”Alright, now try again. Rush forward, slice up, before bringing it back down again.” Laevateinn said, his newfound astral projection watching as Zero practiced using his sword. ”Remember, myinstincts have helped you in the past, but they cannot help you win every battle. Eventually your luck will run out.” It had been three days since Zero and Twilight had departed from the village, and the two had gotten quite far. At least, they assumed they had gotten far, considering the near-endless forest gave them little clue.

“I know that very much already, thanks for telling me, asshole.” Zero growled, rushing forward. The tip of his blade slid across the dirt, carving a line in the ten feet between the mercenary and the tree he had been using for practice. The tree had several gash marks carved into its bark, proof of Zero’s hours of practice.

Laevateinn’s sharp edge met wood, and Zero pushed himself upward the blade digging deep into the tree as the mercenary leapt upward, pressing his feet against the side of the tree to gain more momentum. He then pulled the blade out of the tree’s trunk, flipping it above and behind his head. A sudden surge of energy flared through Zero’s limbs, and his eyes widened, before he let out a guttural roar, a fierce cry of such power that no human could ever make, and brought the sword down, cleaving the tree in two as he fell back down. Black, lightning-like energy coursed down the blade, the tree bending and parting as the edge of the sword made its journey down the tree.

Zero leapt back to look at what he had just done. The tree had been thoroughly split in two, the sides bending downwards and touching the ground as the mercenary panted.

“What… was that?” Zero asked, turning to his ghostly mentor.

“What in Celestia’s name is going on out there?! Are we under attack?!” Twilight’s shrill voice asked from inside the tent, ten feet away from where the Mercenary was standing. The purple alicorn mare crawled out of the tent to glare at Zero, a tired expression on her muzzle. “Are you still training? Get to bed, or Celestia help me, I'll send you to Tartarus in the morning!” She huffed, before crawling back into her tent.

Zero stared at where she had been, before chuckling, putting his sword away inside its sheath and turning to his ghostly doppelgänger. “She's right, we had best ought to get to sleep before we become more of a burden for her.”

”If we are to survive in this hellscape, then you need to get better with using Laevateinn, not resting when there could be demons nearby.” Laevateinn stated, his transparent arms crossed as he looked back at the tent.

“Yeah, well it's better to be even somewhat capable of using a sword and fully rested than able to use the sword effectively, yet can barely stay awake for more than twelve seconds.” Zero chuckled. “Besides, the road to Fillydelphia has been relatively clear of demons. I doubt one is just gonna suddenly pop out of thin air.” He yawned, pulling out his bedroll, before lying down and quickly falling asleep.

Laevateinn stared at his sleeping form, before sighing, and looking out to the forest around them. ”Don’t think I cannot sense your presence, just because he can’t. You will not take Laevateinn from him like this, do you understand?” The forest was silent, and the ghostly apparition chuckled. ”You will fight him at Fillydelphia, as promised. Just keep your end of the deal, and keep those demons off us.” With that, Laevateinn’s astral form vanished, returning to Zero’s mind.

Once he vanished, one of the tree’s shook once, then went still, several leaves falling to the ground.

“Morning, exercise nut!” Twilight’s voice pierced the veil of sleep, and Zero cracked his eyes open to find the purple princess staring down at him, a pan hovering next to her. “I made breakfast, so get up already!”

“I'm up, I'm up…” Zero groaned, rubbing his eyes and sitting up. “What time is it?”

“Well, I would say about noonish? It's hard to tell, since there isn't a sun and all.” Twilight rolled her eyes, putting some eggs next to the mercenary. “You'd be surprised at how many eggs were just lying around out here.”

“Wait… aren't you ponies against eating other creatures?” Zero asked, sitting up and looking at the scrambled eggs next to him on a ridiculously clean plate, considering the state of the world.

“Yes, but eggs aren't technically alive until they are practically at the hatching phase, or a little bit before.” Twilight shrugged. “Besides, the world has gone to Tartarus. It's eat or be eaten out here.”

“Fair enough. That doesn't explain how these plates are so clean, considering, you know, the world is fucked.” Zero shrugged, scarfing the eggs down quickly.

“With the apocalypse comes all sorts of new diseases and filth. I make sure to clean all my plates to keep my body healthy!” Twilight beamed, already finished with her food.

