Location: ??????
Time: ??????

A gray and black lion-eagle anthro griffon sat behind his desk looking over reports in the waning light of day through the lone high window with his burning orange eyes. His coloration aside, his defining feature were the two tall “ear-like” crests on the sides of his head, shaped more like the blades of daggers than any ear on a living creature. He paused, hearing something that nobody would’ve had any right to hear, and then pushed his ink well, scrolls, and the reports to the side. He calmly straightened his regal dark suit, fluffing the ruffled cuffs of his sleeves before the doors opened silently to all but him.

“Lord Sharp Ears. Reports from the Rift.” A quiet and raspy voice said from the small five-foot anthro griffin cloaked from head to paw in shadow as he smoothly glided up to his superior’s desk, laying the scrolls out on his prepared space, the Panther Crow messenger never bothered asking how he always knew he was coming, he knew this griff with his unnatural hearing could hear a pin drop halfway across the valley if he focused.

“Very good Swift Wind, I’ll be finished with them in a moment, please sit.” Lord Sharp Ears gestured to the uncomfortable stool before him, and Swift begrudgingly decided to comply. Not heeding Sharp’s commands was a quick way to have one’s ear holes assaulted by his mind-shattering screech which oddly only he wasn’t affected by. It could lend one deaf for days.

It was a tense couple of minutes, the spymaster’s uncanny ability to skim for all the important details in a report was always unnerving. He could spot out the slightest weakness on sight. There was a reason Sharp was head of Die Leucht’s Spy Network. It was only due to their recent failures to assassinate the Royal Sisters that the Panther Crow Assassins found themselves put under his network’s thumb. They missed being independant. They lost fewer agents then….

“Very good. Move to acquire the potential power source immediately. Use as much lethal force as you deem necessary. We failed to contain him before thanks to that fool Avarice’s meddling before, be swift, be silent, and be efficient. Go.” Swift wordlessly bolted from the office as silently as he came, the doors slamming shut without a sound.

Only Sharp could hear it, hear Swift’s pounding heart as he fled to follow his orders. He licked his hooked beak with his black tongue, stained with the wine he kept in his desk, fetching the bottle, chuckling darkly as he mused how things were going so well, even if they failed him, the plan would still go forth with what they’d stolen from that fool Avarice. “Everything is coming together. Even if the others don’t quite see it that way.”

Canterlot Castle
Night

It had taken me several hours to organize everyone, let alone get them to help.

What? The ores left by the dragon were heavy.

In better news, I found a chain chest piece that looked like it was made of mythril in one of the bags, as well as another dagger, and a shield that shone like as if it was reflecting pure sunlight, even though there was no sun shining near it in the chasm. I gave the shield to Celestia, and the chest piece to Luna, since it wasn’t my size. They both accepted my gifts graciously.

The dagger, meanwhile, I took for myself. Why? It was weird. It was made of some kind of material that I had never seen before. The material was definitely metal, but not one that I had ever seen before, nor heard about. Hell, when I tried to look up the freaking dagger in the giant compendium, it came up with a page that was almost blank. What was on the page was a picture and one word……

Orichalcum

Other than that, I found nothing on the page. I don’t think I needed any more than that, though. The word reminded me of Skyrim, but at the same time, gave me a horrible shudder. I felt fear at the name of the material. I couldn’t place anything on it, though. I mean, it’s was late at night now, and I was laying in a bed with Celestia, Luna, Emerald, and Sapphire. I gave up after seeing the word, and went to bed.

About halfway through the night, we all woke up to the echoing buzzing sound of two screaming changelings. Sure enough, it was Emerald and Sapphire, who were in immense pain. Apparently, the DM forgot to tell me a few things, as he immediately told me what was wrong. Turns out, changeling gestation is only a few months, where they then lay the eggs to incubate for several more months. Damn it they were in Labor!

“They’re in labor!” I screamed at the alicorns in the room. “Tia, Lulu, help me!”

The girls rushed to help me, and, guided by the careful instructions of Emerald and Sapphire, we were able to help them remove a bit of their chitin around their underbelly and groin so they could give birth. The natural armor came off like a solid sticker that seamlessly and easily came off, revealing flesh the same color as their eyes and manes. It made me wonder why they didn’t take it off when they got frisky with me. Must have been all the hormones.

They screamed in pain, but mostly kept calm, huffing in deep breaths, and focusing on moving the eggs out. They explained that since eggs were much easier to pass than live births, they wouldn’t be at it long, and sure enough, Sapphire was laying her first shining light green egg about the size of an infant within minutes, but I could tell there was more in her, and from how big both she and her sister are, they could have a couple more eggs each. How effing fertile am I?!

Anyways, after the birth, the girls explained what the eggs needed. I didn’t really expect much, but apparently, love meant more than warmth. It was an interesting concept, hearing about how the whole lower anatomy of a changeling female worked. A few hours later, we all fell asleep cuddling changeling eggs. Honestly, it was the weirdest thing I have ever experienced. It was still amazing though.

I woke up a while later to more screaming. This time, however, it wasn’t for such good news. Someone had broken into the room…..

Well, more like, six people.

They were all invisible to the naked eye, but my Echo Eye was not a naked one. I could see them clearly, six black robed and black furred anthro griffins with straight beaks and piercing amber eyes, all wielding green daggers that were exactly the same as the one I’d claimed for myself, emblem on the crossguard and all. The screams were from Celestia, Luna, and Emerald. The loudest of them was Emerald, who was crying as a couple of the griffons dragged her away. Her gaze never left the floor in front of the bed. When I went to look….

I was horrified by what I saw. There on the ground lay Sapphire, cold and unmoving. She had a single thin line through her throat. It looked as if she had sensed the intruders, but had never found them, instead being killed on the spot. The strange thing was, there was none of her green blood on the ground, even though there should have been a lot sprayed from such a wound. My answer for where the blood went was when I saw a bronze flask with her blood flowing into it like a stream through the air be stoppered and stowed on a belt by the one cleaning his dagger on his robe without care for soiling it, as it seemed to drink in her ichor thirstily.

I couldn’t fully make sense of what happened next. What I do remember was touching Celestia and Luna, them disappearing in puffs of shadowstuff, then pure red. My rage had boiled over. I could feel it. I didn’t care who these freaks were, they were going to die. I felt myself charge at them, then…. black.

