The Disaster Pokemon

by Onomonopia

First published 14th of May, 2018

When ghosts haunt Equestria, it will take a being of the dark to dispel them.

The lands of Equestria aren't as safe as they once were.

What was once a gently trek across fields of beauty and wonder have changed to battles with spirits and death. Most ponies can't go a few miles without having to battle for their souls against ghosts and spirits, all who wish to drag them to the dead.

And to top it all off there's a creature that haunts a mountain at the edge of Equestria, a creature that no pony has ever fully seen. Fast as a blur and cold as the grave, none know who or what it is.

All we do know is that whenever it appears, it brings disaster with it.

This story is a bit of an experiment for me, so if things seems weird or don't add up all the time, that is why.

Rift

"Come on everypony, it's time for dinner!" Limestone Pie yelled up the stairs to her sisters room, sighing in frustration when she failed to hear the sound of laughter diminish. The Pie house was tucked in a blanket of snow, meaning that the young filly had to spend the entire day cooped up with her sisters. She was on edge. "Pinkie, I swear that if I have to come up there you're going to be doing my chores for a week!"

"Let her have her fun," Maud said from one of the chairs in the kitchen, glancing up from the books on tectonic plates she was ready to give her sister a bland look. "She just discovered her cutie mark a few days ago and it's for parties. So it's only natural that she'll be a lot more...boisterous than us."

"The only reason that you can say that is because you don't have to sleep in the same room as her! You get your own room while me and Marble have to put up with her giggling all the time!" the filly yelled back at her sister, but as the door opened and her mother and father walked in, Limestone clamped down and kept her annoyance to herself.

A loud laugh filled the room and Pinkie came sliding down the stairs railing, leaping off with a laughter light enough to make her float through the air. She skidded to a stop at the hooves of her parents, beaming up at them with a smile bright enough to rival the sun. Cloudy's mouth didn't move an inch as she stared down at the beaming face of her daughter, but try as he might Igneous couldn't stop himself from cracking a small smile.

"Hiya mom! Hi daddy!" Pinkie exclaimed delightfully while her parents shook the snow off of themselves. Pinkie then spun around and wrapped her arms around Limestone, spinning the both of them around with such speeds that Limestone had to forcefully resist the desire to vomit. When Pinkie released her sister and raced over to Maud, Limestone staggered in place with her eyes swimming in her head.

When the spinning finally stopped, Limestone looked over at her parents to see that they were holding a pair of bags in their hooves, which they laid down on the table in the kitchen. Limestone trotted over and hopped up onto a chair to look inside of the bags, seeing that there was a numerous amount of groceries, most of which were for some of Pinkie's favorite food.

"So we're finally going to celebrate Pinkie getting her cutie mark, are we?" Limestone asked her parents, both of who nodded once silently before going about their work. Limestone made a face before she walked over to her sister and pulled her into a hug, messing up Pinkie's mane ever further. "Congrats on finally getting your mark, little sis. Looks like you are capable of growing up after all."

"Aw, thanks sis," Pinkie smiled before pulling Limestone into a bone crunching hug, one that squeezed all of the air out of her ribs. When Pinkie loosened her grip, Limestone looked down at her sister with a bit of amazement. Pinkie's mane had gone from flat to poofy and her coat had gone from a dark pink to a pink that one would see in a rainbow. Her personality had also changed drastically and now it was almost impossible to get her to be quite. But despite all of that, as Limestone looked down at the three balloons on Pinkie's side, she couldn't help but feel pride in her little sister.

"Limestone, go and find Marble. She's probably out gazing at the stars," Cloudy Quartz ordered Limestone from the counter, gazing at her daughter over the edge of her glasses.

"Aw come on, it's freaking cold out there," Limestone tried to argue. Her father then turned around and gave her a stare that told her she no longer had a say in the matter. Limestone let out an exasperated sigh as she turned and walked towards the door, stopping just long enough to catch a glance at herself in the mirror that hung next to the door.

She looked at her gray mane that hung straight down the side of her body, before casting a glance at the lime on he flank between two rocks. She looked like every other Pie family member on the family tree, not standing out in the slightest. Except for Pinkie, who was so different from the rest of them that no pony would ever guess that they were related.

"Come on, lets go find Marble," Maud said from beside Limestone, snapping her out of her thoughts and getting her to look up at her younger (yet somehow taller) sister with surprise. Maud pulled a scarf off of the coat rack that hung by the door and wrapped the wool around Limestone's neck, before she took one off for herself. "The rock farm is a big place and we have a better chance of finding her quickly together. Before we get cold."

Limestone flashed her sister a grateful smile before Maud pushed open the door and walked outside. The sting of the winter air immediately bit into the two ponies, getting Limestone to shiver as her body quickly became chilled. Maud made no indication that she felt the cold at all and instead looked to her left and right across the farm.

"You take the quarry. I'll go look near the Holder's Boulder," Maud instructed, getting Limestone to shake her head. Despite being the oldest of the sisters, at this point Limestone, Pinkie and Marble had all defaulted to Maud as the leader of the four. Not only because she was far wiser than all of them, but also because she would do what she wanted anyway, whether or not she was in charge.

"She better not be on top of Holder again," Limestone grumbled as she started to head to the rock quarry. "If she is I'll never let her hear the end of it!"

"That's why I'm going to look there."

Limestone walked towards the rock quarry in silence, only occasionally letting out a sound as her teeth chatted together. She pulled her scarf closer as she moved a little quicker, looking across the quarry for any sign of her sister while she trotted through the snow. She eventually spied Marble sitting at the very edge of the quarry, looking up at the moon hiding amongst the clouds.

"Hey Marble," Limestone said as she approached her youngest sister, getting Marble to turn around to glance at Limestone. A small smile was all Marble gave Limestone before she turned her eyes back up to the moon as Limestone sat down next to her. "Mom and dad say that you have to come in. We're going to be celebrating Pinkie getting her cutie mark tonight."

"Oh wow, already?" Marble replied in a near whisper, hiding under her mane as she changed her gaze to the snow under her hooves. "Do you think that...I'll get my cutie mark soon?"

"Don't see why not. Maybe in another year or so," Limestone said to her sister before wrapping an arm around the filly. "But first I need to teach you to stop hiding under your mane. No pony is going to take you seriously if you keep doing that."

"I know, but I just feel so safe when...sis. What's that?"

Limestone looked up to where Marble had pointed, her eyes going wide as a tear ripped its way across the sky far in the distance. The tear was slowly pulled open, reveling a vortex of pink energy that hung in the sky, barely visible with the clouds that hung in the sky. But both Marble and Limestone watched with wide eyes as something descended from the tear, a being that neither of them could make out completely.

From where they sat it looked like some kind of dragon, with a pair of wings that went straight back. Its long neck moved its head back and forth, looking around the land. The dragon had two large pearls on its shoulders that glistened in the moon light, while its whole body was pinkish in nature.

The creature lifted its head towards the rift, watching as a sphere of pink energy descended out of the rift and came to a stop right in front of the dragon. The dragon then pointed one of its arms off into the distance and a split second later the sphere launched into the distance. The moment the sphere was gone the dragon extended its wings and flew back up into the vortex, which slowly closed in upon itself once the dragon was gone. When it had closed completely, the Pie sisters were left looking at a perfectly fine night sky, with no mark of what had just happened.

"Sis, did you see that as well?" Marble asked Limestone, whose face sent like her aunt Flint, who was known for stern looks, before shaking her head slightly.

"I saw it. The only thing I don't know is what we just saw," she replied, before standing up and helping Marble to her hooves as well. "Go back to the house and I'll be with you momentarily. Don't argue or else mom will get mad at us. And grab Maud if you see her."

Marble did as she was told, leaving Limestone to look up into the sky once more and glare at the spot where the rift had appeared. She waited for ten more minutes, waiting for it to open once more, but when nothing happen she shook her head and headed back towards her home.

'Was that some kind of dragon? A magical monster that we've never heard of before? What was it doing here?' she asked herself before she stopped one last time, remembering the direction that the sphere had flown off in. 'And what was in that sphere? Why did that dragon leave it here? And what does it mean for our world?'

(]o[)

A strong kick to the stone wall caved it in, creating a large enough opening for the treasure hunter to make it inside. The beast had the face of a dog, the body similar to a gorilla and a tail with a hand on it. It also wore a hard hat on its head and a map was gripped tightly in its hand, neither of which were helping it all that much.

"This should not have been this hard to find," Ahuizolt snarled to himself as he reached up and turned on the headlamp, shining it around the room that was filled with plants and dusts, neither of which Ahuizolt liked the looks of. "Twenty years...it's taken me twenty years to find this darned place!"

Yet even though the dust was messing with his allergies, Ahuizolt couldn't help but smile as he reached into a back pocket, pulling out a small totem on the end of a necklace. "But found it at last I have. And with this discovery, this world will soon bow down to me! The greatest treasure hunter in all of the world!"

Ahuizolt threw back his head and laughed as loud as he could, until some dust flew into his throat and turned his triumphant laughter into regretful choking. Once he had finished with his close encounter with death, Ahuizolt entered into the ancient temple and started to look around.

The walls were covered in images and symbols, all of which Ahuizolt easily deciphered with his brilliant mind, and the cheat sheet that he had on the back of the map. He flipped it over and started to read the symbols, a toothy grin smiling across his face as he slowly started to realize what he needed to do.

Without a moments hesitation he walked over to a spot in the large chamber where a single pedestal stood in an alcove with nothing on it. Ahuizolt removed the totem from his backpack and placed it onto the pedestal, waiting for a full three minutes before he realized that he had it on backwards. Once he flipped it around, the temple began to shake with such force that hundreds of bats that had been hiding in the cracks of the walls flew towards the exit that Ahuizolt had made, terrified of the weirdo that had entered into their home.

A stone wall vanished in a swirl of dust (sending Ahuizolt into a coughing frenzy) before he walked into the chamber hidden behind the wall, glancing around at the splendor that was the hidden chamber. Torches that never seemed to burn out decorated the walls, providing an eerie light that Ahuizolt would be sure to remember if he ever made an evil lair. Piles of gold, silver and gems adorned the floor, with some of the gems being larger than Ahuizolt's hands.

But neither the treasure nor the ambient lighting was what Ahuizolt had come for. In the center of the room, under a single beam of light that came from the outside, was a coffin. A coffin that was covered in chains and a lock that held six slots for keys on it. The coffin itself was black as the night and an eerie glow came out of the small cracks in the side of it.

"And there we are. One of the most powerful and well guarded secrets in all of Equestria. The coffin of the kind," Ahuizolt whispered to himself as he approached the coffin, until a chilling sensation stopped him in his tracks.

'Who dares to disturb me?' an ancient and slightly raspy voice asked from within the coffin, but instead of inspiring fear the voice made Ahuizolt smile with anticipation.

"So the legends are true. Within this coffin lays the king of all ghosts," Ahuizolt said as he approached the coffin, resting a hand on the exterior of the box. "King of the ghosts, hear my words. I have come to free you, but only if you do a favor for me! And if you refuse, I shall leave and you shall remain imprisoned until the end of time."

'Very well, one who I do not know. Tell me it is what you desire and I shall use my power to make it so. Once I am free, of course,' the kind replied from within, more curious than offended by the being that so casually demanded his aid.

"I demand that you use your ghostly army to grant the rule of this world to me!" Ahuizolt declared, clenching his fists as he did so as he struck a pose of triumph.

'That is hardly a difficult request. But in order for me to resurrect my ghostly army, I will need to be free.' Ahuizolt extended a single claw and placed it in the lock. The claw didn't unlock the chains, but simply by being touched the lock faded away into golden dust. The chains fell off of the coffin and vanished into dust as well, before the top of the coffin exploded off and a being of darkness rose into the sky.

'I am free!' the small ball of darkness said, letting out a menacing cackle before it started to fly around the room. Ahuizolt watched the ball fly around until he snapped his fingers, getting the ball to fly over to him. 'Ah, so this is the one who freed me. Tell me your name, stranger, and I shall grant you what you desire.'

"Do you take me for a fool? I know that if a mortal gives their name to you, you will take control of their very soul with your power," Ahuizolt said with a smile, one that got the ball to start chuckling.

'Ah, I see that you are not as dumb as the last fool that freed me. Sombrero or something like that,' the king said before he dove into the treasure that lined the floor, emerging a moment later with a sliver mask that had a large smile upon its face. 'Perhaps this time I will be able to get something done before I am finally sealed away. Tell me, have King Solace's descendants Celestia and Luna been dealt with yet? They are still the current rulers, right?'

"Yes and they still breathe. And now there are six other defenders with powers that surpass the princesses. They will be trouble," Ahuizolt informed the king, who nodded the mask.

'Well, that matters not. There are as many ghosts under my command as there are graves in the world!' the king laughed before the masks eye sockets began to glow, sending out a purplish light into the air. 'Arise my ghosts! Those of you with bitter hatred in your hearts, arise! Join me once more, to reclaim the land of the living for ourselves!'

Ahuizolt looked up at the sky with a large smile for a minute, before he looked around with confusion at the fact that nothing had changed. "Um..."

'I was not buried with my army. Solace was not that dumb. But right now, somewhere in the world, my army is arising,' the king said with a sinister laugh, which was offset by the silly smile on his mask. 'And I pity any that are caught with them.'

(]o[)

Ponies screamed in terror as the center of the city was slowly ripped open, creating a fissure in the ground that shook the entire city to its core. Buildings began to collapse as the fissure grew wider and wider, laughter filling the air as the sky started to become darker and darks clouds filled the sky. While the ponies ran away, those that were wearing the uniforms of the royal guard ran towards the fissure, drawing their weapons as they prepared to do their duty.

Yet when they arrived at the fissure they found that they were hopelessly unprepared for what they would find. Hundreds of spirits were rising into the sky, all of them resembling the upper half of a pony if they had no mane, eyes and their mouths stayed open, allowing a blue light that came from within the shine. Their eyes sockets shone with a similar blue light, one that was malevolent, while their faces had on them a sinister smirk.

The guards raised their weapons and prepared to defend themselves, before another guard pointed out that there was something in the center of the fissure. All of the guards turned their attentions to the fissure once more, spying the figure standing on a single pillar that was barely holding together. The being had white fur, red eyes and a black horn in the shape of a blade. It seemed to size them up for a moment, before it opened it's mouth.

"Run."

And then the spirits attacked.

Souls

"I can't find my party cannon! Where is my party cannon?!" Pinkie exclaimed as she raced around the princesses chamber, barely able to be seen as she whipped back and forth. She lifted the throne of the princesses and looked underneath of it, before Twilight grabbed hold of her with her magic and dragged her back over to the rest of the group.

"You probably left it in your room, Pinkie," Limestone said with a shake of her head and her sisters antics, while the rest of the Pie family said nothing. Limestone looked around the throne room at the rest of the families that were there with them, including the Apples and Twilight's family. Marble and Big Mac were making small talk (or no talk in their cases), while her parents were talking with Twilight's parents. Fluttershy's family were talking with the family of Rarity, aside from her little sister, who was off with her friends, while Dash's dad stood off by himself.

