“So, have we come to come to an accord?” I asked the council of Logos. I had arrived in the city under the wave’s moments after dismounting Draglide, when Aqua Seneschal had arrived and requested me to follow him back through the veil to speak with the council over a possible alliance. I had mulled over the offer for a moment, but had ultimately decided to follow. I found the underwater capitol of the Water Civilization to be stunning, a sunken metropolis that brought thoughts of Atlantis to my mind.  Luckily, the interior of the buildings are free of water.

Our talks had started seven grueling hours ago. When I had been told I was to speak with the council, I had assumed from my knowledge of the show I would talk to all three, yet I quickly found that Finbarr was the only one of the council that mattered at the moment. Being the head of the armies, he had been made de-facto leader of the Water Civilization. And as such, his opinion was the only one that mattered. The other two barley said anything, opting to listen and document our meeting.

“Yes, in return for your assistance with the Fire Civilization we in turn will assist you in building and maintaining a base of operations as well as helping you with various projects.” Finbarr responded, I could tell from his voice he was just as glade as I was the whole affair was almost over.

“And my request?” I questioned. This was simply a tiny add on compared to the rest of the negotiations. Finbarr had greatly cut down on what we had discussed so as to save time, besides, we both had a copy of the entire conversation stored on the tablets we both held.

“I have considered your request and find it beneficial to comply. As of now, the cyber lord Aqua Seneschal is now in your employ.” He paused for a moment, as the mentioned cyber lord nodded his understanding of the situation. “And with that I say this meeting is concluded. May wisdom guide you, Choten.” I simply nodded in turn.

I stepped out of the council chambers and made my way towards the area I had entered the creature realm from. When someone wanted to cross the veil and not just pull something across, you had to consider where you opened the breach. After all, if I might open a breach above a monsters nest, or a hundred feet in the air. As I walked Aqua Seneschal fell into step behind me.

“Did it work?” He questioned in a monotone.

“But of course.” I took the Helm from him as he held it out for me. “You are an excellent puppeteer.” I complemented.

---Six days later, Ponyville express---

The train ride back to Ponyville was fairly fast for the six friends. They had spent six days in Canterlot after the unexpected result of the summoning. In those six days they had gone over a multitude of plans on what to do should they be forced to confront The Choten. After they had gone over as many plans as they could, and examined the destroyed building they had concluded he had summoned his dragon from for clues, they had been told to leave the investigation to the guards for now. They had lives to get back too, and they could do little at the moment, so the best they could do was wait for word of the search to reach them.

They chatted idly as the train pulled up to Poniville station, none of them wanting to talk about the situation. They all collected their things as the train finally rested at their destination.

“Well, were here girls,” Twilight said cheerfully,” I need to head back to the library, I promised Spike I would let him know the moment we got back.”

“Oh do say hello to the dear for me, would you Twilight? I would stop by myself but I fear that I got rather sweaty on the train, so I simply must take a shower.” Rarity trotted away in the direction of her house, after getting a nod from Twilight.

“Ah best be getting’ back to the farm.” Said Applejack

“Yeah, and I got some clouds to clear before I can get to practicing.”

One by one the friends returned to their homes. As she walks towards her home, Twilight is momentarily blinded by a piece of paper smacking her in the face. Grumbling about littering, she pulls the paper off her face and looks at the piece of offending parchment.

“Come see Equestrias greatest magician, the Great and Powerful Trixie? Hmm, a magic show. I bet Spike will love that!” Smiling, the purple unicorn slide the flier into her bag and walked off, never noticing the slight shimmer in the air behind her.

----lb---

“The Great and Powerful Trixie, eh? Tell me, Seneschal, isn’t she on our list of possible recruits?”

“Indeed, lord Choten. From the knowledge gained from your ‘journal’, she should be run out of town at around eleven o’clock.”

“Well, I suppose I know what our plans for tonight shall entail.”

We were in the base that the Water Civilization had created for my use. It had started as a simple cave network hidden behind a water fall, which had rapidly evolved into a high tech complex. The walls are a electric blue with white veins throughout the complex. Along with a personal bedroom for myself, there was a barracks, mess hall, battle arena, and many laboratories. The speed and efficiency had surprised me at first, but then I remembered how in the show a few water creatures had been able to creatue massive weapons in minutes.

I stood before the creature known as Argus, Vigilant Seer in the surveillance room. Argus was essentially a living monitor that was connected to a series of other creatures known as stalker spheres that sent an image of whatever they saw back to Argus, who then displayed the images across its surface. I currently had a stalker sphere following every member of the mane six and the two princesses, so far none had noticed the spy’s. With a wave of my hand I sent a spare to watch Trixie, and sighed. “Any word on project ‘Duel Master’.” I asked the cyber lord beside me, watching as the one called ‘Applejack’ began kicking apple trees to harvest there fruit. ‘I hate apples.’

