Author's Notes:

Now, first of all. This is a crossover special. Crossover obviously means it is a crossover chapter, and a special one because of the very high word count.

This chapter has yet to play out on Robin's side of the story, meaning this contains spoilers to the story "The Awakening of a Tactician" by "Mountainmanmad".

Now, with the warning out of the way, please enjoy this chapter!

Thanks to Kingdom Harmony for being the one to make this chapter come out at all.

A loud noise, one much like the tearing of fabric and shattering glass was heard from just in front of a small house in the middle of the Everfree. The air itself was crackling with energy and large openings began to appear as if the air was a solid surface. Lightning bolts made of pure frost shot out from the abnormal sight. As the energies in the area came to a peak it suddenly completely shattered and revealed Black Frost standing there after having torn through the veil between realities. As he stood there he noticed he was being observed by what appeared to be another Displaced.

“Well, that certainly felt different,” Black said. After having looked around his surroundings, his eyes wandered back to the Displaced he would guess was Robin and smiled.

“And you would be Robin, correct?” he asked.

Robin examined the apparent teenager with guarded curiosity.

After a while Robin returned Black's smile with another, letting his hands brush against his side. He kept his fingers slightly curled, just within reach of his sword.

“I would be. I must say, to what do I owe this unexpected visit?” Robin asked.

“Oh, mostly coincidence. I just happened to find your token and thought it might be fun to terrorize someone else’s Equestria before I go and do that in my world, practice makes perfect as they say.” Black replied with a carefree voice.

Robin pursed his lips together and carefully thought about what to say.

“I see… well, I’m sorry to inform you that I rather enjoy terrorizing my Equestria on my own. Perhaps you may have luck elsewhere?” he finally asked.

“And waste an opportunity like this? Don’t know, it took quite a lot of energy to traverse the void like I did. What do you say about a duel? Winner takes all? Equestria and the rest of this stupid universe?” Black suggested instead. He could take his time. After all, the point of the trip was for him to enjoy himself.

“Well, I would rather discuss this like adults instead of resorting to violence. You said that it took a lot of energy to get here, correct? I’d be willing to… refill your ‘tank’ for you so it wouldn't have been a waste of time.” Robin said after a short while.

“That is a rather generous offer I must say. But I’m not interested in just sitting down and talking. I’m more of an active type of guy, let my actions speak for me, so to say. And it might have been a lot of energy for my trip here, but it’s nothing I can’t refill by killing an Alicorn or two. You do have Alicorns here don’t you?” Black asked with another wicked smile shot towards Robin.

“I do, but they are quite busy during the day. Besides, you came all this way just to meet me. It would be rather rude to simply run off, don’t you think?” Robin said.

“Well, to be frank. I don’t care. I know, if you’re up for that duel. I’ll promise not to use my flying and I’ll even prepare the place we’re going to fight. Which one sounds good to you? Canterlot, Cloudsdale, Ponyville, Manehattan, Griffonia, a random deserted spot, or the Moon?” Black asked with a sick amount of enthusiasm for the highly populated areas, ready for any kind of fight without a care. He was twitching to do some battle since his last one, Discord's didn't count.

“It seems that you’re not giving me much of a choice in the matter. Very well, I accept your duel. I would also prefer to fight in a location far from civilization. Furthermore, I require a few minutes to gather my tools. Is that alright with you?” Robin asked.

“Sure, I’ll be setting it up somewhere between the edge of the Everfree and the badlands, you won’t be able to miss it. I’ll be waiting.” Black replied before flying off. Silently pouting about the fact that he wouldn't get to blow up any populated areas. He then grinned and thought about what he would do after having won the duel instead. His grin only widening at the thoughts of what he would do to Robin during their duel, so many great ideas coming to mind.

Robin watched him fly off before he quickly made his way inside the small house.

I was having quite a lot of fun with creating my little arena. It was a simple idea of having a big Pillar made of ice and a flat surface at the top to act as the arena itself. The Pillar itself was roughly 200 meters high and about 35 meters wide. Plenty of space to fight. And I had also added occasional ledges around the tower, in case one of us fell off. Wouldn't be any fun if the Robin guy died because of gravity.

As I had completed the rough shape of the pillar I started playing around with the ice itself, changing its properties and looks, just for fun and aesthetics. Just having a pillar made of regular ice wouldn't do. I eventually settled for a light blue shiny ice that was clear enough to let one see through to the other side, barely, ice wasn't as clear as glass after all. The only part that wasn't see through was the top, it was covered with a thin layer of frost that created friction instead of making it even slippier. I didn't want to have such an unfair advantage when I had already given up my flying.

Until Robin appeared I'd be continuing with making the pillar look more alive. Who wouldn't want to have an epic battle in style?

After hours of sculpting and improving of the ice, Black saw that Robin finally arrived at the base of the pillar. Up close Robin saw that the ice was rather beautiful, the semi-clear ice was almost see-through, something that couldn't be achieved naturally. Robin looked upward, gauging the height of the construct. It was roughly a tenth of a mile high. Ledges surrounded the tower at multiple intervals, to stop one from falling too far in case they toppled off the edge.

Judging by Robin's expression he couldn't figure out a way to get up, meaning he either didn't have any way to fly or was considering to save his powers. Something Black found humorous as to him any being worthy of being called 'powerful' would at least be able to fly whenever they so wished. The fact that Robin didn't show Black the difference in their power. However, even the powerless could under the right conditions triumph over a giant. So it would at least be right of Black to help Robin up so that they could have their battle.

Deciding he had waited long enough, Black flew down to Robin from behind.

