*Clang*

An axe connected with a chakra rod, echoing through the garden. “Can’t influence their energy! They don’t have souls of their own either...” Zeko looked at Nouka who was using small clay blobs to repel the attacks of the skeleton he was fighting. Unfortunately during the scuffle Zeko noticed Fluttershy being cornered by a Red Claw stallion.

“You’re way too pretty to be here alone and unless you want the others to kill you you’ll come with me.” He grabbed her by the collar of her dress.

“S-Somepony a-anypony help!” Fluttershy cowered at the gloved hand that was going for her cleavage.

“Drop-ah-kick!” Before the stallion could reveal Fluttershy’s modesty a sandal clad foot slammed into his side, forcing him straight into the ground, buried under the dirt and releasing his grip on the mare who was shaking from the experience. “Fluttershy, I need you to focus and fly away from the castle. Get to Canterlot and stay away from here.” He blocked an oncoming axe and kicked the skeleton in the sternum, pushing it back to Hex. Fluttershy managed to pull herself together and fly off to the displeasure of Hex.

“Of course he was distracted by a mare, never could focus when a pretty one was around.” Zeko picked up the stallion and flung him towards Hex who caught him with his telekinesis. The bone shade came back and tried to cleave Zeko in half but wound up being grabbed in sand.

“That works too.” The bone shade started to struggle and break free but a missed chop of its weapon left it confused as to where its target went. Hex was also flabbergasted at the disappearance of Zeko and used a spell to track him down. “No need for that.” Hex looked to his right and got a roundhouse kick to his jaw, feeling the bones crack and his concussion developing. “Flying Raijin’s pretty useful when I remember it.”

Hex skidded across the ground and landed against a wall of stone Zeko looked and saw Nouka dealing with his bone shade. “Take this, C-True Serpent!” The clay snake wrapped around its target and prevented any movement. “Zeko I have a plan, get that one over here so I can blow them up!” Zeko used his lightning chakra mode and stabbed the bone shade hard enough to go through the armor and its chest. He dragged the deathless creature towards his friend while it swung its axe against his skin in a futile act of desperation.

Zeko was unabashed by the attempts on his life because they weren’t getting past his armor. “I figured out how to use this to its best, now it’s a weapon and a shield.” He threw the skeletal being at its partner and the pair were blown to their simplest bones and left in a crater. “Wow Nouka, that was a really good plan.” Zeko pat his friend on the back in an act of sheer pride.

“Wait they’re putting themselves back together! Look!” They looked and saw the bones of their foes reassembling and slowly forming their bodies again.

Zeko decided to stop them from finishing their reconstruction and covered them in sand, he rested a hand on the ground and closed his eyes. “Sand sealing coffin.” The black seals came from Zeko’s hand and formed lines in the sand, sealing the bone shades into the ground indefinitely. “Alright that’s done... I wonder how Kotetsu and Spike have been doing?”

==============================
(Simultaneous Time)

Kotetsu and Spike burst through a window behind three Red Claw members, showering them with glass and leaving major lacerations. “That looks like it hurt a lot.” Spike blatantly said to Kotetsu’s amusement

“Good, they made me have to come in here with you and help pony people. I coordinate with Zeko the best, we’ve got too many combination moves to not be a team.” Kotetsu stabbed a Griffin in the shoulder and kicked him against a wall during his explanation as Spike grappled with a stallion.

“I saw that when you fought that skeleton. You both did something with lava.” Spike managed to land his foot in his attacker’s gut and flip him over his head, leaving him flat on the ground gasping for breath. “How did I do that? I never learned how to fight.”

Kotetsu took the time to break the arms of another stallion and save a noble mare in the process before answering Spike’s question. “Zeko probably gave you some basic knowledge on taijutsu, if you wanna get to our level then you need to get out there and fight twenty mercenaries at once.” They saw Rainbow Dash and Applejack holding seven assassins back but they were starting to get cornered.

