> Dimensional Disk > by Sirplayalot_64 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Prologue > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- *** Angelroot Forest*** Rain came thundering down hard, wind could be heard roaring for miles, and an occasional lightning bolt would hit the ground. It was a dark & cold night in the forest. However, a person in a black cloak seems to be walking through the forest while an umbrella was levitating above them, as well as a mysterious blue light that’s following them. The person looks ahead and keeps going through the forest with determination. While walking, the person pulls out a compass from their cloak and looks at it. They see what direction they’re at and says, “We’re almost there, I can feel it.,” in a Scottish accent. The Person and the light continue onward to reach their destination. They suddenly stop in their tracks when they bump into an invisible wall of some kind. “This is it,” the cloaked figure said as they put away the compass and get out a small white key from their cloak. The person then points the key at the wall and a hole opens up to let them in. The person and the floating light walked in and before the hole closes behind them, a gush of wind whooshes by but as they looked, they found nothing there. They look forward again and see a village, except it wasn’t right. The houses themselves looked decayed and empty, the market place had nothing on the wagons, and aside from the person and the light, there was no one else in sight. The light then noticed something big and tries to get the person’s attention while still proving light for them to see. It changes from its form as a glowing ball of light to a small fairy, complete with little wings that help it fly. The doll tapped on the person’s shoulder to get their attention. The person then looks at her and said, “Tina, why aren’t you..” the person didn’t finish their sentence as they look to see whatever Tina is pointing at. The person looks in awe as they see what appears to be a large temple in the middle of this once populated Village. They both looked at each other and smile as they have found what they were looking for. The person walked forward and headed up the very towering staircase as Tina flew besides them. Unbeknownst to them, there was something stalking them from within the shadows, something that had been following them in hopes of finding this temple, as well as what was inside. ***Temple of Creation*** They entered the temple and the umbrella that once floated above the persons head disappears in a snap. The person then takes off their hood to reveal themselves to be a girl with blonde hair, green eyes, and freckles scattered across her face. She looked around and saw an unlit torch and said, “Tina.” “Yes, Azriel?” “Can you quickly look around and light up any torches that you can find in this place?” “Sure thing”, Tina said as she flew around and unleashed a flare onto all the torches that she could find. Which caused the whole place to light up, and revealed a Wall full of hieroglyphs. While the two girls looked in awe at the wall, the mysterious figure snuck into the temple through the rafters and stared at them. Azriel sniffled a bit and her eyes started to get watery as she flashed back to some unpleasant memories. Her professors telling her to give up, her classmates laughing at her, and even her parents trying to convince her that the legends of this place weren’t real. Tina looked over at Azriel to see her sad. She flew over to her friend. Tina asked, “Are you okay?” Azriel replied with, “Yup, I’m good, don’t worry,” as she wiped away the tears with her arm. Now that she felt better, both Azriel and Tina looked at the wall. Tina asked her, “What does this mean?” Azriel replies with, “I’ll do my best to translate it out loud.” She cleared her throat and began read the Hieroglyphs. “Long ago, there was a village. It wasn’t in the best condition however, since there were so many things going wrong. The plants were unable to grow, the livestock was slowly dying off, and there was never a single drop of rain. Things were looking bleak, to the point where the citizens were considering eating each other. But one day, there came a swirling blue and purple circle and out came a man. A man who claimed to be from a higher level of existence known as B.N.F. (Boundary Number Four) and has came to help them in their time of need. Since the people had no other choice they accepted his help and followed him into the circle. They found themselves in a whole new world and while it wasn’t the world that this man claimed to be from, it almost seemed like paradise. They celebrated his honor by throwing festivals and building a temple for him. They could not express their appreciation for him enough, but one day, he disappeared. He left behind two things. One was a pedestal, with instructions on what to do with the 2nd gift. The 2nd was really extraordinary, a device that cannot be recreated or destroyed, one that has eleven pieces needed to complete it. A device known, as The Dimensional Disk.” “Whoa” Tina exclaimed, “and that circle he came out of, it sounds like a Dimensional Vortex”. “Indeed it does, it’s a very simple spell” said Azriel. “But what happened to the People, where did this forcefield come from, and where are the pieces?” asked Tina. Azriel didn’t have any answers but was determined to find out. The two girls then continued to walk together and look around the temple to hopefully get answers to some of their questions that the story left them with. Azriel looked at the back of the pedestal that’s at the center of the temple. Behind it, were instructions for how to use it once the eleven pieces have been gathered. The mysterious figure was looking at them. It’s eyes started to glow red. It then adjusts its red eyes, except they seem to be goggles. All of a sudden, there was a small blue light that shined beneath its cloak. The mysterious figure let out a small gasp as it now has its sight set exclusively on Azriel. It quietly chuckles as its right hand morphs into a sniper rifle and aims it directly at Azriel’s head while she’s looking at the pedestal. Tina suddenly had a small headache, she didn’t know what caused it but Azriel turns her attention away from the pedestal to see if she’s fine. “Are you okay?” asked Azriel as she looks at Tina. She replies with “yes, I’m fine, what caused...” before she could finish her sentence however, she notices a red light at the corner of her eyes. She then turns around and sees the origin of the light and lets out a gasp. Realizing that it’s cover has been blown, it takes a shot and Tina yells “LOOK OUT” all while pushing Azriel out of the way, just in time so that the bullet missed her. Frustrated with how it missed, the mysterious figure then leaps out from its hiding place as its right hand now transforms into a sword. Before Azriel could question why Tina pushed her, she notices the mysterious figure and puts up a purple shield to stop it. The mysterious figure jumps back and gets ready for another strike. He then gazed at the girls and gave a deep and sinister chuckle. Azriel didn’t recognize his appearance, as he appeared to be wearing a baggy brown cloak and red goggles that hid away most of his features. Azriel has had enough of the chuckling and asked “Who are You?!?!” to the mysterious figure. It then stops chuckling to reply to her question in a deep voice. “Figured that You wouldn’t recognize me, I mean, it’s only been 6 Years, hasn’t it, Azy?” Azriel then gasped as she recognized the nickname as there was only one person she knew that called her that. Tina looked in fear as Azriel had warned her of this person before. Azriel then gives off an unfriendly glare as she recalls his name, “Zae!” Zae continued to look at them and nods yes when Azriel said his name. Zae then quickly rushed towards them with his sword hand but Azriel grabs Tina and release smoke from the palm of her hands, temporarily blinding Zae. He then clears the smoke by spinning around like a tornado, only to find that the girls have disappeared. While he searches for them, Azriel and Tina hid behind one of the large pillars within the temple. Knowing that this wasn’t one of the best hiding spots, Azriel faced Tina and said “Tina, you need to hide, I’ll take care of him.” “But wait, I can...” Tina replied only to get cut off by Azriel who says “No! It’s too dangerous!” Tina then says “Trust me, I can take him on with you”. Azriel then let’s out a sigh as she tries to put her current thoughts to words. “Look, I get it, you wanna help, but I think it would be best if I were to take him on by myself. I’m a more advanced magic user, you’re still in training, and he’s a very skilled assassin! It would be easier if I fought him while not having to worry about you.” Tina looked down for a moment as she understood her point but still didn’t want to leave Azriel behind. Azriel then leaned her hand under Tina’s chin and made her look up at her and said “I’ll be okay, we both will.” Tina then smiles and then nods yes to her as she flew towards the ceiling and finds the hole that Zae came in from. Zae stabs his sword hand through the pillar that Azriel was hiding behind and nearly kills her. Azriel then gets out of hiding and blast Zae with a fireball. It hits Zae and he flies back a bit as he lands on his feet and looks at Azriel with an incredibly pissed off face. Azriel then looks at him with an enraged face as she gets ready to use her next spell. Zae then rushes at her, only for Azriel to use wind magic to give herself a boost in the air and dodge Zae. He then rips the back part off of his cloak to reveal a pair of dragon wings. He uses them to fly and tackle Azriel as they both crashed through the front entrance to the temple and came crashing on the stairs while it was still raining. Zae then chokes Azriel and tries to stab her again, only for her to kick him off of her and get back up. She then heads down the stairs to get away from Zae only for him to fly after her. He then swooped down and scratched her right arm. Azriel had to hold it to prevent it from bleeding out. She went into one of the decaying houses so that she can quickly use a healing spell to heal her right arm. Zae see’s her going in and decided to crash through the roof to take her down inside. He arrives while she’s healing and both his arms turn into maces. He then swings them around to try and hit her with them. She dodges them and manages to fully heal her arm just in time to put up her magic purple shield to block his mace arms. He then rushes towards her with his left hand changing back and his right hand changing into a chainsaw. Azriel struggles to keep up her shield while Zae was trying to cut through it. He eventually was successful and Azriel falls down for a bit, only for Zae to pick her up by the neck and throws her into another building causing Azriel’s spell book to fly out of her cloak. Tina was hiding in a tree and see’s her friend get knocked into a house. She goes in the house and tries to help her up but Zae comes in as well and uses the back his hand to slap her through the window. Azriel manages to get up but sees Zae’s left arm turn into an arm cannon and shoots black goop at her, it ends up hitting her and now she’s trapped. Azriel says “What the bloody Hell is this?!?!” As she struggles to break free. “Tar, nasty isn’t it?” says Zae. He then looks directly at her. “Impressive new tricks you’ve got.” says Azriel. Zae replies with “thanks Azy, they are quite handy.” He then says “I also want to thank you for leading me here, even though that wasn’t your intention.” Azriel calls him a stalker and then asked, “what made you want to come here, and why?”. Tina gets up and looks through the window as she thinks of how to get Azriel free. All while listening to what Zae was about to say as he reaches under his cloak. He then says, “well you see, I knew I had to come here eventually, especially since I’ve got my hands on, THESE!” He then reveals that he has ten out of the eleven pieces of the dimensional disk. Azriel yells “WHAT!?!?” as she is shocked that he managed to do this. “But, but how?” Zae then lets out a small chuckle and says, “oh, it was surprising easy. I figured out that if you were to collect at least one piece of the Disk, then it can be used to track down the rest.” “But you’re clearly missing one last piece.” says Azriel. “Ah yes, the center piece of the Disk. For whatever reason, I’ve been having a hard time tracking that one, until now that is.” Azriel looks confused on his last comment and asked “What are you talking about?” Zae replies in an angry tone. “Don’t play stupid with me, you know exactly what I’m talking about. The pieces glowed when I first entered the temple, a signal for when another piece is close by, and even now it’s glowing.” he says as they look down to see that it’s true. “So, what’s it gonna be, will you either willing give it to me or will I have to take it from your corpse?” he asked while pointing his left knife hand at her throat. Tina looks in distress as she quickly thinks of a way to fix this situation. She wanted to hit Zae with a powerful attack but didn’t want to hurt Azriel in the process. Since it’s no longer raining, she conjures up a fireball and she starts to mix it with ice Magic. “I’m telling the truth here, I don’t have it!” says Azriel. Zae looks at her with a deadpan glare and gets ready to slit her throat open in frustration. That is until a ball of fire and ice is thrown at Zae and he gets pushed back and the pieces of the Disk go flying out of his cloak. Tina then flies around and catches them all and heads back to Azriel. “Azriel!” says Tina. “What are we gonna do about these?” she asked to her friend. Azriel looks around and see’s her spell book and gets an idea. “Alright, I have an idea. You get my book, go to the advanced section, specifically on Page 1,214, and use the “Scatter Spell 2.0”, to make sure that he doesn’t get these pieces again!” “Advanced?” Tina replied. “But, what if I can’t..” Azriel interrupts her and says “Trust me, I know that you’re capable of pulling it off.” Tina then nods her head yes at her as her confidence rises and she flies over to where the book landed. She drops the pieces and turns the pages til she finds exactly what she needs. She reads the incantation in her head and takes a deep breath as she gets ready to go with the plan. She says it out loud the first time, then her eyes glow white and the pieces start floating. She repeats it a 2nd time and as dirt starts to briefly float and weird sounds are ringing in her ears. While this is happening, Zae’s consciousness slips back to him after taking such an unexpected blow. He then see’s Tina performing the advanced Spell and yells “NO!” as he rushes over to try and stop her. Tina is able to pull it off before Zae could able to get near her and a big flash of light appears. It then goes away, but when Zae looks, Tina and the pieces of the Dimensional Disk have disappeared. He then saw the spell book and decided to pick it up. He then heard Azriel shout “HEY! let go of that book you son of a bi..” before she could finish her sentence, Zae shoots some more tar directly at her mouth, which ends up gagging her. He then reads the page that it was left open with. “The Scatter Spell 2.0, a more complex version of the Original Scatter Spell. With this, you can send objects to different dimensions.” He then decided to look through the book to see if he could find a way to get them back, he wasn’t gonna give up that easily. He eventually found the vortex spell on page 250. He opens up the vortex and decides to take the book with him for safe keeping, but not before giving a villainous glare at Azriel. “I will find your little friend, and I will get my pieces back, even if I have to make universes collide.” He then walks through the vortex with the book in his hand. The vortex closes behind him, leaving Azriel alone to find a way to get out of her sticky situation. *** Everfree Forest*** Tina lays passed out on the forest floor, using an advanced spell like that took a lot out of her. She slowly starts to wake up and see’s trees all around her yet the village and the temple were nowhere in sight. Dozens of questions started popping in her head all at once, “Where am I, is this still Angelroot Forest, and what happened with...” She then let out a big gasp as she just realized that Azriel is nowhere to be seen. She then flies up as more questions started to come in her head. “Where’s Azriel, is she still with Zae, is she still alive?” Just the mere thought of losing her only friend was terrifying to her. It got to the point where Tina had to slow down to prevent herself from getting a panic attack. She decided to go above the trees to get a better view of her surroundings. She looked around but nothing looked familiar to her, she definitely knew that this wasn’t Angelroot Forest. However, in the corner of her eye, she spotted a weirdly shaped castle in the distance. She decided to fly directly towards it, hoping that whoever owns it will give her the answers that she needs. ***Castle of Friendship*** In what appears to be a library, there’s a purple Alicorn quietly reading. She uses magic from her horn to levitate the book. She then gets startled as the doors opens up behind her as a little purple dragon with green spikes comes rushing in and yells “Twilight”. Twilight replied with “Spike, what’s wrong?” “It’s from Celestia” said Spike as he hands her a scroll with an emblem of the sun on it. Twilight looked surprised and decided to read the scroll. “Dear Twilight Last night, I woke up after having a terrible vision. Equestria in its entirety was on fire, reality itself was falling apart, and you were defeated by some creature who isn’t from here. We need you to find out how to prevent this from happening. You and your friends need to meet me back in Canterlot. From Celestia” Twilight looked at Spike, worried of what the contents of this letter. While this is happening. Tina bumps into a window and taps on it to get their attention. She succeeds as Twilight and Spike look in utter confusion at what she is. “That looks like a human mixed with a breezie” said Spike. Twilight see’s that Tina’s in distress about something. So she decided to open the window and let her in, only to be bombarded with a panicking Tina. “I need your help! Where am I, when am I, where’s Azriel, is she alive, where’s Zae, where’s the Temple, where’s our hideout, what..” Twilight then then tries to calm her down but no success. She then gets the idea to use her magic to freeze her in place for a bit. Tina looked surprised as to what just happened. “Wait, you can use magic too?” she asked Twilight. Twilight takes a deep breathe in and a deep breathe out before letting her go. Judging from that question, as well as her appearance, she made the conclusion that Tina wasn’t from Equestria. “Okay, before we get into whatever you’re talking about, let’s start from the beginning.” She said to her. “My name is Twilight Sparkle, and I’m the Princess of Friendship” Spike then said “I’m Spike, and I’m her number one assistant.” Tina then takes in a deep breathe and let’s it out as she takes Twilight advice. “My name is Tina, and I’m not from around here.” She slowly starts to explain her situation to them, hoping that they will help her. https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=mML_HcDKHGA > Chapter 1: Friendship is Magic > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ***NetherRealm*** Zae hoped out of a vortex and looked at his new surroundings. He saw fire, rocks, and lava everywhere he looked. During his stroll down this new world he heard dozens of people screaming and begging for mercy while being tortured to no end. He quickly started to like this place. After he kicked a pebble into a pit of lava he noticed a castle in the distance. It appeared to be on a floating piece of land with two smaller structures on both sides. He figured that it must be important. He flew over the river and zoomed straight to the castle. ***Castle of Friendship*** “So then I used the Scatter Spell 2.0, but I must’ve messed it up since I ended up here now. I then saw your castle, I went to it which led to where we are now.” “You got all that?” Tina asked as she finished explaining her situation to Twilight and Spike. While Spike looks a bit dazed in confusion