Sunrise groaned as he slowly came to, wincing as his head throbbed slightly. The last thing the pegasus remembered was charging at the head of his troops into the battle, then everything after that was blank. He opened his eyes, squinting as the light blinded him, and he waited for his eyes to adjust.
"Oh good, you're awake! Finally..." Red's voice remarked cheerfully, but sounding a bit off. He was off to Sunrise's right and seemed to be tinkering with some machinery from the sound of it.
"Wha... what happened?" Sunrise asked, turning his head to look towards Red. "How long was I out...?"
"Two weeks," the hedgehog said bluntly, as he stuck two metal components together into some kind of metallic pony foreleg. "You lost a lot of blood and you had a concussion too. But that was only part of the reason you were out that long..." Red sighed as he stopped working on the metal pony leg. "Your injuries were so severe in some areas, I was forced to amputate one of your wings and one of your legs."
"WHAT!?" Sunrise shrieked, his eyes widening. "How am I supposed to fight?! Or fly!? Or do any of my normal day-to-day stuff!?"
"Calm down," Red said abruptly. "I've got that all figured out. If you look to them now... you'll see that you've gotten a bit of an upgrade. But don't move them just yet."
Sunrise blinked, confused, before he cautiously glanced down, his eyes widening as he saw that in place of his right front leg there was a metal one.
"How... how did you do this?" He asked, and there was a slight chuckle as Chris walked in, not wearing his suit for once.
"Let's just say, Red didn't do it alone." The human said. "I helped out a lot."
"And I got one for the wing too!" Red added. Sunrise glanced at his side and noticed the metal wing, before a large smile stretched across his face.
"Thank you both... when can I get back into action?" He asked, and Chris glanced at Red as he tapped something on his watch.
"What do you think Red? Should I activate the nervous pairing?" the human asked.
"Almost," Red told him as he brought up a holoscreen. "Just need to make a quick checkup and see that it's working." He fiddled around with the holoscreen for a bit, then smiled in satisfaction. "Neural interface is online and stable. We can start testing it now."
"Alright," Chris said as he started tapping stuff on his watch screen, before frowning as he grunted and swiped upwards, causing a holographic screen bank to appear in the air in front of him as he started tapping various icons and moving levels of something.
"Okay, I'm giving the leg 20% of maximum power to begin with, and the wing a power level equal to what his normal wing would produce." The human said. "Red, how much force will he produce with a punch with that amount of power to it?"
"Well, with the amount of work I put into it including upgrades and such... I'd say it is safe to assume that he could crack one's ribs and cause some internal bleeding with that leg," Red stated. "But let's take it slow first, okay? The tricky part about my neural interfaces is that sometimes it doesn't detect a problem in the interface until a few moments after it's occurred. By going slow, I can spot it much sooner and fix it before any problems occur."
"I'd like that." Sunrise said, his face paling a bit.
"Understood Red, but I may have given Gideon a foothold into the operating system in order to trace any potential problems," Chris said a he tapped an earpiece in his ear that had a glowing blue led on it. "If he detects anything, he'll alert me to it in real time. But for the sake of Sunrise's safety, I'll dial it down to 5%." The human tapped a level indicator and dragged it downwards. "Okay, want to give him something to punch Red? And not yourself. I don't care if you have a healing factor."
"How about this? It's something I did with... Cindy," Red suggested, his tone noticeably turning solemn upon mentioning the AI before perking up as if nothing had happened and pressed another button on the holoscreen. A human hologram figure appeared in the room and Red chuckled. "It's what you might call a 'solid' hologram image. Using the electrical discharge between atoms that caused solid objects to feel solid, it basically created enough of the said energy to make the hologram solid." He grinned. "And my advanced AI programming allows it to react accordingly to what you do to it. Go on, give it a try."
"Okay..." Sunrise said, slowly climbing off of the bed he was on and testing how his new wing reacted to his movement by opening it and closing it a few times, before letting out a grunt of satisfaction and walking up to the hologram, winding up and throwing a hard jab at the hologram with his metal right hoof. The hologram stumbled back and clutched the spot where it had been hit, making it seem very realistic. Not to mention, Sunrise's hoof had felt that it was connecting with a solid object when he had struck it; he could actually feel it as if it was a real person.
"Nice!" Red remarked as he looked at the neural interface's grid. "He seems to be stable so far. Chris, you may up the power now."
Chris nodded and moved the level indicator up, nodding in satisfaction.
"Power level increased to 25%." He said. "Sunrise, whenever you're ready."
The white pegasus nodded, flexing his metal leg for a few minutes, before lashing out again, aiming for the holograms chest this time. The hologram flew back a few feet and suddenly turned into an x-ray version of the human with red areas on the rib area.
"Ribs and chest area fractured," Red nodded. "Still stable."
"Amping up power to 50%" Chris said, increasing the power. Sunrise grinned, before racing forwards and throwing another punch. The hologram reacted somewhat the same, only this time when Red looked at the fractures, it was a huge improvement.
"Fractures throughout the entire skeleton. Internal and external bleeding would be high enough to slowly kill someone over time if he's not wearing a protective armor," the hedgehog complimented. "And we're still stable."
"Think I should take it up to full power Red?" Chris asked, his finger hovering over the level indicator as Sunrise glanced at the hedgehog as well.
Red nodded. "I'm thinking that I know for a fact what may happen if he punches it at full power, but try it anyways."
"Alright." Chris said as he tapped the screen, dragging the power to full. "When you're ready Sunrise."
Sunrise nodded, before advancing on the hologram, before suddenly lashing out, his metal hoof catching the light as it flew through the air and connected to the holograms side. As Red expected to happen, his hoof caused a large hole to appear in the hologram's image, making the hedgehog wince.
"Ladies and gents, we have achieved One Punch Man status," he commented, then had the hologram disappear. "Basically, any goon gets hit by that, they're as good as dead with a single hit." He looked to his holoscreen and smiled. "And the best part? No problems. Neural interface is stable and fully operational!"
"Yeah! Thanks, both of you." Sunrise said as he stretched his new metal wing. "You... you don't know how much this means to me... if there's anything either of you ever need, don't hesitate to ask, and I'll do my best to fulfill it."
Chris grinned. "Sun, you just needed to tell me you liked the tech." He said, before glancing at Red. "Red, a minute of your time if you may."
Red gave him a look, then said to Sunrise, "If you want to test it out some more, training simulation is down the hall, last door on the left."
He then turned his attention back to Chris. Sunrise nodded, before hurrying out.
"Look, I think I could help you rebuild Cindy," Chris said in a low voice as he tapped his watch, bringing up a holograph of a pony-shaped suit. "I was actually working on building a suit for me in my pony form, but it's still in prototype phase. I call it Project Thunder, and I've been doing some work on it ever since I came here. I think I may be able to help out, along with Gideon, so would you like my help?"
"It's not... the suit I'm concerned about..." Red replied, sniffing a bit. "It's Cindy in general. I could make an AI that shares her memories and such... but it'd only serve to tell me that she's gone. And the chip she gave me... I'm not sure yet if it's a memory chip or just the equivalent of her child." He started to cry a bit as he spoke. "You guys don't get how I feel, why every death among my friends becomes a crisis. Well, I'll tell you why... Everyone I've ever cared for has either died or left me... Everyone except my current group of friends, or what's left of them! So the reason I get so worked up over their deaths is because I'm scared of having a repeat of what happened to the ones before them!"
"You're right, I don't know how you feel," Chris began, a small smile on his face. "But I do know tech. It's possible that by using Gideon and some hacking, I may be able to reach her main computer chip and find out whether or not it's still intact."
