"Are you sure this is going to work?" Rainbow Dash, the rainbow haired pegasus asked her friend skeptically.
"For the fifth time Rainbow Dash, no I'm not." Replayed Twilight Sparkle, the last free Alicorn, in frustration to her impatient friend. "But we don't have much of a choice. Princess Celestia, Luna, and Candace have all been captured and we don't have the Elements of Harmony." Twilight said while continuing her work with a magic circle.
"Twilight's right Rainbow Dash. Have some faith in the plan." Pinky Pie, the pink earth pony, said as she bounced around the library giggling. But then she stopped. "What was the plan again?"
"What… Pinky Pie it was your plan." Applejack said a bit exhausted from her turn at night look out for the town of Ponyville, which had quickly became the last free town in Equestria. Of course without one of the older Princesses to raise the sun it was always night. "Remember, the call for help plan?"
"Oh yeah." Pinkie Pie said happily.
"You don't remember at all, do you?" Rarity said what everyone had already guessed. Pinkie Pie only giggled to confirm it. Rarity sighed. "We are going to summon a hero to Equestria to help us."
"Wait, so it's a pony from outside of Equestria? Then where do they come from?" Pinkie Pie asked.
"I don't know and Celestia forgive me, but I don't care. The texts aren't very specific. Ponys haven't used the summoning ritual in a long time since it was made forbidden, it's only to be used in the most dire of circumstances." Twilight said as she put the finishing touches on the circle.
"Wait, forbidden, why is it forbidden?" Rainbow Dash asked nervously.
"Don't know,m the text said something about ethical reasons. I think it is looked down upon to call on someone else to fight your battles for you, but no one involved with the spell gets physically harmed though and we really are desperate. It's only been two weeks worth of night and things are already looking really bad. I don't know how much longer we can hold out at this rate." Twilight said, but there was a slight note of guilt. "Now if you all don't mind being quiet I need to concentrate on this. This is a ten year spell so if I mess this up we're sunk."
Walking counterclockwise along the outer rim of the circle she slowly started closing in towards the center with each cycle. Twilight's horn glowed brightly purple and the glow spread throughout her entire body to even the tips of her wings.
She reached the center and a brilliant burst of multicolored light shot out in all directions blinding everyone in the room. As the light dimmed and everyone regained their senses the looked eagerly to the center of the room to see what the hero would look like. To their shock and disappointment, there was nothing there.
"What! Don't tell me the spell failed!" Rainbow Dash said frantically looking around the room.
"Calm down Rainbow Dash, the spell didn't fail." Spike, the baby dragon, said as he started to clean up the mess that the magical wind had made.
"Might want to get your eyes checked little guy, there ain't any hero here." Applejack said a little disheartened.
"That's because the spell calls them to Equestria, it was never perfected so I can't call them to this exact spot." Twilight said before sitting down and taking a breather. The summoning spell had used a lot of her magic. "But the spell definitely worked."
"So… how are we supposed to… find him… or her?" Fluttershy asked softly.
"Don't worry about that. I'll get the ingredients for the locator spell in a moment." Spike said while bringing Twilight a glass of water. "It will tell us where they are and let us see them."
"I wonder what their going to be like." Rarity said excitedly. "I do hope that they are a tall and handsome stallion." She had a far off look in her eyes.
"How about we just hope that they can help us out." Applejack said rolling her eyes.
Spike brought out a wide bowl of a silvery liquid and placed it in front of twilight. "You sure you're ok enough to keep using your magic?" He asked the friend that had been there for him since the moment he hatched.
Twilight gave a weak smile at the baby dragon. "Don't worry Spike, I'll be fine." She got up and moved over to the bowl. Her horn began to glow again and the ripples in the pool began to take form and color until they had an image of a small forest clearing with a pond in the middle of it. All the girls moved in and stared at the image.
"You have got to be kidding me." Rainbow Dash was once again the first to find her voice.