Twilight nodded her head “yes” as she understood everything about her situation. “Well now that I’ve got that cleared up, can you tell me where I am exactly and what this place is about?” asked Tina “Sure thing. This is the land of Equestria. It’s home to many beings such as Ponies, Griffins, Dragons, Yaks, Hippogriffs, Changelings, and many others. They're four rulers throughout this land, Me, Cadance, Luna, and Celeatia.” “and you’re able to use magic, just like earlier?” Tina asked Twilight. “Of course” Twilight replied “more specifically, Alicorns and Unicorns can use magic.” “Great, now that we’re all caught up, I’m going to need your help.” “You have a plan?” Tina was about to say something but realized that she hasn’t thought of a solid plan other than to get help. Twilight saw her struggle to come up with an answer. She then thought of something, what if Zae and the Dimensional Disk are connected to Celestias vision in some way. Tina was bitting her lip in distress til Twilight got her attention by clearing her throat loudly. “Well, I was told to meet up with Princess Celestia, maybe she can help us with your problem. How does that sound?” Tina agreed with and offered her to shake her small hand. Twilight lended out her hoof and shook it. “Okay, first things first, we need to find my friends. Celestia wants them as well.” “Okay, let’s do it, Twilight!” Tina replied as the three of them headed out the doors and went to round up the gang. Twilight comes up with a small plan. “Spike, you get Fluttershy, Pinkie, and Rarity, while Tina and I get Rainbow Dash and Applejack! We’ll all meet up at the train station!” They both nod “yes” to Twilight as they go with the plan, with Twilight and Tina going one way while Spike went the other. ***Fluttershy’s Animal Sanctuary*** A yellow Pegasus with a pink mane was flying with a bag of food to feed some of her animals, all while she sang a familiar tune. An angry looking white rabbit approached her wanting special attention. She gave it a carrot that she saved for him. Spike shouts “Fluttershy” as he approached her from behind. She ended up flying high up without the use of her wings, but proceeded to use said wings to float down. “Oh, sorry for that.” “It’s alright” Fluttershy replied as she slowly landed back on the ground. “Anyways, what brings you here, and where’s Twilight?” Spike replied “She sent me to find you, Pinkie, and Rarity, and meet up at the train station. Celestia needs us for an emergency!” Fluttershy looked worried, not knowing what it could be. “Don’t worry, I’ll be back.” She said to her animals as she had to leave them behind for a bit. Spike and Fluttershy then flew to their next location. ***Sweet Apple Acres*** An orange mare with a blonde mane and a cowboy hat carrying a bucket full of apples on her back while trotting towards a large red barn. “Hoo-wee, now that’s what I call a job well done.” said the orange mare. As she wipes off some of the sweat on her face, she saw two figures in the sky. They both came down to reveal themselves as Twilight and Tina. “Oh, hey Twilight. What’s that thing right next to you.” she asked Twilight. “I’m Tina, and I’m guessing you’re Applejack” she replied. “Yes”, Applejack replied, “but WHAT are you exactly?” Twilight replied “She’s a fairy doll, but we don’t have time to explain much. Celestia needs us!” Applejack put down the bucket she was carrying and followed Twilight and Tina to their next destination. ***Carousel Boutique*** Inside, a white mare with a gorgeous purple mane was sowing a nice looking dress. She was in the zone, fully concentrated on what she was doing. She didn’t even hear the door knock. Spike and Fluttershy waited at the door for a bit when out of nowhere, an energetic pink mare sneaked behind them. She asked “what are we waiting for?” causing them to jump up a little. “Oh, it’s only you, Pinkie.” Spike said. She replied “Well of course it’s me, why wouldn’t it be, also, what are we waiting for?” “For Rarity” Spike replied “Celestia needs us” Pinkie then got an idea and made an exaggerated face. Spike knew what she about to do but was too late as she used her party cannon to blast the door open, with Rarity’s concentration broken in the process. “Pinkie! What is the meaning of this?” she angrily said to her. “Don’t look at me! Spike said that it was an emergency.” Rarity then managed to calm down a little, knowing that she couldn’t be mad at Spike. She asked him “Is it true my whittle Spikey Wikey?” all while Spike is blushing. “Um... yes, Twilight said to meet back with her at the train station!” “Well then, lead the way!” she said in a very calm and collected voice. Spike proudly saluted her as he lead the three mares out the door. Pinkie then decided to quickly fix the door behind her, but it was no use as it fell down as soon as they left. ***Wonderbolts Academy*** A group of Pegasi wearing flight suits were flying together in a special formation. They all land simultaneously on the landing zone. A whistle noise was then heard from a bright yellow with an orange mane all while wearing a flight coach uniform, a nice pair of shades, and a whistle around her neck. “Alright! you did a decent enough job, but I want you to do better!” “Yes general Spitfire!” the three Pegasus said in unison. “Soarin, Fleetfoot, Rainbow Dash, report to the locker room! You’re on break.” Just then, a quick flash of light appeared and Twilight teleported right in front of them with Tina and Applejack by her side. “I’m guessing you’re Rainbow Dash” Tina said to the cyan pegasus with the rainbow mane. Rainbow Dash assumed that Twilight told Tina about her name. “And I’m guessing you’re a breezie?” Rainbow Dash replied in utter confusion as to what Tina is. “What, no! Why does everyone keep saying that, and what exactly is a breezie?” “Anyways, we need you Rainbow Dash. Equestria could be in danger again.” Rainbow Dash understood and turned to Spitfire. She nodded “yes” to her but zoomed to the locker room to change out of her uniform and come back just as fast. She then saluted her fellow Wonderbolts as Twilight used her teleportation spell to get the four of them to the train station. ***Train Station*** Twilight, Tina, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash appeared at the train station and see that Spike, Fluttershy, Rarity, and Pinkie Pie have arrived as well. Twilight pats him on the head for doing a good job. Twilight proceeded to buy tickets for everyone and each of them went aboard. “So, Spike told us that Equestria might be in danger, what’s the big threat now?” Rarity asked with a worried look on her face. Twilight responded with “All she said was that she had a vision of Equestria being destroyed”. “and what’s the deal with her?” Rainbow Dash as she pointed her front right hoof at Tina. “Oh, right. My name’s Tina, and I came to this Dimension by accident. I’ll explain everything once I meet Celestia.” They all take their seats as the train slowly started to head off to Canterlot. ***Quan Chi’s Fortress*** At the same time all that was happening, Zae arrived at this mysterious location. He noticed an empty throne at the end and wondered who could possibly be in charge of this harsh wasteland. He proceeded to walk forward but was then heard something behind him and performed a flip to dodge it. It was revealed to be a huge ball with a long chain attached to it. He saw that the owner of this weapon was a large oni with blue skin, it was large, it had three yellow eyes, and a Mohawk. It spoke to Zae with a deep and threatening voice. “What business do you have here?” Zae responded with a calm and collective voice. “I’m simply here to meet the owner of this Castle and see if he can help me with something”. “No can do! No one is to disturb Quan Chi as he works!” “Well I’m sorry simpleton, but I myself am busy as well. Now, if you were to take me to him yourself..” He was then surrounded by a bunch of demons that threatened to eat his flesh. One of them approached him and swung at Zae but missed and the hooded shapeshifter decided to transform his right hand into a battle axe and sliced both of the demons hands clean off, causing it to drop on its knees as it screamed in agony only for Zae to end its suffering by slicing its whole body in half. The others rushed at him and tried to kill him but to no success. Zae’s other hand transformed into a battle axe as well as he sliced and diced each demon that came even a foot near him. The blue oni looked incredibly angry as it then grabbed his chains and swung the ball at Zae only for him to roll out of the way as it hit a wall instead. His right hand then morphed into a harpoon gun as he fired at the blue oni’s knee left knee and successfully landed the shot. The blue oni then swung Zae in the air by grabbing the rope and made him hit the ceiling. He used his dragon wings to glide towards the beast and kicked him in the nose so hard that it started bleeding. The blue oni tried again to hit Zae but the hooded figure jumped towards it as his left hand morphed into a drill and broke through the ball as it was coming towards him chain, rendering it useless. Zae also drilled through his stomach as the blue oni fell to the ground, and only had moments to live. Zae approached the beast with his right sword hand decided to finish him! Downstairs within the fortress, Quan Chi, a completely white and very tall bald man with red eyes and a bit of armor, was working with potions and books in his inner sanctum. A dirty looking place with bookshelves protected by lasers, a stairway leading up, a pit of blood in the center, and a nice view of the NeatherRealm outside. He suddenly heard footsteps coming from the stairway and turned his attention towards Zae. He saw the hooded intruder as he descended to his level and stared directly at him from a distance. “I see that Moloch has done a lousy job of keeping people out” “Oh, this guy had a name?” Zae asked as he reached under his cloak to pull out the severed head of the blue beast that he just fought as he holds it by the Mohawk. He threw the head to Quan Chi as it then rolls towards him and stops at his feet. The sorcerer looked unimpressed as he stepped over the head and walked towards Zae. “What business do you have in my masters lair?” “Wait! So you’re not the one running this wasteland?” “I am only in charge until I’m able to set him free. Although I nearly succeeded several years ago.” “Well good for you” Zae replied sarcastically “Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got something important to find that can turn me invincible” Quan Chi then stopped right in front of him and said, “Go on!”, as we was a bit curious as to what he was talking about. Zae was hesitant at first. He didn’t know if telling Quan Chi could lead to him wanting the pieces for himself. “And why should I tell you?” he asked him. Quan Chi then looked at him with a slightly annoyed face as he got ready to use magic. “then give me one good reason as to why I shouldn’t kill you right now?” Both Zae and Quan Chi looked at each other with distrust as they were both waiting on who would strike first. Zae then came to a conclusion. It would probably take him a dozen lifetimes if he were to just go around one Dimension at a time just to find a singular piece and he didn’t know if their tracking feature would work since they’re in different Dimensions. It would be helpful if he had a “partner” of some sorts. He stood down and decided to get out a scroll from his cloak and handed it to Quan Chi. The scroll itself shows a picture of the Disk itself and each of the individual pieces. “Seems pretty valuable, but what’s the catch?” Knowing that he isn’t gullible, Zae quickly thought of an answer to that question. “Simple, you help me get all of my pieces back and I’ll use the power to grant you anything. Wealth, influence, or whatever it is that you desire.” Quan Chi gave it some thought and decided to agree to helping this hooded stranger, but also thought about his own plans. “If it means helping me free my master Shinnok, then it’s a deal” he said as he put his hand down for Zae to shake it. Zae shook hands with him, confirming their deal. Although he was still skeptical about this sorcerer. He made sure to still be on his guard. “By the way, the name’s Zae” “and I am Quan Chi. Where do we start looking?", he asked as Zae opened a vortex to take them to the Temple of Creation. They both went through the Vortex as it closed behind them. The fortress was left empty. ***Canterlot*** “A Sonic Rainboom? That sounds incredible” said Tina as she was listening to Rainbow Dashes story. “Yup, I managed to pull it off several times, don’t ask how many specifically cause I never kept count!” The train then stopped as they had arrived at their destination. Twilight managed to get Spike to wake up from his nap as they head out of the train. Tina looked in awe as she first laid her eyes on the gorgeous city of Canterlot. A city that’s on the side of a mountain with many towers, golden spires, and waterfalls. The group trotted along the path through the city while Tina was looking in awe at her surroundings. “I’m guessing you like it?” Rarity asked the little doll. “This looks beautiful, I haven’t been to a city like this in such a long time.” Tina then snapped back to her senses as she had to focus on her mission yet at the same time she really wanted to go sightseeing. The group then went to the front entrance of the castle and were allowed entry by the royal guards. They went straight for the throne room where Celestia and Luna had been waiting for them to arrive. “Greetings Twilight and friends, I’m so glad that you made it.” said Celestia. Twilight zoomed straight towards her and gave her a hug. Celestia returned the hug as the others were smiling at them. Tina then flew down and bowed before them, getting a confused look from Luna. “Twilight, who’s this little one?” Oh, that’s Tina” Twilight replied as she stepped away from Celestia and continued to talk. “and she’s here because she needs our help, it might be related to Celestia’s vision” Twilight stepped away from Celestia after she said that. She was lost in thought at that statement. She saw Tina and didn’t know what she was. But one thing was for sure, she trust Twilight and she hoped to get answers. “Very well Tina, state your business here.” As Tina cleared her throat to get ready to speak, Pinkie Pie zoomed out of the and came back just as fast but with a pencil and paper to write all of this down. “A while back, or probably yesterday, me and Azriel, my best friend, had just found the Temple of Creation. But as we were investigating, we were then ambushed by an old advisory of hers named Zae. He apprehended her and she told me to scatter the pieces of the Dimensional Disk, which he had ten out of eleven pieces. I used an advanced spell for the first time to scattered them and make sure that he doesn’t get his hands on them again. But I must’ve messed up somehow since I ended up here and then I met Twilight. You got all that?” Everypony but Twilight and Spike looked a bit dazed at first, but they all said yes together. Celesta decided to ask her a question. “Do you mind describing what Azriel and Zae look like?” “Sure thing” Tina replied “Azriel is a human with blonde hair and a cloak with constellations on them. Zae is a shapeshifter with a brown cloak, red goggles, and iron boots.” Celestia remembered the being from her vision had red eyes and was wearing a cloak of some sorts. She let out a gasp and put two to two together. “That’s him, he’s the one from my vision.” Everypony looked worried at the Princesses statement. “Wha... what do you mean?” Tina then realized something that made her face palm. “The book! Now he’s able to travel to... anywhere. Now I have to rescue Azriel and collect the pieces of the Disk before he does.” “Now, wait a minute” said Applejack “You keep mentioning these Dimensional Disk things. Just what exactly are they?” “Oh right, is there a chalk board around here?” As soon as Tina finished her question Pinkie zoomed directly to her face with a chalkboard complete with white chalk. Tina was startled a bit but she grabbed the chalk and continued on with what she was about to say. “The Pieces are the key to unlocking ultimate power and they’re each shaped like a piece of pizza, although I don’t know if you have that in this world. They also have stars and planets on them, and..” She then got a small headache which caused Twilight to rush over to her and asked if she was okay! Luna then realized something and teleported to her room and came back the same way. Celestia asked Luna where she went only for to pull out the first piece of the Dimensional Disk. Everypony in the room let out a gasp in surprise, Tina especially. “I found this in the castle garden last night and I thought it was from my room.” Tina then squealed with joy as she zoomed over to Luna to get the piece from the nighttime princess. “This is perfect, we already have the advantage, plus, this makes the quest a lot easier.” Fluttershy asked Tina what she meant by that. Tina held the piece up in excitement. “Well, there’s an important thing about these things. As long as you have at least one piece then it can be used to track down the rest.” Although I don’t know why it’s glowing now.” She then turned to the two princesses and told them “thank you” as she looked over to Twilight. “And thank you for bringing me to this palace Twilight, although I wanna ask something else of you.” “Go ahead, ask away!” she replied “This is a really big task here. I mean, the fate of not just your Dimension, or mine, but all others out there could be at risk here and if I’m being honest, I don’t think I’m capable of doing this on my own. Even after Azriels rescue, I was wondering... will you be able to help me?” Twilight had to give some serious thought to that question. She didn’t know what to expect. Yet again, she didn’t know what to expect when retrieving her crown, yet she still managed to pull through, with some help from her friends. She looked over to Celestia and Luna as they nodded their heads “yes” to her. With that in mind, she accepted Tina’s offer. “I’ll do it, if it means protecting Equestria and my friends.” Twilight approached Tina and Spike go in between them and said “I’m coming too” Tina looked at him a bit worried. “Are you sure? This is seriously dangerous for a sma..” Spike interrupted her to answer the question. “Of course it’s gonna be dangerous and so what if I’m small, as you were about to say. But Twilight might need me for this quest. After all, I am her number one assistant. Which makes me part of the package.” Twilight giggled a little at his remark and Tina’s face went from worried to a bit cheerful. Rainbow Dash then flew down to their level. “You can count on me as well. After all, I am the fastest flyer alive.” “Now hold on there partner! We’re all gonna help you out on this quest of yours, right girls?!” Applejack asked the rest of the group. Pinkie was pondering an answer while Rarity and Fluttershy were a bit concerned about something. “I would love to. Plus I might find inspiration for my next fashion line.” “I’m a little nervous, but I’ll go anyways” “And I.... don’t have any planned parties for this week. So I’ll go” The mane six each looked at the two Princesses with a face filled determination. Tina looked like she was gonna shed a tear of joy, except she couldn’t since she was a doll. “Very well, we wish you the best of luck.” “Thanks Celestia” said Twilight “But first, we’re gonna head back to Ponyville and get some supplies, who knows what we’ll come across beyond this Dimension.” Twilight and the gang then went out of the Castle and to the train station. ***Friendship Express*** Thirty minutes into the train ride, Tina realized something and decided to ask Twilight. “Hey Twilight, why didn’t you just teleport us to and from the castles? Same goes with earlier” “Well it’s simple actually, I wanted to save a bit of magic, plus, we could use this time to know each other better.” “Save a bit of magic? So it’s like running out of stamina?” “Sort of”, Twilight replied in a calm tone. “Oh ok, if that’s the case, I just didn’t wanna, you know..” Twilight looked at her with a bit of concern as she understood what she tried to say. “Hey, don’t worry about it,” said Rainbow Dash from the seat behind her. “Plus, Twilight said that this is a chance to know each