“Sup?” Zangetsu asked.

“Did I seriously just meet our universe’s creator?” Nick said looking at the place the deity just stood.

“I guess?” Zangetsu shrugged.

“Soo… this is excalibur eh.” Nick said looking over the blade. It was fairly large, a bastard sword. Hopefully it wouldn’t be a bastard to wield. He put the sword on his waist between his belt and his pants. The power that Nick felt slowly started to disappear as he took his hands off the blade.

“So what I miss while I was gone?” Zangetsu asked.

“Trixie’s pregnant.” Nick said holding a straight face.

“WHAT!? HOW? WHEN? THE FUCK?” Zangetsu shouted unable to comprehend he had missed something so big.

“Yeah, I made a pot of clam chowder last night and she ended up looking like she was.” Nick chuckled.

“....you're nuts sometimes you know that?” Zangetsu deadpanned.

“I will neither confirm nor deny this.” Nick said with a smug mirk. Heading down to the river bend.

“So.. I got a Book from Bill somehow. Found it in a magic shop.” Nick said pulling out the tome.

“Huh… well. Think we could go Bankai?” Zangetsu said shifting about the sword.

“Hmmm… maybe. But if that is a thing than I doubt I could yet, just holding the sword feels almost overwhelming, if that is a thing, than doing so would end up with me blowing off an arm at best, or exploding completely at worst.”

“True, something to think about though.” Zangetsu shrugged.

“Oh, by the way, I got a Kirin teacher now.” Nick smiled.

“What!? Seriously? When?” Zangetsu said looking at Nick.

“Just after you were blasted into oblivion actually.” Nick said rubbing the back of his neck.

“Well.. shit.” Zangetsu said.

“Yea, we arrived in Omsbeak this morning. Got lots of cool things, like this cloak.” Nick said pulling on it a bit.

“Nice, enchanted?” Zangetsu asked.

“Invisibility.” Nick confirmed.

“Coolio.” Zangetsu said.

“So, wanna see what this thing can do?” Nick said pulling out Zangetsu.

“Let’s.” Zangetsu said with the face of an adrenalin junky. Nick held the sword in both hands facing away from him, the power from before coursing through his body. Using some basic transmutations he made some stone pillars near the river and began hacking away at them. As soon as he moved he ended up going ten times as fast as he had intended and slashed through ten of them as if it was a chainsaw through wet tissue paper.

“Whoa…” Nick and Zangetsu said in unison. He tried winging it about and found, while he was moving far faster than he intended, he had no less control or precision with the blade, now doubt the blades power aiding him. After roughly an hour of swinging the blade around like a kid with a new toy, Nick began to become winded. The blade began to feel heavier and heavier, and steam actually began to drift off of his body.

“Nick, I think that’s enough. You shouldn’t push yourself like this.” Zangetsu said.

“Yea, alright.” Nick said sheathing the sword, the moment Nick took his hand off of the blade his fatigue quadrupled. Nick fell on his back feeling like he had ran for a year straight while carrying a freight train. “Whaat the fuuuuck…” Nick said falling on his back unable to move.

“Huh… guess the sword has some… side effects. But hey, great training isn’t it?” Zangetsu chuckled.

“Yeah, training, possible death, ouch.” Nick said as he tried to move a finger, only for it to feel like he had just broken it.

“Nick, holy shit man what the hell. Your magic network is all messed up!!” Zangetsu said wide eye. He had been looking at Nick’s magic channeled, and found they had been altered, but it looked like Nick’s handy work, no what really got his attention was the state it was in. It looked like Nick had been maxing it’s capacity for the past hour.

“What’s wrong with it?” Nick asked.

“It’s completely fried!! Shit man this is going to take a while to fix, suffice to say no magic for the next day or two.” Zangetsu said looking it over. No matter how damaged it got he could repair or even rebuild it should it be completely destroyed, but it just took a while.

