Phoenix Equestria

by PyraBlue Heart

First published 31st of August, 2015

A group of robots suddenly appearing in Equestria wasn't planned. Sealed away until they are needed again they rest and dream of their battles before. A young Twilight Sparkle finds them on accident and befriends one. Just a regular day in Equestria.

Sealed away until they are once again needed, a group of friends are sent to Equestria as a squad of Galactic Rangers from Ratchet and Clank 3.

One of them knows what the future holds for the ponies and stops the rest of them from interfering with critical events, causing friction between the group.

Nearly a thousand years after Nightmare Moons banishment a young Twilight Sparkle finds them, befriending one of the robots.

Can they mend the bond that was destroyed centuries ago? Will they be able to stop a group of psychopaths from destroying Equestria? Will one of the rangers find the siren he fell in love with before her banishment? Well read and find out.

Chapter one: Put on your war paint

“Th...Tha...THANE!!!” Thane suddenly woke up to the sound of his cousin yelling his name, but something was wrong with his voice, it was...robotic. He opened his eye to see four robots standing around him, each with a arm cannon on their left arm, and a head in the middle of their chest. One bot a blue paintjob, another yellow, sleeker design, the third was a purple ranger, with a blocky design, and the final looked like a tank. That last one was taller than any of the others, as well as more armored, with a silver and purple paintjob. He was over twice the size of the others.

“Ok... “ Thane started, noticing his own voice was also sounding robotic. “What the hell happened to us? Nathan?” He asked, looking at each of the robots

The largest robot stepped forward, “Right here cus.”

“Nathan...why are you dressed like that?”

“Look at yourself cus…” Thane blinked then looked down at his body. He was surprised to see his body was made of a jet black metal, and even more surprised to find his head in the middle of his torso. It was also jet black, and unlike the other robots, he had two hands.

“What exactly happened Nate?” Thane asked while looking to himself.

“I don’t know exactly what happened, but I’m pretty sure we’ll get a flashback any second now…”

“How does that work?” Nathan just shrugged his shoulders and everything went white.

“Tolja…”

The silver and purple sports car shot down the street towards city hall, where this years Comic-Con was being held. When the car slid into the parking space the group of friends opened their doors and held their stomachs.

A girl in a purple hoodie rested her arm on the door frame. “Jesus Nathan, do you have to drive so fast?”

The tall boy in a grey and purple jacket merely chuckled. “Hey, I got us here in one piece didn’t I?”

The oldest of the group glared at Nathan, “Don’t ever do that again.” He groaned, keeping his stomach down.

Nathan chuckled again, “We’ll see cus.” Two others stumbled out of the car, a female teen with a yellow sports jacket and a younger teen with a blue sweater.

The group exited the car, slamming their doors. They headed to the back of the car and opened up the trunk. Inside was five cases, each containing a costume. “Heres mine…” Nathan said, pulling out a case with a silver and purple stripe out.

Nathan moved away, allowing the oldest to grab his case, a pure black case without a stripe on it. “Here’s yours Zane.” He said to the young teen in the blue sweater, taking out a case with a blue stripe on it.

The younger teen smiled shyly at his older brother, “T-thanks Thane.” He said, taking the case from his brother. The three moved away from the area leaving the girls behind.

Nathan tossed his keys back to them. “When you girls are done putting on your makeup, we’ll be over at the entrance.” The girls glared at him before grabbing their bags. Krystal, the one in the purple hoodie grabbed the door of the trunk and was about to slam it shut. “You slam that door and crack the glass it’s comin out of your purse Krystal!”

The group entered the building in their matching Galactic Ranger costumes. “I can’t believe we forgot the arm cannons.” Krystal moaned through her mask.

Nathan shook his head. “I offered to take us back to get them but Nooooooooo.”

Thane turned to his cousin. “It’s because you’re such a dangerous driver.”

Nathan smirked. “Then why is it I’m the only one of us that has a driver's licence?”

Everyone stopped except for Katie and Nathan. “Why is he the only one with a licence?”

Silence befell the group as they all stared at the now humming Nathan. They all looked at each other in question, they shook their heads and continued on. After walking around and stopping at some stalls, Zane spotted something out of the corner of his eye. “Guys, that guy over there is selling arm cannon props.”

The group stopped and looked to where the youngest member of the group was pointing. Sure enough, there was a stall with a black cloth with a tall thin man standing behind it, he was eyeing the group. Nathan felt off about something. “Something about that guy seems...familiar.”

Krystal patted him on the back and started walking towards the stall with the rest of the group. Nathan still felt unsure but followed. When they reached the table the man smiled. “Hello, what can I do for you today?”

Thane stepped forward. “How much for the arm cannons?”

The man chuckled. “They’re free of charge.”

Zane stepped forward. “Really?”

Nathan watched the man carefully as he gave them their props. Except that there wasn’t a cannon for Thane. “Oh dear, it appears that I’m one short, here, have this shield generator instead.”

Thane put on the glove that matched his costumes design. “Thanks, what is your name by the way?”

The man stood tall and bowed. “I am known by many names, but most call me…” He looked up to face Nathan’s suspicious glare. “...The Merchant.”

A look of fear punched Nathan in the face as he remembered the man. “Oh shi…” At that second, a bright light enveloped the group, what they heard was the laughter of the Merchant.

Thane’s eyesight returned, he looked to see the silver and purple ranger punching the stone wall. “How could I have forgotten that guy, after all of the displaced I’ve read?”

Thane got to his metallic feet. “Wait, you know what’s going on?”

Nathan made one last blow to the way, causing the room to shake. “What’s going on is that that God damn Merchant sent us to another world. I should have remembered!”

He adjusted his arm cannon to be aimed at a rock and a small blast shot from it, leaving a small crater in the floor. Thane looked to his cousins cannon. “That thing works?”

Nathan just looked at his cannon and sighed. “Yep, even this works…”

Thane got up and placed his hand on Nathan's shoulder. “Do you know what's happened?”

Nathan faced the group, each of them giving him a confused look. “I know what’s going on but you’re not gonna like it. Right now, we are not on our world, we’ve been sent here by that damned merchant, when we took those props we basically threw our lives away.”

Everyone stepped a bit closer. “How do you know this Nathan?”

Nathan shook his eye. “I can’t tell you that, it will only cause problems.”

Thane was about to say something else but was interrupted by a door opening. “The princess will speak to you now.”

Nathan straightened himself and faced the figure in the doorway. “Ok, we will be right out.”

The figure nodded and exited the cave like room. The group looked to Nathan as if expecting him to explain. “Ok guys, when we go out here, don’t ask any questions, don’t say anything and don’t touch anything, I’ll do the talking.”

The group was surprised at how serious Nathan was acting, he wasn’t his usual hyperactive self. “And why should we let you do the talking?”

Nathan just turned away and began walking towards the exit. “Because right now your lives might depend on it, I don’t know what version of this world we were sent to, so just trust me, I know what to do here.”

The group looked at each other unsure but followed him, all debating whether or not any of this was real. Nathan looked back at the group and sighed. 'I need to figure out where we are in the timeline, then I can plan our next move. Like it or not we're stuck here.'

He took a quick look around, making sure to take in key details. It didn't look anything like the Canterlot castle. 'Wait a minute." He looked out a window and saw a forest of thorns. 'This is before Nightmare Moons banishment.'

Over one thousand years later

A young Twilight Sparkle ran through the castle halls, Celestia hot on her heels. They were currently playing a game of tag as a break from studying, plus Celestia loved playing with the filly as it was in her instincts to be as motherly as possible towards her. "Catch me if you can princess!" Twilight made a sharp turn in an unfamiliar hallway, a hallway Celestia knew all too well.

"Wait, Twilight, watch out for the steps!" Her warning reached Twilight all too late and she fell down a long flight of stair, leading her into the underground portion of the castle. Twilight used her magic to stop herself from hitting the floor at the bottom.

Twilight shook her head and looked around at the dark hallway.

"Twilight! Are you alright?!"

"I'm fine princess!" Twilight shouted up to her mentor. She looked back to the hallway, she spotted a candle nearby and lit it with her magic, sending a warm glow over the green stone walls. "It looks like nopony's been down here in years."

"Because nopony has." Twilight turned to see Celestia walking towards her with a serious look on her face. She cast a spell and multiple candles in the hallway lit up. "This was one of the first hallways ever built in the castle, and it houses some of Equestrias greatest warriors." Twilight watched as Celestia walked down the hall and to a large stone door that had the symbol of a Phoenix engraved on it. "The warriors were put to rest long ago, after the banishment of a great evil, they had no reason to remain active during this time of peace. So they went to sleep, waiting for the day they would be needed again." Celestia leaned down to Twilight. "Do you want to see them?"

Twilight nodded and Celestia opened the door. They were greeted by a cloud of dust as they walked into the chamber. Along the walls sat four capsules, each a different colour and covered in webs and dust. Twilight walked over to a capsule and wiped away the dust, revealing the sleeping body of a galactic ranger. "What are they?"

"They are the galactic rangers, a group of living machines that were sent here from another world. This ranger is the leader of the group, Thane." Celestia then pointed to the next capsule. "In there is the teams medic, Zane." She moved over to the opposite wall and wiped the dust off the glass. "These are the two female officers, Katie and Krystal. Katie is the sniper and Krystal is their technical support."

Twilight looked around the room confused. "Shouldn't there be a weapons specialist in the team?"

"I see you've been reading up on the military protocols and methods." Twilight eagerly nodded. "You are right, there is a weapons specialist, but he would not fit into this chamber or a capsule." Celestia exited the room and Twilight followed. They reached a much larger door and entered the room. Twilight could hear breathing in the dark room and began to become scared. "It's alright, that's just him sleeping. I'll wake him up to introduce you."

Celestia cast a spell and the room became illuminated, revealing a huge sleeping ranger, over twice the size of the others and heavily armoured.

Celestia walked up to it and tapped it's leg in a pattern. Suddenly the breathing stopped and the eye of the robot glowed purple. This ranger, unlike the others, had two colours on his armour, silver and purple. He sat up and looked down at Celestia.

"Oh, hello Tia, is something attacking Equestria?" He held out his hand and Celestia climbed onto it as if it were a platform. He brought her to eye level, unintentionally lifting Twilight in the process.

"No Nathan, a certain little filly stumbled upon these chambers and I thought I'd introduce you." Nathan looked at her with his huge eye then noticed Twilight hiding behind her legs.

"Ah, so the little element has been born. Don't be afraid Twilight Sparkle, I will not hurt you."

"How do you know my name?" Twilight stepped forward, walking until she was right at his eye.

"That I can not say, but I will tell you this. You are destined for great things Twilight, great things indeed."

"How could you know that, there are no spells for seeing the future, unless the world you came from had the technology for that, but it would be impossible to sustain that much information without going mentally insane, but it could be because of your circuitry or maybe some kind of foreign magic or force that gave you psychokinetic abilities."

Nathan just looked at her. "You're a wordy wee thing aren't ya?"

"Well I do love to read."

He nodded and looked to Celestia. "So, it's been a thousand years since I was last awake?"

"Almost, you haven't missed much."

"Ah, well, I appreciate you coming down to visit me. If you ever want to talk Twilight, you know where to find me." Twilight smiled and he set them back on the ground. As Twilight walked out of the door Celestia stopped and turned to the giant robot.

"You used to be so immature around me Nathan, apart from our meeting of course. Tell me, what's changed?"

Nathan sighed and lay his back against the wall. "A thousand years of solitude does things to a guy, I'm still the Nathan you know, I just know when I need to be serious." Celestia nodded and began to walk out. "By the way, happy birthday."

Celestia stopped in her tracks and looked back to see Nathan had went back to sleep. She smiled and left him at peace.

Author's Notes:

[youtube=

https://youtu.be/yKOlBZJ7Izs?t=70

]

Character profiles can be found in this blog post.

Chapter two: Back in action

Over the years Twilight visited Nathan in the caves many times, she would talk about stuff like what new spells she learned or how her studies were going and he'd tell her of missions that he and the squad went on in the past, although whenever he talked about the squad he seemed to get a bit depressed. When she asked him about it he told her that a few things happened between him and his friends.

"Do you know they way I know about your future?" She nodded. "Lets just say I had to let a few bad things happen for the sake of the future."

"What kind of things?"

"I can't say, some things are better left forgotten...for now at least." He walked over to a curtain and pulled it away, revealing a large emblem with the letter 'M' written in a circle of fire. "Twilight, if you ever see this emblem on a monster or building that is inhabited, you let me know."

"Wh-"

"Don't ask questions, just promise me that you'll come get me if you see this emblem."

She looked at her giant friend and nodded. He sighed in relief and sat back down beside her. "Can I ask you something that's been bothering me for awhile now?"

"Sure."

"How come you're so big, even the other Rangers were taller than the princess, you're as tall as a young adult dragon." He looked at her with his huge eye before standing up and pointed to his waist.

"There is a device on my waist called a Size-O-Matic, it allows me to change from my original size to giant."

"Then why stay giant?"

He sighed and placed his hand on the floor for her to walk onto. He lifted her to eye level and she sat down. "I stay this size to feel strong, like I can do something. There's a lot of personal reasons behind it, the other rangers don't even know about it since I always stayed the same size around them." She placed a hoof on his giant eye and looked at him with caring eyes. "You should go, you've got more studying to do for that test in a few days." She nodded and hugged his eye, the jumped down from his hand and walked out the door.

He sighed and rested his back against the wall. "how the hell am I gonna explain the Maniacs to her?"

11 years later

After sending the now Alicorn Twilight off with their alicorn magic, the three princesses sighed in relief. Celestia looked to Cadence and them to Luna who was looking at her sister with a worried expression. "What's wrong Luna?"

"I was just thinking, maybe...just as a precaution...we should activate Phoenix Squad."

Celestia took a minute to think about it, she had no doubt her student would prevail in her task, but she had to be careful when the fate of the world was a stake. "Alright, we will activate the rangers." Luna nodded and the three alicorns shakily proceeded to the old hallways.

"Should we use Nathan or the squad?"

"The squad, Nathan would probably try to stop them from destroying Tirek. I don't want to have another feud on my hooves like years ago." Luna nodded and opened the large stone doors. They walked over to capsules and pressed large buttons on the bottom of each pod. Steam escaped from the pods as the three royals stepped back.

A black metal hand moved the glass door out of the way and Thane stepped out, his black body blending into the darkness, the only visible part of his body was his large Crimson eye. The next ranger stepped out of his pod, he was noticeably smaller and his blue metal could be seen through the darkness. The next two rangers stepped out at the same time, one had a slimmer figure with yellow metal and the other was a rather blocky looking ranger with purple armour. The yellow one had a much longer arm cannon and the blue one had a smaller cannon and the black one had two hands with no cannon.

The robots looked to each other then to the princesses and noticed that they looked pale. Thane ran over to Celestia and began looking her over as the others did the same with the two other mares. "What happened to you?"

"Tirek, has returned. We expelled our magic into my student in hopes of hiding it from him."

"Why didn't you just awake us up first, we could have taken him on."

"No, that wouldn't have worked. There are certain things that have to happen, you know this."

"That's exactly what Nathan said when Nightmare Moon was banished."

Celestia nodded and turned to the others. "Here are your orders, you are to assist my student Twilight Sparkle in ponyville, but you are only to engage Tirek if all else fails." They saluted and made their way out of the room. Thane picked up the tired Celestia while Zane and Katie carried Cadence and Luna.

Meanwhile, Nathan's eye lit up and his programming told him the other rangers were awake. "Tirek..."

After an intense battle Tirek and Twilight stared each other down. "It appears we are at an impass." He clicked his fingers "How about a trade, your friends, for all the alicorn Magic in Equestria." Twilights friends kept telling Twilight not to do it, but she let her emotions get the better of her.

she agreed to his demands and Tirek let her friends go. After a heartwarming scene with Discord they figured out that the necklace was the last key, but before they could run to the tree of harmony a force field surrounded them, trapping them inside. They turned to see Tirek twice the size he was when he fought Twilight. "You didn't think I'd just let you go, did you? I've learned my lesson from those accursed galactic rangers!"

Twilights ears flicked up at the sound of the robots names. "You know the rangers?"

(Music)

Tirek raised a brow at Twilight. "Wait...how do you know about them? They aren't still around are they?" The smug look on Twilights face confirmed his fears. "Doesn't matter, with all of this alicorn Magic they are no match for me!" Just then, multiple missiles shot into the air and landed oh Tireks back, causing him to grunt in pain.

He turned to see three of the rangers standing there with different rocket launchers from the RYNO(1) series. Just then a sharp pain cut through his neck. There was Thane with two energy blades coming from his wrists had used a camouflage belt to sneak up on Tirek and cut his neck. He jumped out of the way as Tirek tried to swat him and turned invisible to get away.

"DONT YOU HIDE FROM ME COWARD!!!" Tirek started wildly shooting huge beams of energy at the ground around him. While he was distracted Katie aimed her cannon with a scope and shot Tirek straight in the eyes, temporarily blinding him. He screamed in pain, taking advantage of his disability, Krystal got up close and personal with her shock cannon as she shot his legs with charged blasts, sending him to the ground. Zane, feeling a bit brave, ran up to Tireks horns and started shooting them to disable the field around Twilight and her friends. "ENOUGH!!!" Tirek grabbed the rangers in his magic and held them in the air.

They struggled against the force but their resistance was futile. Tirek looked around for any other rangers and turned with fury in his eyes.

"WHERE IS HE!?!" He roared in the Rangers face. Twilight noticed something on Tireks arm, it was the same emblem that Nathan had shown her.

"Where's who, you pathetic crossbreed?" With Krystals little quip, Tirek sent the Rangers flying off in the direction of the girls, they landed just in front of the group and got to their feet. They felt the ground shake as Tirek charged towards them, but the way the ground shook, it felt like there was another giant running towards them.

Twilights face brightened up as she remembered the only other giant she knew. They then heard a loud robotic voice yell something out. "LEROYYYYYY JENKINS!!!" Just as Tirek was about to hit them a huge purple and silver fist hit him square in the jaw, sending him flying. "And it's good!"

The ponies jaws dropped as they gazed upon the towering robot that sent Tirek face first into a mountain.

Tirek got to his feet and stared at Nathan who had moved to a more open area to draw fire away from the girls. "So, you've shown yourself, my old nemesis. It's been a long time."

"And your still as ugly as the day I kicked your pathetic hybrid ass."

"You're as vulgar as ever."

"Awww, you remembered." They charged at each other and their fists collided, sending a shockwave over the large clearing. Nathan grabbed Tirek by the horns and swung him around until he smashed him into the ground. "I'll give credit where credit is due, you've gained a whole lotta weight from being in Tartarus, by the way, how's the Dogfather been?" Tirek roared in anger and swiped at him, he dodged and hit Tirek up the jaw.

He kicked Tirek away and charged up his arm cannon. "Kame-hame-ha!" He shot a huge purple beam at Tirek that hit him square in the chest. He then turned to Twilight. "Don't you have somewhere to be!?" He watched as the ponies snapped out of their trances and ran towards the tree of harmony.

Taking advantage of Nathan's distraction, Tirek pinned his arms behind his back and charged a beam of magic.

"Ohhhhh no, I am not getting buttraped by a monkey-horse!" Nathan swung his foot back and kicked Tirek in the groin, causing him to squeal like a girl. While Tirek fell to the floor, Nathan put his cannon to his mouth. "You wanna know what death tastes like?" He shot a powerful beam of magic down Tireks throat. "Y'know now that I think about it, this can easily be misinterpreted as something else."

Tirek grabbed the cannon and threw Nathan off of him. "Enough playing around!"

"Oh this isn't playing, this is a little thing called a distraction." He shot a barrage of rockets from his shoulders onto Tirek which caused him to wince and backpedal. "Ah, such a shame. A G1 villain returned from a forgotten age, put into writing perfection. But why Larson, why give us such filth to work with, and now good ol'Tirek pays the price." Nathan glanced over to the cliff where he saw Twilight and the girls in their rainbow forms. "I believe my work here is done, say hi to Cerberus for me, I did always love that dog."

The girls shot their rainbow deathbeam at Tirek and freed all the magic in Equestria. As Tirek was thrown into the portal to Tartarus Nathan looked in and waved at him. "Eat me, don't forget to write."

The crystal castle appeared and the three princesses were freed. After a really catchy musical number, Twilight ran out of the castle and into a shrunken Nathan's arms. "Nathan, it's so good to see you again!"

"Good to see you too squirt, what's it been a year?" She nodded and hugged him. "Look at you, a princess now, what did I tell ya huh?"

"Yeah yeah, destined for great things yadayada." He chuckled and set her on his shoulder. The rest of the main six walked up to him with great interest. "Ah, the rest of the elements, I was wondering when I'd get to meet you lot."

"Nathan, this is Rarity, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy. Girls, this is my childhood friend I told you about, Nathan." Pinkie began jumping all around Nathan's body while Rainbow looked over his weapons. The rest of the Rangers were inside the castle talking to Celestia."

"I'm sorry we failed Celestia, we didn't anticipate Twilight giving up the alicorn magic." Thane apologised.

"One of us did." Zane pointed out. "Somehow Nathan knows what will happen."

"And he still refuses to explain how, all he says is 'some things need to happen, so don't interfere'."

Celestia looked at the group unsure then noticed Katie was missing.

As Nathan began making his way back to the castle he was stopped when he heard a familiar voice.

"Hey there Nate, long time no see." He turned and looked down to see Katie standing there waving.

"Yeah...a thousand years is a long time."

"You haven't been online for the whole time have you?"

"What do you want Katie, I'd rather avoid Thane for now, as it looks like you guys are staying online for awhile."

"How so?"

"Didn't you see the mark on Tireks arm, that wasn't there the last time we fought. Katie, the Maniacs are back." She stayed silent and he walked away. "Say hi to Zane for me." Katie reached her arm out but he ignored her and walked off.

She sighed and began walking back to the party.

While Nathan was walking he was stopped by Twilight who sat in the middle of the path. "Where do you think you're going?"

"Um, back to my cave in Canterlot, I don't have anywhere else to go." She flew up to him and stared him in the eye.

"Oh yes you do, you're living with me now, I have a large empty castle now with only Spike and Owilicious to share it with. I have plenty of room. Besides, we haven't seem each other in a year." He sighed and looked at her.

"I'm not getting out of this am I?" She shook her head. "Thought so."

She lead him back to the castle where they found out that the rest of Phoenix Squad had returned to Canterlot. Nathan was fine with that, the further they were away from him the better.

Author's Notes:

(1) The RYNO series is a line of super weapons in the ratchet and clank games and mainly consists of rocket launchers.

Chapter three: Flames of a Displacer

The ponies of ponyville set about repairing the damage caused by Tirek very quickly, and Nathan's presence only quickened the process. He used his strength to lift fallen walls and roofs at his smallest size, which was still as big as a house. The other rangers had returned to Canterlot with the princesses and Cadence returned to the crystal empire.

As Nathan set a roof back onto a house he heard someone walking up behind him. He turned around to see none other than one of his old foes, the spirit of chaos.

"Ah, I was wondering when I'd get to talk to you Discord. It's been a long time, hasn't it?"

"Indeed, I appreciate you not shooting me on sight."

"I already knew you were reformed. You should be surprised that the other rangers didn't blast you."

"I should, but there was something else that surprised me. You didn't assist the squad, you saved the ponies. When the battle was over you turned and walked away from the rangers. Why is that?"

Nathan sighed as he lifted a pile of rubble and set it in a huge pile. "A lot of stuff happened, my beef isn't with the rangers, it's with Thane." Discord gestured for him to continue. "You know how Celestia knows what will happen in the future?" Discord nodded. "I do too. So I know about the events that need to happen, so I have to sometimes turn against Thanes orders to insure the squad doesn't interfere with destiny."

Discord scratched his chin and looked at Nathan with a raised brow. "That would cause some problems if you were the only one of the group that knew all that, haven't you explained it to them?"

"I never got the chance to, Thane avoids me, Krystal just downright ignores me, Katie would listen and so would Zane, but if they tried to tell Thane he would brush it off." He sighed and looked through his weapon inventory. "When did he become so damn stubborn?"

"Well, I'll leave you alone then, good day to you Nathan."

"You too John."

"Not that nickname again. It doesn't even make sense!"

"What's the fun in making sense?"

"...touché Nathan, touché."

Discord teleported away while Nathan looked through his storage. "Ok, I need to see if I have a flame weapon...nope, don't have one." He reached behind him and pulled out an orange cube, he set it down and a hologram appeared at the top of it as antennas sprouted from the sides.(1)

He touched the hologram and a menu appeared in front of him, he looked through the selection of weapons until he came across two weapons that would suit his needs. "Ok, lava gun or plasma whip?" He looked to the top of the screen to see his current bolt balance(2).

Bolts: 256,540

"That much? I guess that fight with Tirek topped up my balance. Lava gun it is then, I'm sure Thane wants the whip since he prefers melee weapons." He selected the Lava gun and it appeared in his inventory. He picked up the vendor and put it in his storage unit. "There, now the bonfire tonight can go ahead. Well, a unicorn could just use magic...eh whatever, new gun."

The town was rebuilt in hours, the leftover rubble was being used in a bonfire at night. The townsfolk gathered around the pile and sat on blankets they set on the grass. The main six sat on top of Nathan, he walked over to the pile and pulled out the lava gun. He pulled the trigger and a small amount of lava shot out of the mussel, which quickly set the rubble on fire. The ponies cheered and all gathered around the flames with marshmallows on sticks.

Nathan chuckled as he saw a few foals approaching him with curiosity. He looked through the small crowd and saw the CMC, he placed his hand on the ground and the three fillies climbed on. He held them up to his top so they could sit with their sisters (for the sake of keeping this simple I'm calling Scootaloo Rainbows sister). The rest of the foals sat on his legs and looked over him in curiosity.

He smiled internally and watched the fire. You know when people say they see things in a fireplace? Well, he saw himself and his group of friends when they were human, when destiny didn't matter, there was no direct path to follow. He chose to keep the timeline on course, he chose to go against his friends. He could have easily interfered with the planned course of events, but he didn't. Instead of creating an alternate Equestria, he chose to make it as normal as possible while he was present.

Twilight noticed he was deep in thought and flew in front of his eye. "Are you ok Nathan?"

He snapped out of his trance and rubbed his face. "Yeah, just thinking of old times is all."

"You mean before Nightmare Moons banishment?"

"No, before I was sent here, to this world I mean." Twilight sat down in his open hand and placed a hoof on his face, giving him a caring smile.

Meanwhile in Canterlot, Katie watched this happen through her scope while Zane watched with zoomed vision.

"He may be a giant, but he's just a big softy on the inside, right Zane?"

"O-oh, uh yeah..." Zane stammered, even though they were robots Zane still held his childhood crush on Katie. The only other ranger that knew of his crush was Nathan, years ago Nathan would give him advice on subjects like that because Thane would always try to be subtle, while Nathan was blunt and got to the point. "I'm just going to go for a walk, need to get used to the area again."

"Ok, don't get lost this time."

Zane walked through a door and into the castle. As he shut the door he sighed, he began walking down the long hallway and he checked his nanotech(3) supply. "Still at a good level, I'll have to get more from the Gadgetron Vendor." Zane was the teams medic, so it was his job to keep all medical devices in his storage and monitor everyone's nanotech levels. "Thane's a bit low, I better stop by his chambers to heal him."

He sighed and walked towards a flight of stairs. He looked at his arm cannon and to his hand. "I still remember the days when we would all hang out back on earth like they were yesterday. There's no reason to return to our world now anyway, it's been nearly three thousand years, all of our families and other friends are all gone." Zane may be a young boy, but he was mature enough to know the consequences of entering this world. The day that the merchant sent them to Equestria was the last day they ever saw their loved ones.

"Curse that damned merchant."

"Why, he hasn't been to this multiverse."

Zane looked behind him to see a man in a white coat and black spiky hair leaning against a wall with a book in his hand. "Who are you, and what do you mean 'why'?"

The man closed the book and looked to Zane. "My name is Author, and to answer your question, the merchant wasn't the one who sent you here, I was."

Zane looked at Author with disbelief, he pointed his cannon at him and charged a shot. "Do you have any idea how much you've screwed us over?!" Author clicked his fingers and Zanes cannon became a hand.

"Correction, I saved you." Author snapped his fingers again and a screen appeared in front of Zane, showing a large meteorite striking the earth. "Your world was destroyed a week after you were sent here, all the inhabitants were either killed or sent to another world in a new body."

"Why are you telling me this?"

"Because no one will believe you if you tell them, don't worry though, the others will find out soon enough." He snapped his fingers and Zanes arm cannon reappeared. Zane looked to his cannon then back to Author, but found no one there.

"I think things are gonna start getting strange around here."

Author's Notes:

Before anyone complains that the Lava Gun was a megacorp weapon I already knew that, I put the RaC3 version in, not the meteorite gun.

(1) Gadgetron Vendors were where the player could purchase weapons and gadgets throughout the game

(2) Bolts are the currency in the Ratchet and Clank game, and are obtained by either smashing crates or defeating enemies

(3) Nanotech is a healing item in the games and is found in crates, vendors and can be restored if the player levels up

Chapter four: Night watch

As the ponies all made their way back to their respective homes Twilight and Nathan walked towards the new castle. Along the way Twilight noticed that Nathan was keeping an eye on the Everfree Forest. She had no idea why, the forest was more or less tamed with the exception of the few Timberwolves and Hydras. When they reached the castle Nathan stopped.

"If it's alright with you Twi, I'd like to sit out here for awhile."

"Um...that's fine, just don't stay up to long, you need to recharge soon." He nodded and she walked inside. Nathan began walking over to the forest of thorns and sat down on the outskirts of ponyville, keeping his cannon aimed at the forest.

"I know you're out there...I'm not letting you harm another pony while I'm here." He stated quietly as he scanned the woods, only picking up some of the local wildlife. "Coward..."

He continued scanning for awhile before lowering his gun. Looking at the moon he sighed as he looked back on the past.

The group walked through a large golden door and into the throne room where Celestia sat. She looked over the machines and raised an eyebrow, obviously confused. Nathan walked to the base of the throne and bowed, signalling for the rest of the group to do the same. "Good day princess Celestia, it is an honor to meet you."

"Rise, you need not be so formal."

"Of course." He got to his feet, which made him twice as tall as Celestia.

"Now, tell me, what are your names? And what are you exactly?"

"My name is Nathan. These are Thane, Zane, Krystal and Katie. We are machines from another world, we were taken from our home against our wills and have no way to return be it by magic or some other means, we are stuck in Equestria. We are the galactic rangers, at your service."

Celestia frowned at hearing this, to think that someone would force others off of their own worlds and trap them there. "Well I am terribly sorry to hear that Nathan. I for one welcome you and your friends to Equestria, it's actually a good thing you are here." Nathan looked at her confused. "There is a group of criminals and beasts known as The Maniacs, we cannot defeat them and our most powerful ally is currently away on important business."

"I see..." He looked at his arm cannon and back to his friends. "...well, we are built for combat, and we don't have anything else to do."

"If you help us take these monsters down, you will be given Equestrian citizenship and a home in the castle. If it is any help."

Nathan thought about it before nodding. "Alright, we'll help you. However, these ones only activated and lack combat training, give me a three weeks to get them ready then we will aid your cause." Celestia nodded and called for a guard to escort them to a training area suitable for their size, that being the Minotaur grounds. She gave them a deed to one if the abandoned towers in the castle, satisfied with what he could get for the group Nathan began training the group. Also practicing hand to hand combat with the minotaurs who had befriended Nathan.

A few days later Nathan was sparing with a huge Minotaur that matched his height, Iron Wills ancestor Solid Will. Solid was a grey Minotaur with large horns and muscles.

Nathan blocked a punch with his arm cannon and threw a counter at Solids chest, causing him to skid backwards a bit. "I actually felt that one." He smirked and charged Nathan with his horns, at the last second Nathan stepped to the side and tripped him up. While he was on the ground Nathan placed his foot on his back, holding him down.

"That's 14 to 6 Solid, you sure you're the toughest soldier here?"

"Yeah yeah, ha ha, you win." Nathan rolled his eye and helped his friend up.

"Those were the days, I miss all of the minotaurs. I wonder if I'll come across Iron Will some time." He sat there and looked at the stars. "Luna went all out tonight, beautiful as always."

"Why thank you Nathan."

He looked back to find Luna giving him a warm smile. "Hello again Lulu, it's been a few centuries since I've seen you."

"Yes, and not a day goes by that I don't regret my actions that caused that interval." She squeaked as Nathan scooped her up in his hand and held her up to his eye.

"Now don't you be going and guilt tripping yourself, you weren't in control back then. Besides, your banishment caused a thousand years of peace."

"I'm sorry, it's just I do regret it all."

"I know you do Lulu, but you can't beat yourself up about it. It's not healthy."

"Once again...you are right." She placed a hoof on his eye and smiled. "I really missed you Nathan, and the other rangers."

"I missed you too Lulu, and I'm sure the others did." Just then Nathan got an alert on his HUD that he was low on power. "I'd love to continue this Luna, but I need to get some sleep." She nodded and hugged his eye, waving goodbye she flew off to scout for nightmares.

Nathan got up, shrunk down and made his way to the castle. Once inside he sat down against the wall of the main hall and shut down. His power slowly started recharging as he drifted into a dreamless sleep.

Chapter five: Not really a big deal

The next day, the mane six and Nathan were helping Twilight bring in some of her recovered stuff from the ruins of Golden Oaks Library and new equipment into the new castle. Fluttershy and Applejack pushed a large crate as Nathan opened another with a strange looking tool.

Just then a tall thin stallion with a grey coat and black mane walked in with a cart full of books. "Greetings Princess, where do you want these books from Princess Celestia?"

"In the library."

"Even this one that's glowin and vibrating?" Just then Nathan coughed.

Twilight looked to the top of the pile to see the book in question, she brought it down with her magic and the stallion walked off to put the books in the castle library.

Twilight opened the book and started to read as the others gathered around her, Nathan kneeling down to hear what they were saying clearer.

"What is it Twilight?" Asked Fluttershy.

"It looks like a message to Princess Celestia from my friends at Canterlot High."

"How is that even possible?" Asked Rarity.

Phone Book... Thought Nathan as he returned to carrying more crates into the castle.

"I have no idea but, it sounds like they need my help."

Here we go...

After a brief explanation as to Sunset Shimmers message, Twilight began to tell them all about the sirens as Nathan organised some of the bookshelves. "The sirens were three beautiful but dangerous creatures, who had the power to charm ponies with their magic. But to maintain this ability, they had to feed of the negativity and distrust of others. The more of this negative energy they consumed the stronger their voices became, and the farther they could spread their dark magic."

"I don't think I like this story very much..."

"If the sirens had their way, they could have divided and conquered Equestria. But a certain Starswirl the Bearded wasn't having it. Rumour has it, that with the help of a metal giant, he was able to banish them to another world, where he believed their magic power would be lost." They all looked to Nathan who just whistled as he stacked some books. "You fought the sirens alongside Starswirl?"

"Hmm?" Nathan turned his head to look at them disinterested. "Oh right that. Yeah, I knew Starswirl, pretty cool guy actually. The sirens weren't much of a challenge since their magic wasn't combat based." Twilight just looked at him with disbelief. "What?"

"You're acting like this isn't a big deal!"

"It really isn't, I doubt the sirens would risk returning to Equestria as long as Phoenix and I are here, and if they are staying in the other world then you can just build some device that opens the portal early and go sort things out." She just looked at him with a blank expression.

"You put that rather bluntly...but you are right, I do have the necessary equipment to build something like that." The group watched as bits and pieces of machinery floated over to Twilight and she began to, as Rainbow had put it, 'speak egghead.'

After that was done, Twilight placed the magic book in the machine and the portal activated. "Alright, Spike, let's go." The girls looked expectedly at Twilight. "No girls, everyone would be suspicious as to why there was two of each of you walking around, it would attract too much attention." The girls frowned and then looked towards Nathan.

"What?"

"You can still go with Twilight, you've faced the sirens before and you aren't from this world." Rarity stated.

"How exactly am I going to fit into the portal?" He gestured to his height. "I'm at my smallest size right now."

"I can temporarily shrink you down to fit." Stated Twilight proudly,

"Fine, it would be fun to mess with the sirens again."

Twilight nodded and her horn glowed, sending a purple aura over the ranger. He gradually shrank down to only slightly taller than the ponies. Twilight walked through the portal and was followed by Spike. Nathan took a look at his arm cannon and sighed. "I better not end up as some kinda toy robot." With that he stepped through the portal.

The human five and Sunset Shimmer sat around the statue awaiting Twilights return. Just the she came tumbling out of the portal.

"Twilight!"

"I'm back..." Sunset reached to help her up but she hesitated, she eventually accepted the help. "...but I have some bad news about those new girls." The group frowned. "Although, I brought a little help this time. Someone who fought the sirens in the past." They all looked towards the portal and someone else came out of it. He didn't tumble but slid across the ground on his knees and hands.

He got up and dusted himself off. He was a tall boy with an above average build, white skin and spiky purple hair. He wore a white coat that split into two points at the bottom, purple jeans and white boots. "Ah, feels good to be a human again." Nathan wriggled his left fingers a bit. "Been awhile since I had this arm, that's gonna take some getting used to."