Pinkie and her five other friends were talking amongst themselves. Limestone couldn't hear what they were saying, but from the looks upon their faces it was evident to the mare that it couldn't be good. Yet with another wary eyes across the numerous families, Limestone had to wonder what sort of event would cause the princesses concern to gather all of their families in the same location.

Yet even with all the tension in the air, Limestone couldn't help but stare in awe at the throne room of the two most prestigious princesses in all of Equestria, those that she had admired since she was a little filly. The paintings and stained glass were a sight to behold, but the eyes of Limestone were all on the columns and floors, which see practically pressed her face against to get a better look at.

'Some of these stones haven't been seen in Equestria for over five hundred years!' she realized silently as her eyes scanned up and down the floors, her body following her eyes as she moved up the material. 'Crystalized sandstone! Where in all of Equestria did they find this stuff?!'

"I am sorry to have called you all here so suddenly," Princess Celestia said as she entered into the room, causing every knee to bow upon her entrance. Once they had bowed all of the families rose up to their hooves, while Limestone did everything in her power to keep from fan-girling at the sight of the princess of the sun. She flicked her mane out of her eyes and tried to stand in a cool way, but when Celestia passed by without a glance Limestone gave up.

"I come bearing grave news. Grave being the word you should be aware of," Celestia began as she reached her throne, turning to face the ponies with a look of uncertainty upon her face. Her horn glowed with the spiraling power of the sun, a magic which she then projected into the air above their heads. With eyes filled with amazement as the magic created an image, one of a being that looked like a floating suit of pony armor, with a dark and evil smile within the helmet.

"This, my little ponies, is the infamous King Spiral, the king of the undead," Celestia explained. Limestone felt herself move closer to her family at the simple uttering of the kings name and a glance at the other ponies showed that they had acted in a similar manner. "He is one of our oldest and most ancient of foes. He is the being responsible for the death of my uncle, Prince Sol."

"I've read about him. He was able to call upon and command the armies of the dead, earning their trust by promising them a place among the land of the living," Twilight stated, turning all heads towards her. Limestone had heard a lot about Twilight from Pinkie, even before she had become a princess, yet every time Limestone was around Twilight she always felt inferior. Like compared to Twilight she would never be anything.

'Actually, I kinda feel that way standing next to any of them,' Limestone thought to herself as she cast her gaze over the other five members of harmony, guilt filling up her heart when she looked at the bouncing, pink pony that was her sister. 'I should be happy for her. She's a freaking hero for Faust's sake. No time for stupid, sisterly jealousy.'

Maud, somehow sensing Limestone's emotions, pulled her into a tight hug, something that also upset Limestone. Despite being the eldest sister, Maud was stronger, taller and had a better education than her. Not that Limestone minded the last bit all that much, as she had chosen to stay on the farm. But still, one more thing to be measured up against.

"...when he unleashed the armies of the dead against the castles in the south, where at the time Prince Sol was ruling," Princess Twilight continued on, snapping Limestone back into reality. She struggled against the might of Maud and her little sister released her grip, allowing Limestone to move over next to Marble, who was staring at Big Mac.

"Enraged by the death of his brother, King Solace defeated the king of the ghosts and imprisoned him in the furthest reaches of the world, where he was supposed to spend all eternity," Twilight finished with a grim look upon her face. "His grave was supposed to be impossible to find, but apparently somepony managed to do it. And with the return of King Spiral comes the return of his army. His army of ghosts."

"So yer saying there's an army of the dead that now haunts the lands of Equestria?" Granny Smith asked.

"That's exactly what I'm saying. And these ghosts...their incredibly strong. The rainbow power can defeat them without much effort, but a normal pony wouldn't be able to even lay a hoof on them," Twilight explained before pulling out a tome and flipping through the ancient text to a page in the center of the book. "According to this, a unicorn with strong enough magic can repel the ghosts, but the unicorn is susceptible to the ghosts power, more so than a regular pony in fact. So all of you need to be careful."

"Yeah right," Thunder Dash said with a snicker, turning all heads to the rainbow haired stallion that was leaning against the wall, forehooves crossed. "You didn't drag all of our families here just to tell us all of that. A letter would have done that. No, there's another reason you gathered all of us, the families of the six champions of the land I might add, together. What is it?"

"You are more observant than I was led to believe," Princess Celestia said with a smirk before she let out a sigh. "As your father stated Rainbow, there is a reason we brought all of your families here together. It is because we believe the ghosts to be targeting the families of those who bear the Elements."

All of the ponies let out a gasp at this, aside from the six elements who had been told ahead of time. "Both Twilight and Applejack's families were attacked by the ghosts, yet instead of trying to add them to their ranks, the ghosts tried to carry them off. Is that not correct?" Celestia asked as she looked at the families in question, who both nodded their collective heads with worried expressions.

"So that is why we have brought you all together. Because it will be easier to keep an eye on all of you in a large group than it would be spread out across Equestria," Twilight picked up for her former mentor, shifting her weight upon her hooves while her eyes lowered to the floor. "We don't know why the ghosts are trying to take you away. It could be that the king is trying to use all of you as leverage against us or they may just be taking living ponies somewhere. Until we can figure out more, this is all we can do for now. I hope you all understand."

All of the families nodded their heads in agreement, before Celestia stepped forward off of her throne and changed the image floating above them, turning all eyes to her magic once more. The being within the image was hard to see, but the ponies could just vaguely make out something with a white coat of fury and a black horn that looked like a blade upon its head.

"There is also the manner of this strange being that has appeared recently," Celestia added on, narrowing her eyes as she did so. "We know not what it is nor where it comes from, but all we do know is that it has shown up in three cities, right before they were overrun with the ghosts. That leads us to assume that it is working with the ghosts, perhaps as a leader of sorts."

"Of course, that is only speculation. It may not be related to the ghosts at all, but be careful if you see it all the same," Twilight added on, before clapping her hooves together. The doors to the throne room were opened and numerous servants entered the throne room, each of them picking a family and bowing to them. "These ponies will take care of you and your families while you are staying here. Stick close to them and tell them if you have any questions. They and the royal guard are here to protect you. Ponies, please show these guests to their rooms."

Limestone gave the servant that walked over to them a quick glance before she gazed out a window to the side of her. The sky was black overhead and down in the streets she could see the largest gathering of guards that she had ever seen in her life. Despite the throne room being warm and cozy, she still felt a chill run down her spine before she walked over to her family. She spent a moment prying her sister away from Big Mac before she and the rest of her family followed their guide into the castle, all of them excitedly talking amongst themselves.

(]o[)

Limestone was used to sharing a house with her family, which was something that she could just barely tolerate. Having to share a single room, even though it was an incredible furnished and well made room, was where she drew the line. The moment the guide had shown her and her family to the spare room within the Canterlot Castle where they would be staying, she immediately took up residence on the couch.

Her mother and father had said nothing during the time they had been with the others, but now that they were along with their daughters Limestone could see that they had the faintest looks of concern on their faces, even if they did their best to hide it. Marble had made a fort out of her beds pillows and was hiding beneath them, with only her eyes visible beneath the fortress of fluff. Maud sat off by the window, her face unchanged as she spoke to her pet rock.

"So it's ghosts, huh?" Limestone finally said once everypony was settled in, unable to take the monotony any longer. "What, did they run out of giant, mythical monsters to fight and have to fight something that has been scaring little foals since they were little?"

"Says the mare whose legs are shaking," Maud pointed out, getting Limestone to turn on her sister with a look telling Maud to be quiet. Limestone glared down at her legs to get them to root them in place, before walking over to the bed and glancing at the set of eyes gazing out at her from beneath the pillows.

"Marble, get out of there. Pillows won't protect you from ghosts," Limestone informed her sister, plunging a hoof into the fortress of pillows and grabbing hold of her little sister. Marble fought as best she could, but as the second strongest sister Limestone pulled a flailing Marble out from under her pillows with relative ease. "Now set the bed for you and Maud. I need to get the couch ready for me."

Marble did as Limestone asked while Maud continued to stare at the stars outside of the window. Limestone was amazed that they could see any stars at all, with all of the dark clouds that were covering up the sky. She pulled up a chair and sat next to her sister, glancing down at Boulder who was laying on the table.

"What do you think of this whole ghost affair?" Limestone asked Maud in a near whisper, revealing to her sister how afraid she actually was. Limestone often took comfort in Maud whenever she was scared, as not only did Maud practically never show emotion, but Maud would carry a secret to her grave. "I don't know if Pinkie can handle this by herself. Do you think we should back her up? Maybe we could-"

"You said the same thing when she first got her element. Then when Discord attacked. Then Sombra. Need I go on?" Maud replied wisely. "Pinkie will be fine. She is the strongest member of our family. Instead of doubting her, we should believe in her."

"I thought you were the strongest in our family?" Limestone said with a nervous smile, only for Maud to give her a stare as blank as a slate. Limestone then let out a grumble as she rested her head on her hooves. "She's my little sister, yet I can't do anything whenever she needs to go save the world. I should be able to take care of her. I-"

"Would get in her way," Maud finished, getting Limestone to let out a sigh of acceptance and lay her head on the table. "Pinkie has always done things a different way than us. Trying to help her would only hold her back. She can't fly if she's carrying us as well. We're rock farmers. She's a hero. It's that simple."

"I still haven't gotten used to you being so wise. What did those years at school do to the little filly that used to crack her head against a rock to break it?" Limestone asked with a smile at Maud and this time Maud gave her sister the faintest of smiles.

"She learned how to be wise from you," Maud replied, before she looked out the window and narrowed her eyes. "Huh, didn't think they'd show up."

Limestone was about to ask what Maud meant before the window was shattered and Limestone was hurled out of her seat. She hit the ground hard, but managed to retain enough sense to roll up onto her hooves. She laid eyes on the foe that attacked her and her eyes went wide with what she saw.

A being that looked like the upper half of a pony's body floated above her, a wicked and glowing smile on its face as it glared down at her. The being was transparent, yet had a black tint to it that made it look sinister. The ghost looked around the room before two more ghosts with different colors flew in the room behind them, laughing manically as they did so. Under the light of the moon the ghosts seemed to glow with a supernatural power, making them even more menacing than they had before.

Limestone looked past the ghosts to see that Maud hadn't been budged by the exploding glass, yet from the look on her face Limestone could tell she was mad. The ghosts let out a wail and lunged towards the ponies, with one coming right towards Limestone.

"Alright, you want some? Come get some!" Limestone roared as she flung a punch right at the ghost, only for her hoof to go flying through the beings body with ease. She had expected the punch to hit, so her momentum brought her straight down onto her face. She quickly pushed up to her hooves and spun around to face the ghost, only to take a blast of spectral magic to the face. The blast hurled her across the room and into the side of the wall, where she slid down with her head swimming.

Maud placed herself between her sister and the ghosts, the glare on her face getting the spirits to back away for a brief moment. That moment was long enough for the door to be kicked in and three guards to swarm into the room, all armed and one a unicorn. The ghosts cackled as they turned on the guards, their faces looking like smiles as the guards attacked.

The two guards with weapons were tackled to the ground by the ghosts, while the unicorn started to blast the main ghost with magic. The magic blast struck the ghost in the chest and hurled it into the wall and then straight through the wall. The unicorn narrowed his eyes as he started to look around the room, never spying the ghost as it appeared through the floor behind him.

"Look ou-"

Before the words could leave her mouth the ghost slashed the guard in the back with claws glowing in an ominous purple light. The guard let out a weak moan before he fell over, leaving the ghost to turn its attention to the ponies. Limestone's mother and father were trying to stop the two ghosts from getting to them and Marble, as the ghosts were done with the guards. The other ghost approached Limestone and Maud, the latter refusing to move even and inch. The ghost saw the challenge in her eyes and smiled, changing its hoof into the purple claw once more.

As it did this, another ghost flew into the room, one that was large than the other three combined. It was a dark black color while its eyes and mouth spewed a red light. It's body seemed to be a mix between a minotaur and a pony's, but that was all Limestone could make out. The other ghosts stopped what they were doing the moment they saw it, telling her that it was in charge of them. It gazed around the room, chilling Limestone as its gaze passed over her, before it spoke.

"The elements are on their way," it spoke to the other ghosts in a tone that felt like somepony was breathing on the back of Limestone's neck. The ghost then held up a lantern that was filled with a blue light, one that was both comforting and disturbing. "Time to go."

Then everything went black.

Blizzard

Limestone was used to cold. She had worked on her family's rock farm through blazing hot summers and freezing cold winters. After so many years of that, she thought that she was able to handle any cold that came her way. But as she sat locked in a steel cage that was bolted to the back of large cart, she felt the cold for the first time in a long time. She wrapped her forehooves around herself and shivered, trying not to think too hard about the current predicament she was in.

She glanced behind her to see Marble, who was trapped in the same cage as her. Marble wasn't fairing that well and from the way her body violently shivered, Limestone figured that she wasn't going to last much longer in the conditions. Limestone then glanced through the bars ahead to see the ghosts that were pulling the cart, the two of the a deep blue and larger than the other ones. Ahead of the cart she was on was another one with a similar cage on the back, one that held her parents and her sister Maud.

Maud had been restrained with metal strips, preventing her from tapping into her insane strength. Her father was doing everything in his power to keep his wife and daughter warm, while often glancing back at Limestone's cage with looks of worry on his face. Limestone would smile back in reply to try and keep his spirits up, but the cold was unforgiving and the wind bit through her tough skin.

'How long has it been since they caught us?' Limestone thought to herself as she walked over to her sister and pulled her close, trying to keep Marble as warm as she could. After being trapped by the ghosts, they had been carted all over Equestria. Some places she recognized, others she didn't. But after a while she had given up trying to learn where they were. All she could do was keep an eye on her family. She didn't know what had happened to the other families that had been captured.

"Where are we being taken to?" she asked the ghosts when the winds had died down, doing her best to keep from succumbing to her fear. The ghost responded by snapping at her hoof with its teeth, getting her to leap back with fear as the being began to chuckle. She made a face that it didn't see before walking back over to Marble, nudging her with her nose to try and wake her. "Marble, you okay?"

"No. I'm scared. I want to go home," Marble whispered in reply, making Limestone realize that she wasn't shaking because she was cold. She was shaking because she was sobbing. Limestone had the sudden urge to bash some things heads in, but her rage was quickly chilled by her reason. She knew that she couldn't touch the ghosts. She had watched her sister try to crush one of them before they put her in the restraints. So all Limestone could do was watch, not just the ghosts, but also the lock on their cage.

'These ghosts aren't that bright, that much is certain,' she thought before she sat down in the center of the cage, glancing occasionally at the lock that kept them trapped within the bars. But with her knowledge of rocks and metals, she could tell that there lock wasn't enjoying the cold climates any more than she was. It was weakening. Not by much, but a little bit every day. Limestone then glanced down at her hoof, wondering if she was strong enough to break through the metal when she needed to.