"It's... too late for that now," Red told him. "The suit's fried and I already pulled it apart before scrapping it; there's nothing left of her to recover..." He pulled out the chip she had given him. "All I can do is test this out and see what it gives me..."
"I'll be there for you if you ever need me Red," Chris said, before he smiled. "But I still want to help out. You could use somebodies help anyways, right?"
Red sighed. "I suppose so... Follow me."
He led Chris into another room, which was obviously Red's workshop, as indicated by the alchemy lab and the clutter of machinery and the like. Red walked over to a laptop in the room and connected the chip to the laptop's drive. It started to download and while he waited, Red looked to a suit in the corner of the room. It looked similar to the pony-shaped suit she had been installed into previously, but it was largely incomplete.
"I've been working on this since her..." Red started, but found himself unable to finish.
"It's okay Red, you don't need to say it." Chris said, before he tapped his earpiece a few times. "Hey Gideon? Yeah, meet me at my current location. No, not as a suit, that'd draw to much attention. Yes, as yourself. I want to show Red the outcome of Project Delta anyways."
The human turned to Red, and with a small grin said. "You're familiar with what the Greek letter Delta means, yes?"
"I am, but let's pretend I've forgotten so you can tell the audience at home," Red answered, gesturing towards those reading this story.
Wow, first time you actually try that in this story. I feel sooo appreciated...
"Don't push it, author," Red grumbled.
"Alright. Delta symbolizes change," Chris said, before continuing. "Before I was sucked into my version of Equestria, I was a huge Marvel nerd, and that's why I built my suit. But I was also interested in another piece of tech from the second Avengers movie..." He trailed off, waiting to see if Red could guess correctly.
"Second Avengers movie? I'm afraid I haven't watched that one, to my knowledge," Red admitted. "All I can think of right now is the Iron Spider suit, the Hulk Buster, the Standard Iron Man suit, the suit for what's-his-name, and... that's really it."
"It's called the regeneration cradle." The human said, as a pony wearing a hooded cloak walked into the room. "Used by Ultron to begin creating his next generation, then the Avengers took it to try and load Jarvis into the body that was being built. And Vision was born." He gestured at the hooded pony. "I was able to create my own version of the regeneration cradle long ago, and I was able to make it compatible to any form."
"It's a pleasure to finally meet you in person Red," The pony said, their face still hidden in the shadows of their hood but their voice sounding exactly like Gideon's. Red got an impressed look.
"Oh, I think I see what you did. Very impre-" he said, but was interrupted by the computer suddenly bringing up a hologram image to stand in the room with them. When they saw who it was, Red almost couldn't believe it.
"Cindy?" he asked as the hologram smiled.
"Hello Red," she answered. "If you're listening to this... well, chances are I'm what you organics would call... dead."
"She recorded a message, just in case something like this happened..." Chris murmured as the pony beside him removed his hood, revealing the face of a dark blue unicorn that had an electric blue-colored mane. His eyes were gray, and were focused on the hologram. The hologram continued to speak.
"On this chip is something that you may consider to be... well, a younger version of myself. It's a copy of my data from when I was still relatively a new creation of yours, although I added in some more data to vaguely remember some other details, like Chuck and some of your friends. But in general, it'll be a fresh start all over again."
"It won't be the same though..." Red muttered.
"Oh, quit your moping!" the hologram suddenly scolded. "Yes, I knew you would be doing that right about now. For once sir, could you not be so negative about this?!"
Red looked stunned to hear this. Gideon chuckled.
"It appears that she's still as feisty as a holographic recording as she was when she was still a functioning AI," he said with a smile.
"I can probably integrate what's on the chip into the suit," Chris said, jerking his head towards Red's project. "Or I could possibly use the regeneration cradle to make her a real form."
Red looked up to the hologram of Cindy.
"The choice on how you rebuild me is yours alone to decide, sir," she finished. "Though... try to make it fitting for me. I personally like being a hologram or a battle suit, but outside that life... I often wish for more..."
Red lowered his head, then said to Chris, "I'll keep the suit I'm working on now... but you may make her another form with the regeneration cradle."
Chris dipped his head, before asking "What type? I have human and Equestrian programmed in currently. I could program for Mobian, but it would take time..."
"She has a hologram image of my dead first crush," Red answered. "I think she doesn't need a Mobian form."
"Ooookay, so no to Mobian... Equestrian perhaps?" Chris suggested. "That's the last thing the regeneration cradle was used for, and I've never changed its settings."
Gideon let a small grunt. "I guess I should go bring the cradle over." He said, before heading out.
"Just remember to put it in travel mode, and to bring all the equipment for it!" Chris yelled after him, before turning back to Red. "So, Equestrian or Human?"
"Equestrian. She always was interested in their species," Red remarked. Chris nodded, pulling a small, handheld device-like thing from his pocket.
"Here. You can design her looks if you'd like," he said, extending it towards Red. "I got to wait for Gideon to get here with the cradle in order to begin anyways."
"But what would I make her look like?" Red demanded. "Her hologram was an exact replica of my first crush and she's been dead for more than a hundred years back on Mobius!" He sighed. "Sometimes that alone makes me think my sanity is falling apart."
Chris raised an eyebrow.
"Buddy, I'm a freaking human being who managed to build a machine that then malfunctioned due to a lightning strike and pulled me into my Equestria, where I ended up in the body of a pegasus who is dead and then ended up marrying Princess Twilight," he said. "You're in perfectly fine company, trust me. Go with your gut on what she should look like."
Red gave him a smile when he heard that.
"Well if you put it like that..." he remarked. "Then that makes me feel better." He then looked back to the suit. "I'll just... finish up here, while you guys deal with our... reinforcements. I have a lot of thinking to do."
Chris nodded, setting the device down just as Gideon entered, handing a case to the human.
"Thanks Gideon," he said as he set the case against a wall. "See you later Red."
He tapped something on his watch, and all of a sudden armor plating started to expand out from it, until he was wearing a suit of his Iron Man armor.
"Well, looks like the Mark IV works," he said. "I'll be taking my leave now Red."
With that, he activated his thrusters and shot out of the room, leaving Gideon standing in there with Red. Red gave a chuckle, then looked to Gideon.
"Well, I guess I could use your help," he said aloud, then in a thoughtful tone, "Now... you're an AI too right? What would you like to see in an Equestrian-looking AI?"
Gideon blinked, before shrugging as he used his horn to levitate his cloak off, revealing his cutie mark of a gear over a wrench.
"To be honest, I've put some thought into that," he explained. "And technically, I'm what you'd call an android. Part AI, part technology, part living tissue. I could tell you what I think a female Equestrian android should look like, if you'd like."
"Oki doki!" Red remarked cheerfully, then with a serious tone, "But you better not have a filthy way of thinking it, or I will tear it apart again."
Gideon blinked at him, his gaze deadpan.
"In my eyes, she'd be kind, nice to everyone she met, loyal to her friends, always standing up for those who need it, and have a loving heart." He said, smiling slightly. "That's all I've put into thought on it."
"Oh... I was talking about physical appearance, but that sounds good too!" Red answered. "And luckily for you, she already has most of those personality traits. The only one she would lack would be nice to everyone she met. If she ever met someone she knew was a bad person... eh, that's when it got problematic."
"You mean like how most ponies view Nightmare Moon as someone bad, yet she's fighting on our side currently?" Gideon asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Sorta," Red shrugged. "So, any ideas on appearance? I can work out the... 'finer' details on my own."
Gideon blushed slightly and glanced away.
"No... not really..." He said, not making eye contact.