"Nathan?" He turned to see Twilight looking him over.

"See something you like?" He asked teasingly. She blushed and tried to form words but ended up stuttering. "Relax, I was just teasing."

"Twilight...who is this...beautiful man?" Asked Rarity flustered. Nathan decided to play about with this. He took hold of Raritys hand and kissed it.

"My name is Nathan Phoenix, second in command of the Phoenix military group at your service malady." Rarity fanned herself with her free hand. Rainbow and Applejack struggled to suppress their laughter, Pinkie just raised an eyebrow and Fluttershy cowered at the new arrival.

"That's enough Nathan, stop playing with the poor girls feelings." Nathan groaned and let go of Raritys hand.

"You're no fun Twi."

"Nathan, is that you?" He turned a little to see Sunset looking at him with wide eyes.

"Well, if it isn't little Sunny. I trust you are no longer like the selfish brat I used to know?" Twilight just looked at them confused.

"Yes...thanks to Twilight I was able to turn over a new leaf." The two hugged and separated. "So this is what you look like as a human, I'll admit that I'm impressed."

"And like that we're done." Nathan pushed Sunset off and walked beside Twilight.

Chapter six: Insanity always wins

After a quick debriefing about the situation Twilight and Nathan sat in thought. Twilight looked over to see Nathan grinning like a psychopath. He got out of his chair in the cafe they had gone to and made his way towards the school.

"Where does he think he's going, wasn't he supposed to help us out?" Asked Rainbow in an irritated voice.

"From the way he was smiling I think he's going to get into some form of combat." Stated Twilight as she looked over a counter spell for the sirens curse.

"What?!" The human five all yelled at once.

"Would you believe me if I told you that Nathan is actually a giant warbot in Equestria?" They all looked at her with blank expressions. You could hear a pin drop over the silence that had overtaken the group.

"Nathan...is a robot...from another world?" Rainbow asked with excitement and disbelief. Sunset pulled out a photo of her as a filly with Nathan beside her in the shot, she was in his hand and the camera was being held in Sunsets magic. They all gawked at the size of the robot and the sheer adorableness of the little pony. "Awesome..."

"We should probably follow him, he can get a little...totally insane when he's fighting." Twilight got up and they all began following Nathan back to the school. He held his sadistic smile with shadows over his eyes.

"This is gonna be gooooooooooddd."

The dazzling wandered the school looking for a suitable place to sleep when they heard a familiar psychopathic laugh echo amongst the hallways around them. Arias eyes widened, Adagio started shaking and Sonata just smiled. Adagio frantically looked around, trying to pinpoint the location of their past enemy.

"No no no no no! You can't be here!" She shouted in panic.

"Oh and why is that Dagi? I don't remember there being any sort of barriers blocking me from entering this world!" They heard footsteps coming from behind them and quickly turned to see a figure in the shadows walking towards them, a screeching sound could be heard as the figure dragged some kind of weapon along the ground. A weapon Adagio and Aria knew all too well.

"Did you girls miss me?" Nathan stepped out of the shadows and stared at them with the most insane smile. "I missed you."

"Natty!" Sonata ran forward and hugged him.

"Ah, little Sonata, as lovable as ever I see." Nathan had nothing against Sonata, she wasn't purposely evil, only led astray by her sisters because she couldn't make it on her own. When Starswirl and Nathan had battled the sirens no harm came to Sonata as she was given a choice of wether or not to follow the others, plus Nathan kinda had a crush on her due to her playful and carefree personality.

He gently pushed Sonata to the side and looked to the other two.

"So...nice school you got here..." He said in a dark voice.

Adagio winced and stared daggers at him. "We have no reason to be scared of you here, you are just human now without your mechanical body to project you from our spell! You sexist..." She launched a small ghost siren at him.

"Ow..."

"...Insane..."

"Ow..."

"...insubordinate, gun fetish crazy monster!" As the last ghost siren reached him he grabbed it in his mouth.

"You know the funny thing is..." He chomped the siren causing it to disappear. "...in any other circumstance, you might have had a point there. Except my boss is a mare, I'm a only semi-insane, I'm loyal to my country and beliefs..." He slowly walked up to Adagio. "...and there is no one alive who could possibly understand my sexual preference." He clenched his fist. "So in other words Miss Adagio..." He reeled his fist back and punched her full force in the face. "Ch-Ch-Ch-Check your privilege!" She slid across the ground while holding her cheek. "Now, are you going to surrender and hand over those amulets, or do I have to bring out a certain gun that I know you absolutely love?" Her eyes widened. "RYNO...Two." Aria and Adagio both looked at each other and nodded.

"We will never surrender to you!" Nathan's features softened as he turned away.

"Good luck you two, I hope ya die." They looked at him with confused expressions before they began to sweat at the voice of a familiar robot.

"Mr Zurkon no like siren ladies, Mr Zurkon kill!" The two ran down the hall and out the front doors, the robot chasing them. Sonata looked to Nathan with a huge smile.

"Don't worry, I set him to stun." She raced over to him and wrapped her arms around his left one and rested her head on his shoulder. "I missed you too Nata."

The group looked on as the events took place and watched as the couple walked out of the school.

"Well...that went cleaner than I expected." Muttered Twilight and Sunset at the same time, they looked at each other and backed away until they heard Nathan shout at them.

"OH MY GOD JUST BUCK ALREADY!!!"

With Sonata now siding against the Dazzlings, Adagio and Aria were left on their own. "What now Adagio, we can't do this without that idiot." Aria looked at her sister expecting a new plan.

"I don't know..." Adagio sunk down low and shook her head. "I honestly don't know."

"Perhaps I can be of assistance..." They both looked behind them to see a cloud of purple mist floating just above the ground with two glowing yellow eyes.

"What are you?" They both asked.

"I am known as...Nightmare Fuel."

Author's Notes:

For those of you who have no idea what Nightmare Fuel is let me explain.

Nightmare Fuel is the main antagonist for three of my stories, this one included, and exists to wreak havoc in the multiverse as there is multiple versions of it all across the multiverse.

Have any more questions? I'll be happy to answer them for you.

Chapter seven: Decisions, decisions

Meanwhile in Equestria

Thane looked out at the setting sun, leaning on railing by the canterlot gardens. Noticing a lack of activity in Ponyville, especially since Nathan was supposed to be there, raised a few suspicions. He also felt that something big was about to happen, a feeling he had felt before Nathan 'betrayed them' as Thane would put it.

"Thane?" He looked back to see Celestia walking up to him.

"Good evening princess, what can I do for you?" Celestia shook her head.

"Stop playing soldier for a minute would you? It makes me uncomfortable."

Thane sighed and looked back out to the sunset. "Fine, what do you want?"

"I want you to stop being so moody all the time." He was about to counter when she got up in his face. "No, don't you dare give me the 'he betrayed us' excuse, that won't work anymore, in fact it never worked."

Just then another ranger entered the conversation. "Yeah Thane, why can't you get over something that happened a thousand years ago?" He looked over to see Krystal leaning against a tree while polishing her mini-turret glove. "The rest of us have."

Thane just sighed and looked to his hands. "I don't know, maybe it's something stupid or something legitimate. I just don't know why I can't forgive Nathan for attacking us like that."

"He didn't straight on attack us you idiot he warned us that some things had to happen and we would have gotten in the way, you were the one that threatened him." Krystal quickly snapped back, catching both Celestia and Thane off guard. "Think about it, 'cause if you don't figure something out soon, I'm leaving the squad and joining Nathan in Ponyville." She straightened herself and began walking back towards the castle.

Thane only looked at his friend in shock, not willing to believe what she had just told him.

"Celestia...was what she said true?"

Celestia just frowned. "I detected no lie in her voice, I would recommend you choose your next actions carefully. Otherwise the entire squad could fall apart before the Maniacs even show themselves." She walked away, leaving a confused and conflicted Thane behind.

Zane had finished repairing Katie and decided to pay an old friend a visit. The small timid robot slowly made his way up the long spiral staircase that lead to the top of a certain princess's tower. Waiting until the sun had gone down and the moon was in the sky, he knocked on the door and patiently waited for an answer.

"Who is it?"

"Um...it's Zane."

"Zane! Please do come in!" He opened the large door and was immediately tackled by the night princess who proceeded to hug him.

"Hi Luna." She nuzzled his eye and sat on top of him.

"Hello again my old friend, what brings you to my tower?" She stepped off of him and allowed him to stand.

"I actually wanted to talk to you about something, something really important."

"Oh then please, do come in." She led him into the room and lit a candle before they both sat down at a table in the corner of the room, the only light being the candle and Zanes glowing blue eye. "Tell me, what is it you wish to talk about."

"Ok, but you have to promise you won't tell anyone else." She rolled here eyes before making the pinkie promise. "Alright. I recently came across the one responsible for bringing us here." Her eyes widened in shock.

"That means there is a way for you to return to your homeworld right?" He shook his head.

"No, awhile after we were sent here our planet was hit by a huge meteorite that destroyed it. Some of the population was sent to other universes entirely while most...you know." Luna's smile turned to a frown.

"So even if there was a way to send you back there is nothing to go back to." Zane nodded.

"The one that sent us here saved our lives, but I can't help but feel there is some other reason he sent us here." Luna placed her hoof on Zanes hand.

"Well, I think it's best that you have to stay here, I would miss our talks too much." They both stared at each other before Luna cleared her throat. "I hate to cut this meeting short but I have some rather painful duties to attend to."

"If you'd like I can help you with them." Luna just looked to him curiously.

"Are you sure?"

"I don't have anything else to do right now." Luna smiled and began leading the young robot to her night courts.

Katie and Krystal sat on the rooftops of the buildings in Canterlot, looking up at the night sky.

"You're really going to leave the squad if Thane doesn't come to his senses?" Katie asked her sister in concern.

"Yeah, things are getting stale around here with him being all serious 99% of the time, plus I miss spending time with Nathan." This got Katie to giggle as she looked up at the stars.

"Yeah, I miss the big guy too, he was the only one that actually made things fun here."

"Remember when he tried to test out his suck-cannon and accidentally launched Clover the Clever into Starswirls library?"

"How can I forget, he immediately threw the gun at Thane and bolted. Clover would have killed him if it didn't get her the job as Starswirls assistant." The two shared a laugh before laying down. "I wonder what he's doing right now."

Outside Canterlot High

Nathan and Sonata walked hand in hand down the pathway leading to the park. Just then a portal appeared in front of them and a man walked out. He wore a green tracksuit with a metal sash over his torso. He also had a scarf that covered his mouth. His hair was comprised of large spikes, much like Vegeta's from Dragon Ball Z, except it was green. The man looked at them and smiled.

"Who are you?"

"My name is Roden Godswell, and I am your displacer."

Chapter eight: Let the battle begin

Nathan stepped in front of Sonata in a protective manner. "You...you're my displacer?"

The glowing green figure nodded. "Yes, I am the one that sent you to your version of Equestria. I'm assuming you already know how the multiverse works?"

"I'm somewhat familiar with it, I've never come across a token before though, and I have little interest in creating one." Roden nodded in understanding.

"I understand, it's common to see a displaced weary about what the multiverse holds. Be warned though, there are displaced that can enter your world through other means. Like shall we say...Jack of Blades."

Nathan's expression became furious. "I am not having that insane bastard near my friends again."

"You may not have a choice in the matter, just be glad you found a way to drive him back last time."

Sonata placed a hand on Nathan's shoulder and looked to him worriedly. "Natty? Are you ok?"

He sighed and placed his hand on hers. "I'm fine Nata, just...memories." He shook his head and looked to Roden. "So, why show yourself now?" Just then he felt a massive surge of dark energy. "Well...that answers that question." The three of them looked over to the school and a large cloud of dark purple smoke. "How are people not noticing that?!"

"It's a trick that the monster behind it developed, only people that have ever used magic can see and feel it!"

Nathan growled and pulled out his wrench. "So what type of creature we dealing with here exactly?"

"It's a creature known as the Nightmare Fuel, a parasite across the multiverse."

Sonata hugged Nathan and looked up at the cloud. "That's a whole load of dark energy, if my sister come into contact with it then they'll be unstoppable!"

Nathan just held her close. 'I've known Sonata for over a thousand years, even though most of that time was spent apart I already know she's the one for me, and I'm not letting anything harm her!' He kissed Sonata on the lips and ran towards the cloud.

"Nathan no!" He pulled out the RYNO 2 and RYNO 5 as he turned the corner.

'Something's already messed with this moment in the timeline, that means I can go all out." Grinning like a madman he sprinted head first into the large cloud that was quickly spreading over the city. Roden just shook his head.

"I lose one bet with Author and I have to displace the trigger happy one, why couldn't I have Krystal or Zane?" He snapped his fingers and sent Sonata to safety. Pulling his scarf up a little he began sprinting towards the cloud and disappeared inside it.

Twilight and the others all ran out of the school and found the area surrounded by purple fog. Looking around they noticed that time had stopped around them. They looked over to the centre of the clearing to see Adagio, Aria and a new strange girl glowing. The new girl looked like Sonata but with a different colour scheme. Her hair was pitch black, her skin was purple and her outfit was black. Her eyes glowed hello and she had four dark tendrils growing out of her back.

The new girl, who shall be called Nighmare for convenience, looked at the girls and smirked. She held up her hand and a ball of dark energy began to form. Before she could throw it she was blasted by a barrage of plasma rockets, bullets and missiles, causing her to be flung across the clearing into a brick wall, looking as if she hadn't taken any damage at all.

The girls looked over to see Nathan holding two massive guns and shaking his head. "Seriously? Of all the beings you could shape into it had to be a crappy recolour of my little Sonata? That's just hurtful." Roden appeared beside him and crossed his arms.

"You should probably continue blasting it while it's unable to move."

"Yeah but that takes the fun out of it, I haven't had a good fight since I visited the land of behemoths. Speaking of which I wonder how Scorpan is doing these days." While he was side tracked a dark tendril shot towards him and hit him in the face. Nighmare smirked until she noticed that his head had only shifted slightly. "Hm, I actually felt that one...a little." He grinned like a psychopath and charged the she-demon.

"WAIT!!!" The both came to a screeching halt and looked to Sunset. "You guys can't fight like this here, there is too many people living in the area!"

Nightmare just looked at her with a raised brow. "And I should care why?"

"You wouldn't be killing them on purpose?" She guessed.

"Fair enough. We will settle this their way, in the battle of the bands."

Nathan just put his guns away and flipped her off. "Bring it on bitch." The fog lifted and time returned to normal. Nightmare smirked and teleported her along with the two sirens out of t he area. Nathan sighed and looked to Roden. "And here I thought I'd get to finally kill something that was worthy of being destroyed by the RYNO's."

"You'll get your chance Nathan, for now you have to prepare for the concert. Sonata is waiting for you in the Evermoon Hotel a few miles down the road, a little gift from me to you, as it took me so long to finally meet you."

"Well, gee thanks Roden." Roden handed him the key to the room and vanished. 'I'm going to be in a fancy hotel sharing the same bed with Sonata throughout my entire stay here...something better fucking happened because this is the first time I've gotten my dick back for centuries! Plus I want at least one kid before I die...don't you look at me like that, when you spend a thousand years alone then you'll know what I'm talking about.' He waved goodbye to the girls and began walking towards the hotel.

Chapter nine: A thing of the past

Nathan stood on the roof of the Evermoon Hotel, his coat flapping in the wind. He had his arms crossed as he stared up at the moon, thinking about his past and what he was going to do about the new threat. Sonata was fast asleep by the time he had got there, he was fine with that. Although he did wish that something would happen in the time he spent in this world, like he said, he wanted a child.

He stared down at the city bellow him, watching the street lights flicker on. Soon the city was lit up like a beautiful light show. He closed his eyes and began to remember the day he left the squad.

(music)

Around 1500 years ago

Discord was wreaking havoc across Equestria, buildings were floating and some were upside down, the fields of grass were turned into multicoloured checker boards, ponies were being changed and corrupted and so much more was happening to the once peaceful land.

Phoenix Squad watched this from a cliff overlooking the town that the spirit of chaos was currently in, Nathan being his minimum size as to avoid detection. The rest of the Rangers still had not learned of his growth abilities. He looked worriedly out at the town, he looked over to the Everfree Forest and spotted the young Celestia and Luna walking into the cave of the Tree of Harmony. Looking back he saw his team getting ready to fight.

They were about to charge down the cliff when he stepped in front of them. "Nathan, get out of the way, we have to finish Discord before he causes actual harm to the residents!" Yelled Thane. Nathan shook his head.

"It isn't our place to fight him again, we may have stopped him from reaching the castle of the two sisters but we can not interfere in what is going to happen." They all looked at the huge robot in question.

"And you would know this how?" Asked a slightly annoyed Krystal.

"I can't explain that right now, you have to trust me on this. We can't get involved further!" Thane shook his head and tried to walked around his cousin, only to be stopped as a blast shot in front of him, hitting the ground. "That was a warning Thane, we can't get involved anymore."

"Why?" Thane asked in an authoritative tone.

"Some things need to happen, please, stand down." Nathan begged.

"Not happening, we swore to protect these ponies, and that's what we're going to do." Thane tried walking around again only to be flung at a rock as Nathan smacked him with his arm cannon. Thane just sat up and looked at Nathan in anger.

"I'm sorry Thane, but if I need to fight you to make sure the sequence of events remains, I won't hesitate." Nathan began to grow, surprising the group. Once he reached three times his normal size he slammed his fist into the ground.

Thane got up and activated his energy blades, the other rangers taking defensive stances. They all stared each other down until Thane charged forward, causing the rest to do the same. Nathan held out his cannon and shot a large beam at the group, hitting them all. Thane jumped out of the blast with his shield generator and continued to run at the giant robot.

Nathan noticed this and swung his cannon at Thane, only for him to jump over it. Expecting this, Nathan grabbed Thane in the air and slammed him into the ground. Thane them sunk his blades into the robots hand and cloaked. Running up Nathan's arm he began to furiously swipe at his torso. Nathan quickly turned causing Thabe to be flung off and be hit with a barrage of missiles, heavily damaging him and rendering him unable to move.

Nathan turned to the three others who looked at their friend in shock. Krystal growled in anger and pulled out her gravity-bomb launcher. As she charged she felt something grab her shoulder. Looking back she saw it was Katie who was shaking her head. They all looked to Nathan who had an ashamed look on his face. He waved at them before jumping down the cliff and landing with a resounding clang.

He began walking towards the chaotic town. 'If I let the group fight Discord they'd kill him, I can fight him to stall for the sisters.'

Nathan came face to face with Discord in the middle of the town. Both stared at each other before charging forward.

He snapped out of his vision and stared at the moon. "I may be a little gun crazy, can become insane during battle, even get a little insensitive. However, I still care for my friends and family. I will always regret that day, it still haunts me up to now." He turned away and began heading to the door he had found that led to the roof in the first place.

As he was walking he felt a presence in the wind, one that haunted him ever since he had landed in Equestria. Turning around he saw the see-through glowing figure standing there. It was wearing a blue dress with a small white apron, it's hair was long and brown at it had a sad smile on its face.

"Of course you'd still be around. Why wouldn't you be...mother?" The figure just continued to give him that small sorrowful smile. It then burst into flames and slowly began to become ashes that blew away in the wind.

"I've never fallen so far from where I've been, this road is ending, but a new one begins. I try to wash way my sins, like ashes in the wind." With that line said he turned away and walked down the stairs, leaving the burning ghost to fade away.

Author's Notes:

There is a deeper meaning to the burning ghost, Nathan had a darker past than the rest of Phoenix ever knew.

Chapter ten: Meanings in the song

The stage was set, the Dazzlings and other students had sung their opening songs, all that was left was the Rainbooms, who had chosen Bathan to be their opening act so he could face off against the Nightmare Sonata in the first round. Sonata kissed him on the lips and wished him good luck. Walking up to the stage he signalled the DJ, who was Vinyl Scratch's brother who had electric red hair instead of blue.

The DJ nodded and flipped a switch, starting Nathan's song. 'Put meaning into it, it may be from a franchise that has been run into the ground but it holds meaning to your past.' He thought before he started singing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=shHEhMtKyIo

[Verse 1]
I, I've been waiting a long time
For someone to discover me
Why, you ask?
It's because I'm getting
A little claustrophobic in here
I see how you get ideas
About how I really came to be

Well I guess I can see
How you think I am mean
Golden green
All machine
Cause it's me

I've been stuck here all alone
No one to tell the things I know

Well I guess I can see
How you think I am mean
Golden green
All machine
Cause it's me

Suddenly four ghostly figures appeared and circled Nathan, a look of shame and sorrow as he looked at each of them. They all had golden suits on with their faces blurred

[Background]
You are never going back
Cause you got springtrapped
You are never going back
Cause you got springtrapped
You are never going back
Cause you got springtrapped
You are never going back
Cause you got springtrapped

[Verse 2]
Well deserved
I paid the consequence and
I have learned
That I'm twisted
But it still hurts
Why do they get to go and I have to stay

They moved on
But I am stuck in here
Well they're not wrong
But I'm asking for some peace of mind
If I could rewind
I would never come back
To the place at the time

[Chorus]
This is it
The big finale
But they never quit
They were out to get me
What I did is unforgivable
And I will pay the price

Golden suits
Are now my curse
So now I walk towards you
Can you get me out of all my troubles and
All my past mistakes
All the sadness and
Please all of the hate

I see how you get ideas
About how I really came to be
Well I guess I can see
How you think I am mean
Golden green
All machine
Cause it's me

[Background]
You are never going back
Cause you got springtrapped
You are never going back
Cause you got springtrapped
You are never going back
Cause you got springtrapped
You are never going back
Cause you got springtrapped

[Verse 3]
I guess I'm all alone
And I don't think I move on
I'm forever stuck in gold
To live the life of an animatronic
Fright attraction
Someone please prove me wrong

Suddenly a ring of fire appeared around Nathan as he sang with upmost emotion.

[Chorus]
This is it
The big finale
But they never quit
They were out to get me
What I did is unforgivable
And I will pay the price
Golden suits
Are now my curse
So now I walk towards you
Can you get me out of all my troubles and
All my past mistakes
All the sadness and
All of the hate

The song ended and Nathan had a few tears forming in his eyes, unnoticeable by the crowd that cheered for him. He waved to the crowd and walked off the stage. Sonata immediately rushed over and brought him into a meaningful hug. "Thanks Nata, I just need a minute to myself." He kissed her forehead before walking out and off the school grounds.

"What's wrong with him?" Twilight asked Sonata. "And how come you two are so close?"

"Nathan acts tuff and strong, but that's a mask. He's actually really intelligent and sensitive, due to something that happened in his past life, he started acting like a big deal because when he needed to be strong he was weak. Lang we are so close, we were best friends one thousand years ago, if we hadn't been separated we probably would have been married by now, we always did like each other. I know Nathan better than anyone, I trust him and he trusts me." Sonata explained as she put a hand to her chest and closed her eyes. "He's unstable with his emotions, I need to make sure he's alright. I'll see you girls later." With that Sonata ran after her significant other.

Equestria

Krystal sat looking out at the sunrise. Over the course of the night she had been thinking about what happened with Nathan in the past, she was the only person other than Sonata and Katie that knew of the giant's background.

She shook her head and watched as the sun peeked over the horizon. He thoughts soon turned to her situation with Thane, she had been thinking about the certain topic of leaving the squad for years. She saw how happy Nathan was living with the ponies, maybe she could find that joy too. She had very little that would even make her crack a smile, Nathan was the one that made life with the squad fun, but when he left Thane changed. He became strict and moody, and no one knew why.

Krystals mood went from depressed to determined. "There's a chance at happiness with the ponies of Ponyville and Nathan, if I can find a place there I can be happy." She looked to the Phoenix emblem on her cannon. "I've decided...I'm leaving the squad."

Author's Notes:

A little cameo from my other story Cut Above The Rest is hidden in here, let's see if you can find it

Chapter eleven: Chilling with a crimelord

A few hours after Sonata had caught up with Nathan and calmed him down, Nathan had learned of a crime family that was oppressing the nearby areas. Thinking of it as a good opportunity to blow off some steam, Nathan went after them. Sonata returned to the hotel to think about something important while he 'cleaned up' the mess in the backstreets.

After gunning through a few dozen guards and thugs, Nathan opened the door to a room when a man was sitting in the shadows.

"Chill Ice, you reign of awesome terror is over, I'm taking these streets back."

"Woah woah, don't stress out your servos brobot, what ya bettin about?" The lights went on and revealed the man, he was in his early twenties and wore a blue jacket and grey jeans.

"Well, your gang is slowly taking over this city that apparently has no law enforcement."

"Whaaaat? Dude, take a look around, I already gots everything I need right here. Bricks, floor, hook..." He pointed to a large hook hanging from the ceiling. "...man I love that hook, so chill."

"Quit stalling, I'm taking you down right here and now." Nathan readied his wrench.

"Ok, cool, I dig it. But check it, better plan. I grab some nachos, put some Flux Pavilion on the old iPod and you and I cool our hard drives and just veg out for a bit." Chill walked over to a coffe table with two beanbag chairs, an iPod hooked up to a stereo and a bowl of nachos.

"Um, wow, seriously? I mean, your guys out there tried to kill me."

"Oh, sorry about that Nathabrah. They do their thing and I do mine, chill and let chill y'know?"

"Look, you seem cool, but I have to beat you, gotta get rid of the crime here."

"Ohhhhh, you want us to stop all that heisting? Sure, we'll stop. In fact take this diamond to show that we made peace with y'all."

"Uh, really?"

"Micasa sucasa my robo ombré, you seem stressed out anyways." Chill sat down on one of the bean bags and started strumming on his guitar.

"Uh I am far beyond stress, there's this demon I have to fight by singing an-"

"Dude, if ya keep focusin on it you're never gonna calm down. Now kick off those fancy boots and chill for awhile. I got Hoodie Cobra and Bong Raccoon coming over later, we're gonna watch Big Lebowski on my dads flatscreen." Nathan lay back in the other bean bag and sighed happily.

He opened his eyes and stared at the ceiling. "Wow...that is a nice hook."

"I know right?"

After a moment of silence Nathan asked a question that I think all of us are wondering. "How do you know I'm a robot?"

A few hours later Nathan made his way to his and Sonatas hotel room. "I should visit those guys some time, they seem alright." As he opened the door and closed it he looked around to find the room was only lit but a few candles that were scattered around the room. He felt something grab his shoulder and looked to his side to see Sonata there wearing...AND WE ARE GOING TO LEAVE THEM ALONE FOR NOW!!!

The next day

Nathan walked towards the school with a goofy expression and holding Sonata close. After their...eventful night together, they had both agreed that their relationship should move at a faster pace to make up for the years apart.

"Thanks for last night Nata, it really cheered me up." He said as he kissed her head.

"So I take it that we'll make it a regular thing?" She asked with a sultry gaze.

"I love you so much right now." She stood on her toes and kissed his cheek.

"We gotta make the most of our time here Natty, when we get back to Equestria we won't be able to do anything like that."

"I'm sure I can find a spell or something to turn myself into a pony or something." She wrapped her arms around his waist and held him close as they walked. 'At the rate we're going I'm gonna end up proposing by the end of this...and she knows it too.' He looked at her from the corner of his eye and saw she was deep in thought and allowing him to lead her to the school. He felt a sense of responsibility, like he had to protect her, he always had that instinct around her but now it was stronger. 'Oh God is she...?'

She looked up to him and smiled.

'Oh my God...'

She nodded and tears welled up in her eyes.

"That fast?" He asked in disbelief.

"There is a lot of weird things about siren anatomy, one of thos things being quick pregnancies." He smiled happily and spun her around on the air.

"I'm going to be a dad?!" He asked with hope in his eyes.

"Yep, we're going to be parents!" She replied with tears of joy. Nathan set her down and immediately placed his lips on hers. Then one question came to their minds at the same time.

"What's it going to look like?" They both asked at the same time.

Nightmare watched the couple through a small portal and growled. "Great, now that annoying ranger has offspring." She slammed her fist into the table she was sitting at and turned to Adagio and Aria. "Have you two got any ideas?"

Adagio closed her eyes in thought before smirking. "How about...we use this situation to our advantage?" Nightmare motioned for her to go on. "That ranger has always been protective of those dear to him, now that Sonata is going to bare his child he'll do anything to keep her safe. So what if we kidnapped Sonata and forced him to surrender...or we kill her and his child."

Aria just looked to her sister in shock. She knew Adagio was evil but to actually kill someone, that was going to far, even for her standards. Nightmare rubbed her hands together with anticipation.

"Very good Adagio, very good indeed."

Aria managed to slip away and run out of the building. "I don't care about ruling the world or anything like that, I just want to do what I want when I want. And right now, I want to protect Sonata and my future niece or nephew."

Author's Notes:

Yeah...I know that the relationship between Sonata and Nathan is being rushed, but it's not the main focus of the story. As it was said, if they were together through the thousand year peace they would have been married.

I'll slow things down from now on, so don't worry.

Also, yes I watch Dorkly and listen to Flux Pavilion, sue me

Chapter twelve: A step too far

Twilight and the girls sat in front of the school. "What do you think Nathan needs to talk to us about Twilight?" Asked Sunset.

"I don't know, but he seemed very excited about it." As soon as she said that Nathan appeared with Sonata close to him.

"Hello everyone, I have two very important announcements to make." The girls all leaned forwards. "First off...Sonata and I, are having a baby!" Everyone gasped and immediately went up to hug the two. Twilight had immediately ran over to her friend and looked him in the eye.

"Congratulations Nathan. Looks like your dream will come true after all." The girls all looked to him confused, all except for Sunset and Sonata.

"What dream?" Asked Applejack.

"As you know, in Equestria I am a giant warbot, therefore I don't have any organic body parts, making it impossible for me to have any offspring. I spent a thousand years alone in a small cave, waiting for when I would next be needed. Over that time I had only one thing to do...think. Day in and day out I would think about my life, the world, anything. There was one thing that was on my mind frequently though...the thought of raising a family. It started with a fascination, then a dream, then an obsession. During my time in the cave I would look out into the world from the cave and watch the inhabitants, mainly those with happy families. It soon became a mission in my coding to start a family. And now..." He wrapped an arm around Sonata and smiled warmly. "...I can complete that mission." The girls, even Rainbow, gave 'awww's at the small tale and hugged them once again.

"Wait, you said there was two things that you wanted to tell us. What's the other thing?" Asked Sunset.

"Oh right! I have a plan to take down the Dazzlings!" The group all gasped. "What?" He asked in confusion.

"Why is Aria limping?" Asked Rainbow as she pointed towards an injured Aria. Nathan ran up to her and caught her before she could collapse in the middle of the road.

"Aria, what happened to you?" Nathan looked over her body, she was badly bruised and cut in many places and she appeared to have a sprained ankle and a broken arm.

She coughed and looked to him. "You need...to get...Sonata...somewhere...safe. Nighmare...knows about...the...baby. She's coming...for it." After that Aria fell unconscious, but not dead. Nathan held her bridal style and ran back over to the girls.

"Get her inside and find somewhere safe, take Sonata with you." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a tiny disco ball(1). "If Nightmare or Adagio finds you toss this in the air, it should give you time to escape." He was about to shoot off when Sonata grabbed his arm.

"Wait! What are you going to do?" She asked with worry. He turned around and placed his hands on her shoulders.

"I'm going to do what I should have done two days ago..." He kissed her on the lips and let her go. "...I'm going to go kill Nightmare." With that he began running towards a tall building. 'I'm coming for you, you bitch!'

Nightmare watched as Nathan approached the tower with a burning rage, literally burning. Smoke emitted off of him as he sprinted towards his target. "I should have just killed Aria when I had the chance, but you had to try and stop me, didn't you?" She looked back to an exhausted Adagio that was on her knees breathing heavily with a good amount of injuries.

"I said we'd threaten to kill Sonata, not actually do it. Then you try and kill Aria...that's two of my loved ones you've tried to kill in the span of a day. So if I die here, then I have one thing to say to you...I hope that Nathan swings his wrench right between your legs." Nightmare slapped her with a tendril, knocking her unconscious.

"Foolish girl, I should have just killed you all when I had the chance two days ago." She thought for a moment before smiling evilly. "I won't kill you though. My master could use another breeding sow!" Nightmare laughed like a psychopath before teleporting to where Nathan was. He came to a screeched halt and pulled out his wrench. "If you insist on fighting then let us both battle at our full strength, not in these limited bodies."

With a flash of light Nathan found himself on a large circular platform in a black void, being lit by one large ball of light high in the sky. He looked at himself and saw he was in his ranger body again. Looking around he saw Nightmare start to change. She burst out of the Sonata copy and emerged as a large beast made of a dark purple liquid fog with two glowing yellow circles for eyes. It's body was muscular and it had multiple large tendrils. "Now then, shall we begin?" (we will call it a he now) His voice was now crackled and echoed.

Nathan stared at the beast with an unholy rage. "You threatened my girlfriend...my unborn child...you made a mockery of me by assuming I would fall for such an idiotic trap...you made a mockery of my girlfriend by changing into a crappy recolour of her...and you had the gall to hurt my future sister-in-law!" Nathan's body became black and grey, his eye turned orange and smoke began to emit from him. "I WILL MAKE SURE YOU CAN NEVER HARM ANYONE DEAR TO ME!!!" Blood red fire exploded from his body, outlining him and his power increased by rapidly. "I WILL PROTECT MY FRIENDS!!!"

Nightmare twitched in anticipation. "Ah, so this is what you used to drive back Jack of Blades when he entered your world! Very well, let us begin!"

Author's Notes:

(1) the grovetron is a gadget in the games that will force any and all enemies in its range, including bosses, to dance and be left vulnerable

Chapter thirteen: Battle of giants and meeting the twins

Equestria

Thane and the other Rangers were saying their goodbyes to Krystal as she was about to leave for Ponyville when they all shuddered as a long forgotten feeling made its way into their bodies. They felt an unbalance, a dark power and at the centre was Nathan in what they had called 'Devil Mode.'

"Oh no..." Katie muttered as she brought up a screen. "Please don't do this again Nathan!" They all gathered around the screen and looked at their former weapons specialist in horror. The blood red fire that outlined his now black and grey amoured body bringing memories of what had caused him to achieve that mode.

"What made him go berserk this time?" Asked Zane as Katie swiped the screen backwards, playing the events that had transpired before Nathan had activated his Devil Mode.

"He's dating that siren?" Asked Krystal with a hint of disbelief in her voice. "More importantly...HE'S HAVING A KID WITH THAT SIREN!?!?"

"Calm down Krystal, there are more important matters at hand here. Like why Nathan would even consider returning to that form." Snapped Thane.

"Maybe it's because it was a danger to Twilight?" Suggested Katie.

"Maybe it was going to come kill us?" Guessed Krystal.

"Whatever the reason he shouldn't have returned to that form at any cost." Said Thane in an authoritative tone. At this point, Zane had had enough with his brothers attitude and think headedness.

"It's because that...thing, threatened his significant other and unborn child you idiot!" Yelled Zane, causing everyone to look at him in shock.

"Zane, what t-"

"No Thane! I have had enough of this fake persona you have! Why can't you just accept the fact that Nathan left the squad because you refused to listen!? He didn't 'betray' you or any of us! He was protecting the natural order of this world! Then there's you! You act the strong leader when you can't even admit you feel guilty about Nathan leaving because you refused to listen to him!"

Thane was taken back by his brothers words, never before had he seen Zane angry or hear him raise his voice. "Zane I..." He sighed and turned to the screen, watching the battle his cousin was fighting.

Nathan held up his cannon and charged up a large energy ball. He swiped the cannon and five energy balls appeared in front of him and shot orange beams at Nightmare, hitting him head on. Nathan then charged forward and slammed his fist into Nightmares face, sending a huge wave of energy with the punch.

Nightmare staggered before launching multiple huge tendrils at the warbot. Nathan quickly batted them away with punches if blinding speeds. He then charged another energy ball before leaping into the air and throwing it to the ground, causing a compressed nuclear explosion that was contained by a small energy field. He then fell down onto the injured Nightmare and stomped him with his giant feet.

Nightmare grabbed Nathan by the arm and started slamming him into the ground multiple times before summoning a large ball of dark magic and bringing it down onto the warbot. Nathan leapt out of the blast and pulled out the RYNO V which now was jet black and the gun mussels were seeping red mist. He aimed at Nightmare and pulled the trigger, sending a huge wave of glowing red bullets and missiles at his opponent.

Nightmare staggered before charging the warbot. The then began a battle of strength as they each tried to push the other over the edge of the platform. Their hands were interlocked, but with one of Nathan's arms being a cannon he could still attack. He fired a beam into Nightmares palm and smacked him across the face with it. He then held the monster down and rapidly shot him in the chest with powerful lasers.

Nightmare roared and pushed Nathan off of him, he then leapt to the edge of the platform and began charging one last final attack in the form of a huge ball of dark energy and it only continued to grow. "SAY GOODBYE TO ALL YOU HOLD DEAR WARBOT!!! BECAUSE ONCE I FINISH YOU I'M GOING STRAIGHT AFTER YOUR PARTNER AND CHILD!!!"

This only added more wood the the bonfire that was Nathan's rage, which in turn increased his power. He then placed his hand over his cannon mussel and started charging his own attack. The two stared each other down before launching huge lasers at the other which collided and started forming a ball of conflicting energies. The two poured more and more energy into their attacks.