“Well, shit.” Nick said panting.

“On the bright side at least it will be stronger, hard to tell how much so until it’s back to normal” Zangetsu said going to work.

“Heh, I guess so.” Nick chuckled. “Ouch… no, hurts to laugh. Need to just not.”

“Yeah, no shit shurlock. You're magic network wasn’t the only thing that was fried, your body’s flooded with lactic acid, you're muscles are torn to shreds, and the bones in your arms look like gravel.” Zangetsu said looking over the damages.

“That why I can’t feel my arms, and my everything hurts?”

“Nooo, just a possibility.” Zangetsu said sarcastically.

“Heh, well, best fix that.” Nick said and began trying to heel with the stone, only to find that he couldn’t. “What?” Nick said starting to panic.

“What’s up?” Zangetsu said.

“Something’s wrong, I can’t heel!!” Nick said.

“What? Really?” Zangetsu said, “hold on, let me check something.” Zangetsu said and started looking over Excalibur’s power matrix.

“Zangetsu?” Nick said.

“Hold on, this is complex. I’m looking over the Magic matrix for Excalibur. It’s far more complex than anything we've ever done. It’s using several different power sources in unison, most of them are sealed, oh yeah forgot to mention, bill nerfed the sword so that it wouldn’t kill you, anyway, most of it’s power is sealed, I want to say at least up to ninety percent. Magic is one of the primary sources, several i’m not sure what are, but this one in particular is what we’re looking for. It looks like the sword trains your body through use, it will heal your body, but it looks like it’s going to take a while. And when it’s done it will be a lot stronger than before, but you won’t be able to make changes in your core body parts. You can still get your chitin armor, but it doesn’t look like you're going to be able to say hulk smash for a while.. hmm, it also looks like it will help with your magic system.” Zangetsu said going over the matrix.

“Well, that’s good.” Nick said closing his eyes.

Zangetsu said. “Oh sweet!” Zangetsu said finding a interesting part of the matrix that was sealed.

“What?” Nick asked.

“Well, we won’t be able to do it for a while, but it looks like there is a couple of transformation matrixes in here. Not sure what it will do, but I think it’s safe to say we could eventually use something akin to a Bankai.” Zangetsu said giddie.

“Really taking this Zanpakuto thing well aren't you?” Nick asked.

“Yep.” Zangetsu said happily.

“Since we’re stuck here for a while, I got something I was hoping you could help me with.” Nick said.

“What’s up?” Zangetsu asked.

“Well, while you were gone Twilight made here move, and ended up sealing herself. I moved her to a better container, and set it to let her go when she changes her mind set, so I was hoping you could change her mind.” I’m going to do some astral projecting to see if i can’t get some dirt on Celestia we can use to knock some sense into her, scan her memories and see what you can find, see what we need to do to change her. I’ll relay what i find to you.” Nick explained.

“Right. And Nick?”

“Yeah?

“Don’t over do it.” Zangetsu deadpanned.

Fire covered the prison causing smoke to rise and blot out the sun. bodies were strewn about the entire prison, but not a single drop of blood remained. Alucard walked from the prison into the forest with a maniacal laugh. He had spent the last fifty years in there, and with the help of one arch demon he was free. He remembered his first day here in this realm. He had covered the land in bodies, free of the seals that restricted his power. Schrödinger had almost gotten him, they had drifted through the winds of the void for longer than he could recall, eventually he was able to separate from him, but instead of returning to his world like he had originally thought he would, he ended up here.

So many possibilities opened up to him, especially when he acquired this body. Oh it had been a fierce battle, there was still a massive crater where it took place. In the end he took this ones life, body and soul for his own. The power he obtained when he did was incredible, it was a match to his own before hand and with the knowledge that he would only get stronger with it in time he decided to make it his new permanent form.