"I… I don't understand. I did the spell perfectly." Twilight said moving to the book and scanning the pages. "Why… why did we get some fowl instead of… of a… of a hero?" She said and nearly through the book to the floor in frustration. "I… I failed. All of Equestria needed that spell to work and I messed up." Tears were coming to her eyes.
"Come on Twi, you gave it your best shot. No one could have done better than you." Applejack said while trying to comfort her friend. "Why don't you rest now and you give that bronco another go later."
Twilight looked at Applejack and shook her head. "No Applejack, I can't give it another try. No one can. That spell leaves a trail on Equestria that won't fade for ten years, and until it's gone the spell won't work. That's why it's called a ten year spell."
"Oh come now Twilight, it isn't like we are any worse off than we were before." Rainbow Dash said. "Don't you worry, we haven't lost this yet."
While the other girls had gone to try and comfort Twilight, Pinkie Pie had stayed by the bowl watching the little pony. "Girls, you might want to see this." Pinkie Pie said slowly.
Curious the others looked up and slowly approached the bowl, but none of them were prepared for what they were about to see.
Shirou had woken up after being hit by a blinding light to find himself laying down in the grass. His hands and feet felt numb and his whole body seemed to not want to follow any of his instructions. For a moment he couldn't help but remember how similar this was the first time he had woken up in the hospital after his dad had rescued him from the Fuyuki Fire, the horrendous consequences of the Fourth Holy Grail War.
A moment later he had forced his body to turn slightly so that he could look up at the night sky while trying to remember the last few moments. He was busy attempting to track down a Dead Apostle that had the balls to steal something from Zelretch for some unfathomable reason, and when he finally found the bastard… oh…
"Root damn it Zelretch." Grumbling Shirou shook his head before shaking his head and looking around the clearing wearly before seeing a pool of water nearby. Feeling that his throat was parched from the use of the transportation magic he began to crawl towards it. Once there he dunk his whole head in and pulled it out to after taking a deep enough drink, not only quenching his thirst but also washing away his drowsiness.
As the ripples began to settle down Shirou got a good look at himself and if one were looking for it they would notice that his face was completely devoid of any emotion with only an eye twitch to tell his irritation. There in the now calm water was what he could only describe as a pony with a light yellowish coat, auburn mane with streaks of white, and the same golden-brown colored eyes he always had. Truthfully he had no clue to react to the fact that he seemed to have re-gained many of his old characteristics from the Grail-War. Turning his still blank face around to see if he looked like a pony outside of the pond he saw that he had a black spot on his coat that seemed to take the shape of his Command Seals he gained while being being Sabers master.
His reaction was not the same as you would find in most people that had woken up to find that they were suddenly a small horse. "This has gotta be one of Zelretch's most tame pranks I have ever been in." He muttered as he staggered up onto all fours. "This doesn't even begin to compare the time that I was dumped into genderbent fifth Grail War and dealing with a female lesbian Gilgamesh who wanted to have sex with both me, my female self, and her universes version of Archer, turned into a female in a Sailor Moon like universe, and that one memorable instance where I was turned into a bipedal dinosaur/dragon human hybrid in heat while locked in an escape-proof room with a horny Rin, Sakura, and Rider, man that one was a drag."
Shivering as he attempted to repress the many moments that he had been traumatised via the Undead Troll and Master of the Fourth magic Shirou started shifting his weight and hopped back and forth in order to test his new body. There was a momentary thought of how he was going to use any of his swords in this new body before he dismissed it to focus on more pressing matters. That matter was hearing the a twig being snapped behind him causing him to turn around rapidly while tensing for any combat. "Who's there?"
Shirou's ears shot up on his head before he silently cursed his D ranked Luck. He could hear the soft snickering of what must have been a dozen creatures that had him surrounded just out of sight. "Look at what we have here boys, a little pony so far away from home." A grave voice said, and into the clearing came a dark furred hound that had a scar over it's right eye. Shirou could smell the dirt and filth on the dog. It had jagged teeth and a collar with some kind of black jewel on it.
