> Harmony's Helix > by MegaMasterKing > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Prologue > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Two figures stand side by side on a balcony overlooking a strange land filled with magic and nature. The first figure was a male humanoid standing five feet five inches tall wearing brown, medieval robes with a red clothe belt tied around his waste holding an emerald amulet on it. The second figure was about the same height, but quadruped in form resembling some kind Insectiod, winged unicorn. “Isn’t it just perfect” said the humanoid figure in a satisfied tone. “I mean with an active portal allowing me to travel freely between this world and my own I can work on my most powerful projects without my enemies interfering with my work.” “Of course you need to get rid of the princesses and her Elements of Harmony first before you set up shop here” said the Insectiod creature in a feminine tone reminding the other figure about the threats of this world. “But of course, I would never forget a deal I made or not hold up my end of the bargain, especially not one I made to a lady, Madam Chrysalis” said the Humanoid figure in a flirtatious voice. “Rest assured once I have gathered enough weaponry from my world and transport it here those who overthrew you will pay dearly for their transgressions.” “Oh, King Pecus you always know what to say to lift a lady’s spirits” giggled Chrysalis in response. “I’m sorry to interrupt my King, but Blood Scarab has returned with the artifacts you requested he bring to you from our world” claimed another humanoid figure as he materialized from thin air. This figure was bout five feet tall, wearing a gray monk like uniform, and carrying I massive scythe on his back. “Blood Scarab wants to know if you have another list of items you need him to gather for you or if he is free to do as he pleases now.” King Pecus reached into his sleeve and pulled out a small scroll of paper and handed it to the new figure. “Here my loyal servant Gale take this to Blood Scarab and tell him that after he collects these items for me he free to go out and reek havoc on these lands” answered King Pecus to his servant “Oh and before I forget, tell Blood Scarab that should he be followed, to consider the operation compromised, and is to set off a Magic Destruction Relic as he is entering the portal to destroy that particular “gateway”. “Yes my King” responded Gale as he took the scroll and bowed down to his king before de-materializing into a mist and disappearing from sight. “Soon Chrysalis you will have your revenge, and I’ll have a base of operations from which to launch my attacks on my home world. Isn’t it glorious?” asked King Pecus to Chrysalis. “I couldn’t agree more” said Chrysalis as both her and King Pecus began to laugh at the thoughts of what they’ll do when they’re in powers. ***************************************************************************************************************************** Back on Earth very few people were any wiser to what King Pecus was up to. One of these few was TC Muto a human about six feet in height, with semi-spiky, brown hair and moonstone coloured eyes. TC was getting dressed as for the day in his usual attire of a light blue T-shirt, a pair of gray track pants, black socks, a pair of gray, steel toe running shoes, but as he was getting ready he stopped and looked at the sapphire amulet he was wearing before going back to his business. After TC was done getting dressed he walked down the hallway, but stopped when he came to the two doors before the stairs. TC opened the first door to check if his cousin Luna was still sleeping and sure enough he saw the dark blue haired girl fast asleep, and so he checked the second door to make sure his Aunt was sleeping as well so when he could see he blonde hair and hear her snoring he quietly closed both doors before making his way down stairs. When TC got downstairs he quickly wrote a note for his Aunt and cousin letting them know he got called into work and will be for a little while, but that he will be back as soon as he can and that he loves them. After writing the note TC made himself a quick sandwich for his breakfast before hopping out the front door. “Well good morning young man, what brings you out so early?” asked an elderly, feminine voice. TC stopped dead in his tracks and turned to look who was addressing him, but when he saw who it was he relaxed a bit. The person TC saw was an elderly woman about four feet tall, wearing a dark purple cloak and holding an old fashioned, wooden walking stick covered in symbols. “Good morning Miss Boba, I got called into work for a mission” replied TC in a cheery tone. “This early in the morning, the Sun hasn’t even come up yet” said Miss Boba in a disapproving tone. “Don’t they know that young sprouts like you need rest”. “Well when duty calls, I have to answer” stated TC as he went to leave Miss Boba stopped him again. “Tell me what you had to eat for breakfast this morning?” ask Miss Boba in a concerned voice. “I made myself a sandwich for breakfast, why” responded TC “That is no good no good at all, here have this a gift for the road” said Miss Boba as she made a gesture with her right hand, resulting in a puff of light purple smoke appeared in TC’s hands creating a paper lunch bag. “Now get a move on you got worlds to save”. “Thank you Miss