tilith brought us to this world, I’ll never understand….” She growled.

Mira meanwhile was talking to Twilight. “So you're Celestia's personal protege?” She asked after Twilight had explained what had happened over the last 10,000 years. Twilight nodded and beamed.

“Of course! But that's not important right now, tell me more about yourselves.”

“Well… I was adopted into Cassie’s family after…” Mira winced at the memory. “It's not something I like remembering. When I was younger, I lost my family to a fire. They were trapped with no way out, and I couldn't do anything to save them… A few months later, I was adopted by Cassie's family, after they had heard of what had happened. But me losing my family wasn't the only mark the fire left…” She lifted her sleeve to reveal a massive burn mark on her arm, causing everyone in range, along with Twilight to wince. “I tried to run in and save them, but as I ran in, a gout of flame hit my arm, and well… this is the result.” She covered the mark back up. “But the both of us were avid gamers and our brother… he was the one that introduced us to the world of Grand Gaia.”

Twilight looked at her with sympathy in her eyes. “I'm sorry to hear that. I don't know what I would do if I had lost my family.” She said, before Karl interrupted.

“Wait, your world knows of where we came from? How?” He asked, Tilith and Seria looking over at Karl’s exclamation.

“Your world is part of a game that many people enjoy called Brave Frontier, it follows the adventures of an unknown summoner as he or she fights the four Fallen Gods and many other threats.” Cassie spoke up. “Along the way, they encounter the three of you, Tilith being the first one.”

“Am I as pretty as I look in this “game”?” Tilith asked eagerly, earning a groan from Seria.

Mira chuckled. “Yes, you are Tilith.” She said, “And they captured your personality perfectly.”

Pinkie bounced up and said, “She's kinda like Rarity!” She then gasped. “Maybe they're twins!”

Tilith blinked. “I’m pretty sure I wasn't an Equine when I was formed…” She said, irritation in her tone.

Pinkie shrugged. “It’s what a few people who play it compared you to.” She said.

Tilith opened her mouth to say something, but Twilight interrupted, “It’s just Pinkie being Pinkie, don’t try and figure her out. I’ve tried that once, didn't work out for me.” She said.

Mira and Cassie both nodded in agreement. Seria rolled her eyes before looking back out at the window, only to jerk back as an explosion erupted in front of her. “What in Lucius’ name!?” She exclaimed. She heard exclamations from the others and a few other passengers.

“Bandits!” Twilight yelped. “They must be attacking by airship!”

“Wait, you have airships?!” Mira asked as another explosion rocked the car.

“Can we discuss this when we’re not in danger of being blown up?” Cassie asked. “We need to stop them before this train gets destroyed!” The sound of feet on metal above her then caught her attention. Uh oh… That can’t be good… She thought.

“Tilith, you and these two stay here and protect the passengers. Karl, let’s show these bandits the power of a summoner!” Seria said. Karl rolled his eyes before he hefted his Halberd while she pulled out her sword. The two then ran out, leaving Tilith and the rest of the group in the car.

Cassie rolled her eyes. “Stay here? Yeah right!” She said, “Mira, help Tilith with protecting Twilight and the passengers, I’m gonna go help them.”

“But Seria said-” Twilight began before Cassie cut her off.

“Seria isn’t in charge of me. And like it or not, they’re gonna need help.” She retorted before she opened the door and with a flap of her wings, soared into the air.

Seria ducked as a lightning bolt zipped past her, smoke emanating from the rifle barrel it came from. “Keep your pretty lil' head down if you catch my drift!” The human bandit yelled before he gasped and cried out in shock.

There was a thud and silence before Cassie’s voice said, “Maybe you should watch the skies more often.” Seria looked up to see the bandit lying on the roof of the car, unconscious with Cassie standing over him, her blade drawn.

“I thought I told you to stay with the others!” The swordswoman yelled.

Cassie raised an eyebrow. “And leave you two without backup? Not happening.” She said. Seria growled and took a step forward.

“Why should we let a novice summoner like you help us? You don't know how to even fight.” She asked.

Cassie's eyes narrowed at that. “That’s where you’re wrong. Both Mira and I had to fight from the very moment we appeared here 10,000 years ago. So saying that I don't know how to fight is a vast underestimation on your part.” She growled, electricity arcing along her blade.

Karl’s eyes widened at that. “Wait, you appeared in this world that long ago?!” He asked as he blocked a sword thrust from another bandit, this one an earth pony.

“I’ll explain after we deal with these guys.” Cassie said before she slashed at another bandit, simataniously cutting and shocking her opponent. She then leapt into the air and began to duel with a pair of Gryphons, her blade easily keeping them at bay. She then flew backward and stretched her hand out, a summoning circle appearing in front of it. “I call upon Alana, Angel!” She chanted before an armored human female with feathered wings and equipped with a sword materialized in front of her.

“You called, Milady?” Alana asked, while Seria and Karl looked on dumbstruck.

“I need you to assist the two summoners below, I’m gonna take out the airship.” Alana nodded in response.

“As you wish!” She then flew down to where Karl and Seria were, her blade emitting the same energy that covered Mira’s blades.

Looking up, Cassie could see the Airship, a Zeppelin like craft with an actual boat underneath the balloon armed to the teeth with cannons and what looked like flintlock muskets on stands. This is gonna be a tough one, but I should be able to knock out the guns and maybe the engine… Assuming I don't get shot out of the sky…. She thought as she flew towards it. A Gryphon manning one of the muskets quickly spotted her and alerted his companions before opening fire, just barely missing her. She ducked and weaved as more rounds whizzed past her. Stretching her hand out, she sent bolt after bolt of lightning at the gunners, causing them to duck and give her the opening she needed. Her blade was the last thing the gunners saw before blackness consumed their vision.

Damn it! Three summoners on that train?! The captain swore silently. This just complicated things! He turned at the sound of rifles firing and blades clashing. And now one of them has the audacity to board my vessel… Time to show whoever it is that I don't take prisoners... Pulling out a single electric runed pistol, he swung the door open to a scene of complete chaos. Many of the bandits had been felled by a single blade, while others bore scorch marks from where a lighting bolt had hit them. The cause of their injuries stood before him a few feet away, her blade covered in blood and panting heavily.

“Well, aren’t you a long way from home, missy?” He asked cheerfully. “I’m curious as to how a summoner even arrived in this world… Especially one like you. I thought the Summoners Guild would have kept their summoners at their base….”

“Hate to rain on your parade, but I’m not from Grand Gaia.” Cassie retorted. The captain blinked at that.

“Not from…” He burst into laughter. “You’re pulling my leg aren't you? There’s no way you're not from Grand Gaia!” His chuckles subsiding, he swung his pistol up and aimed it at Cassie. “Now hold still and this will be over quickly!” He said as he pulled the trigger and fired three blasts of electricity only for his target to dodge to the side and charge forward, her blade raised. “What-?!” He gasped before he leapt to the side, causing her to skid to a halt in the room. The bandit chuckled. “You’re a quick one, I’ll grant you that. But it won't save you or your friends… or the passengers on the train.”

Cassie snarled at the bandit, her eyes glaring at him. “I wouldn't say that….” She said before she yelled, “Orion, Apollo, the Argus twins, come forth!” In a flash of light, two double headed hounds stood before her, growling at the now nervous bandit captain. “Sic’ him.” She quietly ordered, and the two Argus' leapt at him, teeth bared.

“Nice try Missy, but you’re gonna have to do better than- ACK!” he said as he gunned the two hounds down, only to find himself impaled against the wall by a seven inch blade in his stomach. He coughed up blood and chuckled, “Guess I underestimated you… You have a warrior's spirit…” He groaned as Cassie drove the blade deeper.

“The ponies have a name for me… One that many of my foes 10,000 years back feared, the Thunder Phoenix.” Cassie said, causing the captain’s eyes to widen in fear. “And no one… hurts my friends or my sister!” She snarled as he tried to push the blade out of him. She then yanked the sword out, causing the bandit to cry out in pain before she raised her blade.

“Please.. Don’t!” He begged. But his words fell on deaf ears as she prepared to deliver the final blow. But just as she began her downward stroke, a single blast of lightning slammed into her, sending her crashing into a nearby table. A feminine figure stepped out from the shadows, a rifle aimed at the stunned girl

“Don’t you dare hurt him!” The female bandit snarled, glaring at Cassie. “Boss, are you alright?” She asked, not taking her eyes off of Cassie.

“Yeah… but we need to leave.” He grunted in pain as he tried to stand up. “We picked the wrong train to attack.”

“We can still take those summoners out! We can still-” she began, but the captain cut her off.

