*POV 3rd person, Location: Bardingburgh*

Boris, Scar, Talguda and Gelphana got to the city square just as Firefly teleported in with Sandstorm on her back. Dotted around the square were multiple Dropships of different types

“You ready to go?” Firefly asked as Sandstorm jumped off her back.

“Just about” Scar said as they walked over to the nearest drop ship, he then turned to the pilot, a Pegasus “How soon can we be in the air”

“Immediately” he said, before jumping into the cockpit and starting it up. Boris and Sandstorm got in the passenger section, Scar turned to Firefly.

“Do you want to come with us?” he asked, she shook her head.

“This is my home” she said, “I’m not leaving here until I know it’s safe”

“Very well then” Scar said, climbing into the passenger section “Let’s hope we meet again someday” at that moment a platoon of Sontarans burst into the square and began opening fire, Talguda and Gelphana turned and began launching elemental attacks in retaliation.

“Get out of here before this entire place turns to Karzahni, we’ll meet you back on the ship” Gelphana said, throwing his blade like a boomerang and taking out several Sontaran foot soldiers.

“Take us up” Scar said to the pilot, the doors closed and the whole craft lurched before ascending rapidly towards the Jörmungandr, located high above in the edges of space.

*POV 1st person Vuur Koning*

With the combined efforts of the Toa and local law enforcements, we had begun to push the Sontarans into a retreat.

“Let’s finish this!” I shouted, before myself and multiple other Toa of fire began hurling balls of lava at the Sontarans ‘We can fucking well win this’ I thought as I paused to get a grenade out of my hammer space before pulling the pin and hurling it at the retreating forces. One by one, what was left of the Sontaran forces began to teleport out until there were none left in the city. The two Sontaran ships flew off into the sky and all around me the Toa began cheering in victory. I got out my sword before sending up a column of fire, signalling victory. One by one, similar beacons began shooting into the sky across the city. Eventually the civilians began to venture out into the city and we were soon reunited with Thel and Sunny.

“Finally” Lhikan said, walking over and butting his swords away, “Victory is ours”

“Not quite” I responded, “We still have to deal with the mother ship”

“Then don’t waste any time” he said “my Toa can handle things from here on out” I nodded my thanks before turning to Autumn and Bhradain.

“Well?” Bhradain queried “What do we do know”

“We are going back to the ship to negotiate with the Sontarans” I said.

“You mean blow them to kingdom come,” he said.

“Depends,” I responded before calling a drop ship over, I then turned to Stag and Double, “How would you guys like to go to outer space? We can drop you back off at home once this whole thing has been sorted out”

“Well, it’s not like we had anything better to do right now” Stag said. A drop ship appeared and landed in a parting in the group of Toa, just as we were climbing on Stormy Skies ran over.

“Take me with you,” she said. I looked at her in surprise.

“Are you absolutely sure?” I asked, “There is no way I can guarantee your safety”

“I’m sure” she said, I sighed before nodding.

“Alright, come on up” she smiled before climbing in and sitting down next to Bhradain, no prizes for guessing as to why, this could be interesting. The doors closed and the ship lurched before ascending at a rapid pace. I turned to the two changelings, Stormy Skies and Bhradain as we reached the outer atmosphere “Take a good long look at your home”

*POV 3RD Person. Location: Visorak Island*

Minion, Vinyl and Aurora were sat waiting for a drop ship to arrive. Minion was getting particularly restless, as Terror would not stop fidgeting.

“For the last fucking time” Minion said “Would you settle the fuck down?” Terror harrumphed but stopped fidgeting all the same. Suddenly Aurora perked up.

“Do you hear that?” she asked, peering into the distance. Both Minion and Vinyl shook their heads.

“Ah, that’s something I forgot to mention” Terror said, “her hearing has been improved considerably, whatever she’s hearing is probably miles away”

“I’m still gonna deck you when we get back,” Minion said in a calm voice, taking a puff of his Tabaco pipe before continuing “No one touches my daughter and gets away with it, simple as”

“You must be a real joy to be around when she introduces you to a new mate of hers,” Terror said sarcastically.