Nathan closed his eyes and started to look deep for any emotional connection he could find. 'Sonata...Twilight...Sunset...Celestia...Luna...Girls...Zane...Krystal...Katie...Thane...Solid...Starswirl...My Child...Scorpan...I will protect you and your memory!' His fire burner brighter and he began walking towards Nightmare slowly, pushing the ball of energy towards his foe as he went. 'I will protect what I have...I've lost too much already...I will not allow a repeat of the golden suits incident!'

Three streams of red energy shot out of Nathan's back and added to his attack. "NO!!! How are you this powerful all of a sudden?!?!"

Nathan stared at him. "Memories." With one final push Nathan launched his attack forward and the ball of conflicting energies swallowed Nightmare.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!" The energy started destroying Nightmare, turning him into purple mist. The energy ball exploded. Nathan fell to his knees and the Devil Mode deactivated. He looked up to see the two types of energies absorbing the purple mist. The energies turned blue and yellow. Both separated and formed two small figures.

The glowing figures gently floated to the ground and lay on their sides. The glow died down and revealed two small children. One was a boy with bright yellow hair, three freckles under each golden eye, he was wearing a yellow jacket, yellow jeans and yellow sneakers, he looked no more than nine years old. The other was a girl with long sapphire blue hair and eyes. She wore a small blue dress with patterns of white flowers and wore blue slippers. Again only looking around nine years old.

"What in the world?" Nathan sat down and watched the two carefully as they slowly sat up. They rubbed their eyes and yawned. They looked around confused before laying eyes on him. He was about to say hi when he was asked a question that he did not expect to hear.

"Daddy?"

He was completely taken back by what the little girl had said.

"Are you our daddy?"

He heard the sound of a portal opening and turned around to see Roden walking to him. The children noticed Roden and ran behind Nathan to hide. "Roden, do you know something about this?"

Roden sighed and nodded. "I do. When a Nightmare is destroyed it turns into purple mist and then into a small purple orb. With that blast of two opposite energies separating, the life force of the Nightmare was absorbed by the two energies and gave life to two new beings, created from your energy. The girl is made from your negative energy, and the boy is positive. They are your children now."

Nathan couldn't form words. He turned back to look at the children who were hugging his back for protection. "It's alright little ones, he's a friend." He said in a slightly unsure voice. The two trusted his word and walked around and sat in Nathan's lap. Roden looked up to Nathan and nodded.

"Take good care of them, I have altered a few things so that they recognise Sonata as their mother, they can turn into ponies, humans or rangers. I must be going now." With that Roden stepped through a portal, leaving Nathan to get familiar with the two children.

"Hello there little ones, what are your names?" He asked in a calm soothing voice. The girl looked up to him and smiled softly.

"I'm Sapphire."

Nathan looked to the boy who was twiddling his thumbs.

"Um...I'm...Lyric."

"Well then, it's lovely to meet you children."

"It's nice to meet you too daddy." Sapphire walked up to his eye and hugged it, Lyric following his sister's actions. Nathan felt a great sense of pride and fulfilment with them calling him their father. He put his hand up to them and held them close.

"Come on, let's go see mommy." Both of the children smiled as Nathan led them through a portal. 'Looks like the baby will have some older siblings to play with.'

Author's Notes:

Yeah I was a bit concerned with doing Sapphire and Lyric, since my friend a Prince_Zodiac had done something similar with his displaced

I had opted for Sonata being pregnant to be how Nathan got his wish, but I just couldn't leave these two out, so Nathan will have three children

Chapter fourteen: Homebound

Nathan had returned to his human form, Lyric and Sapphire at his side holding his hands. He looked down at them and smiled, he had noticed a few things about them as they walked down the street. Lyric seemed to be extremely shy, while Sapphire seemed to be more open, she was still shy though, after all the two of them were only born. He also noticed a soft glow came from their hairs and clothes.

"Daddy?" He looked to Sapphire who was looking at him with curiosity.

"Yes Sapphire?"

"Why did you change?"

He looked at her and tried to for the words. "Well, this is what the people of this world look like, when we get to our world I will change back."

"Do we have to change?" Asked Lyric.

"Not if you don't want to son, you can stay this way, turn into a pony or look like me when we get back."

"I don't want to change." Lyric mumbled quietly. Nathan pulled him close to reassure him, earning a small smile from the boy.

"Daddy, are we going to see mommy?"

"Yes Sapphire, we're going to go get mommy and then we're going home."

"Is mommy pretty?" Nathan smiled warmly at her question.

"Yes, she is very pretty." As they turned the last corner they began walking straight for the front of Canterlot High where the girls, Aria and Adagio were sitting. Sunset noticed Nathan walking towards them and alerted everyone. Once he reached the statue the twins hid behind him.

"Nathan! We were so worried." Sonata took him into a warm hug and kissed him on the lips. Out of the corner of her eye she spotted Sapphire peeking under Nathan's arm. "Who's that?" Nathan smiled warmly and turned to the twins.

"It's ok, they're all daddy's friends." They looked at each other and looked back at him with unsure looks. "It's ok, I promise." He walked behind them and placed his hands on their shoulders to reassure them. "Everyone, this is Sapphire and Lyric, my children." They all gasped.

"But how?" Asked Sunset.

"After I defeated Nightmare I was rewarded with these two, they're created from my positive and negative energies." He looked up to Sonata. "Looks like Junior will have some playmates." Sonata looked to the two children in shock.

"Mommy?" Sonata placed a hand to her chest in disbelief.

"Yes Sonata, they recognise you as their mother." Nathan pushed the twins gently towards her with a smile.

Sonata got on her knees and looked at the two children.

"Mommy?" Sonata started to tear up and nodded, she opened her arms and the twins rushed into them.

Nathan stood up and looked at the sweet sight before him. The sense of fulfilment returned at seeing the complete family, with another member on the way. He joined in on the hug and kissed Sonata. The girls all looked at the new family with soft smiles on their faces.

"Well then girls, looks like it's time for us to go." Twilight hugged the human five and Sunset, she then looked to Aria and Adagio. "So, what do you two have planned then?"

"We'll just stay at Canterlot High and try to blend in with the crowd, try and live normal lives for once." Adagio answered with a honest smile, earning a nod from Aria.

Sonata got up and walked over to her sisters. "I'll try to visit as much as I can." They hugged and Aria ruffled her hair.

"Just get going you goofball." Sonata smiled and walked back over to the twins. Nathan then walked over to Sunset.

"Make sure Adagio and Aria get settled in ok, I'll keep in touch through the book in Equestria." They hugged and Nathan walked over to the portal. Twilight waved goodbye and walked through the portal with Spike. Sonata waved back and walked through with the twins. As Nathan was about to walk into the portal he turned back. "Good luck in the Frienship Games." With that he leaped through the portal.

When Sonata had exited the portal she had pink see-through wings and her hooves were shaded pink as well, her mane was flat and was missing her ponytail. The twins had remained the same, they sat with Twilight as they waited for Nathan to come through the portal. They had cleared the way for his size as they weren't sure if he would be shrunken by Twilights spell or if he'd come out full size. After a few seconds the portal glowed and a glowing white blog was at out of it. The blob then grew and formed Nathan in his ranger body. "Ok...that was a terrible experience."

He shrunk down to his smallest size and looked to his family. "Looking good Sonata." She smiled and flew up to rest on his shoulder. He turned to the twins. "Well Sapphire and Lyric, welcome to your new home." Sapphire looked around the large library in wonder while Lyric walked over and sat beside his father, looking around in caution. 'He's extremely shy, he'll get better over time...I hope." Nathan set his hand down in front of Lyric and the boy climbed into it.

"I'll go set up one of the guest rooms for the twins." Twilight said, leaving the family alone for awhile. Nathan watched as Sapphire walked around and looked at the stacks of books, occasionally stopping to look at a few covers. She looked around for a bit before taking two books and holding them under her arm.

"Will Twilight mind if I took these books to read?"

"I'm sure she'll let you borrow them for awhile, as long as you give them back when you're done." He answered in a soft but stern voice.

"Ok daddy." Nathan moved his attention to Lyric who had found some sort of amulet. It was purple with a white gem in the shape of a four pointed star in the medallion.

"Lyric, where did you get that?"

"The green man gave it to me...he said it was for you when we got here." Lyric gave his father the amulet before walking off to join his sister in the hunt for a book to read.

'Green man? Must be talking about Roden.' Nathan held the amulet up to his eye to inspect it. "What is this thing?" He took a chance and focused some energy onto it. Sure enough there was a flash of light and he started to change. When the light died down Nathan was now a tall white earth pony stallion with a thin waist and small mussel. His cutie-mark was a bullet with purple fire. His eyes were dark purple and his mane was spiky and also purple. His hooves were solid black and he wore the amulet around his neck. He got up and placed a hoof to his head.

Sonata glided down and looked over her partners body. "Well, looks like we've solved that problem." She walked over and put a hoof to his cheek. "You alright there handsome?" He looked at her and smirked.

"Never better." Just then a note floated down and he caught it in his hoof.

Dear Nathan
The amulet you are wearing can transform you into your human, ranger and pony form at will. When you are in ranger mode it will appear as a gadget in your inventory, as a human it with be a bracelet and as a pony it will be an amulet. When in pony form you can change into an earth pony, Pegasus or unicorn depending on what you need, you cannot however turn into an alicorn.

Sincerely, Roden Godswell

Nathan smirked at the letter. "That magnificent bastard." He handed the letter to Sonata, once she read it she looked at him with a sly look. "What's that look for?"

"Oh you know perfectly well what it's for." She passionately kissed him and looked at him with half lidded eyes.

"Can you at least wait until the kids are asleep first, don't want them seeing anything." She rolled her eyes and Twilight walked into the room. She froze when she saw Nathan's new form. "See something you like?" Twilight snapped out of her trance and starred daggers at him.

"The guest rooms are ready, there's one for the twins and your room has been converted to suit Sonata being there." Nathan smiled and walked over to nuzzle Twilight.

"Thank you Twi, I appreciate it." Her features softened and she rolled her eyes.

"Ok ok, don't you go soft on me."

"I'm a dad now, I'm probably going to change a little bit." Sonata walked to his side and called the twins. "Hey Twi, the twins were wondering if they could borrow a few books to read. That ok with you?"

"Sure it is, just make sure they aren't damaged." Nathan nodded and the twins came back, Sapphire had five books in her hands while Lyric had one book on magical places in Equestria.

"Alright you two, let's get you into bed." They both nodded, not questioning their fathers new form and they follow ed Twilight to their rooms. Sonata waited at the door while Nathan tucked the two into their own separate beds in their plain room, he'd get them new bed covers and some furniture later. He kissed the, goodnight before blowing out the candle that lit the room and closed the curtains.

He and Sonata then walked to their room. As Nathan closed the door he turned and saw Sonata laying across the bed with a 'come hither' look. He smiled and walked over to her.

Author's Notes:

Back in Equestria at last.

By the way, this is what Sonata looks like in this...

Chapter fifteen: A new mission

Krystal stood at the door of the Castle of Friendship the next morning. She had wanted to make sure that Nathan was OK after activating Devil Mode the previous day. She wasn't able to view the rest of the battle as she had a train to catch, so she was going to find out what had happened. She knocked on the door and stood back, soon heavy footsteps could be heard and the door opened revealing Nathan at a semi-medium size.

"Oh, Krystal, hi." Nathan shrank to his normal size and stepped out closing the door. "What brings you by?"

She sighed and looked up at him. "I left Phoenix." Nathan just stared at her in silence, not expecting something like this first thing in the morning.

"Oh...well, come on in. We're just sitting down to breakfast, we can talk more inside." He held the door open for her. She thanked him and walked with him to the dining room. "Take a seat, I'm just going to go wake up the twins." She looked at him confused as he walked out. As he reached the door Sonata fluttered up to him and planted a kiss on his eye. "Good morning Nata. I'll be back in a second, we have a guest." Sonata looked over Nathan's shoulder and noticed Krystal.

"Oh, Krystal. I haven't seen you in centuries." She flew over and sat opposite her.

"It's good to see you too Sonata, congratulations on the baby by the way."

"Thanks, I'm really excited about it. I know Nathan is too, although we have some other members of the family now." Sonata said with a smile.

"What do you mean?" Krystal tilted her eye in confusion.

"Come on Sapphire, your brother is up and ready. We're waiting on you." The two of them heard Nathan say from down the hall.

"Five more minutes..." A soft feminine voice complained.

"That's what you said five minutes ago, come on."

"Do I have to?"

"That's it, dragging you out." The was a few giggles and multiple protests from the small voice until heavy footsteps could be heard. "Sorry about that Krystal, someone didn't want to get up this morning." Krystal looked to the two children, one was on his shoulder while the other was in Nathan's closed hand with a grumpy look on her face. "Krystal, meet Sapphire and Lyric."

"Um...hi."

"Hello."

Krystal just looked at Nathan in question. "They're my kids." He explained. This just caused more confusion, Nathan then explained what had happened with the battle against Nightmare and what had happened after. "Sonata, could you go get the twins some breakfast, I need to talk to Krystal in private for a moment." Sonata nodded and led the kids out of the room. Nathan changed to his human form and sat down opposite Krystal.

"Didn't take you for a family man Nathan, I'm honestly surprised."

"A lot can happen over a full millennium." His smile faltered and he leaned back in his chair. "So, what happened with Phoenix?"

Krystal sighed and looked to the table. "I just couldn't put up with Thane and his fake attitude anymore. You don't know it but Zane, Katie and I were watching when you were at the bonfire. We've been watching ever since you moved to Ponyville. You looked like you had found happiness in this town, so I thought I could find that happiness too." Nathan placed a finger to his chin in thought.

"That makes sense I suppose, but what do you plan to do here exactly? I'm sure I can find room to put your capsule into in the castle, but what do you plan to do in your own time?"

"I figured I'd just let life take its course, maybe fight some creatures in the Everfree to earn bolts for weapons. You must have a ton after beating that Nightmare thing."

"Yeah, nearly a million." There was a moment of silence before a letter appeared in front of Nathan. "A letter from Celestia?" He took the scroll and undid the seal, reading over it his smile returned. "So that's it."

"What?" Nathan changed back into his ranger form and made his way to the door.

"Got our first mission from Celestia. Just for me and you... And the twins, can't leave them here with just Sonata, gotta let her get settled in."

Krystal got out of her chair and followed him to the kitchen where Sonata and the twins were eating waffles.

"Get your stuff together kids, we're going sailing!" Sonata just looked at him with a raised brow. "We're going to the land of behemoths, we got a mission from Celestia. Thought I'd give the twins an adventure while you settle in." Sonata smiled at her partner.

"Ok, but I don't want them coming back with a giant pet centaur."

"Fine, I promise it won't be bigger than a kraken." Sonata shook her head and flew up to him to kiss his eye.

"No pets. When you get back we'll talk about it." Nathan nodded and the twins finished their meals.

"Alright, let's go pay your uncle Scorpan a visit."

Nathan and Katie began walking towards the shores of Equestria, with Sapphire and Lyric riding behind Nathan's eye. Celestia had arranged a ship to cross the ocean separating Equestria from the land of behemoths.

"So Nathan, mind explaining to me what we are going to do when we get there?"

"I figured I'd pay a visit to Scorpan and see how he's doing. After that we get on with the mission."

"And what is that mission?" Nathan's composure became hostile.

"The Maniacs emblem has been spotted in the countries near the land of behemoths, we have to go investigate."

Author's Notes:

And now we are on with the main storyline with the villains of this story.

Chapter sixteen: Smooth sailing

Meanwhile in the land of behemoths

A man in a dark purple tailcoat, dress pants and a top hat looked through a liquid screen as Nathan, Krystal and the twins reached the ports of Equestria. The mans hair was messy and golden while his eyes were pure white and his teeth were razor sharp, giving a Cheshire Cat kind of smile. His focus was on the twins as he twirled his black cane and tapped his black leather shoes.

"Well well well, looks like our favourite tin man has a few brats now." He gave an evil chuckle before turning to a group of shadowy figures. "What do you all make of this my fellow Maniacs?" He asked while leaning on his cane.

"I think we could use this to our advantage." A slim cloaked figure stated as his two golden eyes pierced through the shadow that his hood created over his face.

"Oh and what makes you think that Carnage?" The man asked while pacing back and fourth on the red stone table that the he group had been sitting at.

"From what we can tell those children are still developing in their minds, if we can convince them that their father is evil and that we are good, we can have them turn on him."

"And he wouldn't fight back because he would never want to harm his own brats!" The man applauded his colleagues plan. "Very good Carnage, now, how do you suggest we go about this?" Asked the man as his body bent in a 90 degree angle in front of Carnage.

"Well Hack, I was thinking that you and Psychopath could draw Nathan's attention away from our base while Mist kidnaps the children, then leave the rest to me." Hack smiled so hard Pinkie would be jealous,

"Very well, come along Psychopath." A tall muscular cloaked figure stood up and followed Hack out of the liar.

Nathan sat on top of the mast of the large ship in his human form. He stared up at the sky as the waves rocked the ship gently back and forth. He looked down and saw Sapphire and Lyric playing pirate with some of the ships crew, Sapphire had won them over in mere minutes and had them catering to her every whim. Chuckling at his daughters antics he turned to see Krystal tinkering with a Mr Zurkon robot. He watched as she dismantled it completely along with a few agents of doom(1) began building another small robot.

Shrugging Nathan went back to cloud watching.

After a few more minutes he got bored and hopped down to the deck. Switching to his pony form, which had attracted a few of the mates on boards attention, he made his way over to where his children were playing.

"Fire the cannon!" Chuckling at Sapphire he was about to pull out his Gravity Bomb launcher to give her some form of cannon he was surprised to hear somethings being launched. Walking over he saw that Sapphire had in her arms his Negotiator, looking in his inventory his weapon had indeed been taken by the little psychopath.

"Sapphire, how did you get my gun?" He asked walking over to her.

"When we were riding behind your head on the way to the boat I got bored and looked around your storage unit, I only took the one gun though." She pulled the trigger on the rocket launcher and blew up a nearby rock.

"Ok, I'm happy you're using some weaponry and all, but you should have asked me first." He stated in a firm voice, causing her smile to falter.

"Sorry daddy." She picked up the gun and handed it back to her father.

"It's ok sweetheart, you just wanted to blow something up."

"It is fun."

"I know right? Anyway, if you wanted a gun so bad, I'm sure I can find one best suited to you." Sapphire beamed with a huge smile. Nathan laughed and ruffled her hair. Changing to his human form he began looking through his inventories. As he reached the end he frowned. "Hold on a second." Pulling out the Gadgetron vendor he looked through the selection until he came across the perfect weapon for his daughter. Clicking the purchase button the weapon made its way into his inventory. Packing the vendor away he pulled out the Telsa Claw.

"Here, this should do nicely for your first weapon." He handed the claw to her and she looked at it confused, looking for a grip. "You wear it like a glove, slide it onto your right hand." Doing as instructed, Sapphire put on the claw and smiled. Nathan then set an apple on a barrel. "Ok, give it a shot... and try not to hit the barrel or I have to pay for it." Nodding Sapphire pointed the claw at the apple and pulled a trigger on the inside. A steady stream of electricity shot out and zapped the apple, causing to cook then explode.

"This gun is perfect! But it's got limited ammo..." Nathan patted her back and opened up the vendor again.

"There, any time you run out of ammo it'll automatically refill as long as there are bolts in my account, that should take care of it since a full clip in that thing costs like a hundred bolts at most." Sapphire smiled and hugged him.

"Thank you daddy." Nathan always felt a sense of pride and fulfilment whenever Sapphire or Lyric called him that.

"No problem Sapphire, just don't go around randomly zapping people, ponies or whatever other creature you come across... unless they're evil then go nuts." As Sapphire ran off to find something to test her new weapon on Nathan turned around and saw Lyric sitting on a small crate reading a children's book. Nathan pulled up another box and sat down beside his son. "Hey son, how're you doing?" Nathan placed a hand on his sons back and gave the timid boy a comforting smile.

"Um, I'm feeling fine... thanks for asking daddy." Nathan had already figured out Sapphire and Lyrics personalities. Lyric was the shy and quiet one, while Sapphire was the adventurous and loud one. As he thought about it he realised they really did represent two parts of his being, Sapphire being the mask that he puts on to act strong and Lyric being what he really was on the inside.

"Want me to read this to you, maybe help you sound out a few words you have trouble with?" Lyric nodded and handed his father the book. Nathan lifted him into his lap and began reading the book to his timid son, making sure to make him feel safe with a soothing voice.

Meanwhile Krystal had been watching him interact with his children. "Those two are going to do him wonders, maybe someday they'll help him break out of the shell he's formed." With that she went back to building her own little robot.

Author's Notes:

(1) Agents of Doom is the name of a glove that allows the player to summon four small robots that charge an enemy and explode on impact.

Chapter seventeen: Old friends

Author's Notes:

Before we get into this chapter here is what Scorpan looks like

Nathan, Krystal, Lyric and Sapphire looked up at the vast red mountain ranges that they had come face to face with. Nathan looked around and took in a breath of air. "Ahhhh, I've missed this place." He stepped a bit away from the group and started to grow until he was the size of the fully grown Tirek.

"Why'd you need to grow?" Krystal asked as the group walked onto Nathan's open hand.

"It's easier to traverse the rough terrain at the size, this is a country that houses Gaia's largest beings, hence the name." He set them all behind his eye and started walking. "We're stopping by Scorpan first then we move on to investigating the Maniac sightings." Nathan walked over what was a hill to him but a mountain to the rest of the group effortlessly. Lyric sat comfortably between two large wires that emitted a soft wave of heat while reading his children's book. Sapphire was using her modified Telsa Claw to zap small critters to pass the time, the modifications added a larger range of fire and conserved ammo. Krystal continued to tinker with her soon to be robot companion. "Hey Krystal, whatcha building this time?" Nathan asked as he moved a house sized boulder out of his way.

"Well, I've been wanting to try building a robot for some time now, figured I'd try building my own version of Clank before moving onto bigger machines." Nathan chuckled, ever since the day that Krystal had gained access to her hidden programming that gave her vast knowledge on tech and sciences she had been working on small projects like this one.

A half hour later Nathan walked to the top of a large mountain and looked down at the land bellow.

The many gigantic creatures that housed the mountains that they had created and turned into homes walked about with their daily routines. Things were peaceful with the village of Giants, no one disturbed their lands or territories other than a few passing travelers or explorers, even then they mainly avoided the behemoths that populated the land. One giant half snake/ half bear looked to the ground and spotted a shadow in the shape of a familiar figure. Looking up at the mountain that separated the village from the wastelands he spotted the giant silhouette of Nathan standing at the top of it, the sun rising behind him.

The snake/bear smiled and rushed towards the tallest mountain, home to Scorpan, the King of the land of behemoths. He entered through the large entrance and stopped as he reached the room that Scorpan was currently resting in. "Sire!" Scorpan sat up at the sound of his friend.

"Yes Talonor?"

"Sire, 'he' has returned." Scorpan smiled at this and got to his feet.

"Well then, I should go greet him then shouldn't I?" Talonor led Scorpan out of the cave and pointed to the silhouette on the mountain. Scorpan squinted his eyes and chuckled. "He certainly knows how to be dramatic about these things doesn't he?"

Spotting his old friend Nathan slid down the mountain on his feet, jumping before reaching the end and landing while skidding to a halt.

"Nathan my friend!" Nathan chuckled at his name being called and turned to the approaching Scorpan.

"Scorpan old buddy!" The two entered a strong hug that was also a test of strength. "I missed you."

"As did I you, it has been far too long since our last encounter. I wish we had parted on better terms though." The two separated and Nathan placed his hand onto his friends shoulder.

"Hey, what your brother did is not your fault. Be glad you realised the beauty in Equestria before you did something that I would have to beat you for." Scorpan chuckled and grabbed Nathan's hand in a firm respectful grip.

"You always know what to say, I am surprised the females are not throwing themselves at your feet yet." Both looked over to the female giants who were whistling innocently.

"Well I'm glad they aren't, I managed to find my soulmate and she is already with child." Krystal was confused at this news, and the way he was speaking.

"Is that so? Well then congratulations are in order. I wish for your young to be born with great health. Tell me, who is the one that managed to steal your heart of metal?" Scorpan asked, wrapping an arm around Nathan's shoulder.

"One of the sirens, Sonata Dusk. It is quiet the tale, it actually took place in another world where the sirens had been banished."

"It sounds as if this will take an entire feast to tell the full tale." Nathan laughed.

"Always with the food Scorpan, soon you will lose your prime if you continue to eat so much." Scorpan looked to his stomach and patted it, causing every giant present to start laughing.

"You are lucky that you're one of my spirit brothers, or else I would have tore you apart centuries ago." Scorpan said as he patted Nathan on the back. "Come, we must celebrate your return. I trust you will be staying for longer than last time?"

"It seems to be that way, I am actually here on a mission from Princess Solena herself." Scorpans smile faltered.

"What has happened now?" He asked.

Nathan sighed. "There has been reported Maniac sightings in the lands near here."

"That is not proof enough that those monsters have returned."

"Tirek had the emblem on his arm Scorpan." The giant froze and looked to his necklace that he his mother hand made for him and his brother.

"I see..." Nathan placed a hand on Scorpans back to reassure him.

"Don't worry, we won't let another incident like what happened with your father ever come to play again."

"We?" Nathan reached behind his eye and pulled out the three passengers. Scorpan looked down at the tiny figures.

"Yes, we. Your remember Krystal don't you?" Nathan asked.

"How could I forget, she aided you and I in the battle against my foolish brother. I do not however recognise the two children." Lyric cowered slightly while Sapphire looked up in awe.

"Well let me introduce you. Scorpan, these are my children, Sapphire and Lyric. Kids, this is your uncle Scorpan."

Scorpan just looked to Nathan confused and raised a finger. "I have several questions."

Chapter eighteen: Fun and Gun

A large beam of energy shot towards a mountain, causing it to crumble. Hack sprinted away from the barrage of gunfire as Nathan chased him down in a mighty rage while firing the RYNO V. Switching to his lava gun he sent a wave of the molten rock at the fleeing Maniac. "Where did you take them?!" He reached down and grabbed Hack in his hand, bringing him up to his eye.

"Whatever do you mean?" Hack asked sarcastically while grinning.

"You know damn well what I mean, where the hell did you take my children?!" Nathan smashed him into the ground and held him back up. "Tell me or I'm tossing you into the magazine of the lava gun!" Nathans purple eye turned red and his voice was filled to the brim with pure rage.

"Sorry, I can't remember." Nathan roared and repeatedly smashed him into the ground before unloading a full clip of RYNO V ammo into him (2500 bullets and rockets to be exact, yeah, that's the kind of weaponry that you find in Ratchet and Clank).

"I am going to ask one more time... Where... THE FUCK... Did you take my children?!" Hack shakily got to his feet with a weak smile.

"I'll answer your question with a question... What's the last thing you'd expect to see me use?" Nathan looked at him confused.

"I gun I guess?"

"Right on the money." Hack pulled out a huge cannon and blasted Nathan off his feet and he landed on his back, causing the ground to shake under his huge weight. Scorpan rushed over to Hack and knocked him towards a mountain.

"Are you alright Nathan?" Scorpan asked, helping the large robot to his feet.

"Yeah." Nathan dusted himself off and aimed his arm cannon towards the direction of Hack. "What the hell took you so long?" He charged up a large ball of energy and shot it, causing a huge purple mushroom cloud as it hit its target.

"I was dealing with his goons with Krystal, any luck finding your children?" Nathan shook his head.

"I should never have kept my eyes off them, especially here. I don't even know why I brought them somewhere so dangerous." He placed his face in his hand and shot another blast at Hack.

"OWWW!!! QUIT IT!!!" He was met with another blast.

"Let's just finish him off and get back to finding the kids." Scorpan nodded, charging his own ball of energy as well. As they were about to fire they saw a flag with the Maniacs emblem on it where Hack should have been. "The hell?"

"Yoohoo!" Both of them turned to see Hack standing at the top of a mountain twirling his cane. "I hate to run like this but I have some important things to attend to, if you survive this please come visit our hideout if you can find it!" Pointing his cane towards the two a huge wave of force threw them backwards. Then a huge creature made of rock emerged and roared.

Nathan and Scorpan looked to each other and nodded. Nathan cocked his arm cannon and Scorpan opened his claws.

Sapphire and Lyric were running down a vast hallway in the Maniacs hideout, trying desperately the find a way out. Sapphire ran in front, pulling Lyric as they fled from Psychopath, a tall muscular figure in a black cloak. Sapphire turned around, equipped her Telsa Claw and fired a steady stream of electricity at their pursuer. Psychopath stopped and put his red scaly arms up to defend against the beam. Taking advantage of this Sapphire grabbed Lyric and turned a corner at a connecting hallway.

Running into a random door she quietly shut it and listened to Psycopath growling in confusion as he tried to figure out where the two children had gone to. Walking down the wrong hallway his footsteps became fainter until they were only distant clinks. Breathing a sigh of relief Sapphire turned to her brother. "You ok there bro?"

Lyric looked over himself and nodded.

"Good, I think we can hide in here until dad comes to find us. We just need to stay quiet and they won't find us."

"It's too late for that." Both froze as Carnage lit an oil lamp, brightening up the lab within. Both children looked up at the tall cloaked figure in fear. "Now now, no need to be scared if me. I just want to have a little chat with you." Both looked at him with cautious looks. "I'm sorry if my associate out there frightened you, here, have a drink of chocolate milk." Carnage motioned to two stools on the opposite side of the table he was sitting at with two glasses of brown liquid sitting waiting for them.

"Well... I am kinda thirsty." Both children climbed up the stools and sat sipping their chocolate milk.

"Thank you. Now, let me ask you a question." Both looked at him with confusion. "What do you think your father is?"

Sapphire raised a brow. "He's a robot, duh."

Carnage shook his head. "I know that, what I meant is, what is he inside that metal shell?"

Lyric and Sapphire looked to him confused. "I don't get it."

"You don't need to." Just then Carnage was blasted by a small wave of fire bullets. Looking over the twins saw a tall, thin young woman with long rose red hair, a red long sleeved shirt with two black stripes across the chest. She also wore a pair of black skinny jeans and red shoes. She held in one hand a gun with two barrels.

He ruby eyes looked down at the twins as she smiled. "Hi there."

"Who're you?" The woman kneeled down and looked Lyric in the eyes.

"My name is Ruby, I'm your sister."

Author's Notes:

Don't you just love cliffhangers?

Chapter nineteen: Ruby and Metal

After defeating the huge rock monster, Scorpan and Nathan caught their breath. Scorpan began healing his wounds with healing magic while Nathan used a crate of nanotech. "We should get back to the village, see if anyone got hurt from the Maniacs forces." Nathan nodded and both of them began running towards the villiage of mountains. As they approached the found a few clouds of smoke rising from inside the circle of mountains.

Scaling the rock walls and sliding to the bottom the two looked around at the battle taking place. Multiple creatures made of a dark red substance were fighting the giants of the village. Nathan levelled his blaster and repeatedly shot one of the creatures off of a female tiger/snake. Scorpan held out his hands and threw two balls of energy at another.

Both of them split up and walked around the village, blasting any hostiles along the way until the area was cleared. "I'm going to find Krystal, you stay here in case my kids come back." Scorpan nodded and walked off to help his people.

As he ran around Nathan heard the sound of a shock blaster being fired. As he turned a corner he saw Krystal surrounded by smaller enemies, using her mini-turret glove and arm cannon to make quick work of them. Her cannon was a bit different than Nathan's as it acted as a shotgun instead of one shot of energy. Granted Nathan had modified his own to be able to charge up his attacks and added an extra mode to it, it was just like a normal rapid fire blaster.

He shrank down to normal size and went back to back with his friend. "Took you long enough."

"What, I was giving you more enemies to yourself, or would you prefer me to just grow and crush them with my foot?"

"No no, this is much more fun." Rolling his eye Nathan began blasting the monsters, when one got too close he pulled out his wrench to kill them. They continued until there was only one who was trying to crawl away. Both robots walked over to him and pointed their guns at him. Both looked to each other and fired.

"Just like old times." Krystal nodded in agreement. The two looked around in satisfaction of the mass killing that had just took place. "You know, I'm thinking of getting a paint job."

"Really, what's wrong with purple and sliver?"

"Nothing, I was just wondering what I would look like in grey is all."

"What do you mean, how can you be our sister?" Lyric asked shyly, hiding behind Sapphire as she had her Telsa Claw ready.

"It's a little complicated, but before I explain anything let's get you two back to dad." Not seeing any other choice, the two children nodded.

"Wait, Psychopath is still out there."

Ruby smirked. "Don't worry, I have a friend taking care of him."

Meanwhile Psycopath was thrown against a wall by Ruby's friend.

"You gonna give up now tuff guy or are you gonna keep putting up a worthless fight?" The creature asked, clenching its claw into a fist.

Psycopath didn't respond, he only charged.

"Ok then." The creature stepped to the side and tripped up the advancing beast. He then curled into a ball and turned into a spinning ball of spikes. Psycopath tried to avoid the attack but failed and had the creature spinning on his back tearing away at his rocky armour.

"That's enough Metal." Metal unfurled and looked up at Ruby. He got on all fours and started walking like a wolf before sitting down beside Ruby. "Metal, this is my brother and sister, Sapphire and Lyric."

Metal turned his head towards the children and walked towards them. "So this is what they look like." Both of the kids cowered a little at his appearance. "Don't be afraid, I'm not here to hurt you or anyone else other than anyone who wishes to harm you." Sapphire was the first one to calm down, she reached her hand out and petted him. She smiled as he sat down and allowed her to pet him like a dog.

"Good robot hedgehog wolf. What's your name?"

"I am Metal Sonic, although I wasn't always like what you see here. I was turned this way due to some... unfortunate events." Shaking his head Metal stood up and turned away slightly showing his spike covered back. He retracted the spikes and looked to the children. "Hop on, we're here to get you out of here and back to your father." Sapphire smiled and straddled Metal, soon followed by Lyric. "I'll be unable to fight like this, Ruby you will have to cover me." Ruby nodded and ran ahead with her gun ready. "Hang on tight you two." With that Metal began running with great speed.

Meanwhile Havk was watching with an evil grin. "Well well well, looks like I have something that I can use to my advantage."

Meanwhile, Sonata was being shown around Ponyville by Twilight and the mane six. As they walked Rarity had asked about how she had met Nathan.

"Oh, yeah I can tell you that."

As Sonata (in her siren form) floated through the clouds watching the ponies of Equestria go about their daily lives, she began to wonder what her life would be like without having to rely on using her voice to sway others. She was brought out of her deep thoughts when she heard a loud bang.

Looking around she saw flashes of purple coming from a part of the Whitetail Woods. Flying down she hid in the leaves as she watched Nathan in his base size practicing with his blaster and testing his strength by punching boulders that he threw in the air. She stayed there, watching the new creature with interest until the sun went down. As it got dark Nathan looked up at the night sky and walked over to a cliff to sit down.

He crossed his leg and looked out as the cities and towns of Equestria lit their street lamps and candles or light spells, which he found relaxing, watching the dots of light appear one by one. "Another beautiful night." He continued to stare out at the land until he heard a branch snap. Sonata realised that she had been leaning on a branch and caused it to break. "Who's there?"

Thinking fast Sonata changed to her pony form to act like she was a lost mare. She walked out shyly. "Can you help me? I'm lost and I don't know where I am."

Nathan just looked at her with his eye before standing up. "Stop hiding yourself siren, let me see the real you."

Sonata was caught completely off guard. "Wh-What?"

"Don't worry I'm not gonna hurt you or anything, I'm just saying that you shouldn't hide yourself." Closing her eyes Sonata returned to her true form and floated over to Nathan as he turned away and stared out at the stars again. Floating in front of him he reached his hand out he greeted her. "That's better. My name is Nathan Phoenix, what's yours?"

"I'm Sonata Dusk. Um, what are you exactly?"

"Now that is gonna take some serious explanation." The two talked for awhile before Sonata was called back, or should I say ordered back, by Adagio. "Ok, come back around here sometime, I'll want to see you again sometime soon."

Sonata smiled and flew away with Nathan watching her as she reached for the clouds.

"After that we hung out a on a regular basis until Adagio and Aria decided to attack Equestria, when we were banished Nathan had stopped Starswirl from harming me and told me to go with my sisters, telling me that we'd meet again in one thousand years. And her was right." The mares smiled at the short tale.

As they continued the walk Rainbow Dash pointed out that Sonata's stomach was already bulging a little.

"We sirens have generally quick pregnancies, after a few days or weeks depending on the age of the siren, we'll lay a batch of pearl-like eggs that will take a few weeks to hatch."

"Sonata, if you wouldn't mind, I'd like to ask you a few more questions about sirens when we get back home."

"Of course Twilight." The group stopped by Sugarcube Corner to get a bite to eat, it seemed Sonata's cravings were starting to show. She had a strange craving for treats named after things from music and gems, no matter what it was as long as it was named after a gem or a symbol from music tablature.

"Do you know what might cause these specific cravings Sonata?" Twilight asked, getting a scroll and quill ready.

