Crossing Anthology Two

by yon-cryokinetic

Rating: teen
Tags: Romance, Tragedy, Crossover, Human, Dark, Alternate Universe
Length: 58242

Do you shoot first? Or ask questions before? One year after the events of C.A:1 two young men go to Equestria to search for a serial killer.

One year after Lemmour's death, a maniacal serial killer lurks in the shadows of Equestria, killing innocent Unicorns. Princess Celestia depended on her royal guard subjects to find this killer, but as time passed, Princess Luna saw that her sister's teams were not working fast enough. So Princess Luna decided to recruit a small group heroes, native to planet Earth, to search for the killer. The young boys, Jonah and Cole, have braved many dangers and obstacles in their past, though this time they must adapt to a completely new setting, and face more complicated threats from within. When Cole's new girlfriend joins him in his adventure he must ensure her safety, while Jonah must later face one of the hardest decisions he's ever had to face.

JKC can be found at: http://yoncryokinetic.blogspot.com/

*Yeah, it's a self insert, I'm aware that it is frowned upon by some. I'm new to writing fan fiction, so I figured what better way to start than with this? And I think it turned out okay. Sure there are probably a couple mistakes, but to quote Danny Antonucci;

"Don't let anything stop you, don't listen to anybody. Just follow your heart, believe in your vision and what you see, and what you want to do, and go for broke. Learn from your mistakes, YOUR mistakes not other peoples' mistakes. You've got to make the mistakes in order to learn from them, and go for it, and take it as far as it'll go. If that's what you want to do, no one can stop you."

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2013-06-21 03:20:03 UTC

Introduction

A while ago, two brothers lived together in the tall, breezy mountains of southern West Virginia. There was Seth, the eldest brother, who possessed a plethora of marvelous super-natural powers and abilities that could spread to others in a time of extended contact. Then there was Jonah, the younger brother, who at that time wielded no abilities or powers yet. A time would come in their childhood when their parents would leave them for two years, and the brothers would be separated for reasons that the parents never disclosed.

The two years of isolation passed. The young family was finally back together, and for once, everything seemed to be happy and without a care in the world, it was as if any previous transgressions had never manifested in the family. But this happiness was not to last.

A week passed, and the mother and father were called to leave the country again. Both brothers were heartbroken and the eldest proclaimed he would not be left again to be raised by their corrupt extended family. Seth took Jonah, and they both ran away from their home together to a town in central Virginia called Winchester.

During their years in Winchester, Jonah moved on from the parental separation and retained happiness, knowing he had friends to be there for him in a time of struggle. Seth did not cope the same as his younger kin; he still felt alone and unloved. In the year 2004, a magical door that only appeared one week every seven years came to Winchester. No one dared to enter the door, knowing that it was a one-way passage and that they couldn't return if they went through.

Seth approached the door and peeked through it to see the other side. On the other side, he saw extra-terrestrial life, something that no one would believe. Seth preached to Jonah and his friends of the amazing sight, only to be met with a skeptical crowd. The door faded away on the week's end, Seth continued to take drastic measures to speak his mind, but was eventually ordered by authorities to attend private, psychological, therapeutic sessions for many months. The therapy took it’s tole on Seth’s judgment and social actions, and he began to act out ways that some called “unstable.” Seth was locked away in a mental institution, and Jonah was forced to temporarily resided with his friends for a year, until Seth was released from the psychological institution in 2005.

The year 2009 came, the year that Seth and Jonah's home was reduced to a burning pile of rubble from a kitchen accident. The brothers had no choice but to move again, they could have returned to their home state and went to be with their parents, but Seth refused for "personal reasons and ideas". Furthermore, Seth insisted that they go to Virginia Beach. To the older brother, the city of Virginia Beach was of the utmost importance.

Later that same year, Seth and Jonah finally arrived in Virginia Beach. Seth remained to himself as he always had before; he kept all his feelings and thoughts away from his brother or anyone else. Jonah, unlike his brother, did the opposite. Jonah reached out to others and eventually became friends with someone who would join him in a new adventure. Jonah met Cole; an eccentric and positive boy who over time pulled Jonah out of the pessimistic attitude inflicted by his brother's, and into a more optimistic and carefree one.

Starting from the year 2009; Jonah, Cole, and several of their friends, even Seth, set out on a journey. It was a journey to stop an evil space pirate, King Zoxus, from ending the spread of super-natural, by killing off the beholders. They fought metal-suited androids, gangs, and other strange foes. During their time together, Jonah and Cole became as close as brothers and would do anything to protect one another, as well as keep the each other happy with silly humor and jokes. Seth observed the happy and brotherly bond that Jonah and Cole shared, and was jealous of it. Seth felt more isolated and alone as he traveled with the two; the envy he felt was enough to consume him like a monster.

In 2010, Jonah and Cole finally gained the ability to express their powers. Jonah obtained Cryokinesis, the ability to generate and manipulate ice; and Cole learned Electrokinesis, the ability to conjure electricity and lightning from his fingers. Little did they know that the supernatural abilities they possessed spread from Seth.

In late 2011, their adventure led them back to Winchester, and it was the same year that the seven year door would return. This time, Seth threw caution to the wind and entered the door, knowing that he would not be able to return. Near the end of the door's cycle, Jonah, Cole and several of their friends entered the door to search for Seth, and hunt down King; that entered the door sometime before Seth. Jonah and Cole fought King again, and prevailed. But King got away and passed though the other side of the trans-dimensional hall to a mysterious world named, "Mobius." Jonah, Cole and their friends followed.

During their time on Mobius, Seth was found again, this time completely changed. Seth betrayed Jonah, and attempted to kill him and Cole, Seth gave no logical explanation as to why. Jonah did not want to fight his brother, so he and his friends evaded him and stayed away from him. As the hunt for King Zoxus continued, it was learned that King found another way back to Earth using an ability known as “chaos control.” Seth confronted Jonah and his friends again, so instead of fighting, Jonah warped Seth across Mobius to a different and remote location, so that Seth could not find any of his friends while he and Cole returned to Earth to search for King alone. Seth was never seen again.

At the beginning of 2012, Jonah and Cole returned to Earth alone using chaos control and went to Virginia Beach in search of King again. Through several conflicts and mystery solving, Jonah and Cole finally put a stop to King Zoxus in the same year, and returned to their friends in Mobius.

Their adventure was done. It was around that time that Jonah was gifted with a second power; flight, given to him in a dream by the mother of his now deceased rival. The mother thanked him for delivering King to her, and that she wanted him to use the new power to create even more miracles for others across the universe.

Seth was still unheard and unseen, and he only remained that way. Jonah did what he normally did, and eventually moved on from what happened.

One year has passed since the boys’ adventure ended. As time passes and our characters age and learn, will they be as prepared for their next mission? It’s complicated to say…

Birthday

The beginning of Part 1

It was summer, 2013 and his seventeenth birthday finally came; Jonah was filled with happiness and unbridled excitement. He saw his birthday as a passage into a new life; moving on from the battles he faced in recent years, and the feeling of desolation left from his brother's betrayal.

After preparing himself for the day, Jonah went down stairs to see his closest friend whom he had lived with, the one who to his perspective was a real brother figure, Cole.