“Ah, you’re here now. Want help getting up? Just stand still and let me take care of it.” Black said, not waiting for an answer as he let the winds take hold of Robin and bring both him and Black to the top of the pillar at very fast speed, dying down as it gently put them both down at the top.

As they landed, Black picked up on Robin's behavior and saw that he was right. Robin was showing signs of being nervous and therefore proved to Black that he indeed was more powerful than Robin. Smiling internally he began thinking once again of the many ways he could have fun with the human, even if he didn't use the full extent of his powers, there were plenty of ways to use them.

Robin placed a tome he was holding back, replacing it with another. Presumably one meant to help him in some way and maybe give him some kind of advantage. Interested in the change of tome, Black considered that it might be some kind of relic more powerful than him but quickly discarded the idea. After all, very few, if any relics could stand up against a being older than 10 thousand years of age. Instead Black decided to once again have some fun and give Robin the illusion of an advantage.

“So, I’m feeling generous today. I’ll give you the first shot.” Black said as he took up a space on the opposite side of the pillar, the staff he was holding dissolving into snowflakes that disappeared in the wind.

Robin grunted in acknowledgment as he read a few words in his tome. Black felt a sudden connection between Robin and the tome establish itself. As soon as it was complete Robin began casting a spell, apparently drawing most of the power from the tome.

Balls of fire began to appear around Black, slowly circling his form. Black felt Robin pour more magic into the spell as the balls of fire slowly grew and begun spinning faster. After Robin stopped feeding the spell. With a flourish of his hand, he released the stored magic.

A massive pillar of fire erupted from the ground at Black’s feet, completely encasing him in the inferno. The fire easily reached a height of about 30 feet and lasted several seconds before petering out.

But as the fire settled down, Black looked not much worse off than he had before. His hair was only slightly singed, some smoke coming off it. Steam rising from his clothes and the ice around him.

“That hurt quite a bit you know…” Black said as he took a step forward. “But you know what this means, right? Now it’s my turn!” Black said with an evil smile as a sphere of blue magic appeared in his hand. He quickly threw the ball of magic at Robin.

Acting quickly, Robin dodged the sphere of magic. As it made contact with the area Robin had just occupied a smooth layer of ice coated the floor. Robin didn't have much time to examine it as Black continued to fire off more spheres of ice. Soon Robin's side of the pillar was coated with a fine sheen layer of ice.

Robin cursed as he lost his footing and fell on to his back.

The next sphere Robin had to doge by rolling out of the way. Meanwhile, Black was hardly even trying to hit Robin directly, instead he was aiming at Robin's feet.

Angered by how little Black seemed to take this seriously, Robin switched tomes again. Then he once again read something in it, establishing a connection. Somehow managing to dodge Black’s attacks in the meantime. Black however only raised an eyebrow at this, what would work better than fire? Somewhat curious what the mage had up his sleeves, he didn't bother to stop him as he seemed to use a considerable amount of the tomes magic, about a quarter of it. And yet this spell was being summoned at a much faster rate. Black braced himself for what was coming, just in case.

As Robin released the spell, a bright light appeared, seemingly originating from nowhere. The light encompassed Black, slowly growing in intensity with every passing second. The temperature began to quickly climb as well, reaching unhealthy levels within seconds.

Robin, knowing what was coming rushed to the edge of the pillar, as far away from Black as possible. Drawing his sword he let the lightning travel through his blade before slamming it into the ice. Twisting the blade to bury it deeper within the ice and held on tightly.

The spell went off causing an explosion, Black at the center of it. Chips of ice flew outward, propelled by the force of the explosion. Robin closed his eyes and held the pommel of his sword tightly, not thinking about what would happen should he let go.

A scream filled with pain and surprise could be heard in time with the explosion. Yet, after the smoke settled Black seems to come out unharmed. Only his smile seems to be missing. “IT. IS. ON!” Black said as he fired a lightning bolt that seems to made purely out of frost directly at Robin. It’s speed surpassing one of his previous attacks.

Reacting quickly, Robin dodged the bolt of ice sent on a collision course with his face. As he avoided the bolt he brought up another tome and began reading another spell. As he was done he tucked the tome under one of his arms while Black continued his onslaught, his face set in a scowl. Meanwhile, Robin was just managing to dodge his attacks. Suddenly Robin called out to Black.

“Black, I’m warning you, you won’t be able to survive this next attack! Let’s both give in and go our separate ways!” Robin said, sounding as if he meant what he said. Something Black found ridiculous.

“Why would I? I still got a few icicles with your name on them.” Black said as he sent a few more of “ice lightning” towards Robin.

Robin sighed as he began draining the tome of magic, but this time-draining it completely dry, releasing a shout as he released the spell.

At first it seemed nothing had happened, but soon felt small disturbance could be felt above the arena. Glancing upward both beheld an ancient symbol, one lost to the sands of time. The sigil seemed to be lying upon the sky, resting on an invisible surface. Runic symbols began to dance across the sky, moving too fast for any of them to read.

And then a blinding flash of light.

Robin closes his eyes as the unnatural light intensified while Black instead brought up an arm to block the intense light. Once the glare had dimmed they both saw what the spell had done.

Where the symbols had been was now a massive black hole, a hole to another universe without light. The Pillar they both stood on soon began to shake violently, causing Robin to stumble as he tried to regain his balance while Black seemed less affected by the movements. Then the shaking got worse and even Black had to struggle to keep his balance.

It was then they began to notice small objects being raised from the ground, small chunks of broken ice drifting towards the hole on their own. The small pieces soon became large chunks, and soon even parts of the pillar itself began to break apart.