"Well, it's your girlfriend, mate!" Red teased.
"I... I guess she should be really beautiful." Gideon said slowly. "Attractive, for sure... that's all I really have."
"Attractive..." Red chuckled as he started typing something into his holoscreen. "Any color preferences?"
"Uhh... well, I do particularly like shades of red and blue..." he said, turning back to face Red
"Mhm! Eye color?"
"Pink," Gideon said right away. "I always did like that as an eye color."
"Okay... Cutie Mark will have to wait," Red muttered, then pulled up two female pony images on his screen; one with a blue coat and red mane and tail, the other vice versa. Both had pink eyes and both looked very attractive... at least by Equestrian standards.
"Looking good, Cindy 2.0," Red chuckled, then to Gideon, "I couldn't decide which one to go for in color code, so you can decide which looks better, or you can scrap this and give me a different suggestion."
Gideon was staring at the images, before shaking himself and blinking.
"I, uhh... I like the one with the blue coat and red mane and tail," he said, pointing with a hoof.
"I thought you would," Red chuckled and swiped the other image to the side. Then he asked, "Any particular style for her mane and tail? Or should she fix that? I always figured she was an 'army' kind of AI... but, I've been wrong before."
"She should fix that... if I've learned anything from Chris's friends on our Equestria, it's that a pony should do her own mane," he said, before sighing. "You can guess who told me that."
"Drama queen," Red guessed. "Yet sometimes she does not practice what she preaches." He chuckled. "Very well, I'll leave that up to her. Now... any finer details we seem to be missing?"
"Not that I can tell," Gideon said, before pointing towards the case. "I know how to operate the cradle if you want to get started."
"Fire her up," Red announced. "The other details I'll have to do alone anyways."
Gideon nodded, before he pressed a button on the case, causing an LED to flash as he backed away, and in a few seconds the case expanded into a long, metal device with a bank of computers hooked up to it.
"Okay, so, we'll need the chip," he said, nodding towards where it was. "And the physical description."
Red handed him the chip and then pressed some buttons on his holoscreen.
"Transferring description into your files now... and, viola!" he exclaimed. "Proceed when ready."
Gideon nodded, before plugging the chip into one of the computers, before tapping something on another screen and bringing up the image they had designed.
"Okay, download of chip complete," He said, before pointing to where a cylindrical tube with some sort of glowing metal lay. "Mind handing me that?"
Red handed him the tube while examining it himself.
"Pretty durable stuff there, ain't it?" he asked aloud.
"Hey, if you're friends with a Pyrunian, sometimes he manages to snag a crate of vibranium," Gideon said as he slid the tube into a hole on the machine. "Works the best for connecting everything together." The pony pressed a few more buttons, before something flashed on the screen.
"Authentication code! You bucking... I'LL GIVE YOU AN AUTHENTICATION CODE!" he yelled as he pressed his hoof against the screen, causing it to flicker before the cradle began to power up with a low hum.
"What was that?" Red asked with a laugh.
"Security feature Chris put in. I hacked the computers." Gideon explained as the cradle started to go to work, the top of it closing as parts started shooting around. "I think that if he built it to his standards, this should take roughly... three to five minutes." Gideon said, checking a screen. "Yep, five minutes. Chris never did like lengthy wait times."
"Five minutes?" Red asked with a raised eyebrow. "May I see the security? I may be able to hack the systems to work faster if you'd like."
"Eh, I can do that," Gideon said as he raised a hoof and set it on the screen, causing every monitor to flicker. The pony closed his eyes in concentration, before the sound of moving parts in the cradle suddenly accelerated to a breakneck pace, falling silent in a matter of thirty seconds.
"Done," Gideon said as he opened his eyes and lowered his hoof, looking a bit tired.
"Hmm," Red remarked, then took a look at the security systems. "This is pretty state-of-the art tech. Security is pretty high and you've got a lot of the right procedures and such." He frowned. "But in my eyes, it's still a bit too easy."
"You couldn't hack me," Gideon said with a smirk, before glancing at the cradle. "Alright, enough talk. Let's open it up."
He pressed a button on the screen, and with a hiss it began to open up. As soon as the cradle had opened up fully, a pony climbed out, taking a few steps before glancing around. Her description matched the one they had been designing for Cindy: attractive mare with a blue coat, red mane and tail, and pink eyes. She currently didn't have a Cutie Mark and her mane was styled in a simple yet attractive manner. She took a good look at her hooves- actually, she seemed surprised to have hooves period- then spoke in Cindy's voice.
"Okay, what in the thunder did you do, Red?" she demanded.
"Let's just say that it wasn't entirely Red's doing," Gideon said as he tapped a few things on a computer screen, glancing around it and grinning at Cindy. "I may have had some help in it."
Cindy, as it appeared to be, gave a quizzical look.
"Gideon?" she asked in disbelief. "Okay, someone please explain what happened?"
"You gave me a bit of a memory chip, I brought up another description for you, he brought in a thing that basically makes you an android... and, you're rebuilt now."
She didn't respond but simply looked to her hooves in amazement. She was surprisingly stable on her feet for being thrust into something like this for the first time.
"Thank Chris the next time you see him," Gideon said as he pressed something on the screen, causing the entire regeneration cradle to compact into a case again. "He's the one who built this. And yeah, I'm Gideon; the first ever android pony that Chris's invention made."
He moved the case up against a wall, before smiling at Cindy. "I must say, you're taking this rather well. I remember when Chris first made me an android... I kind of was freaking out that I had an actual physical body that wasn't just a suit for the first thirty minutes." He chuckled. "Ahh, the good old days."
Cindy finally snapped out of her stupor to reply with, "Well, the solid holograms did help a bit with the physical body thing. Though, I will admit the fact that it worked that way from the start is probably why I'm not more surprised than I should be." She examined herself and frowned. "You'll have to work on the Cutie Mark though. And I think I'm missing my-"
"Cindy, not in front of the kids!" Red interrupted.
"Oh... sorry," she mumbled.
"As with every pony, you have to get the Cutie Mark yourself Cindy," Gideon said as he came up to her, grinning. "Mine? I got it because I found out I'm good at building stuff, and knowing how things operate." He chuckled slightly. "So, you just have to find out what you're good at."
"Well... I just figured I was good at blowing stuff up," she remarked. "Though come to think of it, Red has told me often that I'm not a bad cook."
"And that's the truth!" Red answered. He then frowned. "You, I forgot to specify her species... Oh well, that can be easily fixed if you ever change your mind."
"Well, you may get the chance to blow stuff up with fancier weapons." Gideon said, nudging Cindy. "There's some ships coming in, and rumor is that they're reinforcements with weapons and troops for us."
Her expression became devious. "I like the sound of that, but before we go..."
She trotted over to Red and whispered in his ear.
"I didn't do those details Cindy because I wanted to see if it would work first," he stated.
"Well, you better fix it soon," she huffed.
Gideon raised an eyebrow as he levitated his cloak over to him and slipped it on, adjusting it so the hood was right behind his head if he wanted to put it on quickly.
"We going or not?" He asked, grinning. "Because I want to see our reinforcements."
"Only if I get a weapon soon," Cindy answered. Red laughed.
"Let's go," he said, walking out of the room.
Sunshine crept along quietly to the edge of Ponyville, making sure not to be seen by any of the guards stationed. Not too difficult for a Changeling to pull off, but it wasn't easy either way. Her reason for leaving the town after-hours was because she wanted to be alone for a while, alone with her thoughts. She kept on going until she had reached a small hill and sat down at the top, looking up to her Aunt's moon in the sky. Normally, it would be a peaceful and calming sight for her, but tonight it just reminded her of the burden she now bore on her shoulders. With her mother gone and her powers entrusted to her daughter, Sunshine now had a huge responsibility to take care of. It was too much for her to take in at the moment, and she quietly burst into tears, laying down in a small heap on the hill while she cried.