Boba, but what did you mean when you said-” TC was cut off as Miss Boba teleported him to the Bus Station. After TC got on the bus he open the bag only to find it was full of he favourite foods; one bowl of poutine (with real cheese curds), one bowl of wiped potatoes, a cheese burger, three bags of cheese curds, a bottle of ice tea, some grapes, and a note that said Do your best and come back safe- Miss Boba. TC was touched by the note and ate the food, and after he finished eating the bowls, utensils, and the bag itself disappeared in a puff of purple smoke. Once TC arrived at an abandoned airport he said thank you to the bus driver and walked into one of the buildings. The inside of the building however was full of wires and large computer screens with a control center sitting in the middle of the room. Sitting at the control center was the figure of a male human focussing on something on the screen in front of him. “Hey, Techster care to enlighten me as to why you called me here at this hour?” said TC with an elevated tone in his voice. “Oh, um TC I didn’t see you come in” stammered Techster as he turned around revealing that his right arm and eye have been replaced with mechanical parts while his entire lower half has been replaced with the very chair he was sitting in. “I called you here to investigate some sittings of Blood Scarab and to investigate some strange energy surges located in Captum, S.N.A.S.T has reason to believe that the two are connected as all the reports suggest that Blood Scarab is gathering mystical artefacts of great power”. “Give me a location” said TC as a blue light emitted from his amulet transforming TC into a strange looking creature. TC’s current form resembles the upper body of a black humanoid with the lower half being a torn looking tail; the forearms were covered with silver rings stopping before hands that featured two claws like fingers and one claw like thumb on each hand, the head resembled an Egyptian, golden head piece with the face being white with two blue, oval eyes and streaks of red going down from the eyes, a purple gemstone resting on its forehead, and the sapphire from his amulet sticking out of his chest. “Using Rift to simply teleport there are we” asked Techster as he pulled up the coordinates. “There you go and please be careful-” but Techster was cut off by Rift teleporting away with a dull purple glow. When Rift reappeared it was outside an old looking temple made out of granite and looked like the forest around it was slowly consuming it. Rift looked scanned the grown and sure enough there were large Insectiod foot prints going into the temple. As Rift navigated the temple he was thankful his past job as a treasure hunter had given him the skills needed to spot and avoid any traps. Eventually Rift came to the temple’s heart, and standing in the center was a nine foot tall, red, anthropomorphic scarab beetle entering some sort of code into an ancient control panel, and it had a pile of artifacts sitting behind the creature. As Rift watched the creature finish entering in the code the four diamonds shaped crystals in the roof of the round room lit up creating a portal sucking in both the creature and the artifacts, and has the portal closed the code entered on the control panel randomized preventing Rift from using the control panel to follow the creature. “Great, just great I was hoping that Blood Scarab wasn’t involved with this” complained Rift as he examined the control panel. “What is even better is that I can’t use this portal to follow him as I don’t know the code, but oh well I’ll just need to do it the old fashioned way then” said Rift as be began to read the energies left behind from the portal, and when he locked onto these energies Rift opened a portal that resembled a silver ring with a purple vortex in the center then he went into it and closed it behind himself. **************************************************************************************************************************** Mean while in a small town called Ponyville a four foot six inches tall, lavender Alicorn, a four foot tall baby dragon, and a four foot five inches tall pink unicorn with a purple mane were getting everything in the crystal castle ready for a very important meeting. “Twilight, did Princess Celestia tell you why she was calling a meeting for all of the Equestrian leaders and our allies?” asked the pink unicorn to the alicorn. “I’m sorry Starlight all Celestia said was that we must hold an emergency conference with our allies” responded Twilight in a concerned voice facing the pink unicorn. Suddenly there was a knocking at the door causing the baby dragon to go an answer it. When the baby dragon opened the door, standing there were a group of ponies; a blue Pegasus with a rainbow mane, a light yellow Pegasus with a pink mane, a white unicorn with a dark purple mane, a pink pony with a cotton candy like mane, and finally an orange pony with a yellow mane. “Hey, everyone glad you could make it for the meeting” greeted the baby dragon as he let the group enter the castle. “Of course we would come Spike” responded the white unicorn in a polite manner. “If the princesses are calling a meeting of this magnitude then something big must be going on”. “Oh, oh maybe the princesses want to hold a celebration for everyone we have become friends with” guessed the pink pony in a hyperactive voice. “I