Searching wildly for something to hold onto, Robin found his sword, still embedded within the ice. Rushing over to the sword he managed to take hold of the pommel just as he began to float in the air from the force of the hole. Having managed to save himself from being swallowed by the hole, for now, he glanced over towards Black, wondering how he was faring.

Black was ignoring the black hole, still trying to hit Robin with his attacks. That is until he noticed he was being dragged in as well, even if not at the same speed as Robin would have had he not grabbed his sword.

“What? I’m not supposed to be affected by gravity!” Black complained as he was beginning to move closer and closer to the hole in the sky. Genuinely surprised by the fact that that a technique like that had any effect on a spirit like himself.

“Whatever, I’ll just do this then.” He said as he froze his legs to the pillar beneath.

“Now what?” He said with a smug grin. Only to hear the newly created ice give out and him being flung into the portal that promptly closed behind him, it all happening too fast for him to even react. Leaving Robin to dodging the now falling chunks of ice that had originally been part of the tower they had been standing on.

The first thing I thought was: This reminds me of riding in a car. And it had been that kind of sensation I had when I had been pulled into the hole, or I guess it was more of a portal. Because right now, I'm in some kind of void. There is nothing here. No light, no mass, no gravity (While I'm not affected by gravity, I can still feel it's presence.) And that brought me back to my initial question. "How did that portal suck me in to begin with?"

In theory, it should have been impossible. As far as I could tell, the pull was purely gravitational. Gravity, by law, should not affect objects without mass, such as me. Yet it did. The only force resembling gravity for me was the magical and spiritual "pull" to manifest. To bind itself or enter the 'normal' plane. This pull was something my body reacted to naturally, but it was also something I did have control over.

Magic and spiritual energy always sticks to objects and such, like souls stick with bodies and magic is much more densely packed in actual objects than in air. I, however, could ignore or divert the pull to my liking, something that for one, allowed me to fly with the help of the wind and be nearly weightless without it.

Eventually, I did conclude. It would have had to have been pressure that dragged me in. Think about it. A place devoid of anything, even magical pressure, would in the events of an opening forming begin to try and even out the pressure. And that would be done by pulling in more magic into said place to fill it to a level where the pressure either evens out between the two, or the portal closes. Not sure which one happened in this case.

With this conclusion, I was finally satisfied to get angry. That little rat Robin had just banished me. I was fuming, but I let myself calm down with a few well-chosen swear words that should not be uttered next to children. Once finally calm enough to see the funny side of this whole mess I began to laugh. To be completely honest, trying to trap me in a void like this was a pretty good movie. Over here, I could not do much at all to hurt Robin. But there were also things that Robin must have had forgotten.

I had, after all, found my way to his universe by myself and then forced my way in. How stupid would he have to be not to realize I could do such a thing again easily. After all, I still had his token to lead me back.

Fishing out Robin's token once again I carefully examined the connection to his original token. And sure enough, it wasn't broken or anything, the way back was still open, all I had to do was follow it to the exit and force it open. But this brought up a new issue. As soon as I opened up the portal back, it would result in the same as when Robin had opened it. It would simply suck stuff in and most likely hit me on its way through the hole. So, I had to somehow prevent the hole from sucking anything in, while still being on the inside.

Thinking about it like I would if it was a problem with pressure helped a lot. Most gadgets and machinery I knew of using pressure had valves to regulate pressure and such, so perhaps I should make one myself?

In the end, I settled for a simple idea closer to the idea of an airlock. I would use my magic to make sure I created the necessary 'pressure' around the exit before leaving. By doing so, I should prevent the result of the last opening.

And as you might imagine, I didn't have resources or time to test my theory out, so I'd have to field test it with myself and see if it worked right of the bat.

"Well, no time like the present... I guess? Eh, what the hell." I thought before putting my plan into action and followed the connection from the token. It was now time to show Robin why not to piss me off like that.

Another portal opened up above Robin. As he looked up he could see Black looking down at him, grinning from the other side of the portal.

"I'm not that easy to get rid off." He simply stated as he came through, the portal closing behind him. Looking down at me I saw that his eyes were full of evil intent. Staying in the air he began charging another attack of ice magic.

Robin gritted his teeth in anger. His ace in the hole had failed and he was now trapped beneath a chunk of ice which had fallen on top of him after the portal had devoured Black. However, even with the odds against him he smirked and reached into his robe, taking out yet another tome.

Robin held out his hand and sent forth a black miasma that was the spell described in the tome. Circling Black it began to steadily drain his life. This, of course, didn't go unnoticed by Black, yet he shrugged it off. The spell was only stealing a small part of his wast reservoir and it was nothing compared to what he could later drain from this world. Instead of focusing on completing his deadly spell to stop Robin and his spell in one fell swoop.

As the collection of ice magic in Black’s hand reached a certain point it started pulsating and Black’s smile grew. He was done charging his attack. Pointing the orb of collected energy down towards Robin he looked him in the eyes.

“Sleep tight, baby boy,” Black said as he was about to throw the massive collection of ice magic at Robin.

Robin continued to sap energy from Black, working the spell as hard as he could. The energy flowed into his body and re-knitting the bone in his leg. However, it was far too slow to help him escape Black's spell.

Yet Robin smirked and looked up at Black. Calling out to him, “Hey Black!”

He returned Robin's grin and watched him expectantly.

Robin gave out a winded laugh and raised his free hand, giving Black the finger. “Go fuck yourself!”

“Great last words,” Black replied as if he didn’t care. “But the words of a dead man mean nothing to me!” He shouted as he launched the orb at Robin, finally showing his anger having lost his evil grin.