'But even if I can get through out lock, can I get my family out of the other one before the ghosts get us?' she questioned herself, glancing over at where the rest of her family was before closing her eyes in regret. 'Can I even get myself to safety, let alone the rest of my family?'

Limestone turned her head and looked off into the distance, spying a massive mountain that towered over them. She didn't know why, but the sight of the mountain made her shake even harder despite the fact that she was already freezing. Something about it made her uneasy, almost like a pair of eyes were watching them, eyes that could strike them down at any time.

Then she cast a glance at the ghosts pulling the carts and to her amazement she realized they had the same looks on their faces that she had. They were afraid of the mountain as well. The wheels in her head began to spin like mad as she started to formulate a plan to get her entire family to the mountain, but before she could think of anything concrete the two carts came to a stop.

"Alright, we're at the place," one of the ghosts said to the other, getting Limestone to perk up an ear to listen in. "Supposedly the rest of the crew will be here in about a half hour. So all we have to do is keep an eye on this bunch until they show up. Then we can all get the heck out of this place."

"Why are you so keen on getting out of here? Scared of a little rumor?" the other ghost pulling the cart laughed at the other, but unbeknownst to either of them Limestone was listening intently now.

"You know darn well why I'm scared of that little rumor. That "rumor" has killed more ghosts than any other threat in history. And do I have to remind you that we're already dead!" the other spat back. Limestone's heart was beating heavily in her chest as the realization sunk in. Whatever was on that mountain was able to defeat the ghosts and even put them down for good. But as she cast a glance to the side, she saw that between them and the mountain was a large forest, one that was covered in snow and seemed to go on forever.

"Oh ho, good news for you then," the ghosts resumed, snapping Limestone's attention back to them. "Just got a message from the boss. Seems that our relief is going to be here a lot earlier than we thought. Five minutes at most."

Limestone's heart plummeted into her stomach. Five minutes to bust her family out and get them to the mountain before the other ghosts arrived. The odds were practically impossible. But with a glance at her freezing sister and trapped family, she knew that it was then or never.

"Marble, get ready to run," Limestone whispered to her sister, who glanced up from behind her mane to give her sister a confused look. "Don't argue, just do. When I open the cage, you sprint to the forest and head for the mountain. Don't wait up for the rest of us."

With a yell that caused even the ghosts to shake with fear, Limestone took perfect aim at the lock and bucked at it with her hind hooves for all she was worth. The lock gave out from the strike and snapped off with a metallic clang, before it went sailing off into the snow. The ghosts whipped their heads around in time to take a pair of snowballs to their faces, blinding them momentarily and allowing Limestone and Marble their chance to escape.

"Go Marble! Run!" Limestone yelled at her sister before she sprinted over to the cage that was holding the rest of her family. Limestone took aim at the lock and bucked it for all she was worth, but aside from a searing pain in her rear hooves nothing happened. "Darn it all! Stay back dad, I'll try to-"

"Limestone. Run!" Igneous yelled at Limestone. Limestone turned around in time to see ten more ghosts teleport in next to the ghosts that had been snowballed, all of them glaring at Limestone with rage flashing in their eye sockets. Limestone looked from them to her family, unable to decide what to do. "Run, please!"

"But I just can't-"

"GO!" Maud yelled. The sound of Maud yelling snapped Limestone out of her indecision and, with one last tearful look at her family, sprinted towards the forest as fast as her hooves could carry her. The ghosts behind her let out a cackle that chilled the mare even further before they gave chase, following up their cackle with laughter that was devoid of any joy.

Limestone reached the edge of the forest right before the ghosts managed to reach her, the ghosts weaving in and out of the trees before they would come flying at Limestone. Limestone was quicker than her bulky frame would let on and she was able to leap out of the way of the lunging ghosts. The pair of ghosts collided in the air behind her, stunning them while also telling Limestone that the ghosts could hurt each other.

She ran over a snow pile and used her hind hooves to kick up a smokescreen of snow to blind the ghosts for a moment, allowing her to leap down onto a frozen river and skid across it to the other side. She had hoped that in the confusion of the snow, and the fact that she had leapt onto the river where they couldn't see her hooves, that they would lose her. She cast a quick glance over her shoulder to see that five of the ghosts hadn't been tricked by her efforts and were closing in with a speed that made her eyes widen.

"You cannot run, little pony. We will catch you and your soul will belong to the king!" the ghosts cackled as Limestone reached the other side, leaping up onto the bank and sprinting back into the forest.

Limestone quickly realized that she had no idea where she was running to. She had hoped to somehow get to the mountain that the ghosts were so afraid of, but once she was in the forest she had lost all sense of direction almost instantly. All she could do was keep running and hope that she could lose the ghosts. That was the plan before her body started to give out.

"No no no! Not now!" Limestone wheezed as she felt pain in her side. But despite her best efforts, her body couldn't keep up with the constant running. She was cold, in pain and hadn't eaten anything of substance in days. She couldn't keep running much longer.

She gritted her teeth and tried to push through the pain, but her momentary lack of concentrating prevented her from seeing a drop off in front of her. So she barreled over the drop off at full speeds, barely having enough time to cry out before she plummeted down below.

'Please land in snow!' she prayed before she landed side first on a thick sheet of ice. The impact knocked the wind out of her lungs and left her gasping for air on the surface of the ice, leaving her completely defenseless as the ghosts began to circle around her. She used what little strength she had left to push herself back up to her hooves, but as the eternal smiling faces of the ghosts began to close in on her, she knew she was done.

That was before she was tackled by her sister and whisked off of her hooves.

"Marble?" Limestone asked in disbelief as her little sister pulled Limestone through the trees, barely able to hear the yell of the ghosts behind them. Limestone looked down to see that Marble was running faster than she had ever seen her sister run and that was without a passenger. "How are you going so fast?"

"Don't know. Fear? Adrenaline? Just got to keep going!" Marble cried out, weaving in and out of the trees.

For a brief moment Limestone allowed herself to have hope that the two of them might actually be able to make it out alive. Then a large ghost that was black and purple phased through one of the trees and struck Marble in the leg. Marble let out a cry of pain as she and Limestone crashed into the snow, kicking up powder as the two of them crashed.

Limestone was the first back to her hooves, allowing her a moment to shake the snow out of her mane and race over to her sister. She pulled Marble up and draped on of her forehooves over her shoulders, leaning Marble against her before pushing herself forward.

Limestone barely noticed that the wind had picked up and that it was beginning to snow like crazy, practically blinding the both of them. Limestone pushed on ahead, fueled by both her own desire to survive and the fact that her sister was badly dazed by her fall. Marble wasn't going to make it out without her sisters help.

For a time Limestone moved through the sudden blizzard with an effort while silently thanking the blizzard for showing up when it did. 'Judging from the fact that none of the ghosts have caught up with us yet, I'd say that they're having trouble finding us in this blizzard as well,' she wagered.

That was when the ghosts showed up again. They appeared out of the blizzard behind Limestone, almost as if they had shifted through the terrible weather. Limestone spun around to see that all five ghosts were behind her, including the large purple one that was far more dangerous than the others.

"Sis?" Marble asked weakly, lifting her head so that she could see what was going on. Her bleary eyes widened when she saw what was approaching them and she moved closer to Limestone in fear. "Sis...what do we do?"

"Don't worry Marble, I'll think of something," Limestone lied, getting ready to fight the ghosts to the death to keep her sister safe. But then the ghosts did something that Limestone didn't expect them to do. They stopped. Limestone continued to back away from them, but she narrowed her eyes as she gazed at their heads. Without eyes it was hard for her to tell, but it was almost as if all of the ghosts were looking...behind her.

Then she bumped into something. Something that was standing behind her. Despite the threat of five undead monsters before her, Limestone spun around as fast as she could with her still sluggish sister in tow. But when she saw what she had bumped into, her eyes widened with both horror and shock.

The being stood on four legs, yet nearly its entire body was covered in a white coat. The parts of it that weren't were its tail, its claws and its horn, all of which were the same black color and shaped like blades. The being was barely taller than Limestone, but the look that it gave her with its red eyes made her feel like an ant standing next to a lion. The piece of hair that blew in front of its face occasionally blocked out the beasts eyes, allowing her to stare into its face without panicking too much.

For a brief moment the being considered her and her sister, before its eyes snapped towards the ghosts, all of who flinched like they had just been struck. The being walked past Limestone and her sister and walked right up to the ghosts, glaring at all of them despite the fact that they were all larger than it. Only the purple ghost regarded the being with the white fur with a sneer of contempt.

"What? You got something to say?" the ghosts asked the white being, whose face never changed from that of a cold glare. "Oh that's right, this is your territory, isn't it? Well sorry there, we don't care much for territory or boundaries. See, ghosts can go wherever we want," he said before floating a step forward. "And that includes-"

Faster than Limestone could have seen the being in white moved behind the ghosts, its horn glowing with a black energy as it now stared at the ghosts behind the purple one. The purple ghost looked behind itself in surprise to see the white being standing there and it turned around with a claw wound up...only for three slash marks to appear across its chest.

The ghost had just enough time to let out a scream before it exploded into a shower of darkness, darkness which fell onto the snow and turned it black. The other ghosts looked from the blackened spot to the face of the being, who was now glaring at them with intensity in its eyes. Its horn turned black one more time and the ghosts vanished into the blizzard. The being let out a smirk before its horn stopped glowing and it turned to walk away. It glanced at Limestone and Marble as it passed by, but then it walked past them and into the blizzard without another glance.

"What...just happened?" Marble asked before she looked up at her sister. "Limestone, was that...?"

"Yeah, that was the being Celestia told us about. The one that they know nothing about," Limestone replied in a whisper, terrified by what she had just seen. "Come on sis, we need to get out of here before that thing comes back for us."

"But...where will we go? Those ghosts are still out there," Marble reminded Limestone, who glanced behind herself into the blizzard. She squinted her eyes and could just barely make out the shapes of the ghosts still hiding in the snow. "We can't go out there. Not with them still here."

"Then what do you think we should do?" Limestone asked her sister, not used to being a loss for action.

"Well, let's look at it this way. We've run into two things in these woods that we know nothing about," Marble began, lifting herself off of her sister shoulder and standing on her own hooves. "We have the ghosts which are trying to capture us or kill us. I don't know which. We can't go back to them."

"Wait...are you suggesting..."

"But then there's the being in white that we know nothing about. Nothing except that it didn't try to kill us," Marble said as she looked up just as the blizzard began to clear. Limestone followed her gaze and found that they were at the base of the mountain that she had fought so hard to get to. "And that the ghosts are terrified of it. So between those two choices, what do you think is our best one?"

Limestone pondered it over for a long time, before she let out a sigh and began to walk towards the mountain. "I hate it when you're right, Marble. Because whenever you are, it means that either something bad has happened or something bad is about to happen. In this case, I pray that it's the former. Come on, lets go introduce ourselves to our new host."

Cavern

Limestone wasn't sure if it was the insane cold or the crippling fear that was making her shake. She decided on both to save brain power. She was pretty sure that she would have broken down into a crying mess of a pony had her sister not been there with her, her sister who was more emotional and prone to break downs than her. And Limestone knew if she broke down, then Marble would break down. So Limestone forced herself to be strong, just as she always had.

"I think he went this way," Marble said to her sister, snapping Limestone back to reality. Marble pointed to an indent in the ground, where Limestone could just make out a pair of claw marks. Limestone and Marble both lifted their heads to see the next obstacle that they'd have to overcome, as they found themselves standing at the base of a massive mountain.

"Of course he would go this way. Of course he would live in the hardest place in the freaking forest to get to," Limestone grumbled to herself as she placed a hoof on then first rock and pulled herself up. Marble followed up after her sister, though she had the misfortune of not being as strong as the rest of her family, so Limestone would have to help pull her up on the rocks that were too large for her.

"So what kind of creature do you think this is?" Marble asked Limestone, who was busy pushing a boulder out of their path. With one last shove the boulder went tumbling down the side of the mountain, but Limestone kept her eyes towards the peak to make sure she didn't accidentally started an avalanche.

"What you do mean?" Limestone grunted in reply as she started to climb up the mountain again, Marble following close behind her.

"I mean, I'm no scholar like Maud, but I've heard of my fair share of monsters and creatures," Marble began. "But I've never seen or heard of anything like this creature. Did you see the way it cut through that ghost? It tore it apart with ease, even when unicorn magic had failed. I would love to learn more about him."

'Well if this goes as plan, you'll have a chance to get an up close look at him real soon,' Limestone thought with annoyance. On one hoof she wasn't ready to go face to face with a being that could strike down a ghost with ease. On the other, she was happy that her sister had seemed to perk up by talking about the creature. "Don't expect to learn too much. From what I heard from the ghost, the being wasn't interested in protecting us, it was just protecting its territory. Which makes me scared to think of what it will do to us."

"We'll be fine. The creature doesn't seem to have any interest in hurting us or it would have done so already," Marble replied as she grabbed hold of her sisters hoof and was yanked onto a small path. She glanced down to see more claw marks, ones that were fresh. "He went this way. These claw marks are fairly new. We should find him soon."

"And good thing to, I don't know how much longer I can keep going in this cold," Limestone muttered as her body shivered against her will. Marble pressed up against her sister to keep the both of them warm, getting Limestone to flash her sister a grateful smile. Then the chills returned as she felt the sensation of eyes watching them, eyes that weren't too friendly. 'At least that tells me we're on the right path.'

The two climbed on in silence, both of them trying not to think of their families or the other families that had been taken. The higher they climbed meant that the temperature plummeted faster and faster, until the point where ice was forming along their manes and they couldn't stop shivering with cold. Limestone continued to force herself along the rapidly vanishing path, ignoring the pleas from her body to stop and rest.

'Got to keep pushing. Every second we spend wasting is another second Faust knows what is happening to our families,' she thought to herself, though it was getting harder and harder to remain focused. She then glanced down and realized that the path that they had been following had vanished to the elements, leaving them with no direction to go. "Marble, I can't figure out where to go? Can you see any more of those claw marks? Marble?"

Limestone turned around to see a gray mare collapsed on the path a few yards back. Limestone's eyes went wide and she stumbled over to her sister, barely able to feel her own body at this point. She grabbed hold of her sister and rolled her over, eyes going wide when she saw that she wasn't moving.

"Marble! Marble, talk to me!" Limestone yelled at her sister, shaking her little sister in a desperate attempt to get her to wake up. When she didn't, Limestone stood up and placed her sister onto her back, silently hoping that their destination wasn't too far away. 'It is close. I'm going to make it and Marble is going to be okay. She has to be.'

Limestone pushed on alone in silence, ignoring the screaming of both her body and the wind as she pushed herself forward. The wind picked up and practically blew sideways, freezing Limestone down to her core. All that pushed her forward at the moment was her desire to see her sister safe, and even then her body was starting to lock up from exhaustion and cold. Yet she pushed on, forcing herself up the mountain one step at a time, until her hoof stepped down on a part that wasn't rock, but frozen snow.