Cole met Jonah when they still lived on planet Earth, in 2009. Cole followed Jonah in his previous three year adventure to stop an evil threat, and in that time Jonah learned to be more optimistic, and outgoing from Cole.

Though he still loved his real brother, Jonah learned more from Cole than he did in the life time he spent with Seth. Jonah was never fond of his brother’s pessimistic, judgmental, cold and calculating nature, it was a mindset that he detested and tried to evade. When he met Cole and experienced his warm, caring and positive aura; Jonah latched to it.

Despite Seth's rash actions, Jonah still worried about him and wished the best for him. He claimed to no longer be saddened by Seth's absence; and saw it as him trying to better himself on his own.

Jonah descended from the stairs of his home to see Cole in the kitchen, eating left over barbeque ribs. He greeted him,

"Hey Cole!"

"Hey bro, happy birthday."

"Thanks.”

Jonah glanced down to the ribs in Cole’s grasp;

“Huh, I didn't think we had any leftover ribs from last night."

Cole put down his rib and licked his sauce coated fingers and said,

"Mmm. Yeah! That was some party last night; did I happen to get laid?"

With a quick chuckle and a smirk as he grabbed a glass cup, Jonah replied,

"Haha, sorry but no."

"Aw Man..."

"Well, we did get into some other serious shit though, don't you remember?"

The previous night was unlike any other for them, Cole's twin brother, Del, introduced to them a new kind of alcoholic beverage as an early birthday gift to Jonah. Del described the beverage as, "a way to lose your freaking mind!" Jonah and Cole being interested tried this new substance, and moments later, it was like they were completely different people. They did not know what they were indulging in under the devastating influence of the alcohol in their systems. Jonah told Cole of his very faint memories of their previous night; he remembered three specific items they used out in public for an unrecognizable event; a baseball bat, a fedora, and a telephone pole. The final moments that Jonah could recall was him and Cole walking into their house and struggling to walk up his stairs.

"Seriously, it took me about two whole minutes to climb each step of the stairs!"

"How embarrassing... Well at least I got these ribs; Halie can cook a friggin' good set of ribs. I'm gonna go and see her again today."

Jonah filled his glass cup to roughly an inch from the rim with tap water from the kitchen sink, and asked;

"You've been hanging out with Halie an awful lot lately, haven't you?"

Halie was one of the many accomplices of Jonah and Cole's on their three year adventure. During the adventure she was a high ranking member and hydrokinetic prodigy of what was once called the "Boone County Gang.” It was a small organization that was once spread out across two counties in southern West Virginia, using her ability to manipulate water and liquids; she was a great asset to Jonah and Cole’s team. After the three year journey, Cole befriended Halie and the both of them began hanging out almost every day. To Halie, Cole was someone who could take any bad situation, and turn it around to make it seem completely non-existent.

"Yeah, she's a very interesting person. And to be honest, I'm thinking of asking her out, you know like dating."

"I think you both would match perfectly, you talk well together, a good example is how much you helped her after what happened to her friend."

"Whatcha mean?" said Cole with a confused look.

Jonah took a couple gulps of water from his glass, and said;

"Remember Evan? When he died, you were the first person to really get through to her and help her feel better. Seriously, she was like a walking zombie when Jacob or I tried talking to her!"

Cole recollected his memories as he grabbed another piece of the barbequed ribs,

"Oh right! That could be a hint that she likes me. Ya know what, I'm gonna do it, I'll ask her out. It may actually turn out well; we may even be as good a couple as my brother and his girlfriend."

Jonah nodded in encouragement and said,

"Maybe. Or as well as Mina and I are together."

Cole choked on his barbeque rib, and said while spitting up barbeque;

"Mina scares me, man... The weather power of hers is just… intimidating. I mean think about it, I have electric powers, you have ice powers; she can create thunder and hail! She’s like the both of us together…"

"Oh come on, Cole. You know she's on our side now."

"No, it's not that. I forgive her for the whole thing back in 2012, but overall I think she wants to slice my throat open sometimes. She's so sadistic to me! She even treats YOU like shit sometimes, Jonah!"

Mina was once a classmate in Jonah and Cole's seventh grade classes of 2009. Her relations with the duo were, for the majority of the time, at a boiling point. Since the two were always the class clowns, and never took a lot of projects seriously, it often disrupted her concentration and focus during lectures or assignments. Though Jonah and Cole have grown since their childhood antics, and that she now dated Jonah, Mina retained some of the sarcastic and rude emotions toward them and most other people. Most of her emotional distress and dark atmosphere today can be the result of the 2010 flooding in her home city, when she witnessed the tragic death of her twin sister. Mina was stranded in the flooded city of Virginia Beach until 2012, when she was manipulated by Jonah and Cole's old enemy to believe that they were the ones who caused the said flood. Mina spent a short time trying to hunt and kill the duo, and later to join them after some misunderstandings were solved. She ended up being a pivotal role in the final battle of the three year adventure.

Jonah was prepared to calm Cole, until a series of loud and echoing knocks were heard from their front door. Jonah and Cole went together to see who it was, Cole still having ribs in his hands with barbeque sauce smeared on his lips and fingers. Cole reached for the door knob with his filthy hand, Jonah moved him away;

“Don’t open the damn door with that on your hands; I just cleaned this place two days ago!”

“Oh, shit. Sorry.”

Jonah opened the door to see two local police officers waiting behind it. One of the men promptly said;

"Mr. Jonah? Mr. Coltrane?"

Jonah and Cole looked at each other for a brief moment before Cole said;

"That's us, can we help you...?"

The officer continued with a stern expression;

"You two are under arrest for vandalism and arson."

Jonah and Cole became shocked, their pupils widened, and Cole dropped his ribs as they stuttered their words. The officer said to his partner;

"Book 'em."

The other officer proceeded to step behind the boys and hand cuff them both, Jonah and Cole were escorted to the officer's patrol vehicle, and were taken from their home.

So our story begins with two boys, once celebrated heroes, now being taken into custody for a shady and unrecognizable crime. What did happen that previous night? And what will happen to the two best friends?

Meanwhile, a much more tragic situation continues to happen elsewhere, on a planet far from Jonah and Cole's home... Planet Equestria...

Questioning

With their hands cuffed, as they sat in a cold, windowless interrogation room only lit by a single lamp on the desk in front of them, Jonah and Cole were afraid for the worst. Cole grew an angry expression, and proclaimed;

"This is my damn brother's fault, he gave us that shit last night, and it got us either drunk, or high, or something and we did something stupid. The second I see him, he's gonna get his ass worn out!"

Jonah only looked around nervously, observing the room with rapid movements, unsettled by the dark setting. Cole saw Jonah’s fears and told him;

“I’m sorry your birthday turned out so shitty…”

Jonah looked at Cole;

"Cole don't worry, considerin' our good reputation with the authorities for helpin' them lock up most of their most wanted before, I imagine they'd go easy on us."

Cole sighed,

"Your right, if they don't then they suck, not us."

Footsteps were heard from down the hall by the duo, as well as what could only be described as horse hooves, clopping against the ground. Cole interrupted himself and said,

"Someone is coming! Now we can get some answers."