But as Robin was sure he had already spoken his last words, something else happened. The attack stopped. And as it did the sound of a football whistle could be heard ringing through the air.

“Yellow card! Time out, five minutes recovery time for Robin.” A woman’s voice could be heard.

At this, both Robin and Black turned to see who this new “referee” was. In mid-air a woman with long hair colored both black and pink, reaching down to her knees. And in a complete referee costume was holding a yellow card in one hand and a football whistle in the other. And that wasn’t the only new addition. Not too far away there were two “bars” marked HP, one had "Jack Frost (Discorded version: Black Frost)" written on it, the other had "Robin (Prince of Plegia)". Slightly lower between the two HP bars letters were spelling out another word in big bold letters: PAUSED.

Both of the combatants simply blinked at this before Black regained his composure and spoke his mind.

“W-what? What are you talking about?” Black asked, unable to comprehend what was going on. The woman sighed and pulled out a book, opening it up and putting on a pair of obviously fake glasses with fake eyes on springs and began speaking as if reading from the book.

“You said you wouldn’t be flying. Judging by the fact that you’re currently in the air, two meters over the ground determines that you have broken your promise. And therefore Robin over here gets a five minutes recovery bonus while your position is unchanged.” The woman simply stated.

Black looks at her for a while, silently wondering how the woman knew of what he had told Robin before their fight, before confronting her.

“Wait a minute, I’m not flying. I’m hovering, there’s a difference!” Black argued, getting really upset for some reason and completely forgetting that he did not need to defend himself when the woman had neither proof or that honor meant nothing to him in his current state.

“Indeed there is a difference.” The woman replied as she began flipping pages in the book, only to suddenly stop. "Here we are, flying and hovering. Determine the difference." She read in the book and began reading loud and clear for both Robin and Black to hear: "Both flying and hovering are actions of being suspended in the air or above ground for a prolonged amount of time. However, hovering refers to a less taxing version of flying that lifts the user no farther than their actual height, while flying allows close to unlimited ascension.” She read before closing the book and looking at Black with a smug grin.

“And by the looks of it, you’re currently over two meters above the closest area to consider ground, seeing as you’re not two meters high, you’re by definition of the 'universal rule book' flying and have broken the rules. Therefore the yellow card. Now sit still, I’ve got to speak to Robin for a while.” She said, leaving Black confused and with his mouth open.

“So, how are you holding up?” She asked Robin as she flew down and landed beside him.

“Does the leg still hurt?” She asked, looking towards the limb, still stuck under the block of ice.

Robin eyed her critically before taking a moment to glance back at his broken leg. The energy he had drained from Black had healed it somewhat, but he wouldn’t be doing any leisurely walks around the forest anytime soon. But he did, however, notice that it no longer hurt. He could feel the weight of the ice block, but not the pain.

Robin returned his attention to the woman and chuckled. “No, but I’m not exactly in the best of situations right now.”

“Yeah, sorry I didn’t get here any sooner. Fortunately I didn’t get here any later. These battles don’t auto-assign any referees themselves so someone has to do it or the rules won’t be followed properly.” She looked down at me and frowned.

“This is your recovery time, but you’re not recovering fast enough… Here.” She said as she held senzu bean in front of Robin.

Robin took it in his hand and inspected it closely. But looked back up at her and raised an eyebrow in question.

“Oh, don’t worry. It’s a bean meant to re-energize anyone who eats it. But it also happens to heal wounds. It can go as far as regrow whole muscles in less than a second. But I haven’t tried it myself to that extent yet, and I don’t plan to… They’re called Senzu beans if you’re wondering.” The woman explained.

Throughout her explanation Robin eyed the bean incredulously, his eyes widening as he heard the name of the bean and examined the starch in a new light. He knew exactly what a senzu bean was.

Meanwhile, Black had just stopped thrashing around and given up as he realized that he really couldn't move or use any of his powers at the moment. His face set was contorted between rage and confusion.

After another moment of inspecting the bean and then casting a look at Black, Robin sighed and placed the bean in his mouth and began to chew. The effect of the senzu bean could be seen almost instantly. The signs of fatigue Robin was showing all but disappeared and his leg had suddenly healed.

Withdrawing another tome, Robin summoned some form of green blades that and began cutting at the ice trapping his leg. Chunks of ice fell apart as the green blades bit into the ice. He was soon able to push the rest off of himself, allowing him to rise to his feet. Robin nodded at the woman in thanks before returning his attention to Black. Robin now appeared more confident, the woman quickly realized that it perhaps would be because of her presence.

“It is quite unfortunate I won’t be able to fight with you side by side, the rules don’t allow that… But they do allow tag ins. Just say my name followed by a gesture or phrase to signify that you’re tagging me in and I’ll be able to switch places with you.” The woman said, accidentally leaving out the most important part. Something Robin immediately noticed.

“Then, may I ask what to call you?” Robin asked her, as she had yet to introduce herself.

“Oh, silly me. My name is Blood Cleaver. It is nice to meet you, Robin.” Blood Cleaver said before walking over to some bleachers that most certainly were not there earlier on, and sat down.

“Don’t forget, you have to tag me in after the fight resumes!” She shouted back before turning to Black.

“And you, don’t forget, no flying! Or you’ll be awarding Robin here with freebies and that wouldn’t work too well for the story!” Blood managed to say before a loud buzzer could be heard and the word PAUSED disappeared from between the two HP bars, signifying the start of the fight. And if such a clear hint somehow would have managed to be misunderstood. Then the giant word FIGHT! Appearing between where Robin and Black stood, would be enough.

