Disclaimer: None of the authors own any of the referenced properties.
[MegaTen], [Doctor Who]
Jack Harness beats off Mara
Author: Gamerex27
The Doctor dropped his sonic screwdriver, numbly staring at the space where that green...thing once was.
"What...what the hell was that?!" Rose said, blushing crimson at the sight that had just, mercifully, been banished from his TARDIS.
"Some kind of creature spawned by humanity's collective unconsciousness," he replied, after taking a moment to calm himself. "Like those imps and succubi we saw outside, before. A lust based one, probably."
"That," Jack Harkness said, zipping up his trousers, "was Mara, the demon lady of temptation. And one of my exes, too."
"Somehow, I'm not surprised," the Doctor muttered, massaging his aching temples. "Did you have to start flirting with it, again? It didn't seem to happy to see you, even before you started punching it."
"Oh, you know," he replied, turning to face them with a sheepish grin plastered on his face. "Last time we saw each other, she tried to sell me out to the Time Agents again for sex, so I had to pay her back."
"Well, take it outside the TARDIS next time!" Furiously, the Doctor stripped off his leather jacket, throwing it on the TARDIS console's nearby chair. "Do you have any idea how hard it is to dry clean that? And the TARDIS's laundry machine doesn't work well with blood!"
"Couldn't...you just drop it off at a dry cleaner, and take the TARDIS to the next day?" Rose said, still gaping at the space where the demon once was.
"Oh, Rose, you know how hard precision steering is with the old girl," he replied. "And since she drained all the TARDIS's energy, we're stuck here in this time for a few days!"
"Ah." Rose was still staring at the space where Mara had been. "I-I think I'm going to get some chips," she finally said. "I need to get out of here for a bit."
"Bring some back for me!" Jack asked as Rose ran out of the TARDIS.
Once she was gone, the Doctor turned to face the immortal captain again, fury on his face. "Look, just 'cause you're Looping now, doesn't mean you can just do what you like!"
The former Time Agent just shrugged at this. "Look, I just got back from dealing with the Three Families again last Loop, alright? I needed to unwind somehow!"
"Well, take it outside of my TARDIS next time!" the Doctor. "I won't have you and a giant green..." he waved his arms, "thing, snogging and hitting each other in my ship!"
"Alright, alright, fine." Jack walked towards the TARDIS doors, then stopped. "You want to get a drink after this? Once we've closed that door to Hell, anyways."
"Fine. God knows I need it, after all this."
[Persona 4]
Magical Mystery Murder!
Author: inc1013
"... Adachi can't be the killer this time."
Yu looked at his friend with a raised eyebrow. It was as if his friend suggested that their looping universe wasn't a setting created by sadistic game developers.
"Oh?"
"Yeah... I remember now... This time Adachi received a concussion from some biker thug and was sent to the hospital. He was in bad shape... TBI,Traumatic Brain Injury. He went into a coma for about three weeks ... specifically the three weeks in which Mayumi Yamano and Saki-Senpai were killed."
Yu looked into the distance. That was a solid Alibi... Adachi was innocent this loop. That only left three other notable suspects. Narutame and the Dojimas. Narutame was off the list because... well he confessed to everything he did. That left the Dojimas. And Ryotaro was off on business this loop during those periods at which point he left... Oh Masakado...
"I can't believe this."
"What partner?"
"The Killer is Nanako."
Yosuke looked at his fellow looper as if he just suggested that ascension was a good idea. "Er... Partner... Did you just suggest that Nanako killed them? Do... Do you need to visit Equestria aga-"
"I'M NOT INSANE!"
Yosuke was taken aback.
"Nanako is the only sensible choice, she's the only one without an alibi."
"...Then lets ask her... but I really don't think-"
…
"You jut couldn't quit while you were ahead. Could you... big bro" said Nanako with a grin not too dissimilar from Lucifer's.
"Your kidding me..." though the members of the investigation team.
"Why did you do it Nanako... you were so sweet... why did you do it?" asked Yu with concern in his voice.
"Oh big brother... you know how much I love watching Magical Detective Loveline... and what's a detective story without MURDERS?!" YAAAY!
"Alright so... do we fight with our personas or-"
"What the hell is a 'Persona'"
"...Well this'll be easy."
[Nocturne], [My Little Pony]
Naoki loses it – part 2
Author: Gamerex27
As he touched down on the moon, Naoki dug into his Pocket to find something to help him breathe in space. As much as he wanted to off himself to get the hell out of this place, A: Suffocation is a painful way to go, and B: It would just lead to an even worse Loop later on.
"Ow! Damnit!" he swore, as he withdrew a broken glass vial. "Friggin' hooves," he growled. "Hate these things."
He took another look at the vial. Given how the label was already smeared with blood, there was no way to tell what it was. Ah, well. Probably a pathogen of some kind that Isabeau had been experimenting with, during her "modern technophilia" phase. Given how the Magatama made him immune to most diseases, it was probably nothing to worry about.
Chucking the vial behind him, he draped the amulet around his neck, ensuring that the air bubble it had been emitting since he retrieved it from his Pocket would remain stable.
"Right. Sleep." He lied down, and closed his eyes. But, as much as he tried, he couldn't seem to fall asleep. He was just so angry-angry with the ponies for how they had tried to kill humanity, like so many before them. Angry at that bitch-no, not her. At her other self. He mentally labeled the other Looper as "Yellow", to stop himself from associating them with those soulless puppets of Celestia, followed by her other gaggle of friends.
And, most of all, he was angry with himself. Angry that he had lashed out when he really didn't need to. Angry that he had, once again, he had just exiled himself from the world, even though, unlike his baseline, he didn't have to be alone.
And angry that, even after a million million years of life, he still was alone in his Baseline. Aside from Pixie and the Horsemen (the latter of whom were barely there due to bouncing around the Amala branches), he was the only Looper from his baseline, no matter what he tried to get Chiaki, Isamu, Yuko, or anyone, anyone at all-to join him. Even with the common Fused Loops with everyone else in the Amala branch, he still had to sit through the same Apocalypse, over and over again. He still was forced to kill his friends, over and over again. No matter what he tried, no matter how hard he pleaded and threatened them to just sit down and avoid getting into the war for the Reasons, fate was always against him. Either they died horribly, or went mad and hungry with power, and he was forced to put them down, like rabid dogs.
"Why bother?" The Demon inside him asked. "If they are too weak to break the bonds of fate and grow, then they have no place in this infinite Expanse of time. If it companionship you desire, you simply need look towards demonkind."
"That's not it," Naoki replied. "They're my friends. I've known them ever since I was a little kid. Isamu was always my best friend, and Chiaki-" he stopped for a moment. "I liked her. Maybe even loved her. And Yuko was always a huge role model to me. Always loved teachers." He shifted in place. "Do you have any idea what it's like? Do you know how it feels, to have to kill your friends over and over and fucking over?!"
For a moment, his "companion" was silent.