The snow gave way and Limestone tumbled to the side, falling off of the side of the path along with Marble. Faster than she thought she could move, she grabbed her sister and placed herself between Marble and the ground, which she impacted against a moment later. The landing knocked all of the wind out of her lungs, and she had the misfortune of striking her head against an actual rock this time.

'No...can't...black out...here...' Limestone thought to herself as she tried to remain conscious, but the exhaustion and cold was taking over her senses. Her eyelids slowly began to close against her will, getting her to curse herself silently as sleep took over her. But the last thing she saw before she blacked out was her sister, who still wasn't moving.

(]o[)

With a start focus returned to Limestone and she sat up from where she lay, instantly on alert for anything that might be trying to hurt her. But the moment of panic and flight faded away when she looked around her, realizing that she was no long out in the wind and snow, but was now inside of a large, icy cavern.

The cavern's ceiling was far above her head and was devoid of any icicles, something that was a small comfort to Limestone. She looked to her side to see a fire blazing in a pit, with her sister laying right next to the side of it. Besides where Marble lay was a pile of berries, which made Limestone's stomach grumble the moment she laid eyes on them. But then her eyes rested on a corner of the room where a bed of leaves and hay rested, telling her that they were living in something's home.

She was on her hooves the moment she figured this out and raced over to her sister side, placing a hoof on her to check her temperature. Limestone sighed with relief as Marble felt warm and when she looked at her sisters face she could see her breathing softly.

"She's just asleep," Limestone said, practically crying with relief over the safety of her sister. But the tears were forced back as her brain reminded her that they weren't safe yet. She turned towards the exit to the cavern to see how high up they were, only to be stopped cold by the being that stood there.

It was the same being with white fur that had driven off the ghosts, only this time it was covered in a lot more snow. Strung across its back was a small sack with numerous berries inside that were all the same color, yellowish with little circles on them. The being walked into the room and right up to Limestone, who had to do everything in her power to not shrink under the cold gaze of the being.

"Here," the being said as it reached into the sack and pulled out one of the berries, which it then offered to Limestone. Limestone looked at the berry for a few seconds before looking at the being, making sure that the suspicion was clearly on her face. "You and your sister came close to freezing to death out there. This is an Aspear berry. It will help with the frostbite."

"You must be crazy if you think I'm going to take something from a total stranger," Limestone mustered the courage to say, forcing her fear back down with her sadness. She couldn't afford to show any emotion, especially not in front of such an unknown force. The being shrug before placing the berry at her hooves. He then walked over to where Marble was laying. "You lay a hoof...claw on her and I'll throw you down this mountain!"

The being ignored Limestone as it pulled out another berry and took off a small chuck, before he gently opened Marble's mouth and placed the piece inside of it. As he did this, Marble opened her eyes and glanced up at the being.

"Chew then swallow. This will help," the being told her before walking over to the berry pile, placing the remaining three berries in his pack with the rest. The being shed the pack and placed it next to the bed, before it walked onto the bed and laid down. Limestone waited a moment to make sure the being wasn't up to anything before she walked over to her sister, who was eating the bit of berry she had been given.

"Are you sure you should be eating that? You have no idea what it is?" Limestone whispered to her sister.

"This is my second one. I was practically dead when he brought us here," Marble said in a much stronger voice than her sister predicted and she was even able to stand on her own a moment later. "The first he gave me was a...Sitrus berry, that was it. I felt a lot better after eating that, like I got some of my strength back. You should try one."

"Yeah, eat the food of a total stranger, that's a good idea," Limestone muttered, but another growl of her stomach made her reconsider. With a grumble about what a bad idea this was, she walked over to the pile and grabbed an Aspear berry from the top and down it in three bites. Instantly she felt the frost burn heal across her body and she felt her strength slowly beginning to return to her. She glanced down at her body with surprise before casting a glance at her sister.

"That's what I thought at first. These berries have some strange powers, don't they?" Marble said with a smile.

"But why have we never heard of them before? If these berries are capable of healing frostbite, then they would be way more well known," Limestone said with a glance at the being, but he didn't show any indication that he heard her. "Hey, that question was directed at you incase you couldn't figure it out! What's up with these berries? And why did you bring us here?!"

The being lifted his head off of his paws and glanced over at the two of them, an expression on his face that they couldn't read. He rose off of the bed and slowly began to walk over to the both of them, taking each step slowly and deliberately as if to intimidate them. Limestone stood her ground as the being walked up right to her, narrowing her eyes as the being glared into her eyes.

"That is not the tone you should take with someone that saved both you and your sisters life," the being said in a calm tone to Limestone, who felt herself get angry at the way he talked to her. She opened her mouth to reply, but before she could Marble placed herself between her sister and the being.

"So you're the one that saved us when we were freezing to death? Thank you so much, stranger. We owe you our lives," Marble said in a kind and soft tone, before she gave the being a smile. The being grunted in reply to her words before he turned and walked to the berry pile, picking out a red one and eating it himself.

"Once the two of you have your strength back, I ask that you leave my mountain. I do not take well to visitors, as you saw with those ghosts," the being told them without casting a glance in their direction. "Sooner would be preferred."

"Listen up you, I didn't climb up the side of a mountain and nearly freeze to death just to be told to go back down!" Limestone snarled as she started to walk towards the being, who cast her a cold glare in reply. "We're here because of those ghosts and you-"

Before she could say anymore Marble wrapped a hoof around her sisters mouth and pulled her back, giving the being a smile before she looked up at her sister. "Limestone, please remember that not only are we his guests, but he also saved our lives. We should be kind to him and not threaten him with acts of violence."

"But every second we spend here making nice with him is another second those ghosts drag our families off to wherever their being taken!" Limestone growled in reply as she tried to push back Marble, but with the strength of a Pie Marble held her sister back.

"I know, but being nice will get us a lot further than threats and force. Especially against a being that can strike down a ghost faster than we can see," Marble told her sister, who let out a bitter sigh in resignation. "So just try to be nice and smile. I'll do the talking."

"You'll do the talking? Are you sure some of that ice didn't get into your brain?" Limestone asked.

"Please sister, trust me."

"Ugh, fine. Let's be nice."

The sisters walked back over to the fire and sat down on the opposite side of it from the being, who gave the both a look before eating another berry. For a long moment the two groups stared at each other, with the being giving the sisters a look they couldn't read. Marble smiled at the being while Limestone did her best not to glare.

"Thank you again for saving us," Marble said after a moment of silence, getting the being to nod before he went back to eating. "From both the ghosts and from freezing to death. Thank you especially for saving my sister. I know she can be...confrontational."

The being nodded once more, but gave no reply. Limestone and Marble shared a look before Marble smiled once more. "Um, if you don't mind me asking, you don't seem very...well, why did you save the both of us if you want us gone? Wouldn't it have been easier to..."

"The ghosts have been bothering me for a while, ever since they showed up," the being replied curtly. "As for why I saved you two...old habits die hard, I guess."

"Oh, I see," Marble replied, but Limestone could easily see that she was confused as to the being's answer. "Um, again we are so thankful for what you did, but...we don't know who you are? Do you...have a name?"

The being thought about her words for a long time, long enough that the two sisters cast a glance at each other with concern. "Call me Absol. The disaster Pokémon," he replied with a bit of a smirk.

"Pokémon? What's that?" Limestone asked in a genuinely curious way.

"It's what my species is called, mostly. I'm not the only Absol out there, but I'm the only one in this world. Or I think I am," Absol replied.

"Why the disaster Pokémon? Why call yourself that?" Marble asked. The moment she did so she was afraid that she had offended Absol, because he an expression of anger crossed his face. But after a moment the anger was replaced by a bitter smirk and he took another bite of his berry.

"Because the world hates me. So it has dubbed me a bringer of disaster."

Marble and Limestone shared another glance, both deciding to change the topic. "So how did you manage to defeat those ghosts so easily?" Limestone asked, getting Absol to turn his gaze towards her. "We had some of our ponies hit them with their strongest magic and the ghosts got back up. You slash them with your...horn and it blows up into a pile of darkness. How did you do that, and more importantly, could you do it again?"

"How did I beat them so easily? Type advantage, I suppose," Absol replied with a thin smile, one that caught both Limestone and Marble off guard. Then his face became more guarded and he cast Limestone a wary look. "And what do you mean by "do it again"."

"I ask because those ghosts took our families and we don't have the power to fight them," Limestone began, not noticing Absol's face steel up. "But you do. You can crush them with ease. So we'll need your help if we're going to beat these things and get our families-"

"No," Absol cut her off.

"What the heck do you mean "no"?" Limestone asked with some rage, but before she could continue Absol rose to his feet.

"No. I am not helping you. I am done helping others. I was fine with helping out those on my territory. I'm done helping the world," Absol stated before he started to walk towards the exit, where a massive blizzard raged. "You are welcome to stay here until the blizzard passes, but then you must leave. Without me."

"But please, Mr. Absol, we can't hope to beat those ghosts without you," Marble pleaded.

"Then you have no hope of beating them," Absol replied coldly before he leapt off into the storm, leaving the two sisters there to stare at where he had vanished.

"Well that went well," Limestone grumbled before looking at her sister. "I thought you said to leave the talking to you. What happened?"

"There's a story behind those words," Marble said with a sad shake of her head. "He want's to help, but it's like he knows what will happen if he does. I don't know what to do with somepony like that. I wish Pinkie were here. She'd know what to do."

'Yeah, she would. Because getting others to open up is one of her greatest skills. But she's not here right now. I am,' Limestone thought before she rose to her hooves. "Fine then. I'll get him to join us."

"But Limestone, how? He won't listen to my words and with your temperament I'm certain that-"

"Who said anything about words? I'm going to get him to join us my way," Limestone said before glaring out into the blizzard. "Whether he wants to or not."

Race

"If I am to be perfectly honest with you, I did not expect this to go as well as it did," Ahuizolt said to the king of the ghosts as the two of them walked through the streets of a large city, which was in the process of being decimated by ghosts. All around them ponies were screaming as thousands of spirits rained down upon them and the royal guard stationed in the city did everything in their power to fight back.

"You would do well to trust me, Ahuizolt. After all, I have done nothing but achieve what you asked," King Spiral replied in a strong voice, one that Ahuizolt had noticed was getting stronger. The treasure hunter also noticed that what was once a ghostly ball was now taking a form, one that was looking more and more like a pony's with each passing day.

"Do we really need all of these hostages, though?" Ahuizolt asked as numerous ghosts started to round up the massive amounts of ponies, trapping them within nets that the king had made to counter act the ponies magic. "Because soon the dungeons will not be enough to hold all of them, along with our special guests. Why not slay some of them and add them to your army?"

"The souls of the living are far more powerful than the spirits of the dead," King Spiral replied. "Do you know why King Sol gave his life to stop me?"

"Because you unleashed ghosts upon his land?"

"Aside from that. He did it because the last time I tried to take over the world, I didn't have the full strength of the undead at my command," Spiral stated before he watched a Pegasus get knocked out of the sky and quickly thrown into one of the cages. "There is one ghost that I was never able to call upon, despite my own phenomenal powers over the undead. A being that could defeat those princesses and their six champions with ease."

"Well now you've gone and peaked my interest," Ahuizolt replied, a thin smile crossing his face as he gazed at all of the captives. "But let me guess, the only way to summon this undead champion of yours is to take all of the souls of these ponies and put them into him. Or something along those lines."

"You are not as dumb as your ugly face led me to believe. Yes, with the strength of the living, I shall be able to revive the greatest monster of the dead. An ancient being that possessed pony magic greater than anything the princesses have even thought of," King Spiral said as the mask seemed to smile even wider, despite the entire mask being made of stone. "A being that rivaled even the power of Tirek and his brother. A Titan."

"A Titan? I thought that they were just a myth. A species that was used in fiction as some sort of unstoppable challenge?" Ahuizolt asked, getting a chuckle out of the king.

"That is what the world would have you believe. But there is so much truth to the legend. And if I can have him walk this world once more, then there will be...well, let me just say that your rule would be absolute," the king said with a modest bow to Ahuizolt. "After all, how I can I forgot the kindness of the being that freed me from my eternal entrapment?"

"Answer: you can't. And I am glad to see that you will be keeping up your bargain," Ahuizolt said with a laugh as the ghosts finished rounding up the ponies in the nearby area. "But why are we here and not in Canterlot? I would love nothing more than to watch as the princesses and their forces fell to our power."

"Because, as I stated, we are not strong enough to attack the stronghold of Equestria just yet," King Spiral reminded the hunter. "The princesses power is still strong enough to fend off my army and us. And I do not need to tell you what will happen if we lose to the princesses?"

"It will either be an eternity in the sun, in stone, in ice or in a coffin. The princesses really like to trap things, don't they?" Ahuizolt pointed out.

"Ugh, tell me about it. Do you know how many villains are trapped in Equestria alone? You think Tirek and Sombra are bad, you will not believe what else is trapped within these lands," the king said before a wicked idea came to him. "Perhaps, once I have freed the Titan, I will raise some of the others that are trapped. Perhaps it will make for quite the spectacle."

(]o[)

Limestone narrowed her eyes so that she could keep track of Absol moving through the forest and even though he was the only living being in the forest, she still had trouble keeping track of him. He moved like a blur, one that sliced through the berry trees that were located around the forest, trees that Limestone had never seen in her entire life.

'Of course, the only trees I've ever really seen are the ones on the farm, so what do I know?' Limestone asked herself as Absol leapt from treetop to treetop with ease, barely disturbing the snow that rested atop the trees. The blizzard had cleared the night before, but due to Marble still being slightly weakened, Limestone had managed to convince Absol to give them a little more time before they left. That had told her a few things about Absol.

'He's not as cold as he believes to be. Apparently despite him wanting to put on a cold and uncaring air, he still has to help others,' Limestone mentally recalled, crossing her hooves as she laid down on the cliff above Absol, crossing her hooves as a smile crossed her face. 'And, with the right wording, I can get him to do little things that I want. Of course, I'll have to see if he'll take on my challenge. That's the only way I'm going to be able to get him to work with us.'

The Limestone thought of her family, none of which she knew where they were aside from Marble. She couldn't begin to imagine the pain or horror they were going through and she knew that every second she waited in Absol's home was another second they were in danger. But she also knew that she stood no chance against the ghosts, yet Absol did. So she needed him.

"You've been out here a long time," Marble said to her sister as she walked out of the cavern, sitting down next to Limestone and joined her in watching Absol zip around the forest floor below them. "Wow he's incredibly fast. Faster than pretty much any pony that I've ever met."

"I know. And that gives me an idea," Limestone muttered to herself, but once those words left her lips Marble let out the faintest sound that nopony else would have paid attention to. But Limestone knew her sister and she knew that that sound meant that Marble was upset with her. When she gave her sister a look to show that she had heard, Marble hid behind her mane.