Meanwhile, Aqua was not getting much sleep that night either. The only thing that was on his mind was to painfully end the life of whoever was responsible for Princess Celestia's demise, so that monster could never do that to anypony else ever again. That was one reason of him not getting much sleep, but some other reasons were the nightmares involving the sceneries of people he held dear badly wounded, or near dying. Sleeping near his sister's bed was somewhat comforting in such state of mind, but he couldn't take that torment any longer. It reminded him of his grandmother Luna; looking at the moon was always a calming sight for him. Slowly he got out of the bed and headed outside the room, and then outside the Castle. As he came outside, the chill in the air gave him shudders, but he kept walking while his eyes switched between dark pink to fiery orange again and again, due to his upset state of mind. As soon as he looked at the sky and noticed the moon, a bit of his tension calmed down and his eyes stopped at their original dark pink color.
"What are you doing up at this hour?" a voice suddenly asked him gently, causing him to turn and notice the figure of Diego Kaplia leaning against a nearby building. He was so well hidden, despite the cape and bright yellow gauntlet on his right arm, that had he not spoken, Aqua would never have known he was there.
"I needed to see the moon," Aqua replied. "I was feeling so upset."
Diego nodded as if he understood and stared up at the moon himself. He seemed to get a faraway look in his eyes and Aqua noticed a tear fall down his cheek too, a tear as black as ink. After some silence, Diego looked over at him.
"So why are you upset?" he asked.
"I'm... having bad dreams... about my parents... and others..." Aqua shuddered once again as he remembered those nightmares.
Diego gave a small smile. "I understand. You are worried about what was and what will be." He knelt down to speak to Aqua more properly. "There's an old saying, 'Yesterday is history, tomorrow's a mystery, but today is a gift. That's why it is called the present.' Aqua, you're worrying too much about what could go wrong and not thinking about what can go right."
"You know what..." Aqua spoke, making a frown as his eyes changed color once again. "I don't know if something can go right, but I know I have to make something right! I have to avenge Sunshine's mother!" He stopped, breathing heavily as his eyes reverted to normal. When his breathing steadied again, he looked to Diego. "Did I say something nasty just now?" Aqua asked naively. Diego had gone unfazed during Aqua's outburst, and he simply gave a small nod.
"I understand that you want to avenge her, but do not do so out of a sense of hatred and rage, Aqua," he warned. "I've been down that path before, and it's one I wish I never had never traveled." He then smiled. "Why don't you have a talk with Sunshine? She seems like she could use the company right now. I saw her pass by not too long ago, headed towards that hill outside town."
"She headed towards the hills?" Aqua asked and made a seemingly thoughtful expression. "Alright, I will go there."
Diego smiled as he stood to his feet. "Young love. I wish I had your luck when I was younger myself."
Before Aqua could answer this statement, the rouge stepped back into the shadows and soon disappeared from sight.
"Hmm." Aqua hummed to himself for a second, before he trotted towards the hills to see Sunshine. It didn't take him long before he noticed her form curled up like a ball on the hilltop, all eight eyes closed as her body shook with each sob she made. She was so grief stricken that she didn't notice at first when he approached her. Looking her like this made him feel really sad inside, and he no longer could hold himself either.
"Su-Sunshine..." Aqua sobbed as he called her name. Two glowing red orbs suddenly appeared from her form and she raised her head slightly, then he heard her sigh.
"Aqua...?" she asked. "Wh-what are you doing out here?"
"Uncle Diego told me th- that you were out here..." Aqua said her in response. "What- what are you doing here?"
"I... I wanted to be alone for a while... or at least get away from the others," she explained. "But... I could use some company."
Aqua wiped his tears as he nodded and sat beside her.
"You kn- know ,it's not fair," Aqua said seemingly to no one, looking towards the horizon. "It's not fair at all."
"I know... It doesn't feel fair to me either," she answered, leaning against him as she sniffled a bit. "I don't want to show to the others that I'm sad, but-" She silently started crying again. "I really miss Mommy... I don't know if I can do her job..."
Aqua sniffled as well. "I understand... I don't know if- it'll help... but I will be right beside you as long as you want me to..." Aqua lowered his head as he closed his eyes. "And if you still want to..." Another sob escaped his breath. "I'll learn about art from you... and help how- however I can- to fulfill your dreams..." Aqua was now bursting into tears. "I-I promise no pony will ever crush your dreams again..."
Sunshine felt her own tears falling, but she didn't cry aloud anymore. She gave him a big hug and let him release all his built up grief. She felt his sorrow and anguish wash over her in waves, filling her with energy but also revealing her friend's sorrow to its roots.
"It's alright Aqua," she said softly. "Just let it all out."
Aqua made some sobs now without holding back anymore. There wasn't any words just sobs as Aqua returned that big hug to Sunshine. For a few minutes, that's all they did was cry and hug each other tightly. Afterwards, Sunshine felt some relief within her as if she had just gotten a huge load off her shoulders for the time being. It made her feel oddly happy inside, in a way that she didn't know how to describe.
"Are you feeling a little better now?" she asked her friend.
"I am..." Aqua replied. "I'm feel little better..."
Sunshine smiled and she gave off a humming sound as she gave him a small nuzzle. In a moment Aqua smiled as well and nuzzled her back.
"Aqua," she suddenly spoke, breaking through the silence, "I'm glad you're my friend."
"Really?" Aqua asked as he wiped his tears.
"Of course," Sunshine answered, pulling back to look him in the eye. "You're one of the nicest colts I've ever met. Why wouldn't I be happy to have you as a friend?"
Aqua gave a blush as he heard this. "You know, you're... also the nicest filly I've ever met... "
Sunshine blushed too and also felt the familiar fuzzy feeling return when he said that. It made her feel like she was experiencing several different emotions at once, and it just felt so good. It made her not want to stop hugging him at the moment, even though she knew she would have to eventually. Aqua was also feeling an emotion he was unable describe at the time. This warm and fuzzy feeling was something he couldn't compare to any other feeling he had felt before, but it was much better than any other feeling. He just kept hugging her in return, and he didn't want to let go either. To see her smiling again was the best thing he had ever seen in his life.
Suddenly, Sunshine stiffened in Aqua's hooves and he heard her sniffing the air.
"What is it?" Aqua asked in worry.
"I don't-" she started, then abruptly shouted, "Look out!"
With surprising speed and strength, she pushed him away from her and then leaped from where they had been sitting. No sooner had she done that than a laser beam struck the spot they had been at just moments before.
"Huh!" Aqua gasped with shock. "What was that?!"
Sunshine didn't answer, but her eyes were darting about wildly as she searched for their intruder. It wasn't long before the enemy revealed themselves, as a small group of humans and robots materialized out of thin air, surrounding them on all sides. Another group materialized a distance away and rushed towards the town, just as a human figure leaped out of the shadows and began to combat them. Apparently, Diego had shadowed the two ponies this whole time. One human stepped to the front and smirked down at the two of them.
"So, the daughter of the former Princess of the Sun and the half-breed have stumbled into our trap," he scoffed, then to his men, "Five of you stay here with me to secure and pacify them; the rest of you deal with the rouge."
The men or bots nodded and carried out their orders, the ones who stayed pulling out stun guns or batons as they started to advance upon them.