other. Well we’ve told you a bit about us, so now it’s your turn!” Tina then folded her stubby arms together as while trying to think of where to start. “Well, four years ago, I was living on the streets. I didn’t know who created me and I had no one else to turn to. That is until I met I was found by Azriel. She took me in as her apprentice when no one else did, and we’ve been together, as friends!” The mane six each looked at her. Some had certain things to say about Tina and her story. “She sounds very nice, I hope we get to see her soon.” said Fluttershy. “Well I must say darling, once we’re done do want a new dress? No offense, but whoever made you has an awful sense of fashion.” “I wonder what kind of non Equestrian magic can she teach me. It would be interesting to learn from a human.” Tina then looked to Twilight with a confused face. She didn’t see any humans in this world so far and yet her new friends knew exactly what they were. “Hey Twilight, I noticed that there seems to be talking ponies and dragons in this world yet not a single human in sight. How do you even know what they are?” “Well that’s simple, did you notice the mirror back in the library?” Tina tried to remember if she saw a mirror in the library but she didn’t and nodded “no” at Twilight. “Oh well, it’s actually a gateway to another world, one where me and my friends are humans and I turn into one when I enter.” “And what about Spike?” “Oh, he” Twilight giggled at the thought of it! “He turns into a dog” Spike looked away in embarrassment as Tina laughed at him for a little bit. Rarity pats his head and tried to cheer him up. Pinkie Pie looked out the window and saw that they were almost back at Ponyville. “Hey look! We’re almost there!” With that, Twilight got everyone’s attention. “Alright everypony, here’s the recap on what we’re doing. Each of us are gonna head back home and get whatever you might need on our journey, as well as settle a few things. After that, we’ll meet up again at my castle and Tina will guide us from that point!” ***Castle of Friendship*** Another thirty passed when they arrived and split up. Each member gathered anything they might need and stuffed it into their saddle bags. They all met up back at the Castle of Friendship where Twilight, Spike, and Tina are waiting for them. Twilight had a list that she ran down multiple times with Spike. She then spotted Tina flying back and forth and went up to her to see if she’s okay. She got her attention and noticed that she was a bit nervous. She knew exactly what she was worried about. “Hey, just relax. I know what’s on your mind. But don’t worry.” The three of them suddenly heard the door knock and rushed to it, knowing who was on the other side. Twilight opened it to saw Rainbow Dash and Applejack. “Just in time you two” Twilight said to both of them. They soon saw Rarity and Fluttershy rushing towards them only to stop right in front of her. “Sorry for being a bit late darling, but I quickly had to find somepony to take care of Opal and SweetieBelle while I’m away.” “Same here, except with my animals.” “Well at least we’re all here now, so let’s..” Twilight then realized something. “Wait! Where’s..” Twilight got cut off mid question as Pinkie Pie jumped out of nowhere and nearly scared the living daylights out of everyone at the entrance. Tina was about to question where she even came from but figured that it wasn’t important. Each pony then gathered up together with their saddle bags. Twilight cleared her throat as she was ready to give a short yet sweet speech. “Once again, Equestria is in danger once again, and it’s up to us to save it. We’ve taken down tough foes before, whether it be Chrysalis, Lord Tirek, the Storm King, King Sombra, or even Nightmare Moon, we always had at least some clue what to expect and save the day. But now, we’re going into unknown territory. We have no clue what to expect this time. But regardless if we run into anything that’s tougher than any of our previous advisories we will always have one advantage, each other. If we stay on guard, look out for one another, and never give up, we will succeed.” Twilight reached her right hoof out and watched as the other reached their hooves out as well and formed a circle. Spike and Tina managed to fit their way in. “Just don’t forget, we’ve got this, together!” Tina got her stubby hands ready as she opened a blue and purple vortex for the group to trot into. Everyone else looked in awe and wonder at the spinning circle. Pinkie Pie leaped into the air and squealed “Weee” as she dove head first into it. “I’m right behind ya Pinkie” Rainbow Dash shouted as she went in to follow her. Tina looked over to see Fluttershy shivering as she’s nervous to go in. Tina flew over to help her out. “Hey, don’t worry Fluttershy. I can assure you that it’s safe. From what I know, you’re guaranteed to make it through there completely intact.” With this information in mind, Fluttershy slowly entered the vortex while Rarity gave a big sigh of relief after hearing what Tina said. “Whew, thank goodness for that. I do NOT wanna loose a hoof when I go through that thing.” Rarity then proceeded to go in with Spike right behind her. Applejack straighten her hat before heading in next without saying anything. Twilight was about to enter but Tina stopped her after realizing something. “Wait a minute, where’s the...” “Don’t worry, I’ve got it right here.” Twilight showed the piece in her saddle bag and Tina let out a sigh of relief. The two of them entered the vortex together before it closed behind them. ***Through the Vortex*** The group appeared to have been going through a giant tunnel of some kind. There was barely anything on the side although what they could see was circles with windows into different Dimensions. There was a great big light at the end of the tunnel which appeared to be their destination. ***Angelroot Forest*** The vortex opened up in the forest near the decayed village. Pinkie was the first to make it and she stuck the landing with a round of applause being heard from an unknown source. Rainbow Dash was enjoying the Dimensional Tunnel on her way there, so much so that the moment she went out she flew so fast that she didn’t have enough time to prevent herself crashing into Pinkie Pie. The rest of the gang soon followed after. Fluttershy took notice of the two ponies that crashed into each other. “Oh my gosh, are you okay?” Pinkie quickly got up while Rainbow Dash was still a little dizzy. She eventually got her head straight and noticed that Tina was confused about something. “Well that’s strange, the force field that once surrounded the temple and the village is gone.” Twilight went up to her and saw the village and the temple. She asked her to lead the way and Tina gladly obliged and headed to where she saw Azriel, with everyone else following her. At the same time that this was happening, Zae and Quan Chi walked down the stairs of the temple while they discussed their plan in greater detail. “This Tina character that she spoke of, could she be a potential threat to our plan?” “Not really, she only got lucky with that flaming ice ball.” “But what of the girl?” “Oh trust me, I will be more then happy to finish her off!” “If she is a match for us then I suggest we have backup on our side.” “You mean like an army,like your pet demons?” “Not just them, I know several acquaintances that would be happy to help out. If they were offered the same deal you gave me!” Although he couldn’t see it, Zae rolled his eyes for a bit about that last part but didn’t know what other choice he had. He nodded “yes” to that offer, hoping that he won’t regret it. Tina lead the group to the house that Azriel was stuck in, only to have a shocked look on her face. Azriel was nowhere to be seen. Before she could assume the worst, Pinkie gained both Tina and Twilight’s attention by tapping their shoulders. “You never mentioned that he had a best friend” They both looked to where she was pointing and were both confused. Twilight recognized Zae based on Tina’s detailed description but just like Tina, she didn’t recognize the other guy. They zoomed back in the house and hoped that they weren’t spotted. Zae spotted them from the corner of his goggles above his eyes so he stopped in his tracks and spread his wings. “I see that the pest has returned.” Quan Chi sensed magic in the area and knew what he was talking about. A weird green glow came from his hands as they were both ready for what was coming. Tina was about to open a vortex when Zae suddenly stomped his way through the roof. He shouted “you” at Tina and quickly rushed her before she could react and flew out of the same hole that he just made. Rainbow Dash went through the hole and kicked Zae directly in the back of his head, causing him to release Tina. Twilight flew over to help but Quan Chi shot her out of the air with a green flaming skull and landed in mud. He then trapped the others in a magic bubble. “What did you do to Azriel!” “Oh nothing serious, yet. Although it’s too bad that she isn’t here to see your demise.” Zae’s right hand morphed into a Sniper Rifle as we quickly tried to shoot both of them out of the sky. Rainbow Dash delivered another kick to his head while Tina formed a magic hand around her own right hand and landed a good punch directly to his face. Rainbow Dash was about to come in with another kick but Zae’s right hand morphed back to normal as he grabbed her leg very tightly as he spun around and threw her to the ground. Twilight slipped back up to her as she wiped some of the mud off and noticed the wicked sorcerer approaching her. “I’m guessing you’re an acquaintance of his?” “Indeed, he promised his assistance to free my master and once he’s returned...” Twilight put a stop to his monologuing by using ice magic to freeze him in place as she then went to help her friends. Quan Chi was able to break free and chase after her. She found them trapped inside of the magic bubble and didn’t know what to do. Quan Chi approached her once again and tried to get a surprise hit on her but she saw it coming and dodged it. She then flew directly towards him with a boost of magic surrounding her and hit him in the head, causing his skull to crack. Rainbow Dash got up and saw Zae punch Tina out of the air with his left boxing glove hand. She caught Tina as she was falling towards the ground. Zae chased after her with his right hand that morphed into an AK47 as he tried yet again to shoot them down. She managed to dodge the bullets and Tina shot an ice ball at his right hand to slow him down for a bit. Rainbow Dash took the opportunity to kick another kick on him, directly to his face this time, and Tina followed with a magic foot that surrounded her left foot as they both sent him flying with a team kick, which also caused his goggles to crack a little. Quan Chi shot three more green flaming skulls at Twilight, only for her to redirect them back at him. One of them managed to hit him at his right hand. He was about to a performance a trance but Zae came crashing into him.Twilight took advantage of the situation and blasted both them with a powerful beam which blasted them a good distance away. Tina came over with Rainbow Dash and she created a light spear that she used to pop the bubble. While Spike and Pinkie gave Twilight a big ole hug, Applejack saw the two fiends get up. “This ain’t over yet fellas” “Not by a long shot” Zae replied with a pissed off look on his face. Zae’s right arm transformed into a laser cannon while Quan Chi let out a beam of dark magic from both of his hands and they fired at the group only for Twilight to put up a magic wall before them. As she held back the two beams Tina opened a vortex and told them to get in. “I figured out where Azriel might’ve gone.” Since Fluttershy was the closest she managed to get in first, Pinkie Pie came next, followed by Rarity, then Applejack, and Rainbow Dash. Spike was about to enter but noticed that Twilight was still holding off the two beams. “Twilight, we have to go!” “I’m waiting for the opportunity!” Quan Chi realized that this wasn’t going anywhere so he decided to stop firing the beam and snapped his fingers. Right out of the shadows came a hooded black figure with pure white and was holding a small hook. Quan Chi pointed at Twilight and the figure understood his orders. It teleported behind Twilight as she was talking to Tina. “Where does it lead to anyway?” “Well, there used to be this hideout that me and Azri..” She stopped mid sentence and saw the black figure approach Twilight. Spike breathed fire at him but it missed and the figure grabbed him by the neck. The sound of him choking got Twilight’s attention and the wall disappeared. Zae saw the opportunity and shot her with his right tar cannon. The figure threw Spike towards Tina and they both went crashing into the vortex, which ended up closing behind them. Twilight struggled for a bit too break free but the figure came to her and held his hook by her neck and whispered something in her ear. “Don’t even bother!” Zae and Quan Chi approached them. “Well done Noob Saibot.” He then kneeled down at Twilight and looked directly at her face with a sinister grin. He then held a green flaming skull in his right hand. Her struggle continued. “Don’t worry, because once I’m finished with you, your soul will serve me as a Revenant.” Twilight let out a little gasp. She was terrified of what he could do with her as his servant. But unexpectedly, her eyes glowed as she shouted “NO” and she was able to let out a huge burst of energy which destroyed the tar as well as push back Zae, Quan Chi, and Noob Saibot. Twilight was a bit exhausted from what she did, she may be an Alicorn, but she wasn’t as powerful as the other three. “Alright, I’ve gotta reunite with the others, and find the other Pieces.” Her saddle bag started to levitate and the piece of the Disk floated out. It then stopped in place as it pointed to a certain direction and shot a beam that created a vortex. She was confused but decided to go in, after retrieving the bag and the piece. The vortex closed behind her as the villains started to get back up. Zae was frustrated but Quan Chi was unamused by his outburst. After blowing up a few decayed houses to let out some steam he turned to the wicked sorcerer and his personal hit man. “Now, about that backup of yours...” https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=-6ZaCY0sToo > Chapter 2: The Dark Knight > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ***Azriel’s old hideout*** Fluttershy jumped out of the vortex and landed in a shack of some sorts, with the only source of light coming from the bordered windows. Pinkie Pie came in shortly after her, followed by Rarity, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash. They were happy to have made it out in one piece. Pinkie however, was a bit upset since she didn’t get to float around in the Dimensional Tunnel. Rarity used illumination magic with her horn to light up the place while Applejack looked around and noticed that Twilight, Spike, and Tina weren’t with them. “Wait a minute.. where’s” Right on cue, Spike and Tina crash landed in front of them as the vortex closed right after. Spike got up once he noticed that Tina was underneath him. He looked around and Twilight was nowhere to be seen. “Wait! Where’s Twilight? Spike noticed the little glimmers of light through the bordered windows so he rushed over and tore them up to get a better view of the room. Tina knew that this was the right place, although she could tell that it didn’t look as good as they left it. The carpet was all sticky, vines grew on the side of the wall, and it smelled like something had just died around there. However, the evidence board that Azriel had was still intact. Tina noticed that there was now a letter pinned to the side of the board. She tore it off and discovered that it was not only recent, but it was written by Azriel herself. She started to read it out loud. “Dear Tina If you find this note, then I’m glad that you’re ok. Zae has my book and is planning to find the disk pieces in whatever Dimensions you sent them to. If he were lucky to get at least one of them, then finding the others will be a cakewalk, especially with his new partner. But in case he does, I have a plan, although I can’t specify what it is since I’m in a hurry, just stay put until I get back! your best friend Azriel” Tina started to ponder what this “back up plan” was supposed to be but got snapped out by Spike who kept yelling to get her attention. “I HEARD YOU OKAY! I just.. I had the vortex open for 15 seconds because I thought we all would’ve easily made it!” Rainbow Dash replied to her statement with an inpatient tone in her voice. “Then what are you waiting for! Just open another one so that we can help her!” “I would, but what if she’s not there, as in she got away? I’m not implying that, you know. Plus, I know that she can find her way here.” The others looked at her with concern. They knew that Twilight was capable of handling herself but didn’t know the dangers of these new worlds. Tina was especially worried when she just remembered that Twilight had the first piece with her. ***Gotham City*** Twilight landed on all four hooves after she came out of the vortex that closed behind her. She found herself in a a dimly lit alley way with two Roses lying next to each other. Twilight trotted forward as dozens of questions were popping in her head. “Where was she?” “Did the piece lead her here, and if so, why?” “What caused the piece to open that vortex?” She eventually got out and noticed a street sign that said “Park Row” but had the words “Crime Alley” painted on top of it. She looked around and saw several messed up buildings and there was even a person who tried to stay warm by a fire. She knew that this wasn’t the world of Canterlot High, but that did nothing but raise more questions within her head. She figured that she could at least move forward and hopefully she can find someone that can help her. ***Arkham Asylum*** Meanwhile, there’s a huge creepy prison-like building up a hill outside of town. The building had several key areas such as courtyard, cafeteria, treatment center, and several glass cells with doors locked from the outside and a nice bed. This facility contained several patients that are locked away here so that they’ll soon be living among society not as insane criminals but as peaceful citizens. But tonight, there was an unexpected guest that will soon rerelease terror among the city. A deranged looking man was looking down while leaning on the big wall within the shadows in his cell and was pondering who knows what. A fireball suddenly came and blasted the cell wide open. Despite this, the man stilled down as the smoke cleared and a strange looking man with short black hair and a trench coat came in front of him. The one within the shadows spoke to him in a cheerful yet unsettling voice. “And who would do I have to thank for this special break out?” The one who threw the fireball revealed himself to be an Asian looking man with short black hair, a black trench coat, some brown pants, and black boots to go with it. “I am Shang Tsung, and we require your assistance.” The one within the shadows looks up and revealed a pair of yellow eyes and red lips with a dirty yellow smile. He started to laugh at Shang Tsung which caused the sorcerer to get a bit aggravated. “What’s so funny Clown! Do I need to do what Scorpion couldn’t?” He stopped laughing to answer his question after he whipped a few joyful tears. “Okay, first of all, who is this Scorpion guy? He sounds like a good henchmen. Second, it’s usually me calling the shots here!” Shang gave rolled his eyes a bit as he responded back with a reason for him to not call the shots this time around. “Well trust me, if you help the boss out in receiving these certain pieces, he can give you anything you desire. Whether it be money, fame, or shaping this Dimension into whatever you like.” He briefly thought of it. On one hand, it sounds so promising, he could reshape not only Gotham but the entire universe into whatever he sees fit. On the other hand, it sounds way too crazy to be true, yet again, since when has crazy ever been a problem for him. Shang asked, “do we have a deal, clown?” Much to the figures disapproval, who slowly walked toward Shang and revealed his appearance. He had white skin, an angular face, green and black