“Not if the train is defended by the Thunder Phoenix and Blade Queen!” He snapped. The female bandit’s eyes widened at that. “Tell those that can still stand that we’re leaving.”

“Yes, Boss…” she said, backing out of the room. Cassie stood up and walked out, her blade dripping blood, and her face and body splattered in it. Spreading her wings, she leapt off of the balcony and flew back towards the train, the remaining bandits watching her in amazement and fear, the female bandit among them. ‘Hmmm... I must report to Maxwell about this... She's not going to be happy about this.... she thought with a frown before she walked off, her form shimmering before a completely different figure took her place, four sabers appearing around her and her brown eyes becoming bright blue and her pupils draconic slits. This was Silver Queen Gabrielle, and unknown to both Cassie and Mira…. A messenger for a higher power...

Cassie landed just as the train started up again, stumbling as the car jolted as it began to move forward. Mira quickly opened the door and stared in shock at the state her sister was in. Twilight and the others were also stunned at her appearance, with blood splattered all over her, and her sword covered in it, she looked like she was a demon brought to life.

“Cassie?” Mira asked as her sister walked in. “Everything alright?”

Cassie took in a shuddering breath. “I… I need some time alone. I’m gonna go get a shower and get all of this blood off of me.” She said as she walked towards where the showers were.

“What… What’s wrong with her?” Twilight asked, her eyes curious.

“She must have nearly done something she would have regretted.... When someone threatens me or a friend of hers, she’ll sometimes end up fighting so hard that she sometimes ends up in a battle rage and will kill anyone that gets her way… even those who ask for mercy.” Mira said, looking towards where Cassie had gone. “It’s terrifying to see…”

Tilith put a hand on her shoulder. “Seeing those you care about get hurt can do that.” She said.

Mira nodded before she turned to the window and watched the world go by before she succumbed to sleep. Tomorrow would bring new adventures and new friends.

Chapter 5: Arrival at Ponyville

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Midnight Storm, Squeaky Wings, Sapphire Breeze, Wind Runner, Autumn Glow and Summer Ice belong to Chaotic Ink and his story The Witching Hour.

“Cassie… awaken….” A deep voice said. Cassie woke up to find herself in an unfamiliar setting, with machinery hissing all around her. She then heard heavy footsteps before a massive armored figure appeared before her. Startled, she made to draw her sword, only to find she was in the clothes she had worn before she had changed into her costume.

“Where… where am I? Am I… dead?” She asked. The figure chuckled softly.

“No, you're very much alive. You had quite the exciting day yesterday, you ended up falling asleep in one of the beds on the train.” it said, the voice revealing it as male. Cassie then realized that she was dreaming.

“Who exactly are you?” Cassie asked, her voice beginning to shake. Now that she could see him more clearly, she saw that his armor was more advanced than hers, with some kind of backpack with two nozzles poking out from the sides mounted on his back. His helmet had what looked like wings on it and while she couldn't see his face, she could feel his gaze from the red lenses that seemed to glare at her. The armor was dark green with a red stripe across his left kneepad. On his right shoulder pad was a white winged sword. A tan embroidered cape also hung on his back while in his hand was a massive sword with an arrowhead like point which he dug into the metal plates under his feet.

“I am known by many names. But my true name, I cannot reveal. You may however call me Company Master.” He replied.

“Okay… so why did you come to me? I'm nobody special…” Cassie asked. Company Master gave a low laugh.

“On the contrary, both you and your sister are special in that you both share a connection that not even I can fathom. That is something that will get you through the trials ahead. But the reason I am here is because I felt a power surge from you that may endanger you and your friends. You must learn to control your rage or risk losing yourself to the beast that hides inside you and gives you your power.”

An image of a winged creature with horns and red eyes made of electricity and fire appeared before her, before it was seen incinerating hapless ponies and even her sister as it wreaked havoc across Equestria, and worst of all, Cassie could see herself inside the beast, eyes alight with madness and rage. “No…. I wouldn't do that! I… I would never go that far….” She said, tears streaming down her cheeks.

“I know. But you were close to unleashing that beast when you were fighting the bandits. You may have your heart in the right place when you fight to protect , but if goaded by someone threatening to harm those you care about, you end up hurting yourself and those you care about by not showing mercy to your enemies. Something you nearly did with Gralf when the two of you fought.” He said sternly. “You were lucky his compatriot stopped you from dealing the death stroke.” Cassie hung her head. “But you managed to stop the bandits from hurting any of the passengers in the process. I’ve been keeping an eye on you and your sister for a long time now, and both of you have done incredible things. But not even I can stop the Fallen Gods, even with the power I have. That is something only you and your friends can do.”

“But why are the Fallen gods attacking Equestria?” Cassie asked. Company Master sighed.

“That is something I cannot answer. But I can tell you this: Maxwell will be on the lookout for you and your sister. You must be careful when you go to confront her, as to where she hides… Look to the west where the beasts of legend roam as subjects to a king, and when the Ivory Tower appears, the Goddess will arrive to wreak destruction upon Equestria.” He said. “I'm sure Ms. Sparkle will know what I'm talking about. And a word of warning, not all Displaced are as… welcoming as your friend Nicko was. So be careful who you trust the next time you pick up a token.”

Cassie nodded before Company Master looked behind him. “I must leave, but remember what I've told you and heed my words… you and your sister are not the only Displaced in this world…” he said before he began to disappear.

“Wait, what do you mean?! Who else got Displaced?” Cassie asked desperately.

“You’ll find out soon enough… and when you get to the Golden Oaks Library, I've left something for the both of you. ” was his answer before he vanished.

“No, wait! Come back!” She yelled.

“Cassie, wake up!” Mira’s voice jolted her awake and she groaned.

“Mira?” She croaked. “What's going on?”

“We’re arriving at Ponyville Station. The others are already up and waiting for us.” Mira then looked at Cassie worriedly. “Is everything okay? It sounded like you were having a bad dream.”

“Yeah… I'm alright. Just had a weird dream about some guy in some kind of futuristic armor talking to me…” Cassie replied, as she rubbed the sleep out of her eyes and slowly stood up. Mira raised an eyebrow.

“Did he say anything important?” She asked.

“Something about a beast within me and some kind of riddle that will help us find Maxwell…” Cassie replied tiredly. “I don't really want to think about it right now…”

Despite wanting to know more, Mira nodded. “C'mon, let’s get to the others.” The two then headed towards where Karl, Seria, Tilith,Twilight, Pinkie and Seriene were waiting for them.

“Well, you took your time! I was starting to think you wouldn't show up!” Seria snapped, but her glare softened a bit.

“Sorry, took awhile for me to fully wake up.” Cassie replied. She looked out the window at the town coming into view. “So that’s Ponyville?”

Pinkie bounced up to her. “Yep! And you’ll have lots and lots of new friends!” She replied.

Mira giggled as Seria rolled her eyes. “Can't wait…” the swordswoman muttered.

Twilight chuckled. “You'll get used to it. I’ll introduce you fully to my other friends after we get settled.” She said as the train pulled up. “I know you two met us under… surprising circumstances, but hopefully now we can fully get to know you two.”

Cassie gave a low chuckle. “Yeah… that and finding a way to fit in….” She said.

Twilight frowned thoughtfully. “Maybe there is… Discord changed you into ponies the day you and the princesses fought him for the last time, right?” Cassie and Mira nodded. “Maybe I can cast a spell that allows you to change to ponies at will, that way, we don't have everyone in Ponyville panicking like they did when the others appeared.” she said with a glance at Karl, Seria and Tilith.

“Everyone except that pony-dragon hybrid.” Seria said.

“Midnight? She's used to seeing the ponies here panic over little things.” Twilight replied. “Although she wasn't exactly welcoming to begin with.”

“Hey! No spoilers for that story!” Pinkie said.

Twilight rolled her eyes before the door outside opened and the group walked out onto the station. Waiting for them was Spike and a creature the two had never seen before. It had a pony body, legs and a horn like Twilight's, but had the wings, eyes and bladed tail of a dragon of Earth mythology. Her fur color was pitch black with a light blue mane, her eyes the same color as her mane. This was Midnight Storm.

“Twilight! How did everything go?” The baby dragon asked, sounding relieved

“He’s been worrying non-stop since you left.” The kirin spoke up. She then looked at the train and raised an eyebrow. “Seems you guys had quite the ride back. What the heck happened?”

“Bandits… it’s a long story.” Twilight replied. Midnight snorted, a puff of blue flame jetting out of her nose. “As to how everything went, we learned that four beings called the Fallen Gods have set their sights on Equestria. A village was destroyed yesterday, with a single mare, three fillies and a colt surviving the attack.”