The door opened meters from them, and two figures walked in: the sheriff of South Island, Mobius; and an unfamiliar dark blue unicorn with large wings. At sight, the strange equine was female, and wore a black crown and neck plate, with silver plating around each hoof. Her flowing mane was a semi-transparent lighter shade of blue that flowed without wind and gave off sparkles.

The sheriff sat across from Jonah and Cole while the pony stood and observed the boys with stern eyes. The sheriff began to speak,

"You two, you two fine young men are last I'd ever expect to be sitting in front of in THIS room... Did you two even know what it was you were doing when it happened?"

Jonah and Cole looked around the room, embarrassed. Jonah snapped back into the conversation and said;

"To be honest sir, Cole and I can't even seem to remember what happened. We were under an influence..."

The sheriff sighed with disappointment, and replied with;

"I see... Luckily for your sake, no one was harmed. But a large amount of property was destroyed from the fire you guys started."

Cole bit his nails from nervousness, the sheriff continued;

"Under normal circumstances, years of jail time would be administered for the weight of chaos you've caused. But a more serious matter is upon us. Allow my pony friend here to enlighten you."

The sheriff looked to the mysterious pony character, giving her the signal to speak to Jonah and Cole. The pony stepped closer to the desk and said,

"It is an honor to meet you two; I am Princess Luna, the princess of the night on planet Equestria. A horrifying threat had been slithering through my planet for a year now; it is ruthless, and quick. It is a serial killer, murdering countless ponies, mostly unicorns. Many have been hideously slaughtered, including mares and stallions, colts and fillies, you have no clue what sort of pain the countless mothers and fathers have felt whenever I or my sister have shown them their child's pale, dead corpse in a cold, lifeless morgue..."

Jonah and Cole looked into Princess Luna's eyes with extreme concern and sorrow, uncertain as to why she decided to bring up something so horrific. The two had witnessed the demise of children on their adventure, but they never thought of just how horrible those deaths would be in a parent's perspective. Luna continued her speech;

"I've come here because I believe you both are the ones who are capable of putting an end to such an evil. I have watched some of your three year adventure with my older sister, and am highly impressed by what I witnessed. So I ask that you please, follow me back to Equestria, and pursue this danger so that my little ponies may not live in fear, the adults can manage their lives and businesses again, and the children can play in the day once more with smiles."

The sheriff caught the boys' attention and offered;

"If you agree to help Princess Luna here out, you can consider what took place last night completely forgotten."

Luna pleaded to them again with a desperate, but professional gaze;

"Would you please help us?"

Jonah and Cole then spoke at the same time, without hesitation;

"Yes."

Luna gave off a light smile, and responded with;

"Excellent, thank you both. I will be waiting for you outside. Join me once you are ready."

Princess Luna turned and exited the room; the sheriff stood up and unlocked the handcuffs behind Jonah and Cole's backs. An idea sparked in Cole's mind, and he asked;

"Would it be okay if I made a phone call?"

"I don't see any issue."

Cole walked over to the nearest telephone and dialed a number. After a couple of rings the other end answered and he began to talk,

"Hey Halie, its Cole. Listen, Jonah and I are headed out of town for some business, wanna join in?"

Jonah observed Cole as he talked to Halie over the phone, he was unsure if they should bring any friends along with them. After all they themselves knew nothing about the planet this Princess was taking them to. Cole spoke again;

"Sweet! Come on over to the South Island sheriff's office and meet us at the entrance. You may wanna hurry. Okay, bye."

Cole hung up the phone and turned to Jonah to ask;

"You've got no problem with an extra do ya?"

"No, I'm sure we can look after Halie. My main issue is that we know nothin' about this place, it might not even have color TV!"

"Hey, we were lucky with this place right?"

"I suppose. Plus I imagine that we'll stick out more than anyone there, considerin' the population is most likely nothin' but ponies."

"We'll manage, you wanna bring along anyone else?"

"Hm, I could ask Mina."

Jonah picked up the same phone Cole was using and dialed Mina's number. After a couple rings she answered;

"Hello?"

"Mina, its Jonah."

"Oh hey, where the hell have you been?"

"At the jail house, with Cole."

"Oh Jesus, well, whatever you do don't drop the soap. Watch out for Cole he's a big guy, he could wear you out! Haha!"

Cole could here laughs surfacing from the phone speaker; Jonah continued to speak with an embarrassed expression;

"We ain't bein' put away! We've been given a proposition to help this Princess out with a serial killer on her planet, in exchange for droppin' all charges on us."

"Just what did you two do anyway, knowing you two you probably did something real stupid and sickening. Any witnesses to whatever you guys did are probably scarred for life with P.T.S.D. or some shit."

"I don't know! Ask Del, he ought to remember. Now do you wanna come with us or not?"

Mina’s laughs decreased;

"Sure, I'll come. Where do you want me?"

"Be at the entrance of the sheriff's office, try to hurry, we're leaving very soon I think."

Jonah hung up the phone and followed Cole out of the interrogation room to the hallway.

Two young heroes who have braved many obstacles in the past, conquered vicious evils, and laid many corrupt lives to rest. They face a new journey, a journey into the unknown. What sorts of conflicts await them? They haven't the slightest clue.

Transfer

Patience wore thin as Jonah chipped away lead paint from the outside wall of the sheriff's office, and as Cole grinded the worn heels of his shoes into the muddy earth. Princess Luna stood with a stern look; she was clearly on the brink of hunting Jonah and Cole’s friends down herself. Silence is among them, and all seems so tranquil. Jonah breaks the atmosphere,

“Where the hell are they at?”

Princess Luna replied with;

“They’d better be here soon, the more time we waste could be another life lost.”

Cole’s interest sparked, and he asked;

“Is this serial killer really that much of an issue?”

“Yes, very much so. The last time I checked the casualties, he had taken roughly one hundred and thirty victims.”

“What’s this guy’s backstory?”

“We have no backstory to tell, information regarding him is extremely scarce.”

“A name at least?”

“No…”

“What does he look like?”

Luna took a moment and pondered her memories,

“… Well, he wears a metallic mask; it looked very shiny with three glass plates.”

“A third? Is this guy deformed or something? Like a third eye?”

“Some victims who survived his attacks claimed to have seen him levitating his weapon so he must be a unicorn. My assumption is that the third plate of glass above the two eye plates is for his horn to channel magic. Though it raises the question, why would a unicorn want to kill other unicorns?”

“What is the weapon he is using?”

“We haven’t quite identified it; it’s a long metal and wooden stick like weapon, with two holes on the front of it that fire our small metal pieces. After his first murder, the witness described it as a ‘long metal tube’ and that it made a loud ‘BANG’ noise.”

Jonah could recognize the weapon Luna was describing, and suggested;

“That sounds like a shotgun, or some kinda gun.”

Luna thought for a moment, she knew she had heard of the term ‘gun’ from someplace before. Her eyes widened as she remembered;

“Oh! A gun! Now I know. A gun… Sorry, it’s just I haven’t heard of that term in centuries. We Equestrians never found a need for guns; we had magic to protect us.”

Jonah was confused, he asked Luna;

“Don’t any shops there sell guns?”

“No, and considering that it took me as long as it did to remember just what a gun was, I would not think that hardly anyone now knows what a gun even is!”