"Yes," he finally answered, "yes, I do. Though I have no need for friends, we are one. I have seen your grief, your rage, your sorrow. And, while I could care less about them, if you destroy yourself with this anguish, you shall take our entire world with it. And, for the sake of my master and your own friends, I cannot let this happen."
Before Naoki could reply, a foreign voice interrupted their conversation."Who are you?," the stranger boomed. "Why are you here?!"
Growling again, Naoki forced himself to his hoov-feet-, and looked around for whichever asshole had interrupted his nap.
He finally saw the source of this interruption: a massive winged unicorn, decked from head to tail in armor. Her slitted eyes narrowed in suspicion, and her horn blazed with light.
"I'm here to crash for a bit," he said, feeling very annoyed at this interruption. "The hell do you want?"
"Who are you?!" the strange mar-woman-repeated.
"Told you," he snarled back, "I just want to sleep. Leave me alone. Now."
"Liar," she hissed. "Nopony is strong enough to enter my domain under their own power. Unless..."
Dark magic flared up around her entire body. "You were sent here by my wretched sister. No doubt to kill me, and ensure that my beautiful night would be forgotten forever!"
"The hell are you talking about?!" The Demifiend stepped towards the Mare in the Moon, growling in rage. "Get out of my sight, now!"
"You DARE threaten ME?!" Nightmare Moon boomed. "You will pay for your insolence!"
…
"-And then he tried to pluck out one of my feathers as a quill!" Gilda finished her story to her audience. "But the idiot forgot to actually hold me down, so I bucked him in the face and tied him down with the Brush until the police came."
Her story earned another fit of laughter from Rainbow Dash, as they neared the snack table of the festival. "Reminds me of the time where I replaced Hedwig in Hogwarts. I kept getting attacked by Voldemort's owls, since he was kind of petty that Loop and wanted to screw over Harry. By the end, I was half-owl, half healing spells!"
"Hello, darlings!" Pouring some more punch into her glass, Rarity cantered over towards the other girls, daintily balancing the wineglass on her back. "Is it just me, or do we have a lot of unfamiliar ponies this Loop?"
"I know, right?" Pinkie Pie said, popping out from under the table. "I wanted to throw 'Welcome to Equestria' parties for them, but none of them responded to the Ping! Soooo, I guess we've got a Stealth Looper here, since nobody without an Element responded to the Ping!"
"Ah wonder if it's Picard again?" Applejack asked. "Then again, Ah think that the Anchor might be Janeway or something. Or maybe someone from a new Loop. Thought I heard sumethin' earlier, like a bad Ping. Like, they didn't know how ta do it right."
"Oh, fiscus," Rainbow Dash sighed. "I don't even know if she's Looping or not, and she still makes me nervous."
"You do realize that the Crazy Janeway we've heard about before isn't her Baseline self?" Rarity asked, raising her eyebrows.
"Yeah, but the one time I ran into her personally, I ended up Looping in as Tom Paris. Annnd I Woke Up right when we were testing that new shuttle." Rainbow cringed at this memory. "Not fun. Not fun at all, especially since she only got crazier and crazier over time."
"There you are!" They turned around to see what looked like an animate Smarty Pants. Except this one had slitted eyes and Nyx's Cutie Mark.
"Another Smarty Pants Variant?" Gilda asked. "Which one this time? One of Sparklebutt's experiments gone wrong? A ghost possessing her doll? Adopted sister?"
"The first one this time," her fellow Element of Honesty replied, looking around a bit. "Hey, did any of you notice anything weird on the moon? I can't really control it like normal this time, but I thought I felt someone else other than Luna on it."
"Maybe that's where our missing Anchor is," Rarity speculated. 'I wonder who it is this-"
"There they are, hee ho!...I think," said a voice from behind them.
Turning around again, they saw Fluttershy, flanked by what looked like a walking snowman and a small, blue-coated pegasus filly.
"Who're you fellas?" Applejack inquired. "Y'all other Loopers?"
"Uh, yes, but-" Fluttershy trailed off as she saw Nyx, and put the pieces of the puzzle together. Her eyes practically popped out of her head, and her entire form went rigid with shock. "Oh...oh buck!"
"What's wrong?" the Nightmare incarnate asked. "Do I have something on my face? Did my fabric tear again?"
"No, that's not-" Fluttershy shouted. Quickly, she clamped her hoof to her mouth, preventing herself from going any further and drawing everypony's eyes on her.
After a few moments of deep breathing and biting down the bile rising in her throat, she allowed herself to continue. "We...we have a problem."
A flash of light in the sky, followed by a loud boom interrupted her. Everypony (and the scant few non-ponies) looked upwards, at the lightshow that had suddenly manifested on the moon.
"Oooooh! Aaaaaahhhh!" Staring at it in awe, the fairgoers stopped in their tracks to marvel at this amazing fireworks display.
"A big problem," Fluttershy corrected herself.
[Nocturne], [Devil May Cry], [other referenced branches]
The kiss of death
Author: wildrook
Dante couldn't believe what he was hearing. Truth be told, he experienced a few loops like the one Naoki went through, but he HAD to hear the full story.
"And they imprinted on you?" was what he asked Naoki.
"Unfortunately," was what Naoki replied. "I haven't even arrived to the part where the Black Sekirei got involved in these shenanigans..."
"You're telling me that there's a world looping that has aliens that are 105 women, 3 men, and a government conspiracy involving some kind of 'game,' while the kid in the South treats his like collectibles while the one on the east is trying to buy out the head company," Dante started. "On top of all that, a GUY reacted to you before shifting preferences, then this bloodthirsty chick tried to...not sure if you said kiss or kill...then again..."
"Dante, focus," was what Naoki muttered. "I really don't want to hear about your moments with Trish and Lady again."
"Right. You were talking about how the Gamemaster happens to be off his rocker, THEN dropped the bomb where he revealed that he's your father..."
"Except he wasn't. The guy I replaced, Minato Sahashi, was. I'm assuming he's the Anchor of that particular loop, and considering the stuff I've seen, I'm under the impression that he's a spineless wimp."
Dante then rolled his eyes. "I'll be honest," he said, "you're the second guy I've known that went through a fused loop or two like that."
Naoki was surprised. "Who was the first?"
"If you run into a guy named Shirou Emiya, ask him about his In-Flight moment. Still, how'd you de-rail it?"
"I'll be honest, after the stuff I've seen, the Landlady's Hannya mask doesn't phase me. At all. Other than that, this Natsuo guy was trying to get me for getting Karasuba since he was assigned her. Before that, there was Akitsu...and let's just say that I'm glad Louis doesn't act like Minaka...it's like the guy's got HIS insanity."
And by him, Naoki was referring to YHWH. Imagining someone with that guy's insanity and Lucifer's cunning is a nightmare to behold.
"Other than that...where can I find this Shirou guy, Dante?"
Dante was surprised. "Well, if you're lucky," he said, "you'd be a Servant. I went in as Saber, obviously, but I felt like an Archer. Speaking of, I owe the other red-coated guy a rematch. Otherwise, he's got red hair and golden eyes...and has the odd smell of a curse."