don’t think so Pinkie” said the blue Pegasus to the pink pony. “Right Applejack” said the Pegasus looking at the orange pony. “I’m sorry Pinkie, but I must agree with Rainbow Dash and Rarity on this matter” said Applejack as she directed a hoof to the blue Pegasus and then directed her hoof again to the white unicorn. “I hope whatever the reason it isn’t too serious” whispered the yellow Pegasus nervously as she looked around the large room they now found themselves in. the room was very large, perfectly circular, and oddly deep in the bowels of the castle. Sitting in the middle of the room was a large round table with chairs surrounding it, and at the table was Twilight and Starlight finishing the guest placements. “Don’t worry Fluttershy” said Spike to the yellow Pegasus. “I’m sure what ever it is we’ll be able to handle it”. Twilight and Starlight greeted everyone and got everyone in position. Just as they got into their seats an eight foot tall, white alicorn and a multi-coloured mane walked in followed by a five foot five inch tall, dark blue alicorn with a mane that looked like the essence of outer space itself. “Greetings Princess Celestia and Princess Luna” said Twilight to the two alicorns as she and the rest of the group bowed to them. “Rise Twilight Sparkle, we have much work to do when the rest of the dignitaries arrive” commanded Princess Luna as Princess Celestia stayed silent with a grim look covering her face. Slowly the other dignitaries arrived. The first were a five foot tall pink alicorn and a five foot tall white, male unicorn announced as Princess Cadence and Prince Shining Armour from the Crystal Empire. Then a five foot tall female dragon with blue scales entered the room holding a crystal sceptre with blood stone at the top, followed by two five foot four inch tall dragons wearing golden armour. The blue female dragon was announced as Dragon Lord Ember, and as she found her seat she saw Spike waving at her and she waved back before regaining her professional stature. After Dragon Lord Ember arrived, was Prince Rutherford ruler of the Yaks from Yakyakistan, and after Prince Rutherford arrived, Gilda ambassador to the Griffon Empire of Griffonstone arrived, followed by Little Strong Heart ambassador to the Buffalo. Just as everything was about to start the last dignitaries arrived the first being a creature resembling a pony; about six feet tall, had beetle like wing greenish-yellow skin, solid purple eyes and pincer like antlers. This creature was announced as Thorax the newly named king of the Changelings, while the other creature that followed Thorax into the room had an elongated body featuring the limbs of various animals, and was announced as Discord the Spirit of Chaos. Now that everyone has arrived it was time to get to work. Everyone was looking around wondering why they were all called to this meeting, and it was being held so deep inside this castle. “Um… excuse me but could I ask why we were called here” questioned Thorax nervously as he looked towards Princess Celestia. Celestia simply rose from her seat and cleared her throat when she heard this question. “Thanks to Discord and several visions I’ve had, I have determined that several opposing forces coming from another world are about to make our world their battle ground” stated Celestia with a grim tone underlined with pure terror. “From the multiple visions I have had I believe that one of the forces has come here to aid us, but I do not know the identity of this Protector and should we fail to unite and aid them in this fight we will all perish”. > Chapter 1: Blood Spills > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- In a room that mirrored the room from the temple the diamond shaped gems in the ceiling began to glow and flooded the room with a blinding light. After the light had faded standing in the center of the room was a nine foot tall, anthropomorphic, red scarab and behind it was a pile of mystical relics. “PECUS WHERE ARE YOU!” screamed the creature in a booming voice. “Ah, Blood Scarab I see you have returned with the items I requested?” asked King Pecus as he appeared from the doorway walking towards the pile of relics. “I must ask were there any complications with this delivery?” “NO!” screamed Blood Scarab as he looked more enraged every second he remained here. “I wasn’t followed, and I shredded anyone who got in my way. Now hold up your end of our deal”. “Of course my dear Blood Scarab, I would never go back on a deal especially when you held up your end so well” complimented King Pecus as he looked over what Blood Scarab had brought him. “This means you are free to go, but remember with my Magic I hold the keys that can both set you free from your former prison and lock you back into it, so if you ever double cross me” warned King Pecus as dark energies began to swarm and swirl around his left hand like black and purple flames. “I’ll keep that in mind for our next encounter” grumbled Blood Scarab as he left the fortress to see what damage he could do in this world. After Blood Scarab left the chamber Queen Chrysalis walked in with a cautious look on her face. “Are you sure that was a wise move?” asked Queen Chrysalis. “I mean an entity as powerful as Blood Scarab running around loose could cause us problems down the road”. “Don’t be afraid of that overgrown insect my lady” replied King Pecus with a hint of arrogance in