Note: Just to let you guys know, it would be best if you all read the "Dimensional Lord" section of the "A Mending Soul" guide so that the upcoming confrontation with Doxia makes a tad bit more sense. Thanks! Oh, and to all who have been craving cookies... Have a proverbial cookie! I have a jar full of them.

Dimension: Amethyst

Planet: Capitol Prime

Specific Location: Summit Meeting room 8, floor 9853171

Time: Unknown

Pictor strolled into the room as he hummed a little tune. When Pictor was happy, it usually meant someone else was very unhappy… or dead.

"You have news, Pictor?" asked the Paradox as he turned from gazing out the window to look at his ally.

"I do. Both armadas are ready and armed. The distraction worked well. Not only did it preoccupy over a trillion demons, but we killed them all. I ordered them to demolish the dimension, if that is fine with you," said Pictor.

The Paradox shrugged. "It is of no relevance to me. Destroy it and the adjacent dimensions if you see fit. However, be very picky, we still do not want to provoke Heaven into a war with us just yet."

Pictor nodded, "May we begin the invasion of Hell?"

The Paradox nodded, "You may. Send out the Armada immediately. Preform maneuver Alpha Twelve. We have never used it, but it should be effective. The Grand Devil may be crafty, but he is trapped on Earth Prime, so his hierarchy of command is skewed… not to mention that we have more firepower in that single fleet than he has ever had ever. Burn it all to the ground. Burn it all."

Pictor nodded, but then said, "The Infernal Realm is massive. Even larger than our multiverse. How do you suggest we proceed without occupying the place or overextending outselves?"

The Paradox shrugged again. "Neither of those matter just yet. Stay in one large group and devastate everything until I give the word. This is, as I said, an hidden invasion, but we must ensure that it does not seem like on to Heaven as of yet. Perhaps we will even send a message to Heaven that they are no longer a superpower while we are at it. It is all part of the plan."

Pictor grinned inside his helmet, he liked the idea of bringing Heaven to its knees. "It will be done. The Sapphire Armada is here as well. What are you going to do with it?"

"It is none of your concern, Pictor," replied the Paradox curtly, "Now go off and head out with the Amethyst Armada. We are at war."

Pictor was bothered by the fact that his leader was not telling him everything, but, then again, he was bothered by the fact that someone as absolutely insane as the Paradox was leading at all. Nevertheless, the moment the Paradox said "war," Pictor forgot about his grievances against his mad leader. It did not matter that he was taking orders from a lunatic as long as war, death, and murder was involved with those orders. Pictor left, and the Paradox turned to the table in the center of the room. With a telepathic command, he brought up a holographic projection.

"Mattimeo is checking in: He is about to return from his mission," reported an electronic voice. The Paradox nodded and stroked the place where his chin would be. Could Mattimeo be a traitor? Could he be someone that would be helping Doxia? The Paradox then shook his head, clearing it of those doubts. It was not relevant if Mattimeo betrayed him. In fact, it didn't even matter if Doxia stole back those strange beacon crystals, which technically was still absolutely impossible without inside help. Nothing less than a direct attack from the Archangels of the Celestial Heaven could stop him from his plan now.

Suddenly he received a call over a telepathic link. He opened it up and said, "Inside Operative? Good. They've left? Excellent. I've set the trap for Doxia. Archangel Michael has fallen for his bait as well."

The Paradox closed the link and opened another to the leader of the Sapphire Armada, "The Plan is a go. Send your armada into motion."

Dimension: Seekers

Planet: Earth

Specific Location: Great Bear Lake, Canada

Time: Unknown, four day after the arrival of Doxia in the My Little Pony dimension

Mattimeo, Doxia, and Discord stood together on a snowy hill in Canada, watching a trail of bears gather together at the shore of a large lake.

"I actually recognize one of them," commented Doxia airily as he pointed to the opposite shore of the lake where a large group of Black Bears were. "There's Lusa. She's a Black Bear. Did I ever tell you about the time we met?"

Mattimeo shook his head, "You didn't, but I really don't care to know. As we said earlier, we are on a very tight schedule. Discord and I will be leaving immediately. You get ready to teleport in. If all goes well, the security system will allow both Discord and me into the phantom dimension, and we should be in and out in no time whatsoever. If all goes well."