3rd person:

Dox charged at the intruders in the room, his sword in his left hand, the Orichalcum dagger in his robotic right hand. The sword glowed with power as he slashed it across in front of him, a wave of energy coming out from it immediately following the swing, only for one of the four that remained, not being the ones dragging his other changeling lover away, to idly hold the tip of his wickedly curved green dagger towards the magic slash, and it vanished instantly. Annihilated by the magic-killing metal of the blade.

“Hmph, a berserker. This one won’t be much trouble, even if he is the avatar of an omniscient god. Space apart, draw him in.” Swift ordered, and they all promptly moved to the end of the room away from Dox, spaced apart to bring him into an easy position to pin.

Dox kept attacking, not hearing the stated plan by the intruder. He sent waves of energy left and right, utterly demolishing the bedroom he was in when the skilled griffins didn’t bother blocking with their daggers when the attacks clearly missed them. The more he attacked, though, the more things started happening. At first, it was hard to notice, but slowly and steadily, things started changing on Dox. His body morphed, shifted, and mutated. Eventually, no longer stood Dox as he was. No, now stood a mutant of horrible power. His body was stone and metal. The area directly next to him was cold, warm, and pushed things away if anything stayed near too long. Large pieces of metal now freely orbited this mutant, spinning around him at such a velocity, that if you were to come near them, you would surely be cut into ribbons. The energy that he sent out now was a deep black, and exploded on contact with the physical objects in the room.

The intruders didn’t care one bit. The room was already muffled, nothing could be heard. They essentially had all the time in the world, Royal Sisters or not. This wouldn’t take much longer. “Silent, give him a present.” Swift ordered, and the griff across from him idly drew a long throwing knife made of the green metal from his robe, and then threw it so fast his arm was a blur.

The magic-killing blade flew through everything like it wasn’t there, cutting what might’ve knocked it away, and then stabbed right into what had been Dox’s knee. The mighty mutant fell to his knee and attempted to pull the knife out of the now suddenly normal leg. Only for another to stab the offending arm, and it too reverted to normal. Before Dox could even scream, several more were stabbing his other leg, and multiple points of his torso. “Hmph, tough one. Took several more knives than a dragon.” Silent commented with an impressed huff. He took a step back, and threw the last one into Dox’s right arm.

Athena screamed soundlessly from outside, but Dox could hear her through his haze, her absolute agony and shifting tone was like hearing a thousand voices screaming all at once, as if her very soul was being violated. In another world, a certain robot mare gasped, and clutched her chest, feeling a pain she hadn’t imagined could happen again. In a certain point outside the realms, another being felt pain, something he hadn’t felt since his creation.

Dox began to glow. It was subtle at first, but the glow increased in intensity. Eventually, he became an orb of light, which turned into a different shape…. an icosahedron…. a d20 of rainbow light, no, of energy….. with a large 20 clearly visible on all sides. Then there was a massive explosion. A fourth of Canterlot Castle was now ash and rubble. The intruders, however, still didn’t care. They stood barely singed, near point-blank to the explosion, hovering with their wings as they held their daggers out, their talons burnt, but nothing they weren’t used to.

“Feh, hate it when they go suicidal. So irritating.” One of the four still-invisible griffins growled, and they looked down to see the sheared rubble of a fourth of the castle, everything within the blast radius aside from themselves had been utterly vaporized in the icosahedron blast of perfect shape, leaving the perfectly angled imprints on the parts of the castle that still stood.

Swift growled when he saw that the two who were dragging the changeling mare for breeding and the several eggs had been caught right on the edge of the blast, their lower bodies along with the mare’s were sheared clean off. Thankfully, the bags holding the eggs were in the left one’s free talon, and seemed intact. “This operation is going down the drain fast. Prowl, Stalk, fetch the eggs and the mare’s blood, we’ll see if we can’t clone her for a broader breeding template, I have the other mare’s blood. Silent, with me as usual, we have an energy source to collect still.”

Their job was made slightly more easy as a bit of shifting rubble told them exactly where the body was. There lie the body of Dox. He was most definitely alive, but, by the time they reached him, in a state of unconsciousness. His rage was gone, leaving him in his normal changeling state, his pale skin now coated in a thick layer of ash. He seemed undamaged by the massive blast of energy. A broken sword lay near his left hand, and he was completely naked.

“Such a fool, but that power is admittedly impressive. Collect him, I’ll arrange the Rift to open-.” Swift was interrupted by the screeches of his griffs, his hackles rising at sensing a powerful presence.

“ENDA!” yelled a deep masculine voice. A second after hearing it, a loud clang of metal sounded next to them as an armored figure slammed into the ground, a couple of bodies coming with him. The bodies had been punched straight through, the longsword that the figure held apparently slicing through them like a searing hot knife through melted butter. The figure drew its sword from the bodies and pointed the glorious blade at the griffons.

Swift was wary, he could feel this being could easily kill him if he didn’t take him seriously. His eye quickly caught the sight of his now lifeless compatriots daggers both sliced clean through, and from the direction of the blade if the inward dent from that direction said anything. Whatever that sword was made of, it was strong enough to completely nullify orichalcum. Unheard of...interesting. “So, warrior, you can see us, and wield a blade that can slice past orchalcum’s sharpness. Are you a tactical genius, or-.”

“Drop him,” said the warrior, gesturing to Dox’s body being held by Silent over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes, the wing he might’ve covered already open over him.

“Afraid that can’t happen.” Swift said coldly, taking out a runed steel rod that had a stony finish the size of a hand-and-a-half hilt, and tossing it behind him and Silent. It oddly floated in the air, before sparking and suddenly flashing into a swirling purple vortex that was eerily familiar. “So long.” He and Silent flapped their wings, backstepping so fast that when the warrior attempted to bull rush them, he only managed to clip Silent’s belt, dropping it to the ground just before they escaped into the portal, which vanished instantly, it’s portal matrix with it.

“Damn them,” said the warrior, who stood there for a few moments. “Now, where was it that I left that matrix…..” With that, the warrior began searching for something.

Dox’s POV:

I woke up….. somewhere. I couldn’t really tell where I was. The room was dark, I was tied up by my chest against a wall, and I couldn’t feel most of my limbs. I could feel a tube hooked up to all of my limbs, everything else was numb. “Finally awake I see.” I weakly lifted my head up, and a light was suddenly turned on, blinding me as it shined directly in my eyes. “About time. I was getting bored of watching you bleed in silence.” The voice was female, sultry even, but she held a tone of light arousal. The idea that it was from watching me bleed made me shiver.