Spike turned pale at that. Midnight gritted her teeth, baring her fangs in the process. “I’d like to get my hooves on whoever did that…”

“They’ve already been dealt with.” Mira spoke up, causing Midnight to look at her in surprise and suspicion. “Cassie and I, along with… a friend of our went to the village and avenged those that were killed.”

“And who exactly are you two?” Midnight asked. “I don't remember seeing the two of you with the lot that appeared here yesterday…”

Twilight quickly spoke up. “That's because they just arrived. They were in Canterlot when I found them.” Spike gave her a puzzled look while she shook her head slightly in warning. He then shrugged before turning to the group. “Applejack and Rarity have your rooms ready.” He said to Karl, Seria and Tilith. He then looked at Mira, Cassie and Seriene. “Twilight mentioned that you three would be staying with us at the library. So I have the guest rooms set up for the three of you, although… I noticed two flashes of light from where you two are staying. It's probably nothing….” He gave a shrug. Cassie suddenly remembered the last thing that Company Master had told her before she woke up.

Just who exactly is Company Master… and why would he help Mira and I? She thought, her brow furrowing. This world just gets more confusing by the minute... With a shake of her head, she and the other four followed Twilight as Pinkie bounced off to Sugarcube Corner.

It had been a long day of preparing the weather for the next few days, and Rainbow Dash was looking forward to seeing Twilight when she came back. Her mind turned to the two humans she had seen back in Canterlot. Hard to believe those two were the ponies of legend…. And those powers of theirs... She had seen a few of their kind when she and her friends were sent to Appleloosa, and even then, she could feel their eyes watching her from where they stood as they watched the train she was on passed by. At the time, it had been a single redhead, while his companion had yellow spiky hair. Both wielded massive swords, while the yellow haired human had a blue bandana on his head that streamed in the wind.

Her thoughts were cut short as she spotted Twilight walking towards the library, followed by Spike, Midnight and… Cassie and Mira! While Rainbow wasn't a big fan of learning about history, she was intrigued by Mira and Cassie's story. After she had left Canterlot, she had gone and looked up more of what had happened, surprising Twilight in the process. Rainbow herself had been surprised by the feats the two humans had done, from saving a group of ponies from twisted versions of other ponies, to fighting a group of Minotaurs.But as she flew over, she saw a winged human with green hair and wearing what looked like a tunic that the ponies of Roam wore back then. As she got closer, she could hear their voices as they talked.

“So you two met Seria and Karl when you went to investigate that village?” Twilight asked, getting a nod from Cassie.

“Yeah, it was… definitely surprising.” She said. Midnight rolled her eyes at that.

“If you ask me, this 'Seria’ has a bit of an arrogant streak.” The Kirin said with a snort. “And that 'Tilith’ is too much like Rarity for my taste..”

“Yo Cassie, Mira!” Rainbow called down, causing the group to look up at her. “Didn't think you guys would show up here!”

“The Princess said that they would be staying here with us while they prepare to hunt down Maxwell.” Twilight said, earning a confused look from Rainbow.

“Who the hay is that?” The pegasus asked.

“One of the Fallen Gods… She was the one that ordered the attack on that town.” Seriene spoke up, her head hung. “I know because I was one of the commanders of the forces that destroyed the town…”

Both Midnight and Rainbow glared at Seriene, the former baring her fangs. “If you value your life, don't go near my family or my daughter, or Faust help me, I will be the last thing you'll ever see.” Midnight snarled, her draconic eyes narrowed. Twilight winced, remembering the last time someone had threatened Midnight's family, it hadn't ended well.

Seriene stepped back, her eyes fearful and filling with tears of shame before she spread her wings and flew off, a powerful gust of wind causing the others to brace themselves as the cold air cut through them. “Seriene, wait!” Cassie yelled, following after the wind spirit.

Mira shivered as the wind blew through, her armor providing little to no protection from the gust as Twilight glared at Midnight. “Midnight, there was no call for that!”

“How do you know she won't turn on us when she gets the chance? I don't want to risk my sister and Squeaks getting hurt!” The Kirin retorted.

“Do you think she would honestly harm innocent lives? She honestly regrets what she did!” Twilight snapped angrily. Midnight snorted at that.

“I have to agree with Midnight, she doesn't really look trustworthy…” Rainbow said, only to flinch when Twilight turned her glare towards her.

“She wouldn't have been able to hurt anypony because she is under observation by Mira and Cassie! ARRRGH!” With a growl, she stormed past the two mares and Mira, Spike quickly running after her after giving the three a sympathetic smile.

Mira sighed. “I'm guessing that happens with her a lot?” She asked as she began to follow Twilight, Rainbow and Midnight bringing up the rear.

Rainbow gave a light chuckle. “Yeah, but you should see her when she really gets mad, now that's something worth seeing.”

Midnight rolled her eyes. “I’ve only heard of that one time, and this was before I fought that Hydra.” She said.

“Wait, did you say a Hydra?!” Mira asked in shock. Midnight snorted at this.

“Yeah, and it roughed me up pretty badly at that. What, there weren't Hydras where you and your sister lived?” She asked, a sarcastic note in her voice

“They don't exist where we come from.” Mira said, getting a shocked look from the Kirin and Rainbow.

“You're kidding right?” Rainbow asked. Mira shook her head. “Geez, your world's weird…”

“Says the technicolored pegasus.” Mira retorted with a grin. A small snicker escaped from Midnight at the retort, while Twilight gave a small smirk.

Rainbow rolled her eyes. “Ha ha ha…” she said as she trotted next to Spike.

Mira chuckled before she looked up at the sky. ‘I really hope Seriene is alright… she looked really hurt by what Midnight had said..’ She thought.

Cassie groaned in frustration as she flew over Ponyville, her eyes on the lookout for the Slyph. She had lost Seriene a few minutes into the chase, and nearly flew herself ragged in the ensuing search. She landed on a nearby bridge overlooking a river near a forest and winced as the muscles around her wings ached, the appendages turning solid as the energy around them vanished, leaving her with a pair of tawny golden brown wings that occasionally crackled with electrical energy.

‘Must be the ponies’ version of a park...’ She thought as she walked along the path. After a twenty minutes of walking, she saw a pond nearby and walked towards it. ‘I’ll hand it to these ponies, they have some amazing scenery...

As she neared the pond, she heard a voice singing. It was both sad and stirring. She stopped to listen and as the song progressed, she recognized who was singing. She soon continued on her way to the pond, listening to the song all the while.

She soon walked out into an open field, the pond glittering a few feet in front of her. And sitting at the shore was Seriene, her knees tucked up to her chin and her wings wrapped around her body. A cold wind rippled the water as the Slyph sighed.

“Seriene?” The wind nymph looked up at Cassie. “Is everything okay?”

Seriene didn't answer, looking back out over the lake. When she finally spoke up, her voice shook. “They're right not to trust me… For all they know, I can turn on them in an instant…”

Cassie sighed. “Give them time. They'll come around eventually.” She said.

“I doubt that will happen…” Seriene said, hugging her wings tighter around her body.

Cassie put a hand on Seriene's shoulder to comfort her. “You’ll pull through this. We all will.”

Seriene turned her head to look at Cassie with tear filled eyes. “Why do you want to help me, after everything I did to those ponies?” she asked.

“Because in a way… you remind me of my sister.” Cassie admitted. “You both are sensitive in your own way.”

She was suddenly engulfed in a hug as Seriene began to sob into her shoulder. Caught off guard, Cassie could only return the hug, albeit awkwardly. “Th...Thank you.” Seriene whispered.

Cassie looked up at the now setting sun and sighed. I wish I could make sense of what Company Master had told me… But I have a feeling it will impact what happens when we go to stop Maxwell and the other three Gods…. And what did he mean by Cassie and I not being the only ones Displaced here?

After the two sat at the shore for a few more minutes, they flew back to Ponyville and, after getting directions from a pony heading back home, headed to the Golden Oaks Library.

“Where were you two?” Mira asked as Cassie and Seriene walked into the library. Midnight and Rainbow by that time had left for their homes.

“A pond in some woods nearby. Seriene and I had… a little chat while we were there.” Cassie said just as Twilight came down the stairs from putting Spike to bed.

“You two were in Whitetail Woods? I love going there, especially in the fall.” The unicorn said.

“I could see why.” Cassie chuckled.

“Well, we don't really have much to eat, but you're welcome to make yourself a sandwich or some eggs.” Twilight said.