his voice as he looked at Queen Chrysalis. “As powerful as Blood Scarab is, along with his invulnerability he may be a threat on a purely physical plain, but his weakness lies in a certain type of magic that is directly connected to him, which I altered to fill my purposes”. “Don’t you think this Blood Scarab is too noisy though?” pondered Queen Chrysalis raising a hoof to her chin. “Won’t he attract too much attention, and lead the Protectors of this world right to us, ruining our plans?” “You underestimate Blood Scarab’s power my dear Chrysalis” claimed King Pecus with a hint of amusement in his voice. “You see the world I hail from has many entities that are considered Gods with different gods and goddesses being worshipped by different cultures. Now for a long time these gods and the entities that served them were at war with each other, that is until the day that Blood Scarab appeared from nowhere and overpowered all the gods and goddesses until it forced them to works together to fight him, but can you guess what happened?” “They managed to overpower Blood Scarab through their new found friendship” gagged Queen Chrysalis at the thought. “Ha, one might think that would be that case, but even with their combined powers they could not lay a scratch on Blood Scarab resulting in their second defeat at his hands” chuckled King Pecus as he saw the look of sheer shock and surprise that was on Queen Chrysalis’s face. “You see in order to defeat Blood Scarab the gods and goddesses had to transform him into an item called the Bloodstone Scarab, but to due this they had to relinquish the majority of their powers; meaning no more re-creating the universe, no controlling time or any of the celestial bodies, and no more creating world destroying disasters”. Chrysalis started to think about what this meant, and when she began to see the part Blood Scarab’s new role as a free roaming entity will play for their plan she began to chuckle. “I see so even if they do manage to somehow defeat him, they’ll lack the power needed to attack us, ingenious King Pecus” surmised Queen Chrysalis as both King Pecus and herself left the room as some other Insectoid creatures gathers up the relics and moved them deep into the fortress. After walking a small distance into the fortress they came to a large room with similar a size and appearance as a Ballroom, and as they walked in King Pecus smiled as his eyes began to glow a dark purple. “You brought up a good point though Queen Chrysalis, even with Blood Scarab’s battle record in mind he has been defeated before, so it would be a wise idea to send some of my pets out to cripple our enemies should Blood Scarab be defeated, and if they can’t defeat him well this just adds to their troubles doesn’t it” stated King Pecus as he took an item that resembled an actual heart from its hiding place in his robes. After he took out the heart it levitated out of his hands, and started to give off a weak pulse of dark purple energy. King Pecus raised his hands towards the heart and blasted his dark magic into it, and after he blasted the heart it absorbed his magic and started giving off a massive dark aura. A dark blood like substance began to pour from the vein like structures on the heart like relic, and this substance began to pool and spark with purple electricity as it began to take the form of multiple monstrous creatures. “Yes rise my glorious creations, and leave nothing but destruction in your wake” called out King Pecus as the creatures were still forming. As all of this was going on Queen Chrysalis just stood there out of pure terror from the aura of the magic’s being used right in front of her. The fortress was then filled with the blood curtailing roars of something unnatural. A silver ring like portal opened up, with Rift to exiting it, but as soon as he exited the portal it closed and he was forced to transform back into TC. Due to the sudden reversion from his Rift form TC landed hard on the ground. “Ouch that hurt, I really hate it when that happens” wined TC as he got up of the ground. “Well at least I know I’m not visiting a world I’ve been to before if my powers shut down, but that also brings up the question where am I?” TC looked around to find that his portal had brought him to a clearing in a forest. The clearing was rather large and featured plants one would expect to see in a temperate climate, along with large rocks. As TC was looking around he heard a low growl coming from behind him, and as he turned around a creature with a lion’s body, a scorpion’s tail, and dragon like wings jumped at him. “Great a Manticore, just what I needed today” said TC as he swiftly dodged under the creature, before circling around it, and grabbing its shoulder squeezing down of its nerves, paralyzing the Manticore completely. As the Manticore dropped to the ground TC decided it might be best to go in the opposite direction from where the Manticore had come from. After what felt like ten minutes of walking TC stopped and attempted to use the transformation powers of his amulet, but to his disappointment he still couldn’t transform. “Well I guess it hasn’t been enough time for my amulet to connect to the Morphic-sphere of this universe yet, and until it does I can’t use any of my transformations” said TC with a sigh as he thought about how easy it would be to get out of this forest if he could fly, while TC was lamenting