"Well, my guess is that a siren will seek foods that will relate to their youngs future names or personalities. I mean, my daughter is called Sapphire and my son is called Lyric. Maybe the males will be named after music and the females after gems."

Twilight nodded, making sure not to miss a single detail.

Author's Notes:

Metal and Ruby are from the next story arc that will become apparent mext chapter.

Metal is one of my other displaced, from the story The Metal Condition... But is an alternative version

Chapter twenty: Reunion

Blasting there way out of the underground base the group reached the outside, where a large group of enemies ranging from symbiotes to crystal-like wolves was waiting for them. Ruby picked up Sapphire and Lyric, allowing Metal to stand. Metal looked out at the horde of the creatures and snarled. "Pathetic." Ruby brought the twins behind cover as Metals body glowed red. "Chaos... Blast!"

A huge red explosion of fire and energy swept across the horde, destroying every last one of them. As the fire dispersed, Metal found himself out of breath.

"Always takes... too much energy... to do that." He retracted his spikes again and the twins got back on. "Come on, it's a clear shot from here to the village."

As they were about to take a step they froze at who they saw. Hack Wonder was standing a few feet away from them twirling his cane. "Well well, what have we here?" He looked Ruby over and smirked. "Another of that annoying ranger's young, you don't look like you're from around here."

Ruby smirked and pulled out her wrench. "You could say that, I'm not really from this moment in time."

"Say what now?" As Hack was distracted by her words Ruby smirked and swung her wrench like a boomerang, hitting Hack in the face. It came right back to her and she repeatedly threw it back.

"Get them out of her Metal, I'll deal with tophat here."

Metal nodded and began running away from the battle. "You come back to me, you hear?" He said before he took off.

Hack regained his bearings and held his jaw. "Y'know somethin? I was in a really good mood today, until you showed up and nailed me in the fucking nose with that oversized can opener!" The ground shook and Hack started to seep dark red mist. "I'll kill you and then go right after those little brats!"

Ruby's smirk faded into a frown and she glared at her opponent, pulling out her RYNO VII. "Threaten me, I'll laugh it off, threaten my friends, I'm pissed, threaten my family..." She readied the gun and aimed it at Hack. "... then you better be fucking praying for mercy."

"Bring it on." They glared each other before charging forward.

Nathan ran with Krystal on his shoulder through the thick forest that surrounded the villiage. "You sure you picked up a signal Krystal?"

The blocky ranger nodded. "I definitely picked up a surge of strange energy coming from this direction, and the source is approaching us a few hundred feet ahead." Nathan came to a screeching halt as he heard his children calling him.

"Dad!"

"Over here!"

He continued by walking until he came across Sapphire and Lyric in a clearing with Metal. He set Krystal on the ground and immediately turned to his human form, rushing over to his children. They ran to him and he brought them into a tight protective hug. "Oh thank God you're safe." He kissed ther heads and held them close. "I am never letting you two out of my sight again. If I let something like this happen again your mother would kill me." He pulled away and started looking them over. "Are you two ok, did they hurt you?"

"We're fine dad, Ruby and Wolfy saved us." Sapphire pointed to Metal who was sitting like a wolf, watching the family with a strange look in his eye.

"Another displaced?" Nathan got up and walked over to the metal hedgehog. "Who are you?"

"I am Metal Sonic, and yes, I am a displaced."

Nathan just looked him over. "What the hell happened to you?"

"It's a long story, I'll just say that I got a taste of something called Apocalypse Magic back on my world." Nathan nodded and looked back to his kids. "Um, could you tell your daughter to stop calling me Wolfy please? It's kind of embarrassing."

"Sorry, once she gives a nickname to someone there is no escaping it."

Metal facepalmed and looked in the direction of the ongoing battle. "The Maniacs hideout is up there, as well as my friend who is currently fighting their leader, I suggest you go and assist her, I'll guard your kids."

While hesitant to leave his children again he knew they'd be safe with Krystal and this newcomer. "Alright, I've been meaning to get even with Hack Wonder anyways." He changed to his pony form, specifically his Pegasus mode. He took to the skies and flew to the battle, getting a great view of the intense struggle below.

Ruby was blasting Hack with everything she had, holding down the triggers of the RYNO VII and her lancer with an extreme glare. Hack disappeared into a puff of smoke and fled the area. A large amount of mist clouds left the cave leading into the hideout and followed Hack. Nathan pulled out the suck cannon and tried to pull them in with the vortex, but they were too far out of range. Growling at the fact he let his sworn enemies slip away he all but crushed the grip on his weapon.

Looking down at the girl below he turned into his ranger form in mid air and landed in front of the Ruby who looked up at his massive size in awe, with a few tears in her eyes at the sight of him. "You there, what is your name?"

Ruby struggled to hold back her tears of joy as she looked him over. "M-My name is... Ruby."

Nathan looked down at her and noticed her tears. "Why are you crying?"

She slowly started walking towards him. "I was told so many stories, about your appearance, your capabilities, your adventures and the love you had for your children. After all these years in that sanctuary, I finally get to see you alive, in person." Nathan watched as she walked right up to his eye and let a few tears roll down her cheek. "I finally get to meet you... Daddy." She hugged his eye and opened the floodgates.

Nathan could only stare in confusion. He decided to scan her energy readings and w as surprised at his findings. 'She... She's my daughter?'

Author's Notes:

The Maniacs are going to be reoccurring villains in this story. Now we're getting into some really deep parts of the story. What is Ruby and Metals backstory? Stay tuned to find out

Chapter twenty one: The future is bleak

Nathan just stood there, frozen. He couldn't make sense of it, how could this girl be his daughter? Sonata hadn't layed her eggs yet and this girl was way too old to be any sort of newborn, even when compared to how Sapphire and Lyric were born.

"You... You're my daughter?" He asked with both confusion and shock.

Ruby pulled away and looked at him with a tearful smile. "Yes, I am." She whiped her tears and looked at him with a great load of joy. "You have no idea how long I've waited for this moment, when I could finally see you in person, while you were alive."

This only caused more confusion. "Wait what? While I was alive? What are you talking about? How are you my daughter?"

"That will take... a lot of explaining, but I can give you the short explanation." Ruby sighed and turned away slightly. "I'm... I'm from the future."

Nathan blinked and just stared at her. "Sorry could you repeat that?"

"Metal and I are from the future."

Nathan stood up and looked down at the girl with caution. "I find that very hard to believe. I'm gonna need some proof." Ruby nodded and began fumbling around her pockets until she pulled out Nathan's amulet. Nathan blinked and checked his inventory, finding that his amulet was still there. "How?"

"You gave this to me, well, Metal gave it to me after you gave it to him to give to me." Ruby explained with a bit of sorrow.

Nathan looked at her, finding it increasingly difficult to deny what she had told him. "Roden, I need you for a moment!" On que the man in green stepped out of a portal and looked up at him.

"What do you need Nathan?" The ranger pointed to Ruby. As Roden set his sights on her his eyes widened. "Wait... how are you here? You aren't even born yet." Roden closed his eyes for a moment before opening them and frowning in disapproval. "You won't be born."

"Hey, can I get some clarification here?" Nathan asked but was ignored.

"I know that, I didn't know that would be a side effect when I came here."

"Hello?!"

"You should have been more careful or studied up on it more, who sent you back?"

Are you even listening to me?"

"You know who sent me, who else would do something like this?"

"Seriously, can I get an answer please?!"

Roden groaned and rubbed the side of his face. "It was Symbol wasn't it?"

"Who?!"

"It was, he's the one that taught me how to fight in the first place."

"Can someone explain to me what in the fuck is going on?!"

"Of course, but he would have seen what the consequences would be, unless he planned for you to stay here that is."

"HEY!!!" The two looked up at the now annoyed warbot. "CAN SOMEONE EXPLAIN TO ME WANT TGE FUCK IS GOING ON?!?!"

Roden and Ruby looked to each other and nodded. "Nathan, this girl is your daughter and is from a different time. It would appear that something will happen in the future and this caused Ruby here to travel back in time through the future version of my apprentice."

"How do you know all that when she never said that?"

"I can read minds." Nathan facepalmed and sighed, not surprised by anything at that point. "Now, whatever happened caused my apprentice to take drastic measures and sent one of your children from the future to try and prevent the event. By doing this he has trapped her in this time period. Nathan, when you scanned Sonata the other night to count the amount of eggs she was producing, how many was there?"

Nathan looked back on the memory. "Six."

"There are now only five." Nathan froze in shock and his anger quickly grew. "Now calm down, the one that would be in that missing egg is Ruby. Now that a version of her is in Equestria that egg had no reason to exist because of a certain rule of the methods of time travel that Ruby used."

"What was the rule?"

"That even if you change the future in your own timeline you will remain the same and will be trapped in that time period. When I entered this time period the egg I was developing in disappeared since there is a full grown version of me, I still exist because I was cut off from the timeline, my timeline no longer exists because I changed the way Sapphire and Lyric were saved." Ruby explained.

Nathan shook his head and sighed. "Ok, I don't wanna know any more details. Just tell me why you came back here."

Ruby rubbed her arm nervously. "You know about the Nightmare Fuels right? Well, the King of the Nightmares had joined forces with another great evil by the name of Xram. Everyone in the Chaos Family went after them, but most of them were killed in battle."

"The Chaos Family?"

"It's the name of the displaced family you belong to, Metal is part of that family. Metal was one of the few that survived, after the battle was won he found you near dead with me as an infant in your hand, you told him to take care of me and then you gave him the amulet, before you passed on. There were only a few other survivors, they were Plague and Amnesia, Symbol, Marx, Metal and me. Everyone else including Roden, Sapphire and Lyric were killed." Ruby started to tear up and Roden comforted her.

Nathan sat down and began to process what he had just been told. The thought of Sapphire and Lyric being killed was enough for him to almost activate devil mode, but he held it in. He looked down at the crying girl that claimed to be his daughter and began thinking. 'If what she said is true, then we need to get a message to the rest of this 'chaos family' and prevent that future from happening, but that means entering the multiverse, and after what happened with Jack of Blades I'm not to sure I want to risk it. But if it means I'll be saving a good bunch of people, I guess I should do it.' Nodding Nathan stood up. "Roden, can you bring me to those other displaced so we can warn them?"

Roden shook his head. "Not at the moment, there are a few things happening in their universes that we need to stay clear of for now. There will be a gathering in a few days because one of them is getting married to his worlds version of Twilight though."

Nathan scooped the pair up in his hand. "Well then, looks like I need to get a tux, cause I've got a wedding to attend."

Author's Notes:

Sorry if this is confusing, I didn't want to just bombard you lot with a huge info dump,Mao I tried to keep it short.

Nathan is now becoming involved with my other stories that are included in the Nightmare-verse, don't worry this doesn't mean I'm doing a bunch of crossovers, not with this story.

Oh and a little announcement, Nathan alongside Sapphire and Lyric are now characters in the story The Displaced as special guests and have a good role in the story. Nathan appears in chapter two, give it a read if you can.

Chapter twenty two: Home again

After making sure any Maniac strongholds were destroyed and any monsters dealt with, Nathan and Scorpan stood at the entrance to the giant village. Nathan extended his hand and Scorpan took it in his with a tight respectful grip. "Goodbye for now Scorpan, one day I will return and hopefully on more friendly terms. I would stay longer but I have a pregnant partner to get back to."

Scorpan nodded knowingly. "That is understandable old friend, I wish you luck on your travels and that your young are born healthy." The two leaned back and headbutted each other, laughing as they both held their foreheads afterwards.

"Well then, farewell until next time." With that the metal giant picked up the twins, Ruby and Krystal. Metal flew beside Nathan as he began walking away from the village and towards the coast. Scorpan and the other giants watched as his faded into a silhouette, stopping at the top of the mountain and raising his fist in the air as did the giants, then his figure faded into a thick cloud passing over the mountain. When the cloud passed Nathan was gone, the sun shining down on the village bringing a smile to all those in it.

Scorpan sighed and turned around, walking back towards his home.

A few days later

Sonata sat on a hill with the mane six and Spike, enjoying a relaxing picnic while looking over the luscious landscape. Sonatas pregnancy was beginning to show a bit more, in a few more days she would lay the eggs and a few weeks after that they would hatch. Although she felt lighter for some reason, like an egg was taken out of her body. Shaking off the notion she took a bite of her daisy sandwich and returned to her conversation with the girls and Spike.

As she was about to lift her drink she saw the liquid in the cup ripple slightly, the ripples started to become bigger as she felt the ground shake slightly. A huge smile made its way to her face as she immediately knew who was approaching. Turning to the other end of the hill she saw the antenna of Nathan's body appear over the side as the rest of his body came into view.

Sonata flapped her wings and flew up to meet her significant other. Reaching his eye she kissed it and nuzzled his face. Nathan set his passengers down and switched to his pony form, greeting his partner with a meaningful kiss. The separated and smiled at each other. "Hello again Nata, looking radiant as always."

Sonata giggled and hugged him. "Welcome home Natty, I missed you." As she pulled away from the hug Sapphire and Lyric ran up to her and tackled her with a hug.

"Mommy!"

Sonata smiled warmly and returned the hug. "Hello dears, how was your trip?"

Sapphire pulled away and smiled widely. "It was awesome! We sailed on this huge boat, met uncle Scorpan, daddy gave me my first gun, we got kidnapped but then were rescued, we got to ride Wolfie, big sis beat up this weird guy and then we sailed on the boat again!"

Sonata and the girls all looked at her in shock. Sonata turned to Nathan with a raised brow. "What's this about giving our child a gun and letting them get kidnapped?"

Nathan sighed. "It's a long story, and it was either give her her own gun or she'd try to steal the RYNOs."

Sonata then turned to Sapphire. "What's this about a 'Wolfie' and 'big sis?'"

Sapphire motioned to the two newcomers. "My name is actually Metal, Wolfie is just what she called me." Metal explained.

Ruby struggled to hold back her tears as she looked to Sonata. "Nathan dear, who are they?"

Nathan sighed and sat down. "You might all want to sit down for this."

Nathan explained everything to the group, what happened with The Maniacs, the kidnapping, Metal and Ruby showing up, what Ruby and Roden had told him and what he needed to do. Sonata was shocked and confused at some points but Metal explained things more clearly for her if that ever happened. Ruby remained silent through the explanation while trying to keep her emotions in check. The fate of her family and the displaced family depended on her and Metal, dealing with that and the fact she was meeting her parents for the first time without seeing Nathan and a lifeless robotic corpse in the void and Sonata being in a grave.

As Nathan and Metal finished explaining everything, Sonata looked over to Ruby and approached her. "You're really my daughter?" Ruby remained silent and nodded. As Sonata thought about the paradox of Ruby's existence in this timeline her head began to hurt, but she understood it enough.

Nathan looked at Ruby and sighed. "I still find it hard to understand all of this nonsense, but..." He got up, changed to his human self and walked up to his future daughter. "... That doesn't mean I won't accept you as my child."

Ruby looked up at him in shock. "R-Really?"

Nathan smiled. "It may take some getting used to, but I see no reason for denying that you are one of mine, you have my amulet, my energy readings, my dna and my fighting spirit. If that isn't proof that you came from me I don't know what is."

Ruby started to tear up and threw herself into her fathers arms. "Daddy..."

Although you couldn't tell, Metal smiled at the scene. Sonata and the twins got in on the hug, the family being complete at that moment. Metal had been raising Ruby in place of Nathan, his own children had perished with the fall of the displaced as well as his partners (he has more than one romantic partner in his story) so he felt a bit of envy and jealousy by watching the family. He would never seek out another romantic partner, he loved his late wives too much to do that. He still wore the rings on his claws, one cyan, one dark blue and one lavender (not representing Twilight.)

Nathan broke away from the hug and turned to Rarity. "Rarity, do you think you could have a suit ready for the wedding in a few days?"

The fashionista smiled. "Yes I believe I can darling, just come with me to the boutique and I'll take some measurements."

Nathan nodded and looked back at his family. "I'll see you all in a bit." Before he departed with Rarity he whispered into Sonatas ear. "Meet me back here in an hour." With that he walked off.

Author's Notes:

Taking a break from any major story arcs right now, gonna give the characters some downtime before the wedding.

What could Nathan want to do with Sonata in the hill? It's nothing dirty I promise. Find out in the next chapter.

Chapter twenty three: Preparations

Later that day

Nathan stood in his human form in the Carousel Boutique with his suit on. It consisted of a silver tailcoat with a purple dress shirt underneath with a grey bowtie, silver dress pants and shoes made of an artificial leather. "It looks great Rarity, thank you so much."

The fashion pony smiled. "You're welcome darling, and thank you for giving me the opportunity to work with a unique figure such as yourself."

Nathan rolled his eyes, still not used to having two, and looked to his amulet which was a bracelet in his current form and raised a brow. "I wonder." Switching to his pony form he found that the suit had morphed to suit his new body, causing Rarity to tilt her head and lean forward in interest. "Huh, so that does work." He walked into a changing room and took off his suit. Walking out in his human form in his usual wear he approached Rarity. "So, how much do I owe you? And don't say that there is no payment needed, I want to pay you back for this."

Rarity stood frozen, shocked that he immediately knew what she was going to say. "Well... If you insist... it will be-"

"Wait, I forgot my bit bag, I guess this will have to do." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a gem. It was shining blue and the shape of a crescent moon.

"Wh... Where did you get this?" Rarity asked in shock and disbelief.

Nathan looked to Rarity then to the gem. "In the Land of Behemoths, why? What's so special about it?"

"That my dear is a Lunar Stone, only twenty were ever crafted, by Princess Luna herself for that matter before her banishment." Rarity stared at the gem in wonder. "I'm sorry darling but I cannot accept this as payment, you should... No, you MUST give this to your lover."

Nathan blinked and looked down at the gem. Suddenly, an idea came to his head which caused him to smile brightly. "Thank you for the info Rarity, I'm gonna make sure this goes to good use. I still need to pay you though..."

"Why don't you foalsit Sweetie Belle sometime, then we'll call it even?" Rarity suggested.

Nathan nodded. "Sounds good, again, thank you so much Rarity." He hugged the mare and walked towards the front door, as he was about to open it Sweetie Belle threw it open and knocked him across the room. As Rarity ran up to him he simply got up and dusted himself off. "Man, she may be small but she's got some strength."

"Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry mister." Sweetie Belle apologised as she ran up to him.

"It's alright Sweetie Belle, I'm not hurt and to be honest I'm impressed with your strength."

Sweetie Bell just looked at him with confusion. "My strength?"

"Sweets, you were able to throw a door open so hard it launched me across the room, and I am not the lightest human I'll tell you that, I use the big guns for a reason." Nathan kneeled down to her. "Just make sure if you ever pat someone on the back that you maybe do it a bit gently, I know at your age you can be a bit... energetic."

Sweetie Belle smiled at the praise. "Ok mister, and thank you." Nathan scratched her ear and made his way to the door, first making sure that no other energetic fillies were about to throw it open, and made his way out into the streets of Ponyville.

Sonata flew high above the cloud layer with a smile on her face. "Hahahaha, this is so much fun! I can't believe how much I actually missed flying!" She did a few spins before becoming tired and floating elegantly down to a nearby cloud to rest. She wiped some sweat off of her forehead and looking around the beautiful landscape. The sun was in a position where it shone off of waterfalls and lakes, the sky being a soft orange. The lush green fields appeared to have soft waves in the grass as the gentle breeze pushed the small plant life. "I really missed Equestria, the human world is nice and all but..." She looked down and saw Nathan walking towards the castle in his ranger form. "... there are some things that I just missed too much."

As Sonata wiggled herself to get more comfortable she heard the sound of wings flapping. Turning she saw a mare with a blood red fur and a long ruby red mane, her cutie mark was a ruby gem with a bullet going through it. "Hello mother."

"Hello Ruby, you look very cute as a pony."

Ruby blushed and sat down beside her mother. "T-Thank you. Mind if I join you?"

"Not at all." The red mate got comfortable and stared out at the magnificent landscape with her mother. The two remained silent as they watched the sunset. "Ruby?"

"Yes mom?"

"In the future, how far do Nathan and I get?" Ruby just looked at her with confusion, unable to answer. "I mean how far did our relationship go. We have the twins, you and another batch on the way. However we spent a thousand years apart, I'm just afraid that something has changed that will cause us to drift apart." Ruby took note of the look in Sonatas eyes,money were filled with doubt and worry.

Ruby sighed and smiled. "I won't spoil anything for you, but I want you to know this. When the 'incident' happened and when you were injured father refused to leave your side, he chose to die by your side so you would die with someone you loved."

Sonata couldn't form words, too many thoughts rushed through her head at that moment. Looking down at the ground she saw Nathan walking out of the castle with a checklist, he was planning something. Sonata smiled and brought Ruby into a hug. "Thank you."

Ruby smiled and wrapped her wings around Sonata.

Meanwhile in Canterlot, Thane was watching the sunset alone. He, as usual, felt conflicted. He didn't know where his anger towards Nathan came from, why he couldn't let go of that one event. "I just... It doesn't make sense!" He slammed one of his fists into a nearby rock. "Why?! Why do I hate him so much?!"

Little did he know, there was a cause for this anger. Something that had made its way into his body, something evil, something dark... something nightmarish.

Author's Notes:

Hope you enjoyed the new chapter, looking to further develop Thane in the future.

Chapter twenty four: The question

Unkown location

Hack Wonder sat in a dark room with only light shining on the table in the centre of the room. His body covered by the darkness while his feet that were resting on the tabletop were visible. He sat looking to the figures in front of him both concealed by the shadows. One was a cloaked figure and the other was a Nightmare Fuel, it's glowing red pupils and dark purple arua being the only things visible.

"So, you are the two bringers of destruction that I've heard so much about through my 'friends' in the void? I'll say that I'm not impressed by your appearance, but your power, ooooooohhh your power! That is something to be impressed about. Tell me, what do you manipulators want from little old me and my gang of psychopaths?"

The cloaked figure cleared his throat. "Well, we have noticed a lot of activity of a certain Roden Godswell in this world, and that worries us. We cannot stay too long in a lesser known universe like this, if we do the Displacers Council will notice and send in one of their powerful operatives. You on the other hand have been in this world for a few millennia and the Council leaves the displaced of this world to fend you off."

"So what you're asking me is to take out this displacer that has no business being here? That's something I don't want to get involved in I'm afraid." The two figures glared at him. "You see, The Maniacs and I are a little fish in the vast ocean that is the Void, we have no desire to venture towards the waters that the bigger fish inhabit, we simply wouldn't survive especially someone like Roden Godswell."

"We weren't asking you, we were ordering you. You will assist us or be destroyed." Nightmare snapped while extending a tendril with a sharp end over to Hacks face.

Hack merely smirked and moved the tendril away. "You wouldn't risk that, if the main baddie of a universe mysteriously disappeared that would attract unwanted attention to you wouldn't it?" Nightmare and the hooded figure stayed silent until Nightmare retracted his tendril. "Looks like we're at an impasse here boys, we aren't going to get anywhere if these are the terms we're working under. If you have no more business here then make yourself scarce or I'll have Psycopath and Carnage show you the door."

As Nightmare went to get out of his seat the hooded figure put his skeletal ha d on his shoulder to,stop him. "If you will not assist us with Roden then maybe you can assist us with another thing, specifically what we were talking about through the mirror."

Hack shook his head. "I have no desire to become involved in the affairs of Lee Connors, you two can take your business elsewhere, we're done here."

Nightmare and the hooded figure teleported to a platform in a black void, looking into the portal to that world. "It was unfortunate that we could not secure their assistance to our plan. Is your backup plan ready to go?"

"Not yet, it's still brewing inside the vessels body, it will take a little longer to complete, but it will be done."

Ponyville

Sonata sat on the hill that Nathan had told her to wait at earlier that day, the sun had set and the moon began to rise over the horizon. Stars painted a beautiful picture in the sky, making a vast sea of relaxing colours. She gave a happy sigh as she enjoyed the peace of the moment, waiting for her partner to appear.

A few moments later she saw the tall white stallion walking up the hill with a soft smile on his face. Smiling Sonata stood up and walked to meet that father of her children. As they reached each other they brought each other into a loving kiss. As they separated they both looked to each other lovingly. "Hey Nata, hope I didn't keep you waiting too long."

"It's fine, I actually enjoyed the peace I got from the wait. Guess I'm just enjoying these moments while I can until the hatchlings start waking us up in the middle of the night." She replied, rubbing a hoof on the noticeable bump on her stomach.

"I hear that, but if they have their mothers grace and kind heart then they might not give us such a challenge."

Sonata giggled. "That's so cheesy, even for you!"

"I know, it's like I'm trying to come up with the sappiest things to say to you." They both sat down next to each other, Sonata leaning on Nathan as they looked out at the stars.

"So what did you want to do out here other than stare out at the stars?" Sonata asked with curiosity.

Nathan smiled and stood up, switching to his human form. "Well since you asked, I was thinking that we'd do something as a couple that didn't involve a bed. So my dear , please stand up, this is gonna take a little help from a certain item I have acquired." He held a glowing green gem in his hand and his clothing changed to a fancy tux, not the one that Rarity had made him, and also began to turn Sonata human with a sparkling blue dress.

Music began to play and Nathan bowed to Soanta with his hand held out.

"May I have this dance m'lady?" He asked with a smirk.

Sonata recovered from the shock of the transformation and smiled, placing her hand in his. "I don't see why not." With that Nathan stood up, placed a hand on Sonatas hip and gripped her other hand and began to dance with her in the moonlight.

'I need to think of a way to thank Luna for doing all this for me.' He thought as he slowly moved with his partner. As the song ended the pair shared a passionate kiss, savouring the moment they were sharing. As they stood there under the stars, they failed to notice Sapphire, Ruby, Lyric, Metal, Celestia, Luna, Discord and the main six hiding in the trees watching the pair.

"You sure he's gonna do it?" Twilight asked Ruby.

"Positive, I've learned all of the important events in my parents lives and this is the time and date where he does it." The future girl replied.

Nathan pulled away slightly and began to think about what he was about to do. 'Jist do it you idiot, it's gonna happen anyway so you might as well do it now!' Nodding in confidence he looked to his partner. "Sonata?"

"Hmm?" She looked at him in question as he took one of her hands and held it in both of his.

"You are the most important person in my life, being parents may have changed both of us in a few ways but my feelings for you only grow with each passing second, and considering that we've spent over a thousand years apart I'd say my feelings for you have probably reached the moon at this point." This got her to giggle adorably and he smiled. "When we had to part, something inside me just went away, waiting for the day we'd be reunited. When I saw you again in Canterlot High, that something came back. I was filled with so much joy I had to think of the most awful things just to keep myself focused on beating Adagio and Aria. You're my everything, I will do anything you ask of me and I will protect you from the devil himself if I have to." He took a deep breath and continued. "What I'm trying to say is, you are my life, my soul, my love, my happiness, my hopes and my dreams. I want to make you mine, and make me yours." He slowly got down on one knee, causing her to gasp as she realised what was happening. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small dark blue box, inside was the Lunar Gem made into an engagement ring. "Sonata Dusk, I ask only one thing from you, the answer to a question that I need to ask...will you marry me?"

Sonata held a hand over her mouth in shock as she looked at the ring with tears in her eyes. "Yes..." Nathan smiled wider than he ever had before. "Yes! Yes! A thousand times yes!" Nathan got off his knees and Sonata brought him into a very passionate kiss. The group in the trees all cheered while Ruby and Sapphire high fived.

Nathan placed the ring on his fiancés finger and they brought each other into a tight, meaningful embrace. "I love you Sonata Dusk."

"I love you two Nathan Phoenix."

A love between a Siren and a Warbot, just another day in Equestria.

Author's Notes:

Had to happen, you all saw it coming so it might as well be done now. This will be the first engagement of my section of the Nightmare-verse (the universe of displaced that this story connects to) and it won't be the last.

Chapter twenty five: Delivery

A few days after the proposal

Nathan sat in his pony form at the side of his shared bed while holding Sonatas hoof as she lay on her back. The time had come, Sonata was now going to lay the eggs that would develop their future children. It would take from a few weeks to a few months for the eggs to hatch, but it only took a few days for them to be ready to lay. It wasn't as painful as childbirth, far from it, but it still did put a strain on the siren. Adagio and Aria had come through the mirror portal, that was now able to open on comand thanks to Rodens modifications, to see their sister for a few days and to help take care of her.

Nathan and Sonata looked at each other with soft smiles, a slightly pained expression on Sonatas face. "You doing alright there Nata?" Nathan asked softly.

"Y-Yeah, it hurts a little, but I'll be fine...as long as you get me a taco after this."

Nathan chuckled. "Don't worry, Lyric is making you some right now, he's trying his hand at cooking."

"He has been reading a lot of books lately, it's good that he's trying something productive...unlike Sapphire who just likes to shoot things and make stuff explode."

Nathan wiped a tear of pride from his cheek. "She makes me so proud." Sonata just looked at him questioningly. "What? She's following in my footsteps...or is it hoofsteps now? I can't remember. Either way, she's taking after her father and I couldn't be happier."

"She tried to blow up the Everfree Forest two days ago."

"She didn't know there was anyone living in there and she felt it was dangerous for the eggs to be near so she tried to remove the danger, I can't blame her for trying to look out for our safety." He countered with an honest smile.

"You're a real piece of work you know that?"

Nathan just smirked and pointed to the ring on her hoof. "Well you best get used to it, cause you're going to be married to this piece of work very soon."

Meanwhile Adagio looked to Aria. "Is it just me or is Sonata...mature?"

Aria just shrugged. "Being a parent can change someone, priorities change and sometimes to look after your kids you have to mature yourself."

Adagio just looked to Aria in shock. "And how do you know this exactly?"

"I was bored and read a random book I found in the library." Adagio nodded and they turned their attention back to Sonata who was now groaning with the now growing pain.

A few minutes later

Sonata and Nathan both sat on the bed, looking down at the batch of five eggs. Each was a different colour, one green, one purple, one white, one orange and one black. They both looked to each other with a small loving smile before lying down surrounding the eggs with their bodies. "So, what do you think names should be?" Sonata asked.

"We know one thing, there's two girls and three boys there, I think I can determine which one is which by looking at their energy readings." He slid off the bed, switched to his ranger mode and scanned the eggs before returning to his pony self and back to his spot on the bed. "The purple and white ones are girls, I think we should call the purple one Amethyst and the white one Diamond."

Sonata nodded in agreement and looked towards the green egg. "I think we should call this one Bass."

Nathan smiled and looked to the orange one. "This one will be Chord."

"And the last one will be Treble." They both smiled and looked to the eggs. Just then Lyric walked in with a small tray with a plate of tacos, he walked over to his parents and set the plate in front of Sonata.

"Here you go mom, I hope you like them..." Lyric said quietly.

Sonata smiled softly and kissed Lyric on the forehead. "I'm sure they're delicious sweetie." With that she picked up one of the tacos and took and bite out of it, Lyric waiting patiently for her response. "They're lovely, thank you Lyric."

Lyric gave the smallest of smiles. As he was about to leave he spotted the eggs, his curiosity drawing him towards them. "It's alright son, you can see them." Nathan reassured him.

Lyric climbed up on the bed and crawled over to the batch of eggs, looking at them with interest and from what Nathan could tell from his expression almost judging them in a way. "They look too small to hold a baby in them..."

"They grow over time." Adagio stated, earning everyone's attention. "They come out small but over the course of their development they grow with the infant inside until it gets to the point where it can't grow anymore and the hatchling breaks out of the shell."

"I want to see them!" Sapphire yelled from the down the hall, she burst into the room and came to a screeching halt just before she hit the bed. Nathan chuckled at his daughters antics before standing up.

"I've gotta go take care of something, I'll be back in awhile." He kissed Sonata and rubbed a hoof over one of the eggs before switching to a Pegasus and flying out of a window.

Thane sat going over his weapons in the squads chamber in Canterlot. He heard heavy footsteps coming from down the hall and stopped what he was doing. The large chamber door opened and Nathan poked his head in, now in his ranger mode. "Hey..."

"Hey..." Thane replied.

"Mind if I come in?" Nathan asked.

"Come on in..."

Nathan nodded and walked the rest of his body in before closing the door behind him. "Look, I'm not gonna beat around the bush here, I know this is awkward for you just coming in here all of a sudden."

"It's fine...I need to learn to let the past go." Thane sighed. "What do you want?"

Nathan rubbed the back of his head nervously. "Well...Sonata and I are...getting married."

Thane noticed the golden ring on Nathans huge finger. "I guess congratulations are in order, you finally have that family you've always dreamed of."

"Thanks." Nathan cleared his throat and resumed. "Anyway, with the wedding and all happening I was...I was..."

Thane looked at him curious. "You were what?"

"I was...wondering if you'd like to be the best man." Nathan said, surprising Thane in the process.

"You...want me to be your best man?"

Nathan nodded. "Had to think a long time on it, I don't have that many guy friends, and with the few I do have only you, Zane and Scorpan really know me well enough to fit the bill. I can't ask Scorpan because he's busy with repairing his village and destroying Maniac outposts, and I wasn't sure about Zane with his shyness...that only left you."

Thane was about to agree but then something in his body made him say the opposite. "I'm sorry Nathan, but I can't do that."

Nathan sighed. "I should have known, but what kind of man would I be if I didn't give you a chance eh? Anyway, thanks for listening, I'll get out of your hair now." With that Nathan left the ranger in silence.

"Why? Why did I just say that?" Thane whispered as he turned away from the door.

Meanwhile Nathan was flying back to Ponyville. "I guess I'll ask Zane or Discord if something, or maybe Roden, he's helped me out so much, he deserves to be at least asked."

Author's Notes:

Things are gonna get a little crazier from now on

Chapter twenty six: Plague, Amnesia and Epidemic

{Third POV}

It was currently nightfall in Ponyville. Tomorrow was the big day. The day when Twilight and Alduin would finally be wed. The Twins were sleeping soundly with their father and soon-to-be mother. Suddenly, Plague woke up, unfused with Alduin, and rubbed his eyes. Amnesia, noticing that her brother was up and about, woke up as well. She unfused with Twilight and approached her brother.

“Plague? What are you doing?”

“Hey, do you feel that?”

“Feel what?” Suddenly, Amnesia felt a sudden pulse of energy, like something was calling to her.

“That.”

“Yeah, I do. What is it?”

“I don’t know but it sure feels, familiar.” The Twins tried to recall where they had felt this feeling before. Then, out of nowhere, a portal opened up underneath them and they feel through. “Oh wait, I remember now. This is what we felt like before we first meet Symbol!”

…

“Ok you two, your mother and I are going out to Canterlot for the evening, you two behave yourselves until either Ruby, Krystal, or Twilight gets back.” A tall white stallion with spiky purple hair said to two small children. One was a young girl with long blue hair, a small blue dress with slippers on her feet. The other was a small young boy with messy golden yellow hair, he wore a yellow jacket with jeans and sneakers. “And no Sapphire, no blowing things up while I'm gone...I wanna watch as well.” The stallion smirked as the girl rolled her eyes.

”Do I really need to be watched while I test out my weapons dad? It's a lot more fun to be able to just fire away.”

“Sadly yes, it makes your mother feel better about me allowing you two to have my guns and weapons at your disposal. Also, no buying a new weapon from the Gadgetron Vendor! I'm saving up for the Zodiac.” With that the stallion walked out of the castle of friendship with a pony Sonata Dusk following him who turned back to the children.

“Please take care of the eggs children, make sure they're safe and sound.”

”Don't worry mom, we'll keep our little brothers and sisters safe!” Sapphire said as she brought out a huge gun.

Sonata groaned. “Honey...did you give Sapphire the RYNO 2?”

“No, it should be in my inventory-ohhhhhhhh you sneaky little-!” Before her father could come back to retrieve the weapon Sapphire slammed the door shut and locked it.

”Goodbye have a good time!”

“Sapphire! Open this door...so I can give you a hug!”

“Nathan! You're supposed to punish her for stealing one of your weapons of mass destruction, not reward her.” Scolded Sonata.

“She just reminds me so much of myself, so eager to wreak havoc with quality weaponry *sniff* she makes me so proud sometimes.” With that the couple took to the skies and began flying towards Canterlot.

”Why do you always have to steal the guns from dad sis? Didn't he give you a few guns to start off with?” The boy asked shyly.

”Well he did Lyric, but he only stuck me with the bomb glove, devastator and Telsa Claw, I love them and all but sometimes I just want something with a little more firepower.” Sapphire began walking, carrying the huge weapon that was almost twice the size of her body effortlessly as she hummed a merry tune. Lyric sighed and began following his sister. Suddenly they both felt a small surge of energy in the castle.

“Mmmm… huh, wha? Where are we?” Plague sat up and looked around, his sister doing the same. They were in Twilight’s castle, but for some reason now it was day time. The two got up and began walking around, wondering what the heck was going on. They didn’t notice that behind them was a little gold necklace with a purple and green orb.

As they walked around, they noticed the door to a room was open. Deciding to investigate, they found a bedroom. Everything looked pretty normal, well except for the group of eggs in front of them. There were five of them, all different colors.

“Huh? What are these?” Plague and Amnesia were about to step into the room to get a better look, when suddenly a blast of energy knocked the both of them away from the door.