Cassie nodded before she headed towards the kitchen. Twilight then looked over at Seriene. “I'm really sorry that my friends acted like that earlier. I’ll have them apologize tomorrow.”

“It's... It's alright. I understand that they don't really trust me, especially with what I've done…” Seriene said, hanging her head. She then walked upstairs to her room and both Mira and Twilight heard the door click shut.

Cassie walked back out from the kitchen a few minutes later, having finished a plate of scrambled eggs she had made. “I'm gonna head up to bed. I’ll see you guys tomorrow.” She said before heading to her room. But when she entered, she saw a pile of her old clothes folded neatly at the foot of her bed. How?! This must have what Company Master meant by him leaving something for me and Mira… our old clothes... She gave a small smile. He may not make sense sometimes, but he does seem to care about us...

After removing her armor, she moved her clothes onto a nearby trunk and slipped into the bed. Almost like my old bed... She thought before she fell into a dreamless sleep.

Interlude: Down with the Sickness

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Ponyville, 1531 CLR

Mira dodged a lightning blast from a Harpy before dispatching it with her blades. Panting, she looked over to where Cassie was. Her sister had been fighting two Minotaurs, and was now bringing the second one down. The attack had come without warning, but luckily, most of the ponies had been inside their houses. As it were, there were a few injuries that sent ponies to the hospital, including three broken ribs and a shattered leg.

"That's the last of them." Cassie said before she heard a slithering sound, followed by footsteps. The two turned to see an lightly armored human female with wild pale blue hair with purple highlights at the ends and wielding a massive two handed axe that had runes of darkness etched on it, while a pair of metal horns stood above her ears. Her most striking feature were her eyes, black pools with red irises that seemed to glow with madness.

At her side was a massive skeletal serpent that glowed with necromantic power. Tattered skin hung from its frame, while the mouth had razor sharp teeth. Billowing vapors blew out from the ribcage and mouth, covering the ground in a sickly haze.

As the two passed those watching, the ponies suddenly collapsed, shivering and coughing. Not even Twilight was safe, as she shivered feverishly from whatever was affecting her. The cause was soon known as the vapors from the serpent spread all around the town, causing ponies to collapse in a feverish stupor. Soon, everywhere was covered in a disease filled mist.
“So…. You’re the two that wiped out our forces at Sun’s Hollow…” the stranger said in a sibilant hiss as she walked forward towards Cassie and Mira . “Maxwell didn't like that at all…”

“Who are you?” Mira asked, her voice muffled from having arm over her mouth and nose to block out the vapors emanating from the serpent, Cassie doing the same.

“Kafka, the Sinister Basilisk… and the one who shall show you that you do not know who you're messing with…” Kafka whispered, before pointing her hand at the two. The serpent charged forward, mouth open.

Jumping to avoid the attack, Mira was blasted by a cloud of vapors as the snake flew past. Coughing, Mira staggered back, her body suddenly feeling clammy. Shivering, she managed to land three blows on the snake before it sent her flying into a nearby stall with a lash of its tail. She landed with a *Crack* of wood breaking, and laid there, unconscious and shivering as the plague mist ravaged her immune system.

Cassie, meanwhile, had managed to avoid the cloud of vapors by leaping into the air, her wings flapping. “Mira!” she yelled as she saw her sister sent flying. Holding her arm over her mouth and nose, she flew down and delivered a powerful blow to the snake, the shock causing it to screech in pain. As Cassie flew in for another attack, a flash of metal caused her to veer off as Kafka swung her axe, missing her by a minute. The madwoman growled in frustration

“You will suffer!” Kafka snarled as she raised her hand. At once, the mist began to rise, until it completely obscured everything. She then began to laugh, her voice now cold as ice. “You’ll need to uncover your mouth eventually… why not give in?” she asked, stalking through the plague ladened mist.

Cassie didn't answer, not wanting to risk suffering with whatever her sister and the ponies had been infected with from the vapors. As she blundered about, she didn't notice the serpentine shape behind her until she felt herself being yanked backwards, causing her to gasp and cough. She looked up to see the serpent staring down at her, Kafka next to it on its coils. Kefka gave a small smirk

“You think it’d be that easy to stop Maxwell and the Fallen Gods?” The madwoman asked “You and your equine friends will learn that you all are nothing but insects to be squashed by them.”

Cassie, her head in a feverish haze, barely listened. She didn't even notice herself being dropped to the ground, only to curl up and shiver as she was weakened by the plague the vapors from the snake caused. Her skin was clammy to the touch, and her eyes were dull.

“The next time we meet… I won't be as merciful…” Kafka said before she and the serpent vanished into the mist. The only sign that they had been there was the mist swirling where they had walked through it.

Cassie struggled to get up, but with each movement, she became weaker. Whatever was in the mist that was making her sick was also draining her energy. She soon collapsed, her breathing raspy. She was unconscious by the time Seria and Karl found her and Mira, who then brought them back to the Golden Oaks Library.

The plague mist lasted for three weeks, seeping into the homes of those who had been hiding and causing them to collapse in a fever that lasted for days.

Tillith did the best she could with those who had been affected, but the plague mist soon took its toll on her too. Not even she was immune to whatever sickness was in the mist.

Both Mira and Cassie were bedridden for weeks afterwards, having been exposed longer than the others.

All the while, the person responsible watched with a cruel smile before disappearing into the Everfree. We’ll meet again… and nothing will save you from your painful demise...

Unknown location, the Dragon Lands

The halls echoed with the sound of footsteps, causing her to grit her teeth.

Whoever's approaching had better have a good reason to disturb my meditation… Maxwell thought as she opened her black/gold eyes in annoyance. She hovered a few feet from the ground on her throne, a ball of light underneath it and circled by four other orbs, each representing a different Element. Seeing Kafka, she said, “Report, Kafka…”

“Your Holiness…” Kafka said as she knelt down. “Those fools who wiped out the forces of the town you destroyed have been taught a lesson. They’ll think twice before they defy you again.” She gave a small laugh. “They were lucky I went easy on them…”

“Good…. Soon this world shall know that it is under our rule… and no one can stop us….” Maxwell said before she dismissed Kafka and went back to meditating. Not even the Summoners…. She thought with a grim smile.

Chapter 5: Vanishing act

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It had been days since Kafka had appeared in Ponyville and caused an unknown sickness to rip through the village. While no one had died from the plague mist, it left the town in shambles as ponies recovered from whatever had been in the mist. Both Mira and Cassie had been left bedridden for weeks after the encounter and were slowly recovering.

Twilight and Tillith helped the best they could, but only time would take care of the rest….

Golden Oaks Library, 1551 CLR

Mira sighed as she laid in bed. The plague mist had left both her and Cassie severely weakened, and while they were recovering, they still suffered from bouts of shivering.

She could hear Cassie in the next room coughing. While they both had been exposed to the mist longer than the ponies, Cassie had suffered the worst of it when she had been in the coils of the snake as the mist had been super concentrated as it poured out of the beast.

Slowly, she got up and after wobbling for a few seconds, put on a T-shirt and shorts. Her armor had been hung on a mannquin that had somehow appeared in her room.

As she opened the door, she saw Twilight standing there, her hoof raised as she was about to knock.

“Mira! I-I was about to check on you!” Twilight stammered in embarrassment. Mira gave the unicorn a small smile.

“I’m fine, just a bit weak legged.” She said before her legs gave out. She then fell to the floor with a thud. Twilight quickly helped the summoner up, allowing Mira to lean on her as the two walked, or in Mira’s case hobbled, to the kitchen. Spike was already working on eggs on the stove, as the two entered, he looked over to them.

“Morning guys! Breakfast’s gonna be in a bit.” He said before he then asked, “How’re you feeling Mira?”

“Better. Still a bit weak in the legs.” She replied as she sat down. “I'm more worried about Cassie. She got the worst of it from being in contact with that snake….”

Twilight shuddered. “I don't know who that was, but to be able to make everypony sick like that… if she attacked a place like Manehatten, she could lay low the entire city….”

“Her name is Kafka, a former comrade of ours before she was corrupted by Maxwell.” Karl said as he and Seria entered the room. “She was one of our best summoners during the War. But after she disappeared during one of her missions to try and find Maxwell, we thought she had been slain… but it seems we were wrong.”

“She was always a headstrong girl, but she was always willing to help those in need.” Seria spoke up, but her voice was subdued.

Twilight raised an eyebrow. “Sounds like she was special to the both of you.” She said.

“She was my best friend… and I would go to the dephs of Ishigra to get her back.” Seria growled.

Mira was surprised by the comment. Guess she's not as bad tempered as she makes herself out to be… she thought. The sound of footsteps caused her to turn as Cassie came in, leaning on the wall for support.