Robin's HP bar instantly began to fill up to full, catching up to Robin's recovery thanks to the senzu bean he had gotten from Blood Cleaver. As ridiculous as it all was, Robin knew that he was hardly in any shape to fight Black, let alone defeat him. Nothing short of full-powered spells seemed to do any damage to him. Not only that, using all of the magic from a tome was risky as it took a few more seconds to cast. To top it all off, none of the tomes he had were fully charged. One was entirely drained, another was more than half empty due to the trip here and a third was a quarter empty from its last use.

Robin looked back at Cleaver and waved her over.

“Tag in! I need to sit this fight out for a bit!” If she could keep Black busy, it would give Robin enough time to recharge one of his tomes, the one that seemed to do the most damage to him out of all the tomes. A full-powered version of it might be enough to end him.

Maybe…

Blood Cleaver clapped her hands together and Robin suddenly found himself having switched places with her. Now he was the one sitting on the bleachers.

A loud, confounded “What?” could be heard from Black as he saw the bar displaying Robin's name disappear, only to be replaced by a new one showing off a blue health bar instead of a green one. Reading: "Blood Cleaver (Previously known as Diane Pie)".

“Let’s do this!” Blood Cleaver said as she created a sphere of energy in her right hand and held it up, as if showing it off to Black.

“Whatever, I’ll take both of you down.” Black counters as he released a direct attack of frost bolts upon Cleaver who simply blasted them away by turning the ball of energy into a beam. Completely obliterating the frost bolts.

“Well, that’s not fair. Robin got the first shot and I don’t? Don’t you know how to treat a lady?” Blood Cleaver asked with an amused tone as she shoots another beam at him, this one somewhat bigger.

“What?” Was all Black managed to say before the beam hit him and he was thrown backward from the sheer power of it. But before he could recover Blood Cleaver was right in front of him and her punches began flying like bullets. Impossible to see as they only appeared as blurs to the naked eye.

Meanwhile, Robin noticed something else. The bars were suddenly displaying something new, Levels.

"Blood Cleaver (Previously known as Diane Pie.) Lvl:??? (To high level to display. Level up to see this level.)"

"Jack Frost (Discorded version: Black Frost) Lvl:126"

Robin raised an eyebrow and then shook his head and took out one of the tomes, placing it in his lap. Still keeping one eye on the fight, Robin began to pour his magic into the book, hoping Cleaver could hold against Black long enough for him to rejoin the fight as soon as he had charged the tome back up to full.

Blood Cleaver retreated from punching black as he covered himself in ice magic, effectively freezing Cleaver’s hands. As she retreated she melted the ice by creating a sphere of energy in each hand, turning the ice directly into water vapor. However, Black’s victory of getting free from Cleaver's assault was short-lived, as he almost immediately was assaulted by a barrage of multiple-beam attacks instead. The beams coming from multiple directions as the beams curved around and then homed in on him.

After a few moments the beams were replaced with small spheres being launched his way and Cleaver starts alternating between the two kinds of attacks, not doing any visible damage to Black the blasts seemed ineffective, they were however enough to keep Black on the defensive.

Unable to stand his ground, Black was slowly losing ground and being backed into a corner. Realizing this he looked around for anything that could be of help and noticed something from behind Blood Cleaver. A smirk found it’s way onto his face. Robin realized that Black had some kind of plan and followed his gaze but saw only one thing in the sky that could be what he was looking at, the sun.

Suddenly Black did the most unexpected action of all. He raised both his hands and spoke the most impossible words: “I give.” He stated with a neutral look.

Robin narrowed his eyes in suspicion. No one would go from a full-blown smirk with a plan to simply giving up. He was planning something. Of course, he also let his guard down, giving Blood Cleaver the perfect chance to-

“Huh?” Blood Cleaver stopped in surprise, giving Black an opening as he was no longer assaulted by beams and blasts.

“Gotcha!” Black exclaimed as a big sphere of ice magic appeared between his raised arms and became a beam fired off into the sky, directly towards the sun at incredible speed. The attack, however, fizzled out of existence as it hit an invisible barrier that seemed to have been placed around the arena. Yet, the attack had achieved its intended purpose, it had made Blood Cleaver look away from Black.

As soon as Cleaver’s sights had left him, Black had summoned his staff. At the same time as Blood Cleaver realized her mistake and spun back around towards her opponent, Black launched another attack. He was already crackling with ice magic that suddenly seemed to condense and disappear.

A loud sound, not far from shattering glass could be heard as the apparent barrier around the arena and the HP bars shattered into a million pieces and dispersed into nothing. However, nothing else seemed to happen.

Robin winced as the noise startled him, causing his concentration to falter slightly resulting in too much magic being pushed into the tome. Fortunately, the tome was almost full at that point, so Robin didn’t expend too much of his energy filling the tome. With the tome now full, Robin returned his full focus to the fight. Ready to jump in at a moments notice.

Blood Cleaver was standing still. The air around her had begun to ripple a little and a very subtle aura, much like fire, began to form around her. Small fragments of ice began floating upwards, the ones touching her aura instantly evaporating. Even the water vapor seems to disintegrate as it came to close to her.

Robin guessed that Blood Cleaver was charging up big time. And if she could feel power levels like in the series, then the only reason for such a power-up would be that Black himself also has increased his powers. That did not sound like a good thing.

Just as Robin was about to jump up from his seat on the bleachers, everything went dark. Only the slight illumination from Blacks frost magic and Blood Cleaver’s aura could be seen. That is until the stage lights that came out of nowhere suddenly lit up from the top of the bleachers, bathing the whole arena in light.

At this Black began laughing.