“Who….. Who… are… you…?” I managed to get out. I felt really weak, trying to talk. What had happened when I blacked out?

“Who I am isn’t important. Where you are doesn’t matter. What does matter; is that your very essence is raw magic incarnate. Not even orichalcum can kill it entirely, and refined~.” I felt a hooked beak stab into my neck, and I screamed in pain as I felt her use it to bite into me, sucking on my magical rainbow blood like a perverse babe at a teat. She groaned in pleasure, and let go of me, tears let from my eyes against my will. “So~ good….”

“You’re….. sick….” I struggled out. I tried to move with that, but I felt too weak to even attempt to struggle against my restraints. What had they done to me? Why was I so weak?

“Can’t move? Good. I’ve cut off all your limbs. If you can’t feel it; all the better. I’ve severed the nerves to them. All I’ve left are your head, those eyes, and this.” I shouted in pain as I felt a rough talon grab my groin, teasing me. “You’re rather impressive. For a hairless freak.”

“Go….. die….. you bitch……” I got out. It wasn’t much, but it’s what I could manage. “Fuck……. you…..”

“Oh~ is that an invitation?” Her voice purred, and suddenly the light was gone, and I realized I wasn’t on a wall, I was on a table, my senses all fucked up. Over me was a disturbingly sexy black on black griffoness with the same colors as the griffins that had attacked me and killed Sapphire. She wore the same robes as them, but had her hood down, revealing her hooked beak and blue eyes. Her head wasn’t a crow like theirs, it was...different, an eagle head despite her black plumage. She growled before she jabbed a talon into my chest, making me scream in pain. “I know that look! Just because I’m a half-breed you think I’m different! I’ll be making you see differently worm.”

“Fuck…… off…..” I said. She leered at me, licking her beak as she grabbed a large breast in her talon, groping herself, and I only now remembered what Avarice said, about his captors raping him, my eyes widening in fear.

“As you wish.”

3rd POV

‘What is he doing here? How?’ Vagabond thought as he ran as fast as his lightweight leather body could. He’d popped on over the west coast of Equestria when he sensed Dox entering this world through another dimensional anomaly. He’d been trying to hunt these things down, their essence that of the Architect. That damn sadist wasn’t getting his hooks into this new world of his and his avatar’s if he could help it! ‘Whatever plan he has for Dox, I’m not going to let him have his way so easily!’

He’d been running for days now, straight south along the coastline, that was where he felt the portal last and felt Dox arrive before he began fading. Dox was his avatar’s friend, the son of his frienemy, and he wasn’t about to let him die. ‘Of all times for this sort of shit to happen, it has to be when I’m on my home field, and Avarice needs to be sharing my essence!’

He couldn’t just warp there; he hadn’t been there before. Here, in this dimension; he was little more than a powerful golem of sorts. Here he was divided between himself and Avarice, who was meant to succeed him, and to cut off from him might ruin all the effort he’d put into this plan. Soon the land next to the rocky and sandy shore changed from deep woods, to dirt desert, to sand desert. And he felt he was getting near, so he began slowing, prowling about, trying to feel where the portal let out. “I forgot how hard it was, not being nearly all-powerful...I won’t miss it though.’ Vagabond mused until he stopped, kneeling on the beach and sifting his dragon claw gloves through the sands. ‘Traces of the Void are here...and another incoming.’

Vagabond quickly seemed to sink into the very air, leaving only a small bit of his hood exposed in the dark of night.

Down from the sky fell a being seemingly made of armor. It hit the ground at speed, stopping only after creating a large crater, kicking up sand into the air. The sand settled quickly, revealing a warrior holding a mighty longsword, seeming to manipulate the very air with it, using it to settle the sands himself, while simultaneously chilling the air to a bone freezing 90 below celcius. The air heated up almost instantly afterwards. “What a waste of a good move. I didn’t even freeze the creature.” The warrior began looking around for the ‘creature’. “Come out. I know I didn’t kill you.”

“How quaint. A mortal of godly power thinks he can slay me? Amusing. Even in my current state, you are little more than an annoyance.” Vagabond chuckled darkly, his unknowable voice not even hurting the Nord’s ears.

“And why would I want to kill one of the gods?” the warrior said. “I merely wanted to meet you the way the people of my village once did. I was informed of your presence, but not much else. Who are you?”

“Hmph, irony. You are smart enough to actually remember the first encounter I had with your people, and yet you are daft enough to not know the reason why? I like you. Chaos practically breathes your essence. I am Vagabond. Elsewhere you would know me as Vaga.” Vagabond informed as he seemed to slowly appear from the air, as if he was the air becoming dead flesh of black leather.

“Vaga?” the warrior questioned. “I am Yngve, the Nord of the North. I remember your tales. Such diversity in them…. When did you become bound?”

“Months ago in this realm. Even Elder Gods must pass the torch someday. But that isn’t important right now. What is; is that a friend of my avatar is in peril, and I seek to save him. Are you with me mortal?” Vagabond asked, extending a glove out to the 7-foot tall man, who was exactly half Vagabond’s current height.

“I am bid by my master,” Yngve said, accepting Vagabond’s glove and shaking it once. “He bids that I traverse this ‘dungeon’ and save his champion. He bids that we hurry though, something is weakening both Dox, and the master’s connection to the realms.”

Vagabond growled, and began seeking the direction of the Void’s lingering essence. “The Master of Corruption, the Architect of Realities is behind this. He is seeking to sink his hooks into other worlds, add them to his collection. He plays with his puppets, his Shades, his Agents. It would seem he’s using Die Leucht both here and afar. Come, we have little time.” They both ran as fast as they could, Yngve trailing just behind Vagabond.

Dox POV:

The griffoness was gone. She left after she had her way with my limp body. I couldn’t resist, I didn’t even have any limbs now. How could I even try to resist without my arms, or my legs? The entire time, I could feel the tube just sucking out my blood, making me feel weaker and weaker. Hell, I had passed out during everything a few times due to weakness, and she kept waking me up everytime I lost consciousness. I wasn’t in control, and I had no chance of gaining it. It wasn’t like with Emerald and Sapphire…… Sapphire….

Why did she have to die? Where was Emerald? Why was this happening to me?