Naoki cringed. "What kind of curse?" he asked him.
"Answer me this...how much do you know about Angra Mainyu?"
[Persona 4]
Nanako Awakens
Author: Kalimaru
Narukami Yu Awoke in his bed in Dojima's house. A quick memory check confirmed that this Loop, he'd been fully taken in by Dojima after some disaster had happened to his parents while they were abroad. Moving his hand up and rubbing his face to really wake himself up, Yu felt that something was off. Standing up yielded the same results. Walking over to his dresser, Yu finally noticed that the furniture in his room was an awful lot taller than it was supposed to be. The reflection off his television actually told him the opposite; he was a lot shorter than he was supposed to be. Younger, too. In fact, Narukami Yu found himself to be six years old, exactly the same age as his cousin Nanako. Yu took a few deep breaths, and Pinged.
…
Just down the hall, Nanako rubbed the sleep from her eyes just as a buzzing at the very edge of her perception set all of her instincts on fire.
…
Not feeling any response Pings, Narukami set about getting out of his pajamas and getting dressed. Just as he was pulling on his underpants, his door slammed open. Nanako, outfitted in an ornate white barrier jacket, brought a sword up and pointed it at him. In a knee-jerk response, Narukami summoned Izanagi to block whatever attack this version of his favorite cousin was preparing. What was summoned was, in fact, not the typical one.
Instead, the Izanagi that stood between Narukami and Nanako was only four feet tall, with the same proportions as a child. In its hands was a metal baseball bat, held like a sword before it. Its mask was held on by its headband, a winding white gauze that flowed back from the head in twin tails.
Seeing the sight, Nanako spoke in a foreign tongue. After a few different attempts marked by lilting tones and differing facial expressions, she tried a heavily accented Japanese. "Stand down your familiar, please."
Narukami complied, noting the similarity between his cousin and Nanoha, and made a leap of Loop Logic. Getting Izanagi to ease back and lower the bat, he stepped around his Persona. "Nanako? Are you Awake?"
Nanako picked up on the phrase and lowered her weapon as well. "Yes, just a little Loopy. Where are we?"
Narukami dispelled Izanagi and became acutely aware at his state of undress. "Give me a few minutes to get dressed and I'll meet you downstairs so we can sort this out."
…
Once he'd gotten downstairs, Narukami had begun his explanation as he started making breakfast. "Alright. Before I get too into everything, give me a run through of your identity from out of Loop."
Nanako nodded. "Nanako Takamachi, TSAB Ace Fighter and Operator, wielder of Heaven's Claymore." At the last, Nanako glanced at her sword unconsciously.
Narukami nodded, and served Nanako an omelette as he sat down with one of his own. Nanako was in full regalia, her sword placed between them on the table. The weapon looked like something he himself would use to fight Shadows, and Yu felt a pang of pride that his cousin was also a sword user. Turning to her, Narukami looked her over. Her face was the same as usual, but it was set from years of combat. Her barrier jacket, white with pink trim, was a deceptively thin dress that ended at her knees. Around her shoulders was a shawl, held in place by a pair of wing shaped clasps. The wings showed up again as a pair of ties to hold Nanako's hair in her classic tails.
All signs of Nanoha.
Narukami turned his attention back to Nanako's eyes. "Well, this is your home Loop. The Persona continuity, a part of the Amalaverse. Here, you are Nanako Dojima, hyper-competent six year old and my cousin. I'm Narukami Yu, and typically I'm your seventeen year old cousin who's visiting for the year while my parents are abroad. Right now, I'm the same age as you, and your father, Ryotaro Dojima, took me in."
Nanako nodded, and started on her omelette. "Variant loop. Nanoha-neechan and Fate kept saying as such when I was there." As the food touched her tongue, Nanako felt something come over her, and her vision blurred. Rubbing her eyes left wet marks on her hands, and she looked back up at Narukami. In response, he walked around the table and gave her a hug.
"Welcome home."
[Persona 4], [Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha]
Nanako Awakens – Prequel
Author: Kalimaru
Nanoha smiled and curled around the source of warmth. "Fate-chan..." She mumbled other words, but was quickly falling back into the sweet embrace of sleep.
A young voice cut right through the fog of comfort. "Nanoha-neechan?"
And like that, she was awake. Flicking her eyes open, Nanoha found herself staring into a mirror. Or... wait. No. That wasn't right.
The girl opposite her struggled out of her arms and got out of bed. "Wake up, Neechan. We need to go to school."
A quick check of her memories revealed that Nanoha had a twin this Loop. "Nanako." Inwardly, Nanoha cringed. 'You've got to be kidding me. Did Mother and Father really not think that this would be confusing?"
Nanako stopped getting dressed and turned to her. "Yes, Nanoha?"
'Well, at least I'll have someone to interact with before Yuuno and Fate get here.' Nanoha smiled warmly. "You're right. We should get ready. Pass me my uniform."
…
As Nanoha and Nanako walked to school, happily making small talk, they heard a voice call them. "Hey! Nano! Nana!" Together, the girls turned and saw their friends Alisa and Suzuka approaching.
Nanako put her hands on her hips. "Alisa! Why do you keep calling us that? Stop it!"
Alisa simply laughed. "You're just mad cuz you're seven! Nano doesn't worry about it!"
Nanoha chuckled at the childish antics that her friends and sister engaged in. "Don't let her get to you, Nanako-nee. So what did you all dream about last night?"
When Alisa and Suzuka responded with typical bits of 'fluffy animals' and 'food', Nanako went silent. Everyone picked up on it, but Suzuka was the first to speak up. "Nanako? What did you dream about?"
Nanako's eyes seemed to glaze over, and she lost control of her tongue. "Big Bro." Hearing herself, she quickly covered her mouth with both hands.
Nanoha narrowed her eyes in thought. "Like, Kyouya-nii?"
Nanako shook her head. "No. Kyouya-nii is different from Big Bro. Big Bro was friends with a bear, and an idol, and all sorts of people. And he made omelettes." Nanako's eyes glazed over again. "My favorite omelettes."
Nanoha nodded to herself. 'Definitely a Looper. Probably on one of her early Loops, too. I'd better call Fate to tell her.'
…
In light of Nanako's presence, a number of Loop staples were altered. That night, when Yuuno Scrya was forced to call for help, Nanako was the one to respond.
…
Nanako looked between the shadow creature and the pink pearl in her hand. "What do I do?"
Yuuno the Ermine jumped up onto her shoulder. "Call out the name that appears in your heart! You have the potential!"
Looking within herself, Nanako nodded. "Heaven's Claymore! Please!"
A heavily Scottish accented voice responded jovially. "Aye! Synchronizing Barrier Jacket Formation! Weapon Form Ready!"
Seeing the forming jacket, Nanako felt a small buzz of recognition at the outfit. 'Loveline?'
Claymore's voice yanked Nanako back to the present. "All systems optimal! Combat Ready!"