“Time to be rid of these old rags.” Alucard said looking over the old pieces of silk that had been the final nail in the coffin that kept him sealed. Tearing them off he assumed his signature red duster, wire glasses, and wide brimmed fedora. Searching through Lucifer's memories of this… Sigma, he found that he would still be at present be far too weak to be of any use to him.

“Where’s the fun in a game when there are no rules? No challenges? No goals?” Alucard asked, “even when holding back as much as I could, he could barely even stand against me. How about a few tests.” Alucard smiled. He held out his hand and focused. A large sphere of blood drained from his hand and hovered beneath his hand. He gathered up the power of the demon he had just assimilated and forced it into the sphere before forming it into a body. He thought about what form it should take and settled on one he had devoured long ago. The ball of blood formed into the body of a small thestral child. The child looked up to Alucard and smiled sweetly.

“How may I serve you master?” The child said.

“You are to find the Sigma, and you are to challenge him. Do NOT kill him, you are free to kill any others beside him, but the Sigma is MINE. Drive him to become stronger until he is to strong for you to handle on your own.” Alucard said.

“Very well.” The child said with a bow.

“Now, what’s a rival without a name? The Sigma will need a name to hate when he thinks of you, how about…. Pride.”

Nick floated through the halls of the castle like a ghost. He knew if he was going to get some dirt on Celestia he would need to find it here in her home. He was stretching the outer limits of his projection skills, as far out as he was he was incredibly vulnerable. Nick made his way to the center of the castle where he hoped to find the throne room. He found it and at the throne was not Celestia, but Luna.

“Presenting Nightblade for the position of Prince.” Said a thestral guard. In walked a Thestral stallion in a black and silver armor. The princess looked him over, and looked over some papers in a file.

Luna sighed as another stallion walked through the doors in hopes of securing the position of Prince. Unfortunately in her absence the bloodline of her last Prince had died out without her there to care for them and Celestia had given no help to them. Now she had to look for a stallion with the right traits to form a new line of Princes to serve as her right hand. She looked the stallion over, from what she could see he was in very good condition, as were all the others.

She looked down on the files she had her guard gather on him, he certainly had a very good record. His herd had allowed him to train as a knight, he was very well behaved possessed very good manners… and was completely boring. He had no spark, he was a obedient soldier, nothing more. Her options were by no means limited, she could take any stallion in all of Equestria and he would be hers within the hour, but that wasn’t what she was looking for. She needed somepony that would do not just what she wanted, but what she needed.

Her original Prince had been such a stallion, with the free rain he had as Prince he was able to help her so much, and he never feared her wrath, rather he challenged her when he knew she was wrong. Luna stood up from her throne and walked over to the stallion. And covered him in her magic. She looked deep within him looking for something she could deem worthy of princehood. She found only cowardice and greed, typical for a noble, over the past thousand years corruption had still run deep in the nobility with her sister removing the right of renewal to keep the nobility… noble.

“This one will not do, his heart is that of a coward and his greed runs to deep.” Luna said walking to her throne and sitting down. Her thoughts drifted as the stallion left defeated. Over the years after she had returned she had begun to question her sister’s changes. The nobility run unchecked as long as they kept the Crown’s wallet full. Her thestrals and pegasi had remained closer to the old ways, but still they had gone astray.

She looked out the window and wondered to an idea she had been thinking about for the past year and a half. Should she withdraw from the kingdom? A split would no doubt severely weaken the kingdom, but she could at least fix her half. She worried how her people would take it though, she could use the calling to bring all pegs and thestrals to her new kingdom, but her sister would call her earth ponies and unicorns to hers. She would have the advantage of Twenty-four-seven Guards, but Celestia would have the strength and magic. Luna sighed, for now it was only a pipe dream until she could find a way to tip the scales in her favor.

Nick made his way deeper into the castle where he assumed the dungeon might be. If he was going to find anything worth using it might be there, after all, what better way to judge a kingdom then how it treats its prisoners?