I had just about given up hope now. I was ready to resign myself to however short a life I had left here. I had nothing else. I couldn’t heal myself, I had no means of casting a spell. Hell, I was too weak to even stay awake for more than fifteen minutes at best. All I could do now was resign myself to my dismal fate…..

Until a familiar sword stabbed through the tan stone ceiling. I was effectively jolted awake at the hopeful sight, and soon it moved around the ceiling in a circle, like a hot blade through melted butter. Thankfully it wasn’t directly over me, and a huge cylinder of rock crashed to the floor along with the unfazed Yngve standing atop it. “WOOOO! Not even stone can stop my blade!” He bragged as a familiar figure made of leather gently floated in.

“Yeah, yeah. It’s just another adamantium sword. If you want a real sword of power, you should see the Third Key. Damn thing can rip space asunder with it’s blade. Yo Dox. Saving your ass again.” Vagabond said as suddenly four gloves similar to his own appeared from the air, but he hadn’t moved, and ripped the tubes draining me painlessly, being I couldn’t really feel around there anymore, and my bleeding stopped instantly.

“What sort of blade is this Third Key? And how is it greater than mine?” Yngve demanded, only for the hands to lift me upright, and hold me in midair.

“It is a field sword longer than you are tall, straight, but in the style synonymous across the Multiverse as being Japanese in some form. It’s blade cuts everything, from anything solid, to the air, to the boundaries of space and time, and even nullifies all magic it cuts like these damned orichalcum blades. It is the favored sword of the Elder God of Void. Having gifted his First and Second Keys to those he dubbed friends.” Vagabond said as he and Yngve casually walked towards the door, me being carried through the air behind them, blinking.

“I’m good with my sword as is,” Yngve stated. “Can we focus on saving Dox he-” Yngve stopped when he laid eyes on me. “BY THE GODS! WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU?!”

I couldn’t respond. My body was still too weak to do anything. After what had happened, I had been drained enough so that I couldn’t even speak. It was terrible. Like being in a bad dream, then finding out it was real.

“They’ve been…. draining you, haven’t they,” Yngve said. “Vagabond, please deal with Dox. I have something to take care of before something bad happens.” And with that, Yngve cut a hole to the floor below. The sounds of battle sounded from below. Several screeches could be heard, as well as a loud nord crying out in victory and anger. It sounded like a bloody battle.

“I’m taking you to your limbs Dox. They’re up ahead.” Vagabond then paused, and looked at me. “...I sense it...the Chaos of Loss...two of them.” My heart froze, and tears began dumping forth as I choked on nothing.

‘Two?! Then...then Emerald too!’ I coughed, my dry throat burning as I dry heaved.

“Don’t count them out. They’ve only died recently, I can still grab them before the Elder God of Death can process them for reincarnation, or leave them in the ether where only Gods of Creation like Faust can reach them. I’ll be needing your arm. Hope your sister doesn’t mind sharing living space.” Vagabond turned back around, walking briskly down the tunnel and winding through it’s dripping and salty passages, seeming to know exactly where he was going.

What did he mean? Was he going to bind Emerald and Sapphire to my arm? I still feel weak, I can’t think hard enough to process everything. I was barely awake as is. Why was I so weak? Why was is so easy for these freaks to wound me? Where did Yngve come from? Where did Vagabond come from? How did they even know I was here? And still, what happened when I blacked out?

Vagabond wasn’t going to bother answering the thoughts running through my head, time was of the essence, and he wasn’t going to waste it answering questions that could be handled later. I could figure that was the case at least, I mean, while he is of Chaos, he’s oddly pragmatic.

We soon found ourselves in a sort of lab, my limbs laid out on examination tables, all cut up. Damn it… but at least Athena’s arm body was still intact, it seemed they were being more careful with it than my other limbs. The place seemed ditched in a hurry, tools and belongings abandoned with all haste. Then again, this place seemed to be a sort of convenient base, these caves were natural, it wasn’t any trouble to lose it in exchange for secrecy I guess, or however these bastards operate.

“I’m going to lay you down and get busy on this. While I’m here in my new ‘root’ realm I’m greatly weakened, so I’ll-.” Vagabond froze, and then chuckled in mirth. “You’re in luck Dox. Avarice just got called away. That means I can do this.” Vagabond tossed me carelessly on an empty table, getting a choked grunt out of me, and he snapped his nonexistent fingers.

Oh. That fucking asshole! That hurt! All of my limbs, even the butchered ones were suddenly reattached to my body and regenerating back to their proper states. Then, he seemed to be focusing, his red essence drawing in through his hands, and he even growled and seemed to be straining. “I know it’s breaking the rules Ichor, but I’m not able to turn a blind eye to suffering like you.” Whoever this Ichor was, it seemed he was trying to keep Vagabond from getting my girls back! That fucker! Go Vaga!

With a roar, Vaga yanked two blue wisps from the air, and then promptly slammed them into my robotic arm, Athena both grunting and cooing at the action. “Oh~ my! This guy knows how to-mmph...treat a girl!” Ew~ my somewhat-sister was getting off to having the souls of my lovers being shoved into her body! …. For some reason I’m okay with that. Soon, I heard Athena cry out in ecstasy, and then sigh in relief when Vagabond was finished infusing Sapphire and Emerald into Athena. “Oh~ I just thought of how funny it would be if I was named Ruby instead, ha! We’d be a trio then!”

“Ow...Dox...what happened? I was being dragged away and then...nothing.” Emerald asked feebly, I was so glad to hear her voice.

“Where are those fucks?! I’ll tear their eyes out!” Sapphire roared into my mind, oh, I’m so happy to hear her.

“They’re dead,” said Yngve, who just walked in. “I killed as many as I could. They left a lot of his blood behind, but they made off with much more. I was at least able to stop them from taking this.” He held up a small vial with rainbow liquid in it. It looked like my blood, but it was brighter…. What did it do? “This would have made them gods. Glad I got to them when I did. The fucker who had this was almost through the portal when I ripped the arm holding the vial off.” Well damn. “There were more vials down there. One of them might be able to help you, but this one’s off limits for now.” Yngve seemed to then open a hole in space-time. He dropped the vial in it, then proceeded to pull out clothes. Wait, was he in my magic satchel? He must be, because those seem to be my spare clothes, thank goodness, I wasn’t looking forward to being in the buff. He didn’t take out my hoodie, though. I knew why, it was scratched up. But where would I house the Dice Roller Core, then? In fact, where the hell was it?