”Yeah, I'm gonna have to ask you not to enter this room.” Plague sat up and looked at his attacker. It was some girl, looking to be around his age, with long blue hair. She had a small blue dress on and some slippers. Behind her was a boy, also looking to be around the same age, with messy golden yellow hair. He had a yellow jacket with some jeans and sneakers.

“Ouch, hey what was that for?”

”You were about to attack my little brothers and sisters!”

“Little brothers and sisters? All I see is a bunch of eggs.” The blue girl fired another shot, hitting her target dead on.

Sapphire lowered her weapon after that last shot and sighed. No intruders were going to hurt her unborn brothers and sisters.

”Well, that takes care of that.”

”Um, sis? Shouldn’t we have tried to figure out why they were here? I mean, maybe they got sent here on accident.” Sapphire looked at the smoke build up and shrugged.

“Eh, too late to worry about that now.” Sapphire began to walk away, but Lyric just turned to look at the plume of smoke. As he was about to leave as well, he did a double take.

”Huh?” If he looked closely, he could see a figure in the smoke. It was much taller than the two Sapphire had just blasted. As the figure became more defined, he saw it raise up its hand, before a red light started charging up. Lyric’s eyes widened before he dove at his sister. ”SIS LOOK OUT!”

Sapphire just barely looked behind her before Lyric tackled her, and then a large amount of magic was blasted at them. There was a loud explosion and the Twins were thrown out of the castle.

”Ow… what happened?” Sapphire and Lyric got up and looked around. When they turned to the castle, there was a giant, smoldering hole in the side of the structure. Everypony in Ponyville was wondering what was going on. As they looked, Lyric could see that figure from before approaching the edge of the hole. The smoke cleared around it, revealing a human that looked to be eighteen. He had blood red hair that was spiked back, a blood red jacket with black stripes, and blood red jeans. He had a black undershirt, and black shoes as well. His eyes were blood red, and gleamed with rage and hate. He was probably one of the most intimidating things they had ever seen.

”W-Who, are you?” The mysterious person’s glare shifted to Lyric, causing him to flinch.

“I, am Epidemic, and you’re going to tell me why you brought me here.”

Sapphire stood up and glared at Epidemic. ”What are you talking about, we didn't bring you here. Our parents literally just left a minute ago, you are the one that's trespassing, so why are you here?” She demanded sternly. Lyric started getting a bad feeling and slipped by the two of them and back into the castle to move the eggs away from the approaching battle that his sister was sure to start.

“You’re in no position to demand anything from me, answer my question or die.”

Sapphire chuckled and readied her gun. ”Try me red boy.”

Epidemic rolled his eyes and blasted Sapphire with a large beam. “Now, where did that other one get off to?” As he was about to walk away a wave of blue energy rockets were shot out of the dust cloud that had been created from where Sapphire was standing.

The girl proceeded to keep the trigger held down, the energy rockets shooting out rapidly. Epidemic put up his arms to block the blasts but found himself flinching as each blast hit. ”I can tell this is gonna be a good fight.”

“You really want to throw your life away little girl?”

”Somethin you better remember pal, never, call me, little, girl!” Sapphire put the RYNO 2 away and pulled out a new weapon that she wore on her right hand.

Epidemic looked at the claw confused slightly before a stream of lightning shot out from the tips of the claw that shocked him. Sapphire continued holding down the trigger before stopping and charging forward with a different weapon in her left hand.

”I really need to thank daddy for giving me my own omniwrench.” She said as she knocked Epidemic over the head with it as he was paralysed by the lightning. Her strength surprised Epidemic as she was able to knock him to the other side of the hall at an impressive speed.

As Sapphire was about to fire another wave of lightning she was knocked back by Epidemic blasting her with a beam of magic that hit her stomach. As she recovered she received a punch to the face that knocked her through a wall.

”Ow…” Sapphire lifted herself up and knocked Epidemic away with her wrench as he charged her again, but then received a few blasts that knocked her backwards. ”Ok it started out fun but now it's just annoying.”

“Then let me cure your boredom!” Sapphire didn't have time to react as Epidemic backhanded her into a wall and furiously blasted her.

As the dust settled Sapphire was stuck in the wall with only a few burns and her dress having a few tears. ”Aww, I like this dress…”

’Hmm, she's stronger than I thought. Guess I should quit holding back and end her quickly.’

’Don’t kill her Epidemic!’

’Yeah! She has a family!’

’Ugh, fine. I won’t kill her, but that doesn’t mean she’ll get out of this still conscious.’ Epidemic looked up as Sapphire leaped at him with her Tesla claw. He dodged to the side, slightly surprising her, before he brought up his knee into her stomach. He then grabbed the back of her dress and threw her into another wall before he unleashed a huge blast of magic and fire on her. There was an explosion and Epidemic threw an arm in front of his face. Once the smoke cleared, he brought his arm down and saw Sapphire, pretty hurt but still conscious.

”You’re gonna hafta…” She spat out some blood before she continued, ”try harder than that.”

“Kid, I recommend that you give up now. I’m not going to kill you, but that certainly doesn’t mean I won’t hurt you even more so. Give up now, or suffer the consequences.”

”Why are you even here?”

“You’re the one who summoned me, so you tell me.” Sapphire was about to tell him that they had done no such thing, but then out of nowhere a bullet of energy came straight at Epidemic. He raised his arm and blocked it without a second thought. He turned and glared at the one who had fired that shot. Sapphire did too, and she saw that it was a robot aiming it's arm cannon at Epidemic.

It had purple metal and its body was a block design. “Look I'm gonna have to recommend you stop hurting my niece, not because of what I'm gonna do but of what her father will do if he comes home to see her hurt, trust me, you won't survive that.” It spoke in a female voice, giving the impression of a tomboy.

”Auntie Krystal!” Sapphire exclaimed in joy.

“Sapphire, go find some Nanotech and go to your room for awhile and let me handle this, it's been years since I've had a good fight.” She fired her arm cannon again and it shot a wide blast of energy, almost like a shotgun. Sapphire nodded and began running through the hole in the castle and down the hallway. Epidemic had dodged the shot that had been fired at him and he glared at his new opponent.

“So, this is your world.”

“It’s not just mine buddy, and if you don’t back down now I‘ll call in the others.” She fired another shot which hit Epidemic.

“Pathetic.” Suddenly, Epidemic appeared behind Krystal and she was knocked sideways. “Hmm… you seem to be weaker than that child.”

Krystal got up and fired more shots at Epidemic, which he continuously dodged. Epidemic then charged her and kneed her where her stomach would have been if she was organic.

“And I think I know why.” He then kicked her, sending her flying into a wall.”She’s a Nightmare, or at least she used to be. Her attacks are stronger, her instincts make her a natural born fighter, and she can endure more...that, and something else I can't put my finger on.”

Epidemic charged at Krystal again, then pressed her into the earth with his foot.

“So in all reality, it should be her protecting you.” Krystal knocked Epidemic off of her before turning and getting a shot point blank. Epidemic was thrown back a bit before he recovered. His glare hardened before he outstretched his arm. “Hmm, but you are still strong. I suppose I will have to end you quickly as well.”

A blood red scythe formed in Epidemic’s hands and he spun it around. He then dove at Krystal, but she dodged before she switched her weapon and began firing it at him.

She began to rapidly shoot fireballs out of the pistol that started causing some serious damage. As Epidemic rolled out of the way and charged Krystal, he was shot by a powerful shot of energy that knocked him off the ground. Krystal looked to her left and saw another robot standing there. It had yellow metal, a slimmer design and its arm cannon was longer. “I was handling it Katie.”

“Sorry, I just wanted to make sure you didn't end up like scrap just yet.” The robot spoke in a relaxed female voice. “Wanna tell me why there's a gender swap of Ruby attacking this place?”

“I don't know, but I say we put him down before anything happens to Nathan's kids, God only knows what he'll do if that happens.” Krystal replied as she began shooting Epidemic with both her cannon and her gun, with Krystal using her sniper cannon to deal heavy blows to him.

After the barrage ended a smoke cloud had built up. As the smoke cleared, Katie and Krystal could only look in shock to see that Epidemic had taken little damage.

“Pathetic.” He then dove at the two and swung his scythe, knocking them both into a nearby building. They both recovered and began unleashing their weapons on him, trying to land as many hits as possible. However, it seemed to be that Epidemic was done messing around, and now was fighting with the intent to kill. He dodge most of the shots, though a few still hit him, before he returned fire with his own blast of magic, forcing the two female robots to run for cover.

“Who is this guy?” Krystal looked at her companion and shrugged.

“No idea, but we better find a way to take him out, fast.” As Epidemic prepared another blast of magic he was interrupted by gunfire from the side. He turned and saw Sapphire coming back into the battle with the RYNO 2. Epidemic turned and focused his attention on her, giving Krystal and Katie a quick breather before Krystal tapped a button on her arm, and called Nathan.

“Nathan?!”

“Huh? Krystal? What’s up? And why do you sound panicky?”

“There’s some sort of displaced here! We don’t know what happened, but when I got here he and Sapphire were going at it before I rushed in to stop him. Katie then came in too and we were able to buy Sapphire enough time to heal up and get back into the battle. He’s really powerful and is causing a lot of destruction! We need your help!”

“Wait, you’re letting Sapphire fight him?”

“She’s doing it on her own, and this guy seems to let up when he’s going against her. With Katie and I it’s clear he doesn’t care whether he kills us or not but with Sapphire it seems like he’s trying to make sure he doesn’t kill her.”

“...”

“Nathan?” Krystal asked in a cautious voice.

“Did you just say…a displaced, is fighting my daughter?” He asked with a dark tone.

“Oh crap! I forgot about what happened with the last one! Never mind! I'm sure if we get Ruby we can take him down!”

“No Krystal, I'm handling this myself, I'm not having a repeat of the Jack of Blades incident, especially now that I have kids in this world. Clear out of the castle, protect the eggs and twins, but keep the displaced in the castle until I get there.”

“Wait!” Nathan stayed on the channel while waiting for her to continue.”Get Thane and Zane if you can. We’ll need their help too!” Krystal could hear Nathan pause before he continued.

“Alright fine, I’ll get them...but don't get your hopes up on Thane though, he's still not talking to me.” Nathan then hung up and Katie and Krystal turned their attention back to the battle. Sapphire was currently attacking with her Tesla claw, with Epidemic countering it with his scythe. The battle was a bit one sided, as Epidemic clearly had more experience in combat. He was slightly annoyed at the fact he couldn’t just finish the little girl off, but he made sure she would survive.

’You know, I could drain her of her strength and finish this battle quickly.’

’No way Psychotic. This kid is pretty young, probably younger than the Twins. If you drain her, you could cause some permanent damage to her. I don’t care if she’s the enemy, I’m not gonna let you cripple a child.’

’You’re no fun.’ Epidemic just ignored their conversation. He didn’t really care if this kid’s leg got broken in this fight, but obviously the Twins wouldn’t be too particularly happy if he or any of the fusions crippled her so he knew he had to deal with this himself.

Sapphire was doing a lot better off this time around, but that doesn’t mean she was winning. She was able to endure more hits, and was landing more attacks on Epidemic as well. It was probably her Nightmare natural instincts allowing her to adapt to her opponent to an extent. She swung her Tesla claw at him and Epidemic dodged it. He then swung his scythe but Sapphire blocked it with her claw. As their weapons clashed, Epidemic noticed her weapons had gotten a bit darker too, and were doing a little more damage. Epidemic could only assume that Sapphire’s instincts were causing her to subconsciously increase her weapon’s power by adding her own Nightmare energy into it. This battle was bringing out her combat instincts, that was for sure. How powerful she could get from this was anyone’s guess.

“I’ll admit kid, you're a powerful adversary, but you aren't the kind of challenge I'm looking for.” Epidemic grabbed Sapphire by the throat and slammed her against the wall.

”Then why don't you fight someone who can give you a real challenge?!”. A voice shouted from the other end of the hallway. Epidemic growled in annoyance and turned to the new arrival...but stopped as he saw her. She had ruby red hair that was tied into a ponytail, she wore a red hoodie and red jeans with sneakers. Her eyes seemed to shine like rubies, much like Sapphires gleamed like sapphire gems. For some reason, Epidemic couldn't stop looking at her, she looked around eighteen.

‘Uh...you alright there Epidemic?’ Psychotic asked in Epidemics head.

The girl looked to Krystal, Katie and Sapphire. ”You three get out of here and get the eggs some place safe, I'll hold him off until dad arrives.”

As Sapphire was about to run past the girl she looked up at her with confidence. ”Kick his ass sis.”

The girl smirked and turned her attention back to Epidemic who was just staring, a blank look on his face. ”Alright handsome, you gonna stare at me until the rest of the family get here or are you gonna fight me? Because with what I've been told about you from my teacher I expect you to be a challenge.”

Epidemic shook himself back to reality and took a fighting stance. “And who would this teacher of yours be exactly, and what is your name?” He asked in monotone.

The girl smirked before taking a fighting stance that Epidemic recognised from somewhere. She had turned her body to the left slightly, bent one leg that she had put forward and had one hand on the ground while the other was clenched in a fist. ”The name's Ruby Phoenix, eldest daughter to Nathan Phoenix. As for my teacher, I think you'll find out during our little session here.”

With a grunt, Epidemic dove at Ruby and swung his scythe. Ruby however, blocked it with an omni wrench. They started swinging at each other, neither one able to overpower the other. Epidemic dodged one of Ruby’s swings and blasted her with magic, sending her flying back. She recovered and charged, slamming her omni wrench into Epidemic’s scythe. He pushed her back and fired another blast of magic. Ruby however, was ready for it this time. She dodged the strike and pulled out a gun, then proceeded to fire at Epidemic. He closed the distance and struck her with his scythe, cutting her across the chest. She was sent flying back and into a wall.

“Is that really the best you can do?” Ruby smirked as she detached herself from the wall.

”Damn, my teacher told me you were good, but he didn’t say you were this good. Guess I’ll have to crank it up a notch.” Suddenly, Epidemic could feel an increase of energy in Ruby, causing him to take a step back.

Soon her body became outlined in red flames, her eyes glowing as she smiled at the natural feeling of power flowing through her veins. She held her hand out and shot three spears of red fire at Epidemic who recovered from his shock in time to avoid the attack. “Wait a minute...”

”Still not remembering this power fully? Ok then, maybe this will help.” She blasted him a few times before joining her hands and closing her eyes. ”Mode three, level one.”

Epidemics eyes widened at the phrase she spoke as her body changed, her hair became dark grey as did her clothes. Her fingers shaped to claws and her eyes had dark grey mist coming from the corners of them. “What?! How?! Why?!” Epidemic growled in rage and clenched in anger, causing the crystal floor below him to crack as his power rose with his anger. “HOW DO YOU HAVE THIS POWER!?!?”

Ruby smirked in her new form and spoke with an echoed voice. ”Well I guess I'll tell you.” She held out her hands and two dark grey fire blades appeared in them. ”I am the personal apprentice of the hero of the multiverse, Symbol Shattered, or in this case...Perfect Symbol.”

“What do you mean?!”

”Here's a news flash for ya handsome, I'm from the future.”

Author's Notes:

Oh boy, I have been planning this crossover for a long time. Now...let the shipping-I MEAN FIGHTING commence

Crossover with A Displaced Dragon by my co-writer and buddy Prince_Zodiac, me and this talented guy have teamed up a lot, all of our displaced stories interconnect, all that was left to do was get one of his characters in this story to make this officially part of the Nightmare-verse

Chapter twenty seven: Phoenix Family vs Epidemic

{Third POV}

Epidemic didn’t know whether or not he could take her seriously. Did this girl just say she was from the future? How could that be? Granted, it did explain how she had Symbol’s power, considering Epidemic was pretty sure Symbol wasn’t training anyone right now. Epidemic grunted as he let the thought flow out of his head. He needed to focus on the battle right now.

He dove at Ruby, scythe at the ready, and swung. Ruby blocked the attack with her fire blades and knocked him back.

“You know, Symbol told me that you could only beat him a few times when he got like this. Any other time and he kicked your ass.” Epidemic ignored the comment as he recovered. Ruby leaped at him and thrust one of her flaming swords forward, but Epidemic managed to dodge. He grabbed her arm, swung her around, and tossed her into a wall. Or at least, he attempted to. She recovered mid air and flew at Epidemic, slashing him across the chest. He was sent flying back into a wall. Ruby just smiled as he pulled himself out of the rubble before disappearing. ”Do you still remember what mode three does to the user's body?” Her voice was echoed.

Epidemic remained silent, keeping himself prepared for any surprise attack. Suddenly he was struck out of nowhere which pushed him to the side. He was struck again in the back which made him stumble forward and as he regained his bearings he was hit right in the face resulting in him flipping over and landing on his back against the crystal floor.

”Converts most of the user’s energy and focuses it on speed and agility. If used in small doses like level one has an amazing effect. Load it with most of your energy with level two and it becomes extremely powerful. With level three it will exhaust the user but works extremely well against the likes of you. However I think I'll stick to level one for now.” Rudy then appeared behind Epidemic and swung both swords at his back.

Epidemic grunted in pain as the fire in the blades coated the newly formed wound. Ruby then grabbed him and slammed him into the ground before blasting him with magic. Rudy smirked at the plume of smoke that held her opponent.

“”Now I see why Symbol would have trouble beating you at times, but at the end of the day he's still stronger than you.”

“That may be true. However...” Suddenly Epidemic was behind her, his red eyes glowing with power and hate. “I’m not fighting Symbol, I’m fighting you.”

Ruby was blasted with a beam of magic and thrown into a wall. Epidemic leaped at her and plowed his knee into her stomach, pushing her further into the wall. He then grabbed her by the neck and threw her down the hall before blasting her once again.

’What the hell? Why’s he suddenly so fast and so powerful?’ Epidemic began walking to her, his scythe at his side.

“You may have Symbol’s power, but nowhere are you near him in skill. If you were, I would have fighting for real a long time ago.” Ruby was shocked. He hadn’t been going at full strength all this time? Ruby could only wonder what kind of power Epidemic really had. Ruby knew how strong Symbol was going to become from her future. But even at that strength Symbol had told her that Epidemic could match and sometimes even beat him in battle. Ruby knew she had to be prepared for a tough fight, but she didn’t expect him to be this strong so early in time!

”Symbol told me that you would be strong, that at almost any point in time you could match him. But he never told how powerful you would be in the past. I thought you would be a lot weaker.”

“You were foolish to assume. You don’t have Symbol’s skill, nor the experience. This battle, will be your last.” Ruby got up and charged at Epidemic. Somehow, he dodged her, and kneed her in the stomach. He then grabbed her and threw her into a wall. Ruby separated herself from the indent and flew at him. She swung her swords, but Epidemic blocked them with his scythe. She then threw a knee into his face, sending him back a bit. He quickly recovered and managed to block her swords.

“Your fighting style is similar to his, but there’s more openings. I’m guessing he wasn’t able to complete your training?” Ruby just grunted as she attempted to kick Epidemic. He grabbed her leg with his right arm and tossed her behind him. She quickly recovered and fired a beam of magic at him. Epidemic countered it with his own blast before he rushed her, and slicing at her with his scythe. He cut across her chest and she was thrown back. She slammed into the floor before rolling a couple of feet away. She slowly got up, breathing heavily, blood dripping down her torso.

As she held her wound she stared down her opponent. Suddenly her body was enveloped in a light blue glow and her wounds healed. Looking over her shoulder she spotted another robot. He was slightly smaller than the others and his cannon was shorter as well, he was coloured light blue and was shooting out small blue balls of transparent energy into Dubys body. “I don't know what's going on here or who you two are, but Katie told me you needed help.” His voice sounded like a young boy.

Krystal and Katie ran up to them and held their cannons up at Epidemic while standing beside the third robot. “Zane, glad you could make it.” Katie said as she focused her scope on Epidemic.

“Is Thane coming too?” Krystal asked.

“I don't know, the only reason I was able to get here so quickly was because Nathan threw me from Canterlot, thank goodness for my shield generator.” Zane replied.

Epidemic was about to fire a beam when all of a sudden he felt a sharp wave of pain. He looked to his chest and saw two blood red energy blades sticking out. He felt his body being torn in two as the new attacker pulled the blades away from each other. He managed to dislodge the blades and stumbled forward as the blades had went straight through his lungs. Looking back he saw a fourth robot, this one had no arm cannon but had two hands, it had black metal and a crimson glowing eye. “How many of you robots are in this world?”

The new arrival just swung his blades, that were generated from his wrists, and sliced Epidemic over the shoulder before becoming invisible. Epidemic frantically looked around for his opponent but was surprised as he was blasted in the back by the returning Sapphire. He was then stuck by another blade from the invisible robot bit grabbed it while he was nearby and smashed it into the ground.

He was then blasted by Katie from one side, Krystal on another, Ruby on another and Sapphire on the last side, they had him surrounded. They just continues blasting away, moving closer with each shot. He wasn't given enough time to dodge any of the attacks as they were constant and were powerful enough to make him stumble. As the group closed in on him to robot beneath him disappeared and reappeared behind him. The robot brought one blue back before slicing Epidemics neck before pushing him down with a foot, causing his head to roll off.

“Thane! You actually came.” Krystal said surprised to the new arrival. “You agreed to help Nathan.”

“I wasn't doing this for that traitor Nathan Phoenix, I was doing this to protect you three.” Thane said as he looked to the three robots. “Now that this is done I'm heading back to Canterlot. Come on Zane, Katie.” He said as he began to walk off.

”This is far from over.” Rudy said as she looked down at Epidemic who had turned all black and formed into a black liquid with a blue outline as did his dismembered head. The goo formed together in a puddle and slowly began to shape into a regenerated Epidemic. Everyone was shocked. Even though Epidemic kept a straight face, he was surprised too.

’How in the hell?’

‘Can’t have you dying on us can I brother?’ Now Epidemic understood. In that moment he was dying. Because of that, Psychotic was able to take full control for a second to regenerate the body before partial control was handed back to Epidemic. Taking advantage of the confusion, Epidemic charged up a giant red ball of magic before firing it out at his enemies. The blast threw everyone back.

“What the hell? How is he alive? I cut off his head!”

”Epidemic isn’t normal. Killing him will be especially difficult.”

“Wait, you know who he is?”

”Yes but we don’t have the time right now. With all of us gathered, there’s a chance we could win this battle.”

“Well that’s good.”

”Not necessarily.”

“What do you mean? With our numbers and combined power we’ll surely beat him.”

”Yes, but that’s the problem. With our numbers and combined power, Epidemic going to go full power now. This will be by far the most difficult enemy any of you have ever faced.”

They all watched as Epidemic stood there, glaring. Suddenly, he was gone. He then appeared behind Thane before he grabbed his arm and slammed him against his allies. Everyone except Ruby was thrown to the side. Ruby tried to strike at Epidemic’s back, but he turned around and caught her arm as if it was nothing. He then punched her in the gut, sending her flying back into the wall. Thane grunted as he got up. He leaped at Epidemic, two energy swords at the ready, and swung. Epidemic blocked them both with his scythe. His glare shifted to Thane, his eyes glowing with hate and power.

“Pathetic.” He forced Thane’s blades back before he turned and swung, slicing across Thane’s chest area. He was thrown back as the others recovered and readied their weapons. They all began firing. But, to their shock, Epidemic started moving around extremely fast, as if he was teleporting. First he was in one spot, the suddenly the next. Each and every bullet was dodged before he stopped and fired a blast of magic at them. They were all blasted out of the castle and onto the streets. Epidemic hopped out of the second hole in the structure, landing on the ground a couple of meters away from his opponents. Ruby tried to surprise him by diving at Epidemic form above, but he just blocked her attack with his scythe before grabbing her and tossing her at her comrades. She recovered along with the rest and they all stood at the ready.

“Is this really the best you all can do. Fine then, I’ll end you here and now.” Epidemic began charging up a huge ball of red magic. He pointed it at the group, ready to end their lives. “Good bye. I hope you have fun in hell.”

Suddenly Epidemic stopped as he felt a strong presence in the area, far more powerful than the rest of the group. Ceasing his attack he looked to the ground, finding that a huge shadow was being cast down on the area. Turning around and slowly looking up he found himself face to face with a robot that was larger than a fully powered Tirek. It was heavily armoured, it's metal being purple with silver platings. It reeled it's huge fist back before crushing Epidemic under it.

“No one, and I mean NO ONE, hurts my friends or family!” His voice was that of a young man but with his robotic form there was a metallic buzz.

”Dad?”

“Ruby, are you okay?” He asked with concern.

”Yeah I’m fine, but you might want to look down.” Nathan had no idea what she meant, until he felt his hand shift. With a shocked expression, he looked down to see his hand being lifted up from the ground. Thane, Zane, Krystal, and Katie, also had shocked expressions as they watch Epidemic slowly lift the giant fist off of him with a single arm. There was a red aura around him, that just kept building as he lifted the massive fist off the ground. Suddenly, he threw Nathan’s fist away, causing the giant ranger to stumble back in surprise. The red aura around Epidemic had grown a considerable amount, and now his dragon wings, tail, and horns were out. His red eyes glowed with even more anger, hate, and power as he glared at his opponents with an emotionless face.

“If this is the best you weaklings have, then your fate will remain unchanged.” He began walking towards Ruby and the others. “I’m going to kill each and every one of you.” His glare focused on Ruby. “Starting with her.”

“You, will, not, touch, my, daughter!” Nathan attempted to punch Epidemic once again, but he disappeared from the attack’s path. He was suddenly behind Nathan, a giant ball of red magic in his hand.

“So you want to go first. Fine then.” He blasted Nathan with a massive beam of magic. “It makes no difference in the end.”

Nathan took the hit, then turned around with the RYNO 2 at the ready. He blasted Epidemic at point blank, sending him flying back. Epidemic recovered and dove at Nathan, scythe ready to strike. Zane watched as the conflict between two powerful warriors began.

“I don’t understand how someone could be this powerful. What is he anyways?”

”Epidemic is a symbiote.”

“A what?”

”A symbiote. And a very powerful one at that.”

They all looked back out at the battle, which appeared to be and even match between the two fighters. “Well Nathan is our strongest fighter, if he can't beat that guy no one can.” Krystal said as she sat down to watch the fight.

As Epidemic charged Nathan he was grabbed by the huge robot who began to repeatedly crush him in his palm before spinning his upper body and furiously tossing the raging symbiote into a mountain. He then aimed his huge cannon at the mountain and began firing a steady stream of energy blasts.

Epidemic shot out from the dust cloud and flew towards the faint warbot with his fist charged with energy. As he reached his target he was surprised as Nathan quickly dodged to the side and smacked him with his arm cannon. As Epidemic crashed into the ground he looked up at the machine towering over him. “It would seem that this world actually has some challenge to it. What is your name? I wish to know the identity of my adversary.”

Nathan just glared down at him. “My name is Nathan Phoenix…” He grabbed Epidemic in his hand and pulled him up to eye level, the symbiotes head only visible as the rest of his body was trapped in the huge metal hand. “...and I am sick and tired of displaced like you coming into my world and attacking my family!”

Nathan began to crush Epidemic with his strength, causing the symbiote to yell in pain only causing his anger and power to grow.

Nathan realised what was happening and threw Epidemic away before pulling out a new weapon.

Nathan aimed the now giant gun in the direction of Epidemic. “So sorry about this forest.” He pulled the trigger and held it down. Waves upon waves of huge bullets and rockets shot out of the weapon, the multiple barrels spinning, the weapon being a mixture of a rocket launcher and a mini gun.

As he took his finger off the trigger Nathan looked out to the destruction he had caused, an entire part of the forest had been completely destroyed.

“Ok, I now know not to use this when I'm huge like this...I'm sure I can restore the forest somehow.” Putting the weapon away he began walking over to a large crater that had been the focus point of the destruction. As he slid down the slope he looked to the centre to not see an injured Epidemic, but injured Plague and Amnesia. He felt a wave of guilt and regret. “Shit! Two kids got caught in the crossfire?!”

He frantically looked around the battlefield in search of Epidemic but found nothing. Looking back to the two unconscious children he rubbed his face with his hand.

“Fuck...what am I gonna do?” Suddenly an idea came to him. He reached into his storage unit and pulled out a bundle of small boxes.

“God I hope this works on you two.” He walked over to the two, knelt down on one knee, crushed the boxes in his hand and let the blue energy balls inside travel down to the twins. They absorbed the energy and their wounds started to heal, but slowly. “It's better than nothing.” He at them apologetically. “I'll get you to the castle where you can rest up, I'll see if I can find your parents or something. I'm sure Sapphire and Lyrics would like some other kids to talk to anyway. If it takes a while you can stay with me and Sonata. I'm sure whatever happened here was just a big misunderstanding.”

Meanwhile inside the twins mindscape, Epidemic couldn’t believe what he was looking at. When the RYNO 5 had been used on him, Epidemic had been forced to separate back into the Twins. However, the firing had not stopped, and now they were incredibly hurt. In fact, the looked like they were dead.

“No. No.”

“Epidemic? What happened to them?”

“That bastard. He killed them.”

“Epi they’re not-”

“HE KILLED THEM! I’LL MAKE THAT BASTARD PAY FOR WHAT HE’S DONE! I’LL MAKE THEM ALL SUFFER!” Patron went to calm her brother’s rising anger, but it was too late. There was a blast as everything in the mindscape was tinated a blood red. Both Patron and Psychotic felt Epidemic’s pain, anger, and pure rage spill into, overwhelming their minds and forcing them to the will of Epidemic's anger. The three stood side by side in the mindscape, their eyes completely red and glowing.

”WE WILL MAKE THEM ALL SUFFER!”

Nathan reached down, attempting to pick the two unconscious children up. But then, their eyes opened. They were completely red and glowing with power and anger. Nathan could sense the hate and anger, oozing out of them like a waterfall. They became all black before they fused.

Then, they fused with him.

“Ruby will Nathan be okay?”

”Yeah, Dad’ll be fine. Epidemic may be tough, but Dad’s even tougher. Besides, even if things got out of hand I’m sure that-”

“AAARRGH!” Everyone turned in shock to see Nathan stumble out of the destroyed forest, a black substance seemingly wrestling with him. He tried to pry it off, but the substance only grabbed his arms before it continued to fight him. “GET THIS THING OFF OF ME!”

”Dad! No!” Ruby dove at her father, determined to help him get this black stuff off. However, the substance seemed to sense her, and reacted violently. It forced part of itself out like a fist, and nailed Ruby in the face, sending her flying back.

“RUBY!” Nathan reached out towards her, but the black substance enveloped his arm, and converged on his body. It covered him completely and began to shift around, as if changing the body shape of its captive. Then, an arm shot out.

It was huge, about the size of Nathan’s when he was full size. A body began to form as a massive creature seemingly pulled itself out of the black blob. It started to grow and grow and grow, until it was just as big as Nathan was at full size. The body began to take shape. It formed into a bipedal dragon, with massive wings. Its right arm had deadly claws, while its left was an arm cannon. Its chest and lower body had the armor that could be found on a ranger, and on the center chest piece was a giant orange oval, looking just like Nathan’s eye when he was in ranger form.. Its scales were blood red.

It opened its red eyes, and roared.

”GRRRROOOOOOAAAAAAARRRRRR!!!” The cry was deafening. Everypony in Ponyville ran away in fear, and the gathered fighters could only look at the mighty beast in horror.

“What… the hell… is that thing?”

”That is Epidemic’s rage, possessing my father’s body.

Meanwhile, a strange figure was watching these events unfold. “Hmmmm, this won't do...this won't do at all.” The figure turned away from the battle and sighed. “I should have completed her training before sending her here, then this wouldn't have happened...yet another thing to add to my list of failures.”

Author's Notes:

Whelp, they're fucked

Chapter twenty eight: Reality Star

“GRRRRROOOOOOAAAAAARRRRRHHHH!!!” The giant red bipedal dragon roared, completely enraged. Ruby and the others stared in horror at the towering beast as it bellowed into the sky, filling the air with noise. The draconic monster looked out at the surrounding area before roaring once more, and then leveled its arm cannon at Ponyville. A massive shot of magical energy fired out into the center of town, building up into a ball before it exploded, the blast causing the very earth to rise up into a huge pillar of fire, a good section of it getting destroyed in the process. It roared once more and began stomping towards the town.

Sapphire and Lyric were shaking at the sight of their father, refusing to believe that anything they were seeing was true. Sapphire snapped out of her delusions and pulled out the RYNO 2 and aimed it at the back of Rage’s body. She pulled the trigger and multiple energy rockets were fired at the huge dragon-robot hybrid.

The blasts caused Rage to grunt in annoyance as he turned his attention towards the group and away from the damaged town of Ponyville. He leveled his cannon at the group and began to build up energy.

Ruby held up her hand and created a large red shield around the group as the blast was fired. The blast didn't make it through the shield but caused it to shatter on impact. Ruby gasped in pain as her magic was destroyed so suddenly.

Zane ran up to get and began pumping Nanotech into her body, healing her wounds. Lyric just fell on his rear as he watched his monster possessed father approaching with a bloodlust so deadly it made his skin crawl from even a mile away.

Sapphire and Ruby looked to each other and nodded, bring out their RYNO's and firing at the beast approaching. ”It's ok to shoot him! The damage won't affect Dad, only Epidemic!” Ruby yelled as she aimed for the head.

Rage charged the group, fire burning from his body as he sped towards them at an alarming rate. Most of the group were able just barely dodge except for Thane who ended up on the opposite end of a large burning steel foot, sending him flying into a mountain taking heavy damage. The group spread out and fired from multiple directions to distract Rage, who instinctively targeted the last person to attack him, but with the amount of attacks taking place he couldn't decide on a target.

His anger rose and he glowed a violent red, the ground shaking as his energy built up. He then released the energy in a huge blast that blew everyone away, damaging them as well as knocking the squad members of Phoenix offline, leaving Ruby, Sapphire and Lyric to deal with the threat.

Rage bellowed out in anger once more before setting his sights on Sapphire. Slightly remembering that she was related to the being that had given Rage so much anger, he attacked her first. He brought up his arm cannon and prepared to fire a blast that would have most definitely killed her had Ruby not intervened. She shot a blast of magic at the arm cannon, causing it to slightly shift to the left and barely miss Sapphire. Glaring at the one that messed up his attack, Rage let out another monstrous roar before aiming at her and firing. Ruby was just barely able to escape the blast radius of the giant beam that was fired outwards, taking a large section of the Everfree with it. Immediately she knew, one shot from this thing, and she could die.

”I need to find a weak point. There has to be some way for me to hurt him.” Ruby kept up her offence by blasting him with more magic. These attacks did fuck all to Rage, and mainly kept his focus on her. He raised his arm cannon again and fired. Ruby was once again barely able to dodge. Seeing that a lot of his powerful attacks were range based, the best strategy would be to get up close and personal.

Oh how wrong she was.

When she flew close to Rage, he would attempt to grab her, most likely to drain her of her power before he killed her. She dodged all of his swips, ensuring that her energy wasn’t stolen, as she tried to come up with some idea in order to beat Rage.

’Let me see. So he has Dad’s skill with ranged weapons, and Epidemic’s skill in close combat and magic.’ She thought over her predicament. ’I've certainly got my work cut out for me.’

‘Ruby, can you hear me?’ A voice spoke to her.

She stopped and her eyes widened in surprise. ”Symbol? Is that you?” She asked in surprise.

‘Yes, it is. I can't help but notice that you are trying to stick to MY fighting style when I had told you to use your own, and I have already instructed you on what to do in an event like this.’ The voice said with a hint of sarcasm. ‘I thought I taught you a few things that would allow you to win something like this, especially against Epidemic.’

Ruby barely dodged a large claw trying to grab her before she blasted it with magic. ”It's a little hard to get those techniques ready at the moment!”

‘You're forgetting that you aren't alone, there is your siblings and then there is Metal, start using that magnificent brain of yours and show me that my time on you wasn't wasted.’ Her teacher told her.

Ruby nodded and looked back to Sapphire, not happy to put her sister in danger but knew what had to be done. ”Sapphire! I need you to distract him for awhile!” Looking around she had saw that Lyric had disappeared, probably scared out of his mind.

Sapphire nodded and aimed the RYNO 2 at her possessed father. ”HEY!!!BIG FAT AND UGLY, OVER HERE!!!” She yelled before firing a small wave at him, causing him to turn his attention towards her. ”YOU DONT WANNA KEEP A GIRL WAITING DO YA?!?! HIT ME WITH YOUR BEST SHOT!!!” She exclaimed in a mixture of rage, anger, joy and excitement.

Rage gave out another roar and began to fire rapid blasts at Sapphire who was too quick and agile to be hit, able to dodge much easier than her sister even while holding the RYNO.

As the attention was now off of her, Ruby pulled back and stood still, closing her eyes and relaxing herself.

She held one hand out and slowly raised it into the air, focusing a small fraction of her life force into the palm of her hand. ”Here we go…” As she focused her magic onto the piece of life force a small ball of light formed above her palm that began to grow and form the shape of a four pointed star before locking itself in the shape and turning into a red gem which she held in her hand. ”Reality Star...lend us your power.”

The gem glowed and was absorbed into Ruby's body, her power rising as the Stars energy began to become one with her own. With her power rising, she looked to see that Rage had returned his attention back to her, his eyes having a slight tinge of blue before they returned to normal. Ruby could only assume that her rising energy had attracted the Psychotic portion of Rage’s mind. She had power, power that he wanted.

