As we walk to the special training room the Princesses have made for themselves, I explained to them what the Hogyoku is and why my zanpakuto's shape changed and what the markings on my chest and arms are.

"So thou art more powerful than before?" Luna asks and her horn glows, after a few seconds she gasps. "Thou are just as strong as thee was in thy Bankai state!" she says with shock.

"And my strength will double again should I use my Bankai now... Though, I don't think you'd like to see me use my mask during my Bankai," I reply.

"And why is that?" Celestia asks as we reach the room.

I sigh and look right at her. "I become fully hollowfied, not just a mask but my whole body, horns included," I reply.

Luna looks at me with wide eyes. "And thou hast control in such a form?" she asks me.

"Yes, but I can only hold it for thirty seconds for now," I tell her. "Would you like to see it?" I ask her.

She frowns and looks down, after a few seconds she looks back at me. "Yes, we would like to see thy new form," she replies and Celestia nodded.

"Alright," I say and stand in the middle of the room. "BANKAI!" I yell and take my new Bankai form, I then form my hollow mask which spreads all over and I take my hollowfied form.

They both gasp as I turn to look at them both. After a few seconds I cancel it and my Bankai.

Luna eyes go wide and unfocused, she then starts shaking. I frown and glance at Celestia with a worried expression.

'Ichigo, her hollow is growing stronger!' Bob tells me as Luna's hollow mask starts to form and her screams echo throughout the room.

'What!?' I reply and quickly pin Luna to the ground where Celestia yelps in surprise.

"What's happening!?" she asks me.

"Her hollow is breaking free! Can you send me into her mind like how she brought me to hers?" I reply and ask her.

"I-I can try," she replies and her horn glows.

After a few seconds my vision goes white and when it returns I see Luna is desperately fighting off her inner hollow which is on top of her with her mask on laughing at Luna. The mask's pattern has two black crescent moons pointing inward across her eyes.

"You are weak! I will take great pleasure in killing your sister and destroying the sun so the night will stay eternal for the whole planet!" the hollow says with a distorted tone.

I quickly use my shunpo and tackle the hollow off of Luna. "Now what did I tell you about behaving," I scold the hollow who quickly gets up and glares at me.

"YOU! How dare you interfere! I told you I will make you regret your actions before! Free from those blasted chains, I am now stronger than when we last met, Shinigami!" she yells at me in anger and charges at me with her own version of Luna's zanpakuto.

I just raise an eyebrow at her, to me she's moving very slowly. I sidestep to the left, avoiding her attack easily and punch her in the cheek cracking her mask and making her tumble a good seven or so metres away.

"Oh? So have I, bitch. You're going to have to do much better than that," I retort.

She gets back up and stares at me wide eyed, Luna on the other hand is cowering behind me while staring in shock at how easily I overpowered her hollow, I then turn to Luna and pat her head.

"You're going to have to fight her, I can't do it for you if you want to make her power your own," I tell her and kneel down. "You can do this, you're stronger than she is. This is what we've been training for, show her you're no longer going to let her push you around."

Her zanpakuto Reitō floats down and stands beside her. "We have prepared thee as well as we could in the short time we had, we believe thou art ready," she tells Luna.

The hollow fires a bolt of reishi at Luna and I block it with the flat side of my zanpakuto without even looking. "No manners what so ever. We're talking here, be a good little girl and wait for the grown ups to finish," I tell the hollow and turn back to Luna. "Go on, show her what the real Princess of the Night can do," I say to encourage her.

Luna looks from me to Reitō and then to the hollow. "Thou art right, we can do this!" she says and using the shunpo I taught her, charges right at the hollow.

"What!?" the hollow yelps as Luna is right in her face and slams her right forehoof into the left side of the hollow's mask, making more cracks to match the ones I gave on the right.

The hollow growls and lunges at Luna who sidesteps her attack and slashes the hollow on her left foreleg with her own zanpakuto.

"She's doing well," I say to Reitō who is standing beside me.

"That she is, we hast been teaching her all we could during her sleep, she is more than ready for this, she just needed to believe in herself," she replies.

Luna then follows up with a hard buck to the hollows ribs and launches her across the landscape where she tumbles across the moondust covered ground.

"Damn you! I will tear your soul apart!" the hollow screams in rage and fires bolt after bolt of reishi at Luna, she responds by avoiding the blasts with fluid motions that make her look graceful.