“Morning….” She rasped.

“Cassie!” Mira hobbled over to her sister and helped her to a chair. “You should be resting, you're not fully recovered!”

Cassie brushed her off. “I'm fine, it's just a hangover from whatever was in the mist.” She said before coughing, her body shuddering as she covered her mouth.

There was a knock on the door. “Twi? It's Midnight.” The Kirin’s voice called out. “I need your help, Squeak’s isn't feeling too good. Something about some kind of mist making her feel queasy.”

Twilight quickly ran to the door and opened it. “I’ll bring Tillith. We just had the same thing happen a few days ago.”

Midnight raised an eyebrow. “What happened?” she asked. As Twilight explained, Mira looked over at Cassie.

“You okay?” She asked.

Cassie sighed. “Yeah, Kafka managed to catch me by surprise. Those vapors from the snake…. It was like I had gotten the worst kind of flu, and it just wouldn't go away.” She then shuddered at the memory. “I never want to go through that again…” Feeling her sister's hand on her shoulder, she leaned her head on it while putting her own hand on Mira's hand.

“We’ll stop her and Maxwell. We may not be strong enough to fight them yet, but we'll show them that we won't give up.”

As Cassie opened her mouth to answer, both girls felt a sudden tug in their guts before a portal opened below them. Spike, Karl and Seria stumbled back in shock as the two tumbled into the vortex before it closed with a hiss. Twilight and Midnight, hearing the shocked cries, came running in just as the portal closed.

“What happened?!” Twilight asked. Spike looked over at her, his eyes wide.

“I… I don't know…. It happened so fast…” he said.

“Some kind of portal just opened up beneath them. We didn't even get a chance to stop them from falling in.” Karl said.

Midnight blinked. “Portals? You sure you didn't hit your head on the doorway?” She asked skeptically.

Twilight rolled her eyes as she looked at the spot that Cassie and Mira, along with a chair had occupied. Where did they go? She thought worriedly. Lady Faust…. Please bring them back safety...

Later that day...

Twilight paced as her friends and Spike looked on in worry. “Darling, I’m sure they'll be alright.” Rarity said.

It had been hours since Cassie and Mira had suddenly vanished. After helping Tilith with curing Squeaky Wings, Twilight had sent word to the others about what had happened. Now all six of them were gathered in the library.

“But what if they get hurt or killed? Then no one can stop this 'Maxwell’...” Twilight retorted.

Rainbow rolled her eyes. “Twi, they're not helpless. Besides, they fought Discord! That shows that they're totally able to kick butt!”

“Yeah! Besides, they're in safe hands with Company Master watching over them!” Pinkie said. The five mares gave her confused looks. Pinkie shrugged. “Not my fault you haven't been following the story…” she said.

Sighing and chalking it up to another ‘Pinkie being Pinkie’ moment, Twilight then sat down. “I'm just really worried about them. They’re still recovering from when Kafka appeared, and I don't know what will happen to them wherever they are…”

Applejack put a hoof on Twilight's shoulder. “Don't worry about it, Sugarcube. I'm sure they'll come back safe and sound.” Twilight gave the country mare a grateful look.

“M-me too.” Fluttershy said. She then gave an eep as a vortex opened up and Cassie and Mira exited it.

“Hey guys…” Cassie said before a huge yawn overtook her. Seeing the shocked looks of the six, she then asked, “What?” Instead of an answer, both she and Mira were tackled in a group hug, Twilight's eyes shining with tears of relief.

“Thank Faust you're safe.” She said, tighly holding the two.

She felt the two girl’s arms wrap around her and the others. “Sorry for making you girls worry.” Cassie said quietly.

“So what happened?” Rainbow asked, her eyes curious.

“It's a long story…” Mira said. Twilight then realized something.

“Wait, how's your armor on? I don't remember you two putting it on…” she asked.

“I… I don't know. My clothes got replaced by it when we went through that portal….” Mira said, rubbing the back of her head.

Deciding to question it later, Twilight then said, “I’m just glad you two are safe.”

“Yeah, same here.” Cassie said. As she turned to Mira, she saw that her sister had fallen asleep where she stood. “We’ll tell you what happened tomorrow, right now, I just want to sleep.”

The six mares nodded. “Okie dokie!” Pinkie said.

Shaking Mira's shoulder, Cassie lead her sister to her room before she entered her own room and got into bed.

Back in the living room, Rainbow looked over at Twilight. “What do you think happened?”

The lavender unicorn shrugged. “Guess we'll find out tomorrow….”

After the six had chatted a bit more, Rarity, Applejack, Fluttershy, Rainbow and Pinkie soon left for their homes. As soon as they left, Twilight picked up the book she was reading and looked at the title. “I really hope these two can stop Maxwell… because I have a feeling Kafka was only the beginning….”

Catching up, PT. 1

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Two months had passed since Mira and Cassie had been summoned by Jolis. After Cassie had explained what had happened, Twilight and the girls had shown both shock and relief at what they had been told.

A month later, the two were summoned to another Equestria. When they had returned, Twilight had been shocked by the change Mira had gone through, but she also showed disappointment with how Cassie had acted. “You need to be more careful! You both could've been killed!” She had scolded, while Cassie sighed and admitted that she had been out of line. A few days later, they came back battered and bruised from helping defend another world’s Scootaloo.

Now, both Twilight, Spike and Midnight watched as Mira practiced with her new armament. The summoner dodged a swing from Cassie's blade before shield bashing her, sending her reeling.

Midnight whistled, her eyes widening as Cassie recovered and knocked Mira’s legs from under her, sending her sister crashing to the ground. “Looks like that training they're getting from Seria is paying off.” she commented.

Twilight nodded as the two sisters continued to clash. “She may be rude at times, but there's no denying that she knows what she's doing.” Her eyes then clouded with worry. “Cassie mentioned something that she had heard in a dream from some sort of being. Look to the west where beasts of legend roam as subjects to a king, and when the Ivory Tower appears, the goddess will arrive to wreak destruction upon Equestria.”

Midnight raised an eyebrow. “Are you sure she didn't just imagine that?” she asked.

Twilight shook her head. “It’s too much of a coincidence to be something she imagined.” she replied. “I do question what this being’s motives are, but from what I can guess, he’s talking about the Dragon Lands.”

“The what?” Midnight asked in confusion.

“From what I’ve read, it's where the dragons live, and they're ruled by a king. But it's past a place known as the Badlands, and no one has really explored there, so not much is known about it.” Twilight explained.

Midnight nodded in understanding before looking back at the now resting sisters. “Think we should tell them to stop now? They're gonna wear themselves out if they keep going at it.” she asked.

The unicorn nodded. “Cassie, Mira, you can stop now.” She called out.

Cassie raised an hand in acknowledgement, her breathing coming in short gasps.

Spike soon walked out with cold drinks for the four of them, which they accepted gratefully. “Thanks, Spike.” Mira said as she took a sip.

“No problem, you guys looked like you needed a drink after that training.” he replied. “So what’s it like, going to other worlds?”

“It’s… honestly hard to describe.” Cassie said, her eyes thoughtful. “But I guess it's a way to meet new people and learn more about what being a Displaced is like.”

Mira set her cup down and turned to Twilight. “So… do you have any idea where Maxwell will show up?” she asked.

Twilight gave a slight nod. “If my guess is correct, she’ll be appearing in the Dragon lands.”

“The Dragon lands?” Cassie repeated, a confused look on her face. “You mean there's more of Spike's kind?”

Twilight nodded. “Yes, but they're not as welcoming. So you’ll need to be very careful when you travel there.”

The two girls glanced at each other nervously. “Anything else we should know about?” Mira asked.

Twilight gave them a slightly worried look. “To get there, you're gonna need to pass through the Badlands. They're a part of Equestria that hasn't fully been explored yet, so we don't know what or who lives there. For all we know, all kinds of beasts live there…” she replied.

Cassie frowned. “So technically we’re going through unknown territory to get to these 'Dragon lands’... That'll be fun…” she muttered. She then stood up and stretched. “Well, I’m gonna go see if Applejack needs any help with harvesting apples. Mira, you wanna help?” she asked.

Her sister nodded, also getting up. “We’ll see you two later. Thanks for the drinks, Spike.” she said, getting a wave from Spike.

Midnight nodded. “I need to pick Squeaks up from school anyways, if my mom hasn't already. See you guys later.”

The two summoners then walked off in the direction of Sweet Apple Acres, chatting all the while. But as they got within range of the barn, a violet glow suddenly surrounded them.