Ruby was confident that she was more than a match for Rage now. She was proven horribly wrong when Rage charged at with blinding speed, fire once again coating his body. She just barely dodged the attack and looked at Rage in shock.

’How in the hell does something that big move that fast?’ Ruby didn’t have time to think for an answer as Rage aimed his arm cannon at her before firing. Ruby dodged and fired her own attack. It hit Rage in the face, causing him to roar in pain. Now that she knew she could hurt him, Ruby fired off another attack. Rage however was ready for it this time, as he countered it with a blast of flame from his mouth. Ruby fired off more attacks, but Rage kept blocking them. Growing tired of this little game of theirs, Ruby rushed, summoned two blades of purple fire, and stabbed them right into Rage’s side. He roared in pain once again, his glare intensifying. He fired more shots from his arm cannon, but Ruby managed to dodged. She then flew away, putting quite the amount of distance between her, and Rage.

”Hope this works!” She then flew at Rage at high speeds, surrounding her body in purple fire. Rage tried to stop her, but every attack he sent her way was avoided. She kept increasing her speed, getting faster, and faster, and faster, until…

“GRRRRROOOOOOAAAAAARRRRRHHHH!!!” She went right through him. Rage had froze, a clean hole in his chest, creating a sizeable smoke cloud. He then slowly fell back, and collapsed. Ruby smirked as she threw up her arms in triumph.

”WHOO! That’s right! Nobody messes with my family bub!” She did a mini victory dance. failing to see something moving in the giant dust cloud. From the massive plume of smoke, came something big, and it was blood red. The massive object knocked her out of the sky and onto the ground. After a couple seconds, she slowly sat up to see what hit her.

Her eyes widened in shock. There before her, she saw Rage getting up, the hole in his chest repairing itself, and a massive blood red scythe in his right hand.

The weapon was huge! It was as big as Rage was, and definitely added to his terrifying appearance.

“GRRRRROOOOOOAAAAAARRRRRHHHH!!!” Rage roared into the sky, clearly ready for round two.

{Mindscape}

‘Huh? What happened?’

‘Where are we?’ Plague and Amnesia woke up with huge headaches. They looked around the red emptiness that surrounded them, wondering where they were, and how they had gotten there. They were both in these weird, transparent orbs, both being held in the talons of a blood red two headed dragon, which looked exactly like Epidemic did when he went full dragon. They banged on the orbs, hoping to somehow break them, but it was all in vain. The two looked around and finally noticed three figures way in the distance. “Help!”

“We appreciate it if someone could get us out of here!”

“Hello?” Their calls landed on deaf ears, as the three figures didn’t seem to notice them. They looked around once more, trying to figure out what on earth had happened to them.

Suddenly, the strange world around them shook, and a monstrous roar broke through the silence. The Twins covered their ears at the deafening sound, desperately trying to find the source. Soon though, the roaring stopped.

“What was that?” Amnesia shrugged, not knowing the answer. They looked around once more, trying to find any clue as to what they were doing there, or how to get out.

That’s when they saw him.

Far below Plague and Amnesia, was a giant robot in chains. It was big and blocky, had a cannon for a left arm, and a big orange oval which they assumed was its eye. The Twins slightly recognized this mechanism, but from where they were not sure.

“Where have I seen him before?”

“I don’t know, but I get the feeling that Epidemic wouldn’t like him.” Then it hit her. “Of course!”

“What?”

“He was the guy Epidemic was fighting when we went into that other universe!”

“Really? Weird. Well what’s he doing here? Last thing I remember, he and Epidemic were fighting!”

“Do you think Epidemic won?”

“I don’t know. Last thing I remember was Epidemic getting hit with this giant magical blast, before splitting back up into us.”

“Yeah, and then we went unconscious and woke up here.”

“So then that means that this place is...” The Twins froze as they looked at each other.

“Oh no.” Plague and Amnesia, now knowing they were in their mindscape, look out to see what was happening. They saw that Epidemic was in some strange new form, and was fighting Ruby, another person Epidemic was fighting before. Ruby was clearly struggling and if that was any indication, then this battle wouldn’t last much longer.

“We need to do something!”

“But what?” Plague thought for a moment before smiling as an idea hit him. “I got it! We just need to get that guy to either find the strength to break free or get this strange fusion weak enough so that we can forcefully separate it!”

“It’s better than anything I can come up with.”

Plague nodded and took in a deep breath. “Wake up!”

The robot seemed to move slightly in response but only by a few millimetres.

“You have to wake up mister! You have to stop this!”

He head seemed to jut slightly.

“If you don't wake up then those people will die!”

This got a bigger reaction out of the robot who hunched a little as it tug on its chains slightly.

“You have to save them! Please! Don't let our brother do this! Stop him from killing everyone!”

The robot tugged slightly harder. “S-Stop...fr-from...killing…” It spoke in a whispered voice. It tried to pull further but started panting and eventually gave up, falling limp in the chains.

“The fusion’s hold is too strong! We need it to be weaker, we can't give him the motivation.””

Just as they were about to try to call out to him again they stopped as they heard a voice from the outside. ”DAD!!!” They both looked through Rages eyes and saw that Sapphire was standing in front of Ruby with her arms spread out defensively. ”DAD, PLEASE, STOP THIS!!!

They both looked down to the robot that had steadied itself again. “S...S-Sa...Sapphire?”

”DAD PLEASE, FIGHT THIS LIKE YOU FOUGHT THE NIGHTMARE FUEL, THE MANIACS, HOW YOU BEAT JACK OF BLADES, PLEASE JUST WAKE UP!!!

It was reaching the robot, but it wasn't giving him enough strength, Rage needed to be weakened, the fight still had to go on.

Author's Notes:

I am so so sorry for the wait! This is only a part of the complete chapter that my buddy and I are currently working on, it's just taking longer than expected. It's been almost a month since the last update, for that I apologise.

Chapter twenty nine: The fight continues

Ruby grabbed Sapphire and jumped to the right, avoiding a huge blast of fire. The two noticed that after Sapphire had called out to her father Rage had reacted, the orange eye on his chest flickered purple for a split second before returning to orange. Nodding to each other they both pulled out their RYNO 2s and broke off in different directions. Ruby charged her gun with the energy of the Reality Star, turning it red and causing red smoke to seep out of the many mussels on the end of the weapon. Sapphire took out her Tesla Claw and thought for a moment before smiling. She rapidly began taking the weapons apart and began combining them.

When she was done her RYNO 2 was now her shade of blue with a few gold plates on the sides, the mussels longer and seeping electricity. Ruby saw what her sister had done and smirked, knowing that Sapphire shared her father’s connection to weaponry.

Once they were on opposite sides of Rage they aimed and fired. Ruby’s projectiles were now violent red balls of energy while Sapphires shot the normal rockets but with a stream of blue lighting. ”I'm calling this the Lightning Storm...or RYNO 2.5.” Shrugging she continued bombarding Rage with streams of electricity and rockets.

Rage roared in anger and began wildly blasting the two, constantly switching targets. He began to get dizzy from constantly turning and every time he did he was blasted in the back and face with the modified ammunition. He started to slip slightly, his attacks slowing but still not being damaged enough that he couldn't keep fighting. As his opponents kept bombarding him with attacks, his eyes glowed red.

Things were just getting started.

{Mindscape}

Plague and Amnesia watched as the robot attempted to break himself free. However, his struggling was for not, as it did nothing to the chains that held him. As he continued to fight, more chains wrapped themselves around him and froze him in place, rendering him immobile.

At first Plague and Amnesia thought that the battle would wear Rage down, but he only seemed to be getting stronger, draining more and more power from the robot as he fought.

“Nothing’s working! What do we do?”

“Well we have to do something. Hmm.” Amnesia tried to think. She then got an idea. “I’ve got it! All we have to do is fight fire with fire!”

“What do you mean?”

“Look, this thing is still connected to Epidemic right?” Plague nodded. “Then that means we’ve got a little bit of control over it. If we can separate a portion of it, we can control that portion and fuse with the others!”

Plague smiled at his sister’s idea before nodding rapidly. They both pressed against their spherical prisons and focused. They called out across the red tinted world around them, trying to see if anything would respond. At first, nothing happened, and they began to lose hope.

But then, something called back.

With their newfound hope, the Twins called out once more before focusing their consciouses on that one spot that had responded. Gaining control of it, they split it off from Rage before splitting it in two.

“It worked!”

“Now we can stop this!”

Ruby was exhausted. At first when she fused a reality star with her weapon, she thought that the battle would finally turn around. Unfortunately, she was wrong. Infuriated by their attacks, Rage started using that scythe of his, causing him to become a hundred times more dangerous. Ruby and Sapphire tried to keep their distance, but whenever they got out of the rang of the scythe, Rage would speed towards them and attack, nearly killing them! They both had been forced to play on the defensive, and were getting tired of it.

”Come on! There has to be a way to bring him down!” Out of the corner of her eye, Ruby saw a piece of Rage come off before it split in two and made its way to Sapphire.

The two jumped out of the way before the two pieces landed between them. After the small cloud of smoke disappeared the two of them saw Plague and Amnesia laying there, looking weak and slightly injured.

”What the? I thought that you two couldn't be separated from the fusions...wait, this is fantastic! If we beat Epidemic out of dad we could end up giving you guys your own bodies!” Ruby helped Plague to his feet while Sapphire helped Amnesia. Amnesia shook her head.

“These bodies are only temporary. Once we top Epidemic we’ll have to go back.” Plague nodded along with her. As of now, they needed a minute to build up enough energy to fuse.

”If we're going to beat him we need to finish this now, I'm starting to get tired and these two are clearly too weak to even stand let alone fight.” Sapphires breathing was starting to become heavy, sweat visible on her forehead and her body slouched slightly.

The Ruby herself was also beginning to feel the effects of the damage she had taken. She watched as the Reality Star floated out of her chest and disappeared, its energy used up. The two looked up to see Rage slowly walking towards them, his power only increasing.

”Well sis, it was nice knowing ya, looks like the future is only going to be more messed up.” Sapphire sighed and readied her gun.

Ruby gulped as she looked over to her possessed father, knowing that there was no chance of them defeating him by themselves. Plague and Amnesia looked to each other tiredly and hugged.

Meanwhile Lyric set the eggs down and safely buried them under a tree. ”There, that should keep you guys safe, at least for awhile.”

He wiped the sweat from his forehead and turned his head towards the direction of the battle.

”I should go see how my sisters are doing, I hope everyone is alright.” He looked to the spot that his unborn brothers and sisters were hidden and sighed before running off.

Running through the multiple vines and logs he eventually came to a bush that he hid behind as he got a good view of the battles progression. He gasped as he saw his sisters tired and injured, their attacker slowly progressing towards them. His sights fell on the twins, specifically, Amnesia.

It was the first time he had gotten a good look at her. He stood still for a moment, the whole world seemed to freeze as her eyes met his. The sun had shone through the clouds and showed her beautiful purple tipped black hair and her sparkling purple eyes. A soft blush appeared on Lyrics cheeks as time returned to normal.

He began to rapidly switch his gaze from his sisters, to Amnesia, and then to Rage. He saw them all, helpless, tired, injured and in need of saving. He took one last glance at Amnesia’s terrified face then glared up at Rage, clenching his fists before his body was enveloped in a bright light. A sense of courage washed over his body as it began to change slightly, feeling his power growing beyond anything he had ever felt before. ”I'm tired of being a wimp! They need me! I need to be brave...I need to be STRONGER!!!” The last word echoed out in a deeper voice and the ground shook slightly.

Author's Notes:

So...Lyrics getting a transformation.

Chapter thirty: Legendary Lyric

As Rage charged up a shot in his cannon and aimed it at the group he fired a devastating blast towards them that would surely finish them off for good. They all closed their eyes and braced themselves for their doom. But they felt nothing.

They opened their eyes to see that the blast was being deflected in multiple directions by some silhouette before them. As the blast vanished having exhausted its energy the group got a look at their saviour.

It was Lyric, except taller. His jacket had gone black with plates of golden metal going from the shoulders to the wrists on his arms. His hair was slightly longer and he wore sunglasses that pointed out at the sides. His jeans were now black as well, having golden metal boots that reached his knees. His teeth were slightly sharpened as he clenched them in anger. He stood with his arms bent outwards with his fists clenched, glaring at Rage. ”NO ONE HURTS MY FAMILY!!!

Ruby just looked to Lyric in shock. ’Woah...he's already unlocked his unique ability?’

Amnesia just looked to Lyric wide eyed. As she looked to him in his new form she somehow felt safe, like he would make everything better, that he would protect them. When she had first saw him she thought he was nothing but a coward, a shy innocent soul that didn't fight his own battles. But seeing him there, his power greater than anyone else present, other than Rage, she suddenly felt like there was someone other than her brothers and older sister that she could count on to protect her.

As Rage roared in anger, not appreciating the fact that his kill was interrupted, but also that there was someone present that could actually stand against him like this.

He charged forward at blinding speeds. Lyric drew one fist back and it turned to a golden metal. Plates of metal began growing out of his fist until a huge blocky arm of metal was fully grown.

He swung this huge metal limb forward and his Rage head on, causing a massive shockwave to shake the area violently. Rage was thrown backwards and and landed on his back, completely caught off guard by the force of the attack.

Lyric’s arm returned to normal and he dashed forward, speeding towards his enemy. As he grew near he jumped high in the air and held out his arms, the metal plates growing to form two huge block hammers. He drove them back before bringing them down on Rages head, causing a bigger shock wave. As he was thrown back into the air he retracted the hammers and grew a large metal boot on his left leg which he used to kick Rage in the face, sending him flying into a mountain.

”GO LYRIC!!!” Sapphire yelled in support. ”Since when is he this strong?”

”Even in my timeline, Lyric has always been the strongest of all of our family, even stronger than dad at one point. He's unlocked his unique ability, each of us have one. Mine is the ability to control fire, Lyrics is that form which is named Legendary Lyric...and I'm not gonna spoil yours.” Ruby explained.

Lyric charged forward once more, the metal plate on his right arm turning into a giant sword. With a cry of anger, he thrust it forward, intending to end this battle. However, his blade was stopped by a giant, yellow, dome shield. Lyric was surprised at this, and could only watch as Rage swung his weapon, cutting off the shield just before he it. The massive scythe nailed Lyric and sent him flying back. He recovered quickly and charged at Rage once more to attack. He swung his giant sword at Rage with the intent to kill.

However, Rage was no longer there.

”WHAT THE?” Suddenly, Rage was behind Lyric, his scythe at the ready. He swung once more, landing a devastating hit on Lyric. Lyric was sent flying into a building before Rage lifted up his arm cannon and fired, causing a massive explosion.

Lyric managed to dash quickly out of the blast radius and landed in front of the group. Angered even further Rage gave out a mighty roar that shook the earth, multiple salvos of rockets began to grown out of his body, aimed at the group. ”Great, he would dad's weapon systems…”

As hundreds upon hundreds of rockets were fired into the air the group looked up to the oncoming swarm of explosives, the sky filled with glowing red dots that were getting closer with each passing second.

”NO WAY I’M LETTING THOSE THINGS LAND!!!” Lyric held his arms up and the metal began to form. Once they finished building the next weapons Lyric slammed them into the ground. What was built were two large eight barrelled guns that were both bigger than Lyric and he had to set them on the ground. The barrels were made of a silver metal and were each the size of a small pillar and began spinning violently.

Lyric pointed both of the Gatling Cannons at the oncoming swarm of missiles and began to fire. The bullets were twice as large as one of the missiles, hundreds of them being fired into the air each second. The ground shook each time a bucket was fired, the group covering their ears as to protect their hearing from the loud bangs created from the weapons.

The sky became filled with explosions as not one huge bullet missed a target, some missiles even causing a chain reaction of multiple explosions. Once the final rocket was destroyed Lyric retracted the guns and smirked. ”NOW THOSE WERE HAND CANNONS!!!”

He looked at Rage, still keeping his smirk, only to see that through all of that, Rage had taken the time to charge up a massive attack.

”UH OH.” Rage fired off the attack, with Lyric just barely dodging. Turning the metal on his arms back into those gatling guns, he open fired. Rage however put up a yellow dome shield to block every shot. He let the shield down and shot fire from his mouth. Lyric was enveloped by the flames, getting hurt pretty bad in the process. He managed to escape the flames and came at Rage, having the metal on his right arm turn into a giant sword once more, but kept his left as the gatling gun. He rushed in and impaled Rage.

This only seemed to piss Rage off.

Rage brought up his scythe and slashed Lyric with it, knocking him away. He now had a gash in his chest, and he was breathing heavily. He grunted, aimed the the gatling gun at Rage and opened fired again. As he fired he closed the distance in between them, only to to get stopped once more by a yellow dome shield. He continuously fired away at the sheild, trying to wear it down, but it had no effect!

Groaning Lyric retracted the guns and charged forward. He jumped into the air and formed a metal fist that began glowing with golden energy. Rage saw this and began building up energy in his arm cannon, a ball of red energy beginning to grow just in front of the guns mussel.

The two continued charging for a moment before Rage fired off a huge blast in Lyrics direction. Lyric threw his fist forward and met the blast head on, slowly approaching Rage as the fist blocked the blast sending it in multiple directions into the sky.

The two pushed against each other, Rage putting as much energy as he could into killing his enemy while Lyric was able to match the same amount of energy as he slowly flew towards the forced fusion, determined to free his father and save the others. That plan however, wouldn’t come to fruition.

With a shout of fury, Lyric shot towards Rage, aiming to plow his sword into his arm cannon. However, Rage had enough foresight to blast Lyric with extremely concentrated fire, plowing Lyric into the ground. He swiped Lyric with his tail, sending him up into the air, and lifted up his gun muzzle once more. He charged up a shot, and fired. Lyric watched as the oncoming shot drew ever closer.

Thinking quickly Lyric used the shifting metal plates to coat his whole body in armour, protecting him from the blast that would have surely killed him. As the flames stopped Lyric growled and summoned two large metal fists while he dived towards Rage who was charging another shot.

As it was about to fire Lyric punched the cannon away causing the built up explosion to fire close to Rages feet, damaging him greatly. Lyric landed on the group and jumped up into the air until he reached the height of Rages chest. He then began to swing his fists forward one at a time, building up speed as he began to rapidly punch the beast.

He just kept going, sweat dripping from his forehead as he used every ounce of his energy in the barrage of metal fists that was causing Rage to walk backwards. Lyric stopped his onslaught only to charge up one of the fists and uppercut Rage right in the jaw, causing him to fly upwards for a second before hitting the ground.

As Lyric landed a bright light enveloped him and he returned to normal, falling on his rear in the process, feeling dizzy from the sudden transformation.

The group ran up to him, Sapphire hugging him while Ruby made sure he was ok energywise while Plague and Amnesia just looked at him wide eyed, a small blush appearing on Amnesia’s face.

A blood curdling roar caused the group to slowly look over to Rage who was getting to his feet, regenerating the damage done to him at a rapid speed. However, Rage seemed to be struggling to keep himself together, clearly showing that the fusion’s connection was growing weak. Ruby looked to everyone present before getting an idea. ”Plague, Amnesia! Fuse with them!” They looked at her confused. ”Rage is almost defeated, if you fuse with Sapphire and Lyric you will have enough strength to end this.”

The Twins considered the idea, and agreed that it would be the best option. With a nod they turned all black and leaped at the other twins, Amnesia fusing with Lyric, and Plague with Sapphire. Both took on the forms of people in their late teens, possibly around Epidemic’s age.

The fusion that Amnesia and Lyric formed gained long silver hair and eyes. He wore a gray cloak held together by a gem in the shape of a music note, silver gauntlets, and a simple grey shirt. He had grey boots that reached up to his knees, and grey jeans. Finally, he had grey glowing crystal-like wings.

Plague’s and Sapphire’s fusion had long dark blue hair and eyes. She wore a blue chest plate with a lapis drop in the center. She wore a blue jacket over that, and her right arm was robotic. She also had metal boots and dark blue jeans. She also had dark blue glowing crystal-like wings.

”Well well, is it my time to fight so soon?” The female fusion had a cheery voice. She looked to the male fusion with a grin. ”Oh, you’re here too Melo? Well then this must be serious.”

”We don’t have time to fool around Lapis. We have an important job to do.”

”You’re no fun.” She then noticed Ruby staring at them and smiled. ”Oh why hello Ruby. Good to see you for the first time.”

”I’m sorry. Who are you?”

”My name is Lapis, and I’m the fusion of Plague and Sapphire. This silent warrior over here is my brother Melodrain, the fusion of Lyric and Amnesia.”

”So wait, the four of them made two knew fusion beings?”

”Erm… not exactly.”

”What do you mean not exactly?”

”A fusion being would permanently link the two required to make the fusion. However, we will not.”

”Think of us more as a temporary super form for the four of them.” While still incredibly confused, Ruby knew that was the best answer she would get from these two. Taking her silence as a cue to do what they came here for, both of the new fusions turned towards their mighty older brother, Rage, who was staring at them intently.

”So, our first fight is with our older brother huh? Hmm… seems like we’ve got our work cut out for us.”

Author's Notes:

Two new fusions and Lyric has unlocked his unique ability, things are getting serious now.

Lyrics new forms abilities were inspired by Generator Rex btw

Special chapter: Easter

Author's Notes:

While chapter thirty one is being written by me and Prince_Zodiac, I figured I'd do a little chapter while you wait, as it may take awhile longer. For now, I figured a light hearted chapter was due, have a bit more of Nathan spending time with his family.

The sky was clear and blue, the sun shining down on the land of Equestria. Outside of Ponyville on a lush green field with bushes and trees dotting the area, the towns foals ran about with small baskets on their backs, laughing and smiling as they went.

Nathan sat in his ranger form with Sonata and their eggs on a small blanket on the top of a field. The eggs had grown by another few inches, now being the size of soccer balls. Ruby was nearby in her human form in short shorts and a tank top, sunbathing with sunglasses over her eyes and a smile on her face. While Nathan had at first been against his daughter being in such clothing, he decided not to pester her, she was a grown woman and there really wasn't anyone in the world of Equestria who would even find it scandalous other than the rangers.

"I can't believe you introduced Equestria to Easter." Krystal said to Nathan as she walked up to the family. "You skipped over the while crucifixion right?"

Nathan just nodded. "Yeah, a good few centuries ago I just thought that the whole Easter egg hunt would be a fun thing for the foals at the time, now it's just become a tradition." He explained as he looked down at Sonatas eggs. "Just have to make sure no foals mistake my little ones for Easter eggs."

"I take it Sapphire and Lyric are out looking for some eggs too?" Krystal asked as she sat down beside her friend.

"Yeah, I made sure to take away Sapphires weapons before allowing her to go hunting for eggs, don't need her using one if she gets into an argument over who found what egg first." Ruby and Sonata just chuckled at the thought while Nathan shook his head.

Looking out he saw that his children and the foals in town weren't the only ones hunting for eggs. Pinkie was zooming around looking through bushes and trees with the cake twins.

"Come on Zane, if we don't hurry there won't be any left to find!" Katie exclaimed cheerfully as she ran through the field with the short medibot following close by.

"Slow down Katie, there's plenty to go around, we don't have to run, we're gonna burn through our energy if we run all of the time."

Nathan shook his head and chuckled at his friends. "Some things never change."

"Dad! Look at all the eggs we found!" Sapphire called out as she ran with a full basket of decirate eggs in one hand while she dragged her brother around in the other.

"Huh, I did not expect you to find so many so soon, but you are my children so I guess I should have." He ruffled his children's hair as a show of affection and watched them run off to get find more, only this time Lyric stay beside his father. "You ok son?"

"I...I just don't see how collecting painted eggs is rewarding. We're not gonna eat them or keep them, so why bother?"

"Discord is going to change all of the Easter eggs into chocolate eggs later on after the hunt." Sonata explained.

"You'd better get a move on or Sapphire is gonna have all the eggs." Nathan encouraged as he looked to his son, only for Lyric to pull out a large basket filled with eggs. "Wow..."

"I didn't want her to get even more competitive so I didn't say anything about it."

"Smart move." Nathan, Sonata and Krystal said in deadpan.

Later that day, as the children were feasting on their collected candy and other treats given to them by Pinkie Pie, Nathan walked across a wide open area in between two mountain ranges at his full size while Ruby sat on his shoulder in her usual wear. "You alright dad? You've been quiet for awhile now and I'm staring to get worried."

Nathan sighed and looked out to the sun that would soon descend over the horizon. "I'm just enjoying the peace while it lasts, won't be too long until your little brothers and sisters hatch."

"It's weird when I think about it...I was supposed to be an egg in that batch, but now I'm going to be the older sister to them. In my timeline that was Sapphires job."

"You need to stop dwelling on that dead timeline." Nathan stated quickly. "And stop calling it your timeline, you may have been raised there, but it's not your place anymore, this is your timeline now. Here with your family, with Sonata, Sapphire, Lyric, Phoenix and me." Nathan looked to his shoulder and stared Ruby in the eye. "And don't you ever forget it. You can forget what happened in that time, it's not gonna happen here."

Ruby just looked into her fathers eye in shock. She looked away for a moment before looking back with tears in her eyes and a smile on her face. "You're right...that place is behind me now. Thanks daddy."

"You're welcome sweetheart, you know I'll always be there if you need to talk about anything right?"

Ruby just burst out laughing. "Oh my God you are such a typical father!"

"Hey, what kind of dad would I be if I didn't look out for my kids, especially when one of my little girls has been through so much." The two just stood in a comfortable silence, no more words needing to be said. "Hey, where Metal anyway?"

"He's with Sapphire..."

Metal was sitting on a bed with Sapphire who was enjoying her treats but also sharing with him...in a very degrading way. "Come on Wolfie, open up~"

'This is humiliating...I've faced off against the demons of the Black Plain, vanquished Xram and The Nightmare King and have save countless civilisations...so why the hell am I enjoying being treated like a God damn pet?!' He sighed and lifted his head slightly as he had not visible mouth, but it was still there, and Sapphire put a small chocolate egg into it. 'I hate myself right now..."

Happy Easter everyone.

Chapter thirty one: Rage defeated

”So, our first fight is with our older brother huh? Hmm… seems like we’ve got our work cut out for us.”

Lapis and Melodrain gazed at Rage and his almighty power. His power clearly outclassed either one of the two standing before him, but together they were just about equal. Rage roared furriously before he charged.

”Oh? Eager to fight so soon are we. I’ll happily oblige!” Lapis leaped into the air, using her wings to fly at Rage’s head. Melodrain rolled his eyes before he followed his sister in the same fashion. Rage attempted to fire a shot out them, but the two fusions dodged, not at all impressed with his fighting skill.

”Is that the best he’s got? How pathetic.”

”To be fair Melo, he has been fighting a lot of battles all at once, both physically and mentally. I’m pretty sure Dad is giving him a hard time in the mindscape. Plus he’s been fighting Ruby and the others, so of course he’s weak now. A shame too, I wanted to have some fun.”

Melodrain shook his head and held out his hand, a medieval style long sword appearing which he grabbed and held in both hands. Lapis smirked and clenched her metal claw into a fist while a pulling a glowing blue whip out of nowhere in her organic hand and snapping it in anticipation.

Lapis looked to Melodrain who nodded before allowing his sister to have the first charge at their opponent. As Rage threw a punch at the cyborg, Lapis dodged to the side before falling onto the arm, running along up until she came to the dragon head that tried to blast her with blood red fire. She swung her whip which stretched like rubber until it was completely wrapped around Rages neck. She pulled the whip back causing Rages head to fly towards her, she held her robotic arm back before bringing it forward with blinding speeds, punching Rage right in the snout and causing hot blood to erupt from the creatures nose.

Lapis took to the skies and gave a thumbs up to Melodrain. ”Hmph, let's get this over with.”

Melodrain readied his sword before swinging it with great force, causing the slash to fly towards Rage, cutting him deeply and causing more blood to erupt from the wound. Melodrain continued to send sword slashes towards his opponent before shooting towards Rage and sinking his blade into the dragon's chest. He then began to run down the body of the beast with the blade still in its flesh, cutting it open before he jumped off and used his free hand to fire a blast of grey energy into the beasts body through the open wound, cause a great deal of internal damage.

”Geez bro, do you gotta be so brutal when fighting? It's our dad in there y’know?”

Melodrain flew up to his sister's side and stared down at the now shaking Rage. ”There's no time to play with the enemy Lapis, you know that the damage isn't going to affect father and this beast will not show us any mercy, why should we?”

The two turned their heads to the injured Rage, who gave out a mighty roar before he put his claw over his arm cannon and began to build up energy, his body beginning to emit a dark red aura.

He levelled his cannon and unleashed a gigantic wave of energy their way. They both put their weapons away and held out their hands, meeting the blast head on. While being pushed back a little they managed to stop the wave from flying further. Their hands glowed their respective colours and poured their energy into the blast before sending it back at Rage, burning his skin and slamming him face first into the ground.

”Ready to finish this bro?” Lapis received a nod from Melodrain who took out his sword while she changed her metal hand into a blaster and aimed it at the large creature.

As Melodrain got close enough to take the finishing blow Rage raised his head and swallowed him whole. Lapis stopped charging up energy in fear of hitting her brother if she fired through Rage.

As the beast got to its feet and held the large bleeding gash on its torso he jutted to the side and grunted in pain. Soon he was being thrown around wildly and began coughing up large amounts of blood before Melodrain burst out of his chest covered in blood and stomach acids that pushed his clothing and skin slightly. He quickly shook it off and turned to Rage before looking to Lapis and nodding.

Lapis smirked and returned her arm to its normal mode before floating down to her brother and taking his hand. Their eyes glowed as their hands joined, sending their energy into the others bodies. They then held their free hands up and a large gall of grey and blue energy began to form above them.

”Let's finish this.” They both glared at Rage before throwing their hands forward, the ball of energy shining brightly before splitting into hundreds of arrow shaped spears. The two began to send the spears flying into Rage, each causing an explosion of magic as they hit rapidly.

Ruby watched as the stream of arrows began to wear Rage down until the last spear hit him in the eye on his chest with a huge blast.

Lapis and Melodrain landed beside Ruby as they watched Rage fall to the ground defeated. With one last weak roar he closed his eyes and fell limp. His body turned black, Epidemic and Nathan began to separate. Lapis and Melodrain disappeared in a flash of light and the two sets of twins fell on their rears, exhaustion evident on their faces. As Epidemic separated from Rage the twins turned into black liquid and joined back onto their brother, their bodies now together again.

Rage floated into the air slightly as the body began to shift again. Soon it formed into the huge warbot that had been possessed which then landed back on the ground with a loud clang. ”Dad!” Ruby ran over to her father and climbed up onto his huge body. She climbed up to his eye and began looking him over for any signs of damage. ”Dad wake up!”

Nathan's eye flickered back to life and he shifted slightly. “Ow...my head...what the...what the hell happened?” Ruby sighed in relief and hugged the huge warbots eye. “R-Ruby? Is that you? What's going on? Where's...Sapphire and...Lyric?”

“NATHAN!!!” Nathan looked up to see Sonata flying towards him. She landed beside Ruby and hugged his eye. “Oh thank Faust you're alright.”

Nathan just gave a weak chuckle and reached his hand up behind the two. “Heh, you and I both know it will take a hell of a lot more than this to kill me Nata.”

Sapphire and Lyric walked up to the unconscious Epidemic, allowing their mother and older sister to attend to their father. Sapphire just glared at him for almost stealing her father from her while Lyric stood in thought, trying to figure out what had caused so much anger and hate to be contained in a single living being.

”Well, that's that I guess. I wish I could have been the one to blast him, but I guess there's been enough fighting today...You alright bro?” Sapphire asked in concern as she saw Lyrics expression.

”I don't get it…” He began. ”How can one person harbour so much negativity, it's like he's made of anger or something.”

’Well… he kind of is.’ Lyric heard Amnesia say in his mind, a small connection from the fusion remaining.

”Huh? What do you mean?”

’Exactly what I said. Epidemic is the combined form of me and Plague. We first formed him when a villain had hurt our Dad. We thought he was dead, and were so overtaken by anger that Epidemic woke up. He’s been around ever since.’ Lyric looked at Sapphire then back at Epidemic.

”Really? But doesn’t that mean he’s always angry?”

’No, most of the time he’s calm, but kind of scary. He’s cold, cruel, but he loves us.’

”Huh. I guess that’s neat.” Lyric paused. ”But, why’d he attack in the first place?”

’Probably to protect Plague and me. He’s actually really overprotective. If we get hurt by something badly enough, like enough to make us scared or cry, he goes into a rage, destroying whatever caused us pain. I think when we got hit by that massive attack, he assumed the worst and completely lost it. He was probably destroying everything because he blamed all of you for us getting hurt.’ Lyric looked to Epidemic again. This was their fault? Lyric had noticed that Epidemic appeared when Sapphire thought she had destroyed Plague and Amnesia, so he knew they were somehow connected. But that big, ferocious monster was just a by product of his pain and sorrow at the thought of losing them? That made Lyric feel a little bad. Epidemic wasn’t a monster, he was just angry because he had thought he had lost his siblings. Lyric knew if that happened to him, he would probably go into a full blown rage too.

Lyric was about to say something, but then Nathan walked over. He was about to make sure Lyric was okay, but then he saw Epidemic. He immediately leveled his arm cannon and prepared to fire. Ruby was about to jump in front of Epidemic and tell him to stop, but she came to a halt as she saw Nathan lower his cannon slightly. “Those kids from earlier...the ones I had hurt...they're in this guy right?” He asked with shame in his voice.

He looked to Ruby who nodded in response.

He sighed and lowered his gun. “If there weren't children inside of him right now I'd have killed him already...just get his ass out of here, I'm tired of displaced coming into this world and causing havoc.” Nathan turned around and began walking away to try and cool off and hold back his urge to destroy the one who had harmed his children and put his eggs in danger.

Epidemic split apart and became Plague and Amnesia once more, before the two watched him walk off silently. They could already feel Epidemic, Patron, and Psychotic recovering. How long it would take them to recover was anyone’s guess. The two just looked to Ruby questioningly, curious as to what Nathan had meant by his last statement.

”He's had bad experiences with Displaced before, the last one to come here caused a lot of damage. He's not exactly trusting of beings from the void, he even destroyed his own token to stay clear of the multiverse.” She explained with a saddened expression. ”He was willing to give the multiverse another chance by going to your parents wedding, but I think this incident has just caused him to resent displaced even further.”

“But the only reason Epidemic came out in the first place was because Sapphire attacked us!”

Everyone went silent as Nathan stopped as he heard Plague. He slowly turned around and glared at Sapphire who flinched under her father's gaze. “What?” Nathan began to walk towards his daughter with anger in his eye. “You mean that this is all because you jumped the gun and attacked someone!?”

Ruby grabbed Lyrics shoulder and began to lead him and the other twins away from Nathan.

“What were you thinking Sapphire?! I thought we talked about this!” He scolded as he glared down at her with his huge size.

”I was just trying to protect the eggs-”

“And in doing so you put them in even more danger!” Nathan countered angrily. “What exactly did these two children do to provoke you?!” Sapphire remained silent for a moment, sweat drops appearing on her forehead as s he was shaking in fear. “Nothing, they did nothing, right?! For God's sake Sapphire I thought you had more self control than this! I know you were just looking out for your unborn brothers and sisters, but you should have known better! Just like when you tried to destroy the Everfree to protect the eggs!”

Nathan sighed and rubbed his face with his hand as Sonata flew up and rested on his shoulder. “He's right Sapphire, you should have known better.”

Sapphire stuttered while looking around, trying to find some way out of her situation, but came up short. She looked in front of her and saw Nathan's hand open on the ground. “Give me your guns, now.” He commanded in a lower tone. He wasn't enraged or filled with hatred towards Sapphire, he was just angry and disappointed in her. “Give them to me now Sapphire, until you can learn more self control, you cannot be trusted with such firepower, especially not the RYNO 2.”

With tears in her eyes, Sapphire handed over her weapons. Nathan took them and put them in his inventory. He stood up, still giving her that same look.

“We’ll talk about this more in a bit young lady.” Nathan looked out to the destroyed town. “Great, now I need to fix this mess.”

The group slowly began to walk back to Ponyville to see the damage their attack had caused. A lot of ponies were injured, many in the hospital. Plague and Amnesia looked around at the destroyed town. They felt so bad, destruction on this scale was something that their family was supposed to prevent, not cause. Suddenly, they felt Epidemic wake up. No words needed to be spoken, as he looked through the Twin’s memories to see what had happened. He looked at the town through the Twins eyes. Then, he fused them together.

At first Nathan immediately prepared for another fight, but Epidemic ignored him. He walked around the town, looking at the destroyed buildings and everything that he had done. The lives that he had ruined, the ponies he had hurt. He knew he needed to fix this, as much as he could anyways.

So he did.

Although he had just barely recovered, he went to each pony that was missing a limb, and sacrificed a portion of his own body to replace it. Legs were given back, wings were returned, horns were repaired. After he made sure everypony that needed it had their limbs back, he collapsed once more, now going into a deeper recovery, but resting peacefully knowing he had done what he could. He split into the Twins once more and walked back to the small group, who were all amazed at what had just occurred.

“What… did he just?” Nathan was stunned. He had seen this guy cause so much destruction, and he didn’t give a damn about the aftermath. And yet, he had just given back to those that suffered because of it.