about not having his powers his ears picked up the sound of running water causing him to seek out the source of the sound. When TC found the source of the sound what he saw was a massive river he was full of relief as he could now follow this river out of the forest. After following the river for a while TC finally came to the exit of the forest. As TC looked at his surroundings he saw a small lake connected to the river he was following, and around this lake was what seemed to be a group of pastel coloured ponies playing and talking. TC ducked behind a tree not wanting to reveal his presence unless he absolutely had to, and decided to observe the ponies at the lake from his current position. From his hiding place TC counted at least three different variations of these “ponies”, the first variation looked like regular equines with no obvious differences from the equines back home other than their colours. The second variation TC noticed looked like for lack of a better term unicorns and one was displaying telekinesis as it was levitating some lawn chairs over to the group. The last variation seemed to be similar to the Pegasus. Colour and the strange symbols on their flanks didn’t seem to have much if any correspondence to the species. “Great by the way their acting I’m guessing I’m in this world these “Ponies” are the dominant species” whispered TC to himself as he scanned the rest of the surrounding area. Not too far away from the lake TC could see a town with what looked like a crystal, tree, castle like structure towering over all the other buildings. TC wondered what course of action he should take next, as he had no idea if these “Ponies” were hostile towards other species or if they would simply run away screaming creating mass hysteria, both of which would cause issues for TC. TC also knew he couldn’t just sit around and do nothing as time was something he didn’t have a lot of. He also didn’t want to risk attempting to use his powers this close to the area where those “Ponies” were playing as the glow from his amulet might attract their attention. As TC was weighing his options he heard sudden, screams coming from the “Ponies”, and as he turned around he saw Blood Scarab standing above the ‘Ponies” at the lake before Blood Scarab jumped into the air heading towards the town. “Well, I guess that answers what I’m going to do next” said TC as he looked at the “ponies” and seeing that they only got a scare he started to run towards the town and Blood Scarab. While the group of leaders/ heroines/ representatives were arguing over the best way to handle these unknown forces, both Pinkie Pie and Discord started to shake violently causing everyone to stop and look at them. After a few seconds their shaking stopped. “Pinkie Are you okay!” shouted Twilight as she ran over to he friend. While Twilight checked over Pinkie, Fluttershy went to see if Discord was okay. “Oh my, Discord are you okay?” ask Fluttershy with concern in her voice. Discord and Pinkie just looked at them with sheer terror in their eyes. “Everyone, be prepared for the fight of your lives” shouted both Discord and Pinkie in unison. “It’s here” growled Discord just as the castle started to shake as if something was punching it. Everyone began to run to the front of the castle with Twilight ahead of everyone else. Just as they got to the front hallway the doors shattered revealing a nine foot tall, red beetle standing in front of them with what looked like a semi destroyed Ponyville behind it. “Ha, this is pathetic I’ve destroyed six towns already, and haven’t found anyone worth my time to fight” mocked the creature as it looked at the group. Prince Rutherford was the first to speak to this creature. “What did red, bug creature do to pony friends” asked Prince Rutherford with commanding tone and a hint of anger. “I won’t say all the details, but they were incredibly tasty” replied the creature with glee as if it was savoring those memories. Everyone was taken back by this, but this only enraged Celestia. Seeing Celestia about to lose her cool Discord decided to step in, and end this before it escalated any further. “Now why don’t you have a time out” said Discord to the creature as he snapped his fingers making a cage appear around the creature. The creature hissed at this action and used its first set of clawed arms to break the cage while it used the hands on its second set of arms to pick up some of the bars and stab them into Discord’s wings. After stabbing Discord the creature drove the metal bars further into Discord’s wings and into the crystal of the castle effectively pinning Discord down. As the creature raised its upper right arm which ended in a giant claw above Discord’s head, two beams of magic (one a blue-ish green one and the other was a cyan) slammed against the creature knocking it off of Discord. The creature got up off the ground, and looked around for whoever attacked it only for it to lock onto Starlight and Thorax as their horns still radiated with magic. “You will pay for that with your lives” hissed the creature at them as it leapt into the air appearing to not have taken any damage from their combined attack, but just as the creature jumped into the air four jets of flame (one emerald green, one sapphire blue, and the last two regular orange) knocked it backwards. “That is what you get when you mess with the allies of the Dragon Lord” yelled one