“Have fun with your sun, or rather your lack of one!” He said before his collection of ice magic grew bigger.

Thinking quickly, Blood Cleaver quickly came the conclusion that the Sun was not gone or had somehow been destroyed, just that it was inactive in some way.

“Robin, your turn. I’ll get the sun back!” Blood Clever shouted looking at Robin for confirmation as her aura once again flared and she began charging her powers up once again.

Robin held one of his tomes close, summoning the magic from within the book. This time however, he was planning on unleashing everything it held. Gritting his teeth, he released the spell towards Black.

The spell appeared above the arena, a miniature sun that began to fall towards the ice. The fire crackled with power, the light emanating from it possibly powerful enough to be seen from Canterlot. But, one thing that was barely visible in the shadow produced by the light that was melting the ice and burned everything with an unhealthy amount of heat, was the smug grin on Black’s face.

“So long, suckers!” He said as he swung his staff and the air where it swung froze with frost. He then hit the frost created with the staff, cracking it and pieces of frost falling off. But instead of showing the regular air that was placed behind it, it revealed a black void. He had just made another portal. As enough pieces had fallen off Black jumped into the hole and looked back.

“Have fun with your little inferno, and remember: Never wound what you can’t kill.” He said before the portal closed. Leaving both Robin and Blood Cleaver in the devastating light that was melting the ice they stood on, reduced the pillar of ice into nothing but hot, skin burning steam.

“Hey, Robin. I hope you’re able to stop that thing. I’d rather get tanned the old fashioned way!” Blood Cleaver complained standing next to him.

“I can’t, once a spell is cast it needs to go off! I also can’t redirect it since I used all of my magic on one attack!” He yelled, the sound of falling ice almost drowning his voice out, “We have less than thirty seconds before we’re caught in the explosion!”

“Grab on, we’re getting out of here!” Blood Cleaver shouted as she stretched out an arm for Robin to grab on to. As soon as he did, he found himself at the edge of the tower. Cleaver looked back for a moment before jumping off the edge, dragging Robin with her into a free fall.

As they neared the ground Blood Cleaver activated her energized flight and slowed their fall down to a soft landing. As they landed, however, they were assaulted by a barrage of ice that had followed them down the side of the tower. Dodging out of the way they got farther away from the tower as the attack hit.

Ice, boiling water and burning steam flew everywhere as what remained of the tower was obliterated. Forcing them to once again dodge the oncoming barrage of H2O trying to claim their lives.

“Well, I certainly didn’t see this coming.” Blood Cleaver said as they stood on the ground, looking at where the ice pillar once stood, the ground all around being scorched and covered in quickly melting ice and water. The sky filled with steam, and clouds as a result of all the water vapor cooling off in the atmosphere, barely visible in the sunless sky.

Robin took in a shaky breath as he steadied his nerves. He then glared at Blood Cleaver. “‘Didn’t see this coming’? You and your icy friend are both insane!”

Blood Cleaver sighed. “Please, don’t call me insane. Brings up bad memories. And he’s not my friend. I’m just helping his world’s Twilight to bring him back so he won’t destroy other Equestrias. He was discorded by Discord and went batshit insane. I have to bring him back so that Discord can undo it, that is if Discord has recovered enough and is no longer on the edge of the afterlife. So yeah, I kinda have to follow him. But don’t worry, I still got some time to help out here, the multiverse tends to work in my favor when it concerns time, I’ll catch up to him.” She said, waving her hand slightly as to wave away Robin's concerns.

Robin looked at her incredulously as she explained the situation. When she finished he frowned at her. “So let me understand this; You know he’s currently unpredictable and he’s powerful enough to travel the void, yet you didn’t fight at your full power?!” He asked her.

“Well… You see. I kinda thought it would be a good idea not to show off all my power at once. Have a little something up my sleeve. Besides, I’m uncertain how much damage it would be if I sent a Galic gun and hit the landscape instead. Some of my attacks are rather powerful and require delicacy when being handled. So I went with an easier approach.” Cleaver explained as she looked to the sky as if searching for the sun that was no longer anywhere to be seen.

“Okay, get ready for this one.” She suddenly said, before putting her hands together and started gathering energy in between them as she took a steadier stance with her legs.

“Kame- hame-HA!” She exclaimed as the blue ball of energy quickly expanded and shot off as a beam towards the non-visible sun. The beam continuing to become longer and longer as it reached out into space.

“Well, this will take a while.” She stated as the beam reached the outer atmosphere.

Unfortunately it was quickly becoming colder and colder. Not so fast as to reach a dangerous level, but enough to become uncomfortable.

Robin's right eye twitched as he watched the spectacle. As he felt it getting colder, Robin grumbled to himself and pulled out a tome. Quickly reading it over he tucked it under his arm and summoned a small pillar of fire nearby. Immoderately warming up the surrounding area, as well as providing additional light.

“Thanks. As many different attacks I know and how good I am at manipulating my Ki, I can’t do it delicately enough to do simple stuff as making some heat. It’s like as I open the floodgates it all comes pouring out and I have to use highly effective destructive beams that don’t produce heat. Stupid in one way, effective in another.” Blood Cleaver thanked Robin as she still kept up the Kamehameha wave she was firing.

Robin grunted as he stared into the fire. It wasn’t cold, and it wasn’t getting much colder any faster. Not surprising since the sun only just went out. Robin took the time to consider her words.

“Tell me, how did you learn to control your life energy?” he eventually asked her.

“Ah, I had a teacher named Pan. She helped me get my powers under control. I trained under her for two years and learned quite a lot from her. Most stuff she taught me comes from some anime called Dragonball. We didn’t have that in my universe…” Blood Explained while still keeping up her wave.