hair, and was wearing a blue jumpsuit. “Why yes, but you may call me... Joker.” “Very well then, is there anything you need before you meet him?” Just then they heard a crazy looking blonde woman with pigtails at each side of her head who called out for them. “Hey wait a minute! Mr J can’t go anywhere without me!” Another voice could be heard, this time it was a scruffy man in another cell who was also wearing a blue jumpsuit and his face was ,quite literally, split in two. He shouted, “Yeah, and what about the rest of us?”, at the sorcerer. Then all the others joined in and demanded to be let out. The Joker then replied to Shang’s question. “Ah yes, a friend or two wouldn’t hurt to bring along, not to mention all my fun toys that I have back home.” ***Gotham City*** Twilight was now in a different part of town, one that had buildings that weren’t in a wrecked state yet the sky was still red, except now there were police blimps that patrolled from above the city. As she continued down the sidewalk, she was noticed by more and more people. Some were unfazed while others were confused. There was even a little girl that tried to pet the alicorn Princess only for the mother to retract her by the arm. A chill dude walked passed her and complimented her costumes that she obviously isn’t. It got to the point where she was startled to feel a bit uncomfortable, but everyone turned their attention to the TV Store when they heard that there was an emergency. Twilight followed them in hopes of finally getting some information about this place. “This is Gotham News Network with some unpleasant news. There’s been a major break out in Arkham Asylum. We don’t know who’s responsible for this but what we do know that several guards had a very gruesome fate.” The camera showed the green rotted corpses which grossed out some of the viewers. “As for the criminals, I have a list here of what we could gather. The list includes the Joker, Harley Quinn, Poison Ivy, Two-Face, Mad Hatter, Scarecrow, Killer Croc, Riddler, Bane, and Clayface. Hopefully, we can rely on the police and Batman to save us” Twilight tilted her head a bit as she didn’t know who this “Batman” character was but she figured that he was probably a superhero like in one of Spike’s comic books. Now that Twilight knew where she was, her next step was to figure out how to reunite with her friends. Before she could think of a plan however, she noticed a reference of a bat shaped symbol and looked behind herself to see it up in the sky. She decided to fly and find the source of it, hoping that it would lead her to Batman. She discovered that the source of the symbol was a bat shaped signal attached to a search light on top of the Gotham City Police Station where an old man with a brown coat, a yellow shirt underneath the coat, gray pants, black shoes, glasses, white hair on his head and above his lip, and a badge with the word “commissioner” on it. She flew down and landed right behind him. “Just in time Batman, we’ve got..” As soon as the commissioner turned around he discovered that it wasn’t Batman who landed behind him. He was utterly confused at what he was looking at. He cleaned his glasses to make sure that he wasn’t seeing things, but when he put them back on, the purple equine was still in front of him. “I think it’s clear that you’re not Batman, but allow me to introduce myself. My name is. Twilight Sparkle and I’m the Princess of Friendship.” “Princesses of Friendship? Sure, I’ll buy it. You may prefer to me as Commissioner Gordon! What brings you to Gotham?” “Well, I came here by accident, and I was hoping to get help from..” “From me?” They both were surprised when a masked figure in a bat shaped cowl and long cape landed near the commissioner and the alicorn Princess. He went forward to Twilight and while he didn’t show it, he was curious about her. “Oh, you must be Batman, well I’m glad that you’re here. My name is...” “Twilight Sparkle, I heard. You’re the alicorn that was wondering around the city.” “Well anyways Batman, I don’t know if you heard about the recent breakout in Arkham.” “Let’s see how they did it” Batman and Twilight followed the commissioner as he flipped the switch to turn the bat signal off as they went into the building. They entered his office and with the usual desk with a window behind it. There was also a small TV on a miniature table that shows security footage from all over the city. While he was adjusting it, Twilight stood next to Batman and noticed stern he was. He was just standing there yet he still came off as intimidating. She was also curious as to what he looked like without the cowl, what is Batman’s real identity. Before he asked however, Gordon got the TV on the right station to view the cameras in Arkham Asylum. “Alright, let’s see how they did it this time.” All three of them looked at the small screen as it’s been rewinded to thirty minutes ago and at first it seemed normal, but something unexpected would happen. A guard came around the corner and headed towards the hallway where the patients were but was told not to go there. He suddenly grabbed the other guard by the throat and revealed himself to be Shang Tsung. The three looked in confusion and a bit of horror as the guard got his soul sucked right out of his body, leaving him as a green husk. “Ugh, that’s just..” Twilight couldn’t finish her sentence since she started to feel squeamish over the footage. “This guy is new to me, but the question is.. why would he breakout the Joker, and some of the other criminals.” “I don’t know, but we already have a search party out there.” “Same here, when I heard about it I sent Robin, Batgirl, and Nightwing out to investigate. We think they’re most likely going to at the abandoned amusement park.” Just then, he received a message from one of his colleagues. The colleague in question was Robin who was investigating the abandoned amusement Park. “Robin, did you find out where the Joker went?” “No, but I found this weird blue metal thing, it doesn’t look like something from this park.” “Well bring it with you! We’ll regroup with..” “Wait!”, Robin said worryingly, “I see someone coming.” Robin, a boy with black hair, a black mask that covered just his eyes, a black and yellow cape, black boots, and a red outfit with an R on the right side of it, proceeded to use his grappling hook to get into one of the pods to hide and saw who enters the park from a distance. It turned out to be a convertible that was being driven by the Joker who parked it and got out with a glee as he now sported a purple outfit with a flower on it. “It’s good to be home, wouldn’t you agree Harley?”, He asked the blonde woman who was now dressed up as a red and black Harlequin jester with a white face and a little bit of black around her pretty blue eyes. She responded with a very cheerful voice. “Sure is Mr. J, I’m glad that Red is with us as well.” Red comes out right of the car after Harley and she herself is, well, a woman with red hair, red luscious lips, green boots with gloves, leggings, and a green one piece suit to round it up. The Two-Faced man with split clothes (left white, right black), split hair (left flat, right straight up), a split personality, and a literal split face (left normal looking, right deformed. The last passenger to come out of the car was Shang Tsung himself with an unamused face. Several other cars came in and parked, they were also being driven by inmates that were freed from Arkham. Robin told Batman to meet him there and ended the conversation. Twilight looked at Batman and asked, “is there anything I can do to help?” Besides her name, Batman didn’t know anything about this purple equine, and since this problem wasn’t big enough to call in the Justice League, he accepted her help, sort of. “You can come along if you’d like.” “Right, he said the abandoned amusement park, right?” Batman nodded yes to her and he led the way and left Commissioner Gordon behind. He turned around and saw a sticky note on his desk that said, “abandoned amusement park” and let out a sigh. ***Abandoned amusement park*** From a big truck came out several people, one of them was a blond man with buck teeth, a top hat with a 10/6 card on the right side of it, some weird shoes, and a blue classy suit with a black bow in the top middle of it. From the passengers seat came a man with a pointy hat, a creepy (yet mostly goofy) looking mask, brown and red clothes, a few stitches, and straw like hair on the side of his head. The last passenger of that truck was in the back, it was a large man who was wearing blue genes, large sharp teeth, and had gray crocodile like skin. Robin had to wait there for Batman but he still couldn’t let the criminals discover him until then. As the last two criminals showed up, which were a man in a green suit with a bowler hat and a question mark cane while the other was a masked wrestler shaded in black and a tubes connected from a machine on his back to his arms, Robin grabbed a pair of binoculars from his belt to zoom in to see what they were doing. Shang Tsung had just finished explaining the plan to the crowd of crooks with and they all got the idea on what it was and what’s the reward. Some began to ask question. The Mad Hatter started with, “So what exactly do these pieces look like?”, while Killer Croc followed it up with, “and how exactly will we find them?” Meanwhile, Batman jumped from rooftop to rooftop all while Twilight flew behind him since she still didn’t know her way around this new world. She was shocked when he suddenly disappeared only to find him in an alley way and landed inside of a large black car that had similar features to his cowl. He drove it out of his secret parking space and sped ahead knowing that Twilight would follow him, and he was right. At the Gotham City docks, two individuals, one was a girl dressed like Batman but with a smaller cape and red hair hanging out of the back of her cowl while the other was a man who wore a black suit with a bit of blue and had a mask similar to Robin’s, as they both got the message and headed towards their destination. “So Barb, you doing anything after this?” Barbara rolled her eyes at him as they continued to jump from rooftop to rooftop. Back at the park, Robin slowly made his way down but as soon as he got on the ground he landed on this sticky Clay substance which dragged him away. It started to wrap itself around the boy wonder as it turned into an arm and appeared to be connected to a giant monster that was also made out of clay. The monster chuckled as it went out of his hiding spot to show what he caught to the Joker. Harley saw the piece that Robin accidentally dropped out of his hand and went to pick it up. “Well lookie here Mr. J!” “Why yes, and if he’s here then the Bat can’t be far behind.” Shang Tsung noticed that Harley had something in her hands. The sorcerer got a closer look and instantly knew what it was. He told the Joker that it was time to leave and was about to open a vortex back to the temple. They heard a vehicle approach them and saw that it was the Batmobile, although they were more focused on that and not Twilight, who was high above them. Shang tossed a fireball at the speeding vehicle and caused it to spin out for a bit until it crashed through a few stands until it stopped at the Ferris wheel. Twilight dived in front of the vehicle and spread her wings out. Some looked confused while others laughed at the purple equine. Although Shang immediately recognized her based off of Quan Chi’s description. “You serious? The bat now has an el caballo as his latest lackey?” “And people call me mad” Clayface was then ordered by Shang to taker her out but suddenly, Batman ejected himself out of the Batmobile and threw a gas grenade at the group. He silently tackled the Joker but he wouldn’t go down that easily, so Mr. J kicked Batsy off of him while Harley whacked him with a giant ass mallet. Twilight flew above the smoke but saw a clay hand that grabbed and pulled her back in. He attempted to finish off Twilight and the second boy wonder by absorbing them and having them suffocate, but he suddenly felt chilly and saw that he slowly started to freeze. Robin broke through his stomach while Twilight followed but not before she blew the tip of her horn as if it were a gun. Riddler swung at him with his questionable cane but Batman dodged to the left and threw a right handed uppercut which strikes him out. Bane grabbed the Bat by the head and threw him into Clayface which shattered him into pieces. He jumped in the air to punch Batman but he rolled out of the way just in time. Bane swung at him again and again but to no success as Batman successfully dodged each punch. At the same time, Robin did a backwards flip and avoided Harley’s big mallet all while she told him to, “HOLD STILL!!!” Just as the Riddler got back up only to get whacked by the crazy jester in her attempt to hit Robin, which caused him to be unconscious. Shang used his fireball to try and shoot down the alicorn Princess and Poison Ivy did the same but with her miniature crossbow that was around her right wrist. Twilight quickly put up a shield and reflected the projectiles back at them, only for them to get out of the way in time.The Mad Hatter hid inside of the truck and attempted to drive away, he was better at playing mind games with his opponents and wasn’t that skilled in hand to hand combat. The Mad Hatter attempted to run over Batman while he was dodging Bane, but the Bat managed to get Bane stuck in the sodden floor and was run over by the Mad Hatter. Bane lived but fell unconscious while the Hatter crashed into the water. Harley grew tired of her failed attempts to whack a sidekick while Robin took this as an opportunity to take her down. While Red and Shang attempted to shoot the Princess again they now had Two-Face who used his Tommy Gun to try and shoot her down. The Sorcerer noticed that Robin still had the piece in his belt and focused on him instead as he transformed into the boy wonder and flew at him with a kick. He successfully landed it on his face and transformed back while he picked him up and attempted to steal his soul. “Your soul is mi.. ARGH” He grabbed his hand after it was hit by a Batarang that Batman himself threw as he demanded the Sorcerer to, “LET HIM GO!!!” Killer Croc grabbed him from behind and was about to bite his head off, but was knocked out by Harley Quinn. “Oh no you don’t! If anyone’s gonna finish off Batman then it’s gonna be my Mr. J”. The Joker gave a slow clap to Harley all while he slowly walked towards Batsy all while Robin was held back by Two-Face as Shang took the piece from the boys belt. Batman was struck by Harley’s mallet and was left weakened while the Joker put his left foot on his back while he shook a canister that had a smiling skull on it. Twilight took notice and dive bombed towards the clown prince of crime only to be sprayed directly in the face. She was left coughing on the ground only for it to be followed by uncontrollable laughter. Batman struggled to move as the Joker brought in his sickening sense of humor. “Oh, don’t worry about her, she’ll be done foaling around soon enough, and soon, you’ll be able to join her.” He shook the can again only to discover that it was completely out of laughing gas, only to shrug as he threw it in the water and hit Mad Hatter on the head as he pulled out a knife. “There’s more then one way to put a smile on someone’s face!” He then got kicked in the back by Batgirl who had just arrived with Nightwing as his costume allowed him to glide in like a Flying Squirrel and landed gracefully like one too. They weren’t alone however as cop cars started to swarm in around them all and had their guns ready. The Joker, Ivy, Harley, Mad Hatter, Two-Face, and Scarecrow raised their hands as they were surrounded. The only two that didn’t surrender were Clayface, although that’s mainly because he was trying to put himself back together, and Shang Tsung, who had a plan. He used his magic to teleport himself and the remaining conscious criminals to a remote location so that he can create a vortex back to the temple. Batman order Nightwing to hold her down as he rushed over with an injector from his belt and used it on Twilight’s front left leg as she fell asleep. He picked her up with both of his hands as he carried her to the Batmobile, which was still functional. He told Robin to come with and ordered Nightwing and Batgirl to patrol for the rest of the night in his place as he went back to the Batmobile and it was still working. He gently put Twilight in the passengers seat while he took the drivers seat and drove off. He used the small screen in the control panel to call his British butler. “Alfred, do you come in?” Yes master Bruce, yes I do. Did you catch those escaped inmates?” “Not all of them, only Bane, Croc, and Clayface. They managed to get out thanks to a new friend of theirs. Speaking of which, we’re gonna have an unexpected visitor.” “Well sir I’ll get the place ready then.” “No need, also, do we have anything that ponies eat?” Alfred starred back at him in utter confusion. ***Temple of Creation*** Humanoid creatures with pointy ears and teeth started to tear down the buildings around the temple, and in their places comes tents and other structures. An army was slowly building up. Zae looked over in delight as he predicted the search might go a lot easier with an army at his helm. He heard the sound of a vortex opening and looked back in the temple to see Quan Chi with two more allies. One was a tan beast with a red loin cloth, a long ponytail, dragon scales all over his back, black and white eyes, and four muscular arms (and each hand has about three fingers as well as two toes for each foot), while the other was a woman with black pants (yet she still had a pink loin), pink boots, a pink bra, yellow eyes with black pupils, crazy bangs, a pink mask to hide her mouth, and was carrying two sai with her. She proceeded to speak with a sweet yet sinister voice. “So Quan Chi told us that you can give us anything with we help you, correct?” Zae nodded “yes” as he asked who these two were. The woman started to introduce herself followed by the four armed beast who had a booming voice. “I am Mileena, ruler of Outworld in my father’s absence but soon to be ruler of Edenia as well. “And I am Goro! Prince of the Shokans and former champion of Mortal Kombat for five hundred years.” “Former champion you say?” “Yes, and that wouldn’t be the case if it weren’t for Raidens prodigy.” “Ah yes, my sister’s boyfriend, I can’t wait to see him again and try to tear up those meaty muscles of his while..” While... THAT is going Zae looked over to Quan Chi and asked, “Where is Shang Tsung, why isn’t he back?” The sorcerer assured Zae that he will be back soon enough and right on cue, another vortex appeared with Shang, Scarecrow, Poison Ivy, Mad Hatter, Harley Quinn, and the Joker walked right out of. “Well, lookie what we have here, a couple of freaks to go with my own circus of freaks, yet again, who am I to talk?” Quan Chi looked a bit surprised as about the choices for recruitments. Quan Chi stated that he’s an interesting specimen and Shang responded. “Interesting indeed, cause either he doesn’t remember me or he isn’t the same Joker from a while ago.” Zae went up to the Clown Prince of Crime and asked what can he offer him? “Well I’m glad that you asked my little hooded friend, I’ve got gadgets and gizmos a-plenty, all of which are guaranteed to put a smile on anyone’s face.” “Not to mention he helped us acquire, THIS”, Shang said as he pulled out the piece that he took from Robin. Zae zoomed towards him and grabbed the piece in awe. With the piece in hand he started to chuckle, chuckle turned into cackle, cackle turned into demonic laughter. The others looked at him in concern while he looked back over to them and said, “YES”. “With this one piece, the others won’t be far now, and with an army at my our helm, who can stop us now?” https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=kerqD-t7OHs > Chapter 3: I'M READY > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ***Bikini Bottom*** A French narrator was heard in the deep blue sea at night. “Ah, Bikini Bottom nighttime, so peaceful and quiet...” He was interrupted by the welding somewhere, but doesn’t know where the source was and continued. “Ah, Bikini Bottom nighttime, so peaceful and quiet. A perfect time to get some