of Ember’s guards as he was sure their combined dragon fire would have incinerated their foe. Spike looked over at Ember who was still in a battle stance, when Spike saw that she was still ready to fight he looked over to where the creature had landed expecting it to be nothing but ashes only to see it getting back up as if the attack was nothing. “If you call that an attack then I am afraid you are not worth my time” hissed the creature as it used its lower, right arm to brush some of the soot off of its chest. Before the creature could do anything else it was hit hard and fast by one of the diplomats and flung into a building. “You hurt Pony friends, Yaks no like it when people hurt friends” shouted Prince Rutherford. Suddenly the building the creature was thrown at began to up and off of the ground. See what was about to happen Twilight teleported everyone out of the way just as the building was thrown into the air and came crashing down right where they had just been standing. The creature was standing where the building used to be looking as if it had taken no damage from the attacks. “Thou has proven to be a worthy opponent, might thy inquire as to what is thou name so thy subjects can sing about your defeat for generations?” asked Princess Luna to the creature while she was charging up her magic. “Ha, most of the people I conquer only ever ask the what or the How or my personal favourite Why, but few ever asked the Who so I’ll indulge you my name is Blood Scarab” answered Blood Scarab with an unsettling glint in its eyes as it stared down the group. After Blood Scarab had given his answer he was struck by a blast of golden magic, almost as intense as the sun itself. “I DO NOT CARE WHAT YOUR NAME IS” shouted Princess Celestia with pure rage in her voice. “You are nothing more than a monster that takes pleasure in harming others! Twilight prepare to activate the Elements of Harmony while I deal with this monstrosity”. Twilight nodded and gathered her friends into a circle and began to channel the energy of the Elements. “Now that was an attack” shouted Blood Scarab his voice filled with excitement as he got up. “I haven’t felt an attack like that since I broke the neck of the sun god Apollo”. That statement sent a shiver down Celestia’s spine, but she had to keep his attention or else they wouldn’t stand a chance. Celestia charged up all her power into a massive blast of energy. Blood Scarab didn’t even bother dodging the attack, only charging through it towards Celestia. “As fun as this has been sun queen, I’m afraid this must end this now” said Blood Scarab as he came out of Celestia’s attack right in front of her, raising the hand on his lower, right arm, and with a sickening snap Blood Scarab snapped Celestia’s horn right off of her head. As Celestia’s body went limp and fell to the ground Blood Scarab saw Twilight and company starting to levitate into the air with a strange light circling around them. Blood Scarab felt a jab a danger coming from the light, reminding him of the spell used to imprison him the first time. Blood Scarab knew he had to do something quickly before it was too late, and an idea popped into his head has he felt Celestia’s horn in his hand. “I will NOT be imprisoned again” screamed Blood Scarab as he through the piece of Celestia’s horn he was holding at one of the mane six. The horn flew through the air striking Fluttershy in the chest, breaking the connection between the Elements. Seeing this Discord freed himself and charged at Blood Scarab only for Blood Scarab to smash the claw on his upper, left arm into Discord’s face sending Discord aside, and rendering him unconscious. Blood Scarab began to advance towards the group, shocked by the display of power and savagery they just saw. Suddenly there was a flash of blue light, and several light blue quills came whistling through the air breaking against Blood Scarab’s back spreading some neon blue liquid on his back. “Stay away from them Blood Scarab” shouted an animalistic voice. Blood Scarab turned around to see a two foot tall blue, weasel, porcupine like creature with armoured plating on its forelimbs, and a large sapphire gemstone with and hour glass pattern coloured into it, staring him down. > Chapter 2: Repairing Battle Scars > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Blood Scarab turned his attention onto the blue, weasel/porcupine creature, giving the group time to get Celestia, Discord, and Fluttershy out of harm’s way and some much needed medical attention. Blood Scarab looked down at the small creature before him, wary of this opponent due to its ability. “How, are, YOU HERE” hissed Blood Scarab in a loud rage. “Well you know this world does have excellent salads” mocked the mammal as it fired some more quills from its back into Blood Scarab’s face before ducking between Blood Scarab’s legs. The quills broke against Blood Scarab’s body, but the liquid inside the quills got into Blood Scarab’s eyes blinding him. “My EYES, I can’t see” hissed Blood Scarab as he flailed around trying to hit the weasel/porcupine creature. “TC, WHERE ARE YOU”! “Right here” shouted TC with another flash of blue light transforming him from the two foot tall weasel/porcupine creature to a fifteen foot tall golem like creature. Just as TC transformed he used an uppercut sending Blood Scarab into the air, but just as Blood Scarab was about to start falling