Nanako noticed the giant sword now in her hands. It was light, far lighter than it appeared, but she still needed to use two hands to hold it up. The hilt was ornate, a set of balancing scales carved into it with a weight hanging freely off either side. The pink pearl was inlaid at the fulcrum of the scale decal, and from it the Scottish voice spoke again. "Master! Incoming!"
Looking up, Nanako had mere seconds to leap away from the attacking creature. Out of fear, she cried out. "Big Bro!"
Claymore's voice cut in once more. "Barachiel Activated." The weights on the scale lit, and electricity ran up the blade. As the creature jumped at her once more, Nanako lashed out with the sword. In the wake of the blade, arcs of plasma leapt out and knocked the creature back, injuring it. Before the creature could make another attempt, a beam of light struck it from the darkness and another alighted between Nanako and the now freed Jewel Seed.
"Nanoha-nee?"
Nanoha nodded back at her sister. "Sorry it took me so long, Nanako. I had to meet up with someone. Now, want to learn how to seal?"
…
From there, the changes grew. With prior knowledge, Fate worked with the TSAB to bring in her mother.
…
Entering Precia's chamber, the three mage girls readied themselves. In the center, guarding a giant glass container with her body, Precia readied her own weapons. "So, even my doll has chosen to keep me from my Alicia. So be it. Come!"
Just as Fate and Nanoha readied to leap forward, Nanako held Claymore out to stop them. "Wait, girls, I want to try something." When they made no move to stop her, Nanako stepped forward and held her sword aloft. "Raphael!"
"Raphael Activated." The scale decal glowed with pink light, and the light flowed out from the hilt to the tip of the blade and coated the whole sword in a dull light.
Behind Nanako, Fate cocked her head. "Raphael? Like the Ninja Turtle?"
Nanoha smiled. "No, the angel." As Nanako's sister, Nanoha had been the first to see the new spell in action and smiled wider.
Precia snorted. "So, you would fight me yourself, child?"
Nanako shook her head. "Nope."
Precia snarled. "Lies!"
In that instant, Nanako was behind both Precia and Alicia's container, a straight line of light lay etched through both. With a grunt, Nanako collapsed, Heaven's Claymore no longer glowing.
Raising her hand to the line, Precia laughed. "A useless spell, to result in only-urp!" Doubling over, Precia vomited. Bile and a mixture of compounds fell from her mouth, and the room filled with horrendous smells. Coughing up the last of whatever substance it was, Precia turned and grimaced. "A low blow, child. Inducing vomiting is no way to win a fight."
Nanako laughed weakly from where she lay drained on the floor. "Not vomiting. Salvation."
Precia's response was cut off by a dull thump. All together, the members turned to the glass container. Inside, Alicia Testarossa tapped on the glass and mouthed words to her mother.
Nanoha laughed out loud at Fate's look of surprise. "While we fought and hunted the Jewel Seeds, Nanako had been trying to learn the abilities of Heaven's Claymore. She's only learned the one new one, and it's a total healing shiv."
Nanako groaned loud enough to cut her sister off. "Nanoha-nee, stop expositing and help me! I can't get up!"
…
Lindy Harlaown boggled at the results showing on the med-bay screens. "What did you say?"
Nanako, lying in the bed between Precia and Alicia, huffed. "I fully healed both of them! It's one of Claymore's spells!"
Lindy shook her head. "I have to say that this is getting ridiculous. There is nothing in Heaven's Claymore, spell or otherwise, that could do this. In fact, not once has any sign of such magic been recorded by any civilization that we have records of. I mean, there isn't even a sign of damage! That's just not possible!"
Fate leaned over and whispered in Nanoha's ear. "Nanako channeled magic from her home Loop, didn't she?"
Nanoha laughed. "Yeah. And it seems that her magic is at least closely related to ours for her to use Heaven's Claymore. Or, you know, she has magic from here too."
Fate put on a fake smile. "I shudder to think what the universe is going to do with a mini-you running around making friends by cutting them down with a healing claymore."
Nanoha chuckled. "Aren't you paying attention, Fate-chan? Me and Nanako are twins."
[Nocturne], [My Little Pony]
Naoki loses it – parts 3 and 4 (also known as Naoki REALLY loses it)
Author: Gamerex27
"I told you," Naoki growled, wringing the blood off of his hoov-hands, "not to get in my way. Can't say I didn't tell you so, Luna."
"Th...thank you," Luna was able to squeeze out. Then, the cured alicorn hissed in pain, clutching at her fractured ribs with a foreleg. "I...I am so, so sorry-"
"Shut it," the Demifiend grumbled. "Whining never solves anything. If you want to thank me, just leave me alone, and let me sleep."
The troubled Anchor flopped down onto the Moon's surface with an audible thud, ignoring Luna's whinnies of pain from having the evil literally beaten out of her. Closing his eyes, he drifted off to sleep. Or, at least, tried to.
He tried to push the ponies out of his mind, but the thoughts kept coming back. The memories of the Loop where he had seen them. At first, he found them hilarious, and he actually fell over laughing when he saw them for the first time. Who actually names their child "Twilight Sparkle?" Why would any species ever evolve pastel coat colors and tattoos on their asses? How could they build castles or even simple tools without hands?
Then, it happened. The Barrier came close enough to Tokyo that some of his friends decided to go to the Bureau to get into the limiting supply of life-saving serum. When he saw Chiaki afterwards, all of his cheer and mockery of the Equestrians left his body in an instant. Her eyes were hollow, and the smile on her face too perfect to be real. He scrambled to see them all, classmate over classmate, only to find the same thing. They were empty inside: every part of their beings, every negative, defining trait, every hobby they had, every bit of humanity, ripped out and replaced by a mindless obsession with friendship and harmony. Like the Great Will and his cronies, but given a coat of colorful paint and a transparent attempt at pleasantries to mask their ill will towards the Children of Man.
Even though his access to his Pocket, and therefore his powers, were sealed that Loop, Naoki had refused to just sit by and let these monsters kill Earth itself. He tracked down the various resistance movements, handed them blueprints to chemical weapons and futuristic firearms that he had memorized long ago, and sparked a full scale war.
By the time those six pawns of Celestia had found him, he had already destroyed dozens of their facilities. He fought to his last breath, spitting hate and curses at them even as they held him down and the yellow one poured that elixir of death down his throat.
"Ah, yes, and then you were dead for the remainder of the Loop," said the Demon (he really needed to name it sometime). "It was a simple matter to overwhelm and crush the pitiful attempt at conditioning the potion held. Again, I ask you: do you wish to see how it ended? How I slaughtered Sparkle and her precious friends, and sent Celestia's empire crashing down? Will seeing their suffering put you at ease?"
"No," he replied, "shut up. Not in the mood. I don't want to even think about them. About...me," he said, waving his useless legs about," at all."
"And yet, you cannot stop thinking about them. Are they attempting to deceive you, and lure us into a false sense of security before they invade and conquer the Earth? Or were they speaking the truth, and the events of our first meeting were just unfortunate happenstance? There is only one way to find out."