shut eye...” He was interrupted again by the same welding sound. He tried to continue again but the sound kept him from doing so and was annoyed by it. “WHOEVER’S DOING THAT, DO YOU MIND KEEPING IT DOWN!!!” ***Chum Bucket*** It turned out that the sounds were coming from a giant bucket with doors in the front of it, and inside of it was not only a complete failure of a restaurant but a secret laboratory with a giant blue feminine computer. In another part of it was the exact source of the welding noise. It was a small green organism with antennas, stubby tiny hands and feet, and had one big red and yellow eyeball. He took off the mask that protected his eye and looked in awe as his improved design of a previous invention was now finished. He walked out of that room to reveal it to his computer wife. “It’s almost done Karen. This mechanism will certainly help me get that formula for sure.” “Are you sure about that? You do remember the last time that you tried this, right?” YES, how could I forget one of my most questionable design choices. But I assure you that I fixed that mistake, and now, behold!” He tried to kick the doors open with his small left stub of a foot but it ended up in a world of pain as he wasn’t strong enough. “Oh brother”, said Karen as she rolled her digital eyes at her husband all while she used a robotic hand to open the door for him. Plankton thanked her for that and she replied with, “don’t mention it!” He cleared his throat and continued where he left off. “And now, BEHOLD, the Duplicatotron 2.0!!! This improved model is not only bigger and badder than the old one, but every robot is automatically set to obey my every orders, and once they steal the formula they can also help sell Krabby Patties to the Chum Bucket, and they will help me RULE THE WORLD AFTERWARDS.” Plankton gave a very loud evil laugh as he was over confident in his new plan, but then he started to cough for a bit. He was fine though as he went to push the switch that was labeled “ON”. All of a sudden, a few robots were dispensed out of the machine while Plankton looked on with glee. There was suddenly a weird noise that came from the restaurant room so Plankton went over and saw that a vortex had opened up and a strange white man came out of it. Quan Chi quickly realized that he was underwater and performed a spell that allowed him to breathe while in this strange new environment. “I wasn’t expecting a customer at this hour.” Plankton said confusingly. “I have no interested for whatever food you serve but rather I, or rather my partner, has interest in you.” “Oh really?” “Yes, and if you help him he can grant you anything you desire.” “How do I know that this isn’t a scam?” “Once I take you to see him, you’ll know.” Plankton held his hand around his face and pondered what this guy said. Plankton was a bit cautious but accepted it anyways all while having an evil grin on his face. “Sure thing, just let me get a few things and I’ll be ready to meet your boss.” ***Bat Cave*** Alfred walked down the stares with some tea for master Bruce while he was working on his computer, trying to find any record of the sorcerer. He found nothing however and didn’t have a single clue what to do. Alfred went by his side and offered master Bruce some tea. “Thanks Alfred” Batman said right before he quickly drank the cup dry. “I haven’t had any luck figuring out who that guy was. I even asked a few members of the Justice League and even they had no clue of his identity.” “Well if you’re done playing Guess who, then wouldn’t you mind attending to your patient? She seems to be waking up.” Batman got up and walked over all while he put his cowl back on to hide his identity. Twilight’s consciousness slowly slipped back to her as she noticed she was in a giant cave and was lying down in an examination table. She quickly checked to find any stitches on her but thankfully there were none. “Where.... am I?” “You’re in the Batcave” the Dark Knight answered. Twilight let out a sigh of relief to see that it was Batman as she stepped off of the table and proceeded to ask what happened to her during that fight. “The Joker sprayed you with his venomous gas. It makes his victims laugh nonstop to the point where they suffocate and die, all while having a big smile on their face. Lucky for you, I had a cure.” Twilight was disturbed with that information and horrified of what could’ve happened to her. “Be sure not to scare her.” “It’s alright, I’m fine, and who might you be?” “ I’m Alfred Pennyworth, nice to meet you miss Sparkle.” “Nice to meet you too” Bruce was about to ask questions to the princess of friendship but she noticed that her bag wasn’t with her. “Where..” “I have it at the Bat-Computer, but first I need answers! Where did you come from?” They both started to walk towards the Bat-computer as Twilight went along with it. “I’m from Equestria, it’s where I live alongside Spike and my friends.” “How does Spike stand out from your friends?” “Well I raised him since he hatched, he’s a dragon.” “Dragon, my goodness miss Sparkle” “Don’t worry Alfred, he doesn’t bite” said Twilight as she let out a smirk. Batman then asked how she got here. Twilight used levitation to pick her bag up as she answered his question. “Welp, it’s kind of a lengthy story. But basically: I met Tina, she’s a doll that got separated from her friend and needs me and my friends to find her along with the pieces of the Dimensional Disk before Zae does.” “Dimensional Disk?” “Yes, and so far we’ve got one piece.” The princess told him as she got out the piece from her bag and levitated it vertically. “And as for how I ended up here, I honestly don't have a clue. I got separated from the group while we were fighting Zae and his ally, and then the disk piece created the Vortex that brought me here. I remember that I told myself that I need to reunite and find the other pieces.” The piece then rose up as the butler, the princess, and the caped crusader looked up at it. Alfred backed away in fear of what it might do. Just like before: it shot a beam that created a vortex but since it was pointed down the vortex was created underneath Twilight and Batman. They both fell through as Twilight’s bag fell down along with the piece as it went with them. Alfred was nervous as the Vortex closed up and didn’t know what to do. ***Through the Vortex*** Both the Princess of Friendship and the Dark Knight fell down through the tunnel along with the disk piece and Twilight’s bag. “Was this your plan?” Batman furiously asked her. “What, NO. I didn’t intend for this to happen. I don’t even know where it’s taking us or why.” Batman quickly pondered as he thought of a theory. “Well maybe it’s something you said in that sentence. Something that triggered it to open up a Vortex. Maybe to help find the next piece.” Twilight thought of it and released what might’ve triggered it. “That’s it, maybe “find” is it’s trigger..” She was interrupted by the great big light as they arrived at their destination. ***Outskirts of Bikini Bottom*** They Both fell bottom first on what appeared to be a concrete trail in the middle of a huge body of sand on with the sun rising in the background. As they looked at their new surround but when they were about to ask each other “Where are we?” they gasped for air as if they were underwater. What made this even more strange is that they were still able to stand up properly as if they were on land. Before they could die Twilight quickly used her magic and performed a simple spell: an air bubble that formed around their heads that allowed them to breathe underwater all they liked. “Well, I wasn’t expecting that.” , Said Twilight. Batman got out one of his electronic devices from his belt and found it in perfect working condition. Which led him in utter confusion. Twilight jumped up and flew around for a few seconds even though she was underwater. “This place doesn’t make any sense. We can stand underwater without a diving suit yet we can’t swim, and we need these things to breathe.” , Batman said to Twilight as she landed. “Yeah, the more I think about it the less it makes sense. But enough of that, where can we find the piece?” Batman said nothing as he started to walk down the concrete trail as Twilight followed him. They both eventually found a sign that said “Bikini Bottom” and they looked in the distance to see a town with weirdly shaped metal houses and several other landmarks. Both the vigilante and the princess assumed that this is where they might find the next piece so they continued to walk forward while they wondered what kind of creatures inhabit this strange new world. ***Conch Street*** On a small street there were three houses. On the far left there was a rock with a bamboo weather vane on top of it, the far right was a giant pineapple with windows and a door at the very front of it, and in between both of them was a house that (somewhat) resembled one of the Easter Island heads but with door instead of a mouth and two windows instead of eyes. A Light Blue anthropomorphic Octopus with a large nose, yellow eyes with red pupils, and a brown t shirt opened and closed the door to the middle house as he walked off to his job in misery. Meanwhile, in the Pineapple house, there be a Yellow Sea Sponge (yet it resembles a kitchen sponge) with a long nose and two front buck teeth was sleeping peacefully in his bed while giving off a soothing snore. But then suddenly, a boat horn on top of a barrel started to go off like an alarm clock as the sea sponge opens his blue eyes and reached over to turn it off. He spoke to his pet snail with a squeaky voice. “Good morning Gary, it’s time for another day at work.” Gary only responded with “meow” as he came out of his pink shell with indigo spots and red spiral. The sponge whooshed his way out of bed while in his undies and ran straight into the bathroom all while Gary went for the chest in the corner of the room. The sponge got out with sparkly teeth and went straight for the closet and grabbed a rectangle that he folded into square pants with a red tie. He proceeded to tie his shoes (all while he whistled a tune about tying them) but Gary approached him while he had a shiny blue object in his mouth. The sea sponge noticed what Gary had and knew that his pet was eager to figure out what it was. “Don’t worry, after I come back from work we’ll figure out what that thing is. But until then, I’ll leave you to guard it!” “Meow” “Ok little buddy, now how about we both get some breakfast down stairs!” The sponge said while he picked his pet up and carried him down stairs. ***Temple of Creation*** “And that’s why I would be a valuable member of your tee am, or whatever you call it.” Said Plankton as he finished a speech he gave to Zae who sat on a menacing looking throne that was just made for him. “Sounds impressive enough, except the part where you waste your talent trying to steal a recipe for a sandwich.” “Excuse me?” “Never mind that! You’re in, just note that you’re not our top scientist!” “What do you mean by that?” “I mean, you just got here. Although if you were the first scientist to arrive here then maybe you would be.” “Not impressed huh? Well then, you said one of the pieces might be in Bikini Bottom, right? Just take me back there and I’ll show you what I ca..OWW” Plankton was unintentionally stepped on by an egg shaped man with a pointy nose, a bushy mustache, a red coat, black boots, glasses, and green lensed goggles on his head. “Ah ha, perfect timing doctor, how are your Badniks coming along?” “Perfectly well, in fact, I have a few ready for action!” Karen (now with a silver computer head, stand, and base with wheels attached to them) nudged the doctor to let him know that he stepped on her husband. He looked underneath his right boot and laughed at the fact that this little green guy was her husband. He proceeded reached down and took him off of his boot as he held him by the antenna and introduced himself. “Allow me to introduce myself, I am Dr. Eggman, and I’m the top scientist in this operation here.” The egg shaped doctor proceeded to drop Plankton without any care. “Well, then, my name is Plankton and this is Karen, my computer wife. I just so happen to be a scientist myself.” “Oh really?” “Yes, and I just so happen to have an IQ of 125.” “Well now, that is impre…” Eggman couldn’t even finish that sentence with a straight face as he proceeded to burst out into laughter, which annoyed Plankton and made him ask “What’s so funny?” “Oh, sorry, that would be impressive except I just so happen to have an IQ of 300.” “300?!?!” “Precisely” “Well then, it wasn’t nice to meet you.”, said Plankton as Zae opened a Vortex right in front of him. "Now if you’ll excuse me, I got a piece to find back in my world.” Then you’ll know to take me seriou… OWW” He was stepped on again but this time it was someone who came out of the Vortex. It was a much shorter man with gray skin, a lab coat, crooked teeth, black boots with matching gloves, crazy eyes, and a bulging head that showed a bit of his big brain off. He carried some blue print of some giant robot he planned to build and was about to show it off to Zae but was told that he stepped on someone. He looked underneath his left boot and said, “Well, what do we have here?” “Oh boy, who do I have to thank for stepping on me this time?” His question was answered as he was ripped off of the boot. “I am Dr. Edgar George Zomboss, and I lead the zombie hoard that you see down there.”, said Zomboss as he pointed outside to the several zombies who helped build some of the camps and machines. Plankton was once again dropped and he demanded to have a Vortex that would take him back to Bikini Bottom. Zae did just that and watched as he and Karen went in. As the vortex closed behind them Zae as the two scientist about anything they might need to complete their task. “Not at all”, said Eggman. “I’ve got it covered. I guarantee that I will be ready to get any piece, wherever it might be.” ***The Krusty Krab*** Meanwhile, there was wooden building with several windows, a glass door, several flags on top of it, and a clam-shaped sign right in front of it that says “Krusty Krab”. A decent restaurant that just so happened to be across the Chum Bucket. The French narrator could be heard again in some unknown location. “Ah yes, the Krusty Krab, the finest eating establishment ever established for eating and home of the Krabby Patty. Although today is a bit slow, something tells me that won’t be the case for long.” In the very back of the building was a kitchen with the same Yellow Sea sponge from earlier except now he had a spatula in his right hand, a white hat on his head and a name tag that said “Spongebob”. He smiled with glee as worked at the grill and fried up some delicious looking patties. On the other side was the main area with a bunch of tables and chairs scattered across the area. There was also a boat with a cash register next to the window that lead to the kitchen but the cashier fell asleep while he read a magazine. The cashier himself was the same light blue Octopus from earlier except he wore the same white hat that Spongebob had and had a name tag that said “Squidward”. There were at least two different customers at the same table but other than them, there weren’t any others. ***Chum Bucket*** Meanwhile, on the inside of the Chum Bucket, Plankton and Karen came out of the Vortex that brought them back and Plankton asked Karen to see if they had any portal technology they might have as a way to get back to the Temple. He decided to ready up the Duplicatotron 2.0 and have them search for the piece that was said to be in Bikini Bottom. ***Krusty Krab*** While that happened, a bell sound was heard at the door which woke up Squidward as he was ready to take the customers order, but what he saw was something he didn’t expect to see today. He saw the Princess of Friendship and the Dark Knight as they sat down at one of the tables. Twilight noticed him stare and said, “Oh, don’t mind us, we just needed a place to sit down for a bit. Squidward shrugged to himself and continued to read his magazine. “Anyways, you were saying?” “I heard that there was a junkyard somewhere near the hospital, we should search there next!” “Sounds good, although can we get quick bite to eat first? I haven’t eaten anything since I was back in Ponyville.” “Maybe, although I am curious as to what they serve here. Although with a name like “the Krusty Krab” I can take a good guess as to what that is.” “The two customers stoped before they took another bite for a moment and looked at Batman after what he just said. Twilight gave off a nervous look as she replied with, “I highly doubt that. This hardly looks like a town that would really do something like that.” One of the fish customers responded to that statement with, “It’s true, I tried biting into this guys leg and it taste delicious at all.” Batman looked back at Twilight and got back on topic. “Anyways, you can eat here if you want, after that we must focus on getting that piece! If Zae is as dangerous as you described him then we have to get those pieces before he and the Joker do!” “I swear, whenever we meet that clown again, he won’t take me out that easily.” While he was about to ask Squidward what he was reading, Spongebob noticed Twilight and Batman at one of the tables. They didn’t seem to out of the ordinary as he knew a few superheroes who were humans and also had a friend who was a land critter that needed something around her head to survive underwater. Although he was confused as he wasn’t told to make any orders for them. “Um, Squidward, did you take any of their orders?” “No”, said Squidward in a monotone voice. “They just wanted to rest their feet.” “Does Mr Krabs allow that?” “I’m not sure actually.” Twilight approached them and said, “Well, I would like to see what you’ve got here.” She flew up and was eye to eye with the menu that dangled above the cashier. None of the options appealed to her, however she didn’t want to leave with an empty stomach. She landed and told the cashier that nothing looked appealing to her. She descended down and told him, “Sorry, but we’re just gonna leave. Besides, I don’t think you would accept my currency” Squidward replied with, “Whatever” as he wiped his nose and read his magazine but was interrupted by his boss after he heard that they were about to leave through the door at the far left. His boss was a Crab with a red shell, tall eyes, a crinkly brownish nose, large claws, a blue shirt with purple pants and black belt, and short pointy legs. He stated to the princess that, “Why of course we will. It’s still money right? Surely we can work it out.” “Why that’s very generous of you Mr… eh” “Krabs, Eugene H. Krabs” “Krabs, I appreciate it but we really need to get going.” “Oh come on, why not? Like I said, money is money.” Batman got fed up with him and came up to Mr.Krabs and went up to him with right his fist clenched up. Mr. Krabs gulped as he looked nervous at the sight of the Dark Knight. He then used both of his hand to hold him up by the shirt as he starred at his face. “We don’t have time for this, we got a disk piece to find in this town, and it’s really important that we get to it fast.” Spongebob thought to himself after he heard him say “disk piece”. He had speculated that it might be the thing that he found almost two days ago. He went out the door next to the cashier boat and asked, “Is it blue with a weird space symbol on it?”