"If, if, if, if… There is always that unknown factor that we love. To be or not to be… that is the question," sighed Doxia dramatically.

Mattimeo faceplamed. "Doxia, please, this is no time for theatrics. Oh, and 'to be or not to be' has absolutely nothing to do with the unknown factor that is the word 'if,' so please stop."

"You're STILL no fun, even after a trillion years," muttered Doxia. He turned to Discord and said, "Well, fellow prankster, are you ready to pull of the prank of the millennia?"

Discord grinned, rather nervously, as he said, "I believe I am."

Mattimeo nodded. "No time for uncertainty. We're going now."

With that, he turned and opened a portal. The portal sizzled and began to flicker as the phantom security of Amethyst scanned Mattimeo's portal to ensure he was a registered ally. The portal flickered one more time and then began to glow. Discord stepped gingerly through, and Mattimeo followed. They found themselves in a large, white room, with a massive window peering off into space. In less than a second, they were surrounded by Phasetroopers. Immediately the group pointed their weapons at Discord.

"Being not recognized. Intruder. Commands, Lord Mattimeo?" said one of the Phasetroopers, pointing a powerful blaster straight at Discord's head.

Mattimeo waved a hand, "I give clearance for this one being: Discord."

The Phasetroopers nodded and put down their weapons.

Discord then cleared his throat nervously. Mattimeo glanced at Discord, and all of the Phasetroopers trained their blasters on him again.

"Discord? Is there something you would like to say?" said Mattimeo, his voice deathly calm.

Discord grinned. "You're going to have to give a little bit of clearance for one more being…"

Discord snapped a finger, and a large bag appeared. He opened it and Rarity tumbled out. Mattimeo facepalmed. He then looked at the Phasetroopers and snapped, "You are all dismissed. I have this under control."

"As you command, Lord Mattimeo," said one of the leaders. He and his troop left the room swiftly. Mattimeo glanced at the ceiling, where invisible cameras were watching and scanning every corner of the room. He then turned his head to look at Discord.

"What is she doing here?" said Mattimeo calmly.

Discord grinned as he said, "She bet me a diamond that I couldn't get her to place a hoof outside of her comfort zone. So I made her place one outside."

"I meant a bet in metaphorical sense! It was proverbial! It was sarcastic!" exclaimed Rarity in a high-pitched voice full of terror.

Mattimeo shook his head. "There is no time for us to take you out of here. Rarity, you will stay here. Discord, follow me."

"Wait!" squeaked Rarity, "Don't leave me! Don't leave me here!"

Mattimeo turned and snapped a finger. Rarity dropped to the floor, fast asleep. "I'll deal with you later, Discord," said Mattimeo, his voice emotionless, "But for now, I want to show you something. Come."

Discord and Mattimeo walked down a grand hall of white. The floors were polished white metal, the high walls were polished white metal, and the ceiling was white metal. Gentle blue light illuminated every corner of the hall, despite the fact that there were no light sources visible. The place was deathly quiet, and not a single being was in sight.

"This place is quite grand, I have to say," breathed Discord in wonder.

"You would think so," said Mattimeo briskly, "But keep this in mind: you can only see what you can comprehend. This place is actually a whole lot grander than your vision can see and understand."

Discord shook his head, decided it would be best if he did not think about it. Mattimeo waved a hand, and suddenly the walls shifted around and shimmered. Discord turned a tad bit green as severe vertigo struck him as the walls blurred and moved, but the phenomenon lasted only a couple of seconds.

They were now in a massive, white circular chamber. There were twelve large, white, metal, automatic sliding doors placed in twelve different corners of the chamber. Mattimeo pointed to the on directly to Discord's right.

"Mapaxa is inspecting some security data in the hallway over there" he said, "Stroll in there and try to talk to him. Mapaxa is fortunately more like Doxia, where we became somewhat detached from reality as the eons passed by, so it will be easy enough to strike up an interesting conversation. You have to keep his full attention on you, however, otherwise his sixth sense will alert him that I am approaching. Do you understand?"