TC (in his Golem form) teleported right behind Blood Scarab, and punched him strait into the ground. Just as Blood Scarab was recovering from being punched into the ground, TC landed on Blood Scarab with enough force to create a mini earthquake. TC then stepped aside allowing Blood Scarab to get up. “How are you this powerful” asked Blood Scarab in confusion as nothing he encountered before could actually send him flying with that much force. Suddenly TC’s mouth started to give off a red glow before firing an energy blast powerful enough to send Blood Scarab tumbling backwards at a high speed. “I’ve picked up some new tricks since last we fought” called out TC in a gravely voice as he charged at Blood Scarab. Blood Scarab was able to land a hit on TC, but to his surprise TC was barely affected by the hit and simply returned with another punch sending Blood Scarab back a few feet. The two began to attack each other mercilessly trading blow for blow, neither backing down nor moving an inch. Unknown to the two fighting entities, Dragon Lord Ember was watching the battle from a safe distance with the rest of the group as Princess Twilight, Princess Luna, Princess Cadence and Starlight Glimmer were using magic to heal the injured members of the meeting, while Thorax was calling in more changelings to aid in the evacuation of Ponyvill. Ember on the other hand was watching how these creatures fought each other in case the wrong one won or in case that neither of these warring entities were the “protector” that Princess Celestia spoke of. If Ember was being honest with herself the way these entities fought each other scared her, never in her life did Ember expect to see one entity with this kind of power let alone two. “Are you okay Ember” asked a voice coming from behind Ember. Ember turned around to see Spike with a worried expression on his face. “I’m… okay Spike, I’m just worried about the nature of those entities and what options we have against beings with such power. I mean the one calling himself “Blood Scarab” easily defeated Princess Celestia, Discord, and one of the members of the Elements of Harmony. Not to mention that nothing we did could even scratched the thing, but then this second entity shows up out of nowhere, and starts fighting Blood Scarab on an almost equal plain in power” responded Ember with some anxiety in her voice as she looked at Spike. Back at the battle, TC and Blood Scarab were still beating each other until Blood Scarab got an idea, Blood Scarab spat out a strange liquid from his mouth, gluing TC’s foot to the ground. TC easily escaped this by simply teleporting out of the goo, but that gave Blood Scarab just enough time to put his plan into motion. “You can either chase after me or you can go help creatures of this world” said Blood Scarab as he retreated from the battle. TC was about to chase Blood Scarab when he felt something pointing him towards the group of diplomats. TC gave one last look in the direction that Blood Scarab retreated in, before he turned towards the groups, and started to head towards them. Ember looked back over to where the creatures were fighting only to see the golem like one heading their way. “Spike we need to warn the others, NOW” shouted Ember as she grabbed Spike, and flew back to the group. Spike was about to ask Ember why, as she picked him up, but then he saw the Golem creature coming towards them. Almost as soon as they landed Spike began to shout about the situation. “Guys!” screamed Spike at the group, catching Twilight’s attention. “What is it Spike, I’m a bit busy trying to save Fluttershy” said Twilight slightly annoyed, as she was using her magic too prevent any further blood loss. “The creatures, they’ve stopped fighting and one of them is heading this-” Spike stopped talking as he noticed a large shadow looming over him. Spike slowly looked up, to see a stone face looking back at him. “Um… he-hello” stammered Spike as he addressed the creature towering over him, while his friends were starting to charge up any magic they could summon up to blast this creature. “Whoa, whoa calm down I’m not going to hurt any of you unless you give me a reason to” said the creature as it lifted up its arms trying to look as non-threatening as possible. “Listen my name is TC, but in this form you can call me Goliath, I’m here to help”. Starlight was the first to respond to the situation. “How do we know you aren’t going to hurt us, or take advantage of the current situation?” ask Starlight sceptically as she charged up one of her most powerful spells. Goliath just sighed before speaking. “Listen, if I wanted you dead or if my goal was to harm you why would I have stopped Blood Scarab’s attack” replied Goliath with a hint of annoyance in his voice. “Look I have another form called “Globster” that has the power to heal your friends, if you allow me to I can use it to save their lives, but the choice is yours” said Goliath in a monotone voice. “Refuse my help and risk their death, or accept my help with a guaranty they survive”. Starlight looked at the condition of everyone, and looked at Twilight before turning back to Goliath. “If you can help please do, but if you betray us I’ll personally hunt you down” threatened Starlight. “I understand” said Goliath in a sober tone. “You can rest assured that you’ve made the right choice”. Just as Goliath finished his sentence his body was