Shirou sized up the dog, finding him to be more than twice his size. He could practically smell the fight coming like the stink off the dog. Mentally readying the mental trigger in his mind he found that his magic circuits was completely out of whack and unresponsive. 'Curse my stupid D-Rank luck.' The thought echoed in his head while looking around as one by one the dogs that had been hiding moved out.
"If you wanted to sneak up on someone you really should have taken a bath, I could smell you coming." When in doubt stick to sarcastic and witty remarks, the old fall back for his Counter Guardian self, and now him apparently… great. Eyes darting around he noted that he was completely surrounded by them and cornered against the pond. While he could potentially jump into the pond and attempt to swim away he had to take into account that he was in a new body with barely any control over it, he was also willing to bet that the dogs could out swim a pony so that wasn't an option anyways.
"Oh great, a wordy little pony. Well, they never are very wordy after King Sombra gets through with them." The lead hound said bearing his teeth at Shirou. "Diamond Dogs, get him!"
The group of hounds rused forwards in threes but catching a ready Shirou is no easy matter, even if he is in an unfamiliar body without his powers, he was a skilled and practiced fighter.
Pressing forwards Shirou moved underneath an outstretched arm and kicked the owner in the jaw as he went. He passed by two more dogs by jumping to the side when they had too much momentum to quickly change directions and so Shirou broke through the ranks of dogs and headed into the thicker woods.
Shirou had ran a little when he turned back while panting lightly. The dogs were now more spread out and were coming in ones and twos with a time in-between instead of all at once. The dogs were large, brutish, and not experienced fighters, the were unable to coordinate together to keep with the young Faker.
The dogs had no idea what to do. They were used to just surprising, out running, and pouncing on the ponies that they spied. But the small auburn-maned pony didn't move like any pony they had ever encountered. Instead of the steady galloping in straight lines, he jumped back and forth as he ran moving more like an antelope than a horse. He also spun and turned in the air like a mountain line and used the surrounding trees to change directions quickly.
Shirou had cut the enemies number in half and the remaining six were sporting blackened eyes and limps when their leader had had enough. "This is ridiculous. It's just one pony!" He screamed, only to get kicked in the face a moment afterwards. "That's it, call the manticore!"
One of the dogs pulled out a whistle and blew down hard before a loud crashing came through the forest. Shirou had to dodge splinters of wood as a tree exploded as a large creature moved in, and for a moment he couldn't help but stare at the creature in a deadpanned at the sight of it.
"Really… it's bad enough that you out number me, and now your attempting to copy Ride by summoning a Phantasmal Beast…" Shirou said while panting heavily. He tried to activate his circuits once more but the energy fizzled out. It was definitely there, but for some reason he felt like someone had slapped some anti-magic restraints on him and was out of sync with his body.
The huge creature towered over Shirou nearly seven times his size. It had the head and body of a lion with bat like wings and a long scorpion tail that danced around over its arched back. Honestly after facing Berserker, Gilgamesh, Rider, and numerous other Servants in a Grail War this wasn't even that scary. Instead he took the moment of confusion from the beast's entrance to move further inside the monster's attack range to avoid getting hit. Shirou hugged close to the body, elbowing and kicking it all while moving out of the way of any attempts that the manticore made at catching him.
However Shirou might as well been trying to tenderize a two foot thick sheet of metal for all the good it did him. The Manticore reared up and pumped its wings savagely, blowing shirou back. Now outside the area close to the lion like creatures body that he couldn't hit it he had to quickly jump to the side and push himself over the manticore as it pounced at him by using a nearby tree to redirect himself. However as he sailed through the air the Manticore's tail whipped out and struck him over the right foreleg.
Shirou hit the ground hard and he tumbled several feet before rolling back up onto all four hooves. But his injured right leg began to jerk violently and caused him to shift all his weight off the leg in order to stop himself from falling. He felt a wave of nausea as the Venom from the Manticore's stinger seeped into him. 'This isn't good.' Hr thought struggling to clear his vision as the Manticore approached.
'I don't have much time until I'll be out cold.' Shirou thought. 'I need to finish this quickly… but how can I get him? None of my hits are any better than a bee sting.' His eyes shot up to the scorpion tail and he knew what he had to do.