After avoiding a few more, Luna then raises her zanpakuto. "Gengetsu Zangeki!" she yells and swings her sword at the hollow.

A crescent moon shaped blade of ice spins towards the hollow and hits her in the left hind leg, it's instantly frozen over and she stumbles onto her side.

Luna is right on top of her and smashes the hollow mask off her face with the Kashira of her Zanpakuto. "NOOOOOO!" the hollow screams and the chains that once held her reform and strap her down on the ground but this time they're a silver colour, her zanpakuto also fades away and she can't move an inch.

"We... We did it!" Luna cheers on her victory.

I walk over to her and pat her on the back. "I knew you could do it, now you should be able to summon your mask when you need it, it'll drain you quickly at first until you get used to it," I tell her.

She looks at me with a smile. "We thank thee for giving us the courage to do this," she tells me and gives me a quick hug.

I smile and hug her back. "You're welcome. Now let's go back, your sister is worried about ya," I reply and her horn glows, after a few seconds I'm back in the training room.

"Luna?" Celestia asks with worry as Luna sits up with her hollow mask still on her face.

"Sister?" she replies in her own distorted tone.

Celestia stares wide eyed at her, Luna is also wide eyed at her new tone of voice.

"She's fine, Celestia. She defeated her hollow and now has access to its power," I tell her.

Luna removes the mask and stares at it. "This is our mask?" she asks.

"Yup. Now that you've got it, I'll be training you in how to utilise it," I reply and pat her on the shoulder, I then look at Celestia. "I'll still be helping you get stronger as well for when your time comes," I tell her.

She nodded slowly while looking at Luna's black and yellow eyes.

I trained Luna in how to summon and dismiss her mask and also trained Celestia to be stronger as well, though they were very shocked at how fast I can now move, they couldn't even keep up with me, even with their shunpo training.

I bid the Princesses farewell for the day and head back to Ponyville while scaring the crap out of some pegasi flying near the edge of the city by jumping off.

Some even tried to catch me before I shot off towards the town.

I land in front of my house and enter, I grab a few more bits and head back out towards the Hospital in hopes of catching Orihime there.

I walk through the front door and smile at the mare behind the counter. "Hello, is Orihime here?" I ask her.

She looks up and smiles back. "Ichigo, you're here with another injury again are you?" she asks with a smirk.

I chuckle and shake my head. "No, I just want to ask her something," I reply.

She giggles and points to the left. "She's in the staff room last I heard, please knock on the door before you go in, I like the new look by the way," she tells me.

"Thanks, Tenderheart. Say hi to your sister for me!" I call back as I head down the hall.

"Will do!" she yells to me and I reach the staff room.

I take a deep breath and exhale slowly. ‘I can do this.’ I tell myself and knock on the door and wait for a reply.

"Who is it?" Orihime asks.

"It's me Ichigo," I reply.

The door opens and Orihime smiles at me. "What are you doing here?" she asks me.

"I... err... I came to ask if you'd like to, erm, I-If you'd like to join me for... Dinner," I ask her.

She tilts her head for a second and then gasps. "Are you asking me out on a date?" she asks me.

I rub the back of my neck and grin sheepishly. "Erm, I guess so... Yeah, I am," I reply.

She smiles widely and then giggles. "I was wondering when you would ask," she tells me.

My smile fades and I just stare at her confused. "What?" I ask her.

"I've seen how you look at me every time we're together or when I'm healing your injuries," she replies.

I can feel my cheeks burn and I cough into my hand. "Well... Yes, I think you're beautiful and kind and just perfect... So, would you like to join me?" I ask again.

She's still smiling and nodded. "I'd like that," she tells me and then looks at my chest, her smile fades and she looks wide eyed at the Hogyoku. "Is that what I think it is?" she asks.

"Yeah, I had Urahara put it in me to help me get stronger so I can protect everyone better... I was getting tired of being slapped about and hurt," I reply. "I can tell you the details over dinner," I say.

She nodded and smiles again. "Alright, I have to get back to work in a few minutes, I'll see you at your place at eight?" she asks.

I grin and nodded. "Sure, I'll see you then," I reply and she closes the door.

I step out of the Hospital with my grin still on my face and raise my hands in the air. "WOOOHOOOO!" I yell, making nearby ponies jump. I then use my shunpo to head home and start planning on what to do.

Author's Notes:

I'm now working on the next War Machine chapter.