Using his own Pocket, the Demon materialized a set of DVDs in front of Naoki. Raising his head, he sighed.
"Really? You want me to watch these? I know it's their backup and all, but I'll get diabetes from seeing just one frame of this crap."
"You and I both know we cannot avoid this forever," the Demon said. "If we encounter their...lawful...selves once again, we must learn their weaknesses. How to destroy them, how to break their wills, and how to emerge victorious."
"Fine," Naoki hissed, pulling a laptop out of his Pocket and sliding the DVDs into the disc drive. "This had better be worth it."
"My little pony, my little pony," the narrator sand as the opening credits rolled, "I used to wonder what friendship could be..."
…
"I'll tell you what we learned, Discord!" the computer said, playing an episode of Equestria's backup out of order yet again. "We've learned that friendship isn't always easy, but there's no doubt it's worth fighting for!"
Anything further from the episode was cut short by the sound of shattering glass, and a thud from a hoof slamming down on the moon's surface.
Ignoring his now bleeding hoo-hand, Naoki pulled back from the broken laptop, breathing heavily.
"A monster that wanted to cloak the world in eternal night and torture her sister's royal subjects," he said to himself. "A pair of ruthless buisnessmen, who were willing to ruin a family's life for a profit. A stage magician who wanted to psycologically break others, just to prove she's better than them. A spirit of absolute chaos, who toyed with the minds and souls of everything he came across for his own amusement. A doppelganger, who planned to bleed a whole country dry of all emotion, leaving behind empty shells. A sadistic tyrant who conquered all he saw, terrorizing his people so much they repressed the mere thought of him from their minds. A power-hungry demigod, who sucked the world dry of energy and would have left the entire world to a slow and painful death."
"All of them," he said, his tone steadily rising, "beaten by one thing. Not magic. Not physical force. No inspiring speeches. No strategy. No actual effort at all. All it too for these ponies to beat each and every single one of them...was the power of friendship."
The surface of the moon was silent for a few, seconds, save for Naoki's deep breathing.
"Friendship," he said. "Friendship. FRIENDSHIP! No effort, no suffering, no sacrifice of any kind, no lasting damage, no loss, and not a single negative consequence to show for it! All it took to stop these catastrophies was a bullshit Mac Guffin and the POWER. OF. FRIENDSHIP!"
"Not once did anyone die!" he ranted. "Not once were they ever on their own! Not once did they experience any actual pain! Not once, did they suffer at all!"
"And they have the nerve," he said, almost frothing at the mouth, "to call this place a Sanctuary?! They have the balls to say they can help any Looper, no matter what?! When they themselves haven't had any real pain, any real suffering to even begin to understand just how screwed up the universe can BE?!"
More silence.
"While your rage may be warranted," the Demon said, "perhaps you should quell your anger for now. They are not responsible for-"
"I. Don't. Care." Naoki hissed, through clenched teeth. "Their whole lives, eon after eon, have been nothing but good times, parties, and happiness! Why?! Why do they get every good thing dumped into their laps, when every single thing I try to fix my world, to save my friends, fail EVERY! FUCKING! TIME!?"
Howling in rage, Naoki stood on his hind legs, and beat at a particularly large rock to his side.
If he were in a better state of mind, he might have noticed his control over his self slipping. If he had not been enraged by this unfortunate twist of fate, then he might have remembered exactly why having an outburst of rage in the proximity of a goddess only recently purged of all her evil was a terrible idea.
But, as cruel Fate would have it, he did not. When he finally stopped hitting the rock, he saw that he had worn it down to powder. He glanced at his hoo-hands, their nail-palms blistered and oozing with blood.
"Do you want the power to do it, then?" a voice from behind him asked.
He didn't respond, or even think to ask who this was. Naoki's anger had already blinded him to any reason or form of logical thought.
Had he looked more closely at the vial he had injured himself on earlier, he would have noticed that it contained the infamous Delphinus Parasite from the Schwarzwelt. A virus not even he could resist, supercharging his aggression, lowering what few inhibitions he had left, and pushing every single thought he had towards rampant violence and vengeance.
But he did not.
"Do you want the power to make them pay?" the voice, known to most as Shadowfright (but some as Larry), said, motioning for his compatriots behind him to shush and stop their snickering.
"Yes," he said. "I will make them pay."
[Nocturne], [Strange Journey], [SMT IV], [Devil May Cry], [Five Nights at Freddy's]
Five Nights at Dante's, with special Amala toppings!
Author: Gamerex27
Dante grinned as he checked the cameras again. While it was weird he had already been in this Loop several times, he couldn't deny that screwing around with these animatronics wasn't kind of fun. Sure, the job didn't pay well, but, as a Looper, he really didn't need to worry about money, since he could always just pawn off some spare weapons from his Pocket if he was strapped for cash.
As he glanced at Chica heading into the kitchen, he noted that the animatronics were acting even weirder than usual. Freddy seemed to be spending most of his time staring at the posters and newspaper clippings around the restaurant, Bonnie and Chica walked in pairs this time rather than in opposing hallways...
And then there was this Loop's Foxy. This one was even more badly damaged than usual: large strips of the costume had fallen off of him, leaving massive gashes all over his chest, legs, and head with the metal endoskeleton poking through. He didn't seem to be concerned with trying to kill him, either: he mostly just stared into the camera, making bizarre, disturbing, and sometimes just plain weird faces at him.
An incredibly loud crashing sound, followed by a mechanical screech, jerked Dante out of his musings. He flicked the camera over to the hallway to see Freddy tackling...Golden Freddy?...down the hallway, ramming him against another wall.
Dante felt something grip the back of his seat, and whirl him around. Right before he could pull out one of his guns, he came face to face with Foxy.
For a moment, both of them were silent, leaving both of them at a stand-off. The moment the robot lunged at him, of course, Dante was prepared to activate the Devil Trigger and break him apart piece by piece, but you never know: he might be trying something different this time.
Eventually, Foxy crossed his arms, glared at the demon/angel hybrid, and opened his mouth. "What the hell is wrong with you, Dante?!" he asked, in a mechanical, scratchy voice. "No Ping at all? You're supposed to send Pings out to other Loopers, asshole!"
Wait a moment...even with the distortion and audio glitches, that voice sounded familiar.
"Naoki?" Dante asked. "The hell are you doing here?" He pulled out two of his preferred guns and pointed them at Naoki's head.
"What happened to our contract?" the other Looper snarked, between the sounds of the two Freddy's struggles in the back of the restaurant. "If you kill me, you won't get paid by the suits. Thought you'd know that by now, after all those Tandem Runs."
"First," Dante said, slowly, "I could care less about money. Second, why shouldn't I be suspicious of you? Last time I heard what you were doing, you'd lost it. You'd gone full-blown Sakura. And, as much as I don't want to believe it, a few other Loopers told me you tried to ASCEND!"
There was a tense silence between the two of them for a few moments, unbroken save by Golden Freddy's cries of pain in the background.