“Whenever we go into that Rage mode, Epidemic always repairs the permanent damage he did to those that didn’t really deserve it.” Nathan was impressed, and felt a little better about Epidemic now. If he ever lost it like that, and would do what he could to heal those caught in the crossfire, then he was okay with Nathan.

“Hmm, I see. So, why’d you two come here in the first place? If it wasn’t to attack then why?” Amnesia shrugged.

“We don’t know. We just got randomly summoned here.”

“I believe that would partly be my fault.” Everyone turned to a skeleton with a black cape, and a red gem holding it in place. He also had a black staff with a mini Tirek skull on it, and a black spear tip on the bottom. “I was hoping to send the Twins here to get everyone acquainted before the wedding. You can all see how spectacularly that went.”

“Um… and you are?”

“Huh? Oh, right! My name is Marx, it’s a pleasure to finally meet you Nathan. I’m the displacer of Alduin, the guy who’s getting married tomorrow. I am so sorry about all of this. Had I known a fight would have broken out, I would have stayed away. But, I wanted you to at least meet someone before you went to the wedding so I sent the Twins. And, as you can see, that plan quickly went south once everyone started breaking out the laser beams.” Nathan nodded in understanding.

“Oh, I see. Well, it would have been nice if you had warned us so none of this would have ever happened.”

“Yeah, probably should have. Well, since everything seems to be back in order, I’ll take these two home now. We’ll see you all at the wedding!” Marx snapped his fingers and a portal appeared, which he entered, and Plague and Amnesia began saying their goodbyes. Plague simply waved and hopped in, but Amnesia went for a more personal goodbye from Lyric.

“I suppose that this is goodbye for now.” Lyric nodded.

”Uh huh.”

“So, guess I’ll see you at the wedding?”

”Yep.” Amnesia nodded. She looked like she was about to leave, when she stopped.

“H-Hey, Lyric?”

”Y-Yeah?” Amnesia looked a little hesitant, before she suddenly moved forward and kissed him on the cheek. She then ran to the portal, blushing heavily before she turned around, waved, then hopped in. The portal closed, leaving Lyric shocked, as he slowly brought up a hand to his cheek, blushing just as badly as the girl who had kissed him.

Nathan just looked to Lyric in shock, he noticed his timid son's reaction to the kiss and he chuckled with Sonata who had also witnessed the adorable sight. “Remind you of anyone Sonata?” The huge warbot asked his fiancé as he lifted up a broken house.

“Hmm?”

“I remember that was what you did to me in the centuries before Starswirl sealed you and your sisters in the human world.”

Sonata just sighed happily at the memory and then looked back to her blushing son who was completely still and wide eyed. “Well, at least something good came out of this mess.”

“Yeah...speaking of messes, what do you think we should do about Sapphire?”

“I thought you were going to lecture her or something.” Sonata said while looking at her partner in confusion.

“You and I both know that I'm not a very responsible parent, I'm the one that wants to have fun, I'm not really good in these situations...but I think that both of us need to be on this before it gets worse.” Nathan piled up a large stack of useless debris and melted it all down with his Lava Gun.

“She's still young, she's still experiencing the world, she's only been alive for a few weeks since you beat that Nightmare Fuel. She's learning as she goes, and from what I've seen her do so far, I think she'll learn to control herself after this event.” Sonata turned to look at Lyric who was standing with hearts in his eyes as Ruby tried to snap him out of his trance. “Just like Lyric will learn to be brave.”

“You know, I think you're right.”

“I'm always right.”

Nathan just laughed and looked to his son, he had seen everything during the fight with Rage. He saw his timid son stand up for his loved ones and fight with a passion in his heart, a drive to protect. He saw a little bit of himself in Lyric, which he should considering he was made of his positive energy. He closed his eye and remembered to when he was facing off against Phoenix to defend Sonata from their attacks. “Looks like Lyric’s taking after his old man.”

“You're not old silly, your human form is twenty four and you'll stay that way.” Sonata scolded.

“Sonata, I'm over five thousand years old by now, I think it's safe to say I'm old at this point.”

“So am I, are you calling me old too?”

“No honey, you're still as young and beautiful as ever.” Nathan answered carefully.

“Hmph, good answer.”

Meanwhile

Auldin looked around the castle with a confused expression. He couldn't find the twins anywhere and they needed to start preparing for the next day. “Where did those two get off too?”

Suddenly a portal opened up in front of him and Marx and Plague jumped out of it, followed by the blushing Amnesia a few moments later.

“There you are. I was worried for a second there.” Auldin just looked to Amnesia, her face was still red. “Um, Amnesia, are you alright? You look flushed.”

Amnesia remained quiet while Plague just shook his head. “She met this boy named Lyric in the world Marx had brought us to.”

Auldin just looked to his daughter in surprise. After a few moments though...his fatherly instincts started to kick in. “Did she now?”

Marx shook his head and knocked Auldin with his staff. “Don't you go psycho dad on us. I have to deal with enough overbearing parents with Vivi always complaining about Symbols death.”

Auldin rubbed the back of his head nervously and chuckled. “Yeah, sorry. So, kids, tell me about the world you visited.” Both of the children looked hesitant to answer. “What happened?”

“Rage happened...I wanted the displaced of that world to be introduced to others from the Chaos Family before the wedding, but one thing led to another and a lot of damage was caused to Ponyville.” Marx answers dryly. “Don't worry, no one was killed and the damage is being repaired, there's no bad blood between us and the displaced in that world.”

Auldin just groaned and facepalmed. “I really need to find a way to be brought with these two whenever they get summoned. Maybe I should go apologise to the displaced in that world for the trouble caused.”

“He and his family will be attending the wedding tomorrow, you can do it then. Right now, I think your brother needs your help in Metal Sonic's world, something just isn't right there and I can feel Xrams presence.”

“I've been wondering why I couldn't reach Gale or Lisa, I'll go see what's going on.” With that Marx opened up a portal for Auldin and the dragon walked into it, ready to face whatever was waiting for him.

Author's Notes:

Well this has certainly been eventful. And now Lyric has a little girlfriend, that's nice right?

There is more to see of Lapis and Melodrain I assure you that, they aren't one offs. Auldin and Nathan will meet in time, Zodiac and I already have a plan for when they have a little adventure together after the wedding. Don't worry about Phoenix, Nathan is seeing to them.

This has been a crossover with the amazing displaced story A Displaced Dragon, please give it a read.

And what of Sapphire? There more to come on that. Updates will resume to their ordinary rate of production now.

Chapter thirty two: Dealing with Thane

"Thane." Nathan said as he shook Thanes unconscious body. "Thane!" He was beginning to grow impatient, he had better things to do than try to wake up his former leader, he first had to finish repairing Ponyville, find a way to restore the forest he had destroyed, deal with Sapphire, talk with Lyric and spend some quality time with his fiancé since their date was cut short by the monster known as Rage. "Oh for the love of Christ WAKE UP DUMBASS!!!" He slapped Thane in the face with great force, causing Thanes eye to flicker back to life as he slid on his side after being launched from his spot.

"Ow! What was that for?!"

"Oh, good, you're awake. Now I can get back to stuff that's actually important." Nathan got to his feet, turned away and began walkimg back to Ponyville, leaving Thane confused about what he had just said.

"'Actual important stuff?' You're usually more considerate and concerned even when someone you don't know is hurt, why isn't that part of you here now?" Thane asked as he got to his feet and stared at the warbot who was at his smallest size, still three times the size of him.

Nathan stopped and turned himself to look at his former friend with a glare. "I'm sorry, I don't care about the well being of assholes." He turned again and resumed walking away.

"What?! Where is this coming from all of a sudden?!" Thane demanded in rage.

Nathan turned his body fully around to face Thane and stomped over to him, staring him down. "Where is it coming from? I have done nothing but try to put all of this behind us lately, but you're just becoming a bigger douchebag by the fucking day! It's gotten to the point where I'm not even going to try to find a way to resolve this, I'm just through with you! I gave you a chance to be my friend again, my cousin again! And you spat on it, and now you treat me like this?! You don't even treat your little brother with the respect he deserves, he ain't a kid anymore Thane, none of us are!"

Thane just stared at the ranger in complete shock, he had expected a sarcastic comment or for him to just brush it off, he didn't expect him to be so up front about it.

"You wanna know why everyone is leaving you and coming to Ponyville with me?! It's because you refuse to let go of something that happened over a thousand years ago!" Nathan just poked him hard with his large finger while pointing at him and leaning down to face him. "I offered you the position as my best man in hopes of repairing our relationship and had left it open in case you changed your mind, you can find yourself officially banned from even attending the wedding at all, I don't need assholes like you around to ruin a day I have dreamed of fir centuries, and Sonata has dreamed of a perfect wedding since she was a hatchling, and I will be damned if I let you take that day away from us." He spike in a very dark and hostile voice. "So do us all a favour Thane, either get over it, or leave us alone...forever. Don't help us, don't visit us, don't even fucking talk about us! Just...leave me, my family and my friends alone. We're done here."

Nathan stood up and walked away, leaving Thane completely frozen in shock, what he had just been told broke his heart. Barred from his cousin's, whom he had considered his brother at one point, wedding. He wanted to feel sad, try to improve himself for the better, to try and get he group back together. But, there was something inside of him that was only allowing him to show one emotion...anger.

Thane formed his energy blades, yelled in fury and charged Nathan while his back was turned. Having heard the hell and rapidly approaching footsteps, Nathan stopped walking but didn't turn around. When Thane was close enough that he was just about to strike Nathan's back, the warbots spun his torso around and smacked Thane away with his arm cannon, causing him to be sent flying into the side of the mountain that he had been found by. As Thane got to his feet he found himself staring into the barrel of Nathan's arm cannon. "The next time you pull something like that again...I will kill you." There was no lie in his voice, this was by far no empty threat.

Finally, Nathan was able to walk away undisturbed. Thane just went into a rage and began punching and slicing anything he could find in the uninhabited area he was left in.

Lyric sat on the edge of a cliff overlooking Ponyville with the eggs by his side on a blanket, having just retrieved them by request of his mother while his father searched for the rest of Phoenix Squad. He sat with his hands on his knees, his legs hanging off the edge of the cliff while he stared up at the sky. He slowly reached up and touched the cheek that Amnesia had kissed. Just thinking of the event caused him to blush furiously and shake the thought out of his head.

"What am I doing? I should be out looking for Sapphire! She's probably really hurt after what happened with her and dad. But...for some reason...I feel like I shouldn't go after her...like someone else is going to go after her.' He tossed his thoughts around in his head before he pictured Amnesia in his mind again. 'Why can't I get her out of my head? I don't understand...this is a...new feeling. I know there are still a great deal of emotions I have yet to experience...but...this feels...familiar somehow."

"You really don't know what you're feeling?" Lyric jumped at the sound of his sisters voice, almost falling off the edge of the cliff. "Sorry little bro, didn't mean to scare you." Ruby spoke in a softer voice, knowing full well that after being surprised like that Lyric would take a few moments to calm down. She sat down beside him and placed a band on his back while giving him a caring smile.

"H-Hey Ruby...um...w-what are you doing here? Shouldn't you be out doing something?"

"Nah, everyone else already has everything covered. I actually wanted to speak with you." Ruby moved her hand up to Lyrics shoulder. "So, you really don't know what this feeling is do you?" Lyric looked to his hands and thought for a moment before looking back at Ruby and shaking his head. "Lyric...what you're feeling is love."

"M-Me? Love?!"

"Yes, you're feeling love for the first time, not family love, not friendly love. Just...love. The reason this feels so familiar to you is because of what happened with mom and dad. From the kiss in the cheek before running into a portal to the sitting on a cliff and thinking about the new feeling. When dad was younger-"

"My human form is still twenty four missy, don't you be calling me old!" Nathan called from Ponyville.

"-he didn't see the point in a relationship other than to reproduce, so when he finally felt love for the first time he didn't recognise it, ot was new to him and he finally understood. You see this situation as familiar because that was he day that dads positive side was born, you are made up of his positive side, his shy and insecure side."

"Dad is shy and insecure?"

"He was, he's learned to get over the shyness and most of his insecurities...but one thing still lingers in his mind that troubles him, but we don't need to get involved in that, it's his business."

Lyric nodded and looked up at the sky in thought. The two were silent for awhile before Lyric decided to ask something. "Ruby...do you think Amnesia loves me too?"

Ruby just chuckled at his obliviousness and began explaining what she knew about love and relationships, leaving out the naughty stuff of course. No, Nathan and Sonata were the ones that would have to go through that hell.

Author's Notes:

The conflict with Thane will be the focus of the next story arc, either after or before another little adventure with someone related to Amnesia and Plague, specifically their father Auldin.

Chapter thirty three: Sapphire's manipulation

"I'm going to have to apologise Nathan, had I known of my fellow council members plans I would have said something." Roden apologised as he was informed of the events that had taken place earlier in the day.

"It's fine Roden, you didn't know, I'm just glad that no one was left with any fatal injuries that couldn't be treated." Nathan waved Rosens apology off with his hand while blasting a pile of rubble with his arm cannon. "Mental and emotional injuries however..."

"Yeah, it's safe to say a good amount of the foals in town were scared for life by that thing that attacked us." Krystal said absentmindedly as she walked past the two while wiring up her soon to be robot companion.

"Yeah, don't remind me..." Nathan groaned and rubbed his face at the thought of the mortified foals that had saw their family members with some limbs gone. "Roden, don't suppose you have some way of letting them forget what they saw?"

Roden took a moment to consider the request. "I may have something, but I fee,as though it may be better to have them go through therapy and allowing them to keep,the experience to learn from instead of just forgetting it ever happened."

"Well you're more knowledgeable than me in this situation so I'm gonna have to take your word for it." As he was about to go over so,e damage reports Sonata flew down in her siren form and rested on Nathan's shoulders.

"I looked all over but I couldn't find Sapphire anywhere."

"I'll go look for her, I'm the one that needs to talk to her anyways...god I hate being seen as the bad guy."

"That's part of your job as a parent, you will be seen as the antagonist sometimes but it's what you do to mend the fragile bond that makes up for it." Roden explained with a hint of experience in the field.

"That sounds a bit more personal than when you explained anything else to us, why is that?" Nathan asked as he lifted a fallen tree off of a road.

"I'm an immortal being that has been around for billions if not zillions of years, I've lost count. I've had a few mortal spouses in my time and have had many children that I loved dearly, I've been through it all. That is why I sound experienced in the matter, because I am." The displacer explained with a sad sigh. "And not a day goes by that I don't miss each and every one of them."

Sonata and Nathan looked at each other with sympathy for the void dweller who looked to be fighting back tears. 'Even brings like him have emotions and experience loss.' Nathan thought as he imagined what would happen if Sonata and all of his children were to fall, he'd be left alone, would probably shut off his personality and become a subservient robot warrior for Equestria to keep his body busy while he grieved in the mind. "Hey, Roden, how about after I fix things up,with Sapphire you and I go out for a drink or something, just hang out a bit, you look like you need a break?"

"Hmmm, it has been awhile since I've rested...might as well."

Meanwhile

Sapphire sat in the middle of the Whitetail Woods, hidden away by the leaves and thick logs, hugging her legs close to her chest as she cried...and cried...and cried.

How could she be so foolish? She knew better than to jump the gun and fire on a random stranger. It was her faith that her brothers, sisters, parents and friends were out in danger.

She kept repeating this to herself in a very unhealthy manner. She just kept saying it quietly in between sobs.

Her guns taken away, her emotions all over the place and her home in ruins, Sapphire had no idea what to do, all she could do was cry her eyes out while silently punishing herself for it. "I can't even *sniff* control myself...I almost got everyone killed...I'm a failure..." Sge didn't know how to react properly, one because she was young and two, she still had to experience most emotions.

"Yes...you are..."

Looking up Sapphire saw a cloud of dark purple mist seep out of the treeline and form into the body of a Nightmare. Sapphire just growled and reached for her wrench.

"Now now, there's no need to get hostile with one of your brethren." Nightmare said while putting up his claws in a sign of surrender.

"What? Brethren? I've only got one brother right now, and I don't think dad is the one to cheat."

Nightmare suddenly slithered over to Sapphire almost instantly and looked her in the eye. "Don't you remember what made you! You're half Nightmare Fuel, you're one of us, born from Nightmare blood and a displaceds negative energy. A strange but not unwelcome combination."

As Nightmare leaned closer Sapphire began to sweat in nervousness.

"You can feel it can't you? The Nightmare inside you calls out, begging to be released." Nightmare cupped her cheek in his claw and smirked. "Eventually, you'll lose control of yourself and slaughter everyone you hold dear....that is, if you don't learn to control the Nightmare you are made up of."

Sapphire just watched him uncomfortably as he bent his body in ways that wouldn't be physically possible for any living thing...ever.

I can help you control it...I can help you become greater...I can help you show your father that you don't need him."

As Nightmare was about to place two claw fingers on Sapphires head to possess her entire mind, a large ball of blue and grey spikes shot out of the leaves and nailed Nightmare in the chest. "Metal?"

"Sapphire, run to your father, now." Metal instructed as he charged head first at the powerful Nightmare. Sapphire just shakily nodded before rubbing off.

Nightmare got to his feet and laughed at the displaced. "Well well, if it isn't the Black Plain Raid survivor himself. What brings you to my neck of the woods?"

"The same thing that brings me to any universe...I have people I need to protect."

Chapter thirty four: Metal vs Nightmares

Meral got onto all fours and growled at the Nightamre much like a wolf would to an attacker. His beast-like form adding to the imitation factor his growl possessed, which was sleeping with absolute hate and rage. Having come from a timeline where he watched his wives and children be killed by the very type of monster that lay before him, he was anxiously waiting for a chance to express some rage. He dug one of his claws into the ground and slowly waved his blade-edged tail threateningly as he began to circle the Nightmare.

Nigntmare gave off a low growl as he too began to circle his opponent. "You come from a time where you wiped out my entire race save for one, the Nightmare Princess Zerlinda, why try to repeat that horrifying experience by challenging the Nightmares of this world?"

Metal just remained silent as he got to his two legs again and opened his hands, causing two large transpernent blue blades to appear in his hand. Just by using the summoning technique caused him emotional pain, as it was the first ability he had ever gained which was also taught to him by one of his romantic partners Princess Luna, who had used the same ability in the first battle of the crystal empire. Metal looked away from Nightmare for a moment before closing his eyes. "This world still has a chance to be peaceful, my world does not. I may have destroyed Xram along with Symbol and Marx and saved an infinite amount of lives, but I failed to save my own home from a Nightamre Fuel invasion force as I was too busy destroying Nightmare Alpha, I will not allow even one of you to live any longer."

Nightmare stopped and stared at the metal hedgehog. "You said you have people you want to protect here. Who? You don't plan on stealing this timelines version of your partners from your past self do you?" He asked evilly.

Metal opened his eyes and glared at Nightmare who flinched as they made eye contact. "Ruby is now the only reminiscent I have of my old home, she wasn't even able to grow up with her family after the Black Plain Raid, she is like a daughter to me. I can and will make sure she stays with her family for as long as I live."

Nightmare just began to chuckle. "I will never understand how a being like yourself, the direct descendant of one of the greatest monsters in the infinite history of the void, can have such a heroic mindset and courageous attitude."

"I gave up on trying to understand that long ago." Without warning Metal curled into a large ball of grey and blue spikes, almost looking like a ball made of buzz saws, and shot towards Nightmare at blinding speeds. On impact Nigjtmare was sent flying, but Netal hash' that ended his attack, he kept going forward. He reached Nightmare in midair and began sawing through his body in his spinball. As he ripped and teared away at the monsters flesh another Nightmare came out of nowhere and punched Metal off of its ally.

Metal quickly unfurled and threw one of his blades into the demons body at mach speed, impaling it in a nearby rock before it broken into a puff of purple smoke and formed into a small purple orb like the other Nightmare than Metal had torn to shreds.

Three tendrils then stabbed through his back and outside of his chest. Turning his back he saw two Nightmares standing together. He grabbed the tendrils in his free hand and pulled them forward while they were still in his body. The Nightmares were pulled towards his back where they were stabbed by the many spikes before turning into orbs.

Before a Nightmare could sneak up on him he quickly turned around and blasted it with his chest laser, which covered a very large area. He then grabbed another approaching Nightmare and punched it in the gut causing it to fly straight upwards at a speed of approximately mach four.

As hundreds of Nightmares began to gather in the forest Metal stood still, looking slowly around at the large crowd that had come to take his life. They had tried this in his timeline, time and time again, it never worked. As they all began to pile onto him, stabbing, punching and whatever else Metal just clenched his fists and opened his glowing red eyes.

"CHAOS...BLAST!!!" Be unleashed a wave of dark red magic which covered everything in a one hundred feet radius, killing every Nightmare it reached. As the attack ended Metal looked around at the sea of dark purple orbs, some already beginning to reform into fresh Nightmares.

Using his portal manipulation ability taught to him by Marx, Metal opened a rift to an abandoned universe and sent all of the orbs through it begore sealing it off.

"Hmph, no wonder True Xram and The Nightmare Kimg had special Noghtmares made, these guys are just pathetic." He sat down on a nearby log, allowing his self repair systems to mend his wounds. "No matter, the easier they go down the better, I'm already sick of fighting these guys. I should probably go and let Sapphire know that I'm alright and check on how she's doing."

"Hey Metal!" He heard Nathan call out. "Where are you?! Sapphire said you needed help!"

"Over here Nathan! Everything is fine now!"

The huge warbot followed the sound of the metal hedgehogs voice until he came to the destroyed area of the forest. "Woah, did you do this?"

"I'm not sure why you're surprised, you can easily wipe out an entire firest, this is just one area."

"I know that, just not used to seeing these things happen because of people that aren't me." Nathan responded while rubbing the back of his head slowly. "What happened here anyway? All Sapphire said was you were in trouble."

"Heh, I've faced far worse than this, to me this was nothing more than a morning jog. Essentially a small army of Nightmare Fuels attacked, one tried to sway Sapphire into letting her inner Nightmare take control, I stopped it and beat them all. End of story." Metal answered with disinterest. "Speaking of Sapphire, you might want to go have that talk with her now."

"Hmm...you're right." As Nathan turned away he immediately turned back and glared. "Hey wait a minute where were you when Epidemic was rampaging about?!"

"I couldn't get involved in such a vital part of your history, Ruby could because she is the only version of herself in this timeline, I still have my past self. Besides..." Metal trailed off and sighed deeply. "...I didn't want to hurt myself by seeing them again."

Author's Notes:

Yep, Metal is holding some major baggage.

Metal is actually o e if the strongest members of the Chaos Family, the third strongest to be exact with number two being Epidemic and one being Symbol.

Chapter thirty five: Lyric takes charge

Ruby patted Lyric on the back before getting to her feet and began walking away. "Where are you going Ruby?"

Ruby stopped and turned to her brother. "I've just got to meet with a friend. I'll be back soon don't worry. In the meantime, why don't you go speak to Sapphire?"

"W-Why me? Wouldn't mom and dad be better at talking to her about all of this?"

Ruby shook her head and walked back over to the timid boy, kneeling down and playing a hand on his shoulder while looking into his eyes. "Lyric, you are the most soft spoken and kind of all of us in the family. You know what to say when someone is down. She's your sister Lyric, mom and dad would probably go easy on her due to parental affection. What Sapphire needs is someone honest and string willed like you to talk to her."

"But I'm not strong willed! I'm not-" Before he could complete his sentence, Ruby gently placed a finger on hai lips to silence him while looking him in the eye with a soft smile.

"Yes, you are. You fought Rage one on one and came out without a scratch, meanwhile the rest of us were desperate to find some way to beat him out of dad. You stood up for us, you protected us from an enemy that should have sent fear running down your spine, yet facing him didn't phase you. You're much stronger than you know Lyric, it's time to stop doubting yourself." She cupped his cheek and gently kissed his forehead before disappearing, leaving him by himself.

Lyric just stared at the spot that his sister used to be in and sighed. "How am I even going to do this?"

Sapphire placed the orange egg in with the others back in the now repaired Castle of Friendship. She gently placed the egg in the basket after carrying them from the battlefield after Nathan had ran off to help Metal.

She wiped a tear from her cheek before gently rubbing the sides if the large eggs. "I'm sorry guys. I tried to keep you safe, but only pit you in more danger." She stopped and looked through her weapons...nothing left but her wrench. "What kind of big sister am I if I keep get you into these situations?"

"Sapphire?"

Sapphire turned to see Lyric standing in the doorway who was slightly sweating in nervousness. "O-Oh...hey Lyric...what's up?"

Lyric took a deep breath and sighed. Walkimg forward in silence Sapphire only watched as he reached her with his head slightly lowered. He lifted his head and looked her in the eye, now seeing how red they were from all of her crying. "Sapphire...I...I've come to talk about earlier...with you and dad."

Sapphires hands began to visibly tremble in nervousness. "W-Why would you want to,talk about that?"

Lyric slowly reached over and took one of her hands in his before doing the same with the other. "Because I want you to have honesty."

"Huh?" Suddenly Applejack popped her head in through the door. "Somepony say somethin' about honesty?"

"Trying to have a tender moment here Applejack." Lyrics response just caused Sapphire to look at him strangely.

"Oh, right, sorry. Carry on." Applejack closed the door and continued on her way, leaving the twins to their business.

"Since when are you like this? I didn't think you'd ever respond to someone like that."

Lyric rubbed the back of his neck nervously and looked away slightly. "Well...after turning into Legendary Lyric and becoming Melodrain with Amnesia...I guess I've been thinking over a lot of things...and somehow I'm not really as shy as before." Lyric quickly shook his head and returned his attention to his sister. "But that's not what I'm here for. You need to talk about This with someone that won't go easy on you like mom and dad. I may not be the toughest of our family but I know how to be brutality honest when the time comes."

"Like dad would actually go easy on me for this..."

"He would, and he will. Sapphire, you and I both know that dad cares about us just a little too much, he'll do anything to make sure we're happy and safe. But he can't provide the necessary honesty in these situations because he himself has never experienced that."

"Lyric, listen. I know I screwed up, big time. I put our brothers and sisters in a lit of danger and I jumped the gun. I understand all of that, I know I'm out of control, there's nothing else to talk about."

As Sapphire tried to walk away Lyric grabbed her by the arm and turned her around again, now visibly sweating with nervousness. "Yes there is...what are you going to do now? How do you actually feel? What do you want to say to dad?"

Sapphire stopped, thinking over his words for a moment. When she didn't answer Lyric sighed and sat her down.

"Let's just...see what we can do about this."

Meanwhile

After returning to Rubys side, both the future girl and the demonic robot hedgehog made their way into a few miles away from Ponyville. There was someone they had to speak to after the battle, someone from their broken timeline, the new that had sent them back to the past in the first place.

"I was wondering when you'd show up." Symbols voice echoed throughout the area before a glowing white portal appeared in front of them and a figure stepped out. It was a young man that look,ed to be around nineteen. His hair was long and was glowing white, everything except for his skin was white, his skin being tan. He wore a white trenchcoat with a t-shirt underneath that had a grey symbol of the sun on it. There were two crystalic wings griefing out of his back and there was white mist seeping out of his hands. "Hello again you two."

"Hello, Master Symbol." Ruby greeted as she gave a small bow.

"What have I said about calling me master? You may be my student but there's no reason for such formality." Symbol said with annoyance while folding his arms. "Anyway. You're here about what happened during that battle with Rage and Epidemic right?"

"I am, yes. It's about my training."

Symbol frowned. "You want to do,e back here to train more?" He asked reluctantly. Not because he disliked training her, he loved her like a daughter and would willingly teach her again.

"No, I don't."

This caught the void dweller by surprise. "Oh, why's that then?"

"I feel like I can grow stronger here than in your care,mill be able to learn from experience rather than training sessions. I'll be able to face different opponents and adapt from those battles. Branching off from your tutorship will allow me to explore other options of combat and knowledge."

Symbol just smiled and placed a hand on her cheek. "Well, there wasn't much that I had left to teach you anyway. I could only teach you my fighting styles, but now you shall be able to develop your own." He patted her on the cheek before pulling away and letting his smile fall. "Now...there is a second reason why you've called me back isn't there?"

Metal got into his back legs and nodded. "Indeed, there is something that isn't right about this timeline. Nightmares showing up when they shouldn't be, strange feelings of unbalance and historical inaccuracies to be precise."

"So what you're saying is, someone else has been messing with the main timeline..."

Author's Notes:

Looking to further Lyrics character and dive more into the other Rangers.

Anyway,mi hope you enjoyed this chapter.

Chapter thirty six: Zanes decision

Canterlot

Zane walked alone through the hallways with his head hanging low, still trying to get over the battle with Rage. He may be thousands of years old but he was stuck with his young mind, however he had still matured enough to be considered an adult, it's just that the rest of the now broken up Phoenix Squad treated him like a little brother. At times he liked the care they showed, but a lot of the time he wished he was seen as more. Sure, Nathan sees him differently than the rest, but he wants to be seen as more than just a little kid by Krystal, Katie and Thane.

There was one other being that saw him as more than just a younger brother, and that was his best friend Princess Luna. His blue eye flashed pink for a moment as he thought of the alicorn. It was true that he had a childhood crush on Katie, but he had started to feel the same way towards Luna, only these feeling developing much faster than when he first discovered them forming for Katie.

He shook his head, now was not the time to think about that, he had something very important to do that required all of his strength and mental stability to handle alone. He was going to confront his older brother. He had put up with it for too long, the bad moods and the needless resentment. He didn't want to be a part of that, he never did, but after almost being killed by Rage he had began to look over what he would regret not doing if he were to die one day, and he knew he would, even immortal brings have to die sometime.

He reached the room where their pods were kept, Looking over to see that one was missing, Krystals pod. Looking about he found Thane messing with his plasma whip handle. "T-Thane?" He stuttered as he looked in through the door. "Can I come in?"

"It's your room too, you don't need to ask permission." Thane replied disinterested. Zane nodded and quietly walked into the room while closing the door behind him. "You going to sleep in your pod it something?"

"N-No." Zane began. "I'm here to...talk to you about something."

"What is it?" Thane asked, slightly curious as to what his brother had to say.

Zane quietly changed his arm cannon to a new function just in case before sighing. "Um...I'm planning on...leaving the squad"

Zane watched as Thane dropped the whip in his hand as he sat there frozen, but Znae didn't know with what. Was it anger? Fear? Or just the general shock? Perhaps he shouldn't have been so blunt. "What did you just say?" Thane demanded darkly but quietly.

Zane was about to cower down but shook himself and stood his ground. "You heard what I said, I'm leaving the squad."

Thane slowly got to his feet and clenched his hands into fists. "Has that traitor convinced you to-" Thane stopped and shook himself, preventing himself from continuing the sentence. "No...no...what's made you...want this?" Zane could tell he was trying to keep in that hatred, trying to control it the best he could, holding back from insulting their first ex-member again.

"To be honest, you." Zane answered clearly. "There's just something...off, about you. Like you aren't even in control of your own body anymore. Instead, all of that pent up rage and hatred takes control and is mean to everyone else. I'm not dealing with that anymore Thane, you're on your own until you come to your senses." Zane had to stop himself from shaking in fear.

Thane could no longer hold back his rage. He had already lost Krystal to Nathan, but now his little brother? "You aren't going anywhere! You're staying right here!" As he stormed over to Zane the young medi-bot readied his cannon. Thane was no longer in control, whatever was inside his body had most of the control now. As he was about to strike Zane, Zane rolled backwards and pointed his cannon at Thane before shooting it, but instead of a blast of energy, a stream of light blue electricity shot out and washed over Thane.

Thane shakily fell to his knees as the electricity continued to flow out of the cannon, paralysing him slowly.

"W-What the?!"

"I had this installed by our displacer in case this ever happened or if you needed to be rendered unable to move." Zane stated as he moved for the door while still keeping the energy flowing. "I'm not leaving Canterlot, but I'm leaving you. So...stay away from me until you actually mature." With that he closed the door and let the energy begin to wear off if Thane, it would still take a few minutes for the energy to turn out so he didn't have to worry about being followed or chased down.

He quickly made distance between him and the room, running through the long halls of the castle until he was a good half mile away from hai enraged brother. He slumped up against a wall and sighed deeply before starting to shake. It had taken all of his courage and strength to stand up to Thane like that, and it had taken its toll.

"I...I need to find Luna..." Shakily, he trudged through the halls, searching for his friend, in need of comfort from someone he trusted dearly.

Meanwhile Hack just sat atop one if the support beams on the ceiling, having witnessed everything so far with his wide sadistic grin ever present across his face. He began to laugh quietly before bursting out into a fit of hysteria. "Oh this is too good! These idiots are turning on one another! Oh this is just gold! And while they're all busy fighting amongst themselves..." Hack pulled some form of detonator out of his hat and held it up to his eyes with his grin only growing larger. "...we can actually get something done! Goodbye Manehatten!"

He pressed the button and off in the distance there was a large surge of energy. Manehatten had completely disappeared, only a smouldering crater in its place.

Havk just continued to laugh which was soon echoed by the other Maniacs present.

Author's Notes:

Time to make The Maniacs into serious villians

Chapter thirty seven: Mutual anger

"WHAT?!?!" Nathan yelled in fury as he glared at the newspaper he had picked up the following morning. Twilght, Sonata, Ruby, Sapphire, Lyric, Metal and Krystal all stood around him as he scanned the page word for word. "HOW THE HELL DID THIS HAPPEN?!?!"

"What?! What's happened?!" Twilght asked with concern.

Nathan closed his eye and took in a deep breath before answering and handing the paper to the alicorn. "Manehatten is gone, all that's left is a crater." He answered with anger clearly present in his voice. As Twilight began reading through the article her expression went from one of concern to one of disbelief.

Just then, she remembered someone that they knew who was living in Manehatten. "Coco...no..." She shook her head and held back the tears. "H-How is this possible?"

"The Maniacs..." Nathan responded dryly as he closed a hatch on his arm cannon after hiving Krystal work with him to make some modifications. "If you'll all excuse me, I'm going to go hunt down The Maniacs and tear them limb from limb." He pulled kit the RYNO V and began stomping out of the castle with his eye glowing blood red.

Sonata flew in front of him as he began walking towards the Everfree. "Nathan, honey, listen to me." She instructed as hovered in front of the the raging robot in front of her. "Mindlessly wandering Equestria is only going to waste time and energy. I know you're angry, I am too, but you need to calm down and think, we don't know if they'll strike again somewhere close by, so we need to be prepared." Sonata looked down to see that his arms were beginning to turn black as all of hai lights began to glow red. "Nathan, calm down." She flew slightly closer and planted a kiss on his eye before pulling away and smiling warmly.

Nathan's eye began to return to its original purple colour, soon his body ceased its transformation as he began to get control over his emotions. Once he shrank himself to his smallest size he shook his head while rubbing his face and sighing. "Damnit...I knew I was leaving them for too long...with everything going on they've had a chance to work on other things other than plans to kill us. I knew this yet I still allowed myself to become distracted."

Sonata flew down and began to rub his arm with her hoof. "It's not your fault Nathat, you had things to deal with. Rage, Sapphire, the stuff with Metal and Ruby as well as Thane. You've already been doing so much, there will just be those times where you can't save everyone, you just have to try again the next time." She reassured her robotic fiancé with a caring smile.

Nathan sighed and reached up, scratching behind her ear and causing her to sigh happily at the pleasant feeling. "Thanks Nata." As he said this his eye flashed red again. "But when I do find them, I'll kill each and every one of them with no remorse."

Sonata sighed. "I know, and I think they deserve it."

Nathan blinked and looked up,to her in shock. "What?"

"I said they deserve to die." She jumped off of Nathan's shoulder and looked up at him with anger clearly present in her eyes. "They e done nothing but make ponies sad or angry. They'be killed a lot of ponies, in the past and recently. They even tried to take our children away from us. So Nathan, promise me that you will unleash all of you wrath onto them once you get the chance." She said in a suprisingly calm tone, but Nathan knew that she was furious just by looking at her.

He crouched down and held out his open hand which she climbed onto while he lifted her up to his eye. "I promise. They will pay for what they've done." Nathan looked away for a moment, looking up at Canterlot, seeing a golden carriage flying off towards the now destroyed city. "Looks as if Celestia is going to go inspect the level of destruction. You stay here, I'm going too."

"Nuh uh, I'm coming with you this time." Sonata put on a pouty face and crossed her forelegs. "And you can't stop me."

He would have pushed further, but knew it would be pointless to do so. "Alright, let's go." He quickly grew to his full size and began running off in the direction of the former Manehatten with a siren Sonata following close behind.

Sapphire and Lyric stood side by side as they held the newspaper together. "This is messed up."

"What's wrong with these guys? What did those ponies ever do to them?"

"The Maniacs don't care who they hurt, they have no reason for doing this type of thing." Both of the twins turned to see Krystal angrily tinkering with one if her machines. "They're made up of the worlds most insane individuals who have no regard for life, death or anything. All they care about is bringing others pain and misery, whether through death or mental torture." She slammed her cannon into the wall as a screw refused to stay in. "They're all monsters with no sense of right and wrong. They're evil for no reason and they know it. They were hand crafted to bring pain into the world. They're called The Maniacs for a reason. They cannot be reasoned with, they can not be bought over and they cannot show mercy. If you ever run into any of them..." She charged up her cannon and shot it at a fly that had been buzzing around the entire time, turning it to ash. "...kill them on sight."