He ran as best as he could without the use of his right foreleg to steady him and when the Manticore made a swipe at him with a claw Shirou jumped as hard as he could up and over the Manticore's head. He kicked off of the back of the Manticore's head and to a tree behind it. Rebounding off of the tree he grabbed the Manticore's tail with his mouth and dragged it down into the creature's own back.
The Manticore howled and began to trash about but Shirou held the tail in. Slowly the Manticore came to a stop as it was overpowered by its own venom before falling to the ground unconscious.
Unfortunately at some point it had reared up on it's rear legs and Shirou couldn't help but feel cheated of something as it fell backwards. Once more he cursed Zelretch before deciding that he might as well curse Archer, the Root, Aleya, Gaia, his own D-Rank Luck, and whoever or whatever else he could before darkness overcame him as he was crushed underneath the bulk of the Manticore.
"That… was… awesome." Rainbow Dash said slowly as they watched the Manticore fall.
"I ain't never seen no pony move like that before." Applejack said equally amazed.
"I guess Twilight really did summon a Hero." Spike said grinning. The small Pony was like nothing they had ever seen before; he had the speed and strength of Rainbow Dash and Applejack, the precision and grace of Rarity and Fluttershy, and the careful planning of Twilight with the same instincts of Pinkie Pie.
But there grins fell away when they saw the Manticore fall on top of the small pony before witnessing the Diamond Dogs move the unconscious beast and drag the now possibly concussed colt away. "And now he's being dragged away by the Diamond Dogs to King Sombra." Twilight said Depressed again. "I dragged a foal into this and now he is going to suffer because of me." Twilight said as tears came to her eyes again. "I should have never used that spell."
"That poor little colt." Fluttershy said quietly looking at the pool before they all went to comfort Twilight. The little princess had tried so hard but she didn't have any faith in herself and thought that everything she did only made it worse. Little did she know however, was that the Diamond Dogs were taking the young hero exactly where he needed to be… all the while a certain Dead Apostle was laughing himself sick at the chaos he had just created.
crai22: Whelp... in case any of you were wondering I basically decided to try and do a Fate/Stay Night and My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic crossover using Dr. ForgottenFables story Luna's Hero as a starting point.
Miota: So you basically stole Chapter 2 from him and reworked it so that Shirou Emiya was summed instead of Danny Fenton/Phantom?
crai22: Pretty much yeah... the basic idea I had was that the ritual Twilight and her friends used was rather similar to the Ritual that was used to summon Servants from the Fifth Heaven's Feel tournament but with a different set of rules required for summoning. Of coarse Zelretch noticed what was happening and decided to mess with Shirou by redirecting it to him instead of Danny, though what version of Shirou is up to the readers to decide.
Miota: That makes some sense... what was with that bit in the middle though?
crai22: Be more specific Miota.
Miota: That whole rant of things that Zelretch has done that he tried to suppress.
crai22: Oh that... the only thing I can really say is this is Zelretch were talking about, so that whole thing was basically some of the misadventures that the Magician of the Fourth put him through. Let's face it with Zelretch that very well could have happened to him at some point.
Miota: ... the sad thing is that I can see it happening. Oh and don't we normally have guests during this outro thing?
crai22: (Stares at Miota blankly) Do you really want to have guests from the Fate-Stay universe and risk the possibility of having Zelretch, Counter Guardians, Gilgamesh, Alaya, TYPE: Mercury, Zelretch, Primate Murder, the White Princess, the Black Princess, various Dead Apostles, Zelretch, and who knows what other destructive forces coming in here?
Miota: ...
crai22: That's what I thought.
Miota: ... anyways besides the fact that I should point out you listed Zelretch three times, I also have to say the disclaim-
Ruby: (Drops kicks Miota in head and knocks him out despite being a staff) Don't worry for Magical-
crai22: (Doesn't speak but decides to pull the plug on things before he has to suffer through whatever Magical Ruby has planned)