"Look," the Demifiend finally said, "the first part...is kind of true. I wouldn't call it Sakura Syndrome, but...I was in a dark place. I got low-really low-and I might have gone on a few murdurous rampages. But the second thing you mentioned? Ascencion? Not in a million years. Okay, maybe I was considering it, to get out of my shithole of a Loop. But...I didn't. I found the son of a bitch that was ruining my life, and killed him."
"There was someone screwing with your Loop, then..." Dante muttered. "I thought we couldn't actually fix anything in Yggdrasil, though: that's the Admins' job."
"The old adage," Naoki confirmed. " 'Any act of creation or destruction not done by an Admin is a lie.' Well, it's not true. Sure, Masakado might tell you he was the one who actually ended up firewalling the damn thing off, but I was the one to find the fucking thing in the first place and fight it. Course, it messed up my code a bit: old Stoneface says I'm a 'Travelling Looper' now," he said, making finger-quotes with his intact hand. "Trillions of years, stuck in one of the worst places in the omniverse, and I finally get what I deserve. A break."
"Good for you," Dante said, slowly putting his gun back into his coat. "But if you try to go Sakura on us again," he warned, "I'm going to hunt you down and end you. A few of those Loopers you killed put up bounties for you next time I saw 'em."
"Trust me," he said, "it won't. I...fixed that problem. With extreme prejudice."
Metallic footsteps sounded from outside, and Freddy popped his face in the door, carrying Golden Freddy's severed head in his hands. "Got him," he said, in a mechanized version of Langdon Alder's voice. "I'm having Arthur analyze the rest of the body now, to see if we can find the best way to exorcize these costumes for the local Anchor to use in the future."
"Crewman Alder," a voice said over the restaurant's PA system, "I do not believe this will be particularly useful to this particular Branch. From your personal copy of the back-up game in your DEMONICA, it appears this is a Variant that is vastly different from the Baseline. In addition, we have not taken into account the Expansion recently released in the Hub. I believe that this Branch experiences an abnormally large volume of Variant Loops: therefore, the source, cause, and type of malevolent spirits that possess these animatronics, or if they are even possessed at all, varies from Loop to Loop."
"Damn," swore the Marine. "I take it the psycho who murdered all those kids is equally malleable too, then?"
"I believe so," replied the Looping AI.
The veteran of the Schwarzwelt sighed. "Figures," he rasped. "You're replacing the guard again, merc?"
Dante nodded. "I seem to come here a lot. You that guy with the 'Iron Man' armor I met a few dozen Loops back?"
"Yeah" he replied. "Still not sure how you were able to deflect bullets with nothing but that coat of yours."
"Half-demon," Dante said, shrugging. "So...now what do we do?"
"If you will excuse us," Isabeau said, poking her feathered head into the room, "Flynn and I shall spend this Loop working on our plans to allow our fellows to Loop. Now that Masakado was able to isolate exactly what was wrong with out Loop, we may be able to come up with an idea to circumvent the...what did he call it?"
"I think he called it 'Grimdarkness,' in that memo he sent all of us a few Loops back," Langdon said. "Whatever this thing was-or is-it's making it nigh-impossible to get anyone else Looping."
"You do that," Dante said, getting up from his seat. "I'm going to see if I can't find that creepy-ass puppet and put a few holes in it."
With that, the demon slayer left the room, leaving the two Amala Loopers alone.
"Naoki," Langdon said, "what exactly did you do?"
"Haven't we been over this before? I saw those...ponies...last Loop, and-"
"Not what I meant," the Marine sighed. "I mean, what was that Dante said about you trying to Ascend?"
"I keep telling people, I didn't go through with it!" Naoki hissed through clenched, nestled teeth. "Okay, fine. I'll just set the record straight now. Here's what happened..."
[Nocturne], [Devil May Cry]
Hi-No-Squirrelguchi
Author: Gamerex27
As Naoki, Dante, Pixie, and Hee-Ho entered Kagatsuchi's chamber, they prepared themselves for a tough fight. No matter the Loop, he was always a very difficult foe, due to being the avatar of the Great Will (and since he was spread all across the Amalaverse, he had more than enough power to give even the oldest of loopers some trouble.)
"This had better be quick," the Demi-Fiend growled. "All of these damn squirrels are getting on my nerves. I mean, Squirrel Forneus would have been bizarre enough on its own. But...Squirrel Hikawa as his demon form? Squirrel Masakado? Squirrel ME?!" he shouted, angrily pulling at his bushy tail to make a point. "For the love of...every single friggin' human was a damned furry in this Loop!"
"You forgot Squirrel Isamu, hiding his tail under his hat-somehow," Pixie mentioned. "And Squirrel Chiaki, beating all those Manikins to death with an acorn."
" 'S not all bad," Dante said. "I mean, seeing my old man as a squirrel demon? That made this whole thing worth it."
"No, it doesn't," Naoki growled. "Kagatsuchi!" he yelled, breaking off their conversation. "We got a Reason for you! Put this Lo-world back, exactly the way it was before, or I'll choke you to death on your own Tower!"
"I think you mean 'strangle', ho," Hee-Ho muttered as Kagatsuchi turned his giant round head to face them. "Remember what that masked guy said? Choking is...when...pee-heeple..."
He trailed off as the four of them saw exactly what Kagatsuchi looked like in this strange Loop.
"Even if I would permit you to fulfill your blasphemous wish," The avatar of the Great Will proclaimed, twitching its small black nose in irritation, "Thou hast forgotten thine acorn. The tree of a new world cannot be planted. Furthermore, thou hast slain all other Reason-bearers, leaving this world trapped in-"
"FUCK IT! I'M DONE!"
With this, Naoki turned his back on the Vortex World's sun and strolled back towards the tower's exit, furry hands folded into his pockets, and a scowl on his face.
"Really?" Dante called back at Naoki. "You're leaving just because the disco ball looks like every other demon we've seen in this Loop?"
"I refuse to fight that...thing," he hissed through clenched teeth. "I might not have any sanity, but I sure as hell have my dignity."
"Nope, you're fighting this piece of shit," Dante declared, as he and Hee-Ho grabbed Naoki by the arms and pulled him back to the fight. "I mean, you've killed almost everything in all the omniverse at some time or another, and this is what you back out on?!"
Naoki chittered in irritation, then clasped a hand to his mouth when he realized what he had done. "Fine," he said, as Kagatsuchi spun around in preparation for battle. "Let's kill this fucker so we can get the hell off this crazy train already."
[Persona 4]
Squirrelsona
Author: wildrook
Yu Narukami then sweat-dropped.
First off, most of the Shadows were Squirrel-Based, as well as the Personae.
Second, as terrifying as Ameno-Sagiri was, the fact that it was a giant acorn this time didn't exactly help.
Third, why were the Arcana nut-themed this time?
"I need to talk to Igor and Margaret about this," he muttered.