“What the…?!” Cassie yelped before the two disappeared off the path entirely.

Twilight frowned as she felt a magic spike nearby, even more confusing was that it was her magic signature and she knew she hadn't cast a spell at all after the girls had left. Writing it off as her being absent-minded, she returned to the book she was reading.

Later that afternoon...

A knock on her door caused her to look back up in irritation. ‘Can't I be able to read a book in peace?’ she thought as she trotted over. To her surprise, Applejack was standing in front of the library.

“Howdy Twi, are the girls here? They promised to help with Applebuckin’ earlier.” she asked. Twilight frowned at that.

“I thought they were already helping you… Did they not show up?” She asked, hoping she was wrong.

Applejack’s words only confirmed her fears. “I waited over 3 hours for them. Although I did see the darndest thing…. A flash of light on the path leading towards the barn. It looked like your magic, but I couldn't exactly tell.”

Twilight blinked. “Funny, I felt a magic spike near your place, and it felt like my magic…. But I never even used my magic.” she said.

Applejack frowned. “Then… who was it then?” she asked, a confused tone in her voice.

“I don't know… but I have a feeling Cassie and Mira will know…” Twilight replied. Her eyes widened as a portal opened up nearby and the two humans stumbled out. Both girls bore bruises and scrapes, while their armor was badly dented in places. Cassie's eyes held a haunted look, as if something had happened to her.

“Whut in tarnation happened to y’all?” Applejack asked, a shocked look on her face, which was echoed by Twilight.

“Giant crab…” Cassie said, her voice tired.

“Giant….what?” Twilight repeated, her voice disbelieving. Rubbing her forehead, she sighed. “I’m just glad you two are alright. But what exactly happened with you two? I felt a magic spike by Sweet Apple Acres, but it felt like my magic.”

“Because it was you, at least from a different Equestria. She used her magic to activate our token.” Mira said. “We ended up helping her and the Displaced of that world rescue A.K. Yearling from some sort of giant crab monster.” No need to tell her she’s Daring Do… yet… she thought.

Twilight's eyes widened. “The A.K. Yearling?! Author of the Daring Do series!?” She gasped. Mira nodded. At once there was a squee from Twilight. “You’re so lucky! I’ve yet to meet her!”

Mira chuckled before yawning. Twilight saw this and gave a small smile. “You two better get some rest. You both look like you could use it.”

Mira nodded before turning to Applejack. “We’ll come and help tomorrow bright and early.” she said. “I’m really sorry we vanished on you.”

Applejack waved her apology off with a hoof. “Pshaw, ain’t nothing to worry about, sugercube. I’m just glad you helped the fellers that needed your help.” she said. “But I expect the two of you to be up and early to help with the Applebuckin’ tomorrow.”

Both girls nodded before heading to their respective rooms. Applejack then turned to Twilight. “Ah’m not sure if I was the only one who noticed it, but didn't Cassie look like she got spooked by something?”

Twilight nodded, a worried look on her face. “I’ll ask her about it later. But right now, I’ll let them rest.”

“Ask her about what?” Pinkie asked from behind them, causing the two to whirl around in surprise.

“Pinkie! Don't sneak up on us like that!” Twilight scolded, her heart hammering.

“I didn't sneak up on you, silly! I was with you for a while!” the hyperactive mare giggled.

Twilight opened her mouth to say something, then closed it. It's just Pinkie being Pinkie…. She repeated to herself. “Cassie looked like something scared her, but I don't know what.”

“Oooh! She got turned into a dragon to help Wyatt defeat a giant crab monster that attacked them and Daring Do, but she didn't want to become a dragon because of her Omni form, so she got really scared of it! But I’m not gonna say anything else because spoilers, duh!”

Twilight blinked in confusion and irritation. “Forget I even mentioned that…” she muttered, feeling a headache coming on.

Applejack looked between Twilight and Pinkie. “Well, I’d better get back to the farm. I’ll see you y’all tomorrow.” She then trotted off.

“Bye Applejack!” Pinkie called out. She then seemed to realize something and gasped. “I NEVER THREW CASSIE AND MIRA A “WELCOME TO PONYVILLE” PARTY!” She made to leap up, but was brought back to earth by Twilight.

“Not now, Pinkie! They're exhausted, and throwing a party for them this moment will make them more exhausted.” She said. Pinkie's mane and tail seemed to deflate a bit. “Tomorrow would be better because they’ll be helping Applejack with harvesting. Would that suit you?”

Pinkie nodded happily. “Okie-Dokie! Sounds good to me! Also, you might wanna move from that doorway soon…” She said.

“Huh?” Twilight said, a confused look on her face.

“Just wanted to let you know!” With that, Pinkie bounced away.

Twilight shook her head. “That mare makes no sense sometimes…” She muttered as she made to open the door, only to find herself flattened between the door and the tree.

“Twi?” Spike called out. As he came out, the door slammed shut behind him causing Twilight to crash onto the ground. Spike turned and gulped. “Sorry Twi…”

All Twilight could utter was an pained groan. It's gonna be one of those weeks….. She thought ruefully as her body flared in pain.

Catching up PT. 2, Wolf time

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The next morning found the two girls gathering buckets of apples while Applejack bucked the trees. As Mira dumped her load into a basket, she heard the sound of hooves running towards her and a cry of “CUTIE MARK MONSTER HUNTERS, YAY!” before she was knocked to the ground by a trio of blows. While her armor absorbed most of the impact, she was still winded as she hit the ground.

As her vision cleared, she saw that the ones responsible for tackling her were just three fillies, an orange Pegasus with a violet mane and tail, a yellow earth pony with a red mane and tail and wearing a bow, and a white unicorn with a mane and tail that had a mix of pink and purple. The most notable part was that none of them had cutie marks on their flanks. The three fillies were now looking at said flanks with hopeful expressions. Their expressions fell as they saw that nothing had appeared on their flanks.

“Aw, still no cutie marks…” the Pegasus said.

“Don’cha worry, Ah’m sure we’ll get our cutie marks soon.” the Earth pony said in a familiar accent. The unicorn nodded eagerly.

Mira gave a small cough, making them jump. “Could I please get up? I’d rather not have Applejack come looking for me.” she asked, hiding a smile.

The Earth pony’s eyes widened. “You’re helping mah sister?” she asked. Mira nodded, realizing that this must be Applejack's younger sister.

The three fillies jumped off of Mira, who then stood up and brushed herself off before picking up the bucket she had dropped. She then knelt down in front of them and said, “My name’s Mira.”

“Ah’m Apple Bloom.” The Earth pony said.

“My name's Scootaloo!” the Pegasus said, bouncing into the air, her wings whirring.

“And I’m Sweetie Belle!” the Unicorn squeaked.

“And together we’re…. THE CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS!” All three of them said together. “No job too big, no filly too small in our quest to find our cutie marks.”

Mira put a hand to her mouth to stop a fit of giggles from coming out. “It’s nice to meet you three. I heard the name Crusaders mentioned a few times, but I didn't expect it to be a trio of fillies!”

Applebloom shuffled her hooves. “Eeyup, that's us. Our adventures usually end up with us in a mess and no cutie mark.”

The summoner raised the filly’s head so that their eyes met. “As long as you keep trying, you’ll succeed.” she said.

The three grinned and nodded. Making a shooing motion, Mira watched them run off with a small smile before going back to work.

A few hours later…

“Hooee! Ah think we’ve done enough for today.” Applejack said as the three sat on her porch. “Y’all did a good job out there. Take the rest of the day off, Ah can handle the rest.”

“Thanks Applejack. See you later!” Cassie said before the two flew away.

A few minutes later, the two landed in the center of Ponyville. As the two walked around, Mira noticed a strange object floating in the breeze. Jumping into the air, she gently caught it and landed next to Cassie. It was a symbol of some kind, woven from grass. As Mira held it, she heard a voice inside her mind.

“In brightest day,
In blackest night,
No evil shall escape my sight.
Let those who worship evils might,
Beware my power,
Green Lanterns light.”

“Hey Cassie, I think I just grabbed someone's token. Don't know who it is, but I think it's a Green Lantern displaced.” Mira said. Cassie raised an eyebrow.

“They didn't give their name? Weird… well, call them over.” She said.

Mira then called out, “Whoever you are, may we have a word?” Instantly a portal formed and spat out an unknown figure wearing a cloak onto the ground.

“Bloody freaking… I hate that spell now.” The creature said, getting up. He looked like a white werewolf to the two girls, but a diamond dog to any ponies nearby. He had blue eyes, and a patch of black hair on the top of his head.

Nearby, someone shouted “DIAMOND DOG!” and within seconds there was mass panic.