“Sounds to me like murder ain’t a common crime on your planet.”

“It certainly isn’t. We don’t even use murder as a punishment, the worst form of punishment we have is banishment to either the moon, or the sun.”

Suddenly, a feminine voice, yelling out to us broke our silence;

“Hey!”

Cole sat up at the familiarity of such voice, and yelled back;

“Halie!”

Cole laughed a little to himself as he ran to Halie; Jonah rolled his eyes with a smirk as he watched. Cole was finally in a meters range of Halie. Halie greeted herself to Cole with a high five while saying;

“Cole! Haha, what’s up?”

“A new adventure is up! And you’re coming with us.”

“Oh really, so what kinda business are we doin’?”

“We’re hunting down a serial killer on a faraway planet.”

“I bet it ain’t gonna be half as crazy as your last adventure.”

“Yeah well, the three year one had a lot to it. This time it’s just one guy.”

Cole motioned Halie to the Princess and introduced her;

“Halie, this is Princess Luna of planet Equestria, she is the one in charge of this operation.”

Princess Luna presented her right hoof to Halie, and said;

“Charmed…”

Halie shook the Princess’ hoof with her hand. Halie saw Jonah; he was still chipping away at the lead paint on the wall he laid on. She walked over to Jonah and said;

“Hey Jonah, long time no see!”

“Halie, how’ve ya been?”

“I’ve been well, I been good… Talkin’ to Cole so much lately has got me in a much better mood than before.”

“That’s good; I was worried about ya for the longest time.”

Then out of seemingly nowhere, Jonah felt something heavy land on his lap. He looked up;

“There’s my dumbass!”

It was his girlfriend, Mina. She was sitting on his lap with her arms wrapped around him, after her greeting she planted a quick kiss on his cheek. Halie saw, and then glanced quickly and quietly at Cole. Halie looked back at Jonah and said;

“We ought to talk more Jonah, I feel like I haven’t seen ya in years.”

“Same here.”

Jonah focused back on Mina and asked her;

“Ya ready to go?”

Mina smirked and mimicked Jonah’s country accent with;

“Sure am budday!”

Jonah caught on;

“Oh ha-ha…”

“Haw-haw!”

“Mina please…”

“Meynah please!”

Princess Luna interrupted Jonah and Mina’s conversation with;

“Hey! Sometime today?”

Luna pointed a hoof to a portal she had conjured up with magic. The four teens watch with amazement, they each approached the portal slowly. Jonah asked;

“Is it gonna hurt?”

Cole rolled his eyes with a chuckle and said,

“Puss-puss…”

Cole began to move closer, Jonah retaliated laughing;

“Shut up, Cole! I ain’t a puss!”

Luna rolled her eyes, at the boys, skeptical about the decision she made. Cole came closer to Jonah’s range.

“Puss-puss!”

Cole was an inch from Jonah’s face continuing to smile, Jonah laughed a little;

“You go in first!”

Cole jumped back;

“No you!”

“You!”

Cole playfully pushed Jonah;

“You!”

Jonah pushed back;

“Okay! Okay, we go in together!”

“Okay.”

Jonah and Cole staggered to the portal laughing; they were a mere couple of feet from entering. They hesitantly counted down together;

“Five-“

“Four-“

“Three-“

“…Two-“

“…One!”

Jonah and Cole remained stationary. Jonah then let go of a gust of air in his lungs and asked;

“Ah, what if there’s no oxygen on this damn planet. We were lucky to get it here on Mobius!”

Mina smacked her palm against her forehead and said;

“Oh for Christ’s sake!”

She put one hand on Jonah’s back and one on Cole’s. She used all her strength to push the two husky boys into the portal with a fast velocity.

Jonah and Cole went flying through a long colorful passage screaming in shock. They calmed down and observed all the twists and turns the passage had every color and flash, it was unlike any sort of power the boys experienced. Jonah then said;

“Wow! This is somethin’! These ponies certainly got some strong powers!”

“Yeah! This must be what crack feels like…”

Cole waved his hand in front of his face; he observed the trail being left in the air as it moved. Jonah noticed the trail he himself was also leaving. Jonah stated;

“I can tell these ponies have much richer power than we do, we best be on our toes if we’re goin’ up against a magical serial killer.”

Jonah and Cole heard a large howl-like noise; they looked forward and saw a bright light in the far distance of the portal. It was coming fast, like a subway train. They could feel the portal growing smaller and vibrate faster as the light began to swallow them.

Here they are, on the road to a new world. What could possibly be waiting for them on the other side? To quote Jonah, "what if there's no oxygen on this damn planet?"

And what is next for Cole and his friendship with Halie? Is there a budding rose on this mysterious planet, ready to bloom with the feelings that possibly BOTH of them share with each other...?

Arriving

"Swoosh! And right before he hit the ground, shoom, he- oh hi!"

That's what Jonah heard as he slowly regained consciousness and opened his eyes. He didn't even have to look around to see where the voice came from; there it stood before him, and it was a bright pink pony with a poufy pink mane. She bounced closer and asked,

"What's your name?"

Jonah looked around quickly, trying to find his friends while answering;

"I'm uh, Jonah..."

Cole was nowhere to be found, neither was Mina, or Halie, or Princess Luna. Something clearly went wrong during the transfer. Jonah had arrived in an open meadow; he could see what looked like a town in the distance. The atmosphere immediately came off to Jonah as bright, happy and fresh. The world around him was far different from anything he had experienced in the past.

With no other options Jonah decided it would be best to stick with this character, he figured she may be a helpful guide in this new world. He quickly noticed another pony directly behind the pink one; this one was a light cyan color, with wings and a messy rainbow mane. Jonah greeted himself to the both of them;

“Yeah, I’m Jonah. And you two?”

The pink one jumped a little and said;

“The name is Pinkie Pie, party throwing master!”

The cyan one flew in front of Pinkie, leaving a rainbow trail saying;

“And I’m Rainbow Dash, best flyer in Equestria.”

Jonah sarcastically responded;

“How lovely to know…”

“Pinkie and I here heard a crash coming from over here, we thought we might investigate. You alright?”

Jonah struggled to stand up right, his back cracked as he stood before the two ponies. They were roughly a foot under his height. Jonah responded to the two;

“I’m fine, just fine. So where am I at exactly?”

Rainbow Dash answered;

“This is Ponyville, a small town but trust me. You’ll meet some pretty awesome ponies, like me for instance.”

Jonah rolled his eyes and turned to Pinkie Pie and asked;

“What can YOU tell me about this place?”

Rainbow had a stern look about her as she asked;

“Hey! Isn’t my answer good enough for-”

To which Pinkie Pie interrupted with;

“Oh! It’s super-duper fun! I’ve had loads of fun in this town. Though lately, it seems hardly anyone wants to have any fun, everyone is too scared to even come outside anymore.”

Rainbow used her wings to levitate slightly above the ground. She crossed her fore legs and added to Pinkie’s statement;

“It’s all because of that punk serial killer; he has all the unicorns shook up about even setting one hoof outside. Oh man, you should have gotten a load of our friend Rarity before she went on vacation, just ask Pinkie here, she was a total drama disaster!”

“Dashie! Don’t make fun of her like that. The truth is we were all scared when this all began, it started last year when the killer caught his first victim, a close friend of ours at the time.”