Discord nodded. He conjured up a spotted handkerchief and mopped his brow. Wordlessly he turned to the large door and approached it. The door dissolved into nothing as he approached it, and materialized again as he passed through. At the end of the hallway was a Dimensional Lord, Mapaxa. He was quite a bit shorted than Doxia, and also slightly less broad. He wore white body armor with bands of green running down his arms. His visor, which was glowing green, a thin T shape. The moment Discord entered, Mapaxa turned and stared.

"Well, if it isn't one of the Paradox's wacky mini-Dimensional Lords!" exclaimed Mapaxa.

Discord placed a claw over his chest as he said, "You know of us?"

Mapaxa strolled up and shook his head vigorously. "I do! Anyway, I haven't seen you here before. The Paradox liked you enough for you to let him in on his schemes?"

Discord nodded dramatically. "Yes! Well… I mean no. Mattimeo let me come. Sightseeing and stuff like that."

Mapaxa cocked his head on one side. "Mattimeo? He isn't much of a 'Yay let's be friends' type, really. How did you get him to take you here?"

Discord conjured up a suit and tie, and then placed a bowler hat on his head. He then grinned and said, "I have a sort of… flair."

Mapaxa nodded. He then conjured up a luxury suit of black and placed it over his body armor. "I like… flair. But can you out-flair me?

Discord threw an appendage across his brow dramatically as he said, "Alas, no! I could never cross swords with someone as illustrious as you… to borrow the colloquialism, of course."

Mapaxa chuckled. "I suppose you are right. I must admit, though, being a Dimensional Lord is like cheating… cheating on everything."

Discord stroked his chin as he conjured up a pair of glasses. "I suppose… are you up to a philosophical discussion about it?"

Mapaxa nodded. "I think I might. In fact…"

Suddenly Mapaxa stiffened. Then he fell straight over, unconscious. Mattimeo strolled up from behind Mapaxa's prone form and said, "Well done, my friend. You did good."

Discord pulled a face. "I suppose, though I was actually starting to warm up to him."

Mattimeo opened up a holographic projection via a telepathic command as he answered. "It doesn't matter right now."

Discord gazed over Mattimeo's shoulder as he said, "Of course. How silly of me. Anyway, how did you manage to knock out Mapaxa so easily?"

Mattimeo activated Debugging program 98.23. He commanded the diagnostics of the program to run on Sector 009 of the Sub-basement. After he did that, Mattimeo turned to Discord and held up a hand. A small ball of energy coalesced in his palm.

"You see this ball of energy? If I had missed Mapaxa and hit a wall, it is likely that the energy would have exploded and subsequently demolished Capitol Prime, along with its resident solar system and probably all of the adjacent solar systems as well."

Discord grimaced. "If that only knocked him out… than how do you kill him?"

Mattimeo shook his head. "With a lot more power. But one has to be careful about those ideas. If a Dimensional Lord, at full power, was to be killed by someone, than the Council of Heaven would no doubt go crazy, and a full-blown inquisition would be on our hands.

With that, Mattimeo contacted Doxia telepathically. "Okay, Doxia. The program is running, and no one is suspecting anything as of yet. But that could only be temporary. Be quick."

"I will," replied Doxia over the link. The intercom then disconnected.

In the Seekers dimension, Doxia did a couple of jumping-jacks as he prepared to storm the facility. After a bit of that, he decided it would simply be best if he got it over with. Opening a portal, Doxia dove through. Like everywhere else in Capitol Prime, the massive room he entered was completely whitewashed. The floors gleamed and reflected his image, and a gentle light blue light illuminated the scene. In the center of the massive room was a small raised block of white metal, a table. On the table was the container that held the beacon crystals. To the untrained eye (which basically means any non-Dimensional Lord) it seemed like the container was just sitting there. Doxia, however, knew better. Using his excellent senses, he was able to pick up a slight distortion in the time-space continuum. This denoted that the container was surrounded by a powerful force field. So powerful, in fact, that is was ripping unseen holes in the dimensional plane. A single touch could probably mean instantaneous death to a mortal, and a seriously terrible injury to a Dimensional Lord. Nodding to himself, Doxia strolled up to the force field and looked it over. Opening a holographic projection in front of his face, Doxia began to stroll around the table. After a moment, he positioned the palm of his right hand a hairsbreadth from the force field while he typed on his holographic projection at incredible speeds with his left. After at least a minute of performing this exercise, Doxia let out a sigh and stepped back. The force field then flickered and went out.

