*Outside Magnolia Town, Fiore; October 20, 2019; 4:55 PM*

"I'm glad you were able to make it with preparations still underway, you two." Ezra greeted.

The three stood in a clearing at least a mile away from town. A nearby river that fed into the sea rushed in the distance, and the wind blew leaves in from the forest about a half-kilometer behind them.

Between missions, Alex had requested training from anyone willing, with Erza being one of now 6 people who stayed at the hall often enough and were strong enough to do so. Yang insisted on coming along to make sure the two weren't doing anything wrong, among other things.

"Thanks for taking time to help out with this." Alex thanked.

"It's no trouble." Erza nodded.

"Woo! Let's see what you've got! You can take 'er!" Yang applauded.

"Yang, not now!" Alex insisted.

Erza didn't respond to either outburst.

"What have you been doing for training since we last worked together?" Erza asked.

"I've mostly been trying to keep up my strength and endurance. I've learned a couple new tricks from that stunt on Galuna. And I've been wearing these," Alex removed his chestplate, removing a block of steel from the core and shoulders respectively, "Since the Tower of Heaven."

Erza stared at the steel blocks on the ground before her, lifting one up with slight difficulty.

"How much do these weigh?" Erza asked.

"About 30 Kilos." Alex replied evenly as he felt his thighs and shins and yanked off two more similarly sized bricks from either leg.

"Each?" Ezra gaped.

"Yeah. He's pretty stubborn about keeping 'em on, too. He only really takes them off to bathe." Yang answered.

"Oh, come on. I've taken them off more often than that." Alex scoffed, removing more weights off his wrists and upper arms.

Erza stared at the pile of weights on the ground, almost perplexed at the sight.

"This has to be 700 pounds at least!" Erza thought.

"Gotta admit, it's better to have these off.. Much lighter, now!" Alex flexed.

"Well.. Hopefully this training exercise is going to be a bit easier on you." Erza grinned.

"We'll see. What's the plan?" Alex cracked his knuckles.

"It's simple. Attack me." Erza requiped to her Lightning Empress armor.

Alex drew his own sword, now remolded into a single-edged scimitar.

Just after the Fantasia parade ended, Alex and his family returned to Ponyville because several of their weapons had broken down from month after month of abuse. Alex requested his next weapon in the form of the familiar SCAR-H, leaving him with a much more powerful weapon.

Of course, it came in handy since most of the guild had been ensnared in another battle with a dark guild by the time they got back.

"I'll let you take the first attack." Alex stood, sword ready.

Erza grinned.

"Very well. Natsu! Gray!" Erza yelled.

"What?!" Alex thought as the other two mages leapt to Erza's side and attacked.

Alex darted backwards, leaping though any attack he could before landing behind Natsu.

"Sup, Pinkie?" Alex grinned.

"WHO'RE YOU CALLIN' PINKIE?!" Natsu swung his fist.

Alex blocked the attack, only to have his metal hand heat up.

Natsu leaped towards Alex, raising another flame-wreathed fist and punching Alex in the side.

Alex doubled over, leaving him open to Gray's attack..

"ICE-MAKE LANCE!!"

Alex had mere milliseconds to evade the offending splinters, landing in front of the Ice Mage and side-kicking him into a tree.

Just as Gray started to stand, Natsu readied his own attack.

"FIRE DRAGON-!!"

"ICE-MAKE-!!"

"Shit!" Alex gaped.

Alex was instantly bombarded by arcs of flame and slivers of ice. He darted towards the ice, knowing well the searing pain that came with getting burned.

The ice slivers bounced off his armor and the bigger chunks dented the metal plate. The largest blocks of ice, he was able to hack in two and attack Gray easily.

Alex swiftly ducked to avoid an ice-covered fist, kicking Gray into the skies and readying his own counter.

Alex reared back his right arm, as though preparing to throw a ball, as a pulsating mass of lightning formed in his palm.

"THUNDERBURST!!!" Alex pelted Gray with the violet-colored ball of energy, resulting in an impressive display of energy as the Ice Mage fell to the ground.

"FIRE DRAGON ROAR!!" Natsu blew a massive gust of fire towards him.

With mere moments to react, Alex unsheathed his sword and allowed his energy to pour into the blade.

With a wide swing, a razor-thin strip of lightning parted the flames, forcing Natsu to evade the deadly arc.

Alex ran past the Dragonslayer, planting a blow onto his stomach and slowly uncurled his fist.

"Shock Breaker." Alex deadpanned as Natsu was blown into the forest.