"Stay away from us!" Aqua hissed in anger as he stood close to Sunshine, his eyes locked on those weapons in their hands. "If you know what's good for you!"
"Oh, now I'm really scared!" the officer said sarcastically. "A small little colt protecting his marefriend as if he actually stands a chance."
The others around him started laughing.
"Pick on somepony your own size, bully!" Sunshine growled.
"And His Mightiness will be very pleased to have you his to be his 'guest' too, little sister," the officer laughed.
"Bully." The word rang in Aqua's mind as he remembered those mean ponies who picked on him because of being a hybrid, and he grunted in anger once again. This time, his mane started to wave as his eyes changed to a violent fiery orange.
"Hey!" Aqua warned as his voice suddenly sounded like multiple and loud voices now. "Don't you dare bully her!"
The men looked to them with surprise, then grunted.
"You're lucky the boss wants you alive," the officer snarled. "Otherwise, I'd have killed you like I did to that blasted Princess Celestia!"
Sunshine's eyes widened in surprise, then her own voice became filled with rage.
"YOU KILLED MOMMA?!" she shouted in a Royal Canterlot voice, startling the enemies around her. Before they could retaliate, a shockwave of energy, more specifically Celestia's former energy, erupted from her form and knocked them back. Sunshine glared at the officer with all eight eyes and she looked ready to strike again.
"You. Killed. SUNSHINE'S MOTHER!" Aqua's eyes began to shine even more violently, as his horn started to glow with the same color. The waves of aura passed through his body, as his size began to grow. Red flame-like patterns began to appear on his coat, and through his grunt his gritted teeth also seemed to change to razor sharp carnivore teeth, as two wolf like canines appeared in his mouth. His horn went jagged, and his hooves were changed to sharp claws, and his tail was prolonged as well, and now his whole body was glowing with his fiery orange aura. A smirk came upon his face.
"Thanks for revealing yourself..." A set of very intimidating, loud voices were heard from him. "...on your own."
He opened his mouth as an energy beam of the same color as his aura launched towards the officer. The officer shrieked and dodged out of the way just in time, while Sunny was taking care of his men while her rage still lasted. In the distance, Diego seemed to be finishing off the last of the men who had been tasked with distracting him from the children. As soon as he was done with them, he looked to the two young ponies and his expression changed from a confident battle smirk to a somewhat worried look.
"Oh no..." he muttered, then rushed towards them just as Sunshine polished off the last robot of the officer's task force. Then her eyes fixed on the one who had killed her mother.
Aqua in his new form looked towards that officer once again.
"You're done for!" He said and sprinted very swiftly him and wrapped him with his prolonged tail, then it started to constrict the officer. "Cry!" The beast form of Aqua shouted. "Cry in pain, you monster!"
The officer struggled in vain to escape, grunting in pain as the tail squeezed him tighter and tighter.
"Aqua, Sunshine, STOP!" Diego shouted, abruptly using something they never would have expected from him; a command spell that TD usually would use. It did manage to at least catch their attentions as they turned to look at him for a moment. At this point, Sunshine's rage subsided as she realized what she had been doing, as well as what had happened to Aqua.
"Aqua! What are you doing?!" she cried.
"I am avenging Princess Celestia!" He replied with an amused smirk. "I will finish him off, after having my fun!"
"Aqua, please," Diego tried to reason. "I understand. You want to avenge her death. But not like this. Don't let the hate and anger be your motivation behind it!"
"Aqua..." Sunshine pleaded as she placed a hoof on his shoulder, "You told me yourself you didn't want to lose control of your darker side. Prove to me that you were telling me the truth! Don't be the monster you fear you are..." Her eyes were filled with tears as she spoke. "Please... we're friends. Friend don't do this..."
"Friends?" he replied in a somewhat thoughtful tone. "Friends..."
In a moment, his eyes returned to normal and he let the officer go. And then his body began to revert itself into his normal form. His claws reverted to hooves again and his carnivore teeth returned to normal, he shrank reverted down to his normal size, and then fell to his knees.
The officer fell to the ground and looked between them, a bit shocked at what he had just witnessed unfold before him. But he soon growled and picked up one of the weapons on the ground. Thankfully, Diego noticed this. Faster than the eyes of the young ponies and the evil human could register, Diego whipped out a revolver and fired it with perfect accuracy at his hand, knocking the weapon out of his hand. Before the officer could try to go for another, Diego rushed over to him and pushed him to the ground, holding him down with his foot.
"I'd stay still if I were you," he warned.
"Sunshine..." A whine escaped Aqua's almost unconscious form. Sunshine helped pull him up to his feet and looked to his face, even though she had already sensed his emotions through his actions. A smile appeared on his face, as he opened his eyes. They were still shining in the same violent color.
"Aqua?" she asked, a hint of concern in her pleading tone.
"Don't worry," he began. "I just wanna say... you're the only one I've ever listened to during... my rage. Thanks for what you said. It makes me feel better." Then his eyes returned to normal as he was breathing heavily. He looked towards Sunshine with a blush and asked naively, "Did I say something nasty just now?"
Sunshine gave a small gasp, then threw her hooves around him with a squeal.
"I'm so happy you're okay and I'm so glad you're back!" she giggled, hugging him tightly.
"I am... glad you're okay too," Aqua managed to say. Diego looked over to them and sneaked a smile, then looked back to the officer and lifted him off his feet, showing how surprisingly strong the rouge could be.
"Just to give you kids some peace of mind," he told them, "I promise you, he will be dealt with properly. In the meantime, I'd suggest you get back to the safety of the town pretty soon."
Sunshine stopped hugging Aqua long enough to acknowledge Diego's words and nodded at him.
"Alright..." Aqua said.
"Good kids," Diego nodded, then a sickly red portal appeared behind him and he dragged the officer through it, who had stayed silent out of fear. The portal closed and the two were left alone again. It was then that Sunshine realized how awkwardly long she had been hugging Aqua and she blushed furiously as she pulled away.
"Sorry," she said. "I guess I got carried away."
"I don't mind," Aqua smiled, tilting his head to the side.
Sunshine smiled back, then spoke. "Thanks... for trying to stand up for me back there. That was very brave of you."
"It's alright," Aqua said. "I'm glad... that you're alright." Then suddenly a light shone on his flank. Aqua looked towards it in surprise. "Is this...?"
Sunshine gasped. "I think... you just got your Cutie Mark!" She now seemed excited. "What is it? What is it?"
They both looked towards his Cutie Mark as the light faded. It was a drop of water burning in a rainbow colored flame, within a red shield similar to Shining Armor's. Sunshine squealed again and gave him yet another crushing hug.
"Oh my gosh! You got your Cutie Mark! I'm so, so proud of you!" she shouted happily.
"Yay!" Aqua exclaimed happily for the first time since they met. "I got my Cutie Mark, I got my Cutie Mark!" he sang happily. Sunshine giggled happily as well and the humming sound returned in a different manner from before; it seemed more in tune with the Changeling's current excitement and joy. But Sunshine hardly seemed to notice this as she bounced up and down in her excitement and joy.
"I can't wait to show this to my parents, my brother, and my sister! They'll be excited as well..." Aqua exclaimed. Sunshine giggled, then sighed happily as her excitement died down. Yet she didn't let go of Aqua yet and the humming sound from her, while it had changed in rhythm again, didn't fade either.
"Sunshine..." Aqua ceased smiling for a bit. "Is there something... Oh." His excitement also died down as he realized what was wrong. "I am sorry... I was a little too excited for a moment..."
"It's okay to feel excited over things like that," she said to him. "You did nothing wrong."