“We gotta help-“ Spike didn’t finish his sentence since the mares were lifted out of danger by a platform of sand. Zeko and Nouka came through a window on one of Nouka’s birds. Before any words were exchanged the pair was forced to dodge a barrage of arrows and blasts of magic.

“Oh geez!” Nouka exclaimed right as Zeko jumped off of the mount to deal with the ranged attackers, taking an arrow to his shoulder in the process. Zeko hissed in pain but ignored it and created two more chakra rods.

The assassins ran out of arrows to fire and took out daggers to fight with. “He took an arrow, he can’t fight like he should. This our chance to kill him now!” One of the mares of the ranged few exclaimed, they rushed Zeko with vigor but the first stallion was impaled through the chest and propelled into his allies behind him. “Stay strong, the poison’s in his blood! We only need thirty seconds.”

Zeko’s eyes widened and in that moment he made sure that there were no bystanders and outstretched a hand. “Almighty Push!” This variant of his attack was different from the others, instead of a wave of unseen force it was more like a sea of energy charging into its targets, leaving them caved into the wall of the castle. “Shit! Poison isn’t something I’m good with.” He quickly formed the water mosquitos he used on Lachlan and had them drain most of the toxin from his blood but it wasn’t as good a job as a doctor would have done.

Rainbow Dash and Applejack took their chance to run over with Spike who helped them knock their attackers unconscious. “What happened to him?” Rainbow Dash inquired leading Kotetsu to rub his forehead

“He got poisoned...” They all were surprised, even Nouka. “ Well all we can do is get these assassins dealt with now, he already took most of it out.” Zeko stood up and walked over to an assassin embedded in the wall and rested his hand on her head.

“Hmm, they’re after a few political leaders and... Hex wants Celestia herself?” Zeko withdrew his hand and a soul came with it.

“How do they think they can get the Princess? She’s like... the toughest of the tough!” Rainbow Dash pointed out to Applejack’s agreement

“This don’t seem right ta me... an Alicorn ain’t somethin ya should underestimate, least that’s what the legends say.”

“Technically this one guy told us that he had a way to null her magic so technically they could stop her. But that didn’t make sense of why he wants her.” Nouka explained which made Kotetsu think hard about the situation but Zeko decided they should move on to the grand hall before anyone was hurt.

“You girls go and find Fluttershy, she should be in Canterlot’s lower area.” Rainbow Dash nodded and flew away with Applejack. Before a plan could be devised a loud scream broke them off.

“GET AWAY YOU BRUTES!”

Spike’s eyes shot open once he recognized the voice as, “Rarity!” He bolted off with speed to rival the shinobi. He looked back and saw Zeko and Kotetsu running behind him while Nouka rode his bird. The quartet ran into the grand hall and saw four different things: Rarity was behind Blueblood with a Griffin and Stallion approaching, Twilight was holding a barrier against another mare casting a stream of lightning at her, some Wonderbolts were holding back Pegasi attackers but were showing injuries from the skirmish, and Celestia was encased in a sphere of dark magic by a unicorn mare wearing an amulet with a skull on it.

“Dragon!” Kotetsu got Spike’s attention and pointed to Twilight’s attacker. Spike ran to his target and tackled him while Kotetsu ran to save Blueblood and Rarity. “Chidori spear.” Kotetsu Shot a spike of lightning through both assassins which gave Blueblood and Rarity time to get swept up by a cloud of sand along with other nobles who were in the room.

Nouka decided to help the Wonderbolts by creating a series of beetles to land on the backs of the Red Claw members. “Take this, ha!” The Pegasi crashed to the floor to the confusion of the Wonderbolts.

“Hey kid, how’d you do that? They just dropped out of the air.” A mare Wonderbolt took off her goggles revealing an orange and red coloration. “Name’s Spitfire, seriously how’d you do that?”