“I am happy to inform you that we have been able to get a working model completed, Reef Prince Glu-urrgle, the one in charge of the project predicts the initial set of six to be completed by the end of the day. But I must ask, why have you gone through the trouble to . . .” The cyber lord was cut off as a alarm sounded.

“It seems the party guests arrived sooner than expected, let’s hope they brought presents.”

“Was that a joke?” I asked in genuine surprise. All I got in response was the impression of a smile on his face. “Aqua Seneschal, joker, who knew?” He gave a light laugh and I turned to look at Argus, having him pull up the images provided by the Stalker Sphere positioned at the hidden entrance.  

I was running for the entrance a second later.

---Just outside The Choten’s complex---

Lars was a simple hydra. He liked the simple things in life, like long naps in the middle of the day and mating season. He didn’t have a complex diet, able and willing to eat most anything.

But he did have a favorite food, something that was difficult to obtain in his territory. A very fine delicacy that most hydras loved. Pony.  The smaller creatures were the hors d'oeuvres of the hydra world. They were delicious, crunchy and most importantly, very nutritious.

They were also a pain to catch, as he was experiencing at this very moment as he chased the small white pony through the bog. Every time he would move to catch it with one of his heads it would leap, duck and dodge. It was annoying, but Lars was determined to catch this morsel, he already got the two larger ones, and his mother always taught him to clean his plate. Besides it was getting tired and was wounded from his initial attack and the chase.

It ran towards the large waterfall that Lars had been avoiding ever sense the strange dragon and the small black thing had landed. The place just didn’t feel right anymore. The old cave behind it had become the strange creatures nest, and strange things had started happining to it, like the large silver wall that was just behind the water. The last time he had examined it, he had been shocked by invisible lightning. He tried to avoid it now.

The pony seemed to notice his hesitance at approaching the waterfall and ran even faster for it.  It started banging on the wall, apparently not being hit by the invisible lightning. He had two options; leave and let the last twenty minutes be wasted, or risk getting shocked but get a tasty treat. His middle head lunged for the pony.

Only to be meet in mid lunge by a large graish-blue shark head. His other two heads stared in surprise at the beast that had attacked from the now open cave. It had green tiger like stripes down its long body. While its head resembled a shark, that’s the only part that seemed natural. The rest of its body was long and thick, and from it sprouted many tentacles, the first four had starfish like appendages. He would have examined the strange being further had it not snapped the neck of his central head. Roaring in pain he pulled back away from the sea monster, his left most head looking sadly at his middle head while his right glared at the smug looking opponent.

Utilizing both of his remaining heads in tandem he launched himself at his assailant, one going low while the other went for its eyes.

The last thing he saw was the small black being standing in the former cave entrance making a stabbing motion before the sea monster impaled Lars with its tentacles, killing him instantly.

------lb---

I brought my hand down, Squillace Scourge pulling its tentacles out of the hydras corpse, letting it fall to my side. I patted down my suit, smoothing out any wrinkles I may have gained from running to the exit. I took a breath and casually dismissed Squillace Scourge, it having fulfilled its purpose. As it fell apart into water mana, I walked over to the cowering white pony.

As I carefully walked over to it, it hid behind its hooves, blonde hair shadowing its eyes and small wings fluttering, shaking as it cried. I carefully kneeled down and placed my hand on the young pony’s back to offer what small amount of comfort I could offer the small child. It stiffened and squirmed under my hand, letting out a small feminine squeak. The metal bands on, I assume now that it’s a she, her fore leg jingled as she cried.

We stayed like that for a few minutes, me knelling next to her, hand resting reassuringly on her back as she lay down and crying. She eventually stopped shaking and looked up at me with purple eyes drowned in tears. She muttered something that I couldn’t hear, then closed her eyes and fell asleep.

I quietly picked her up and walked inside, my face calm but inside I was freaking out. ‘What the hell am I going to do with this filly?’

----Fire Civilization, Blastforge City, Lord Skycrusher’s palace----

Deep in the heart of the Fire Civilization sat Blastforge City, home of the most important denizens of fire. Lord of this city is the humanoid armored dragon Skycrusher, who had seized control by use of the artifact of the fire king, the Sword of Fiery Cataclysm, an artifact similar to the Helm of Ultimate Technology in that it forces all Fire Civilization creatures to obey him. Currently, the tyrant was sitting on his throne, various soldiers standing before him. He had something to say, something important.

“Bring me the head of Tatsurion the Unchained”

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