Both girls facepalmed before Cassie grabbed the newcomer and said, “Brace yourself!” as she leapt into the air with him holding on for dear life while Mira followed. A few minutes later, they landed at Whitetail Woods.

“Sorry about that…” Cassie said as the werewolf picked himself up.

After fully dusting himself off, he sighed. “Well. That went better than I could've not hoped. I know a spell that would've let me calm them down, you know.”

“My experience, just let them calm down on their own. At least it wasn't as bad as the bunny stampede…” Cassie groaned in annoyance. “Seriously, ponies scared of rabbits…”

Chuckling, the wolf looked up at the two, and said, “Yeah, that was a pretty funny episode. Anyroad, name's Ashton Grey, but I'm stuck as the Archmage Silphen Dardo from a roleplay with some friends back home. Who're you two stuck as? Zapdos and Erza?”

“I’m Cassandra, or Cassie for short, and this is my sister, Miriam, or Mira. As for what we got displaced as, we’re characters from an RPG game called Brave Frontier. Mira’s Holy Blades Sefia, I’m Pheonix Thunder Rayla.” Cassie said. She raised an eyebrow. “We thought you were going to be a Green Lantern displaced with what we heard from your token.”

His previously simple smile turned into a shit eating grin. “Yeah. That was the point. I wanted to mess with people. And besides, you really think a grass twine token would come from a Lantern of any color?”

Both girls shook their heads. Mira unsheathed her sword and embedded it into the ground, the six intangible blades surrounding it doing the same. “So you're stuck as a werewolf? That must be.. interested to say the least.” she said.

“Pfft, I wish I was a werewolf. No, I'm a Soft Metal Furred Wolf. Specifically, a Soft Silver one. Go ahead and touch my muzzle, it's weird how soft the metal hairs are.” He says, putting his hands behind his back while leaning forward and tilted his head to the side so they could get at his muzzle easier.

Mira hesitantly brushed her hand over the fur, to her surprise it was as soft as actual fur. “Must be like your own personal armor.” she commented.

That got another chuckle, this one of disappointment, out of him. “I wish. Only thing it's good for is a natural Faraday Cage, and spell components. You said you were something with thunder?”

Cassie nodded. “Thunder is my character’s element.” She drew her own sword, the lightning glyphs etched on it crackling with electricity.

“Neato. Hit me with something lightning. Don't worry, between the sigils on the hemming, and the fur, I'll be just fine.” He widened his stance and bent his knees slightly, sure that even with those two precautions he was still going to go flying.

Cassie's eyes glowed before shouting “Thunder Blade: Yellow Silk!” She then slashed forward with her blade, creating an arc of lightning before leaping up and spinning her sword, the electrical energy from her wings blasting up, revealing her normal wings before both she and the lightning blast smashed into Ashton.

As he predicted, the lightning itself didn't hurt him whatsoever, aside from a slight tingle as his fur stood on end, small lightning bolts arcing between each strand. Then he was sent flying into a tree, and groaned from the impact. “Ow…”

Both girls winced before Mira walked over and helped him up. “You okay?” She gave a yelp as she was hit with an electrical discharge from him.

Groaning, he got himself up, and created a mudbath through some weird language that neither girl understood before starting to take his robe off. Only then did he notice them both staring at him. “What?”

“What… were you just chanting?” Cassie asked.

He began climbing into his mana made mudbath as she was talking, the electric arcs fading as he kept submerging. “Ah. Guess that part wasn't clear. Silphen Dardo studied, and mastered, a very wide range of magic in their most primal forms. That one was Mud Magic. The book I left in the tree I leapt out of after running from some timberwolves holds most of what I've managed to decipher. I'm trying to find the one for M127, a sentient scrying spell, that helped Silphen test and get a proper feel for many of the magic branches. Anything you girls wanna know before I get out and put my robe back on so we can go back to town?”

“So you can use magic?” Mira asked, brushing her long white hair back over her shoulders, unaware that a few strands were sticking straight up after her unexpected shock.

Ashton looks down at the mudbath he was currently sitting in, then back up at Mira with a look that said, ‘What gave you that idea?’ “You got some floaters, there.” He said, pointing at the lightly charged hairs.

“Huh?! Arrrgh, I hate having long hair sometimes…” Mira muttered as she pushed her hair back down. “How long have you been displaced?” She then asked.

“About half a month? I think? Hard to tell. Don't really have calendars out there. Oh, by the way, Silphen has studied all the branches of black magic as well. Don't tell the sisters though, since I don't want to be hunted here as well.”

Cassie gave a small chuckle. “Don’t worry, we’re not blabbermouths.” she said.

Ashton sighs in relief, just as he starts to raise upwards, the ground turning back to normal, not leaving a trance of dirt on his person. “Thank the a- and I'm using his swearing system… Lovely…”

Both girls tittered. “C’mon, hopefully they’ve calmed down enough to… Ashton, DUCK!” Mira yelped as she saw a familiar prismatic blur zip towards their position.

Ashton, who had been bending over to retrieve his robe anyways, didn't realize what Mira said until Rainbow Dash had already flown over his back, causing him to straighten up and look around in confusion. “What just happened?”

Both girls gaped in astonishment. “You nearly got tackled by Rainbow Dash.” Cassie said. At that exact moment, a thud was heard as Rainbow smacked into a nearby tree.

“Ow…” She groaned as she stood back up. “Cassie, Mira, get away from that diamond dog!”

“Rainbow, don't-!” Cassie began to say but was suddenly cut off by Ashton.

“Really? You too? *Ξέρεις ότι μπορείς να με εμπιστεύεσαι, Rainbow. Τώρα ηρεμήστε και ακούστε τη λογική.” He said, putting out both his hands in a non threatening manner, though the faint pink glow about them and the sudden calm the brash pegasus felt despite not consciously recognizing what he had said.

“Just who the buck are you?!” She asked, her temper having cooled a bit due to the spell but not enough to dispel her suspicions. “You look like a diamond dog, but you act like Cassie or Mira when they get offended…”

He looked to Cassie and Mira, and then back to the pony before him. “How much have they told you about our… shared unique curse? I am not going any further without knowing how much you know for sure. But first off, I’m a wolf, not a dog, and my fur is made of soft silver, not… whatever the diamond dogs have.”

“Wait, you mean you're one of those 'Displaced’?” Rainbow asked.

Nodding, Ashton let the mana he was channeling into maintaining the soothing effects of the spell, and said, “Yeah. I’m a Displaced. I’m also a Soft Silver Wolf. A species of alien that has metal for fur. And no. It’s not like an actual armor. It stops most lightning based attacks, but not much else. And I can do magic, something I highly doubt any version of those little idiots are smart enough to do.”

Rainbow snickered. “Yeah, probably not.”, Meanwhile, both Cassie and Mira sighed breaths of relief.

“So. With that out the way…” He then turned to the other Displaced. “What season you two get dropped in? I’m pretty sure I’m in season 4.”

“Considering we were turned to stone with Discord when he was reigning, I’d say.. second season.” Mira said.

“Lucky.” He said, before leaning in and whispering to them, “You guys don’t have to deal with flying purple nook horse yet. Please try to keep her out of alicornhood… I personally feel she shouldn’t have been promoted for what she did…”

“I think that's the last thing on her mind right now…” Cassie muttered, looking towards where Sun’s Hollow had been situated in the distance.

Confused, he asked, “What’s over there? And what’s up with your world?”

“It’s… one of the occupational hazards of being a displaced, you end up encountering enemies from your game universe. In our case, we have to bring down not one, but four gods and goddesses that want ponykind destroyed. Before we woke up, a town called Sun’s Hollow was razed, only a few kids and one adult survived.” Mira replied, her voice choking a bit.

Hearing this caused the wolf to twitch as he tilted the hood of his robe further down his face. He then said in a frighteningly calm voice as a small amount of purple mist leaked out from under his hood, “Really? Well… If ever you need a hand PUNISHING those four, let me know. I have a couple spells I wanna test out on them now.”

“Right now, we’re trying to figure out where Maxwell is, and our best bet is in the dragon lands.” Cassie replied.

“Y’all have clues? Good. Now, if you don’t mind, would you care about a hunting season? I wanna go and kill a timberwolf or two.” He said, looking up, showing the mist flowing out of his eyes, despite not having changed color themselves.

“Wait, you can't just go and slaughter Timberwolves, are you insane?!” Rainbow exclaimed.

Looking at Rainbow through his cowl, she could feel the barely hidden rage boiling inside him. “I need to hunt before I go back, or I will burn down the forest around the bandits I’m searching for. And they have my marefriend.”