“Perfect placement of explosives. I infuse the clay with my chakra and then I make it into art...with a bang!” Spitfire was confused until she looked down and saw that the space between the wings of each assassin had a small hole with exposed torn muscle underneath. “Technically they shouldn’t be able to fly again unless they get healed.”

Spitfire gasped once she recognized the damage done and took note of how Nouka was using his bird to fly rather than wings as she would but she couldn’t question him since Zeko decided to bring the attention of all those present, “What the hell?!” By exclaiming his confusion over the axe he took to the shoulder. Before the mountain of a Griffin could finish him he was moved by Twilight’s magic.

“How’d you get hurt? These guys are just grunts.” Kotetsu was showing concern over Zeko’s injury, breaking his typical apathy

“I got that poison out but something’s wrong... I feel slower and less coordinated. Wait a second...smart killers.” The axe came back but it was planted in the floor while a chakra rod ended up in the Griffin’s stomach.

“Urk!” He stumbled back, bumbling into the mare holding Celestia. She turned and picked him up by the neck in her magical grip and snapped his neck to the shock of everyone conscious.

“Damned idiot. As for you all, you’ll be here to witness the fall of Princess Celestia! Once Hex gets ba-“

“I knocked him out and left him in the Garden. What’s the plan here anyway Malum Carmen?” Zeko ignored the wound on his shoulder and stood up with Nouka and Kotetsu.

“Regardless of you knowing my name you’re all going to die here. Hex and I have practiced dark magic for years and now we’re unstoppable.” Malum raised her hand and shot dark orbs into the forms of the dead and unconscious assassins who began to convulse violently. The dead ones simply turned into bone shades but the ones who were still alive lost their eyes and their skin set on fire with a purple flame, the low wailing they emitted let them know they were still alive and being tortured in their current state.

“Heh heh heh... haha ha heh...” A portal opened behind Malum, revealing Hex with a grin adorning his muzzle. “This is where you’ll die and the Princess will be under my control... maybe I’ll be able to celebrate after your deaths.” The look Hex was giving Celestia told a story in its own.

Spike took initiative and fired a green fireball towards the crowd of undead fighters but couldn’t affect the bone shades, however the ones who were living dropped to the floor now surrounded by green flames. The sound of birds chirping filled the air as Kotetsu started a chidori and dashed towards Hex who put up a barrier that caught Kotetsu’s hand. He prepared to taunt the shinobi but his barrier was broken through and Kotetsu’s hand was planted in his stomach. “Thought you had me didn’t ya?” He jumped back to his friends

“These dead things are hard to keep down... how much chakra you guys have left?” Zeko looked at Spike who looked ready to pass out and decided to lift him out with his sand, letting him collapse asleep while he went through the window. “I’d say I’ve used a quarter so far but I’ve still got natural chakra to use.”

“Same here.” Kotetsu said

“Wait how did you guys use so little? I’m more than halfway done!” A tick mark appeared on Kotetsu’s forehead

“Might be because we don’t waste our chakra blowing shit up! And don’t apologize idiot. We need some kind of strategy to-“

A kunai with a paper bomb attached struck a husk in the chest, once it exploded most of the husks were killed immediately, before the bone shades could respond a green blur managed to run by them and strike them where their joints would be and paralyzed them. “You can’t be serious... Jenki?” Zeko saw the figure clad in a jacket with large lavender eyes, seemingly without pupils.

He flashed a grin, “Yeah I’m here, Rei told me what was going on and I wanted to see... but there was a problem with that.” Jenki’s grin slipped away as he looked behind Kotetsu who turned quickly and wound up in a headlock by a girl with dark skin and blonde hair around his height, wearing a black Hidden Stone ensemble with a red vest.

“Who told ya to go missin for so long? I should kill ya here and now!” Kotetsu froze once he heard the voice, the fact that his air supply was dwindling didn’t faze him as much as the identity of who the girl was.