"Sister, when it comes to the farm you know what's best, but whenever we're away from the farm you seem to be better at making other ponies angry than you actually do making friends," Marble pointed out, getting Limestone to nod in agreement. "So whatever you have planned...please don't do it. Don't tick off the one being that's helped us since the ghosts attacked."

"I know you mean well, sis, but I can't. I have to do this," Limestone said before she looked to the side to see Absol walking up the cliff towards them, his face as cold and distant as ever. He had more of his berries with his pack, most of which were new to Limestone.

"I don't like that look upon your face," Absol said with a slight hint of hesitation in his voice, one that got Limestone to crack a smile.

"Barely known me a day and already you can read my mind?" Limestone asked with a smile, but once again she was met with a cold glare. She sighed as the smile left her face, before it set like stone and she glared up at Absol. "Alright you, I want to make a deal with you."

"Whatever it is, I don't want to hear it," Absol replied as he started to walk past Limestone, but she placed a hoof on his shoulder to hold him in place. Absol looked down at the hoof with surprise in his eyes, amazed that Limestone held so much strength within her.

"Okay, you don't have to listen. I just thought I'd let you know that my sister and I have decided that we're going to crash here for a few months," Limestone said in a casual tone, though inwardly she was secretly delighted to see that her words made Absol visibly distraught at her words. "Yeah, with all the ghosts running around, we figured that we crash here for a while until it all blew over. You don't mind, do you?"

"I believe that I have some issues with what you've said," Absol replied in a controlled voice, yet Limestone was able to hear the faint undertones of irritation in his voice. That meant he didn't like the idea of them staying there and they irritated him. That meant he did have emotions. "And I believe that I told the both of you that I don't want you here. Now, if you are both able to, leave."

"Okay, I get kicking me out. I've been a jerk and haven't exactly been the best guest. Kicking me out makes sense," Limestone agreed before she grabbed hold of Marble and pulled her right in front of Absol's gaze. "But can you really say no to her? I mean look at her, look at her sad eyes. Can you really kick this poor pony out into the cold?"

Absol looked like he was about to say that it would be easy to, but to Limestone's relief Marble caught on to what she was doing and flashed Absol her sad eyes. Those eyes had broken the strongest wills that Limestone knew, and, after a moment, Absol let out a loud sigh and averted his gaze from her, telling Limestone that Marble had succeeded.

"Now of course, we will be willing to leave if you can beat me in something. Say...a race?" Limestone asked Absol, who snapped his head back towards her with a raised eyebrow. "Down the cliff to where that first berry tree is. If you get down there first, me and my sister will leave without any further fuss. We'll be gone."

"But if you win?" Absol asked, having already caught on to what Limestone was planning.

"Then you have to help my sister and I deal with these ghosts that have plagued the land. The ghosts that took our families and I want to get them back," Limestone replied in a voice that made Absol raise an eyebrow in surprise at her sudden cold attitude. "So what do you say, white blur? Care to see if you're as fast as you look to be?"

Absol narrowed his eyes at Limestone's words, knowing that she was goading him into the challenge. He also knew that he didn't need to accept it. But there was something about Limestone's attitude that made him really want to beat Limestone at her own game. He was also completely confident in his speed. He wasn't the fastest Pokémon, but he knew that he was faster than her. He'd seen it when she was running from the ghosts.

"Very well, Limestone. I will beat you at your own game," Absol promised Limestone, who gave him a coy smile in reply. She then walked over to her sister, who was looking at Limestone as if she was crazy.

"Okay, that worked out nicely," Limestone said to Marble before the two sisters glanced over at Absol, who was stretching out his legs.

"Sister, you must be crazy. You've seen what he can do and how fast he is. Challenging him to a race is a foolish idea," Marble said with far more intensity than Limestone had ever seen her sister speak with.

"I challenged him to a race because I knew he was confident in his speed. If it had been anything else, he might have doubted his skill and backed out," Limestone revealed to her sister with a grim look on her face. "And we need him to come with us. So just trust me. Because one way or another, we leave here today."

Marble gave her sister another look as Limestone walked over beside Absol, who was standing at the top of the path down the side of the cliff. The two stood side by side while Marble meekly walked over in front of the both of them. Absol cast a quick glance at Limestone to see that she had an unreadable look upon her face, one that slightly unnerved him. Marble then raised her hoof and both racers crouched down.

"On your mark...get set...go!"

CRACK!

The moment the words go left Marble's mouth, Limestone spun to her side and sucker punched Absol right in the face. With strength that could push boulders Limestone drove Absol right into the ground, where his eyes glazed over while he tried to process what had just happened. After a few moments he felt his senses return to him and he pushed himself back up to his feet, but as he looked around he found to his fury what had happened.

Marble stood off to the side looking at him with a look of horror on her face, shocked by what her sister had done. That same sister was standing at the bottom of the cliff side, right next to the tree that was the goal. From the bruises and bumps on her body, it seemed that she had thrown herself down the cliff instead of running down the path. But what infuriated him the most was her stare, a cold stare that betrayed no emotion.

With a growl of anger Absol zipped down the rocky face of the cliff and stood face to face with Limestone a moment later, his eyes blazing with fury while her eyes were as cold as ice. For a long moment the two stood glaring at each other, before Absol seethed and glared her down.

"What. Was. That?" he asked, using every ounce of self control to keep from unleashing his dark power upon the pony before him.

"Me winning. Like I said I would. Now you come with us," she replied with a look that was unmovable.

"That was not winning. You sucker punched me. That is not how a race goes!" Absol snapped, his anger getting the better of him. To his surprise once more, Limestone didn't falter under his piercing red eyes.

"Are you upset that you didn't win? That I knocked you flat and won the race? Tough," Limestone spat back, meeting Absol's glare with one of her own. "My family has been taken by ghosts. The families of my friends are missing. My own sister could be fighting for her life this very moment. Everypony I love is in danger and I'm stuck here. And you are the only being I've met that can deal with this threat. I did what I needed to so that you would come with us. You think you're upset? Try losing your entire family aside from your sister to an enemy you couldn't stop. Try being me."

Absol's rage didn't dissipate after her words, but his reason and other emotions managed to get his rage back under control. He stared down at the mare for a long moment, understanding her reasoning for what she had done. And, though he would never admit it, he was a little impressed by her willingness to flat out punch him to save her family.

"So I guess the only question now is are you going to keep your word? Are you going to help us save our families? Or are you just going to hide out here all by yourself while the world around you goes to crap?" Limestone asked while poking a hoof into Absol's chest, glaring into his eyes with a rage that could have matched his own. "So what is it going to be?"

Absol's response was to smirk at her before he leap back up the cliff side, using the rocks as a shortcut to reach the cavern up top. He walked by Marble without looking at her before he vanished from sight. Marble looked from where he had vanished to her sister, who was seething with rage as she glare up at where her sister was standing. Limestone motioned for Marble to join her, which she did after taking a few minutes to walk down the path.

"Stupid, no good Pokémon!" Limestone snarled as she bucked the side of a tree with her hind hooves, dumping a ton of snow onto herself. She burst forth from the snow with a roar of rage, before she managed to get control of herself and started to stalk away from the cavern. "Come on sis, we need to get moving. Those ghosts have probably gotten a good ways away and we need to make up as much ground as we can."

"But what about the ghosts?" Marble asked her sister, who snarled in reply. "They might still be out there and waiting for us. If we go off of Absol's territory..."

"We'll think of something, but right now we need to focus on saving our family," Limestone replied with a hard heart as she continued to walk on. But before she could get too far a pack filled with berries landed at her hooves, getting her to stop with confusion long enough for her sister to walk over to her.

"You might need that if you hope to survive."

Limestone and Marble looked up right in time to see Absol land right in front of the pair, covering them in snow that he kicked up from his landing. Limestone wiped the snow off of her face with a look, but Marble gazed upon the Pokémon with shining eyes. Absol had another pack filled with berries slung over his back, while he wore a dry smirk upon his face that hid how he was really feeling.

"You're coming with us?" Marble asked in a hopeful tone, her eyes lighting up when Absol nodded.

"I keep my word, even when I have to keep it because someone cheated," Absol replied with a look to Limestone, who stuck out her tongue. "So I guess that I will have to escort the two of you until you are reunited with your families. I am at your service," Absol said with a sarcastic bow.

"Yeah yeah, enough of your sass. Let's go," Limestone said as she walked past Absol, who rose from his bow and followed after her, with Marble taking up the lead. "We're still new to this parts, so we'll need you to guide us until we reach civilization."

"That I can do easily. I've lived her for years and know my way around these parts," Absol said as the three of them crossed the boarder to his territory. Both Limestone and Marble waited to be attacked once more, but to their surprise the ghosts never showed. The fear of Absol kept them at bay. "Also, Limestone?"

"Yeah?"

"You throw a mean punch."

Wildlands

Limestone was grateful to be away from the biting cold and slicing winds of the mountain range, but the wasteland that she and her group found themselves on wasn't much better. The ground was barren and rough, with only a few sickly patches of grass growing in irregular patterns. There were no trees to provide something to look at and the land seemed to go on forever. The sky was gray and dull, further ruining Limestone's mood.

A glance to her left showed that she was the only one feeling the effects of the wasteland. Her sister was humming to herself and seemed to be in better spirits, thankfully feeling a lot better thanks to the efforts of Absol's berries. And speaking of the Pokémon, Absol walked in the front of the group with the same stoic expression that he always had on his face, slightly ticking Limestone off.

"So how do you know where you're going, anyway?" Limestone eventually asked the Pokémon when she got tired of the silence. The Pokémon turned his head slightly to look back at her, but the bit of fur that hung down over his face obstructed his eyes from here. 'Wonder if that's his natural hairstyle or if he does it to look cool. Because if that's the reason, it's not working.'

"I haven't lived on the mountain forever. I occasionally come down and wander around, learning more about the land that I've come to call home," Absol stated in a simple tone. "Once in a blue moon I head towards a town or city and see how things have changed in the years since I last visited. I never interact with any of the ponies, though. That wouldn't be good for anyone."

"Why do you avoid ponies so much?" Marble asked as she moved her mane from her face, allowing her to look at Absol with both of her eyes. "I know you said you were called a bringer of destruction, but so far from what I've seen you seem pretty nice, if a bit distant."

"I prefer to be alone. To much interaction with others creates friction and friction generally ends with me running for my life," Absol replied with a smirk, yet from the dryness of his tone it was clear he wasn't joking. "Besides, I have tried to...interact and each time it ended the same. With me being called a monster and being attacked. I thought this world would be different. I was wrong."

"This world? You seriously expect me to believe that you come from another world?" Limestone asked with a smirk of her own. "You an alien? So what, you came down in a fly saucer and after abduction some of our cow friends, you decided to live in the mountains? What do you think we are, five?"

"Um, sis, remember when Pinkie told us about how there's an entire other world on the other side of a mirror that Princess Twilight has been to a few times?" Marble reminded her sister, whose eyes went wide as she remembered it as well. She then glanced at Absol who was giving her a wise smirk, getting her anger to bubble to the surface.

"How could I have forgotten? Thank you, Marble," Limestone said through gritted teeth. "So say you're an alien? Why come here? Heck, how did you come here? It's not like there's just portals to Equestria lying around all over the place. Unless they are a bunch of portals in your world, in which case, shut up."

"Well you're in a pleasant mood," Absol noted before he faced forward once more, just in time for a bitter gust of wind to whip through the three of them. The two sisters shivered as the cold bit into their bodies, but Absol just kept on moving ahead without slowing down. "I got here thanks to the power of a legendary Pokémon. That's all you need to know."

"Well, thank you for all the lack of information. Really helps us understand who you are," Limestone grumbled, but if Absol heard her he didn't reply.

"Allow me a few questions, if you will. How did the two of you find my home and why were you being chased by ghosts? You mentioned something about your family being in danger, but other than that you have been surprisingly quiet," Absol ribbed at Limestone, who clenched her teeth with anger. Marble sensed what was about to come and stepped between the two.

"An ancient king that could command ghosts has risen, bringing with him a ghost army," Marble began, turning Absol's attention away from her sister. "He has attacked our nation with his army and is trying to take over our world. Those are the same ghosts that captured us and our family. They brought us by your mountain. My sister and I managed to escape from them, but our parents and sister are still captured by them."

"I see. A being of evil trying to take over the world. Why am I not surprised? But why go after you and your family, though?" Absol asked.

"Because our sister, Pinkie, is one of the six beings in this land that can stop him," Limestone cut in before Marble could speak, turning Absol's gaze back to her. "And so, in order to gain an upper hoof against the six of them, he's gone and kidnapped any who are related to the six. He takes us, our sister won't be able to fight him without putting us in danger."

"We haven't seen any of the other families though, so it is possible that they only managed to catch us," Marble added on, trying to sound hopeful. Limestone gave her a look while Absol took a moment to stare down at his paws. "But if they have, I worry for what happened to them. They must be terribly scared."

"We can't worry about them right now. Our goal is to get back to Pinkie and her friends, then to go search for our family," Limestone said bluntly, getting Marble to give her a look. "I know it sounds heartless, but it's all we can do right now. I don't like it anymore than you, Marble."

"B-but who knows what they're doing to our family," Marble whispered weakly as she hid behind her mane.

"They're dealing with Maud, Marble. If anything, those ghosts will break before she does," Limestone assured her sister, but in the back of her mind she was even more concerned about her family. 'They've got to be okay. They've got to be. We'll find them and save them and then kill those ghosts again.'

Limestone raised her eyes to see that Absol was giving her a look, so she glared at him in reply. He shrugged his shoulders before looking over at Marble, who was shivering from fear once more. "Do not worry, Marble. I am certain that your family will be fine," Absol comforted her, getting the mare to look up at him with surprise. "I promise you that we will help them. And I will deal with any ghosts that try to say otherwise."

Marble gave Absol a kind smile in reply to his words and he nodded, before Limestone made a scoffing sound and rolled her eyes. "Sure, be all nice to my sister. Apparently all it takes to win you over is a cute face."

"Or a right hook to my jaw," Absol reminded her with a smirk, getting Limestone to give him a look. His face then hardened and he motioned for the two of them to stop. They did so and watched him as he walked around for a moment, crouched down and his horn glowing slightly. After a moment he resumed his usual posture and nodded for the both of them to follow him.

"What was that about?" Limestone asked.

"I felt something out there, something that was watching us," Absol informed the two as he kept his head on a swivel. "But whatever it was, it's gone now."

"Do you think it was a ghost?" Marble whispered.

"No. There was no malevolent intent. But there was something there," Absol muttered before shaking his head and looking back at the pair. "We are about a days journey from a pony town. Of course, that's implying that the both of you can go through the night without rest like I can. If not, we will need to find shelter when the sun goes down. The ghosts come out when the sun goes away."

"Speaking of ghosts, when we asked how you managed to deal with them, you said type advantage. What the heck does that mean?" Limestone asked. Absol responded by getting his horn to glow with a dark light, before he slashed it forward and cleaved a nearby rock in two. Marble looked at the sight with awe while Limestone was upset that he had cleaved the boulder the wrong way.