Jonah knowing well enough about what had been happening, responded to them with;

“I’ve heard; your Princess Luna came over to the planet I was on and asked me and my buddies for our assistance in tracking down the killer.”

Rainbow recognized what Jonah was saying from a previous conversation she had with the Princess before her departure, and said;

“So YOU’RE THE one that Princess Luna was clambering over, I don’t get why she didn’t choose any of us, or even ME for that matter!”

“Probably because my friends and I have much more experience in this field. From what Princess Luna tells me, murder ain’t Equestria’s area of expertise…  So could you two guide me around here? I wanna become a little more familiar with this place, plus I need to find my buddies.”

Rainbow flew a couple of meters higher. She turned herself in the direction of Ponyville, and said;

“No sweat! If you can keep up!”

She bolted towards the town at blinding speed, leaving an even brighter rainbow trail. Pinkie looked up at me with a slight laugh, saying;

“Good luck keeping up with her!”

Pinkie bounced away in the direction of Ponyville. Jonah, unsure of which pony should be taken more seriously, followed her. Jonah was slightly confused; he would think that everyone right now would be more scared knowing of the recent murders happening around them. Perhaps it was only these two taking things lightly, Pinkie came off to him as being naturally optimistic about any situation, while Rainbow on the other hand just claimed to not be afraid of anything. Jonah was skeptical about Rainbow’s true bravery in the face of danger.

Meanwhile:

It was all dark; Cole stumbled around, knocking things over and bumping into hard objects. The air around him felt stuffy and thick, as if the place he was in had not been touched in years. Suddenly, he saw a tiny light meters away, the light grew more and revealed a stair case leading up and out of the room. Behind the light was a silhouette in the shape of a pony, only slightly smaller than what Princess Luna was. From the light glowing around this one he could tell that this pony was an orange color, her main was a bright blonde, and that she wore a hat of some sort. The pony asked Cole;

“Woah there boy! Whatcha think you’re doin’ in my cellar?!”

Cole approached the stair case, and answered her;

“I was teleported, or warped down here. Sorry, I’ll go ahead and leave.”

Cole walked up the stairs and exited the cellar; he looked around and noticed that he was in front of a large barn. Around him was a field with scarce amounts of grass, however in the distance there was more of it, along with hundreds of acres worth of lush apple trees. The orange pony snapped Cole out of his observations and said;

“You’d better not’ve broken anything down there, we need all the food ‘n resources possible if the serial killer thing gets more outta hand.”

Cole’s attention was caught by what she just said;

“Again, I’m sorry. By the way I’m here to fix that very problem, my friends and I are. So could you just point me in the direction of the closest town?”

“Oh! So you’re the one Princess Luna was talkin’ ‘bout. Then again I should’ve figured the same since you’re one of ‘em human folks and all.”

Cole was curious as to why this pony never took any bold emotions to his appearance, then he thought to himself, “This is a talking pony I’m speaking to…” she had probably encountered much stranger creatures on this planet. Cole said to her;

“Yes, I’m one of the people that will take down this criminal. The name is Coltrane, but you can call me Cole. What’s your name?”

“I’m Applejack, the go to gal here at Sweet Apple Acres. Oh, you wanted to know which way the closest town was, well Ponyville is right down that road over yonder.”

Applejack pointed to a dirt road leading to what looked like a small town in the distance. Cole turned to her and said,

“Thank you, Applejack.”

Cole walked away from Applejack toward the barn exit. As he traveled down the dirt road toward the town, he heard hoof steps behind him coming closer. He turned to see it was Applejack following him, she looked up at him and suggested;

“Maybe I ought to come with ya, no one should be out on the road alone right now. It’s the first time anyone has really felt in danger ‘round these parts. In the past most threats were nothin’ to truly worry ‘bout, but this serial killer is different in way.”

Cole nodded in agreement. Listening to Applejack's country tongue, it sounded remotely similar to Jonah’s West Virginian accent, at least to him. Cole found amusement, and said to Applejack;

“I like the way you talk.”

Until now, murder was one of the many crimes that Equestria was too unfamiliar with. Surely they have dealt with death and loss, but it is possible until now that they have never heard of a fellow pony killing another. They are not use to crimes like this, but luckily the two young heroes come with that very knowledge and experience. What is happening in Equestria strikes these boys with reminders of iconic events in the history of their home world.

Flashback

An hour passed; Jonah, Cole, and Mina continued to look for their lost friend Halie. Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie went home, being as late in the day as it was. However, Applejack and Fluttershy stuck around. The five of them walked through the now dark town of Ponyville, the only light there was, were provided by the many homes and businesses surrounding them. During the search, Fluttershy asked Jonah a plethora of questions;

“So, what kind of food do you eat?”

“Uh, a lot of things actually. Some of us favor some foods over others, then again in America it’s pretty much a big obese free-for-all…”

Cole jumped in on the conversation;

“It’s true, I think heart attacks or strokes or something is one of the most life threatening issues in America right now.”

A few meters ahead of them, Mina pulled an apple out of her trench coat. Struggling to juggle the apple along with a couple other sets of fruit falling out of her grasp, she found it easier to hold the stem of the apple by her teeth. She finally managed to store the fruit back into her coat and contently eat her apple, Applejack saw Mina’s tactics to keeping everything on her and said with a laugh;

“Golly, you sure do have a grip on all that you’re carryin’.”

“Let me guess, you’re gonna harp on my bad manners aren’t you?”

“Nah, I never worry ‘bout gittin’ ‘er done neat, I just git ‘r done right.”

“Wow, finally SOMEone sees things my way, instead of whining like a total bitch…”

Cole heard what Mina had said and knew it was directed towards him, he grew annoyed and whispered to Jonah;

“What the hell do you see in that girl?”

Jonah answered quietly;

“Long story…”

“Well what does she see in you!?”

“Um… That’s an even longer story… I’m not even entirely sure.”

Applejack and Mina continued to converse, Applejack stated;

“That kinda reminds me of my other friend, Rarity. She is just so dang fussy, she’ll drive ya batty. Every time I walk into that boutique of her’s; she asks me to wash off my hooves, but she’s such a germ-a-phobe that she actually cleans her garden hose! Now how in the hay am I supposed to hold that thing without it slippin’ outta may grasp!? Uh, I’m glad she’s outta town on vacation, sometimes I just need a break…”

As the night continued many of the shops and homes providing light to their path were turned off, it was safe to assume that all the ponies in Ponyville were heading off to sleep. Jonah decided that so should they;

“Guys, I can’t see shit anymore. We should find a place to get some rest; we can look for Halie in the morning.”

Cole objected;

“Come on! Let’s keep looking! We can still sort of see without light or maybe Mina can use her atmosphere powers so make the sun rise again.”

Mina looked at Cole with a dumbfounded expression;

“The sun isn’t part of the sky, genius… I can’t raise it, no one can…”

Fluttershy objected to Mina’s statement;

“That’s not true, every day our Princess Celestia raises it and lowers it, and then Princess Luna raises and lowers the moon.”

Mina looked at Fluttershy with a face that said, “You’re a dumbass.” Mina argued with a raised voice;

“That’s gotta be the stupidest bullshit I’ve ever heard!”