“Right here.” Vagabond said before holding the device, along with my aforethought hoodie. “Don’t be surprised. They’re yours, they stole them, I just whipped them back up. Your blood though...well...not even I can touch it. No idea what the Architect might do with what they likely gave to him though. Let’s go Yngve, we’ve got to force-feed as much of his rainbow juice back into him if he’s going to recover anytime soon.”

“Right,” Yngve said, retreating down the hallway and leaving me on the table. I tried to get up while they were gone, but it was no use, I was still much too weak. Hell, I could only hope to get back to normal now.

“Don’t worry, Dox,” said Athena, now appearing in her hologram form. She’d taken up her guise of a griffoness again. “You’ll be fine. I’ll need repairs, but you’ll be fine.”

“Screw…. you….” I said. Fucking hell. What the fuck did she think just happened?! I just got raped! And it was by a griffoness! Now she’s telling me that it’ll be fine, and she’s doing it in the form a griffoness?! “Go….. away…..”

“Dox, what’s wrong with….” she looked at herself, noticing what form she had taken. “Oh, shit. I’m sorry.” Her hologram glitched out a little before turning into her dragoness form. “I’m so sorry. I forgot. Please, you’ll be fine, Dox. I know you will.”

I wasn’t willing to listen, but that changed when alongside her, two familiar changeling mares appeared as holograms to either side of Athena, surprising her. Sapphire’s hologram was blue, while Emerald’s was green. Fitting. “Buck up you little ass! I died, but I’m here, so if I can fucking cope with it then you can get over being raped!” And there’s the tsundere Sapphire….

“W-what sis means is; we’re here for you. Even if we’re not...really alive anymore. What happened to our eggs Dox? Please...tell us they’re okay.” Emerald pleaded, and I couldn’t say anything, both because I was too weak, and also because I honestly didn’t know. For all I knew, these fucks had taken my unborn kids someplace for their sick experiments.

“Ladies, this is all a big shock, he’s weak. So we’ll just have to grin and bear it until Dox can literally get back on his feet.” Athena brokered between them, and the sisters both looked at her sadly. “Hey, it’s no so bad...I mean, we can do this!” Athena’s ‘body’ arm twitched, spasmed, and moved laboriously to my groin, and I had to choke out a weak laugh. Like when we first met. Sure, I wasn’t in any mood for that sort of thing, but it was the sentiment that mattered.

“Well, what about this?” Sapphire asked before suddenly grabbing Athena’s dragoness head and bringing her down for a kiss, surprising both her and Emerald, she broke it off shortly in her own surprise. “How did that work?”

“I don’t know! I’m new to this too!” Athena protested, and licked her maw. “But...I wouldn’t mind a...repeat test?”

“Sis, Athena, that’s no fair to poor Dox. He’s frustrated enough without one of his lovers and his...sister?” Athena nodded. “Getting frisky. He can hear everything we do, right?”

“I’m not sure...uh...we could...y’know…?” Athena ventured, before disappearing, and the sisters looked to each other before leaning towards my face and fake-kissing my cheek, before disappearing too. Love those girls.

Just then, Yngve came bursting in with a large crate of vials in one arm. In his other arm, he held a large container full of rainbow liquid. Wow. They were stockpiling it. He dropped the crate and the container on the floor next to me, then headed back down the hall, most likely to get more crates or containers. Then Vaga’s freaky air arms started appearing and opened the crate, and formed a chain with the one ending over my head popping the stopper with a thumb, and gesturing for me to open my mouth.

Even though he’s my pal, the fuck still scares the shit out of me when he isn’t actually here. Then again I showed Avarice this trick with my flintlock, so, kinda dug my own grave here. I opened my mouth, and the glove started pouring my own rainbow magic juice down my gullet. Every swallow made me feel better, so I kept going. I have no clue how long I was there, Yngve carrying crates in sometimes two at a time, and Vaga’s disembodied arms feeding me my own blood. Some morbid shit, but it was necessary. After who-know’s how many, I finally felt strong enough to sit up on my own, and Yngve and Vaga were both standing off to the side.

“Ugh…” I moaned. “Thanks, guys.”

“Lay back down, idiot,” said Yngve. “I don’t care how good you feel, you should be drinking more than that. In fact, take this.” He held out a deep red vial as he forced me to lay down. I took the vial graciously, gulping it down as fast as I could. it tasted horrible, but I could feel myself getting better from it.

“Again, thanks,” I said as I lay there, being fed my own blood again, but at a faster pace. It was like a macabre beer bong now. The thought made me choke a bit and almost spit up some of the stream of vials being dumped in my mouth now. For some reason, my blood started tasting like Mountain Dew, if not a bit watered down. I was glad it was going right back into whatever sort of paradoxical space my blood came from, because there was no way in hell my stomach could have held even a fraction of what I’d consumed, and soon enough the stream stopped.

“That’s it, no more. The Die Leucht have the rest. Damn it, I’ll go looking for them, but I’ve got to drop you off someplace safe. C’mere.” Vaga insisted, and gestured me to get up, and then for us to walk into his drape of a coat. Honestly, it was understandable when he was this huge. Like walking through those door drapes in fancy or hipster places? Well, we easily walked right through the Elder God of Chaos’s own little section of Limbo and out the other end into a tropical paradise. Well, as tropical as a tropical island can get when it doesn’t have any trees.

“Where the hell did Vaga send us?” I asked to no one in particular.

A mechanical sigh was my response at first. “More problems, more complications, more setbacks. I swear. Avarice is a vicious taskmaster without realizing it.” Yngve and I turned around to see a gray on gray earth pony claptrap stallion that was BUILT, I mean, frick, WHY was he so beefy when he was wearing a gray business suit, and those futuristic glasses like that accountant guy from the Borderlands Games wore? Pfft...how hard is it for him to get ten million dollars? “Sub-Foreman Vagabond has dropped you in the midst of my work site.”

The claptrap’s gesture around us made me...I just pissed myself. There were BUL, PWR, and basic Loaders all around us, aiming their respective weapons at us, their blue eyes turned red. We were at the bottom of a massive cubic hole, perfectly dug and shaped to precision, the Loaders all had dirty hands and digging equipment, so it was clear that this was a massive project.