"Every Pokémon has a type. A type defines what it is strong against and what it is weak against. I am a dark type," Absol revealed as he ceased the glowing of his horn. "My type is strong against ghosts and psychic. In fact, I am immune to psychic powers completely. Which means whenever I go up against either of these types, I have the advantage and my dark attacks can decimate a foe in a single shot."

"How many types are there?" Marble asked.

"Seventeen last time I checked. Though I have heard rumors of a eighteenth type. One that would be bad for me," Absol whispered so that the two couldn't hear the last bit. "And as stated, each type has its own strengths and weaknesses. Don't ask me what each of them are, because I'm not entirely certain myself. All I really know is what I'm strong against and weak against."

"And what do you happen to be weak against, if you don't mind me asking?" Limestone asked, only for Absol to smirk at her in reply.

"Forgive me if I don't answer that question, but revealing my weaknesses to two ponies I barely know would be a very bad idea," Absol said with a chuckle. Limestone made a face at the lack of an answer, but she walked over beside her sister and moved in close.

"Well at least we know that he's not some unstoppable monster," she whispered to Marble. "That means we can hopefully bring him down if he decides to turn on us."

"He wouldn't do that. He might come off as cold, but he seems really nice deep down," Marble replied before giving her sister a look. "A bad pony...Pokémon probably wouldn't agree to help us after being punched in the face. You're lucky he didn't turn any of that dark power of his upon you."

"Please, did you see how easily I decked him? Clearly whatever type he's weak to his what I am," Limestone replied before flexing a bet, getting Marble to shake her head before she walked past her sister and up to Absol.

"I'm sorry that we kinda cheated you into this. I won't be upset if you are angry with us," Marble apologized for her and her sister, knowing that she would never do so voluntarily.

"I know why your sister did it. The two of you are desperate to find your families, but the ghosts are too much of a problem. Am I right?" Absol asked and Marble nodded in reply.

"We couldn't do anything to them. Our attacks went right through them. The guards that had magic were able to fend some of them off, but they were overpowered. The ghosts were just to strong."

"Perhaps a bad type matchup?" Absol muttered to himself. "I am interested to hear why neither you or your sister don't seem to be intimidated by me. Practically every other pony I ran into was either afraid of me or tried to attack me. You are the only exception, as your sister already took a swing at me."

"When we first saw you, I think we were a bit afraid. But then you showed you could destroy the ghosts and instantly my sister saw you as an...ally," Marble revealed, though Absol knew she was thinking of a different word. "And...Princess Celestia warned us about you, a bit. She said how you always seemed to show up before a ghost attack and that you might be involved with the ghosts somehow."

"Of course she did," Absol replied in a tone that was struggling to hid the emotion within. "Blame the being that's trying to help."

"What was that?"

"Nothing," Absol growled before he looked up at the side, seeing that the sun was getting close to the top of a mountain range far in the distance. "It's getting late. We need to find shelter soon or else I'm going to be fighting ghosts all night. And I don't want to do that. Come on, let's see what we've got."

After twenty of minutes of searching the group came across a small cave that lead underground. The three figured that it was the best that they were going to get and took up residence within the cavern. Limestone created a fire and the three sat in the light of the flickering flames, Absol watching the entrance to the cave as the sun dipped over the horizon.

Marble tried to make small talk with the Pokémon a few times, but aside from a curt answer every now and then he didn't say much. Eventually she gave up on trying to talk with him and spent the time looking at the different berries that they had brought. Limestone didn't interact with any of them and instead spent the remaining daylight looking at the numerous rocks and rock formations that adorned the cave.

When the sun finally vanished behind the mountains and darkness fell across the land, the two mares fell asleep next to one another, leaving Absol to his own thoughts. He sat staring at the fire for some time, but after a while he rose up and walked to the entrance of the cave. He sat down at the entrance and stared up at the stares, staring into the heavens and the billions of stars that all shone down upon him.

'Why here, Palkia?' Absol thought to himself as he gazed into the heavens. 'Why bring me to this world? I asked for a world where I could live in peace and quiet. Yet here I am, being dragged into another disaster even though I should just stay away. Yet you picked this world yourself. You told me that I would find peace here. Well, so far it seems that you're wrong. I hope that's only for the time being.'

There was no answer, so Absol resumed keeping an eye out for any spirits that were getting a little too close. To his surprise, he found that none of the ghosts that he had sensed were coming there way. He was used to them avoiding him, but he had been certain that the ghosts would come for the ponies. Yet they kept their distance. He didn't like it.

"So do you really not have to sleep or do you just prefer to be out at night?" Absol turned his head to see Limestone walking over to him, a tired look in her eyes but she was doing her best to hide it with a sarcastic smirk. Absol gave her no answer and she sat down beside him, but instead of staring at the stars she was looking down at the pebbles at her hooves.

"I will sleep when the two of you are safe. I cannot keep my word if the both of you are taken by ghosts," Absol replied in his same, stoic tone, and once again it got Limestone to roll her eyes. "What brings you out here? Shouldn't you be asleep right now? It is a long journey to the next town and you will need to be rested."

"Please, I've worked for days on end with no sleep on my farm. A night without sleep is nothing new to me," Limestone replied with a tough smirk, but Absol was too busy staring at the stars to notice. She let out a groan before she joined him in looking up at the stars, but after a while she started to get bored. "So you never did answer my question earlier. About how you ended up here."

"I told you-"

"Yeah, a legendary Pokémon, because I totally know what that is," Limestone snarked, getting Absol to give her a look. "Look, I get it, you don't like opening up to others. Neither do I. But my sister trusts you and I do too, to an extent. Like she said, if you were a bad being, you probably would have let the ghosts get us or leave us to freeze to death on the mountain. But you didn't. Which mean you're a good soul. But seriously, I want to know why you chose our world. Because you sure don't seem to be enjoying yourself."

"Because if I had know you were on this world, I would have chosen differently."

"Hahaha, you're really funny," Limestone replied in her driest tone possible. "Seriously, I want to know."

"Fine, if it will get you to stop bothering me. I didn't chose this world in particular. I asked the legendary Pokémon that brought me here if they could find me a world where I could find peace. A world where I was no longer a bringer of disaster," Absol explained, his eyes turning towards the ground and a sad tone filling up his voice. "And for a while I thought that this world would be peacefully for me, but it seems that once more I am forced to help others. Only this time those I am forced to help are a lot more punch happy."

"Never gonna let that go. Fine. So why help us?" Limestone asked out of the blue, getting Absol to look at her. "I mean, you could have just left us to die on the mountain or at the claws of the ghosts. You didn't have to help. But you did and I want to know why."

Absol was silent for a long time after Limestone asked that question, long enough for the moon to travel halfway across the sky. While they sat Limestone glanced over Absol, amazed at how brightly his coat shined in the light of the moon. She had only just figured out that his hairstyle was supposed to be a yin and yang symbol, but she wasn't sure if she found that cool or stupid. She settled for stupid.

"I suppose the reason I saved you is because of my mother."

Absol had spoken so suddenly that it took Limestone a moment to process what he had said. When she had processed it, along with the sadness in his tone, she blinked once in confusion before trying to look into Absol's eyes. Absol turned his head away from her and laid down in a way that told her he was done talking.

"Go back to sleep, Limestone. I have a feeling that tomorrow is going to be a bad day."

Limestone opened her mouth to say something, but only sighed as she rose to her hooves. She figured that he would just ignore her or maybe get mad at her. Not to mention that she was actually feeling kinda sleepy, so she took his advice and headed back into the cave. Yet even as she laid down next to her sister and started to drift off, she still couldn't piece together why Absol's mother would be the reason he saved them. And she figured that with his shut in attitude, she never would.

Ghost Town

"Well this looks promising," Limestone said with a dry smirk as she gazed around at what used to be a town. The two sisters and the Pokémon had reached the town around midday, but the clouds overhead blocked out any light and made it seem like it was still late at night. But what really drew the attention of the group was the lack of any life whatsoever in the town, putting all three of them on edge.

"Well isn't this exactly what we needed. A ghost town. Emphasis on ghost," Limestone continued, warily looking around in case any of the undead spirits decided to come after the three of them.

"Stay close to me and try to avoid any unnecessary noises," Absol said in a cool tone. Marble was at his side in an instant, looking out from behind her mane at every shadow. Limestone moved closer as well, but not too close to give the idea that she was afraid. The group moved slowly through the empty town, eyes peeled for any sort of movement that would give away their attackers.

"So who here wants to bet that this town wasn't a ghost town before the actual ghosts showed up in this land?" Limestone asked after a while of quiet, unable to take the silent tension any longer.

"You are right. I visited this place less than a year ago and it was filled with ponies and life," Absol confirmed for Limestone, his eyes narrowed as he sniffed the air. "Yet judging from the scent and the lack of hoof prints in the ground tells me that they had been gone quiet a while. Maybe around the same time the ghosts showed up. Maybe not. No way to know for sure. I sense no ghosts. Let us look around."

The group split up and began to search the abandoned buildings. Marble looked inside houses and homes, looking for any sign that ponies might be hiding out there or perhaps had taken refuge somewhere. But all she found was signs of struggle and claw marks eerily similar to those that the ghosts left when they had been attacked.

Limestone checked the stores and restaurants, finding that all of them were still stocked with food and supplies. Nothing had been taken from any of them, except for the ponies that would work there. After grabbing a bit for herself, she walked out to find Absol standing near the town center, eyes closed and fur blowing slightly in the breeze. She wasn't sure of he was concentrating or simply napping, but she waited until her sister showed up before she put her idea forward.

"So not to sound like a jerk, but maybe we should get some supplies while we're here?" Limestone put forward, getting Absol and Marble to give the mare a look. "Now hear me out. I figure the reason we came here in the first place is because we need something to fill the space left by the berries in our bag. But there are no ponies here to trade with or buy them from. So why not take what we need and pay for it by finding out whatever happened to the townsfolk?"

"She does bring up a fair point," Marble agreed, getting Limestone to look at her sister with surprise. "The ponies here have been gone a while. Whatever they've left behind isn't doing them any good. And we might be the only chance they have to be rescued. Isn't that fair in the end?"

"I gave up on fair a long time ago. I'll settle for survival," Absol said in a quiet tone, one that the sisters figured meant that he wasn't against the idea. Marble walked into one of the general stores while Absol walked with Limestone into the restaurant, much to her annoyance.

"Why are you following me? Aren't you supposed to be keeping an eye out there for trouble?" Limestone asked him as she started to look for anything that would be useful to them.

"Yes, but with the luck you have had I wouldn't be surprised if you were the first to be attacked," Absol replied with a thin smirk, one that made Limestone roll her eyes. But despite her annoyance, she didn't ignore the warning in his words.

"So there are ghosts here?"

"Yes. They are on their way. I expect them to be here any moment," Absol replied curtly. "And I would rather be closer to the one that would most likely charge them than the pony that would wisely hide. So I follow you."

Limestone replied with a snarl, but before she could say anything else Absol snapped his eyes to where the entrance to the restaurant was. The dark power consumed his horn, generating a faint light. A moment after he did that the door to the restaurant were blown open and three cackling ghosts came flying in...only to be shredded into darkness a moment later by a blade of darkness. Limestone watched with only a slight case of the nerves as Absol slashed the ghosts to pieces faster than they could scream, leaving their ethereal remains on the ground.

"That will not be all of them. Come, let us find your sister and hope that the ghosts have not found her," Absol told Limestone.

"Who said that you get to boss me around?" she asked Absol, but the Pokemon had already leapt through the destroyed doors and headed into the streets. She followed through the doors after him, catching up just in time to watch him rip apart three more ghosts that had mistaken him for a pony.

"I cannot see your sister. She is most likely hiding," Absol said to Limestone in a cold tone, barely paying any mind to the dozens of ghosts that were flying around the pair. Limestone kept her eyes on the specters and waited for their attack, but after a few moments it was clear their fear of Absol kept them as far from the Pokemon as they could get. "We should search for her and quickly. The ghosts will not bother us so long as I am near."

"Where did they all come from?" Limestone asked. Absol's response was to take off running towards the last spot where they had seen Marble, getting Limestone to sigh before she chased after him. "Look, if I know my sister, she will be hiding in a spot that's quick to get to and hides her from view. Nothing fancy. So maybe we should start looking in boxes or-"

"Found here," Absol said. He had stopped so suddenly that Limestone had to dig her hooves into the dirt to prevent herself from slamming into his rear. She gave him a look before noticing that he was looking straight up. Fear had barely managed to start to flow through her body before her head snapped up, just in time to see the ghosts beginning to take off with Marble and another pony that they had failed to see.

"She's being taken away!" Limestone screamed. "Absol, hurry up and-"

"Pursuit."

In the blink of an eye Absol appeared above the ghosts, his claws glowing with a dark power. He slammed his claws into the back of the ghosts, drawing forth screams of agony as the dark power seared their ghostly forms. The agony was enough to get to ghosts to drop the pair of ponies, who both let out cried as they plummeted towards the ground. Yet Limestone had only taken a single step towards her sister before she was caught by Absol, who had her in his forearms while he caught the other pony on his back.

"Oh, thank you," Marble said with a small giggle as Absol lowered her to the ground. Absol nodded curtly before he crouched down and allowed the other pony to roll off his back and collapse to the ground. He then cast his gaze towards the sky at the rest of the ghosts, who were all floating around the group with now nothing but fear on their faces. His eyes flashed red and almost quicker than Limestone could register the ghosts vanished, leaving the group alone in the center of the town.

"Who are you?" Absol asked the pony that he had rescued. The pony looked up into the red eyes of Absol and immediately backed away from him in a panicked frenzy.

"Back up Absol, you're scaring him. Let me try," Limestone said before she grabbed the pony by the shoulders and spun him around so that she was eye to eye with the pony. "Hey, whoever you are, why are you here when all of your townsponies are gone? Huh? Answer me!"

The pony's response was to shake with fear and try to escape the iron grip of Limestone. But while he had no chance of escaping from her grip, Marble was able to pull him away from her sister in a quick motion, before giving a look to both her sister and the Pokemon.

"It would seem that the both of you scare him," she replied. Marble gently set the pony down next to her and gave him a kind smile, one that seemed to melt away some of his fear and worry. "Sorry about that. The two of them mean well but they can't seem to hold back who they are. My name is Marble Pie. Would you mind telling me your name and why you're here?"

"Oh, m-my name is Key Stone," the pony stuttered. "I used to live in this town before...before the ghosts showed up and took everypony away."

"When did the ghosts show up?" Absol asked over Marble's shoulder.

"Did they have any ponies with them that looked anything like us?" Limestone demanded over the other shoulder.

"Back up please," Marble asked the two, having noticed the fearful look return to Key's face. "Again, I'm sorry about them. But answers to their questions would be appreciated."

"Um, sure. The ghosts showed up about a few days ago, carrying every pony off in that direction," Key Stone said as he pointed to a place on the south side of town. "There's a forest down there that was always said to be haunted, but no pony believed that to be the case. Now I guess we know the truth."