“Gotta give them some incentive for staying faithful, now don’t I?” he shot back. Aurora looked like she as ready to die from embarrassment.

“Dad” she whined, “Could you please not?” Minion chuckled lightly.

“Just looking out for you,” he said. Sometime later, a drop ship flew into view; Minion got out his plasma cannon and fired it straight up to get its attention.

*POV 1st Person Vuur Koning*

We reached the Jörmungandr at the same time as two other drop ships, which I soon found out to be transporting Minion, Vinyl, a very different looking Aurora and a dark, male Alicorn. The other contained Boris, Scar and a young female sphinx.

“What happened to Aurora?” I asked Minion as we were walking through the corridors of the ship to meet up with our Terra’s Celestia and Luna, his expression darkened.

“That bastard mutated her” he spat, jerking his head back towards the dark Alicorn, who was currently in chains, and being literally dragged along the floor by Minion.

“When we get away from the younger ones, I’m actually going to kill him,” I growled, keeping my voice low enough so no one but my blood-brother heard me.

“Get in line” he said in response, for the duration of the walk, neither of us said anything. We eventually walked into a room where Celestia and Luna were stood at a holo-table next to a 7ft tall robot in white armour, I mentally groaned when I spotted the ‘H’ symbol on its chest. ‘great, now ‘cheepo factory’ have gotten involved I thought with no small amount of disdain. Standing guard were a few Toa

“Celestia, Luna” I said, nodding to the two Alicorns.

“Vuur Koning” Luna said “it has been too long since you last walked the halls of this ship, things have been…difficult without you and your team…”

“We can catch up later” Minion said, inturupting Luna by walking forward and chucking the dark Alicorn on the holo-table with a thud “We’ve found and captured the Alicorn equivalent of Teridax, but not before he could perform mutating experiments on Aurora.” The effect was instantaneous; all of the Toa and Neu-Toa in the room drew their weapons and pointed them at the Alicorn. Celestia stepped forward and stared at the Alicorn in shock and anger.

“Terror” she said “Give me one reason why I shouldn’t hurl you into the NEAREST BLACK HOLE? YOU CRETIN FROM TARTARUS!” I notice Stormer had gone paler, if that was possible.

“You must be mistaking me for someone else” the dark Alicorn, apparently called ‘Terror’, said in a light German accent. “I have never met you in my life” Celestia reacted before any of us could stop her. She seized him in her magic and slammed him against the nearest wall. I motioned for the kids to get out and they did so without question. I made to walk over to Celestia but Luna stopped me and shook her head.

“You do not want to interrupt her when she is angry,” She said quietly

“Don’t give me that” Celestia said to Terror “alternate world or not, all Alicorns can sense every other Alicorn in existence, even parallel versions of themselves, you know what happened on my world”

“So what if I do?” Terror asked, smirking “It is of no consequence to me, they deserved what happened, it’s just a shame that I wasn’t the one to perform the deed” I heard a click and a mechanical whine and we all turned to find Minion with his plasma cannon aimed straight at Terror.

“What deed?” he asked, his voice faltering. Terror chuckled, yep, definitely Teridax.

“Your world’s me did your world a favour and removed the Kirins from existence, hybrid scum” he said, he went to say something else but never got to finish it as I leapt towards him and grabbed him by the throat before slamming his head into the floor, denting it.

“Give me one fucking good reason not to launch you into a fucking quasar? You shit stain from hell!” I shouted.

“Ah, so you’re the father of those abominations currently skulking in the hallway” he said.

“Shut it you sack of genocidal shit!” I shouted, at that moment dark flames engulfed my entire body and I barely detected my armour turning a dark red “I don’t care who you are or how powerful you are, by the time I’m done with you you’ll be begging for me to let Celestia have a go at you just so you can get a respite”. He chuckled, before lifting his head up and whispering something into my ear that made my blood run cold.

