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