"I see. As for the other question?"

"Oh, looking for your family? Well, if there are any of them, then it's most likely that they would be where everypony else was taken to," Key Stone stammered.

"How did you manage to escape?

"Well, I've always been particularly good at hiding and-"

"And you should go back to doing just that before more ghosts show up," Limestone cut in before she grabbed her sister by the shoulders and dragged her away from the pony. "Come on, we now know where all the ponies in the town were taken to. We need to go free them and see if our family is with them. Or maybe the families of some of the Ambassadors."

"You're being rude to Key Stone."

"And I should care why?" Limestone asked. "Come on, every second we spend here waiting is another second that something terrible is being done to our family or the family of our friends. We need to go."

"This is not the way to where the center of Equestria is," Absol pointed out, getting Limestone to give him a look.

"And why should that matter?"

"Because I promised to help you find your families, not fight and free every group of ponies we come across," Absol said in a cold tone. "And the best way to do that would be to go to...do they still call it Canterlot? Go to Canterlot and see if they have any information that they can give us. Not gallivanting around in a forest just asking to get separated and attacked."

"Didn't you hear what we just said? Our families might be in there!"

"You don't know that."

"The only way we will know is if we look!"

"Your family could also be at the bottom of the ocean. Or up in the stars. Or maybe under one of the endless number of rocks in the land," Absol said with a shrug. "Are you saying that we should look under every rock?"

"Argh! Why are you being this way! You're infuriating me!" Limestone snarled.

"And I should care why?"

All of the spewing rage drained from Limestone and was replaced with a cold fury. "Oh, is that what this is about? If I go apologize to Key Stone will you go help us search for our family in the forest?"

Absol's response was to step to the side and bow his head towards Key Stone. Limestone let out a snarl before walking towards where the pony sat, taking a swipe at Absol as she walked by him. Absol watched her as she tried to apologize to the pony, with little success.

"You...were going to help us even if she didn't apologize, right?" Marble asked.

"Of course. I gave you my word."

"Then why antagonize my sister and force her to apologize to Key Stone like that?"

"Because I enjoy seeing your sister flustered."

"...You're still mad about getting sucker punched, aren't you?"

"Yes. Yes I am."

Forest of Whispers

Limestone knew she was a tough pony. She lived on a rock farm, which often burned from the heat of the sun or froze when the winter wins blew through. She could break a boulder in half with a single hoof and had, many times, carried rocks uphill without any effort. There was little in the world that she believed that could unnerve her.

The forest that she and her friends were currently going through was one of those things. She knew in her mind that it was just another one of the many forests that seemed to plague Equestria, but there was something off about this one. The way the branches in the trees seemed to reach out for her, the way things seemed to be looking out from the bushes only to vanish when she turned her eyes towards them and the faint sounds of voices that spoke without a mouth drove her nerves to the edge. To the best of her knowledge, the forest was one of two things that unnerved her like this.

Absol was the other.

The forest didn't bother him in the slightest. He walked through the darkened trees and thick brush with almost a smile on his face, seemingly perfectly at home among the whispers and the shadows. A part of her figured that being a dark type meant that he enjoyed the darkness more than most, but then he started humming to himself and she felt a shudder go down her spine.

She did her best to hide the fact that Absol unnerved her from the Pokemon, though sometimes she wondered how much he could tell about her just from her body language alone. It wasn't his bizarre look or the fact that he had dark powers that could strike down beings that were already dead. It was something in his demeanor, something telling her that there was more to this creature of darkness. The way he could look at a pony and see their true thoughts. The way he knew when danger was coming without any indication. It was similar to the Pinkie sense.

The Pinkie sense had unnerved Limestone for a time, but eventually she had gotten used to it.

"I am not called the disaster Pokemon for no reason," Absol said. His words sliced through her thoughts so precisely that she was left without a comeback for a matter of moments. "I can predict disasters. My whole species can, actually. We are deeply in tune with the world and the way things are, so we can sense when danger or disaster is about to strike. And we try to warn those around us of when those disaster are about to occur."

"So is mind reading one of your powers or are you just incredibly skilled at guessing?" Limestone asked, putting on a brave face as she did so. She didn't want Absol to know how much him knowing her thoughts had shaken her.

"You are easy to read. You wear your emotions on your sleeve for the world to see," Absol informed her.

"I do that so ponies know not to tick me off. So if you and your species are so good at predicting disasters, how come you could never predict that the people you tried to warn would come for your hide?" The jab had been in retaliation for him reading her thoughts, but the blow struck deeper than Limestone realized. His red eyes were like slits and from the way he glared at her Limestone wasn't certain that he wouldn't turn that dark power towards her. Yet after a moment of what she was sure was contemplation on whether or not to attack her, Absol let go of his frustrations with a sigh.

"Perhaps it is because we try to see the best in others. Or that our souls will not allow us to escape impeding doom without at least trying to warn others of the coming plight. All I know is that we try to help...and are blamed as the bringers of doom," Absol replied in a whisper.

"Did you know that the ghosts were coming?" Marble asked, finally working up the nerve to speak up. She was terrified of the forest and had spent the entire journey through it pressed up against her sister while hiding behind her mane. "I remember Princess Celestia mentioning that you appeared in the same city where the ghosts first resurfaced. Were you trying to warn us of them then?"

"Yes, but once again the curse of the Absol followed me to this realm. The ponies saw me, they were terrified by me and they tried to drive me out. Then the army of ghosts descended upon the city," Absol filled in. "And while I may have a favorable matchup against ghosts, I am not immune to their powers. Overwhelmed and outnumbers, I did my best to help as many ponies as I could. I fear I helped very few in reality."

"You still tried your best, even after they tried to be rid of you. That shows how much of a good heart you actually have," Marble said with a kind smile. Despite his demeanor, Absol couldn't help but give Marble the faintest of smiles in reply. "Once we get back to Canterlot, I am sure that we can speak to the princesses and have this whole bringer of disaster situation sorted out."

"I hope so to, but until the day comes when I am no longer blamed for destruction I did not cause, I will continue to remain skeptic," Absol smirked. He then raised his head and looked around the area that the three were at, noticing a few odd signs of civilization. A pillar of stone here. Remains of an arch way there. All of which were nearly hidden beneath layer after layer of foliage and vine. "We are close to where the ponies in the town were taken. That means we are also close to the ghosts that took them. Stay close."

Limestone gritted her teeth and took a small step closer to Absol, while Marble appeared at his side in an instant. She knew better than to doubt his warning, his ability to foretell disasters was a given, but she also didn't want him to think that she was scared or relied on him. She could handle herself. He was there as insurance.

But as a maniacal laughter began to echo from within the trees and shadows, the fear and chills in her stomach reminded her why they had fought so hard for Absol to join them. The ghosts were creatures of the underworld, having passed away and wanted nothing more than to be among the living once again.

Absol's horn flashed with darkness and a moment later a ghosts that had been hiding in the darkness screamed in pain before bursting into a pile of darkness and ash. Limestone swallowed a lump in her throat as she glanced over at Absol, who was already moving ahead like nothing had happened. He had just struck down a ghost that she hadn't even seen and acted like it was nothing. It was impressive.

Not that she would ever say that.

"Hey, thanks for the heads up on that ghost being there. Are you ever going to warn us whenever we're about to be ambushed or are you just going to deal with it as your silent, brooding self?" Limestone asked with a bit of a smirk to Absol. His response was to be silent and continue to move forward. "Silence it is. Glad that we trust each other."

"Do we really trust each other?" Absol asked.

Limestone took a moment to think about that question, before opening her mouth to respond.

"Please don't make this worse," Marble whispered to her sister. Limestone shut her mouth, realized that she didn't want to be silent, opened her mouth to say something only to be silenced once more when Absol held up a paw.

"We're coming up on something, something large and dangerous," he said in a whisper. "Quiet is essential here." Limestone narrowed her eyes at his bossy tone, but kept her mouth shut as they slowly moved forward. The danger in Absol's voice was enough to tell her now was not the time.

The three silently moved forward as best as they could, the ponies doing their best not to get tangled on any of the vines. Absol avoided each and every plant with ease, all the while moving without any noise at all. If Limestone hadn't been looking right at him, she wouldn't have been able to tell that he was there at all. After nearly an hour, the forest began to thin, allowing the group to see some structures ahead. The group came to a halt next to the ruins of what had once been a stone wall, which still had enough left in it to provide some cover.

Absol nodded his head towards what he had sensed, but Limestone would have been able to notice it even if Absol hadn't pointed it out to her. There was one building amongst a sea of ruined ones that still stood tall and strong, despite the evidence that the years had not been kind to it. A large, square tower that stabbed into the sky, drenched in vines and other plant life. Chunks of the tower itself were missing and the entire tower looked like it was slightly leaning to one side.

But despite the state of disrepair and the years of abuse done by Mother Nature, all three could feel a sense of dread and malice emanating from the tower. It was almost as if the group could sense the darkness and evil that awaited them within. Marble looked at the tower in horror, Limestone felt fear creep along her spine and even Absol seemed on guard by the sight of the den of evil before them.

"That's where they've taken the ponies, isn't it?" Limestone asked Absol, being the only sister able to speak at the moment.

"Yes. I can sense them inside, along with plenty of our spectral friends and...something else," Absol added on. Limestone didn't like the tone of his voice, but before she could voice her opinion Absol began walking towards the tower. "Come, we will not rescue them by standing out here all night."

"Are you sure you just want to walk up to this place and knock on the front door?" Limestone asked, not used to being the voice of reason. "I mean, there could be a whole army of ghosts inside."

"I believe there is an army inside. I can sense a great number of ghosts inside," Absol corrected.

"And a frontal assault is our best course of action? Didn't you just say a little while ago that even you can't handle a whole army of ghosts by yourself?" Limestone reminded him.

"True. But that was when I had to fight them from every conceivable direction. If we go in from the front, they will attack us from the front. As long as they do not surround me, I should be able to handle them," Absol said confidentially. When he saw the hesitation on Limestone's eyes, he added on, "And this could also be where your families are being held. The sooner we cut through this tower the sooner we can find out."

"I hate it when you're right," Limestone snarled, but she voice no further arguments. So with another flick of his head Absol lead the two ponies towards the only entrance to the tower that they could see, a single wooden door that looked like it had been recently repaired. Absol walked right up to it, raised a paw, and glanced back to the two. "Ready?"

They both nodded in reply.

Absol smirked and then tapped his paw against the door.

The next moment the door exploded into a shower of splinters before an unholy roar erupted from within. Limestone tackled her sister and drove the both of them away from the rain of wood, before she glanced at where Absol had been standing with fear gripping her heart. Her fear turned to annoyance as a moment later he landed gracefully beside them, not a hair on his body out of place.

"Do you practice making everything look so effortless or does it come naturally?" she snarked at him. Before Absol could answer, a pair of massive hands grabbed hold of the door frame and yanked with all of their might, dragging out a colossal body of a ghost. But unlike all of the other ghosts that Limestone had encountered, this ghost was not pale or shaped like a pony. This ghost had four arms, a body that looked like magma and burned with the ferocity of the sun. Her eyes shrunk into her sockets as the beast pulled itself out of the tower entrance and loomed over them, a smile on its face.

"So you are the black shadow, the creature that has struck down every one of my brothers that he has come across," the blazing ghosts bellowed with the fury of an inferno as it gazed hungrily at Absol. "I look forward to watching your body being consumed by the flames until only your charred bones remain. Any last words, slayer of ghosts?"

Absol stretched his back, cracked his next, and shifted his weight across his paws once or twice. He then finally let a smile cross his face, but the smile was not directed at the ghost being consumed by an inferno. Absol turned his smile, an ungodly smug smile, towards Limestone.

"Allow this demonstration to clear all doubt from your mind, as I slay this ghosts...effortlessly."

From the Fires of Hell

Absol flipped backwards to avoid a burst of fire that spewed from the ghosts mouth, the crimson eyes on his face being illuminated by the burning flames. Limestone tackled her sister once more and dove for cover, shielding Marble with her body as the ball of fire burned by.

"Hey jerk! Don't forget that we're out here as well!" Limestone screamed at Absol.

Whether or not Absol heard her she had no idea, for at the moment he seemed far more preoccupied with his battle than with them. The moment his paws touched the ground he kicked off again and moved like a white blur towards the blazing ghost. Despite the ghosts earlier claims about how he wanted to consume Absol's bones with his flames, he knew better than to let Absol get anywhere close to him. So with Absol upon him, the ghost fired a ball of fire into the barren land at his feet, creating an explosion of flame that even Absol couldn't get through. With no other option but to back off, Absol flipped backwards and landed next to the pillar the Pie sisters were behind.

"Wow, I think this is a record for how long it's taken you to defeat one of these guys," Limestone snarked out from behind her cover. Absol flashed her a look before his horn glowed with a dark light. He was a blur a moment later, appearing behind the ghost and slashing into the astral body with his horn.

"Burn in hell!" the ghost roared as it lashed out at Absol with one of its hands, yet with a twirl of his body Absol slipped through the fingers and landed on the arm of the ghost. The first thought that went through Absol's mind was how was he able to stand on a ghost, but that thought was quickly replaced with the burning pain that scorched his paws. Absol leapt off of the arm of the ghost to prevent himself from being burned.

The action was not lost on the blazing ghost. The moment Absol was off of him he spun and lashed out with another ball of fire, one that barreled towards Absol as he was trapped in the air. Absol moved to the side as best he could, but as the flames ripped by the Pokemon felt a searing pain consume his left side. He landed on his paws and cast a quick glance at his side, to find that the ball had managed to burn him.

"Do not worry, being of darkness. The hellfire is only beginning for you," the ghost muttered as it began to float towards Absol, both arms extended towards the Pokemon.

Absol gritted his teeth to fight through the pain, before channeling his power into his horn once more. He moved with the same speed as before and slashed a night slash across the chest of the ghost, yet on the moment of impact the burn on his left side consumed his senses and he instinctively pulled his head back in pain. He powered through with the rest of his attack and landed without much effort, but a glance over Absol's shoulder revealed his fears to be true.

'The burn is causing my striking power to go down. The pain is preventing me from giving it everything I've got,' Absol thought. The ghost was clearly thinking along similar lines, as he lashed out with reckless abandon towards Absol. Without the fear of being struck down to keep the ghost at bay, Absol found himself completely on the defensive as he dodged and ducked to avoid the flaming fists.

'This is bad, I can't keep dodging for long,' Absol noted as he realized that he was running out of room to backpedal. 'I need to find a way to get rid of this burn and now! But in order to do that I would need-'

Movement out of the corner of his eye caught Absol's attention and he glanced to his side to see two items flying in his direction. The first was his bag of berries, which was the very thing he needed to get rid of his burn. The second was a giant rock, which collided with the face of the ghost and sent the specter spiraling through a wall. He caught the bag and looked up towards the pair that had thrown the items, a smile breaking across his face.