Fluttershy lowered her head and whimpered in fear. Applejack supported Fluttershy, saying;

“She’s tellin’ the truth! We’ve been to the Summer Sun Celebration before.”

Between their argument, Jonah thought about what Fluttershy said. It was beginning to make sense to him. He spoke up;

“Actually Mina, it does sorta make sense. Princess ‘LUNA’ and Princess ‘CELESTIA’ they’re both derived from the Latin translations. Plus if I recall, Princess Luna IS the ‘princess of the night.’”

Something else sparked into Jonah’s thoughts;

“Wait! If the moon is raised, then that means Princess Luna is just takin’ her sweet ass time to find us!”

Cole’s eyes widened, he rhetorically asked;

“Oh what!? What the hell!?”

Soon it was Jonah, Cole and Mina all together in distress, complaining about how or why Princess Luna would simply drop them off like that. Applejack tried to calm the bickering trio down;

“Now com’on y’all. I’m sure the Princess has a good reason for not showin’ up here yet. Now on to other business, if ya need a place to stay, there’s an extra room at the barn for ya to hunker down in.”

Fluttershy offered with a sweet voice;

“You can come with me back to my cottage; I’d love to take care of you. You would all be more creatures for me to befriend.”

Mina had an open mind and agreed to both offers with;

“I’m cool with either place; I just want a comfy spot to crash.”

Cole suggested to Jonah;

“We should probably go to Applejack’s place, I've seen it and it looks large enough for all of us.”

“Alright, we’ll go to Applejack’s.”

Jonah turned to Applejack and said;

“Lead the way Applejack.”

Fluttershy asked with a stutter;

“Um, are you sure you all don’t want to come to the cottage, I have so much more to ask about your race!”

Jonah could see Fluttershy’s dismay from the way she hid her face deeper behind her mane. He told her;

“Maybe another night Fluttershy, maybe Halie can stay with ya when we find her.”

“Oh, okay. Well I’ll just head home then, nice meeting you all.”

Fluttershy and the rest of the four parted ways; Jonah, Cole, Mina and Applejack headed in the direction of the road back to the barn.

The walk to the barn took roughly ten minutes; the interior of Applejack’s home was similar to that of Jonah’s home when he was younger; country style furniture and cabinets filled with priceless family items passed down from numerous generations. Applejack lead the trio upstairs to an average sized room; it was approximately four meters wide and six and a half meters in length. There was one bed, a wardrobe, and a nice view of the apple orchard from the window. After a tour of the room Applejack left the three with a “goodnight” and shut the door behind her. Considering there was only one bed, an argument over it had to occur;

“I get the bed!”

“No! I get it!”

Jonah and Cole played tug-a-war with the covers and sheets, until one bold Mina jumped backwards from the foot of the bed. She landed softly on the bed, ending Jonah and Cole’s tug-a-war. She said with no hesitation;

“The bed is mine, goodnight...”

Mina drifted into a deep sleep. Jonah and Cole were annoyed, but they didn’t see a point in arguing, Mina would have only thrown them out of the room so generously provided by Applejack. So Jonah and Cole found their own spots on the floor. Cole slept near the right side of the bed close to the door, Jonah slept near the left near the window.

Hours after Jonah fell asleep; he saw something familiar in his dreams. It was a day from his early childhood, he was looking at his reflection in a dirty and weathered bathroom mirror, and he appeared to be much younger; he was about four years old. He saw the bathroom swing open violently behind him in the reflection. Jonah looked back and saw his older brother, Seth, holding the door open with a disgruntled face. At this point Seth would have to be nine years old, he looked a lot like Jonah, though his brunette hair was a lighter shade and his eyes were green as grass opposed to Jonah’s sky blue eyes, and he was about six inches taller than Jonah. Seth approached his younger brother with a depressing look about him, he breathed heavily, and sweat trickled down his forehead. Seth was shaking; Jonah could tell that he was as disturbed as the atmosphere of the very bathroom they stood across from each other in. Seth began to say something to Jonah, something that would place him in a most difficult position.

Suddenly, Jonah awoke from his dream. He sat up and looked out the window towards the apple orchard. He assumed that at least five hours must have passed since he fell into his slumber. The leaves of each apple tree reflected light as the sunlight in the distance beginning to peak itself above the mountains, he decided to just go back to sleep, and that waking Cole and Mina now would only annoy them. He thought more about his dream, he was able to remember the day of which it took place, and he wondered why he would be dreaming of something that happened thirteen years ago.

Jonah’s first in a series of many flashbacks has come, but that didn’t matter now. Today was the day that they would finally reunite with Halie, and hopefully Princess Luna as well. Without Princess Luna, how would these young heroes know where to begin helping the ponies fight off the vicious serial killer who slayed them one by one?

Onwards

The morning was upon the three. Jonah, Cole and Mina were woken by the sound of a rooster giving a jarring “cock-a-doodle-doo!” The three sat up and looked over at the window, then back at one another. Jonah lay back down and hugged his pillow to his face and chest tightly. Cole stood up on both legs, each leg struggling to keep balance after awakening from such a rough sleep on hard wood floor. Cole walked slowly to the opposite side of the bed that Mina slept on, and stumbled on Jonah’s snoozing body. Cole observed the way Jonah slept, the way he cuddled his pillow to him and how his cheek pressed against it, it was a position that he saw Jonah in many times before. In the past, it was normal for Cole to awaken before Jonah, so Cole did as he normally would; he kicked Jonah’s side softly to jolt him awake. Cole would continue the kicking until Jonah finally stood up, while saying;

“Come on, bitch. Get up!”

Jonah only let out a groan, his hold on his pillow tightened as he rolled over to conceal his drowsy face. Cole kneeled down behind him and pushed his shoulder continuously, he said to Jonah;

“Come on! It’s boring without you up. And we need to get breakfast soon so we can find Halie.”

Jonah pushed his pillow away with one arm and finally sat up with the other. Jonah was now sitting, legs crossed in front of Cole, Jonah raised his hand to a mere four inches from Cole’s cheek and slapped it five times in a rapid flick of his wrist, but not at a pace that would hurt him. This was a small sort of prank that they would do to each other periodically, and immediately follow it up with;

“Shut up.”

The two boys started laughing together playfully. Their lack of consideration caused Mina to roll to their direction, and to ask irately;

“What the hell? It’s gotta be six in the damned morning, and you two little shits are already at it?! Seriously, what are you awake for?”

Cole pulled the cuff on his right sleeve back to reveal his watch; he examined it and said to Mina;

“Your argument is invalid Mina, its six-THIRTY…”

Jonah followed Cole with;

“You should really get your facts straight Mina.”

Mina’s face became disgruntled and twisted with rage; she turned the covers back over her with a furious haste. Jonah and Cole stood up and stretched some before exiting the room they resided in. The upstairs hallway of Applejack’s home was short, short enough for the two boys to hear the hoof steps of a pony approaching. A door opened behind Jonah and Cole, a small yellow pony with a big pink hair bow rubbing her sleepy eyes walked out from behind it, she gazed at the two boys who towered over her height. Jonah and Cole gazed back at her; she let out a shriek as if she saw a monster and ran to the furthest door down the hall, opposite from where Jonah and Cole stood. Jonah said softly;

“… Aww… She’s adorable…”

Cole replied with a voice that clearly was of an African American impression;

“Nice little ass too, nigga!”