. They both knew what he meant and Twilight rushed towards him while Batman dropped Mr.Krabs and did the same. Twilight got out the piece from her bag to show him and asked, “how did you find it?” Spongebob got a little nervous from the pressure but told them, “I found it almost two days ago at Jellyfish Fields with Patrick. We didn’t know what it was so I took it home.” Batman asked, “Can you tell us where you live?” He quickly thought of it and replied with a heroic voice, “Better yet, I can show you. Follow me.” Spongebob threw his hat at Squidward and said, “Sorry, Mr. Krabs! I’ll be back in a bit so don’t worry.” as he ran out of the door with the two strangers who followed him. “Spongebob, wait! Who’s gonna make me money?” “Oh just leave him. It’s a slow day anyway.” “You’re getting your paycheck cut in half for saying that!” Squidward looked in pain and slapped himself on the face for saying that out loud. The trio sprinted out of the entrance and headed towards wherever the yellow one was running towards. “Thank you so much for this, by the way, my names Twilight Sparkle, and that’s Batman, but he won’t tell you his real name.” Batman looked a bit pouty after that remark as she giggled a bit. “My name’s SpongeBob SquarePants, pleased to meet you.” ***Chum Bucket*** Plankton flipped the switch which activated the Duplicatotron 2.0. Dozen of short one wheeled robots with electro sticks popped out one at a time. “Welcome my perfectly obedient robot army, I’ve got a piece to find and you’re gonna help me find it!” He noticed that it got a bit too crowded and had to turn it off. One of the robots approached him with a spare bolt that it found on the ground and thought that this was the piece he was referring to while the other had a piece of Chum and another tore off a piece of the wall. “ Sigh, maybe I should specify what kind of piece.But before he could do that one of the robots made a bunch of noise to get Plankton’s attention and it worked. Plankton screamed, “WHAT?!?!?” As he saw that it wanted him to look through the telescope. Plankton did just that, and saw something at the Krusty Krab that he didn’t think he’d see. He saw Twilight as she got out the piece to show to Spongebob but he couldn’t hear what they talked about before she put it back in as the two of them and Batman ran out of the entrance. He looked with an evil grin and patted the robot on the head for this. “Change of plans, we’re going to follow those three and see where they lead us too! You all go on ahead and I’ll catch up!” They all did just that as they each left through the entrance of the building. He then asked Karen how the Vortex machine went and she said, “it’s almost done”, while he replied with, “good”, and asked, “do you know where the keys are for my mech?”. “Sure, they’re being guarded by your Lab, why do you need it?” “Let’s just say that I might’ve found the piece sooner than we thought we would.” ***Conch Street*** The trio eventually made it to Conch Street before Plankton or any of the robots did. Spongebob led them inside of his Pineapple house and up the stairs they went to his bedroom. He opened the chest in the corner of the room only to find it empty. “WHAT?!?! Where is it? How could..” He was no longer panicked once he saw that Gary had the piece in his mouth behind him. “Meow” Twilight patted his shell and said, “Aww, what a cute snail. I bet Fluttershy would love to meet you”, all while Gary purred at her. "Who's Fluttershy?", Spongebob asked. "She's one of my friends from Equestria" Batman asked, “Speaking of which, how do you plan on reuniting with your friends?”. Twilight didn’t have an answer for that and just gave off a worried look. “I honestly don’t know. Tina told me that creating a Vortex is easy but I have yet to find out how her magic works.” Spongebob then said, “Don’t worry, I’m sure you’ll reunite with them, whoever they are. But first..”, he then looked at Gary and stuck his hand out to him. “They’re that piece Gare Bear. It’s for something called a Dimensional Disk and it’s very impor…” He jumped back after he saw the giant robot hand that crashed through his ceiling and snatched up Gary along with the third piece. Twilight and Batman were also caught off guard at that moment. “GARY???” The freaky robot battle suit held its left hand in front of its giant eye and voice could be heard through its speakers that said, “Yes, I got it, and it was seriously that easy”. Spongebob immediately recognized that voice. “PLANKTON???” “Why yes. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got somewhere else to be now so I’ll just let my robot army finish you off.”, Plankton then flew back to the Chum Bucket with Gary and the third piece but not before Batman used to grappling hook to attach to the back of the robot and hitched a ride. Twilight used levitation to carry Spongebob with her as she flew through the hole in the roof. They saw a whole army of robots down below that couldn’t approach them. However, two in particular were a three purple and green disc shaped robots with five arms that could hover and tried to take them down. Batman threw a Batarang and destroyed one of them but the other one attempted to slap him. Batman dodged the slaps and kicked its lights out. However, he was caught off guard when he was shot off of the back of Planktons battle robot by a huge mush of Tartar sauce by a few robots that had a large jar of Tartar sauce strapped to their backs and a hose to shoot it with. Twilight quickly used levitation and caught him before he landed in the crowd. Plankton took note of the trio who were behind him and slapped them with the back of his left giant robotic hand and the they crashed into the crowd of robots. They quickly got up and started to fight them off in every direction. Twilight froze some of them, blasters others, and turned a giant robot into an orange. Batman had no problems with them since he had his utility belt and he mastered every type of martial art under the sun. Spongebob however, only knew Karate, but he was really good at it. It took a bit but they had most of the army wiped out in a matter of minutes. Twilight had an idea though and asked Spongebob where Plankton could’ve gone. “The Chum Bucket?”, it sounded familiar to her, as she might’ve noticed in town, but didn’t know where exactly. Batman heard them and said, “I remember seeing it across the street from the Krusty Krab.” Twilight’s horn brightened up as a flash of light and the trio were nowhere in sight. The robots were confused as they had no clue what just happened to their targets. ***Krusty Krab*** The trio ended up in front of the underwater burger establishment and saw the Chum Bucket straight ahead as Plankton just arrived. He didn’t even notice them as he placed Gary, who still had the third disk piece with him, in a cage as he got out of his battle robot and entered through the roof. All three of them bolted towards the Chum Bucket as Batman, out of curiosity, questioned Twilight on why she didn’t do that before. “First of all, I can only do that to places that I’m familiar with. It’s also worth noting that it requires a lot of concentration” ***Chum Bucket*** “It’s all done, the portal is fully operational” “Thanks Karen but don’t rush to conclusions, it’s been a while since we used it so..” “It’s impressive for a little guy like you.” Plankton jumped back a bit as Eggman, who now had a helmet and air tank with him, interrupted the green genius. He didn’t expect him to be here. “Oh great, it’s you.” “Yes it is. Like I said, I would be impressed except I have several of these of my own, another reason as to why I’m number one.” “Whatever” said Plankton out of jealousy, “I got the piece now let’s go before..”, he was cut off yet again as the door was kicked opened and the trio revealed themselves to the two evil geniuses. “Since you’re so much better, you take care of them!” “With pleasure”, Eggman responded as he pointed at the intruder as around twenty Egg Robo’s that were hidden revealed themselves and had them surrounded. Each had a laser gun pointed at them and each was ready to fire on command. Plankton looked in glee as he turned his back on them and jumped through the Vortex with Gary and the third piece. Spongebob cried out, “GARY” as they were too late. “Now”, said Eggman, “If you don’t want any harm to come to this Gary of yours then I’d recommend you gives us that piece you have there and..” Eggman saw that Twilight was about to do something and shouted, “FIRE!!!”, to his Egg Robo’s, only for them to explode by their own lasers because of the reflection shield that Twilight put up. Eggman panicked and jumped into the Vortex after he commanded it to be shut down. Karen did just that sash shut down the machine as the trio looked on in defeat. Spongebob fell to his knees and cried softly as his pet was taken to who knows where right before him. Twilight looked over at Batman and teleported back to Spongebob’s house which still had a roof in it. ***Conch Street*** Meanwhile, a pink starfish with green pants that had purple flowers on them knocked on the door over and over while he constantly said, “hello, Spongebob”, over and over again but nothing availed from it. He soon heard a loud noise and a flash come from the hole and went to see what it was. Twilight went to Spongebob’s left side and told him, “I’m sorry for what happened to your pet, but don’t worry, because Batman and I will get him back for you.” He looked at her and asked, “for me?”. “Yes, but first we gotta get the other disk pieces before Zae and his allies do.” The Sponge Boy quickly wiped his tears as he got up and stated, “I”m coming with you. Gary’s my pet and my closest friend.” “Are you sure?”, Twilight asked him. “You know that this could be dangerous, right?” “Yes I do, and besides, I could be helpful to you.” She looked at Batman who gave a thumbs up as she looked back at the fry cook and responded, “Then what are we waiting for? Let’s get going!”, she shouted as she levitated the piece to Batman and told him to, “Try it, and let’s see if our theory works!”. Batman looked at a certain point of the piece, that being where the dark side of the moon was, and aimed outside where he shouted, “FIND!!!”, as it levitated on its own and shot a Vortex at where it was aimed at. However, Patrick just climbed up to the opening in the roof and was caught in the crossfire, which got him inside the Vortex unintentionally. The trio ran through it with e piece in hand as it closed behind them. ***Through the Vortex*** They flew straight forward in the tube as they now saw Patrick who was way ahed of them. “Patrick? How did he get in here?” Batman responded with, “I don’t know.” As he also had no clue. Pretty soon though, a flash of light appeared as they arrived at their destination. ***Azriel’s old hideout*** Rarity had cleaned up the floor with the help of Pinkie Pie as their final chore to get this gritty hideout cleaned up. Fluttershy opened a window and looked outside with the sight of Rainbow Dash who paced in the air while she argued with Tina. “We can’t keep waiting like this! We have to find Twilight right now!” “I would agree except Azriel’s note said..” Rainbow mocked Tina and repeated, “Azriel’s note said” three times to her and said, “I don’t care, she’s doing her own thing while we’re here doing nothing.” “But ….” “NO BUTS! I’m going to find her on my own.” “Just as she said that a Vortex appeared right under them as they were shocked when they saw who came out of it. It was Twilight alongside three other figures. They both flew down as they weren’t deceived, their friend had returned. Rarity, Fluttershy, Applejack, and Pinkie Pie saw them through the window and rushed out of the building and gave a massive group hug with Batman, Spongebob, and Patrick who were caught in it as well. “Oh darling, we were so worried about you.” “I was starting to think that Zae got you for good.”, said Tina. “Me too, although what happened to you. You’ve literally grown soft.” Twilight looked over and saw that Pinkie hugged Spongebob with her eyes shut and didn’t know that it wasn’t Twilight. “Um, Pinkie, I’m over here. Pinkie opened her eyes to see her over there and saw Spongebob and went like, “oh”, before she zoomed over to Twilight. “Um.. Twilight?”, Fluttershy asked, “Who is this mmmmo mo mo” “Monster?”, Batman replied. She squealed a bit and hid behind Applejack who drew her attention to the Dark Knight. “Who in tarnation are you?”, she asked him while the rest of the group backed up a bit. “Oh, these are some new friends of mine, Batman, Spongebob, and Patrick. Although he was brought here unintentionally.” Rainbow Dash said, “cool”, right up in Batman’s face. “So what do you look like underneath that mask.” She tried to take it off only to get slapped as she let out an “Ow”. “My real identity isn’t your concern!” “Alright, I was just curious.” Tina hovered around them for a bit and commented on how odd they were. She then questioned Twilight on what happened. They decided to go inside the Hideout as Twilight told the group everything that happened from the pieces ability to open Vortexes, to her arrival at Gotham, to her meet up with Spongebob, to her reunion. It took a good seven minutes to tell the whole thing. “Fascinating”, said Tina after she just heard the whole story. “So the piece itself led you here.” “And I believe that it’s most likely at the temple, where Zae and his new allies are at.” “And that’s where they’re keeping my Gare-Bear.” Spongebob sniffled a bit after he finished that statement. Fluttershy comforted him as she was sad about what happened to his pet. “But don’t worry, because I’m sure that with all of our skills, we can gather the other pieces before Zae does, and we can get back Gary.” “ALRIGHT”, Rainbow Dash shouted, “FINALLY, we’re gonna get into some action.” “Yes indeed, but first, do we have anything to eat?” ***Quan Chi’s Fortress*** Meanwhile, back in the NetherRealm, Quan Chi was back in his fortress, in the throne room to be specific, as he was told by Zae to get ready since he wanted him to find the next piece in EarthRealm. He knew that it wouldn’t be easy since Raiden and his allies were there to stop him with whatever plans he had, so he needed a trick up his sleeve. Sure, he had Noob Saibot, but he knew of one other person that would serve him, a specter with a good grip with Hellfire, a former member of the Shirai Ryu, Hanzo Hasashi: except he’s now known as Scorpion. He came out of a medium sized fiery tornado in the middle of the room and faced Quan Chi directly. He appeared as a muscular man who wore a yellow and black ninja outfit and had white eyes with no pupils. “What is it you want from me?” “I’m heading back to EarthRealm in search of a disk piece, I need you to eliminate the new Sub-Zero while I look for it! “I.. I can’t do that!” Quan Chi walked forward and looked at him with a bit of confusion and asked him, “Why not?”. “I made a vow to protect the new Sub-Zero. He is more honorable than his brother.” “You fall into deception so easily.” Scorpion angrily asked him what he meant by that. He chuckled a bit and followed that up with, “I’m glad you asked. Now remind me! Sub-Zero was a part of the Lin Kuei, the same clan that not only brought the downfall of the Shiria Ryu, but were also responsible for the deaths of your wife and son?” “What does this have to do with your mission?” “I’m getting there. For you see, your family did survive that massacre, but only for a short while.” Scorpion looked in shock after he heard that as Quan Chi circled around him. “And while it was the older Sub-Zero who ended your life and vice versa, guess who took the liberty of ending your families lives once they caught wind that they survived.” “WHAT?!?!” Scorpion shouted as he got down on one knee as he couldn’t believe what he just heard. “Yes, how unfortunate. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have something important to find.” Scorpion teleported right in front of him as he now accepted the task as he would truly get a chance to avenge his family. “Good, we leave as soon as I’m ready.”, Quan Chi proceed to head for his work room as Scorpion starred off into the distance with an angry face. “For Harumi, and Satoshi.” ***Sky Temple*** There was a multi-level tower that was located somewhere on EarthRealm. During a rainy night there was a man who wore a predominately white robes, a blue vest, an amulet with dragon symbol on it, and a straw hat. That man meditated despite the weather and was calm. Even when he heard footsteps he was unfazed by them, but when the source of them put their hand on his shoulder for their attention. The person in question was a muscular young man with a red and black vest that had a dragon decal, shaggy hair, a red bandana, red and black pants, spiked gauntlets around his arms, and kung fu slippers. “Lord Raiden.”, said the muscular man, “We have a visitor from another realm.” “Who is it and from where?” “I don’t know, but it’s a woman with a black hood with the night sky on it. I doubt she’s from Edenia.” “Where is she now?” “She’s healing inside of the Jinsei chamber.” Raiden worried a bit as this person was inside of the very room that was connected to EarthRealm’s life-force. Raiden and the man rushed to the chamber and spotted the girl in the center of the Jinsei as it flowed through the center of the room. She opened her eyes and didn’t know where she was or how she got here but she did manage to get out as she was fully healed at that point. “Who are you, and what business do you have here?” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcaPiiFZu2o > Chapter 4: Kombat time! Part 1 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ***Sky Temple*** “My… my name is Azriel”, she looked around for a bit but didn’t know where she was. So she faced Raiden and asked him, “Where am I exactly?” Both Raiden and the man looked at each other confused at first, since she at least remembered her name they ruled out Amnesia. The man proceeded to ask her, “Are you from EarthRealm?” “EarthRealm?”, said Azriel. She tilted her head to the left in confusion as to why he called it that. “Is that what you call this Dimension?” It was clear that she was from another Earth. Possibly a 3rd one, as she didn’t look right when compared to the heroes they met long ago. “If you cannot remember how you got here, can you at least tell us what happened before then?” “Sure, but first, can you at least introduce yourselves to me. It would be nice to know who you are.” “Very well, I am Raiden: God of Thunder.” “And I am Liu Kang: a protector of EarthRealm and current champion of Mortal Kombat.” Azriel saved her questions for later as she started off with her discovery of the Temple, followed by an unpleasant encounter with Zae, and how Tina was separated from her. ***Temple of Creation*** (2 days ago) “HEY! Let go of that book you son of a bi..”, Before she could finish her sentence, Zae shot some tar directly at her mouth, which left her gagged and couldn’t speak. He saw the page that was left opened and read it out loud before he opened a Vortex right in front of himself. Before he walked in, he looked back at Azriel and gave off a villainous glare. “I will find your little friend, and I will get my pieces back, even if I have to make universes collide.” With her spell book now in his cloak, he walked straight into the Vortex on his new mission to find the scattered pieces and eventually learn the secrets of the middle piece, which was the only one he didn’t have. Azriel was all alone and trapped. The tar that Zae shot was a special kind, one that magic users like her have struggled to break free from, especially if they didn’t know how to burst. Lucky for Azy, she knew the spell but she needed to wait bit as it requires a huge amount of magic built up, it took a while since she used so much of it during the fight. While Azriel waited she thought of how she could defeat Zae, for she was afraid that her skills might not be enough. However, she remembered her previous encounter, and how she nearly sealed him away. Since she couldn’t do much else right now Azy eventually dozed off. (6 hours later) Azy woke up at the sound of footsteps and saw that it was Zae and a guy that she didn’t know about. “So, this is the girl that gave you so much trouble?” “Yes, and her little friend will get what’s coming to her.” She looked at him with anger after what he just said. She had her magic built up faster when she went to sleep and now, her eyes glowed as she was able to burst it out, which not only knocked those two creepy guys back but it shredded the tar into pieces. Zae tried to shoot her down with his tar cannon but she released smoke from her hands which helped at first. Quan Chi saw through it and blasted a flaming skull at her which knocked her back a bit, but also hit Zae who just so happened to be next to her. “Wow, what an interesting artifact, where have I seen this before?” Zae gazed at her and noticed she held a capsule which contained a scroll, one that he held onto. “You lousy piece of filth!?!?” Shouted Zae as he ran at her with a sword for a left hand but didn’t get her as she pulled her eyelid, stuck her tongue out, and opened a vortex underneath her. He didn’t get her in time. “NO!!!!!” Zae was angry, like, really angry, to the point where he sounded like a beast. Quan Chi brushed it off as normal for him