[Nocturne], [My Little Pony]
Naoki loses it – parts 5 and 6
Author: Gamerex27
Biting her lower lip, Fluttershy touched down onto the fairgrounds, her enhanced druid senses already working overtime to find her friends.
"Let's see...Rarity always had that faint smell of perfume, and Applejack always smells like...apples," she reminded herself, as she walked past the ponies playing various carnival games and eating sugared treats. "It looks like they were at that horseshoe-throwing booth, then went towards the-"
"AND STAY OUT!"
With a yelp of surprise, Fluttershy barely managed to get out of the way before two disgruntled guards threw a dark figure out of the fairgrounds with a telekinetic throw.
"If we catch you roughing up the locals again," the pegasus guard warned, "we'll be throwing you in the dungeons next. And it's warm down there."
As they trotted off, the figure got to his feet, groaning. "H...hey! You can't treat me like that? Don't you know who -HIC- I am, ho?"
Fluttershy made her way past a few staring onlookers to get a closer look at the stranger. From what she could see, it looked like an animate snowman-about three feet tall, colored pitch-black, bearing fangs and a ridiculous outfit that made him look like a court jester (like what Celestia had hired one Loop where Discord had stolen all the humor from Ponyville to save them).
"I...I'm the demon king, Black Frost, ho! If...If I ever see you again, I'll -HIC- jab icicles through every hole of your body, hee ho!"
"Don't mind him," said a small filly, pushing her way past the crowd. "He's had too much cider, and he gets rowdy when he's drunk."
Rolling her eyes, the tiny pegasus grabbed Black Frost's pants in her mouth and began dragging the drunken demon away. Tilting her head, Fluttershy began to wonder if these were more Loopers: there was some air of chaos magic billowing from their bodies, which almost nopony could use save Pinkie Pie.
As the blue pegasus dragged the snowman behind a tent, Fluttershy sent out a Ping. Sure enough, she got two responses close by-one came back promptly, but one came a few seconds late, and warbled, as if the Looper was too intoxicated to do it properly.
"Um...excuse me," she said as she cantered out of the dispersing crowd and behind the tent, "but are you feeling a little...Loopy?"
"I hee-hate when people do that, ho!" Black Frost hissed, swatting at the filly in a futile attempt to break out of her grip. "Can't you just say outright if you're Looping, and skip the little game, hee ho?!"
"Ignore him," the other Looper said, as she released the snowman from her grip. "He might sound like a big jerk, but he doesn't have much bite. I'm Pixie, and this doofus is Hee-Ho."
"I'm Fluttershy," the druid said in response. "Your name is a little...generic, isn't it?"
Sighing, Pixie held up one of her hooves. "It's a long story, but most demons are offshoots of the greater selves-the ones that you hear about in myth and legends-including me. I sometimes go by Superpixie," she said, as a staggering amount of magical energy gathered in her hoof, "since I got a big powerup in this Labrynth of Amala..."
"Amala?!" Fluttershy tensed up. "Do you know Naoki?"
"'Course we do," grumbled Hee-Ho, "he's our Anchor! That asshole's been a -HIC- pain in the ass for a while now: always quiet and mood-killing, ho!"
"How long has...never mind," Fluttershy said. "Listen, he snapped at me earlier, then went off to the Moon to be alone for a while. But I felt a...premonition after our fight. Something horrible might happen, and he might be in the middle of it."
"Dang," Superpixie replied, shivering a little. "That explains what I picked up with those Feywild senses I got from that Dungeons and Dragons Loop. Like the fabric of reality got punched in the face. We should try to find him. Is there an easy way to get to the Moon?"
"No!" Wincing at the fact that she had raised her voice, Fluttershy continued in her usual whisper. "He seemed really on edge when he Woke up, so if my friends and I try to help him, he might go berserk again. I think our best option is to find the other Loopers and plan something from there-find a way to approach him without setting him off."
"How can you -HIC- be sure Naoki's the one who's gonna screw everything up?" Hee-Ho asked, struggling to his feet. "Sure, he's a douche, but he's not he's not the kinda guy who's crash a Loop on a whim, ho!"
"That's just it." Fluttershy motioned for the demons to follow her, then continued. "What I felt from him is that he's a ticking time bomb...I don't know what happens in your Baseline, but it's almost like he's been damming all of his stress and anger up. Like a powder keg, set to blow at any moment. I can only hope we have enough time to snuff the fuse before he explodes.
…
"And that's why Nyx not being Nightmare Moon is a bad thing," Fluttershy told the other Elements of Harmony, as Black Frost gorged himself on pie at the snack tables, and Pixie tried in vain to wrench him away from what few snacks remained. "It's not Luna that I'm afraid of..."
"It's the Nightmare Force," Rarity concluded grimly. "If he is as volatile as you say, there's no telling what could happen if they get their...appendeges...on him. I mean, they practically turned me into an alicorn in Baseline!"
"We need to get to the moon, then," Applejack added. "Dashie, can ya fly Pixie up to the Moon, an' see if she can help him?"
Nodding, Rainbow Dash grabbed Pixie in her hooves, then blurred out of existence as she blasted beyond Rainboom speeds towards the lunar body. Several seconds later, she landed again, rubbing at a large welt on her forehead.
"Ow..." she groaned. "Celestia's seal around it is way stronger than it usually is. It's keyed to her magical signature, too: even if I ascended, it might take to long to wear the dang thing down."
"Don't worry!" Pinkie Pie said, slapping Dash on the back. "I'm sure she'll help bring down that barrier if we just talk to her!"
"I really hope you're right," Pixie said, pulling a charisma potion from her Pocket. "I can almost hear the Feywild shaking in anticipation. Something is going to go down, and if we can't convince Celestia to help bring down the barrier...well, Oberon knows what might happen."
…
"What part are they at now?" Nyx asked as the group of ponies and demons reached the center square, where Celestia was about to give her speech. "I usually don't Wake Up early enough to come here, since I'm usually still with Luna. Part of Luna. Same thing, I guess."
"We've only got have a few minutes," Rainbow Dash said, "so we need to get backstage quick to talk to her."
"Wait a second," Rarity interrupted, "why would Celestia listen to us? We haven't been with Twilight this Loop, so she wouldn't know that we're the Elements of Harmony."
"That's what this is for," Pixie said, hoofing over the charisma potion to Fluttershy. "We're going to need some other way to convince her to break the seal and defeat those Nightmares you mentioned, before Naoki runs into them. This is from one of those dungeons we went to a few Loops back."
"And since we all have a part to play in this festival," Fluttershy noted, "she'll probably listen to us anyways. We just need to tell those guards that something's wrong," she said, pointing a hoof at the guards standing by the stage entrance, "and we can talk to Celestia. I think."
Tilting her head back, she downed the potion in one gulp, then shuddered. "Urgh. It tastes fine, but that texture is like drinking sand."
The group approached the back of the stage. The guards, who had just been casually chatting about last night's hoofball game, snapped to attention, their wings extending to block the door. "Halt!" one of them said. "If you don't have the Princess's express permission to enter the complex..."