Jonah’s eyes widened and surpassed his laugh with a snigger. They continued their jokes as they walked down stairs and to the kitchen. The kitchen gave off a country vibe that Jonah could recognize; many shelves contained small decorations and knick-knacks. The bar was covered in pots and pans, and there was not a dishwasher in sight, only two sinks for washing dishes. Jonah and Cole sat at a table located in the middle of the kitchen; it was draped with a plaid tablecloth. Jonah and Cole looked around more, Cole’s eyes being unfamiliar with the setting, while Jonah was clearly losing himself in the atmosphere. Jonah’s mind presented him with faint memories of times when he and his brother would periodically visit their “Mamaw and Papaw’s” house. A yawning voice broke his thoughts;

“Howdy boys!”

It was Applejack; she passed them as she entered the kitchen and headed to the refrigerator. She asked the duo;

“How’d y’all sleep last night? Was it cozy enough for ya?”

Jonah and Cole looked at each other with faces that telepathically told one another what they clearly wanted to say, but they decided it would be best to just say it was good, and to keep any feelings for being hurt. They were under the belief that Applejack must have put a lot into making their stay a comfortable one, even though it was clear that Mina was the only one who felt the comfort. Applejack scanned the refrigerator for the correct ingredients to create whatever she had in mind. She let out a groan of disappointment and instead grabbed something covered in aluminum foil. She placed it on the table in front of the two and said;

“Here’s some leftover turkey from the other day, I was hopin’ to make ya some pancakes, but oh well…”

Applejack walked back over to the bar and opened one of the shelves to grab some utensils, being that she is what Equestria labels as an “Earth” pony; she could only carry objects with her mouth. She craned her neck over the table where Cole sat, Cole saw her drop the utensils from her jaw with disgust. Applejack gave Jonah a fork and knife, Jonah took them with no hesitation, he was use to eating after others. Applejack sat down at the head of the table, and asked them;

“So, where’s ‘at gal you was with yesterday? Is she still snoozin’?

Cole wiped Applejack’s spit from the handles of his fork and knife with his shirt, he began to carve a large chunk of meat from the cold bird in front of him while replying;

“I wish she could STAY asleep sometimes…”

Jonah pulled a bundle of small pieces from the cold turkey; he could tell that Cole was desperate to find Halie, and to finally ask her out. Understanding Cole’s impatience, Jonah followed up that statement with;

“Easy Cole, and yeah she’s still asleep.”

Applejack scarfed down on her helping of the bird that she had already pulled, her left eye raised with surprise. She talked as she ate;

“Mm, really? Usually we all get up and at ‘em pretty early ‘round ‘ere. Speakin’ of which, I can tell ya already met my sister, Applebloom. Haha she ran into my room talkin’ about how she just woke up and saw some sorta monsters.”

Applejack laughed while chewing her breakfast, Cole placed an unfolded hand to the right side of his face while she did so. Jonah found humor in Cole’s expense and chuckled to himself. The merry laughter amongst the two was broken when the loud sound of something tumbling arrived to their ears from the hallway. Applejack leaned her head back and called out;

“Applebloom? Was ‘at you?”

A figure limped its way to the kitchen, it was Mina. She had fallen down the staircase from upstairs. Mina stood on her left leg, the right leg folded back with her foot in her hand as she attempted to alleviate her pain. Applejack greeted her with;

“Good mornin’ partner, come have some breakfast!”

Mina took a moment to examine the turkey; she was disappointed by the low quantity of edible portions. Just then, she saw Jonah pull the last chunk of meat out of the bird’s carcass she limped quickly to where he sat and plopped herself down onto his lap, and swiped his fork from his hands. Mina devoured the entire chunk in one bite; she looked to Jonah with careless eyes and said;

“Thanks, BOYfriend.”

Mina kissed Jonah’s cheek, leaving a greasy residue; she wrapped her arms around him. Cole was giggling at the sight of Jonah’s humiliation, Jonah noticed Cole’s amusement and stated;

“Well… I did overhear my father say some ‘wise’ words before he left… he said to his friend, ‘If you are born with a penis, then your life is officially down the shitter’.”

While Jonah never necessarily agreed with said statement, he found it funny. In most situations, Cole would be the one to brighten Jonah’s pessimistic points of view, but even he knew Jonah was joking and he laughed slightly, he thought of it again and his laughs grew louder. Soon, everyone laughed.

Later:

Jonah, Cole and Mina left Sweet Apple Acres and walked back into Ponyville. Applejack gave them the advice to see her friend, Twilight Sparkle. To Applejack’s description, Twilight was one of the smartest of the ponies in town, and one of the ones with the most leadership skills. Applejack was vague with the directions to where this “Twilight” character resided, she said to look for a large tree. Jonah, Cole and Mina put their heads together to try and map out Ponyville based on their memories from their arrival.

Roughly ten minutes had passed, and there it was, the widest and tallest tree in town. It had windows installed into it, along with a balcony and a door. The three friends approached the large tree and knocked on its front door. They waited for a moment, the door soon opened, and from the other side was a face that they would never have expected, it was Halie;

“Cole! Jonah! Mina!”

The four friend’s eyes were shot wide open. Cole finally relieved to have found her; hugged Halie within seconds of seeing her, Halie embraced him. Jonah and Mina decided to let them have their moment, they walked passed them and entered the tree house. It was a library, with many books aligned on shelves that stretched along the wooden walls. Out of the corner of Jonah and Mina’s eyes, a purple unicorn pony came walking down a flight of stairs, following her was a small dragon. The purple pony took notice of the presence of new company in her home and welcomed them;

“Oh, hello there. My name is Twilight Sparkle; I assume you are here to get Halie.”

Jonah was confused as to what to say next, he did not expect to find Halie here, even though his intentions were to get help finding her. He stumbled and stuttered his words until Mina finally took over;

“I’m Mina; this is my incompetent boyfriend, Jonah. We’re here to snuff out your serial killer problem. Where was the last place a pony was murdered?”

Twilight’s pupils shrunk as her eyes widened. She asked the two;

“Are you… the ones from Earth? Who fought that Atevian? What’s his name…? King Zoxus?”

Jonah responded;

“… Yes…”

Jonah was surprised to hear that Twilight knew as much as she did about him and his friends. He knew that Princess Luna spoke with a number of ponies regarding it; Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and Fluttershy. But to think that they knew about the three year adventure that he, Cole and many other friends pursued was astounding, but at the same time peculiar. Twilight was ready to ask a load of questions, but then she lowered her head in a state of deep thought.

Jonah took notice of the small dragon behind Twilight, and how it gazed into his eyes. Jonah tried looking away, but could still tell that he was staring at him. The dragon’s eyes grew into a concerned gesture, one that creped Jonah. He was friendly to the small dragon, and said;

“Hello.”

The dragon took a couple steps back, and ran up the stairs. Twilight snapped out of her deep thoughts and called out to the dragon;

“Spike! SPIKE!”