Lyric looked from his aunt to the newspaper before clenching his fist, preventing himself from becoming Legendary Lyric a gain to hunt down The Maniacs, but he knew he'd never be able to stop them all, even if he did know where they were.

All he and Sapphire could do was wait until they had the opportunity to enter the battles ahead. But no one is ever truly ready for a battle, and these two diffently were not. Not yet anyway.

Author's Notes:

Things are getting serious now. And don't worry, there will still be a confrontation between Nathan and Sapphire, they his didn't talk that evening after Lyric talked to her.

Chapter thirty eight: Wonderous devastation

An hour later, Nathan and Sonata reached the remains of Manehatten. "Oh no..." Sonata mumbled sadly as she looked out at the crater before them. Stretching miles apart with a huge cloud of smoke rising from the centre, splats of blood scattered in places ponies were standing when the bomb went off. Nathan growled and jumped down into the sizzling crater. Celestia had beaten them there. She and a small army of gaurds were looking around, searching for anything or anyone that may have survived.

Celestia kneeled down near a patch of blood and closed her eyes sadly begore shedding a tear. "All of these ponies...all of these innocent ponies...foals...newborns...they're just...gone..." She spoke with a mixture of pure rage and immense sadness. Nathan turned into his pony body and walked up to her, placing a hoof on her shoulder before she turned around and hugged him, sobbing silently into his neck. He wrapped one hoof around her and began speaking softly to her in an effort to get her calm down, however he was also doing it to keep himself from going on a rampage.

"I won't say it's going to be ok...nothing about this is ok, but I will say that when I find the ones that did this..." Celestia pulled away slightly as she watched hos coat begin to turn dark grey and his eyes begin to glow red. "...I will destroy every last piece of their bodies."

Celestia nodded and wiped the tears from her eyes. "Avenge my ponies Nathan, stop The Maniacs from causing any more harm...go all out."

Nathan nodded before forming back into his ranger mode. "I'll hunt them down right away."

"Oh my this is just marvellous!" Nathan froze in place as he heard the voice of the one responsible. Hack sat on a boulder while looki,g out at the destruction. "I knew the Apocalypse Magic was devastating, but I didn't realise such a small amount of of it pressurised would cause so much destruction! I love it!" Nathan slowly turned around, his eye now completely blood red. "It really clears everything out doesn't it? I think a new settlement could be placed here! Of course you'd have to mop up the blood, been out the land and see about destroying it all again. What do you think Nathan old chum?"

Hack smirked and jumped out of the way of a huge blast. He landed a few feet beside a newly formed crater and smiled evilly. Nathan's body had become completely black, his lights now all blood red and red mist began to seep from his cannon, blood red fire outlining his body. "Wonder..." His voice was echoed and crackled, speaking in almost a growl.

"Hmmm? What's up? Aside from the ashes of these little ponies gong up in that smoke cloud that is?" He was caught off guard as a huge metal fist slammed into him, hitting him in the head first before slamming into the ground.

"I WILL END YOU!!!" The gaurds in the area ran away as Nathan grew to his full size, pulled out the RYNO V, which was all black and seeping red mist from its barrels, and aimed it directly at Hack. "DIE, DIE, DIE!!!"

The ground began to shake violently as the unearthly barrage of destruction was focused on one point, on one person. The huge bullets and missles breaking the ground. The enraged Nathan just kept the trigger held down, not caring if he ran out of bolts buying ammo.

Suddenly the ground formed a huge fist and slammed a huge stone fist into the side of Nathan's body, pushing him to the side but not causing him to fall over. Hack jumped out of the huge hole formed by the barrage, his blank eyes glowing and his smile gone. "Alright big boy, you wanna dance? Let's dance."

Hack pointed his cane to the ground and slammed the end of bit into the stone. Multiple fists of stone rose out of the ground and began punching Nathan from all different angles. Nathan let out a metalic roar of anger before raising his fist, which was filled with his energy, and slamming it into the ground causing a huge shockwave, destroying the fists and splitting up the rocks.

Hack held up his cane as it began to stretch to the height of Nathan and began to widen. He then slammed the now huge cane down into Nathan, crushing him against the ground. Hack began to repeatedly bash the warbot with the cane, while using the stone to hold him down. Nathan broke free, grabbed the cane, took it away from Hack and swung it with incredible strength. Hack was sent flying at Mach speed.

Nathan swung his cannon while rapidly firing it, but instead of blasts multiple balls of red energy came out and stayed in place in a curved line in front of the warbot. He sighted Hack who had landed in a thick layer of clouds before snapping his fingers, causing the balls of energy to fire devistating lasers towards Hack. Each of the beams hit and Hack cried out in pain as the energy began breaking him down.

A huge stone hand shot up from out of the ground and grabbed Nathan by the face and tossed him into the ocean before the sand from the sea floor formed hands and began to surround him as he sank. Once he was surrounded by the sand it formed spikes inside and clamped down onto him. He roared in pain before charging his cannon and heating the sand into glass before breaking free. He landed on the sea floor and launched himself upwards.

He shot out of the water to Hacks suprise, grabbed Hack and shoved him into the muzzle of his cannon and began charging up. The blasts inside burning Hack in the process before Nathan aimed his cannon at the side of a mountain and fired. Hack shot out in a large fireball before slamming against the mountain, causing the top half of it to crumble under the force of the shot.

When Nathan began running towards the mountain he saw a cloaked Maniac grabbing Hacks unconscious body, ready to teleport out. "OH NO YOU DON'T!!!"

He jumped and crushed the two under his foot. When he lifted his foot he saw they had teleported away before they were crushed. He roared in absolute rage, furious that he had allowed his foes to flee.

Sonata shook her head as she watched him tear apart the remains parts of the mountain in a blind rage. "I think we'll have to keep him away from anyone for awhile..."

Author's Notes:

Nathan is furious and we've got a look at Hacks powers

Chapter thirty nine: Zane and Luna

Sonata sat patiently on the other side of the mountains that shielded her from Nathan's rampage. She knew it would take awhile for him to calm down, especially in that form. So she just let him go at it until eventually his form faded and the sound of explosions and shattering ricks ceased, replaced by slow heavy footsteps that shook the ground slightly. Nathan climbed over the mountain and landed just in front of Sonata, the ground shaking from the impact.

Sonata just stared up at him with concern. "You ok now?" She recieved a small nod in response. "Good, I think it's best if we get you home so you can relax." Nathan was about to object until she flew up to him and stared him in the eye. "No Nathan, you are not going out to hunt The Maniacs until you've recovered from that. Metal and Ruby could search in the meantime or Lyric and Sapphire could do it or one of the other Rangers."

He just remained silent, there was no arguing with her, because he knew she was right and wouldn't budge when she got like this, he essentially had no choice. "Fine.."

Sonata smiled as she watched him shrink down into his pony form. "Good, then let's go home, I'll make sure that someone is out looking for those monsters. I'm also pretty sure Celestia has Krystal with her in another city searching for more bombs."

This calmed his nerves slightly. He trusted Krystal with this, he knew she was far more gifted with machinery and technology than anyone else in this universe. Sure, he may be a weapons and demolitions expert, but he was more suited to throwing bombs.

Canterlot, later that evening

Zane sat outside the door to Luna's chambers, waiting for the sun to go down and the moon to rise so he could spend time with her. He had recharged earlier in the day just to stay up through the night to see her. He was briefed on the situation at hand, while he wished he was out helping he knew there was only so much he could do. While he was lost in thought he failed to notice the sky turning dark blue with the moon rising over the horizon.

Luna walked out of her chambers and instantly noticed the young ranger in deep thought. She walked up behind him and shook him gently with her hoof. "Zane? Are you ok?"

The robot shook himself and turned to face the alicorn. "Y-Yeah, just thinking about stuff." Seeing her concerned expression made his power core glitch for a moment.

"Do you wish to talk about it?"

"That...would be nice." Luna grasped his hand in her magic and led him into the bedroom, motioning for him to sit down on one of the large pillows around a small table. He sat down and the pillow was suprisingly supportive of his bodies weight, only sinking into it slightly. Luna sat down on one opposite him and looked at him with worry. "Alright, now, tell me what's on your mind."

Zane signed and looked up. "I...left the squad."

Luna wasn't suprised given how things appeared to be going with the group, it was likely the Rangers would leave Thane to go under Nathan's leadership instead given how he was acting as of late. "I see..."

"Now...I don't know what to do. Do I go to Nathan? Do I move to Ponyville or somewhere else? Do I go at it alone? Do I try to go with Katie or Krystal? I don't know..." He lowered his head, almost tearing up, despite not being able to actually cry. "This is the first time I've ever been alone..."

Luna quickly rushed to his side and wrapped her hooves around him. "You aren't alone Zane. I'm always here, I won't let you be alone."

Zane could feel his emotions going into overdrive as Luna hugged him in such a caring way. His eye turned pink for a moment before he wrapped his arms around her. "Thank you..."

Luna herself blushed slightly from the embrace, but luckily Zane couldn't see. "I'm your friend Zane, I'll always be here for you, even if it seems like you are alone."

The two just remained in each other's arms, neither saying a word, enjoying the feeling of being so close together.

Outside, Hack Wonder sat on a cloud with Psychopath standing beside him. "Awwww, what a tender loving moment...go ruin it Psychopath." Psychopath, standing tall with his cloak covering his face, only leaving his two glowing white eyes visible, nodded in response and launched himself towards the tower. Zane detected an enemy presence quick enough to push Luna out of the way and turn towards the window before Psychopath burst through and leapt at him. Zane threw himself onto his back and pushed his enemy over him with his legs.

The bulky demon landed on his feet and slid across the room and glared at the small ranger. Zane went into full offensive mode in order to protect Luna, not an actual robotic mode, just an expression. Immediatly he charged his cannon and blasted the brute with a small blast of light blue energy. When he was charged again he punched him in the face, he may be small but he still had a good deal of strength to him with his robotic build.

Psychopath was stopped in his tracks but grabbed Zane by the leg and slammed him into the ground before throwing him into a nearby wall and smashing him into it with his shoulder. Luna summoned five transparent blue blades with her magic and shot them into the monster, causing him to roar in pain as they all stabbed him in the back. "Get away from him you demon!" She summoned more blades and kept firing them into him before he swatted them all away and kicked Luna upside the jaw, sending her flying up to the cieling. She crashed into the roof and fell to the ground unconscious.

As Zane recovered from the crash he got up and saw what had happened. He stood frozen for a moment before his eye went dark blu and he clenched his fist. "Don't...you...dare...lay a hand..." He jumped up and grabbed Psychopath by the jaw and lifted him up. "ON MY LUNA!!!" He threw across the room and blinding speeds, sending him flying out of the tower. Zane lay Luna on the bed before jumping out of the hole in the wall to hunt down his target.

Author's Notes:

Well, Zanes pissed

Chapter forty: Meltdown

Psychopath crashed into the open field below Canterlot, the force of his imaoct causing a large cloud of dust to form around the area. He climbed out of the hole shaped like his body only to have Zane come out of the dust and punch him in the face. Psychopath recoiled and grunted as he was blasted in the stomach begore being grabbed by the neck to be slammed into the ground again.

As Zane was about to crush his head under his foot, Psycopath clenches his fists tightly, causing his hard skin to form spikes all over his arm, which he used to stop the robots foot. The spikes caught the foot and dug into it, making Zane venerable for a few moments. Psychopath grabbed his leg with the other arm and got to his feet, he then grabbed Zanes arm and began to pull both the limbs. Before he could have his arm and leg torn off him, Zane levelled his cannon and blasted Psychopath point blank in the face, causing him to let go.

Zane landed with a loud clang of metal before getting to his feet and roundhouse kicking his opponent and bringing his fist down onto his face. Psychopath punched the ground creating a shockwave that shook the area, knocking Zane back slightly. Zanes eye tithed a darker shade of blue and he began charging a shift in his cannon, but kept fighting while it was being prepared. He managed to land a kick to the monsters chest before pulling back and aiming his cannon.

He let the energy go and it shot forward as a large ball of dark blue electricity. The ball hit head on and began to greatly damage his opponent. Due to his touch armoured exterior Psychopath managed to survive the blast and knocked it into the ground creating an explosion that knocked both parties off their feet.

Both were quick to recover as they jumped to their feet and began to charge each other with fists at the ready. As they clashed in the centre of the nearly demolished field, the ground began to crack underneath them as they both dug their feet into the dirt for support. They glared at each other as they pushed against one another in an attempt to overpower their opponent.

Psychopath went to punch Zane with his free hand but recoiled after striking an electrified bubble that appeared around the robot. Zane used this and pushed the beast back before pulling out the original RYNO.

He aimed the devastating weapon as the recovering demon and pulled the trigger. Nine large missles shot out of the nine barrels and homed in on their target, each creating a massive explosion of their own. He just kept firing and firing, until after the fiftieth time the gun ran out of ammo. He threw the gun down and slowly walked over to the creature that was now unable to fully pick himself up.

Zane grabbed him by the head and pulled. "Stand up." He said darkly as he pulled him up. "I'm not done with you yet, so keep on your feet!" He yelled in anger as he let him go and swung his fest into his side, causing Psychopath to fall into his knees and cough up blood. "Come on! Where's that brute that fought us all those years ago!? Huh?! Get, up!" Zane kicked him in the side causing him to fall over. Zane growled in frustration and began to furiously beat the wounded monster with no remorse, the shade of his lights growing darker and darker.

Suddenly, Zane stopped. His light returned to its normal light blue before his systems shut down and he fell on his side next to the near dead Psychopath.

Katie walked up to the two with steam coming from her cannons barrel, the setting on stun. She sighed as she rolled Zane onto his back and shot a round into Psychopath. Nathan came into the field with Ruby following close behind.

"Is he ok?" He asked as he shrank down to his smallest size and kneeled down beside Zane.

"He is, but if he kept pushing himself like that he wouldn't be able to keep up the fight. His body isn't built for that level of brutal combat, not to mention his circuits seemed to be going haywire, he was having an internal meltdown." Katie explained as she pulled out a crate of nanotech and broke it, letting the healing nanobots flow into the young rangers body to start repairs.

"He was in a pure rage, what the hell got into him? Built up frustration?" Nathan asked as he sat down. "It's not like him to let anger overtake him like that, he's always been great at letting go of his rage."

"Most likely Luna was hurt by Psychopath, that would be enough to send him raging like this." Ruby said as she looked up to the castle, noticing the hole in Luna's tower.

Nathan and Katie shook their heads and looked to their teammate. "Kid's starting to take after me and I don't like it." Nathan said with regret.

"Well, he did look up to you for a long time, I wouldn't be suprised if he did pick up a few things." Katie stated as she restrained Psychopath.

"Still, I didn't even know he had this much strength and power hidden away. I mean, beating Psychopath is no easy feat, even I had trouble back in the old days. If only his body were better equipped for this kinda thing..."

"I think he's best staying out of the main line of fire and sticking to support. He can hold his own and I have faith in his abilities, but the fact remains that his body is weaker than ours and he's too kind for this kind of fighting." Katie said sadly as she gently set her hand on Zanes shoulder.

"True..."

"We should probably get him to his pod so he can recharge...although I think we should take it out of the castle or move it to Luna's room."

"Why?" Nathan asked as he picked up Zane and slung him over his shoulder.

"It's at this point in time when Zane had already left the squad, plus he's very, very close to Luna.. I think leaving him with her is a good idea."

Nathan nodded and began walking towards the castle with Zane on his shoulder, Psychopath on his grasp and the other two riding on his back, ready to put the day's events behind them and prepare for the next.

Author's Notes:

Well, that's definitely a thing

Chapter forty one: The hunt

Nathan lay down on his side if the bed in his stallion form and sighed as Sonata curled up beside him, the eggs sitting safely on a small mountain of pillows. The two parents looked at the eggs in thought, just staring at their unborn children. "It ain't gonna be easy balancing parenthood and saving the world from a group of psycopaths and universe destroying entities." Nathan spoke while gently rubbing Sonatas side with his hoof.

"It'll be fine, we've handled Sapphire and Lyric, how bad can these five be?"

"They're all babies and some of them are gonna have a crazy aspect of my personality." He stated with a hint of sadness.

Sonata paused for a moment before closing her eyes and snuggling into her fiancé. "You're right, it's gonna be hell."

"I've been to hell Nata...it's gonna be nothing like that..."

"What?"

"It was an odd week for everyone..."

The next day

Ruby, Metal, Lyric and Twilight all walked around the city of Detrot, looking for any sign of Maniac activity. While walking past an alley Meyal saw a group of stallions surrounding two young mares at knife point. He growled and jumped into the alley. Ruby rolled her eyes and kept walking as she heard the screams of the stallions as Metal took care of business. "Aren't you gonna stop him?" Twilight asked concerned. "I mean, I know they're criminals, but surely they don't deserve...whatever he's doing to them."

They paused as they heard the sound of a saw revving up and heard the stallions scream out in pain. "They'll be fine. They'll be missing a few...important parts, but they'll be fine." After Ruby said this the stallions all ran out, their fur completely shaved off and blood between their back legs. They just ran for it as fast as they could, holding some...sensitive flesh in their hooves as they ran towards the nearest hospital. Metal walked out of the alley with the two mares riding on his back.

"Yep...just like Earths Detroit." He mumbled as the two mares jumped off of his back and planted light kisses on his cheeks before walking off. He just shrugged and kept walking.

"You sure this is where The Maniacs are gonna strike next? Seems like too low of a population for their next move." Lyric asked with concern, worried they were in the wrong city.

"I'm sure, The Maniacs seem to be random in their methods, but there is a specific pattern you can follow to see where they'll strike next." Ruby reassured her younger brother. "You have to cross out every possible option that makes sense and pick the one that makes the least sense, but then you have to do it in reverse again, they'll expect us to go to the least likely place and focus on some random target. I won't get into details, but I stayed up very late last night to plan this, just trust me."

"Is that why I kept hearing someone yell 'No that's not it! They'll expect that, they expect everything!' last night?" Twilight asked as she looked up at Ruby who had bags under her eyes.

Ruby blushed while Metal and Lyric shook their heads. "Don't you think it would be better if we split up? Cover more ground?" Metal asked.

"Only Lyric and Ruby can turn into ponies, you're always like that, you'd attracted more negative attention if you weren't with me." Twilight pointed out.

"Then have them two go one way and have us go another. We cover more ground and I don't get any more negative attention than a young white boy can get in the streets of Detroit."

Ruby covered her mouth as she tried not to laugh while Twilight just looked at them confused. "Earth hunour...too much to explain." She managed to get out in between giggles.

"Ok then...lets go Metal. If you two find anything make sure to give us some kind of signal." Twilight instructed as the two others transformed into ponies.

"It'll most likely be an explosion of some sorts given our family nature..." Lyric said unamused while he walked off with his older sister.

Metal and Twilight walked side by side in silence, Metal constantly scanning for Apocalypse Magic while Twilight made sure to keep track of anyone who looked suspicious. After a few minutes of awkward silence Twilight tried to start a conversation. "So, Metal, what was yoir world like?" She asked.

Metal looked at her then went back to looking straight ahead. "It was fine, constantly under threat of something that I away's ended up dealing with, although Luna and Dash were there to help me most of the time." He answered.

"Your worlds princess Luna and Rainbow Dash? How close were you too them?"

"Yes...they were two of my three wives...I loved them dearly and still love them. But now that I am trapped in this timeline, I am unable to see them or ascend to that timelines afterlife. I will never see my family again." He spoke darkly with his eyes closed.

"You came here to stop that timeline from happening right? But if you're still here...doesn't that mean you already failed?"

Metal sighed. "The future can't change until the events that change it actually happen, we didn't enter a parallel universe when we traveled, we went back in time, reversed the world around us, but a link to that old timeline is still there and always will be, but we cannot enter."

Twilight looked away for a moment before placing a wing in his shoulder. "I'm sorry...I didn't mean to bring up painful memories."

"It's alright..." Metal looked around and finally locked onto a strange energy source. "...Just being in a city like this brings back bad memories."

Author's Notes:

Hope you enjoyed

Chapter forty two: Connecting

"Let's see...if I were a psychopath hell bent on world wide destruction, where would I place a bomb in a city?" Ruby mused to herself as she and Lyric walked down the busy streets in their pony forms.

"From what I know of those kinds of people, they'd want to make it as flashy but as subtle as possible, while also causing the most devestation." Lyric spoke, thinking of what he's experienced with the likes of Hack Wonder and his goons.

Ruby thought for awhile until she stopped and looked up. She held out a hoof to stop Lyric and placed it under his chin before moviving his head up to look at the top of a large building in the centre of the city. Once Lyric caught sight of something glowing red, he noticed that many wires were hidden with concealing magic, all connected to various red crystals handing from the top of the skyscraper. "I think we found our bomb..."

"Oh...well, I guess we get Metal and Twilight then get rid of it...but how?" The timid Colt asked as he looked around. "We probably can't move it, and we definitely can't blow it up...and that magic in those crystals can cause serious harm to us...what do we do sis?"

Ruby thought for a moment before nodding. "Metal can control the Apocalypse Magic within the crystals, but if he were to absorb it, it would interfere with this timelines Metal and his planned course."

"We can think of something later, right now we've gotta get that thing down and away from the civilians." Lyric and Ruby turned around and began to run down the street to find the path Twilight and Metal had taken.

"...and that is why to this day I will never step foot inside a barber shop." Metal finished his more light hearted story, causing Twilight to giggle. "True story."

Twilight wiped a tear from her eye after laughing, after thinking of ways to rid him of the bad memories brought about by the city, Twilight had suggested that he focus on more positive memories and asked him to tell her some stories from his life before Xram was defeated in his timeline. "Wow, I can't believe Luna would ever do that."

"My Luna is most likely different from yours, mine was more outgoing and playful at times, yours seems to stick to her more serious but still soft tempered self." Metal explained as he looked to the rings on his fingers. Twilight expected him to become depressed, but was suprised to find him chuckling. "Heh...it was crazy with all three of them...it was a good run."

Twilight placed a hoof on his shoulder and gave him a small smile. He stated at her fir a second before sighing.

"Alright, we aren't gonna find any bomb or Maniac by standing here looking on old memories, let's get to it so I can make sure the same thing doesn't happen to this timelines version of me."

Twilight nodded and they continued on. As they were about to turn a corner they caught a glimpse of a hooded figure ducking into an alleyway. The two turned to each other and nodded, Metal readying his claws while Twilight readied her horn. After moving through the crowd of ponies easily, with Metals size intimidating the ponies causing them to stay clear of him, the two jumped into the alley and spotted the figure trying to climb the brick walls. Metal growled and jumped up, grabbed the hood and slammed the figure into the ground.

Metal backed off and let Twilight stand in front of him. The figure slowly got to its feet and stared at the two with glowing yellow eyes. "How are you? If you're wearing those robes and are fleeing from us you must be a Maniac." Twilight demanded as she got ready to cast a powerful spell if things got ugly, with Metal putting emphasis on the spikes around his body.

The figure sighed and pulled its hood down, revealing a female humanoid. A dark purple featureless face with two yellow eyes, black hair seeming to be like mist. "My name is Pyre Psychopath." She admitted with annoyance.

Metal blinked and narrowed his eyes. "Psychopath?"

Pyre rolled her eyes and glared. "Yeah, my dad's last name is Psychopath, everyone but me forgot his real name."

Twilight just stood there wide eyed. "Um...I'm not going to ask further..."

Metal took charge and walked up to Pyre, getting right up in her face and glaring at her with his red glowing eyes which accused her to shift under his gaze. "Where is the bomb?" He demanded sternly.

Pyre attempted to teleport away but a layer of red energy blocked the teleportation, causing her to smack against it before falling back. "What the hell was that?!"

"Apocalypse Magic used by someone who can actually use it right." Metal stated before stepping her her and holding her down, each claw holding down a limb. "Now...tell me where the Apocalypse Bomb is located or you and your father are going yo be ripped to shreds and then wiped from existence." His voice was dark and echoed slightly, his body emitting a drank red aura which caused Twilight to back up in uncomfortableness and caused Pyre to cower. "Tell me, now!"

"Ease up there big guy, we found the bomb." The three looked to see Ruby and Lyric standing at the entrance to the alley.

"Where?" Metal asked with a hushed voice.

"Tallest building in the middle of the city, look for the building with red crystals hanging off the roof."

In a flash Metal was gone, instantly appearing in the centre of town. He flew up and found the crystsals. Using his tail he cut the wires in a specific order as to not activate the device. After that he stood with his hands held out, the crystals glowing and turning into energy, losing their crystal forms. The energy formed a ball between Metals claws before it formed into one tiny gem which he placed in his storage unit. "There...once the other Metal starts looking for this I can have Ruby give it to him."

He sat down on top of the building, looking out at the sky in silence. He looked to his rings again and smiled softly.

"I'll find a way to see you again..."

Author's Notes:

Over two months without an update, damn, sorry for the wait guys.

If you spot any errors, let me know. Thanks and I hope you enjoyed this chapter.

Chapter forty three: The second bomb

Nathan sighed in relief as he finished reading the message sent to him by Metal, informing him that the bomb they were after had been defused and that the magic within it was now being kept in Metals claws. He shrank down into his stallion form and climbed onto his bed with his fiancé, who was currently checking over the now larger eggs, seeming only a few weeks away from hatching. "You've been around the eggs a lot more often recently." Nathan spoke as he lay down beside his lover while nuzzling her.

"You're one to talk, you're practically their own personal sentry you're that protective of them." Sonata teases as she kissed him on the cheek.

Nathan just rolled his eyes and placed a hoof on the orange egg. "Can you really blame me though?"

"No, I can't, not with everything that's happening. But don't you be worrying about that stuff right now, the others are handling it. For now, just be here with me and the eggs, relax." She spoke with a hushed and reassuring tone as she placed her hoof on her partner's and leaned into him, feeling the warmth of his fur. She was used to feeling the coldness of his metal, which she actually liked,wing used to the cold, but she loved feeling the warmth of his organic body, whether that be human or pony.

Nathan gave a quiet happy sigh as he snuggled up with his mare, perfectly content with his position.

"You know, I could call my sisters here and we could all have a little fun." Sonata giggled as she saw her fiancé deadpan and facehoof.

"I've already got enough kids, I don't want to risk having more with two other mares. Besides..." Nathan wrapped one of his front legs around Sonata and pulled her closer. "...we both know you aren't willing to share."

"You're not wrong. But joking aside, I'm perfectly happy to just sit here and nuzzle."

"Couldn't agree more."

Meanwhile

Katie, Sapphire, Krystal and Zane stood around the defused bomb they had found in Canterlot, each believing it had been too easy to find the device, and were wondering whether or not it was bait or some sort of trap set for them. "Look, we all think this is a trap, mainly meant for us, so why don't we try to get away from the most populated area of the city?" Krystal asked dryly as the group realised they were standing in the central part of the city.

They all nodded while Zane picked up the defused bomb and placed it in his inventory, planning to hand it to Metal later on.

"The Maniacs aren't exactly competent unless Hack or Carnage are running things, and I know Hack is out of commission, at least for now, due to Nathan beating him down, and Carnage would probably be too busy working on the bombs." Katie stated as she and the others jumped down into the streets below and began to move towards the outskirts of the city.

"Yeah, but with something like this you'd think they'd be more careful about it." Krystal countered as they walked out of the city and began to slide down the mountainside.

"Maybe they have some sort of deadline and have to rush?" Zane guessed, blasting a rock that was in his path.

"Who cares? We found the bomb and no one was hurt, we win right?" Sapphire, who was riding on Zanes back, asked with a raised brow.

"We care, The Maniacs are dangerous, that's something you and everyone else need to understand." Katie answered as the group reached the bottom of the mountain, landing somewhere in the Everfree Forest. "Maybe they are rushing things, but we can't be too careful, especially now since they've got their hands on Apocalypse Magic."

Sapphire just shrugged and kept her grip on Zanes back while the group walked along the dirt path, blasting any smaller predators that tried to attack them for whatever reason. All the while, Sapphire looked to the only gun she was allowed to have, the Tesla Claw. Until she could prove that she could control herself and stop acting without thinking, she would get her weapons back. She missed the RYNO 2 the most, it was the most fun and powerful one in her arsenal.

Suddenly, a pack of Timberwolves jumped out of the shadows and surrounded them, growling and scratching the ground in anticipation. "It's alright, everyone in a circle, back to back, don't let them separate us." Krystal instructed as the three robots and child took the positions. Whisk any other day they'd have thought twice about allowing a child to fight, they knew what she had went up against and what she had survived so far.

Sapphire glared at the wooden wolves before giving her own snarl, slowly walking towards them.

"Sapphire get back here!" Zane called out worriedly as he reached over to pull her back, but was justnout of reach.

Sapphire clenched her fist and placed her finger over the trigger for her gun. A wolf lunged forward only for the girl to back up and throw a punch, shattering its head as it fell to the ground. Without looking Sapphire pointed the Tesla Claw at another wolf and zapped it, burning the wood and destabilising the creatures body. The wolves all turned their attention onto her, being the only organic and being an obvious danger.

The three bots stood ready to attack if things went wrong, but knew to stay out if it. It must have been important for Sapphire, a moment she had to experience herself, considering her hair was beginning to sparkle while her body sparked with blue electricity.

"You know, I'm glad you just showed up. Because I need to blow off some steam." She grabbed one by the face and threw it into another, sparking with energy on collision. One managed to sneak up in her and pounced onto her, knocking her to the ground. It was about to bite her face when she jammed the Tesla Claw into its neck and pulled the trigger.

While she was on the ground the rest pilled on top of her, scratching and biting her body savagely.

Zane went to run in and help, but Katie stoppped and pointed to the blue glow emitting from inside the literal dog pile. "Just watch."

Sapphires anger grew with the pain she felt, as well as her mind going back to the confrontation with her father. She struggled to find a way out, growing more and more frustrated and angry. As her emotions grew, so did her power. After a few moments of her body glowing, Sapphire burst out of his prison of recently made corpses. The three others could only stare at what lay before them, the amount of dead Timberwolves and Sapphires new look.

Author's Notes:

If you see any mistakes please let me know

Chapter forty four: Electricity

Zane rubbed his eye and preformed a system analysis to make sure he wasn't seeing things. He, Katie and Krystal stood in shook at Sapphires new form. She now stood at the same height as Nathan in his human form, her dress was now shiny and sparking with blue electricity, her hair flowing like Luna's while also sparking with energy. Her legs were covered by glowing blue knee socks, with her arms covered with glowing blue sleeves. Her eyes glowed with two blue markings under them. And aura of electricity surrounded her, with small bolts of lightning randomly striking from out of her body.

She glared at the remaining Timberwolves with her glowing eyes, clenching her sparking fists as they began to back away in slight fear. "Don't you dare walk away, you started this fight, finish it!" She growled as she threw her hand forward and a massive amount of electricity shot out from her palm and completely destroyed three of the wolves in an instant.

When a wolf tried to pounce on her from the back the electricity around her shocked it and caused it to fall apart. When the rest of the wolves made a run for it, Sapphire built up a huge surge of power before releasing, unleashing a huge wave of energy across the area, destroying both the wolves and the surrounding forest.

After the dust settled and the area was no longer a sea of rage induced energy, Zane, Katie and Krystal peeked up from behind a large boulder. Sapphire just stood breathing heavily in the middle of all the destruction. Zane slowly approached her with a great deal of caution, not wanting to be attacked if the power had overtaken her. "Sapphire, are you ok?" He asked softly.

Sapphire turned her head towards him and nodded. "Yeah...yeah I'm ok...the built up anger was released with that wave...I think...I'm ok now though." She assured with a weak smile.

Krystal just whistled as she walked over to the transformed girl. "Damn, so this is how you're gonna look when you're older, whatever guy or girl gets you in the future is lucky." She teased with a playful chuckle, causing Sapphire to blush.

"*Cough* Plague *cough*!" Katie didn't even attempt to make what she said subtle, and ended up getting a small shock in the arm. "Hey! I ship you two give me a break."

Sapphire groaned and facepalmed. "Yeah yeah whatever, I don't have any interest in that guy, I hardly even know anything about him other than he's a symbiote and is hyperactive, that's it."

Katie slumped slightly with only a small glimmer of hope in her eye. "Do you at least think he's cute?" She asked desperately.

"Nope."

Katie fell to her knees and punched the ground while sobbing. "Nooooo...my OTP..."

Zane facepalmed while Krystal rolled her eye at her sister. "Come on, let's get back to the castle before we go looking for the next bomb, I think Nathan is going to want to see Sapphire's new form, considering he didn't get to see Lyrics."

Zane nodded and brought Katie back up to her feet. "Come on, you'll have more than enough time to pretend to sob over this when we get back to Nathan's place."

Meanwhile

Nathan streched like a cat in his stallion body, yawning quietly after waking up from his nap, Sonata still sleeping soundly beside him. He smiled softly before reaching down and planting a gentle kiss on her cheek before silently slipping out of their bedroom. Once in the hallway he made sure he was a good distance away from the bedroom before transforming into his ranger body. When he was about to make a turn to head to the exit, he paused as his sensors picked up on a familiar presence. "What's he doing here again?" He asked no one as he turned around and ran down another hallway.

After a few moments of running he came to a halt while towering over the figure.

"What do you want Epidemic?" He asked with a slight bit of resentment for the symbiote fusion before him.

Epidemic reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out an envelope, handing it over to the huge robot who took it from him. "It's your wedding invitation, you and your family are welcome, the ceremony will be starting early tomorrow morning."

Nathan looked to the tiny envelope in his hand and placed it in his inventory. "I see. Thank you, is there anything else?"

"Not really, I just came here to deliver the invite since Marx was busy with something else, unless there's something you need or want to talk about." Epidemic answered while crossing his arms.

Nathan looked away for a moment before shaking his head. "No, there's nothing to talk about, you can go."

"I know you resent me for what happened."

"I don't resent you, I know the whole thing was a big misunderstanding. I just haven't fully gotten over being possessed by you. Any anger towards you is strictly instinctual, not personal." Nathan explained while kneeling down slightly.

Epidemic hummed for a second before shrugging. "I'm actually glad you don't, I've already got one potential family member that completely hates me and wants me dead."

"Wait, potential family member?"

"I think we both know of the attraction between Lyric and Amnesia." Nathan just rolled his eye and nodded. "Just so you know, if your son does anything to hurt her or make her upset, I'm killing him."

Nathan glared and leaned down until his eye was mere inches away from Epidemics face. "I could say the same about Plague..."

The two glared at each other before groaning. "The hell are we doing?"

"I think trying to establish that there is no way we're ever gonna get along." Nathan answered while sitting down. "How about we just stay out of each other's way for awhile, no need to cause conflict?"

"Sounds good to me, see you tomorrow." With that a portal opened up and Epidemic disappeared through it.

Nathan sat alone in the hall before sighing. "This is my life now...fantastic..."

Author's Notes:

Thanks for reading, if you see any mistakes please point them out to me so I can fix them.

Also, this story won't be lasting much longer, since nobody seems to read it and I'm losing motivation for writing it.

Chapter forty five: Living life without worry

Author's Notes:

Sorry for the sudden ending, but I'd rather give this a quick ending rather than leave it to rot.

I used to love writing this story, but now it's more of a chore, and I don't have the motivation to continue further, and most likely never will. I want to get this, and other stories done, before moving onto better and newer stories that I hope you will read.

Thank you to everyone who read, liked and commented on this story, it means a lot to me.

Again, I'm sorry for ending to abruptly, but it has to happen.

A few months later

It was done. Hack and the other Maniacs had been destroyed, and the bombs disposed of.

The final fight had taken the life of Metal, who had sacrificed himself to stop Hacks last ditch effort to destroy everything using Zane, who had been possessed by a Nightmare and given unholy power with the energy of the Apocalypse Magic that was used to power the bombs.

The Nightmare was banished to the void, and Zane had finally come to his senses.

Ruby mourned the loss of her friend, who had come with her from her ruined reality, but took peace in that fact that his soul could enter their own afterlife, so he could be with his lover's once again.

Eventually, Nathan and Sonata got married just a day before their eggs hatched. So their honeymoon had to be delayed so they could care for their newborns. Ruby got to see her brothers and sisters again.

Lyric and Amnesia began to spend more and more time together, sometimes they trained, other times the just enjoyed each other's company, while being an adorable sight to anyone who witnessed their shy and awkward romantic actions.

Sapphire began to focus on gaining more self control with the help of Epidemic and her father, eventually being allowed to use her weapons again.

With the final fight against Xram and the Nightmares, some of the displaced family was lost, but thanks to Ruby's warnings, the casualties were not as severe as on her timeline. But some loses were unavoidable, and one loss caused Lyric to fall into a deep depression. He eventually snapped himself out of it and as he was mature enough, set out in his Legendary Lyric form out into the multiverse to help those he could.

Peace came about, and most were happy.

Bonds repaired, regrets let go of, and love shared.

Our huge robotic protagonist and those around him had gone through so much, and grew and changed with each new event.

But now, a time of peace and calmness came about.

Those that had fallen to themselves, had rose up from their ashes and were born again, like a Phoenix.