“I should be close by now. Hopefully I get this first try.” Cleaver said as her beam thinned out and seemed to begin dying off.

“Well if you don’t get this on your first try then you may as well give up. This planet will freeze to death otherwise.” Robin replied.

“Nope. I got it. Should be blue skies from here on.” She said with a smile before it went back towards a neutral one. “But you might experience a few extra solar flares,” Cleaver said as her beam cut off completely.

Robin sighed and waved off her worries, “It’s fine, not concerned about that. What I’m concerned about is a certain grinning psychopath that’s currently on a rampage through the multiverse.”

“You shouldn’t be. He’s severely weakened right now and I have a tracker on him. He shouldn’t be a problem once I catch him again.” She said looking at the sky. “We should probably warn the rest of the population before the sunlight suddenly returns. People could get blinded if they looked up at that moment.” Cleaver suggested.

Robin deadpanned at her. “And how exactly do we warn an entire civilization within several minutes? Furthermore, It’s not just Equestria that will be affected. On top of all that, if I tried to warn everyone Celestia would most likely place the blame on me for this entire fiasco!” Robin said.

“Hmm, let’s see here.” Blood Cleaver scratched her head while trying to come up with a solution.

“Maybe if we use a HUGE projector to project upon the atmosphere with a countdown, people, I mean ponies and other creatures everywhere will be able to see it and then no one will be blinded.” She suggested, looking at Robin with a slight smile.

Robin groaned and resisted the urge to facepalm. Robin responded to her in exasperation, “Sure, fine, that sounds like a great plan! Now, please tell me how you plan on achieving such a feat?!”

Blood Cleaver smiled towards him with a genuine, innocent smile, apparently not getting Robin's sarcasm about how great of an idea he thought it was. “Good, I’ll have to order the stuff first.” She said as she pulled out a flip phone and dialed a number on it. She then spoke about many different components and numbers that went over Robin's head and then ended it by giving what she referred to as “Void Coordinates”. “Thank you. No, the pleasure’s mine.” She said as she hung up. “The stuff should be here in five seconds.” She said as she turned around towards a portal that had already begun opening up.

Out of the portal came what looked like giant metal beams, giant concrete blocks, cranes, excavators and a lot more stuff necessary for constructions. As Robin was about to ask her what was going on, he noticed she was now wearing a construction force uniform and was shouting orders with a megaphone. Some form of building being built right there and then.

As it was completed after only about 4 minutes later. Before them stood what looked like a modern Earth observatory. Right in the middle of nowhere. Blood Clever standing there with a proud smile as she signed something and gave it to one of the workers. Somehow Robin couldn’t for the life of him remember what they looked like.

“And now, to see if it works. Want to do the honors?” Blood Cleaver asked Robin, handing him a small remote with only one button, labeled 'Start'.

Robin stared at the remote impassively as his mind caught up with what he had just witnessed. He wasn’t sure whether to be curious or annoyed with how she was handling the situation. With a final sigh, he decided to go along with her and press the button.

As he did the construct came to life. Many different noises could be heard from the inside of the building and soon the part that looked like a telescope sticking out from the room lit up and illuminated the sky with a rainbow of colors, painting up in big, easy to read letters. “Sunshine back in: 1:41. Please avoid looking at the sky.” counting down the seconds. Underneath, the same message was written in several different languages.

Robin barely gave the garish lettering a second glance before he focused his attention back to Blood Cleaver. “We need to have a little talk,” he said in a commanding tone.

“Huh? sure. But can it wait until the sun is back? I gotta get this stuff back before five, or I’ll get fined.” Blood Cleaver explained before taking out two pairs of sunglasses and handed one pair to Robin. “Make sure to put these on, this will be one hell of a flash.” She said as she put on her pair.

Robin continued to glare at her as he took the sunglasses, fitting them upon the bridge of his nose. He crossed his arms behind his back as I waited for the Sun’s rays to reach the planet.

In a sudden flash of light, the skies were suddenly blue and the sun was just… there again. No dramatic sound no messages declaring mission complete or anything of the sort. “Well, that was rather anticlimactic.” Blood Cleaver said as she took off her glasses and let her eyes once again adjust to the sunlight. She then went off to the side and began disassembling the “observatory”. She soon came back holding all the parts, quite a few times smaller than their original parts.

Robin grunted and removed the sunglasses. “Now are you ready to talk?”

“Sure. What is it about?” Blood Cleaver asked, sounding a bit more serious as she put down the miniature parts of the observatory.

“For starters, perhaps you can tell me how you plan on apprehending Black? Considering your less than stellar battle performance I’m assuming you don’t have one.”

“May I ask you something? Have you ever had any experience with reprogramming anyone's mind?” Blood instead asked.

Robin looked at her in confusion as she changed the topic. Regardless, he nodded his head in confirmation.

“Good, then you know that if you don’t wish to turn someone’s brain into whipped cream, you first got to scan their mind and familiarize yourself so that you don’t make anything worse than it already is. The problem with this is that when a new personality is created as it has been in this case it adds to the time it takes to completely scan the mind of the individual correctly. Now add on about sixteen thousand years of memories and experiences to the mix… Done? Yeah, that’s what I’m dealing with. Not only is he trying to ward me off, I had to do this while fighting him. I’ve been doing this for a while and unless I stall for time by not going full-on out from the start, then things will take a turn for the worse before I’m done with his mind. After that I will also have to break the spells hold of him. I don’t know how much you know about your Discord’s magic, but it sometimes tends to be different in between worlds.”