Marble had thrown the bag of berries, trying to help Absol in his moment of need. Limestone had thrown the rock, trying to take out the main problem on her own. He nodded his head in gratitude to the both of them before plucking a single berry from the bag, a Rawst berry, and popping it into his mouth. The moment he bit down he felt the burn sooth and his strength flowed back into his body. He turned with a smile in time to see the blazing ghost return to the battlefield, blissfully unaware that Absol was no longer handicapped.

"The time has come for you to be consumed by the fire!" the ghost roared as he charged a ball of black fire in-between his hands. "I shall incinerate your soul and then leave your bones to be kindling for my flames! The fiery, depths of hell await-"

In a fraction of a second Absol vanished from the ghosts view, leaving him to look around in confusion for the Pokemon. A whistle got his attention and he turned around to see Absol standing directly behind him. The ghost snarled and took aim...only to burst into a pile of smoldering darkness a moment later. Absol stared down at the embers for a moment before he walked back over to the mares.

"You're welcome, by the way," Limestone said, before Absol could say anything.

"For what, dare I ask? Your sister was the one that threw me the item that I needed," Absol pointed out, before politely returning the bag of berries to Marble.

"You're welcome, because if I hadn't thrown that rock to knock that sucker for a loop, he would have incinerated you before you had the chance to check inside that bag," Limestone added on. Absol gave her a look and Limestone fired one off right back, before Marble squeezed in-between the both of them and pushed them apart.

"Come on, do the two of you really need to do this now?" she asked them. "With the guard gone, we need to go inside and check to make sure that the ponies inside are safe. Can we save this for later?"

"Very well, Marble. As you did aid me, I suppose it is only fair I do this for you," Absol politely agreed. Limestone made a gagging noise as Marble and Absol turned and started to walk towards the tower. Yet it was only after a few steps that Limestone moved up beside Absol.

"So what happened back there? You seemed to be handling yourself pretty well and then...things went south."

"Seems that you are more observant than you let on. Yes, at first things were well in paw. His attacks were slow and his ego massive, providing plenty of chances to attack. But then I was caught off guard by the fact that I could...touch him," Absol muttered, shaking his head. "He took that moment of hesitation and burned me, severely crippling my power."

"Wait a moment. If you get burned you get weaker?" Limestone asked.

"All Pokemon lose attack strength if they get burned. Those that rely on special attacks, like Alakazam, are barely bothered by it, while other species like Machamp only grow stronger with their guts, but unfortunately for me, burns can severely cripple my fighting power. It was fortunate that you sister tossed me the bag of berries when she did."

"Oh yeah, glad to see that Marble was the one that saved your sorry pelt. I'll remember that the next time you need a rock chucked at something," Limestone snarled, but before she could say anything else, Absol put a paw on her shoulder and turned her to face him.

"And it was thanks to you throwing that rock that I am alive at all. You saved my life, Limestone," Absol told her with a kind smile. "And for that I thank you from the bottom of my heart. I...am not used to having others save me."

"Um...sure, just don't mention it," Limestone muttered, glancing down at his paw on her shoulder. He removed it and the two walked to the entrance of the tower, which Marble had refused to enter by herself. "By the way, you said there are a bunch of types, right? Was that ghost another type?"

"Your observations prove astute once more. That was a dual type. Ghost and fire, unless I am mistaken. That gave him extra powers and extra weaknesses in our fight," Absol dictated. "As ghost attacks do not bother me that much, the extra fire typing gave him a far better type to use against me. However, that same fire typing made him much more vulnerable to the rock you managed to introduce to his face. Good thing you have a weird attraction to rocks."

"So, are you going in first or are you going to make one of us do it?" Marble asked Absol, cutting off Limestone before she could start up about the attraction joke. Absol took the point and the two sisters followed him inside, Limestone grumbling to herself as they walked.

There were no torches or any lanterns hanging from the walls, leaving the group encased in almost complete darkness. While Absol seemed right at home in the darkness, the two ponies were left stumbling and crashing into bricks and walls without their ability to see.

"Hey Absol, do you think you can make some kind of light source?" Marble asked.

"A source of light? Marble, I am a dark type, not a fire or electric type," Absol replied from somewhere in front of the both of them with a chuckle. "A dark type making light. That is humorous. You are a silly pony."

Marble hung her head slightly at those words, but then a stone flew past her head and struck Absol in the back of his head. A curse escaped his lips as the impact created by the stone caused a small spark, which allowed the group to see each other for just a moment.

"Well what do you know? If I hit Absol in the back of the head with this flint, it seems to create some sparks we can use to see," Limestone's mocking voice spoke in the darkness. "Hey Absol, don't move too much or else I won't be able to create much light. Also might want to grit your teeth."

"Perhaps I have a better idea," Absol said in a very controlled voice. Marble could hear him picking up the flint that had struck him and he scrapped it against the ground, creating a small number of sparks. He showered the sparks onto a stick and a moment later they had a makeshift torch. With the ponies eyesight restored, the group moved on. Yet even with the ability to see the nerves in the ponies did not fade. In fact, it was not what they saw, but what they failed to see, that caused them to be put on edge.

There were no ghosts haunting the hallways, leaving the depths of the tower devoid of any sound aside from their hooves on the stone. There were also no ponies being held captive, despite the group forcing open every door that they came across. That was except for a single, large, reinforced door, the last door that stood in their way.

"So, do we look for the key, or-" Marble began, but then her sister slammed her hind hooves into the door and shattered the lock, allowing the doors to swing openly with an eerie creak. "Or we can just do that. Thank you Limestone."

"Always happy to help, seeing as you guys would be helpless without me."

"Helpless isn't the word I would pick," Absol whispered to Marble as he walked by her, getting Marble to giggle slightly.

The three entered the large chamber on the other side of the doors, noticing from the rusted weaponry and suits of armor that lay scattered about that the room had been some kind of armory. But Absol, with all of his forewarning senses, picked up on something else in the room, something far more sinister. Without any sort of outward concern, he lazily lifted his head towards the ceiling, where the smokey, astral form of a stallion encircled a chandelier above them.

"And who are you?" he asked the ghost.

"Ah, forgive me for staring, I've just never seen a being like you," the ghost apologized as Limestone and Marble whipped around to face him. "I am King Spiral and I am trying to kill all of you."

A Haunting Feeling

Limestone blinked the moment the ghost revealed himself and the next thing she knew Absol was slashing at the king of the ghosts with a horn bathed in a dark light. The ghost king vanished, which caused the attack to strike the ceiling instead of the ghost. Absol landed on the floor a moment later, his horn still glowing with his dark power, while his eyes shifted back and forth across the room as he hunted his prey.

"King Spiral. You must be the one responsible for the army of ghosts that has descended upon this land," Absol said to the shadows, eyes waiting for any sign of movement.

"That I am, being of darkness," the king's voice said from every direction at once. Marble instinctually moved closer to her sister, who in turn moved the two of them closer to Absol. "However, you have me at a disadvantage. When two ponies, or whatever you are, meet for the first time, most start with their name. Not a lethal attack."

"Considering how you will soon be leaving this plane, I do not see what is the point in you knowing my name," Absol replied in a cold tone. "Though if it means that much to you, I will tell you the name of your destroyer. I am Absol. A Dark type Pokemon that brings down the ghosts like you."

"Ah, Absol. A powerful name for a powerful being," Spiral replied, a slight laugh echoing throughout the chamber. "Ah yes, you are a being that is not native to this world. You come from...somewhere else. How interesting that I am meeting a being from another world. And what a shame that he is a being that can kill me. What did you call yourself? A Dark Pokemon? Are those types able to kill ghosts?"

"Correct. Now reveal yourself so that I can end you," Absol spat.

"Straight to fighting with you, eh? But I have so many questions for you before I kill you and I am certain that you have questions for me. And as you've already told me so much about myself, to be kind in return, I will answer one question truthfully. Any question. Like if you wanted to know my backstory? My skills...my weaknesses?"

"There is only one question I have. What have you done with Limestone and Marble's families?" Absol asked. Limestone turned her head to look at Absol, surprised and a little bit touched that he would use his free question for her family. "I know that you have taken them somewhere. Tell me where."

"Aw, isn't that cute. You care for these two," the voice of the ghost king said. Absol moved in a blur, slashing at the air in front of where Limestone and Marble were standing. A roar of pain echoed through the chamber and a moment later the dark king materialized near the door. "Tracking my voice, are you? You are truly dangerous creature."

"The location. Now."

"No-nonsense either. You are a problem," the dark king snarled, before boxes and bricks started to levitate around him. "Well then, Absol, let us see how you handle this!"

He hurled the items towards the Pokemon faster than Limestone could track, but with an even greater speed Absol sliced the boxes to pieces. He turned to face King Spiral with a smirk on his face, while the dark king said nothing in reply. Then a cruel smile spread from under his shadowy beard and his horn began to glow, wrapping Absol in a violet energy.

"Absol, watch out!" Limestone cried out as she saw the light. But then a dark light began to form cracks along the purple energy, before the energy surrounding Absol was shattered completely.

"What in all the...?" the dark king asked as he floated backwards. Absol looked down at himself, before a wicked smile began to spread across his face.

"That wouldn't happen to be...psychic powers, would it?" Absol asked in a delighted tone.

"In my world we call it magic, but yes...I suppose psychic would not be too far off base," Spiral said. Absol let out a dark laugh upon hearing the kings words, before his red eyes locked onto the kings ghostly form.

"Well then, here is your first lesson in the type matchup. Psychic types...can do nothing to Dark types!" Absol roared as he lunged forward. He lunged towards the kind with reckless abandon, now knowing that the dark king could do nothing to him. "And if you can use those powers, than that makes you a Ghost/ Psychic type, correct? Well, hate to be the bearer of bad news...but you are at an even greater disadvantage than your army!"

Absol slashed towards the dark king without really aiming, forcing Spiral to weave and slither around the room to avoid being struck. Absol kept up the pressure and attack with a relentless force, tearing gashes and holes in the ancient room in an attempt to strike the king down. And despite throwing up psychic barriers to protect himself, Spiral quickly found that none of his once infamous psychic strength could so much as give Absol pause. So if his powers wouldn't stop the Pokemon, his words would have to.

"Are you sure you wish to kill me? After all, you have yet to learn of where your precious ponies families are located," King Spiral put forth. The words reached Absol and for a moment he ceased his attack, though Spiral did notice that his horn continued to glow darkly. "That's better. See how much nicer everypony is when we're not at each others throats?"

"Says the being that told us he was here to kill us," Absol reminded him.

"Details. Alright Absol, I will tell you this. The families of the two right there, the Pies, if I am not mistaken, are being taken to the Eternal Forest on the other end of Equestria. If you head there now, you might, just might, catch up to my forces before they make it there. But that's only if you go right now."

"And why should I believe a word out of your mouth?" Absol replied. "You could be sending us to our deaths for all I know. And give me one good reason that I shouldn't strike you down here and now?"

"Two excellent questions. You are a smart one. The answer to the first one is that you don't have to believe me. But you have no other options or clues as to where the Pie's could be except for what I tell you. So you'll go looking anyway. As for the answer to the second question..."

A blinding flash of light erupted from the center of the ghost king, forcing the three to look away for a brief moment. When the light had faded, Absol looked up with a scowl to find that the king of the ghosts was long gone. He let out a swear and sliced his horn across the wall, adding a new slash mark across it before he regained control of himself.

"Come on, we need to get going," Absol told the two mares.

"So we're just going to listen to what the pony that's trying to kill us said? We're just going to walk into the Eternal Woods and hope that he was telling the truth?" Limestone asked.

"Unless you have a better idea, that is exactly what we will be doing," Absol said to her. Limestone felt her temper flare, but a look into Absol's eyes showed that there was no challenge or anger in his look. Only the same, unshakable resolve that he always seemed to have. Limestone forced her temper back down while Marble, who knew what had almost happened, placed a hoof on Limestone's shoulder.

"It's all we've got for the time being. Along the way if we learn anything else, then maybe we can change our plans," she told her sister in a calming tone. "But until then, we will go with Absol's plan. Besides, we have our dark knight here to protect us should any ghosts try to harm us."

"Flattery will get you nowhere," Absol informed Marble with a smirk. She giggled and gave him an innocent smile in reply before she headed towards the exit, with Absol and Limestone following after her. It wasn't until the group was outside of the tower, and Marble had gained a little bit of distance from the two, that Limestone finally spoke to Absol.

"Thank you," she whispered.

"For what?" he whispered back.

"For asking about where our family is. I know there were probably a dozen other questions that you wanted to ask him, but you asked about our family. That means a lot to m...to us. To the both of us," Limestone barely managed to get out.

"There is no need to thank me. I know how much your family means to you. I've still got the cracked jaw to prove it," Absol told her with a smirk. Limestone rolled her eyes at his words, but couldn't stop a small smile from spreading across her face.

"I know and I'm...sorry that's what it came to in order to get you to help us. But at the end of the day, family is all we have."

Limestone thought for a moment she had said something wrong, because for a few minutes after that Absol was silent. Then he nodded to her with eyes that were filled with pain.

"I agree, Limestone. I completely agree."

(]o[)

"I told you this would happen," Ahuizotl said with a shake of his head when he looked down at the mess of ghost that had teleported back into the castle. Ahuizotl and Spiral had taken up residence at an ancient and run down castle that had once belonged to Prince Sol, in a time before the sun and the moon. It had been built in an incredibly well defended area, with no way to sneak up on it or cut off. And due to the war between Spiral and Sol, it was also near one of the largest graveyards in the history of Equestria, meaning that there were plenty of spirits around to command.

'Of course, this damn fool runs off and nearly gets himself killed without any of those thousands of spirits to help him,' Ahuizotl thought to himself, gazing at Spiral's shredded ghostly form. The dark king grunted and began to draw the shadows into his form, slowly beginning to reform the parts of him that Absol had taken out. "I cannot believe you were foolish enough to take on this creature by yourself. He can slay ghosts with ease. What did you think he would do to you?"

"This pain was necessary to find out more about the foe I will be facing," Spiral said in a pained voice, but one that still held bits of delight in it. "And we both learned a great deal about each other. I learned that my psychic powers are useless against him. I also learned that psychic are also weak to his powers, so that, along with my ghostly form, means that he could probably kill me in a single strike. And he learned the location of some of our hostages. All and all it was quite the learning experience."

"Did you learn his weakness? I mean, he must have one?"

"Oh, I will have his weakness within moments, but first I wish to learn more about him," Spiral said as he conjured a small stone out of his body, one that was shaped like a crescent moon and filled with dark powers. "This is a dream scrier. It will allow you to look into his dreams and learn what you can. But be careful, I do not know how much his dark typing will protect him from it."

"Very well, Ahuizotl replied as he took the stone, before noticing the smile still on the dark kings face. "I do not get it. You were ripped apart, found out that your powers didn't work and he learned where the Pies are being held. So why are you so happy?"

"Because, my faithful friend, now I know his weakness. I know everything about his powers. For you see...he told me his name."