“You have a girlfriend back on your world?” Mira asked. She sighed. “Alright, you can hunt in the Everfree, but only…” She held up a hand to forestall any argument. “If we come with you to make sure you don't go overboard.”

He looked back to Mira, and nodded. “Good enough.” He then dashed forward, grabbed her and Cassie, and used a long range teleportation to put the three at the edge of the water in Froggy Bottom Bog.

The two girls staggered as the disorienting effects of the teleportation wore off. “Gaaah, this is why I prefer flying than teleporting…” Cassie groaned, holding her head.

He glanced at them both and shrugged. “Froggy Bottom Bog. Where to for the hunt?”

The two froze. “Isn’t this where that Hydra lives?” Mira squeaked.

Smiling, he turned back to the swamp itself, and howled, the sound one of primal fury, unbridled rage, and sorrow. “Let them come.”

A bovine bellow answered his howl as a large Minotaur stomped out, ax sparking with electricity, flanked by a pair of Salamanders. The two crocodile-like beasts hissed in anticipation, flaming drool dripping onto the wet ground. Both girls readied their weapons, the seven blades circling Mira’s main blade beginning to spin faster.

Grinning, Ashton started to be lifted into the air by a miniature tornado. “Not what I wanted, but I’ll take it. Gladius glaciei.” As he spoke the last two words, a sword made entirely of ice formed in his hands.

The Minotaur gave an enraged bellow and charged, while the Salamanders blasted out twin torrents of flame, their bodies giving off extreme heat and scorching the ground around them. Mira stepped forward and blocked the twin blasts, but the heat soon became too much for her and she backed off, sweat dripping from her body and her shield blackened. Meanwhile, the Minotaur swung its ax at Ashton, seeking to cleave his head from his shoulders.

Willing the tornado to lift him out of reach, he pointed the sword at Mira, and said, “**إرادة مجددة ، تبارك هذه الروح وتحميها من ألسنة أعدائنا,” (Rejuvenating will, bless this soul and protect her from the flames of our enemies,) causing her to glow slightly as her body recovered from the near heatstroke she had been feeling mere moments before.

Cassie then closed her eyes and chanted, “Selene of the 6, assist us!” A small summoning circle opened up in front of her before a girl in a blue dress appeared, wielding an ornate sword. Charging over to where the Salamanders were, she quickly dispatched them before they could torch her. Giving a military salute, she then vanished.

Giggling like a madman, he screamed at the minotaur, “***Dall agus deafen, solas soinneáin agus fuaim!” (Blind and deafen, blast light and sound!) Causing a ball of light to appear in front of it, and explode like a flash bang, while it stabbed into the muscly mass of a chest it had, shocked when the blade stopped short.

The Minotaur glanced down at the blade and snorted before yanking it out and sending Ashton flying backwards into the two girls, the three crashing to the ground in a clatter of armor. It snarled in rage and stomped towards the three, it's axe ready to cleave them in half.

Panicking, he locked eyes with the minotaur and said, “破碎和粉碎, 石頭惡魔的眩光!” (Broken and crushed, the glare of the stone devil!) He hoped it would do what it was supposed to, and petrify the beast.

To his shock, the Minotaur raised a hand to block his stare and thus nullified the spell. It began to pick up the pace, snorting eagerly.

“Shit. Smart little fucker… What’s his weakness?” He asked, getting up and resummoning his tornado.

“He’s a thunder unit, he’s weak to earth based attacks.” Cassie coughed, spitting mud out of her mouth. Both she and Mira were now plastered in the stuff.

“Oh good, I have just the blade then. 土製武士刀.” He said, dispelling the tornado and slapping his hand to the ground and pulling it up, an earthen katana coming up with his hand.

The Minotaur closed the last few feet and raised its axe, eyes filled with bloodlust. Cassie and Mira quickly stood up, but the grime on their armor caused them to slip and crash back to the ground. With a victorious bellow, the beast swung its weapon down in a killing stroke.

Swinging his own blade up to meet, and hopefully deflect or block, Ashton met the ax head on.

The blade glanced off the ax, but it was enough to redirect it away from the two girls, instead embedding itself deep into the Earth. The Minotaur growled in annoyance as it tried to pull the axe out of the mud.

A small ding was heard above everyone’s head, as a large orb of dripping shadows had finished forming. “Oh! Finally! *****魂を収穫して体を破壊する. 死の波,” (Harvest the soul and destroy the body. The wave of death,) he said, pointing an open hand at the monster as the orb broke and a wave of darkness flowed over the minotaur, covering it entirely.

The Minotaur gave a pained bellow before it began to disintegrate before the girl’s horrified eyes. Skin, muscle and bone were turned to ash within seconds. Soon, all that was left was a pair of pants and the massive axe. Mira soon fainted, Cassie just barely catching her while fighting the urge herself.

Panting, Ashton looked over at them, and said, “Sorry about that… Strongest one I got… Totally drained…”

Cassie shuddered. “I’m just glad you're on my side.” she said.

“Yeah… Same here…” And with that, he collapsed onto his back, staring at the sky. “Your world… Is fucking weird…”

“Welcome to the multiverse.” Cassie said, laughing. She then looked down at herself with a disgusted look on her face. “It’s gonna take hours to wash this off… price we pay for fighting in swamps.”

“Gimme 30… I can… magic that off…”

Cassie shook her head. “We were in need of a shower anyways, after helping at Sweet Apple Acres.” She shook Mira, who soon began to stir. She extended her hand to Ashton. “It was… honestly refreshing fighting alongside you. If we ever need your assistance, or if you need ours, we’ll call you or you call us.”

Looking up at her, he asked, “And… how exactly... can I do that…?”

Cassie brought up a single floating blue crystal. “This is our token, a Battle Crystal.”

Nodding he took the crystal, and heard their voices in his head.

“If you ever need to call us, just absorb the crystal. It’ll boost your powers in the process.”

Groaning, he sat up. “Couldn’t you have made the message shorter?”

The red haired summoner smirked as she helped him up. “Believe me, there are other displaced with longer summoning messages.” she said.

He looked at Cassie and laughed. “Yeah, fair point. I guess yours could be a little more confusing and long winded.”

“Is there anything you want to ask regarding the Displaced?” Cassie asked.

“Nah. Just lemme recharge my mana pool a little before you send me back. Apparently I use a spell when I travel.”

She nodded before Mira spoke up. “W... what was that spell you used? It… it reminded me of a Dark type attack.” she asked, her voice shaking a bit.

“Death and Shadow go hand in hand, but amplify the mana cost insanely.” Ashton replied, looking at Mira. “The Shadow magic is why it also has a charge up time.”

Both girls nodded in understanding. Walking back to where they had fought, Mira retrieved her now muddy sword and shook her head. “Twi’s probably gonna have a fit when she sees us like this.” Shaking her sword, she managed to dislodge most of the mud. Cassie muttered agreement, looking at her wings.

Following them along, he chuckled for the umpteenth time that day. “Really? Twilight’s gonna flip? Obviously you two haven’t met Rarity.”

Both girls laughed. “We have, and she's the one that's made us spare clothes.” Mira said.

“Then you’d know that she’s the one you gotta worry about. Remember that episode where Sweetie Belle tried to help?”

Both of the girls gave him embarrassed looks. “We’ve only watched at least one or two episodes, most of the time we were playing Brave Frontier on our tablets.” Cassie admitted.

“Pfft. Weaklings.” He then did a 360 sweep of the sky, to try and see if Rainbow Dash had tried to find them. “You told the others that they’re just a tv show where we come from yet?”

Both of them shook their heads. “No, we haven't.” Cassie said.

“Good. I get the feeling they won’t like that little detail too much. I can feel that I got enough mana now. You wanna send me back, or you want me to meet the others first?”

“I’m pretty sure Rainbow's told Twi and the others about you already. And besides, you have someone back in your world that probably needs you more than ever.” Mira said.

“Yyyeeaahh… Noticed something just before I lept through the portal… The leaves were slowing down the closer I got to it, and I think just before I went through, time stopped entirely. So as far as I can tell…”

Cassie frowned. “Weird… But anyways, we honestly need to get ourselves cleaned up. We have your token in case we need your assistance. Ashton, our contract is complete.” She said. As soon as she said those words, a portal opened behind the werewolf mage.

Looking back at it, he said, “******Deslocamento Arcano.” (Arcane Shift.) Which caused him to float up, and directly into the portal, no tilting or anything.

As the portal closed, the two girls flew back to Ponyville, both to clean up and discuss what had happened during the last few hours. Tomorrow, their journey would begin.