and asked, “What exactly was in that scroll?” ***NetherRealm*** She hoped out of a Vortex and she landed on a cliffside that led down to a giant lava river. She gulped before she looked up and saw nothing but a giant wasteland. “That was almost too easy.” She said to herself as she took out the scroll which held info for an artifact known as the Platinum Prism. This was one of the very few places to find one and it wasn’t easy. The NetherRealm could drain magic for users who stayed in there for too long, it could even cause some to go insane if they stayed in there long enough. She walked forward for hours and made sure to avoid any holes she might’ve fallen into, but she had to set a budget to how she used her magic since it was slowly draining in this realm, and not in the normal way, it would drain even when she hadn’t used it for an hour. It took a total of two hours, but she finally found it. Except it was down a cliff, on a small piece of land surrounded by lava, and it had a forcefield around it that glowed really bright. She felt that it gave off a strong presence even if she was a good distance away from it. Azriel snapped her fingers and was able to float down. She landed safely on the rock. She then reached into her cloak and got out the white key that she still had. The young sorceress was about to unlock the force field, but then, she was suddenly ambushed by a swarm seven of winged onis that tried to take a bite out of her. She dodged the first few strikes but one of them slashed her right eye which caused her to drop the key, and it would’ve fell in the lava if Azy didn’t catch it in time. One of the flying beast grabbed her by both arms and was whisked away. She had to use magic at this point, and so she did. When the other six oni’s approached their meal Azriel put the key back in her pocketthen she shot lightning out of her fingers, which fried the brains of her winged captors, and they all fell down. She floated downwards but wasn’t in the clear, as other demons heard the commotion and they all wanted to sink their teeth into her flesh. The Platinum Prism would have to wait as she had to fight through the entire horde and hope that she’d have enough magic left to create a vortex back to her world. A faceless brute lunged at her from behind, but she anticipated this and rolled out of the way and casted a fireball onto it. Two more approached her from behind, but she was swift and practically danced around their claw swipes, even if her right her was damaged. Just as more cam at her she sprayed smoke from the palm of her hands and jumped onto one of their heads. While in the air Azriel casted an ice spell that froze those beneath her, but before she could shatter them another winged one grabbed her while she was in the air. It held her tight with both arms and attempted to bite her head off, however, instead of a juicy human head, its mouth was filled with a ball of fire that melted its head from the inside out. Azy fell, but couldn’t float down, as her powers were being drained rather quickly. It didn’t matter how much she used her powers in the NetherRealm, so long as she was there, the place itself drained them. On her way down, she slammed onto a rockslide and rolled on the crusty floor like a rag doll. As she came to a stop though, she screamed as she felt a small pointy object pierce itself through her chest, it was a black spike with a red tip at the end, although she barely caught a glimpse as it decided to enter itself into her body as if it wanted to go in. She managed to get back on her feet but was completely surrounded. She held her right arm in agony as it was injured due to her fall. The horde began to dog pile her as the ones who got in first proceeded to bite into her. Azriel thought it she was done for, but something unexpected happened. Simultaneously, the demons were shocked by something, none of them were able to move. They were each covered in an aura type energy. The entire horde was lifted into the air and made into a ball, finally, the giant demon ball was tossed aside, leaving only Azy, who was barely alive, and this supposed figure who saved her life. Azriel gazed at her savior as it floated down to make sure she was okay. It appeared as a male anthropomorphic animal with gray quills, a white fluff of fur around his neck, five spines on his head, white gloves, cyan + black + white boots, and golden eyes that starred right at her. It spoke to her with a wimpy yet confident voice as it ran toward her. “Hang on Azriel, I’ll get you out of here.” “Wh.. who”, She coughed up some blood before she continued her question. “Who exactly are you?” “That doesn’t matter.”, He picked her up and held her with both of his arms as he levitated off the ground and flew away with her. “What matters is that I get us out of here and patch you up.” He flew faster and faster all while Azy asked him to slow down a bit but he denied her request. “I’m sorry, but I need to do this as fast as I can. I can’t risk having her know I was here.” “Wait, who’s…” her eyes shut as her consciousness slipped away which had the stranger worried. ***Sky Temple*** (Present day) “And when I woke up, I was here, and that’s when I met you guys.” With her story rapped up, Raiden asked her about, “This Zae character, is he really as dangerous as you described?” “Indeed, he’ll stop at nothing until he gets what he wants and is willing to kill anyone who stands in his way.” “Lord Raiden, what if this guy were to come to EarthRealm?” “Unless there’s a disk piece here he would have no reason to.” Azriel walked past them and headed straight for the door at the end of the hallway. She jumped back a bit when Raiden teleported right in front of her with his arms folded. He firmly stood there and asked her, “You’re not seriously planning to go back into the NetherRealm, are you?” “You don’t understand. That Prism is the only thing that can stop him, I should know since I tried it.” “What do you mean?”, Raiden asked her. “Well…” Her explanation was suspended when they all heard the door as it was slammed open by a monk dressed in orange who ran towards them with urgency. “Lord Raiden, bad news. The academy, it’s under attack.” “Again?”, Liu asked the monk. “Then there’s no time to waste.”, Raiden stated as he rose his left hand and a bolt of lightning came through and the three of them were transported to the Wu Chi Academy while the monk was left alone. ***Wu Shi Academy*** The three heroes were now on a rooftop in the Wu Chi Academy and saw the invaders from a distance. There was a giant vortex near the entrance and a ton of Tarkatans ran out of it. There were already a few in the academy and they were all being led by one in particular that had black armor, black shoulder pads, black pants, and a red belt. Many Shaolin warriors have already fallen in battle, but Liu leaped into action to help his fellows bros out, Raiden simply teleported, and Azriel decided to help out before she went back to the NetherRealm. ***Azriel’s old hideout*** Twilight finished up her last apple, she was thankful that Applejack had found some for not just her but for the whole group as well. Although Spongebob had to prevent his fat pink friend from eating them all. Tina, after giving it much thought, decided to go against Azriel’s note and not wait for her, especially since the situation began to be more dire. They all talked at the table about what they should do next. R.D. suggested they should head straight for Zae right now, but Twilight forbid it since they all know what he’s capable of as well as the fact that he now has an army at his disposal. “Oh come on Twilight, you saw me and Tina take him on” “No, I was busy fighting that other guy, remember?” SpongeBob raised his left hand to get their attention but was unsuccessful as Rainbow Dash told Tina to back her up. “We did, but it definitely wasn’t easy. But I agree with Twilight.” “Seriously?!?!” “Um guys- eh I mean girls, I..” “I’m just sayin, we took down Chrysalis and the Storm King’s armies, so why don’t we do the same for Zae’s?” Applejack reminded Rainbow that, “It was actually just the Storm King’s army we took down, Chrysalis had us captured, remember?” “Yeah, that definitely wasn’t our proudest moment” Batman asked them, “You didn’t kill any of them, did you?” “No, of course not.” Everyone at the table went silent except SpongeBob who was cut off by Spike, “Except for King Sombra, then again we didn’t know that it.. would..”, he figured it would be a good idea to stop talking. “At least it wasn’t intentional.” “Of course not Batman, we would never do something like that”, said Twilight. SpongeBob had his hand raised for so long it literally fell off. He unintentionally freaked out Fluttershy, who was sitting next to him, but don’t worry for it grew back instantly. Her little panic made her flutter in the air and it got everybody’s attention. “Oh, um..”, she quietly sat back down, “I believe someone SpongeBob has something to say.” “Right. So, since we know that Zae is building an army with people that are from other dimensions, I figured why not build one of our own?” Tina, Twilight, and Batman pondered his idea and came to the conclusion, “It just might work.” “Then it’s settled than”, Tina said confidently, “I think we should split up into groups and find new recruitment and obtain a new piece of the disk.” “I beg your pardon Tina”, said Applejack, “but how exactly can each of us track down a piece before they do, especially since we only have one piece.” “That’s simple, or rather not since it is a more advanced spell. Hand me the piece Twi!” Once the piece levitated in front of Tina she encapsulated it inside of a blue bubble. She harnessed her energy and performed the spell. The bubble split into three, they simultaneously popped and their one disk piece was split into three. The duplication spell was a success, and now they could have three separate teams. She explained that, “These two aren’t as powerful as the first and they will poof if you aren’t careful.” Now that problem was out of the way, they all decided on who should go with who. Spike had his eyes set on the gorgeous Rarity while Tina wanted to have Twilight by her side (seeing how magic’s her special talent), Batman and SpongeBob stuck with Twilight since she’s the reason they’re here, Rainbow Dash went with Applejack because nopony else could keep up with them, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie went with Team Rarity to back them up, and Patrick went with Rainbow simply because the other teams were full. Twilight didn’t need to give a motivational speech this time since everyone was already motivated for their new game plan. They all headed out the front door and they each got their pieces out, Twilight’s team in particular had the real one. Twilight noticed a tear shed down Spike’s eye as she went over to wipe it of, he returned the favor with a hug. She assured him that she’ll return safely despite not knowing where they’re about to go. This almost made Batman shed a tear, almost. The teams grouped up together as they were ready to head out. Team Rarity were up first. “Now, if I remember correctly, all I have to say is find and the vortex will appear?”, she unknowingly had the piece aimed at a tree so when it shot the beam and created the vortex it sucked the tree in. “Oopsie”, she trotted through the spinning circle alongside Spike, Pinkie Pie, and Fluttershy. Team Rainbow was next, Applejack aimed for a clear area and said, “find”, while the piece was in her mouth. They went in no problem, which left Team Twilight last. She also aimed for the clear space and one by one, they all went through, the hideout was left empty once again. ***Wu Shi Academy*** Meanwhile, back at the academy, the battle continued on as the Tarkatans had the upper hand. Liu Kang launched a fire ball at one of them and kicked another one that tried to strike him from behind. He blocked an attack from a third one that approached him from the right and he sweep kicked the solider as he blocked another attack from behind. He followed it up with a series of jabs and ended it with an uppercut. One of them actually managed to hit Liu Kang in the jaw but he shook it off like it was nothing. Liu performed a cartwheel that struck his opponent three times in the head and followed it up with an uppercut that launched the beast into the air. He heard a monk that called out for his help and ran towards him just as the Tarkatan from earlier landed face first on the ground. He found the old monk stuck under some rubble. As Liu lifted a few rocks and building parts another Tarkatan jumped in the air and tried to strike him with a sneak attack. Liu looked around when he heard the sound of the beast as it got sliced in half by a flying razor sharp hat. Just as the hat landed on the ground, a man teleported from under it and the hat was now on his head. This man had black boots, blue and red armor, tan pants, black hair with a pony tail, and black gauntlets. “Good timing as always, Kung Lao.”, said Liu as Kung Lao helped him free the monk. “Thank you.”, said the old monk as he walked away and found somewhere to hide since he was injured. They both heard a scream from a distance as they both looked towards the wall above and witnessed as many monks tried to take on the leader of the Tarkatan horde only for them to get sliced and diced. The two Shaolin warriors both decided to take him on together but not before Liu told Kung Lao, “I would race you, but you’re just gonna teleport over there anyways.” “*pffttp*, Me, cheat? No way.” “Well then, let’s get to it!.” Said Liu as he ran towards the leader as Kung Lao whispered, “shoot” to himself as he hoped to beat him to it but decided to play fair and ran alongside his best friend. High above the ground, a vortex opened up with Twilight and Tina as the first two to come out of it. After they quickly realized that she wasn’t on the ground, Twilight and Tina managed to stay airborne with the help of their wings. Batman came out next and Twi was about to catch him but he spread his cape out and glided down to safety. But then along came SpongeBob as the last member of Team Twilight who spun out of control while he fell down. Tina looked back at Twilight and asked her, “Umm… should we catch him?”, with a worried look on her face, only for her to reply , “He’s a sponge, he’ll be alright.”, with a playful grin on her face. Liu Kang and Kung Lao eventually got up to the stone wall and were face to face with the leader of the Tarkatan horde. “Baraka”, they said simultaneously. Baraka looked behind himself and saw the two Shaolin warriors who were both in an awesome fighting pose back to back with each other (Liu held his faming fist out while Kung held onto his hat with his left hand) and were ready to take him on together. He proceeded to speak to them in a creepy voice despite the fact that his teeth were so huge, all while two huge blades came from his arms. “I’ll take you both on and once I’m done my people will feast on your flesh in victory of Outwo…” His monologue was interrupted by SpongeBob who crashed into him and they both fell off of the wall and through a rooftop of the nearest building. The two warriors both looked back at each other as they were understandably confused about what just happened. SpongeBob recovered from dizziness as he looked around and saw that he was inside of a Chinese looking house with a big hole in the roof. He looked underneath him and found Baraka who gazed upon him with anger. “Nosferatu? What are you doing here?” “Was that an insult you little yellow… whatever you are?”, asked Baraka as not only was SpongeBob pushed off of his back, but he got his blades out and sliced the poor sea sponge in half. He looked over him but jumped back a little when SpongeBob opened his eyes and asked, “Oh right, different world.” Liu Kang jumped through the roof and threw a fire, in the shape of a dragon, directly at Baraka which sent him flying through the wall and crash landed on the ground. He turned around and told the yellow stranger, “Fear not, for I am Liu Kang! Are you okay?” SpongeBob answered both question while both halves jumped up and slammed into each other from the sides that were incomplete. He was whole once more. “I am not okay, for I am SpongeBob Squarepants.” Liu Kang was amused at his remark but turned around as he heard the sound of growling from behind as Baraka climbed back up to challenge him. Liu stood in a fighting stance while SpongeBob got on his red karate gloves and horizontal helmet as they stood side by side. Baraka shot a spark at him only for Liu to block it, what he didn’t expect however was to get charged and tackle so hard by the Tarkatan general that they both created a hole through the building they were in and crashed down on the ground. Baraka had pinned on the ground with both blades at his throat. He was about to slit it open but SpongeBob flew in and kicked him at the back of his head and he was knocked off of Liu. Baraka charged and swung his left blade at SpongeBob bit he dodged it. Then he swung at him with his right arm only to have missed again. Furious, he attempted to strike SpongeBob in the face, but the little square dude blocked it with his hands. The Sponge saw an opportunity and swept his right foot which tripped over Baraka. He jumped up on his feet and attempted to sweep kick SpongeBob, but he missed as his opponent performed a backflip and landed a few feet away from him. Baraka shot a spark at the yellow one only for him to duck and Liu Kang shot the Tarkatan leader in the back with a fireball. He swiped at Liu with his left blade only for him to dodge, then his right blade but missed, and then Liu punched him on the right side on his face which sent him tumbling. He got back up and saw both the Shaolin warrior and the absorbent yellow one in their respective fighting stances as they starred him down, Liu Kang in particular had a flaming right fist. He looked at both of them and said, “You can both take me on, but you won’t take me down.”, as he leaped in the air and attempted to slash at them both. Meanwhile, back at the wall, Kung Lao noticed two beings in the air. They were both trying to fend off the academy with their magic skills, but they made sure not to kill any of their enemies. He teleported right in front of the two strangers to try and greet them only to have alerted them. He assured them that he’s on their side. Twilight, Tina, and Kung Lao all introduced themselves to each other. Tina was going to ask if he’d seen Azriel around here but figured she would save it for later as they didn’t have time for questions. At the same time that was happening, Raiden and Azriel were back to back to each other and had their hands out towards their enemies as they were surrounded as they stood in the center of the Lei Tai platform that was being held by five statues with ropes. One of them charged towards the Thunder God but Raiden grabbed the Tarkatan by the jaw and filled his head up with so much electricity that his eyeballs popped out of their sockets, and his head exploded soon after. Batman stood on the roof of a nearby Monastery as he watched everyone else fighting. He would join in except he didn’t like Raiden’s method of dealing with enemies. He took note of the girl besides him and how she had a striking resemblance to Tina’s description of her lost friend. Just then, he heard two sharp objects flew at his face although he was quick enough to avoid them both. He gazed towards the source of the weapons but saw a masked woman in pink and black who charged at him with her Sia’s that were suddenly back. She savagely swiped at his chest, hoping to spill open his intestines, but Batman dodged each of her attacks until he was at the edge of the roof. Just when she came in for the killing blow, he did a graceful backflip off of the rooftop, ripped out his grapple gun, swung to the other side, and he stuck the landing. Mileena rolled herself into a ball then proceeded to roll really fast which knocked Batsy onto his back. She went for the kick from above but it backfired when Batman grabbed her leg and threw her off of the building, where the fight continued on. During the middle of the fight, Azy noticed the Batman and Mileena as she couldn’t tell who was on the side of light. Raiden took note of her distraction and decided to intervene as he shot Mileena with lightning all while he flew towards