“But you don't know for certain whether or not the food you just ate already had such diseases in them, do you?” The mercenary countered. Twilight’s smile faltered, but she just shrugged.

“Well, you can't win them all.” She said plainly, using her magic to disassemble the tent, packing everything into her saddlebags. Zero simply stared, egg halfway inside his mouth as he watched the process. Twilight noticed this, and huffed loudly. “Oh come on, you've seen me do this several times by now! Get over it!”

“Oh, sorry, it's just magic doesn't exist in my world, Princess. I seriously doubt I will ever get used to seeing an entire tent float up in the air and collapse into those tiny bags.” Zero growled, finishing up his food and packing his things. His plate floated up and into the purple horse’s bags, vanishing entirely. “Fucking ponies and their god damned physics-fucking…”

“By the way, I've been meaning to ask.” Twilight said, pulling Zero up with her magic. “What type of magic do you use? I felt a lot of it released when you broke that tree apart, but I couldn't really get a complete read off of the released energy to pinpoint an exact type.”

“There are different types of magic in this world?” Zero asked. “This place just raises more questions every day…” He paused as something Twilight had said clicked into his mind. “Wait, I have magic?!”

“Yes, you used it earlier.” Twilight rolled her eyes, “There are several types of magic: Fire, Ice, Wind, Thunder, Light, and Dark!” She said, smiling faintly as she listed them off. “Stuff like levitation is more of a baseless magic. It requires no actual element, and is sort of a null zone in the field of magic. Actual elemental magic requires a bit more concentration, and a bit more of actual thought to putting the spell together.”

“So… levitation is simple because you aren't trying to create a element of nature incarnate?” Zero asked, mostly lost.

“That's somewhat of an abridged version, yes.” Twilight grinned. “Some ponies are naturally adept at a certain type, and thus there are several fields of magic available to unicorns at an early age.” Her horn glowed bright purple, and a beam of purple energy shot out, knocking down a nearby tree. “While that might have appeared to have been Light Magic, it was actually a levitation spell. Instead of levitating an actual object, I focused on the particles of air, pushing them forward at high speeds to act like an extremely powerful punch.”

“I'm pretty sure there's a flaw in the physics of that, but hey, what do I know.” Zero glanced around. “We should get moving. We’re supposedly making good time, but I won't believe it until I see the ruins before me.”

“Fine, let's get going.” Twilight rolled her eyes, and the two began to move on towards Fillydelphia. “I can just as easily explain the physics of magic to you along the way anyway. Maybe then we will learn what type of magic you use?”

“Sure, you talking, purple… bird horse…” Zero groaned, pulling out Laevateinn and getting a few practice swings in as they walked, Twilight babbling all the way.

Two Days Later, Fillydelphia Ruins

Zero and Twilight stared at the expansive ruins before them. Massive skyscrapers had long since crumbled and toppled, leaving barely formed towers behind. Streets were filled with rubble and equine skeletons, countless souls lost during the beginning of Ragnarok. Few buildings remained standing, several having collapsed inwards or crushed beneath the rubble of a fallen skyscraper.

However, all of these gruesome sights were not what took up the duo’s attention. Instead, it was a human girl, seemingly in her mid-teens, standing ten feet between them and the ruins. Long, silver hair flowed down her back, ending at her waist as she shifted. Her white jacket, white black lining, covered almost all of her upper body, her hands barely visible as they gripped the black and bright red sword pointed at the two. Her pale skin hid behind her jacket, her red eyes glaring at Zero in particular.

The blade in her hands was almost identical to Laevateinn in all but design, instead having a massive guard that flowed down in front of the girl’s hands, instead acting more as part of the blade than anything else.

“I… am Amane…” The girl muttered, her hands clenching around the sword’s hilt. “You, who stole my brother’s body…” She let out a guttural and unnatural growl, her face shifting and becoming more demonic than human, a jagged and pointed jawline erupting beyond her natural lips. ”Die!” She roared, rushing forward and bringing her sword forward to cut Zero to pieces.

Author's Notes:

And that's another chapter done!

Sorry for it's shortness... I've not been as motivated to write as I used to be...
It's just a lot more difficult to actually sit down and write.
Anyways hope you enjoyed, and I very much so hope future me will not be a fucking idiot and leave this with that cliffhanger I left this chapter off with.

Anyways, I'll see you in the next one!