“Well….. Shit….” I said. Seriously, what was going on here? What had happened to Avarice since I last saw him? “Um, where is Avarice? Can you guys, um… Fix my arm?”

“Certainly, but without Foreman Avarice or Sub-Foreman Vagabond funding it, the repairs will cost you-.” Athena appeared, again a griffoness, and seemed to have trouble appearing as something else.

“S-sorry Dox, emitters, fluxuating, can’t maintain other forms so well.” Athena apologized, and while seeing a griffoness did upset me, I could easily get over it since she was struggling with other forms. Besides...she’s my sister, and I knew her this way first. Back when she was a shameless tease and we didn’t know we were related. “H-Homage, I need serviced, o-or transf-f-f-ferred!” Athena? “Damage catastrophic! All power routing to-!” She cut off, and went limp…. NO!

“Please! Save them! I can’t...I can’t lose them again!” I yelled, running up and grabbing the claptrap unit. “Save them!” He quickly grabbed, my arm, broke my wrist, and tossed me to the ground in one smooth move, while pulling a cord from his hair, Yngve was going to move, but a few warning shots from the surrounding Loaders made him pause.

“This’ll be quicker if you stay still! Do not waste your energy, the arm’s feeding off your neural impulses, the pain will cause your brain to be more active, so agitate that wrist if you have to.” Homage growled, kneeling next to me and plugging his mane cable into a port on my bicep. “Damn, damn...transferring to local storage space. This arm’s scrapped. Whatever happened, whoever tried to open it up triggered a self-defense protocol and fried most of the hardware.”

“But you can fix it or replace it…. right?” I asked. “Please…. I don’t want to lose them, again. Not again….”

“The arm itself is worthless, better off slagged. But if you’re worried about the souls in here.” Athena as a griffoness, and the sisters Sapphire and Emerald all projected from his left eye, and seemed to be just fine. “They’re in my storage systems right now. I’ll have to transfer them to blank loaders or claptrap units. I don’t trust this sort of platform with three souls.”

“Excuse me!” Called out the projected Athena. “I would love a body, but if you can find a way to set up a new arm with the same capabilities, I’d gladly go back in there.”

“Oh, come on, Athena.” Emerald’s projection said. “Surely you’d rather have some more fun with us?”

“Yeah, that was fun, what we were doing.” said Sapphire. “Couldn’t you just join us?”

“I’m afraid that’s out of the question. If Mother was the one you were speaking to, she’d be fine with it. Until I told her you nearly died because you couldn’t defend yourself.” Homage pulled the “telling mom” card!

“No! Not fair! I like molesting him!” Athena then turned red, and sheepish. “Um...it’s...not REALLY incest….” It was super effective and brain-bleach worthy information makes her lose the battle!

“You’re getting your own body sis! Ew….” ‘Still...I’m a little disturbed I find that hot.’ “So, how can I repay you? I’ve just had most of my blood forcibly drained and nearly died, so I don’t have much of myself to give you.”

“You say that like we’re loan sharks. We’re Hyperion, not Jakobs.” Homage then cast a healing spell with his Magic Core and my wrist snapped back into place. “Now then, thank you for your patience, follow me.” Homage moved over to a lift in the side of the pit...a lift? This place was several stories deep...they must be getting ready to begin building the place proper.

“So, what’s being built here?” I asked, getting in the lift with Homage. Yngve followed behind us, albeit slowly. He seemed very wary of the robotic beings around the place, even as their eyes turned blue and they got back to their assigned tasks, the potential threat dismissed. He calmed down though when it was just us in the lift shaft and it began rising.

“You must not be in contact with Avarice often if you do not know. Avarice and Vagabond are the recently hired Foreman and Sub-Foreman of this universe’s branch of the Hyperion Corporation. They offered to fund the venture, and so we are setting up shop. Just before Avarice was whisked away in a swathe of blue flame, he asked me to get to work on setting up a New-U system and Fast Travel network, because the more mundane methods of travel are not sufficient or efficient in our current state.” Homage explained and the long ride up ended surprisingly fast. Hyperion lifts were pretty quick.

“As awe inspiring as all this is. I feel the danger has passed for now,” Yngve stated. “I was told to do something, and that was help you out. Seeing as you’re fine now, I can go. I’m not leaving you without something though, here.” Yngve held out his sword for me. “Take it. I’m not going to be using it any time soon. Plus, I have this!” He pulled out a large tome with a face on it. In the mouth of the face was a large bomb. Wow, kinda forgot I got him that. “Now, I must be off. Take care, Dox.” Yngve pulled out the Runic Portal Matrix, opened a portal, and was exited through it, leaving no trace that he was even here, besides his sword.

“Well, that was nice of him,” I said. “So, about getting a new arm, and su-.”

“What was that?” Homage gestured to where Yngve vanished. “What device did he just use?”

“That was an artifact from my universe,” I said. “I started putting it into the Hyperion Database the other day. It’s a Runic Portal Matrix. It allows the user to open portals to other realms, or apparently in this case, universes.” Dox noticed that it hadn’t followed Yngve and he sighed. “He just tossed it...this thing doesn’t follow unless you take it with you.”

“Mind if I have it a moment. I have an entire suite of software and hardware capable of several different analysis types. I believe this being directly sent to Faust might earn some commission towards your debt.” Homage held out his hand, getting a bit of a creepy grin to his otherwise stoic face.

“Yeah, yeah,” I said. “Just be careful not to damage it. It’s a very volatile item if damaged.” I said as I carefully handed it to him, and his eye not having Athena, Sapphire and Emerald projected from it began scanning it several times over as he moved it around in his hands.

“Fascinating...simple, yet pointlessly complex...I believe Mother might be able to find a less unique and fragile alternative using data gathered from this, and with our current portal technology. Let me take you to the beacon, we still have to converse with-.”

“HOMAGE! FRONT AND CENTER!” The gray claptrap stallion started at hearing his mother’s furious tone from the direction of the beacon, and quickly ran towards it, I followed, kinda scared, since Faust sounded PISSED.

“Oh damn,” I said, following the claptrap. Homage was practically bowing to the holographic screen showing a very perturbed F.A.U.S.T. that fidgeted in place, her expression a mixture of stern and worry.