surrounded by a blue flash of light, and when the flash was gone where Goliath was standing there stood a creature that looked like two balls of slime stacked on top of each other with the smaller, top ball having two eyes on it resembling a face, the creature also had a pair of stubby arms, and stood around 4 ft tall in height. “Now let’s get started” said Globster in a slightly high pitch voice. With that Globster got to work first going to Fluttershy, and after he looked over her he pulled out Celestia’s horn much to the horror of Twilight, but before Twilight could react, Globster generated a pink slime from the ends of his arms and placed this goo on the injury almost instantly healing the injury. Then Globster did the same to Discord’s wings, and used the same goo to reattach Celestia’s horn. Shortly after everyone began to wake up TC reverted back to his human form startling the group slightly. ******************************************************************************************** Meanwhile at King Pecus’s fortress, Pecus had just finished watching the events involving Blood Scarab and the ponies unfold, and least to say he wasn’t very happy about the newcomer to this land. With a wave of his hand Pecus made the image in the Universal Mirror vanish before returning to his throne to think and strategise. After a few minutes Chrysalis opened the doors to the room, and entered with a curious look on her face. “My king” said Chrysalis as she bowed to Pecus “why haven’t you commanded your creations to start destroying the world around them”? “Well Chrysalis it seems that the protectors of this world aren’t the only ones we need to worry about anymore” responded Pecus leaving Chrysalis with a puzzled look. “You see one of the protectors from my world has managed to travel to this one, and believe me when I say he is a major threat to our plans especially now as he has joined up with this world’s protectors”. “That still doesn’t clarify why your creation haven’t been causing destruction” groaned Chrysalis. “It’s rather simple Chrysalis, I would rather wait for TC to deal with Blood Scarab and leave before revealing myself to this world” said Pecus calmly. “Furthermore, should TC find out about our operations this strategy gives us more time to prepare for a battle, or would you rather attack him now and give away our advantage of multiple attacks that’ll force these Protectors to run around the world, wasting their resources, leaving them vulnerable to a final attack?” After Pecus had finished his little speech he took a deep breath before pulling out a strange looking, purple gemstone from his robes. The oddly shaped gemstone began to give off a purple glow, before releasing four streams of purple light into the ground in front of Pecus. Both Chrysalis and Pecus watched as the ground began to move away were the light had hit it. As the ground moved several skeletal figures began to rise from the holes, and Chrysalis watched in horror as she recognized three out of the four corpses; the first was an Earth Pony, the second was a Pegasus, the third was a Unicorn, but the fourth one eluded as it was climbing out of the ground. Upon seeing the corpse as it managed to free itself from the ground she saw that it was similar to Pecus and the other humans that work for Pecus. Only after a few moments of thinking Chrysalis realized that it was a human skeleton, causing her to real backwards in confusion. “I know you may be confused as to how the corpse of a human ended up here in Equestria, but I can assure you that the answer is simple” stated Pecus as he looked over towards the skeletons. “You see at one time our worlds would intermingle with each other for purposes like trading goods and other nonsense, but then I came along and well things didn’t end well for the others involved”. “How old are you” asked Chrysalis in a shocked tone. Pecus simply gazed upwards, and gave a chuckle. “I’m old enough to have not only witnessed every major battle in recorded human history, but I’ve also witnessed every battle before their recorded history” replied Pecus with a sly smile on his face. “Also I hope you don’t mind that I sent Gale back to my world with a few of your changelings to aid him in acquiring two very special guests”. “How dare you use my soldiers without my permission” hissed Chrysalis as she gave a spiteful glare towards Pecus. Just before Pecus could say another word the door opened, and as if on queue Gale and four Changelings loyal to Chrysalis walked into the room carrying a sarcophagus, a coffin, and a sealed Greek jar. “Well it looks like your mission was successful” said Pecus with a smile. “I presume there were no complications” “Of course not my lord” said Gale as he knelt on one leg. “Good, we will build our army while the protectors are distracted with Blood Scarab” said Pecus as he made a large game board with a map of Equestria appear. The map showed the locations on the protectors and Blood Scarab as little glowing icons while Pecus’s creations appeared as game pieces similar to chess. “Although for now we will wait for them to take their turn”. Pecus then sat down on his throne as he looked down onto the game board of Equestria, and with a wicked smile forming on his face he said “this will be very entertaining”. With that everyone in the room began to laugh as they knew the protector would soon be running on borrowed time.