Nick made his way down until he found himself in a dark stone corridor. Down the way he could see a torch lighting the area….. and screams. Nick made his way in the opposite direction to see the entrance to this place, he followed the corridor until he found a heavy metal door with two heavily armed guards posted on either side of it. Nick fell somewhat as his form was distorted for a moment.

“Geh… looks like I’m nearing my limit. I need to get this done faster.” Nick said and headed back the other way.” Nick said clutching his chest. As he made his way deeper into the dungeon he passed by various cells. The ones closer to the entrance held Ponies, all of which we’re mares.

“Odd…” Nick said. As he went further the ponies stopped and he found other races locked up, more often than not brutalized. He passed several Kirin with their horns cut, or in one case ripped off leaving a chunk of his skull missing, it didn’t look like he would survive the night, another cell showed a Minotaur Bull that had Blood covering every inch of his crotch, another cell had a sea pony that looked like it was dried up with barely a small puddle keeping it alive... He made sure to take in every detail, he wanted Twilight to see this, if this didn’t shatter her view of Celestia than nothing would. As he made his way deeper he found a stallion being dragged kicking and screaming to a door near the end of the dungeons.

Nick followed them into the room and was horrified at what he saw. Inside he found a chair in the center with straps to hold down any put into it. Around it were things out of a horror movie, bloodied scalpels, a branding iron in the corner with the end in a fire, a bone saw, pliers, above the chair was a metal ring with chains dangling off of it that ended in fish hooks, on the wall near the back was a set of handcuffs nailed to the wall with a table nearby that had a whip nearby.

“You’re Alpha was very clear that we weren’t to disfigure you, she didn’t want you to lose that pretty face of yours or that nice body, so we made sure to make this, it'll heal anything we do to you.” The mare that had dragged the stallion in said holding up a syringe.

“You’ll all burn in Tartarus….” The stallion said.

“Aww, was the big mean minotaur too rough with you last night?” The mare taunted, “Next time I’ll bet you’ll listen to your alpha won’t you? Then maybe she won’t ask Celestia to have you processed. Then again, It would put me out of a job to process slaves if there none to process, then I wouldn’t be able to have fun like with that Kirin, hopefully the injection heals her pretty little skull, wouldn’t want to lose out on merchandise that rare.” The mare said flicking the needle. She brought it over to the stallion and jammed it into his heart.

“Fuck!” The stallion shouted in pain.

“Oh, trust me I wish I could, but that would be more of a reward than a punishment wouldn’t it? Now, let’s do something about that foul tongue of yours shall we?” The mare said forcing his mouth open and bringing a pair of pliers to his mouth. Nick cut off the projection not wanting to see what happens next.

Twilight pounded on the wall of her cage, she had given up on magic a while ago as she couldn’t feel her magic network, and thus was unable to wield magic. There were no openings that she could find, not even the slightest crack she could chip away at. This wasn’t how things were supposed to have happened! She was supposed to have summon a familiar, show it Pony life, teach it the dangers of the world beyond equestria, and most of all… make a new friend.

“Why.. why did this happen?” Twilight said the beginning of tears in her eyes. She pounded her fists on the wall and then sank towards the floor. She curled up into a fetal position and began to sob, “I just want to go home, I want my friends, I want to sleep in My own bed again, I want to see spike’s face again, Why won’t he just listen to me? Why won’t he just come home!? He’ll be safe there.” Twilight said shaking.

“Maybe it’s because to him, it isn’t his home.” Zangetsu said phasing through the wall of her cage.

“W-who are you?” Twilight said scrambling into the corner trying to get as far away from him as possible. He looked like he was the same species as Nick, but he looked like a royal guard, or even a knight.

“I am Zangetsu, and I am hear to make you see reason.” Zangetsu said walking towards her.

“Get away from me!!” Twilight said as he approached.