“Thou shalt report where Unit Athena is this instant! We felt her...vanish, a moment. We sense her data stream in thou’s dimension, seek her immediately.” The Robe wearing robotic alicorn bristled, before blinking a moment in my Direction as those eyes showed white dots in a black void like from Five Nights at Freddy’s, with bared chainsaw teeth revving slowly or erratically in clicks, looking me over than the arm he was holding. “We presume thou enacted emergency recovery protocols?”

He instantly lifted the ‘slagged’ arm in question as the Token Digistructed it in almost a flash, while her response was a withering stare upon Homage and myself. As he seemed to draw out the holographic projections of the three currently inside himself showing said A.I. sister and my two changeling lovers as spirits inside.

“Um, may I please get a new arm and claptrap bodies for my sis and lovers?” I asked the mechanical alicorn. “I was kinda kidnapped, nearly exsanguinated to death, my lovers over there died, and I almost lost Athena too. I...I kinda need assurance that they’ll be able to defend themselves...because clearly I’m not able to….”

The Expression dragged over to Athena and the girls felt as if forever froze over, with F.A.U.S.T. Now almost literally boring a hole in Athena’s direction and by accounts; Sapphire and Emerald, giving a chorus of ‘sorry’ or fearful expressions as they hugged each other for comfort. “Thou doth cares to explain thyself or simply bare for us a data-dump of what we’ll get out of thou for being lax in thy duty to thy brother…” The last word her gaze instantly shifted back onto me for just a moment, until flicking back in less than a blink.

“It’s not her fault,” I said. “I didn’t have her body deployed. She was stuck as a hologram. There was already a commotion in the middle of the night, then the bastards showed up and attacked me, them, AND my Tia and Luna in their own castle. They were using black cloaks that rendered them invisible to the biological eye, and some special daggers. I think they were made out of this thing called orichalcum. I even found a dagger of it, myself. I lost it, though. They must have taken it. I could check my magic satchel…” I opened the space-time rift that was the magic satchel…..

What the hell. Yngve is a badass. Why do I say this? ‘Cause there was at least fifty of the freaking daggers inside the magic satchel. Wow. I pulled out one of the daggers to show F.A.U.S.T.

“These are what they were using,” I said. I then noticed that there was a large nick in the blade. “What the heck?” Oh, right! Yngve’s sword is made of a special mithril alloy and adamantium! Of course it would cut into this stuff. “I’m pretty sure this can cut it.” I held up Yngve’s sword.

F.A.U.S.T. gestured from myself to Athena with barely a smile after hearing that though having started by stating what’s to come. “Thou wouldn’t mind study of the sword in question to adapt possibilities onto a defensive treatment we would be working on? Oh also thy sister could control ANY of thou cybernetics at any time, With an eye and arm much could be ‘accomplished’ such as sticky bedsheets?” Giving Athena a slight nod of approval for a moment before glowering at her pointing back at my shocked self. “Were thou busy ‘getting off’ from thy images of the DM’s Colt?”

“M-MOTHER!” Athena squeaked, her wings flaring in embarrassment as the changeling sisters on either side of her grinned and leaned into her, whispering into her ears, making her projection turn even redder, and Homage to sigh.

“I can hear all of your nasty little words Mares. Have some decency, would you?” Homage chided, getting them all to turn the same shade of blushing red. “Mother, please, I implore you; I will bill Foreman Avarice for the units and explain why, he’ll be understanding.”

“There is a Priority order from earlier, we are still in the process of preparing for deployment of the Starting Hyperion satellite; Plague-0 as named in which he ordered, and the New-U Fast Travel stations...very well. We see no issue, but Foreman Avarice must know that money cannot solve everything, as much as we wish otherwise.” F.A.U.S.T. shook her head, before reaching up to her mane and pulling out a long cable, and a small hole opened in the air in front of the screen. “Homage, connect for transfer.”

“M-Mother this is quite embarrassing….” Homage stuttered, his cheeks actually blushing, and it wasn’t until I noticed the cable had a ‘female’ ending that I blushed, understanding the implication.

“Nonsense son. It is nothing unusual. Just port in and we shall take thy sister, and our new daughters into ourself for proper installation.” F.A.U.S.T. stated with an understanding and caring expression, and Homage sighed before taking a long cable with a ‘male’ end from his mane.

“Wait, what,” I said. “Just…. what.” I was too late, and the moment they connected, the three girls vanished, and Homage shuddered while F.A.U.S.T. hummed in content.

“We shall be along shortly. The initialization process takes a bit, but since they already have all their sense of identity, they’re...oh. Goodness. You really are naughty mares.” F.A.U.S.T. purred with humor as she disconnected from her son’s cable, and he briskly cleared his throat, stood, and walked away. “Mm...we must try that on Jack~....” F.A.U.S.T. mused with a purr before the beacon shut down, and I was left standing there, down an arm, my lovers and sister in the body of a goddess….

Oh god...she’s pregnant with my sister and lovers all at once….that’s a strange thought. “Okay~!...Now what do I do?” I looked around, and aside from the enormous cubic hole where the Loaders were digging, there was the equally massive slag heap of dirt and stone off to the side. Everything else was valley, a quiet warm breeze, the warm sun overhead, a lazy feeling in the air. “I can...actually...relax?” It was a...weird feeling. I felt safe here, it was quiet, aside from the construction, and there was the ocean a short distance away, like maybe a half-mile.

Hey, there’s some small plaster huts over there! Locals? I’ll just go over and see-.

I was frozen on the ground, a spear stabbed between my legs, and several serious and wary zebras aiming spears at my face. ALL I DID WAS SAY HI! Then again, I was a one armed guy, currently, with a device strapped to that one arm…. and I was pale as all hell, and I had pointy ears, a green eye and a robotic one….. and I was dressed in all black… Okay, maybe they had a reason to be like this.

“[What should we do with the weird one? He came from metal warrior’s place.]”

“[He looks like the demons of lore! Aiding us or not, if they ally with the demons we must flee!]”

“[Do not be hasty! Brother Avarice is much more monstrous than this one-armed fool. If he is so kind, then shouldn’t we extend the same courtesy of giving him a chance?]”

...Were they...speaking Hawaiian? Wow, never thought I’d see the day that happened. Now…. what to do… Wait! I know! Speech check!

Aaaaaand…. FUCK YEAH! CRIT!

“[Hello there,]” I said. “[Um, I’m not a demon. Listen, I’m friends with Avarice, okay? Something happened recently, I got kidnapped and now I’m here because Vagabond rescued me. I’m just waiting on a few things and was interested in seeing what was here.]”