"I mean, I see that you're..." Aqua was unable to say that. "I should be more careful..."
Sunshine stopped humming and she pulled away to look him in the eyes.
"What do you mean?" she asked.
Aqua took a sigh. "I see that you're still upset..." He somehow managed to say.
"Oh..." she sighed. "A little... but not so much anymore."
"Really?" Aqua asked with a thoughtful and somewhat sad tone. "Alright, then it- it's okay..." Aqua sighed. "I should stop bringing bad things up again and again..."
Sunshine giggled. "Well, I'm glad that you were trying to be considerate anyways."
Aqua didn't reply at this but blushed due to this statement as a confused smile appeared on his face, and he rubbed the back of his neck with his hoof.
"I guess, I was thinking too much... just like what Uncle Diego said..."
Sunshine gave a knowing grin. "He told you too?"
Aqua nodded. "He said that I should stop thinking about... what's in the past, and what will be the future, and enjoy the present as it is... I guess that's what he said..." He made a thoughtful expression for a while. "Let's just say, I was being a little, silly-filly at the moment..." He gave a light chuckle at this.
"Uncle Diego is a bit... mysterious sometimes, but he's a smart guy," Sunshine commented. "He's got a lot to share with others from his own experiences."
"Mmhmm," Aqua nodded and looked towards the direction of the town for some moments before he asked "Should we go back to the Castle now?"
"Yeah. I don't want them to worry too much longer about us," Sunshine agreed.
"Right," Aqua nodded in agreement as they both trotted towards the town. "And... should we tell them what happened here?"
Sunshine looked thoughtful for a moment, then answered, "We'll tell them later, maybe in the morning. They need their rest."
"Alright, Sunshine..." Aqua replied. Sunshine gave him a smile and walked closely beside him as they trotted on back to the Castle, until they had reached the doors of that said building.
"I guess, no one knows..." Aqua said as he went towards the door and opened it. Sunshine looked out at the moon and gave a small sigh.
"It'll be time for me to raise the sun in another hour," she explained, then looked back to Aqua. Before he could say anything, she gave him a quick kiss on the cheek followed by a thankful smile.
"Thanks again, Aqua," she said with a bit of a blush, as if not believing herself what she had done. Aqua stared her for a moment with surprise in his eyes and blush on his muzzle.
"It's alright, Sunshine," Aqua replied. "Thank you too." There was a silence for some seconds before Aqua said, "If it'll help, I'll be right beside you while you raise the sun."
Sunshine gave him another smile. "I'd like that very much."
Aqua passed her a caring smile and passed her nod as they both headed inside the Castle of Friendship, heading for the balcony where the Changeling would raise the sun in another hour.
In the outpost of Our Town, the Saiyan, Virin, was currently doing some training, punching the air as he produced some gust of wind in the process. He then practiced some kicks in the air, also producing some more gusts of wind.
Then, he began to aim his extended hand towards a rock, firing an blue energy ball at it as the rock exploded to pieces. Virin sighed as he relaxed for a moment and paused his training.
"Virin?" a familiar voice called to him and soon Scootaloo flew down from above and landed beside him with a smile.
"I just wanted to let you know, they're serving up lunch now," she told him. "Care to join us?"
Virin blinked, feeling a rumbling growl of his stomach. He blushed in embarrassment as he chuckled nervously.
"Looks like I haven't eaten since the time on my Equestria," he said, nodding towards her. "Sure. I'd love to."
"Great!" Scootaloo cheered, then started trotting back to the outpost where they could already smell something good cooking.
Virin smelled the food as he sniffed the air. "Mmm, it feels good," he said. Scootaloo nodded in agreement, then looked to Virin.
"Virin, can I ask you something?" she asked.
The Saiyan looked at her in return, questioning with, "And what's that?"
"Well, I didn't say anything aloud, but you seem to hold something against humans," she noted. "Call me a master of insight to know that, but I just wanna know why?"
Virin looked up towards the blue sky, before looking back to Scootaloo, as he began his explanation.
"It's because," he began, "right before my birth, humans of my Earth had known of our existence. When my child self heard what was going to happen, I started to transport all of the citizens of the capital of dragons, the White City, to another world. The humans hadn't known about me using magic, but I did. After I went to Earth for a while to think of something when I was engaged in a heated argument between me and my mother, I saw that humans looked at me with distaste, hatred, cold, and hunter-like eyes. When they found out about me, the governments, who are the leaders of my Earth, they chose to go with an operation that was meant to kill off any dragons or anyone related to their kind. Before I could get a chance to explain to them, the humans of Earth didn't spare me when I told them, by accident, that my parents were dragons. They decided to kill me if I ever set my foot on their world ever again. Since then, I have had a grudge and an immense hatred to humans, which was of my defense when I first met up with TD. My dragon kind and humans can't coexist together. We weren't made for that."
After his explanation, he sighed. "I'm sorry if I brought this explanation to you, but yeah. That's the reason of my distrust of humans."
"I understand," Scootaloo replied with a nod. "I remember we all used to feel the same way towards Changelings, and for a good reason. After the First Attack on Canterlot, we ponies all despised Changelings because of what Chrysalis had done. It took us a long time before we actually started to trust them again, even after Chrysalis was gone and even towards other Changeling hives." She gave him a reassuring smile. "But I've learned that you cannot blame every member of a species for the faults of the ones before them. I understand your distrust, but I guess I'm asking that you give them a chance and you might find that not all humans are bad."
"Like TD and Joy?" Virin asked her.
"Right," Scootaloo agreed. By then, they had reached the source of the delicious smell which was a huge pot of stew cooked up for the soldiers by the few citizens that had stayed behind in their town. They were handing out bowls of the stew to everyone who came by, and were quite polite about it.
"You know you don't have to do this for us, right?" one soldier asked one of the cooks.
"I know," the cook answered. "But we want to. You're putting your lives on the line for our sake, so it's only fair to repay you somehow."
Finally, Scootaloo and Virin had reached the line and they were given their own bowls of stew. Scootaloo got a big smile as her bowl was handed over to her.
"Mmm! Smells real good!" she exclaimed.
"Agreed," Virin sniffed his food as the he walked out of the line, with his friend following him.
"So, what's different about your Equestria that you've noticed in your stay here?" Scoots asked Virin, flying in the air while holding her bowl for convenience.
"Well," Virin started. "I guess, with how different species are here. I mean, Red's a hedgehog. Plus, the others are either friends or married to the ones they like. I haven't yet, so I may not know what that feels. But, I can tell this is kinda different than what my Equstria is. Though, there had been an attack on my Canterlot, just with some kind of two-legged satyr called the Storm King who was responsible for the attack."
"Oh, I remember that attack. It was awful!" she remarked. "Though it's also one of the reasons TD came here. You see, when he first arrived in Equestria, he was still a villain and he figured we'd be weakened by the attack. He wasn't entirely wrong, but he wasn't entirely correct either." She raised an eyebrow. "Did your attack happen before or after the Pony of Shadows?"
"The what now?" Virin tilted his head at that name. "The 'Pony of Shadows'? Who's that?"
"Oh. That shadow creature TD turned into," Scootaloo told him. He tried to attack once when Twilight brought back the Pillars. Sometimes, I hear that the Storm King's attack came after the Pony of Shadows in other Equestrias."
"TD can turn into different creatures?" Virin tilted his head again. "Now I'm confused."
"He can turn into other creatures if he wants, but he's a human by blood. Make no mistake about that," Scootaloo answered, then took a slurp from her stew. "There's actually a lot of things he can do. You know how Discord can do some crazy stuff? Well, TD can do the same thing but he's much, much more powerful." She gave him a smirk. "You wouldn't want to fight him alone unless you know how to outsmart him. Take that from somepony who's sister had to fight him."