“You’ll either die a hero, or you’ll live long enough to see your loved ones burn in agony at your own hands as you fall to shadow, god spawn. When you fall, your dearest wife will suffer the most” and with that he teleported away. I stayed on my knees, not moving. I heard hoof steps approaching and I felt a hoof rest on my shoulder.

“Vuur, what did he tell you?” She asked. I placed my hand on top of her hoof before turning my head to look at her and smiling.

“Just the ravings of a lunatic” I said “nothing you need to worry about”

*30 minutes later*

“This is most troubling,” Luna said, we were both sat on the balcony of Luna’s quarters on the ship, overlooking the planet below and drinking tea “Terror may be many things, but he is no liar, at least, not when it comes to predictions such as yours, I should know, he predicted my downfall.” She looked away at that, her expression changing from troubled to sad.

“I didn’t intend to bring any bad memories up” I said.

“It’s not that” she said “I’m worried about you, what could possibly cause you to go that far into rage, from what I’ve seen of you you’re generally very mild mannered, though as we saw earlier, you can be prone to…outbursts, I also noticed you underwent a transformation”

“Go on” I said, taking a sip of my tea.

“You looked like one would imagine a, for lack of a better term, ‘dark mirror’ version of you, to look” she said.

“Do you have a way of showing me this?” I asked, she nodded.

“Yes, but it will have to wait for the dreamscape” she said, at that moment we heard a knock on the door. Luna turned her head to look in that direction “you may enter” the door opened and a guard popped his head around.

“Captain Blazewing is requesting both your presences” he said “he says we have made located the enemy ship”

“Thank you, we shall be along shortly,” Luna said, the guard nodded and closed the door. Luna turned back to me “It seems we will have to draw our little chat to an end”

“Shame” I said, before downing my tea, “I always did like our little get together, we shall have to do this again sometime” Luna nodded as she stood up and stretched in a similar fashion to a cat or dog. I heard the pop of joints and she sighed in relief.

“I agree” she said, standing up straight as I stood up “it was something that greatly I missed whilst you were away on Mobius”

We both walked onto the bridge and I immediately spotted the Sontaran ship in front of us.

“Have you tried to contact them?” I asked a communications officer.

“Yes, but they haven’t responded” he said.

“Well, they will to this” I said, before walking to the central control panel and activating the communications array.

“With respect” Stormer said “I don’t think you have clearance, if anything negotiations with a warring species is our job”

“Oh I earned the clearance long ago” I said “And if I remember correctly, I outrank you by a considerable degree, so kindly keep your opinions to yourself.” I then turned on the microphone.

“I am hailing the Sontaran vessel under article two of the intergalactic laws of engagement” I said “This is High-Lord General Neu-Toa Vuur Koning, commander of the armies of Terra, I demand that you respond” at that moment a hologram activate to show a room full of Sontarans, one was without his helmet.

“This is general Stel of the 11th Sontaran Battle Fleet, reading you loud and clear”

“Tell me, Stel” I said, “When did Sontarans lose all of their honour?” Stel bristled at the comment.

“How dare you!” he said “who are you to call us honourless”

“Oh, so you make him mad, that’s your idea of negotiations?” Stormer asked, I ignored his comment.

“Someone who has partaken in Sangheili sword duels” I said “They are true warriors, whereas you, look at you, slaughtering a planet that has no way of defending itself, that’s the tactic of a coward and you know it”

“It is the tactic of a conqueror” he shot back.

“A great warrior from my planet called Sun Tzu once said ‘to be undefeated in all your battles is not supreme excellence; supreme excellence comes from braking the enemies resistance without fighting’”

“Words are the weapon of women-folk” he quipped. “We will exterminate this planet for the glory of Sontar!” the Sontarans all began to chant ‘Sontar, Ha!’ over and over.