"I was always something of a computer nerd," chuckled Doxia to himself as he picked up the container. Suddenly, Doxia felt an incredible urge to duck down, and he did so. It was a good thing that he did, because a blast of pure power sizzled above his head. Seeing the bolt pass over his head, Doxia leapt up and froze the beam of energy in time, preventing it from colliding with one of the white, metal walls, and probably blowing it and everything else in a billion kilometer radius to smithereens. Snapping a finger, Doxia dispersed the attack into nothing and slowly turned to face his attacker. There were four Dimensional Lords, hands charged up with pure power, approaching on him, one was purple-armored, one was yellow-armored, one was white armored with orange and green bands running down his arms, and one was green-armored.

"Lynx, Corvus, Octans, Erwin, so nice to see you guys!" said Doxia to each being respectively, "What… I'm not allowed to take back stuff that is mine? I really appreciate you guys keeping this safe here for me. I was worried that those nasty burglars from the Busytown dimension would get them. Am I right?"

The purple-armored one, Lynx, pointed her fist straight at Doxia and said, "The Paradox said that you would be trying to steal those artifacts from us. He sent us down here to apprehend you."

"Oooohhhh… So this is an ambuscade! It's a trap! I gotcha," replied Doxia, "Do you guys even know what is in this container?"

"It doesn't matter," snapped the white-armored one with orange and green bands, Octans, "You have something that belongs to us. Give it back and surrender."

"So, it's all about 'finders, keepers; losers, weepers' now, is it? This is technically mine," said Doxia, who began to back up slowly.

"You're a rogue, we're bringing you in," said Erwin, the green-armored one.

"Erwin… do you HONESTLY believe that? Orion was a rogue, Mensa was a rogue… But me? A rogue? I doubt that, and I know you doubt that too," replied Doxia earnestly.

Erwin faltered, and stopped advancing with the rest. Unfortunately, the others were not as effectively deterred by Doxia's words.

"We're taking you down," snapped Corvus. He then charged up a bolt of energy within his fists and leapt towards Doxia.

Doxia slammed a foot against the ground, momentarily temporally flash-freezing his opponents. With time around him stuck in place, Doxia dashed towards Corvus, who had been stopped in mid-leap, and smashed a fist against his face. By this time, Octans had counteracted the time-freeze effect, and the timeline continued on its way like normal, but it was too late for Corvus, who had now taken a face full of fist. A shockwave blasted from the contact point, and the entire room cracked and crumbled. The lights went out, and shards of the white metal floor blasted up in splinters. Corvus flew away at Mach 7 and smashed into what was left of the west wall, demolishing the ruins. Growling in anger, Octus hurled a bolt of pure energy. Doxia commanded the bolt to cease movement, and dispersed it with a flick of his wrist. Doxia then extended a hand, and a beautiful, wondrous sword of epic proportions materialized in his hand. Then Octus and Lynx both conjured up swords as well. Now the two began to circle Doxia as Erwin stood off to the side, looking as if he was having an even worse battle inside his head.

Octus leapt at Doxia, swinging the sword down with blurring speed, Doxia simply deflected it with his blade. The subsequent shockwave vaporized any debris left over from the first shockwave. With that, Octus attacked Doxia in earnest, with swings, cuts, slashes, and jabs that would have brought Earth Prime's most experienced swordsman to his knees. Doxia, however, was not fazed by this at all, and simply parried each one, while using his footwork to keep him oriented in such a way that he could keep his left eye on the slowly circling Lynx at all times. Suddenly Doxia ducked under Octus's blade and grabbed his wrist. Swinging back his sword fist, and charging it with powerful energy, Doxia smashed the butt of his sword straight in Octus's face. A massive blast of power erupted from the contact point that sent physics and molecular chemistry momentarily haywire. After a second, things returned to equilibrium, but there was now one less adversary, with Octus now out cold. Lynx, who had stumbled back from the blast, now stood a wary distance from Doxia, her hands charged up to maximum potential with energy bolts. Doxia eyed her worriedly, if she fired those bolts and missed, and he failed to stop the attacks, the collateral damage could mean the end of Capitol Prime, Doxia's home for over 500 billion years.