“There’s no use fighting. Here I am the strongest.” Zangetsu said placing a hand on her forehead. He searched everything, everything he could possibly use against her view of Celestia. As he finished he felt Nick return. They shared memories and Zangetsu almost vomited from what he had learned.

“So, you ready to begin?” Nick said entering the cage.

“Yes, I doubt she will be singing this tune by the end.” Zangetsu asked.

“Play it all on loop?” Nick asked.

“Yeah, first the memories you got in the dungeon, then all the memories of Silk and the residents of Kevil.” Zangetsu confirmed.

“Right.” Nick nodded. They left the room leaving Twilight alone to wonder what they were going to do to her. Soon the room shifted so that she was in a long dark corridor.

River bead

“Fffffuuuuuckkk” Nick said as he woke into his body.

“Yeah the damages didn’t go away in just a few hours.” Zangetsu said looking over his body again, it was in considerably better shape than before, no more shattered bones and his muscles were repaired for the most part, albeit still torn up, at least they were connected again. His magic network was still fried though, and it didn’t look too much better than when he last checked.

“So, how's about we call up Trixie?” Nick asked.

“Yep, sounds like a plan.” Zangetsu nodded and went back to work on his magic network.

“Oi! Trixie you there?” Nick called.

"WHERE THE TARTARUS HAVE YOU BEEN!!?!? I’VE BEEN CALLING YOU FOR THREE HOURS!!!”

Nick stood in the field outside of Ombsbeak with Iron, over the past week Nick had recovered, and resumed his training, he had yet to use Excalibur again. Right now he was focused on the training at hand. Nick stood still balancing on one foot on a pool with a ball on the top.

“You’ve improved a lot, before you couldn’t even balance ne plate on a stick while on the ground.” Iron commented.

“Yeah well the threat of getting whacked with a stick was great motivation.” Nick said. A breeze blew through the area throwing Nick off balance. He wobbled several times before finally falling to the ground.

“Well, I think that’s enough of that for now, now let’s work on your swordsmanship.” Iron said tossing a wooden sword to him.

“Alright.” Nick said picking up the sword. Nick lunged at Iron who dodged left and brought his sword up at Nick’s gut whacking him with a thud.

“You need to stop lunding into battle like that. It’s only going to get you killed if you're not careful.” Iron commented. Nick turned back to Iron and readied his sword. Iron strafed towards Nick making it hard for him to judge what angle he was going to come at him with. Nick barely was able to swing his sword to counter iron as Iron swung his sword at him. Nick went to swing his sword again only to trip when Iron swung his tail under him. “Keep your eye on all of your opponent, not just the parts you think are the danger.” Iron said lending Nick a hand.

“So how's things coming along with the ship?” Nick asked.

“Not too bad, we’ve managed to load up the caravan, the ship leaves in three days.” Iron said parrying a swing from Nick.

“Yea? Any issues with the sleeping quarters.” Nick asked bringing up his sword only for Iron to angle his own so that it slid off and away from him.

“Not really, we’re stuck in the cargo hold, so we can still use the caravan for bedding.’ Iron said and blocked another swing from Nick. With a flick of his sword Iron disarmed him. Iron brought his sword down at Nick and stopped inches from him, the force of his sword brought with it a gust of wind that knock Nick off of his feet. “Not bad, you’ve improved a lot since we first started, you no longer just swing blindly.” Iron chuckled.

“Well i do have a good teache-” Nick started but felt a disturbance in the force. “Oh no… she’s found me!!” Nick said and activated his magic aura and flew off.

“GET YOUR ASS BACK HERE!!!” Trixie shouted running after him. After he had lost track of time and hadn’t responded to her while he was astral projecting Nick had been on lockdown by his herd mates for scaring the crap out of them.

“Ruuuuuuuunn!!” Iron called after him.

Author's Notes:

getting close to 300 likes, thinking about doing something special, watch out for my blogs, I'm going to make some sort of contest with the winner getting to co author a chapter with me, not sure what kind of contest though.