“S-Shiro?” He prepared to ask how she managed to get to this dimension but remembered why they were in a relationship.

“It doesn’t matter how many of you pests come along you will all die here and you’ll be my new undead slaves.” Hex said cockily while Malum resumed containing Celestia

Shiro let Kotetsu go and walked closer to Hex, with an angered expression. “I hope ya don’t think that I’m gonna just let you go for trying to hurt my boyfriend and his little friends.”

“Making a lot of assumptions.” Kotetsu mumbled but a look from Shiro made him look upwards as if there was something interesting. In that time Hex fired a spell and struck Shiro directly.

“The time you took to threaten me should’ve been used to attack, now that that’s out of the way how will I deal with- WHAT?!”

Shiro was unharmed by the attack but her vest and shirt were torn. “That ruined my shirt...” She pulled out a scroll and released a purple scythe with three separate blades running down the weapon, after she did that the boys took up fighting positions, Nouka with his clay, Jenki in Eight Trigrams fighting style, Kotetsu with his sword and Zeko with five chakra rods scattered along his body. “So I’m gonna tear your monsters in half then pound ya into the ground.”

Shiro rushed to a bone shade and slammed her scythe onto it, tearing straight through its armor and leaving it as a pile of bones on the floor. Kotetsu and Zeko teamed up and impaled a bone shade in its arms and legs. “If we can damage the bones enough-“ Zeko laced his arm with lightning

“Maybe these damn things won’t keep getting back up.” Kotetsu had a chidori in his hand and thrust it forward next to Zeko’s arm. “Chidori!”

“Lateral bolt thrust!” They stabbed into the shade’s chest, tore through its armor and obliterated its rib cage, collapsing it with no sign of getting back up. “So for the first time in years the solution is just hit harder together.” Zeko started a barrage against another shade which had trouble predicting his movements since he was using several blades to fight with. “Come on, don’t tell me you can’t handle a teenager?” He walked on his hands and stabbed through the joints of the armor with his sandals holding blades, effectively removing armor from the shade which was dealt with in the same manner as the one from before.

Nouka and Jenki were paralyzing the remaining husks with precise strikes to their major points of movement. With small explosions to their knees and shoulders or by cutting off the flow of their malicious energy through their bodies by striking certain spots on their forms. “These things aren’t that tough, but they do start moving again.”

“I know, they’re close to being dead but aren’t dead, it’s so weird.” He took down a few more husks and blew off a shade’s leg until Malum noticed what was going on and began an incantation with Hex. They cut their palms and put blood on their arms and began to chant in an unknown language. Luckily enough at this point the nobles and other partygoers were evacuated so they would need to witness this dark act.

“Hey! Whaddya think you’re doin?!” Shiro tried to run up to them but was pulled back by Zeko using universal pull. She was about to protest but when they saw a bug go near the pair it was disintegrated by an unseen barrier. Once they finished their incantation a dark circle appeared on the floor and sucked the shades, their bones, the husks, and the beaten husks into it. It began to glow an eerie purple before turning to a pillar and allowing a massive monster to step out wearing bone armor with pure darkness serving as a head and wielding an enormous axe.

Hex and Malum were visibly worn from their spell but they were smiling. “This will be your undoing. A fighter for death itself!” Hex caught Malum who nearly passed out from her exposition. The mountainous figure raised a hand and shot a focused beam towards the shinobi who substituted and left either logs, spiders, clay or sand which were turned to black sludge by the attack.

“Top priority is to not be hit by whatever that was, but then we need to focus on taking this thing down in the best way possible, this is going to be fun!” Zeko exclaimed, blood pumping in anticipation and the others agreed because they were all preparing for the upcoming fight.

=======

Author's Notes:

The second part of this three parter. Jenki and Shiro are also apart of the team, Jenki does have the Byakugan and Shiro... is something else.

The final part comes as soon as I can make it... and the I hope the fight is up to par

See you next time