“[Oh~ you poor thing!]” I was suddenly blinded by a view of MUCH closer black and white, causing me to lean back and blush from the warrior zebra mare that had moved her spear aside and knelt in front of me, not at all seeming to care she’d shoved her chest into my face with the action. “[You are so pale and thin, we must fix that! Girls!]” The warriors all backed off and went about their previous duties, and a couple of other shapely mares all approached. I JUST noticed they’re all wearing LEAVES and VINES for clothes! “[This poor dear is famished and paler than is natural! We must heal him!]”

“[Oh~ I’ll get the tanning lotion!]”

“[I’ve got the massage.]”

“[I’ll get the food.]”

I tried to move away, but the warrior mare’s quick reflexes already caught one of my ears, and twisted, making me shout as she grinned impishly. “[You won’t be getting away so easy, our hospitality would be at stake.]”

“WHY NOW?!” I screamed. “NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE! SO MUCH NOPE!”

I slowly walked back up to the beacon, my pale skin now a dark tan from that weird alchemical tanning lotion, my muscles relaxed from masterful massage, and feeling rather full on bananas, coconuts, and pineapple drink mixes...and wearing nothing but a thong made of leaves and vines. Dem Hawaiian zebra mares...so sexy, smart, and hospitable. Still wish they had given me back my clothes, though. I was enjoying wearing normal clothes. Hell, they even took my weird ass leather shoes!

“Ah, enjoyed the local flavors I see.” Homage stated near the beacon as the sun was nearly setting. “I also see they took your clothes. I shall have them sent to you later, but right now, Mother is ready to send over her daughters.”

“Yeah, thanks,” I said, walking past Homage. I hit him on my way past, I think I might have taken off part of his shoulder when I did, too. Serves him right, no one acts like that to me but those close to me. Homage simply brushed his shoulder off, and cast a self-repair spell, fixing what I’d broken, not really caring. I walked into the room that the beacon was in. “So, Homage tells me the girls are ready to come back? And my arm?”

“We feel you will...enjoy, both the arm, and our reborn daughters.” F.A.U.S.T. replied, now wearing her skin-tight Hyperion uniform outfit again, and first came...WHOA-HO-HO~?!

“Hello Dox~.” Emerald and Sapphire said in unison, flaunting their new bodies by pressing their upgraded assets together and looking at me at the same time. They were changeling models, but clearly the Mature kind, that skin their armor was showing wasn’t fake! I swear, my nose started bleeding just from looking at them. Sapphire’s accents were a vibrant blue, while Emerald’s were a similarly vibrant green. Their E-cup breasts mashed together until they moved apart, their blue and green tails swishing in joy at being alive and having bodies again. “Like our...upgrades?”

Before I could respond, Athena popped up between the mares who were the same 5’10” as before, but she was a couple feet taller at 7’ even, and was a busty, shapely orange griffoness that mirrored her original hologram avatar. Sure, I had mixed feelings about her being a griffon, but it was her choice...I hope. But sister or not, when she leaned over, and her huge gazongas being about the same size as the sister’s HEADS did not escape me. “Like MY upgrade...Little Brother~?” If my nose wasn’t bleeding before, it sure was now. I could feel the liquid coming out my nose. Hell, it could have been my brain being liquified from the sight, I just felt liquid. “What’s wrong brother? Feeling...flush?” As she asked that with her husky voice, both sisters pressed their heads into the sides of her massive breasts and began nuzzling.

I think my heart stopped a moment, but they laughed and broke apart, thankfully the tease seemed to be over. “Girls, please, your incesutous behavior is harming him.” F.A.U.S.T. grinned evilly. She planned that! “Now for the arm.”

Holy...shit.

“Like it? Avarice put it on order for you earlier actually, something about wanting to get you something.” Homage commented from the side, grinning evilly.

“Like it? I LOVE IT!” It was literally Samus Aran’s ARM CANNON with a hand on the end of the cannon that was clearly able to morph if it’s liquid-metal appearance said anything, it was like the Type-2 Terminator from Terminator 2! Hyperion has this technology?! This was freaking sick! I could only imagine what would happen if I used David’s token with it. “Does it fire beam shots? Or is it E-Tech? And uses bullets?”

“The latter. We have yet to perfect Eridian tech, but E-Tech is absolutely easy once thou know how to make eridium. Thou can feed the cannon almost anything, and it will convert it into energy blasts of the various elements we have the skill to infuse into, from fire and lightning, to acid and slag. Even explosive. Avarice paid a fortune for this. Appreciate thy friend, won’t thou? Now take care of our daughters...or we WILL END THOU!” F.A.U.S.T. shouted, her eyes turning into pits with a white pupil and her mouth filled with chainsaw teeth again, and the beacon shut down.

Dammit I pissed myself again…. And I was wearing the freaking thong. Damn it.

“Hey, Homage,” I said. “I need a way to get back…. and I need to place an order. I’m gonna need some loaders in the future.”

Homage sighed, taking the Runic Portal Matrix from his storage. “Good news...Avarice put in an order for THAT too. He said he figured shit might hit the fan for you too. Some inept form of a contingency plan on his part and all that. I will inform mother to send them on over when we are not so bogged down in orders. Unit Markus is so busy lately too.”

“Alright then,” I said, taking the Matrix from Homage. I used it to open a portal back to my world, then tossed it to Homage as I put the arm to my shoulder socket, and it connected perfectly, actually making my nerves hum. Oh~ that felt good..... “Hey, remember to return it when you’re done with all the scanning. I’ll have something else for you to scan when you’re done.”

Homage actually smiled when I said that. Huh...guess he does have SOME soft spots. “I will be sure to. Now off with you. I have business to tend. Sisters...don’t kill our employee.”

“We’ll try not to~.” All three of them responded, and giggled, making me shake my head with a laugh before we all walked on through to home. I had so much shit to explain to the princesses when I got there. About what happened, and the fuckers who did this….

Author's Notes:

So, here's a crossover with GameJunkie7 and his story Hello Stranger..... as well as a small crossover with Architect of Realities and his story Handsome Jack's Return. They're both amazing authors, please give them some love.

So yeah. Things got really serious here. Anyone else notice I added the Dark tag?

But anyways, this is Music Mod, signing off.... kinda. XD