"You don't want to do that, Lynx," said Doxia calmly, commanding his sword to return to nothingness, "You know the consequences if you miss, which, in all likelihood, you will."

Lynx shook her head vigorously, "No, YOU knew the consequences of defecting! How could you go on that killing rampage like that? HOW?!"

Doxia considered his options. Time-freezing only worked once against a Dimensional Lord, so that was out. She was too far for him to use super-speed, because her reflexes would save her. He could warp reality around him and her, but that would not stop her from firing the attacks, and shattering the dimension's physics locally would probably disperse only the power of one of the bolts of energy. The other would explode and demolish everything. Finally he came up with a solution: He would project a life-like holograph of himself while the real him became invisible in a flawless transitional maneuver. All he needed to do now was keep her distracted long enough so that she would neither fire her attacks nor use her senses to detect the deception. He needed to distract her. "I didn't go on a killing rampage. The Paradox and Pictor are lying to you all. In fact, you should be ashamed of yourself! We are Dimensional Lords! You were a Sapphire agent! You should know better!"

Lynx faltered, but then her rage got the better of her, "No! LIES! LIES! LIES!" Doxia was too late. She raised her fists and prepared to fire. Suddenly, however, she jerked… and fell over, out cold. Erwin uncloaked from behind her, massaging his bruised right fist.

"Ow, she has a hard head," muttered Erwin. He then strolled over to Doxia and proffered his left hand for a handshake. "I am sorry I doubted you, it was foolish. The Great Leader would not have wanted this. Amethyst Lords forever, right?"

Doxia shook Erwin's hand heartily. "I agree. I agree. I am glad that you saw the light. Now, do you want to come with me?"

Erwin shook his head. "No. I will stay here. You will need another inside-agent now that I know the Paradox is the real enemy."

Doxia shook his own head in disbelief, "You're willing to go to my side… just like that?"

"Look," said Erwin, turning to his side, showing him an emblem carved onto his left shoulder-plate, "You see this emblem? It's not the Sapphire emblem, it's not the E.D.D. emblem, and it's not the Enigma emblem. It's the Amethyst emblem, just like the one on your left shoulder-plate. We were Lords together in the Maelstrom war, and I'll be damned if loyalty to some haphazardly chosen lunatic of a leader gets in the way of the loyalty of old. Am I right or am I right?"

"You're right," chuckled Doxia, patting Erwin on the back, "I must go now, but you have given me hope. Something big is coming… so whenever you have a chance, flesh out the true Dimensional Lords. There are a couple of older beings who might be willing to help."

With that, Doxia opened a portal and strolled back into the Seekers dimension with his container of beacon crystals in tow. With one last glance at Erwin, who had flung himself on the floor to make it look like he had been knocked out as well, Doxia closed the portal and opened a link with Mattimeo. "I've got the beacon crystals. Sorry for the pause, I had a run-in with some old buddies who wanted me to knock them all out."

"That's not relevant, Doxia," said Mattimeo, "Are we clear to leave?"

"Yeppers."

Mattimeo, back in the Amethyst dimension, nodded his head slightly as he closed the link. He then turned to Discord and said, "We're good. Time to go."

The two strolled purposefully out of the hall into the large circular chamber. Once again the chamber shifted and transformed. Mattimeo and Discord then strolled into the entrance chamber again, where Rarity still slept. Picking her up and tossing her over her shoulder, Discord glanced at Mattimeo and said, "Whenever you are ready, old lad."

Mattimeo nodded and opened a portal. The two strolled straight out back to the Seekers dimension where Doxia waited with the vials. A piece of cake. Now all they needed to do was revive Rarity and then jump back to the My Little Pony dimension.

Note: Okay, I said last chapter that day-to-day chapter posting for "A Mending Soul" would go undisturbed... I was wrong. I decided that this will be the last chapter for this week. I will explain why when I put up the first chapter for next week. I really appreciate your patience... and please leave the torches and pitchforks at home! Anyway, don't forget the R&R stuff! I love reviews!