"You mean a backstage pass," muttered his comrade.
"Shush! If you don't, then leave this area!"
Fluttershy blinked rapidly, as the potion took effect, giving her exactly the right words and posture to solve this problem. "I'm the pony in charge of the bird's choir," she explained. "There was a bit of the problem, though: the dirunal birds are feeling a bit under the weather. I need to ask Princess Celestia if she could delay raising the sun a bit, so their medication can kick in."
Tilting his head, the guard studied Fluttershy. "Hank," he said, "please inform the Princess that somepony needs to see her."
The other guard nodded, and trotted backstage. Mere moments later, he galloped back outside. "I'm terribly sorry, ma'am, but the Princess is just about to go onstage for the big speech. You'll have to wait until the speech is done to speak with her."
"But this is important," Fluttershy stressed. Already, she could feel her mane stand on end. The sense of forboding grew more and more, as the tall trees and birds flying high above grew quiet in awe and terror. "If we don't speak to her now-"
Before she could even finish her sentence, a colossal impact shook the earth beneath their feet. All the ponies in the area were flung into the air a few feet, shrieking in surprise and struggling to land hoof-first.
Moments later, everypony and demon landed on each other in an undignified heap.
"Gt ur hff out o mi fac, He-whoh!" Hee-Ho hissed, muffled by the appendage lodged in his mouth.
"Um...sorry," Nyx said, as she removed her hoof from the demon's mouth and hopped off the ponypile. "I think...Luna's here. I can feel it."
"Maybe...she just broke out early?" Rarity said hopefully.
"Wheeeeeee!" Pinkie Pie squealed, having been sent flying higher due to her lighter weight. However, by the time she had come down and seen the sight on-stage, her face had frozen into a no-longer real smile.
"Um...Girls?" she said, much more slowly than she usually spoke. "It...it's super bad! Really, really bad! Like, I'm going to have to throw a super mega big Chaos party to-"
Out of seemingly nowhere, Fluttershy doubled over in pain, clutching at her head with her hooves.
The noise of the world around her was drowned out, as the empathic abilities of the Element of Kindness kicked into overdrive. She felt...pain. Agony: the kind one felt when they were dying a slow, painful death. But beyond that...
There was hate. Sheer, undiluted hate. Hatred that would make a Dalek quake in terror, and hate that gave an eons-old Looper like herself pause. Hate unlike anything ever seen on the face of Equestria. Hatred that did not belong in this, or any, world.
She barely managed to stay upright as her vision swam, the barrage of emotions nearly knocking her on her flank.
"...cube? You alright?"
Slowly, Rainbow Dash and Applejack faded into view. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see everyone else running full-tilt towards the stage.
"You blacked out for a few seconds," Dash told her. "Listen, if you're still woozy, I can carry you on my-"
"No." Shakily, Fluttershy got to her hooves. "I'm fine," she said, as the other Loopers led her around the stage. "What exactly..." she trailed off, at the sight in front of her.
And what a sight it was. Hundreds of ponies, shocked into stone-cold silence. A horrified Princess Celestia on the stage, frozen in terror.
And Luna. Or, to be more precise, Luna's mangled and broken body, barely clinging to life. She breathed slowly, her breath labored, lungs punctured due to the bits of bone spread all over her insides. Her legs twitched, bent at wrong angles. And, while there was almost no blood, it was obvious to anyone looking that the Princess was at death's door.
"Sis...ter..." she managed to say, tears welling up in her eyes. "I'm... sorry. I was wrong. Please...Stop him. He will...he musn't...stop him."
With that, Princess Luna's eyes closed, and her breath ceased. The Diarch of the Moon, one of the most powerful ponies in all of Equestria, was dead.
"Lu-LUNA!" Tears flowing freely down her muzzle, Princess Celestia fell to the ground, cradling her sister's body. "LUNA!" Her horn blazed with a brilliant white light, as the Princess desparately tried every healing spell she knew. But it was all for naught: while the magic of ponies can do many, many things, it cannot bring back the dead.
The crowd was still shocked into silence. They didn't even scream, as most ponies' brains had not yet fully realized what had happened.
"That..." Rainbow Dash swallowed. "I've seen ponies die before...we all have...we've died before...but..."
"It's never been that brutal," Applejack finished. "Whoever did this ain't right in the head."
"The only person who could have hurt her so badly..." Fluttershy said, her eyes widening in horror, "would be..."
"Ha. Hahahaha. Hahahaha! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!"
Before anypony had time to react, a bolt of pure magical energy erupted from the heavens, striking Celestia head on. She vanished, too consumed by grief to even sense the magic coming and move away.
The stage quaked once more, as a hole in reality was ripped in the air above the audience. Out of the rift stepped...a pony?
No. Whatever this thing was, it had thrown away any sense of equanity, or humanity, it once had. Its coat was matted, spread all over the place as if it had been caught in a twister. The skeletal wings on its barrel flapped in the breeze, the stitches tying them to its side holding fast in spite of their massive weight. The pitch black horn on the back of its neck pulsed with eldritch power: the same colorless power that comprised the monster's mane. A twisted mockery of a Cutie Mark adorned its flank, the infinity symbol shattering all across its flank, and spotted with blood.
Its eyes darted from pony to pony all over the crowd, black sclera shrinking as its yellow eyes dilated.
"What's the matter, my little ponies?" it finally sneered. "Never seen a corpse before?!"
Flapping its wings, it landed by Luna's body, glancing over at it. "Although, I don't blame you if you're not impressed. I mean, I did a crap job on this! Look at it!" it exclaimed, waving its forehoof at the battered and broken corpse in front of it. "She's still in one piece! And you can barely see any blood at all! She died of internal injuries! How lame is that?!"
"What have you done with the Princesses?!" demanded Mayor Mare, the first pony to finally snap out of their terrified trance.
"Really?" snorted the monster in front of them all, "it's not obvious? I just teleported that white asshole...somewhere. You know," it shrugged, "I think I was aiming at a black hole, but I might have missed. Still not used to these 'Nightmare Powers' yet."
"Is...is that Princess Luna?!" Twilight said in a small voice, backing away from her spot in the front row.
Noticing her, the monster flew right up to Twilight. "Why, yes it is, little girl! And she's-guess what?! Dead!"
Coming too close for comfort, he grabbed Twilight's horn in his hoof, as she Unawake Anchor struggled to get away. "Do you know what that means? You'll never see her again! She's gone, never to return!"
"And, for that matter, so are you!" Before Twilight had the chance to scream, she vanished into thin air. "Good luck using those Elements of Deus Ex Machina now, fuckers!"
"Naoki!" Pixie managed to spit out. "Why are you doing this?!"
Looking at her, the monster doubled over laughing. Once it managed to pull itself up from the ground, it sneered again. "Naoki Kashima died a long time ago, along with the rest of the Earth. Who am I, then?"
"I," it declared, "am the Fiend. And I'm not here to bring Eternal Night, or be your king, or any of that stupid shit. I'm just going to make all of you suffer."