“Boring” I said, before pressing a button and changing the screen to show an episode of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. After a few seconds, I switched it back. “Are you quite finished? Because let me make this clear, what you have just done is declared war of the Terran Union Army and all its Allies. Let’s see how you can handle fighting two wars at once.” I then closed the communications and walked over to the panel that controlled the weapons systems, I then aimed all of the weapons at the Sontaran ship and set them to fire continuously before walking out of the bridge, ignoring the objections of Celestia, Luna and Stormer as dull thuds shook the ship.

“Vuur Koning!” Celestia called “You cannot be serious, we can’t go to war!”

“I must agree with my sister on this one, Vuur” Luna said, “We are already occupied in the hunt for Teridax” I stopped walking and turned to look at them.

“Teridax can go die in a hole, I’m past caring about him at this point,” I said, before turning and walking away “If you touch that panel before that shi is destroyed, I’ll have you all court marshalled, We’re now at a war so I have every right to do so.” The three of them just stood there in shock as I walked down the corridor.

*1 day later*

Eventually the rebuilding of West Trottingham and Bardingburgh was complete and all of the T.U.A. forces returned to the Ship. Princess Stella of Concordia decided to come aboard with the intention of forming an alliance with our Equestria. We were heading towards Equestria, specifically Ponyville, where this worlds Chrysalis hive was located. In the meantime my team was going to undergo upgrades that were applied to the other Neu-Toa, It was developed in partnership with the Heroes of Makuhero City (I’m against the concept of the heroes, it’s just that…well, you can probably figure out why I was terse towards Stormer at first), and designed with future updates in mind.

I was in the sparring room with Stormer and a Hero Factory scientist, watching Minion spar with Vapaa. I had never seen anyone so efficient in combat, if Vapaa was good before, he was impossibly good now, and was managing to beat Minion. Bear in mind that Minion is not the type to give up or be beaten easily, he would happily go against an army of ten thousand by himself with nothing but a dagger in hand and still emerge victorious.

“As well as total reconstruction of the skeleton and cybernetic parts, the upgrades include a processer implanted into the cortex of the individuals Neu-Toa form, which displays a H.U.D. and drastically increases reaction time” the Scientist said “complex strategies can be thought up in mere nanoseconds and it will automatically scan an opponent’s weaknesses and take advantage of them.” At that moment Vapaa deflected a shot from Minions plasma cannon and kicked it out of his hand before knocking his sword out and sending him to the floor with a kick to the chest, all in about half a second. I gave a low whistle.

“When can we begin the upgrading process?” I asked.

“Whenever your team is ready”

I was walking along the corridors of the ship, heading towards the upgrading room when Celestia trotted over.

“Vuur Koning” she said, she seemed almost sad “Please don’t go through with this”

“And why not?” I asked, not stopping.

“If you undergo the upgrade, you’ll become immortal,” she said, I merely raised an eyebrow “I know it sounds like a good thing, but it’s not. You will never age, and when the time comes, you will have to bury your own children. No parent should have to go through that, I couldn’t convince the others, but surely you’ll heed my warning”

“Talking from experience?” I asked.

“Yes!” she shot back “Immortality is more of curse than a blessing” I waited for her to stop before responding

“I’ve already discussed this with my team and our families” I said “We have all thoroughly thought this through and we are ready to accept the consequences” She sighed before looking down and nodding sadly.

“Very well” she said.

“Think of it like this” I said, placing a hand on her shoulder “You, Luna and Discord won’t be the only immortals around.”  She smiled sadly.

*POV 3rd person, 3 hours later*

Robotic scientists worked swiftly around an operating table, laid on the table was a 7 ft. tall, mechanical being. They were still applying Protosteel armour to the metal skeleton; the legs, torso and lower arms were covered in red armour, with gold pistons on top of some of the armour, whilst the chest and shoulders were in the process of being covered in gold armour. A scientist lowered a gold mask, resembling a kanohi hau, but different to the usual style, on to the metallic grey, mechanical face and as it clicked into place, the eyes lit up a light blue colour and apertures snapped open and shut repeatedly before focussing. Next Chapter: Chapter 35 Estimated time remaining: 2 Hours, 3 Minutes