Alex turned around to find that Erza had been charging an attack in the twenty or so seconds he'd been fighting Natsu and Gray.

"LIGHTNING BEAM!!" Erza fired a pulse of electricity towards him.

At the same instant, Natsu flew towards him at incredible speed, grinning as he reared back his fist.

Alex raised his hand towards the electric pulse Erza made as Natsu grew ever closer to him.

Natsu and Erza both gasped in surprise at what happened next.

Alex absorbed Erza's blast through his palm. Grabbed Natsu, swung him towards Erza, and sent him on his way with his own counter-attack.

Erza leaped out of the way, forcing her to requip into her Heaven's Wheel armor.

She reared back both arms and carried two swords, all the while requipping dozens of others.

"Ah, crap. Blumenblatt.." Alex raised his own weapon to block.

Alex managed to successfully block Erza's initial strike, only to be hopelessly unprepared for the dozens of swords that skewered past. One in particular managed to actually stab around his armor and left behind a nasty cut.

Instantly, Natsu and Gray leapt to the opening like sharks to blood, and bombarded him with ice and fire attacks.

By the end, Alex staggered onto one knee, clutching the wound Erza's sword had made.

"Are you done?" Erza asked.

Alex grinned.

"You wish.."

Alex stood back up, raising himself to Evolved Warrior and glaring at the three mages.

"I don't think you guys have seen this yet... Allow me to introduce you the Evolved Warrior." Alex grinned.

Erza stared at the static light-purple aura, his spiky, purple hair, and the way he now seemed to surge with newfound power.

"Evolved Warrior..?" Erza repeated in curiosity.

Alex blinked.

"Oh, I almost forgot this was a training exercise." Alex quickly powered down.

All three mages were completely perplexed by the sudden changes.

"How did you do that?! Are you some kind of super-wizard?!" Natsu asked.

"Natsu." Ezra glared.

Alex grumbled.

"It's a long story, and I'd prefer not to tell it now." Alex said.

"Alright.. Hey, Yang. What's up with Alex?" Natsu asked.

"NATSU!!" Alex screamed.

"Oh, yeah.. We've had a bunch of problems involving inter-dimensional dictatorships and shit. Alex needed to head over here to train, and I talked him into joining the guild." Yang said.

"For what? If this threat follows you here, we need to know." Erza demanded.

Alex sighed.

"Now, this is going to take some explanation.." Alex groaned.

Alex explained that Cade and Auburn were their children from the future, and that their timeline's Cinder had followed them to this timeline. He also told them about the Maiden's power, and how Cinder had killed all four and become much stronger than even he wanted to deal with.

Erza, Natsu, and Grey were absolutely horrified.

"If this 'Cinder' is as strong as you say she is, we need to tell Makarov, now!" Erza demanded.

"Are you crazy?! I'm not letting another world die because of my bullshit!" Alex yelled.

"You and your family joined this guild, so your problems are our problems, now." Gray swore.

"Is everyone I meet f**king insane?!" Alex yelled.

"What about the wedding?" Yang asked.

"THAT'S YOUR QUESTION?!" Natsu screamed.

"Your friends can help. In case Cinder comes, we need everyone ready." Erza explained, dragging both Alex and Yang by the wrist.

*Crocus, Fiore; October 20, 2019; 5:00 PM*

Twilight, Fluttershy, Pinkie, and the CMC wandered around town, asking around for directions to Magnolia Town.

"Well, so much for being polite." Twilight sighed.

"Aw, cheer up! We'll find our way! Let's ask this guy!" Pinkie pointed to an aging man with white hair and a red scarf. Carrying a sachel, he spoke to four other men.

"...And make damn sure you find those Summoning Keys before..." The man turned around and looked at the ponies.

"Uh.. Hello, sir! My name is-"

"Twilight Sparkle. Former Protégé of Princess Celestia, and a known benefactor of Geo Vector 0-1's division of the SCP Foundation." The man replied.

Twilight gasped.

"How did you know..?" Twilight asked.

"Erm... Dr. Monty, who und what are they?" A man with a moustache and a German accent asked.

Dr. Monty smiled.

"Our ticket for putting everything back into order.. Tell me, where are the Summoning Keys?"

Author's Notes:

I intend to make this arc quite a bit longer than the others. Let's face it, 10 chapter story arcs of roughly the same plotline isn't going to work any more than three times.

Now, I'm still working on the storyline of this arc and when exactly the crap's gonna hit the fan. But I can honestly say that when it does, it's gonna be epic.