them. Batman was furious as Raiden could’ve killed her. Even though she was trying to kill him he had no intentions to do the same to her. “Look! I don’t care who you are, but I had the situation under control” “Normally I’d expect gratitude, but seeing how our last encounter went, I can understand.” Batman looked confused after that statement. He had never met this strange man before yet he acts like they’ve already met. Batman asked two obvious questions about the thunder wonder. “I am Raiden: God of Thunder, and I don’t blame you for not remembering me. It’s been a long time since Dark Kahn was defeated. Unless…” They noticed Shang Tsung as he teleported Mileena and whatever soldiers that were in that area out of there. Not only that, but Batman noticed that Azriel was gone as well. Raiden knew that she was going to get herself killed if she were to try and get that prism. He went off to find Liu Kang as Batman followed him. Liu avoided Baraka with a backflip as he swung his blade hands at him. SpongeBob leaped high and attempted to smack his opponent on the head only to get kicked as Baraka knew of his sneak attack due to the fact that he screamed, “HI-YAH”. He turned back around and blocked the fury of punches that Liu Kang had for him, all while he got pushed back a bit with each flamming punch. Baraka averted each of them and took a bite out of Liu’s right arm. He tried so hard to rip it off but the warrior kicked him away and held his arm in pain. “Oh gosh”, Spongebob shouted as he rushed over to his new ally and asked him if he was okay. Liu assured his new the yellow square that he’s fine, with Baraka charging at them once more. Spongebob leaped at him head first and rammed into him right in the stomach, in which the impact with his karate helmet and Baraka’s chest caused the general’s ribs to crack. Baraka roared out in pain as he held his chest and stumbled backwards. SpongeBob landed on his feet then glanced back at Liu as they both ran up to Baraka and simultaneously uppercutted the outworld monster, left hand with Liu and right hand from SpongeBob. He was sent flying in the air with his jaw distorted and a few pointy teeth missing. Not Nosferatu crash landed face first in the dirt a few feet away from the two heroes that kicked his butt. Kung Lao, alongside Tina and Twilight, appeared right behind him as he was concerned about Liu Kang. “Are you okay Liu?” “*Grunts*, I’m fine. But I could use Raiden right about now.” “Same here, but can you tell me who or what Raiden is?” But before his question could be answered, Shang Tsung teleported near the general and not only helped him out, but he also informed him that, “The piece is nowhere here, we must fall back!”, he proceeded to use the same trick that he did earlier to get whatever Tarkatan that were alive back to the temple alongside himself. “So, Shang Tsung was responsible for this! *Groans*” Raiden shouted, “LIU KANG”, as he was concerned for him. Liu held his arm out to Raiden, who knew what he must do, as the thunder god used his electricity to heal Liu’s arm. The main quartet were impressed, especially Twilight who exclaimed, “WOW, I’ve never seen electricity used like that before.”, Liu and Lao took note of Batman but sensed that there was something different about him. He came to the conclusion that he was a different Batman from the one he fought. Raiden knew who Batman was but he had no clue about the other strangers. So he asked them who they were and what their business was in EarthRealm. “I’m SpongeBob SquarePants, nice to meet you.” “I’m Twilight Sparkle, the Princess of Friendship.” “And my name’s Tina. We’re here to look for these disk pieces-” “For the Dimensional Disk?”, Raiden asked. “W-WHAT”, Tina stuttered, “How do you know?” “Azriel had informed me-“ “AZRIEL???? Where is she?” “I was getting to that!”, She calmed down and proceeded to listen while Raiden had his arms crossed like a badass. “As I’ve stated, Azriel informed me of the Dimensional Disk, and that this Zae character wants to use it for his own malicious ends.” Tina gazed around the area. She looked up, down, and all around, but her lost friend was nowhere in sight. If only she knew earlier. But it wasn’t the time to get teary eyes, she had a mission, and she needed to stick with it. Twilight ensured her that there’s still a chance they could run into her during their travels, which cheered up the sad floating doll. Twilight showed off their only disk piece to her new allies and asked them where they could find any. She figured that Raiden could help them since he’s a god and was the most familiar with this new world, when in reality, he didn’t know where it was. I mean, he just learned about their existence today. He thought of a plan though, and decided to put it in action. “Truth be told, I don’t know the exact location of these disk pieces”, Tina had a long face, “but I could give you suggestions on where to look.”, Her face lit up with joy. The thunder god name dropped a few key locations such as Deacon City, Yin Yang island, and even the Lin Kuei Palace. Tina heard someone whisper in her head, it suggested which place for her to pick. “Who said that?!!”, she asked, but no one knew what she was talking about. Even though she didn’t know who or what that voice was, she decided to go with its advice and chose the Lin Kuei Palace. “Very well then, I can transport you there at once.” “Wait!”, Liu Kang demanded as he requested to join them, which they accepted, Kung Lao insisted to stay to make sure his Shaolin brothers were alright, and Raiden gave the team good luck, as they were gonna need it. They said farewell to Kung Lao as the thunder god threw his right arm into the air and the six of them vanished within a flash of lightning. ***Lin Kuei Temple*** In the Ice cold mountains of the frozen arctic, there rest a palace that is the home of the Lin Kuei clan of assassins. Raiden and the gang appeared right in front of an intimidating statue of the old grandmaster sitting down and held fire in the palm of its stone hands, not to mention there was a huge stone circle behind it. It was constantly snowing and definitely not an ideal place for a certain someone in square pants. Before Raiden left them he was asked by Liu where he was going. “I need more information on this Dimensional Disk, and I hope the Elder Gods can provide it.” They both wished each other the best in their endeavors as Raiden left them in the snowy arctic. While they were at that spot they took note of their surroundings. There was the grandmaster statue as mentioned earlier, two coffins stood on each side, behind it all was a huge cliffside that had a nice view of the palace itself, and to the left was the entrance to it. The palace itself looked like a Chinese palace with the entrance being a door with two dragon statues at each side. To the right side was the only tree in sight. As expected, the little Yellow Sea sponge constantly shivered in this harsh environment, if only he knew to bring thicker clothes. Liu was about to lead them inside when suddenly, Batman noticed someone who snuck up behind them. A blue ninja, who firmly grasped his katana, had intended for a sneak attack but Batman wasn’t about to have that. Before they knew it, they were surrounded by eight of them, each of them almost identical. The group was back to back as each of them were in their fighting stances: Twilight puffed up her chest all while she spread her wings her horn glowed, Batman held his arms out where the fins were facing the ninjas, Tina had her stubby hands in the formation of a circle as she was ready to cast an elemental ball, SpongeBob had his karate gear on and got in the traditional stance, and Liu Kang was in his usual Shaolin stance. They were all ready to fight, but…” Stand down!”, someone shouted from somewhere and they proceeded to do just that without question as they knew who spoke to them, and so did Liu Kang. The voice came from the roof where it was their grandmaster who spoke. A man dressed garbed ninja-like uniform, some silver shoulder armor, a gorgeous black beard, some hair on his head, and a red scar that ran down the left side of his face. He jumped off and landed right in front of the group and greeted Liu. “Greetings Liu Kang”, the stranger said as they shook hands. “Greeting to you too Sub-Zero” They could tell that he was a respected warrior. The grandmaster couldn’t help but notice the odd group that accompanied Liu. He did recognize Batman though, just like Liu and Raiden, he met up with the caped crusader a while back, or rather his counterpart. “I have heard of you Batman, but who are the rest of your comrades?” “I-I’m *shivers* SpongeBob Squarepants”. “My name’s Tina, pleased to meet you”, she waved awkwardly as she wasn’t the best in greeting new people. “And my name is Twilight Sparkle.” “Hang on”, Batman requested to know how, so far, everyone in this realm seemed to know who he is. Sub told them to follow him inside the Temple and he’ll explain to Batman what he wanted to know. One by one, the group went inside the Temple after the grandmaster, but little did they know however, that there was someone that lurked inside of the tree behind them, someone who had a burning desire for vengeance. Inside of the temple, they all walked down several hallways all while Batman’s question from earlier had been answered. “About a year ago, our realms merged together, or rather a different version of your realm, because of an entity known as DarkKahn. He was fueled by rage and made everyone fight to tear the realms apart. His terror wouldn’t last long however, as he was defeated by Raiden and Superman.” “So it wasn’t me, but rather, another Batman.” “Sounds cool”, said the sea sponge who was no longer shivering, “I wonder what it must be like to meet yourself.”, Twilight glanced back with a bead of sweat, like in an anime as she knew what it was like all too well. Liu informed Grandmaster blueberry ice that DarkKahn hasn’t returned and there is a bigger crisis that needs to be stoped. Tina told him about their quest for the disk pieces and had the idea to come here. “Out of all the places in EarthRealm, why come here exactly?” Tina didn’t have a convincing response, as she didn’t want to say, “there was a voice in my head”, for obvious reasons. But no matter, as Sub-Zero knew what they were seeking. They arrived in the Grandmasters chamber for some tea on a small table in the middle of the room. Even though he wasn’t expecting guest, he already had some tea ready before their arrival. But just then, a side of the roof was blasted with fire, which left a huge hole that leaked the snow cold air inside. The group was left on edge as the attacker revealed himself in the hole, it was none other than, “Scorpion?” “You traitor, and here I thought your clan had honor.” “What are you talking about?” *tilts head* “Don’t think you can trick me again” SpongeBob was both upset at the destroyed tea and frightened at the angry fire ninja. Everyone else didn’t know what he was talking about but were willing to help Sub-Zero out, but he blocked them off and asked them to, “leave, it is me he wants to fight.” Liu, in respect to his demand, ran exactly where they entered the chamber, with the others shortly after. The two warriors starred at each other, as they knew what was about to go down. Once rivals then allies now rivals again are about to fight each other, and only one of them will make it out of this encounter. Scorps made the first move as he threw out a chain with a kunai attached to the end of it. Sub saw it coming and created an ice pillar then proceeded to jump from it so he could punch the yellow ninja in the face, only to be denied as his opponent teleported in flames. He appeared above and slammed Sub to the floor with his feet on his back. The fight was far from over tho, Sub froze the legs of Scorpion which made him fell over to his left side. As he was honorable and didn’t want to attack his opponent while down like this, he have Hanzo the chance to get up all while he created dual ice swords with his ice powers. Scorpion drew his blades and the two assassins clashed with their blades. They swung their blades at each other, each swipe would either miss or be blocked, these two were really at each other. Sub attempted to talk it out during kombat. “Hanzo, what’s gotten into you?” But he didn’t respond, as he was blinded by Quan Chi’s deception. As their sword skills were evenly matched, He vanished in a whirl of fire which left Sub on guard, as he could appear from anywhere. Just as expected, Scorpion tried to land a flying kick, complete with hellfire around his foot, but it was evaded. Sub threw an ice ball at Scorpion which froze him in place and landed an uppercut that was strong enough to have shattered his own ice. Scorpion got back up and returned the favor as he engulfed Sub-Zero with hellfire, and it hurts like.. well.. hell. It only got worse as a kunai flew through his chest, the same one that Scorpion attempted to catch him with earlier, he pulled hard on the chain it was connected to which flew Sub closer as he was grabbed by the throat and slammed to the wall, which indeed left a small dent in it. Kuai Liang, who still believed this was a misunderstanding, tried his best to talk his way out of this battle. “H-Hanzo, did Quan Chi do somethi..” *chokes* “Quan Chi showed me the truth. You were the bastard who killed my family, and here I thought I could make peace with you and your clan. First your brother killed me, the Lin Kuei massacred my clan, and you finished off my wife and child. For that, I WILL HAVE YOUR HEAD.” “N-NO, while it’s true that my brother and my clan did those horrible things, I was not involved. In fact, I refused to join them in that massacre. Your families *hack* true killer, remains, a mystery.” Scorpion paused for a moment, he had to think if Sub was telling the truth. Was he just trying to weasel his way out of this fight or he being the truthful and honest like before? Scorpion proceeded with a question but loosened his grip a bit. “If you are not the murderer, then who..” *explosion*, Something happened that garnered their attention. Scorpion let go as Sub-Zero went off and saw what happened. The temple had been invaded by zombies, some had cones on their head, some had buckets, and all of them had brown coats with a red tie and torn up jeans, as well as shoes. The Lin Kuei have dealt with some of them but Kuai Liang still felt the need to help them out. Scorpion was left to ponder. If Sub-Zero isn’t responsible, then who was it. It became obvious to him as he thought of the most obvious person that had pulled the strings on him, Quan Chi. You could probably imagine how angry he was at that point. Around that time, Twilight and the gang noticed that the zombies came in and wanted to feast on their brainz. They had to fight their way through it, and so they did. Quan Chi walked through the hallways and sited each room, searching for the piece, all while he held his hands behind his back. Both Scorpion and the zombie army merely served as a diversion. Unexpectedly, he crossed paths with the team of five as they figured he was behind this, even though Batman and SpongeBob had never met him before Twilight and Tina told them about the mad sorcerer during their recap. Liu Kang was the most familiar with him, as he heard the story of how him and Shinnok were defeated by the older Sub-Zero. “So, you must be Quan Chi.” “You know him too?”, Liu asked SpongeBob. “Sort of, Twilight and Tina had met him.” With a grin upon his face, Quan Chi swayed his right hand that started to glowed green which created green portals, not vortexes, underneath their feet and swallowed them, except for Tina because she was flying and Twilight because he still had plans for her. They all panicked but couldn’t do anything about that as it happened so fast. They simultaneously shouted, “NO”, as their friends had vanished. “What have you done to them?” “I just needed them out of the way while I negotiate with you, princess.” “Well whatever it is I won’t oblige.” “Oh please, you have yet to hear my offer.”, With the snap of his fingers, Noob was summoned to battle. Noob was ordered to, “pin her down”, he got his hook out of his chest and swiped away, as attempted to severely harm Twilight but not kill her. Twilight backed up as she used her wings to gain height and blocked each of his swipes with her tails, which was okay since she used magic to armor it, which made aa a quick and effective shield. Tina tried to help but Quan Chi snatched her and used his thumb to cover the doll’s mouth. The blocking continued until she saw the opportunity and shot the shadow ninja with a beam of magic. He was shot, but the second shot missed as he split in two with Saibot by his side now. Saibot attacked her from behind while Noob went at her from the front, and it was working. Twilight used a bubble shield but it quickly broke down as the shadow ninjas sliced and diced it to bits. She figured that the best way to avoid them was to fly, since he seemed incapable of doing so, so she did just that, but noticed that Tina wasn’t with her, and all the zombies were defeated. Which was expected since they weren’t seen as threatening, but what was unexpected however is Noob who appeared from a black portal above her which would’ve been painful if she didn’t teleport. Once he landed she shot him in the back with an ice beam and went inside to find Tina, as she wasn’t with her at the moment. She didn’t have to worry about Saibot as he disappeared once Noob was defeated. She heard a familiar slime ball voice that had her on guard. Twilight looked behind herself and found Tina in the clutches of Quan Chi. “Looking for her?” Twilight wanted to fire at him, but she couldn’t as he had the advantage with Tina being held hostage. She had to talk her way through him which wouldn’t work. Even though she was the princess of friendship, Twilight wasn’t always able to have her enemies reform. If anything, she mostly had to fight her way through them. But now she had to stand alone, as her friends were elsewhere. So now, with a stern tone in her voice, she gazed back at him and asked what he wanted from her. “Nothing more than my master’s freedom from the NetherRealm.” “And you’re afraid that Zae won’t uphold his deal.” Quan Chi had a smile across his face as she knew what he was about to offer. “That is correct. For clearly no one who obtains that power would ever share it. Our deals wouldn’t matter if he decides to reshape the multiverse. That is why I formed my own plan behind his back. While I’m here, Shang Tsung is convincing the other recruits to join in, we will strike right before the disk is complete.” “Why are you telling me this?”, said Twilight as she was getting more concerned about Tina and what this had to do with her. “Well it’s very simple. I of course will use said power to free Shinnok and he’ll destroy those fools who were so desperate for their goals. As if he would help them rule the world or steal the recipe for a sandwich. All of his enemies will be wiped out as well, all except you, my little pony.” “W-what?”, Both Tina and Twilight were confused at first. The guy who tried to kill them earlier now wanted her to be by his side. She of course thought he was crazy. “Why would I ever help someone like you?”, Twilight replied angrily. “Why wouldn’t you? Your magic is extraordinary, it’s unlike anything I’ve seen before, and yet, you waste them on those foolish heroes. I could’ve just killed you right now and force you to serve me, but I’m giving you the choice to rule by my masters side.” “That won’t matter, even if I join you willingly you’ll just brainwash me afterwards.” “*Deep chuckle*, clever girl” Scorpion walked down the hall as he thought of who could’ve actually killed his family. He had a few suspects but no way to link them to it, there was just something missing. He stopped once he noticed Quan Chi talking to someone and decided to listen in. Since she wasn’t going to come with him willingly, Quan Chi snapped his finger and had her in a trance, or so he thought. It appears that alicorns have an immunity to mind manipulation. Frustrated, he decided to just kill her instead, but not before he left Tina in bad hands, that being floating skeleton hands. As the sorcerer and princess stood off Tina could do nothing but watch and ponder what happened to her other new friends.