Robin ground his teeth together in frustration as she lectured him about the mind. Purple mist could be seen at the edge of his eyes as his rage steadily grew. The area around them began shaking violently as Robin began to leak some of his power.

Through the anger, Robin noticed that Blood Cleaver’s face showed concern. He soon realized that he was starting to lose control of his temper once more and forced himself to calm down. The ground stopped shaking and the specks of purple slowly vanished. He sighed and ran a hand through his hair, his entire body shaking. “So… you haven’t answered my question. Do you have a plan?”

“Woah, I’m going to assume you had your reasons not to use that power I just felt against Black. And I just told you. I’m going to tire Blackout while I chase him through the multiverse, and scan his mind. I will use my knowledge to break the spell in his mind and then bring him back to his universe where he most likely will turn into an emotional wreck after learning what kind of monster he became because of Discord. That is about it for my plan.” Blood Cleaver explained.

Robin shook his head. “It needs more than just that. You seem to have quite an arsenal at your disposal. Use it to your advantage against your opponent. Do you have any way of constraining his movements or actions?” Robin questioned.

“Several, as a last resort I’ll use the evil containment wave, but it’s always such a hassle and is far from fail-safe.” Blood Cleaver said.

“If you have a means of claiming victory then you're a fool for not using it. The longer you wait the more time you give him to cause some real destruction. Since you seem to be so in tune with Dragon Ball, let me tell you in a way you might understand; Don’t pull a Vegeta. This time you were able to negate his actions, but what about next time?” Robin asked Blood Cleaver.

Blood Cleaver seemed to deflate a little at that. “You are completely right. I did a mistake and assumed he was already at his maximum. I didn’t consider the possibility that he would be able to break the arena spell I placed. And that cost me 675 bits too.” Blood Cleaver admitted.

Robin’s gaze softened slightly as he noticed he had gotten through to her. “And now you know how strong he is. And even then, assuming he can become even stronger, possibly more so than you. Always assume the worst in a fight so you can plan for it.”

“Ah, the good old: Hope for the best, prepare for the worst. I really shouldn’t forget sayings like that.” Cleaver said as she perked up again. “Thanks. I needed that. Also, sorry for going all Pinkie Pie in here, haven’t vented in a while and it built up, so I kinda lost control with the whole thing. Hopefully I won’t get chewed out by any of the sysadmins for borrowing one of their construction teams. They can get pretty scary.” She said as she shuddered.

Robin chuckled as he looked up at the blue sky, careful not to look directly into the Sun. “Well, should they come calling I can certainly vouch for you. Despite your unorthodox methods, you still saved this planet. And for that, I thank you.”

Blood Cleaver suddenly seemed to have thought of something as she turned towards me with a big smile. “Hey, you’re a bit farther back in my timeline. Want any spoilers you could use to get on the Princesses' good side?” She asked me.

Robin snorted. “I already know what’s going to happen in the future. And I hardly care about what the princesses think of me.”

“Oh, how do you know about the future? And how far do you know? If you don’t mind me asking?” Blood Cleaver asked.

Robin looked at her in confusion. “The My Little Pony TV show? It seems to be the way most learn of it.”

“Wait, there’s a show about the ponies of Equestria? Huh, didn’t know that.” She said shrugging her shoulder and seemingly thinking about something.

“Yes, there is, but we’re going off-topic. You need to hunt down Black before he causes any more damage. I would also feel a lot safer knowing he’s taken care of and not a threat to me any longer.”

“Ah, right. I better sync myself into the same time stream he’s in. But one more thing first. In the show, how far does it go? There is a certain event I want to prevent in as many universes as possible and I want to know if it’s a part of the show. Just tell me the last event you know of from the show.”

Robin scratched the back of his head as he thought for a while. “Well… the last thing I remember is the battle with Tirek. I believe that is how the fourth season ended. After that, who knows?”
“I see. Hm… how does the first season start? I’m just curious. But the show won’t help me. The event I’m trying to prevent is later on. But thanks anyway.

“Nightmare moon returns after her millennia-long banishment. That very night she is defeated by the Elements of Harmony and restored to her original self, Luna.”

“Oh, so the day I first met Twilight. That makes sense. Hm.. four seasons, transferred into about a year… Wow, the show didn’t cover much. But I guess it’s time for me to leave. You take care.” Blood Cleaver said as she got up and prepared to leave, before turning around. “I almost forgot, here’s my token for if you ever need any more help.” She said as she threw Robin a small black blade with a red edge and crimson runes on either side of the blade. “You might also want to have this.” She said as she handed him a small folder. “It contains all Discord needs to know for Displaced proofing your universe without tokens.”

Robin took both the token and the folder, feeling less than excited about the latter. “So I’ll require Discord’s power if I want to keep individuals like Black from invading this world? Great…”

“Well, you could try and replicate the effect yourself, but I’m not sure how that would go…”

Robin waved her off and placed the folder and token within his robe. “It’s fine, I’d rather just not deal with him is all.”

“Okay, I’ll be off following Black now. He seems to have jumped quite far from here and has yet to enter any universes. But it’s only a question of time I suppose. Thank you for making me see my mistake. And good luck with… whatever you’re doing. I also left a present back at your house. Bye!” She said as she jumped into a portal that came out of nowhere, then used a zipper to close it from the inside. The zipper disappearing after the portal closed.

Robin blinked in surprise as he stared at the space Cleaver previously occupied. Shaking his head in amusement he began to make his way towards the Everfree forest, turning his back on the battle-torn land.

It’ll take me a while to get home, but… He thought before glancing at the insignia on the back of his hand.

… It’ll also give me time to think about some things.