Virin gave her a smirk in return. "I think I can outsmart him a little, I'm a bit full of surprises," he told her.
"Be thankful that you're on the same side then," Scootaloo remarked with a laugh.
"I am," Virin laughed as well.
Suddenly, there was a loud whistle heard followed by ringing bells. Starlight's voice came over an intercom system around the town.
"Battle stations, everypony! This is not a drill!" she shouted. "Enemy soldiers are headed this way!"
Scootaloo sighed. "At least we ate before they came here." She set the bowl down and then looked to Virin. "Ready?"
"Born ready," Virin gave her a smile of confidence. Scootaloo grinned, then flew up into the sky a bit for some recon. She soon called back down to him.
"Heavy armor down on the west side! Looks like the garrison there could use some help!" she shouted down, then started flying towards the west wing. Virin flew after her, thinking that she might need some assistance. They soon came to the West Wing, where the rest of the CMC was helping out some Equestrian soldiers against a troop of robots who were heavily armed and pushing upon their position. The garrison was pinned down from the looks of it. Behind the approaching robots was some kind of tank. Scootaloo looked down at them, then looked to Virin.
"If you can take out the robots and help the garrison, I can take out the tank while they're distracted," she told him. Virin nodded in understanding, before going Super Saiyan Blue as he flew towards the enemy robots. He began to fire blue energy balls at the robots, destroying them in the process as the blue-haired Saiyan flew right into another robot, before starting to get surrounded by a couple of them, thirty or so. Smirking in delight at the thought of fighting, Virin started to whirl around as he fired off energy balls all around, destroying at least ten afterwards. After destroying the rest, he flew to another thirty robots, landing right in the middle of their assembled ring formation.
While the enemy forces were distracted by the Saiyan, Scootaloo flew above the tank with a satchel of some kind and pulled out a secret weapon: some charges Red had designed specifically for times like this. She took out one of the charges and dropped it down to the ground below so it landed on the tank. The vehicle exploded on impact with the charge and Scootaloo gave a smirk of satisfaction. Unfortunately, she was forced to do an aerial dodge to the side as a large laser rocket of some kind flew past her, missing her by an inch.
"Whoa!" she shouted, then looked down to Virin. "They've got some kind of anti-air missiles! I can't do much good up here until they're taken down!"
"Anti-air missiles?!" Virin then got serious. "If they've got that, stay down low so that they can't fire them at you."
He quickly punched a robot that was behind him in the robotic face, destroying it after he whirled around as he fired an single energy ball. Beside him, Applebloom and Sweetie Bell were surveying the enemies in front of them, then Applebloom got an idea.
"Scootaloo!" she called up as Scootaloo got lower to the ground.
"Yeah?" she asked.
"Remember that slingshot trick ya tried to get up to Cloudsdale?" Applebloom asked.
"Yeah, what about it?" the pegasus inquired.
"If we can load some more of them explosives into one and fire it at the anti-air missiles," Applebloom started.
"...it'll eliminate the air problem..." Sweetie Bell warmed up.
"...which will allow me to give air support without any trouble!" Scootaloo finished. "Applebloom, you're a genius!"
"Scootaloo!" Virin shouted to her, making her look at him. "If you're going to go with the slingshot trick, then I'll distract them whereas you go to the enemy as I take out the forces that surrounds them. If we work together, we can take out those anti-air missiles."
"Good idea!" she answered, then shouted, "Somepony get the slingshot!"
A few guards rushed off and returned later with an over-sized slingshot which was stationed into the ground with a steady grip. Virin nodded, as he took the order clear.
"Let's go!" he started to fly into the air, until he was high enough for one anti-air missile to fire at him. He dodged it by an inch, smirking as he saw where his friend was going.
Good luck, he thought before deciding to take out a couple of robots on the ground with an Kamehameha, destroying them in an instant. In a few moments, the anti-air missile turrets started to explode, one-by-one as Scootaloo's plan started to go into motion. Eventually, only a single turret was left, but Scootaloo had not blown it up yet, which was confusing and a bit worrisome.
Hearing the explosions of the turrets, Virin smiled gleefully as he took out more robots on the ground, but he soon started to get worried about the last one. Suddenly, a beam fired from the turret that was not at all anti-air based. Rather, it seemed very similar to the Saiyan's energy levels. A kind of simplistic recreation of a Kamehameha, headed straight towards him.
SH**, Virin cursed loudly in his mind, before he managed to barely dodge the beam of the turret that was shot to him. Even so, he felt it graze his back and pain shot through his body despite the nick. Whatever that was, it seemed to be specifically tailored to him, designed specifically to take out the Saiyan. As it charged up again, he heard Scootaloo on the coms provided to them, and it sounded like she was in the middle of a fight.
"Virin! It's a trap! Get out of here!" she shouted, and then there was static.
"WHAT?!" Virin shouted back to her. "I CAN'T LEAVE YOU HERE!"
The response was the turret preparing to fire another blast at him, but Scootaloo remained dark.
"What's going on?" Starlight demanded over the coms. "Where's Scootaloo?"
Virin was in great shock, and fear grew in him. He began to fly towards the turret and landed beside it just as it fired and missed, and rushed about to find his friend in this world, who meant everything to him.
"Scoots!" He yelled out. "Where are you?!" He looked around frantically, in hope of seeing his friend anywhere. Just then, he heard too late another pulse powering up from something behind him that had been hiding in the shadow of the turret. He turned to see a robot performing a Kamehameha at him, though how was unclear to him for the moment. There wouldn't be enough time for him to avoid this one and it was apparent as the beam was released from the robot's hand.
At the last second, he noticed an orange blur flying towards him in the corner of his eye. A heavy form pushed him out of the way and the beam hit the figure at full blast. And when the smoke and light cleared, Scootaloo was lying on the ground, looking more dead than alive as the robot turned back to Virin.
Suddenly, after seeing his friend lay down on the ground, Virin started to shake violently as the robot looked unconcerned about it.
"You...you..." Virin growled darkly. "You...will...pay...for...THIS!"
His body started to form a dark aura, and the Saiyan yelled out in a fit of rage, as the black aura took its toll over him. Standing where the blue-haired Saiyan once was, was a black-clothed figure that looked identical to Virin. His former blue hair was now black, along with his blue eyes being blood-red. The figure's name was Black Virin, an entity inside of the real body of Virin.
"By killing my...daughter," started Black Virin. "You're going to be brought to justice!"
He fired a black colored Kamehameha at the robot, destroying it instantly. Black Virin growled viciously, as more robots began to surround him. The robots backed off a bit, then one shouted, "Start the countdown and protect the turret! We're destroying that town!"
The robots nodded and they all gathered around and started to attack Virin, while nearby, unknown to them all, Scootaloo began to stir and her eyes fluttered open weakly.
Black Virin roared angrily, firing an black Kamehameha at the robots before the countdown had begun. Looking at the turret with dark blood-red eyes, the dark form of Virin aimed his hands towards the turret as the countdown began to tick down. His hands began to form another black Kamehameha at the turret.
The countdown was almost over. It would be a close one.
Five... four... three... two... one...
The black Kamehameha was fired at the turret before it managed to fire, with the dark form of Virin roared as he grinned evilly towards the turret.
"V- v- Virin..." Scootaloo's voice suddenly spoke from behind, weakly. Black Virin's blood-red eyes widened in shock by hearing the voice of the alternate form of his daughter. He turned around and saw her still on the ground, on the brink of death.
Calming down with his dark form, Virin changed back to normal as he rushed to his friend's side, kneeling down to her, not caring as the explosion of the turret sounded from the black Kamehameha that was launched by his darker self.
"Save your breath," Virin whispered to her, tears threatening to fall down on his cheeks. "Otherwise, you'll die."
"It..." Scootaloo coughed. "It's too late... for me... I'm already... dead."
In the distance, Virin could hear his friends approaching them, galloping as fast as they could to their location.
"Don't say that!" Virin choked as his tears fell on his cheeks. "I don't want to lose the very friend who I am worthy of calling my daughter..."
Scootaloo gave him a small smile, then coughed up some blood.
"It's... okay..." she managed softly. "You've still got me... back in your Equestria. You've still... got your daughter."
The rest of the CMC had arrived and they looked heartbroken.
"Scootaloo!" they shouted as they too got beside her.
"Scoots, don't die on us please!" Sweetie Bell cried.
"You're the toughest one out of all of us," Applebloom added tearfully. "Please don't leave us..."
"I agree," Virin cried as the tears fell on her fur. "It won't be the same without you...we're buddies...remember?"
"Virin..." Scootaloo spoke again as she leaned against him for support, "Promise me... that you'll take care of me... back in your home... And tell her... that I said... don't ever give up on your dreams. Even when you... seem like a worthless worm... remember that one day... you'll become a beautiful butterfly."
Virin was still crying as he slowly gave her a single nod of his head. "I...promise...to tell her...about this...and only her..."
Scootaloo smiled again. "I may not... be your daughter in this... world, but I'm proud to call you... my dad..."
Virin smiled softly as the tears continued to drip on her fur. "And...I'm proud to call you...my daughter..."
Scootaloo smiled again and then closed her eyes, leaning against him as if falling asleep as her breathing slowed to a stop. Life had left her completely now...
Virin was now shedding in tears by now, as he sobbed loudly.
"No, Scoots!" Applebloom desperately shook her body, even though she knew it was pointless. Sweetie Bell was already crying her heart out while Starlight and the other soldiers had bowed their heads in respect. During their grief, they heard a sudden whirring sound and looked up to see a tiny drone appear.
"A message from his Excellency!" the drone beeped, and then a holographic screen appeared showing the face of the Nameless One, who gave them a smirk.
"Nice. That's the first I've seen a pony survive a blast like that for as long as she did," he said, sounding impressed.
"So...you're Nameless?" Virin demanded in a conflicted voice. The Nameless One gave a smirk as he gestured to himself, still looking a bit hurt and damaged.
"Not much to look at, am I?" he asked sarcastically, then announced, "I am giving you all another chance to surrender and stand down. If you do not do so by the end of the next week, I shall unleash the Beast of Time upon you all! So stand down and bow to your king while you still have the chance." The majority of the Equestrians looked scared to hear this news about the Beast of Time. They wouldn't be able to fight him without ones that could control time, and there wasn't many of those to go around. Virin gritted his teeth in anger, rage lingering inside of him.
"We won't just surrender to villains like you!" he yelled out, his friends agreeing with him. "Don't you see what we're fighting for?! We're fighting for our lives against you! I, however, am fighting to protect the ones that I cherish and care for. This pony meant a lot to me, more than you'd think she did, even if she's not a child of mine. I will kill you if you try to unleash that Beast you speak of. If you do, I'll even decide to fight you personally."
Virin didn't blink, as his identity has been quite known among villains of the multiverse.
"So, you know of me?" he asked in an angry and demanding tone. The Nameless One chuckled in amusement.
"I've fought Saiyans more powerful than you, some of whom were even seen as the protectors of their universe," he explained. "They all fell to my blades, and you will be no different if you combat me."
In Virin's mind, all negative emotions began to go all out against him.
"You'll know I am different than those Saiyans," Virin stated grimly. "I have a surprise for you when we meet. Just you wait, this will be over as soon as possible before you even get the chance."
He raised his hand up and aimed at the drone. The Nameless One chuckled again.
"Please, there's no need for that," he remarked. "I will be leaving you now. Enjoy your 'freedom' while you still can, my rebellious subjects."
With another laugh, the holoscreen disappeared and the drone flew away out of sight. Lowering his hand back down, Virin sighed angrily as he looked to his friends, despair growing in him as he was unsure what to do now.
"Should I even go and fight him, even if he claims to have fought others like me?" he asked them, confusion going over in his mind.
"Not alone, you won't," Starlight told him. "And we still don't have the forces to go on the offensive. You'll have to wait for now..."
Virin nodded to Starlight, accepting her thought she had now. She looked to the soldiers nearby and to Scootaloo's friends crying over her.
"Prepare a grave for her," she told them. "Tonight, we will mourn our fallen."
The guards nodded and picked up the limp pegasus and carried her off, leaving the other two CMC members with Virin where they were.
"I'll inform the others about the loss of Scootaloo, if I may?" Virin asked Starlight. Starlight gave a small nod.
"I think Rainbow Dash particularly would want to know," she agreed. Nodding, Virin started to fly into the air as he headed towards Rainbow Dash's location, starting with her before the others.
-Nine Earth Years (Thousands of Equestrian Years) Ago...-
William stared in surprise along with his two brothers at the large ship that had appeared in the sky. His brothers both looked slightly different from him. Both were younger than William, but one was skinny with the same brown hair and blue eyes of the first; in fact, they almost could have passed for twins. The second, while looking a bit similar as well, had brown eyes and was chubby in comparison. All three of them were granted different powers, as over time they had acquired them. The skinny one, who was called Sean, had been granted the powers of Ice; the chubby one, known as Ian, possessed powers of Life and Death, and of course William had his powers of Chaos. None of them were too powerful in their abilities yet, but they were learning and teaching each other in the process. And currently the three of them were watching the arrival of this ship with interest, none of them knowing what the intentions of the new arrivals would be.
They had not expected something so large to appear, especially one so futuristic in design. The latter told them that it was from another universe outside of Earth. As they watched, a beam fell to the ground and several figures appeared from it, all robots. One of them had four arms and orange eyes, and seemed to be the leader of them all. He was also taller than the other robots, who were already taller than William and his brothers. Unlike the others in his troop, the four-armed robot was built to have facial features, so they could see the smile he was giving them fully.
"Greetings, young ones," he said to them. "Please remain calm, for I mean you no harm. I am but an explorer from another universe and my ship is running low on fuel. I need a place to land and refuel, and this was the first place I noticed. Please, may I land here?"
The three brothers looked to each other and had a silent discussion exchanged between them. They didn't know if they could trust this newcomer yet, but so far his intentions sounded legit and besides their powers would be more than enough to handle the problem if it came to that. After a moment, Sean was the one who spoke.
"Yes, you may land here, but keep yourself and your ship out of sight," he told them.
"The inhabitants of this world would not understand," William added. The four-armed figure smiled and nodded, then spoke into a coms set he had.
"Bring the ship around to that field and activate active camouflage," he ordered. The ship then flew around and landed in the large field in front of their house and then turned invisible. He then chuckled. "We were never introduced, were we?"
"No, we were not," William agreed. "My name's William, and these are my brothers; Sean and Ian."
The robot master smiled again as he shook hands with the chaotic human.
"Nice to meet you," he said. "I don't officially have a name, but you may call me... The Nameless One..."
Well... that's interesting.
I hope you guys are enjoying this so far, because I will say this much... there is WAY too much death in this thing! XD
Why this thing took too long for me to even publish is beyond me. But either way, hope you enjoyed!