There was no response; Twilight continued her conversation with Jonah and Mina hastily;

“I’m terribly sorry; Spike is normally a friendly little guy. And I’m sorry for getting kind of lost there; it’s just… well… I’m not sure what to say first. On one hand I feel I should get to know you before anything else, but at the same time I have bad tidings-“

Twilight was cut off by a glimmer of light that manifested in the center of the library; it expanded and grabbed the attention of Cole and Halie, who were outside having a different conversation. The light blinded everyone within its range, and a silhouette appeared in the center of the library. The light faded, and Princess Luna was among them. Everyone was silent, Twilight bowed. Princess Luna walked slowly to Jonah; she placed a hoof on his chest and said;

“I have been watching you, and now, it is time for you to move onwards!”

As the hour continued; Jonah, Cole, Halie and Mina managed to catch up with Princess Luna. She revealed the true reasons as to why the portal landed them in different locations, and why she had been gone until that point. It was a test, a test of unity and getting to learn the “ropes” of Equestria, and that the test would continue until all three friends were united again. Halie told Jonah, Cole and Mina about how she resided with Twilight for the night; she had originally planned to do her own searching until they arrived shortly before her planned departure.

At this point, not one of the four human friends could think of any more surprises that could possibly come, but then came Twilight’s “bad tidings”. Twilight brought the four and Princess Luna to her back yard. There before the four friends was a grave; the name was unfamiliar to Halie and Mina, yet stunning to Jonah and Cole.

The grave was carved with writing, “LEMMOUR ZOXUS – UNKNOWN D.O.B. - 2012 – A TRUE FRIEND AND BROTHER”. Jonah and Cole were confused; they thought they had seen Lemmour die in the year 2010, back when he was named “Metal Seth”. They all went back inside and sat on the library floor, Twilight told them Lemmour’s story, and how he died the previous year. Lemmour was the first to die at the hands of the unicorn serial killer, even though Lemmour was not a unicorn. Spike was the only eye witness to this tragedy; Spike at the time was not sure how to describe the killer. Witnesses to the killer’s succeeding targets were better able to describe him; the killer has been said to be a unicorn himself, he wore a mask, and a cloak that covered his entire body. The killer’s weapon of choice was a firearm of some kind, the same used to kill Lemmour. Twilight also revealed to Jonah and Cole that Lemmour’s true birth place was there, on planet Equestria. Twilight told the boys of Lemmour’s relations to Spike, and how his death traumatized him.

At the mention of how Spike was affected by the murder, Jonah turned his head to the floor where the library stairs led to, where Spike had ran off to. He neither heard nor seen anyone one from the second floor. Jonah thought of why Spike peered at him the way he did, why he would direct his blank and vague eyes into his soul. It had Jonah thinking, was there more to Lemmour’s death that Spike wasn’t telling them?

Jonah, Cole and Mina later returned to Applejack’s barn to rest, they brought Halie. Earlier when Twilight and Jonah introduced themselves to each other, it is said that Cole had his own private conversation with Halie. After ensuring each other’s wellbeing and catching up some, Cole finally suggested to Halie to further their relationship past being only friends, and she handsomely accepted.

The night at Applejack’s was as uncomfortable as the previous, Mina slept on the only bed in the same bedroom as before. While the conditions bothered Cole and Halie, Jonah was too lost in thought to notice it, he learned so much today from Twilight. From his observations, and from how Twilight shed light on the first murder, he couldn’t help but feel that there is more to the little dragon, Spike that even Twilight herself did not know. Surely Spike wasn’t the killer. But there was more information about this mysterious mass murderer, information that Jonah believed Spike held the key to. But just what could it possibly be?

A test of intelligence and unity was given, and now it is time to move onwards. Jonah and Cole face much more ahead of them, but they do so with little fear, they now know how Equestria works, and have met new friends. So far the ponies of Ponyville proved to be optimistic, kind, caring, passionate, open, friendly, and even vague at times.

The end of Part 1

The General

The beginning of Part 2

It was a sunny, beautiful day in Chapmanville, West Virginia. Jonah was sitting on a bench in front of his school, waiting for his father to pick him. It stressful day of elementary school, though Jonah’s stress did not manifest from assignments or projects, even he knew that pre-school was a simple year. His troublesome thoughts stemmed from something said by his older brother, Seth. Earlier that day when Jonah was in the bathroom at the school, Seth had asked Jonah to do something that ate away at his sanity; Seth told Jonah to tell their father that Seth hated him, and that Seth never wanted to see him again. Jonah was confused, he could not think of why Seth hated their father the way he did. Jonah tried to think back, he thought back as far as his four year old mind could go. Jonah could not think of anything, the only thing he could think of was the cynical and pessimistic bullshit that spewed from Seth’s lips.

Seth never trusted a soul, not one single person. When anyone would offer Seth any good, educated advice or anything else, Seth would refuse and suspect that a person’s generosity and optimism was only a conspiracy against him. Seth was the epitome of an elitist; he believed he was the only smart one in Chapmanville, or even West Virginia, possibly even beyond. Jonah would reason with Seth, and attempt to loosen him, it was never any use, and Seth would pay no mind to someone five years younger.

Jonah kept his seat on the schools outdoor bench and pondered. Finally, the moment Jonah dreaded all day had arrived; his father drove by in his green Jeep, and pulled up to the school in the parking lot. Jonah got up and walked to the Jeep, hesitant to tell his father what Seth had said for him to do.

Jonah awoke from his dream to something kicking his abdomen, his eyes opened to see his dear friend, Cole;

“Get up! Wake up, dammit!”

Jonah pushed himself from the hard floor where he slept in Applejack’s spare room. He looked around to see that Mina and Halie were both already up, Jonah came to the conclusion that these dreams of his childhood have caused him to sleep in even later than what he was used to. Cole put his hand on Jonah’s shoulder and shook it rapidly;

“Come on! Snap out of it! We gotta get to Ponyville and meet Princess Luna. She has a mission for us! She sent that messenger bird over there.”

Cole pointed to a large hawk that stood on the open window; it had a bag strapped to its chest. Jonah’s mind finally gained stable consciousness, and he replied to Cole;

“Really!? Finally!”

“Yeah, but before we head out, she wants us to meet some General of hers or someone. Come on!”

The rest of the morning felt like an instant to Jonah, his mind still trying to wake up, he knew he had to be ready for this mission, considering it was their first and he needed to make a good impression. Cole and Halie’s new found relationship was hitting off well, as they walked they laughed and smiled with each other, and carried lengthy conversations with a wide variety of topics. Jonah, Cole, Mina and Halie met Princess Luna at the Ponyville Town Hall. She was pleased to know that her messenger hawk had gotten the job done correctly, she greeted the four;

“Good morning to you all, I trust that I haven’t woken you too early.”

Jonah sarcastically answered Luna’s question with;

“Not at all, Princess…”

Luna smirked a little, her horn shined a light purple color, and it conjured a portal on the outside wall of the Town Hall. Luna pointed a hoof to the portal she had just created, she instructed;

“This is a portal to General Canis’ office; he is the head of my personal army and guards. You will report here whenever he sends you a letter, the letters have been marked ‘number one priority’, so they will arrive to you with in the same hour as it is sent.”

The foursome gazed into the portal, at the end was a glimmering light surrounded by a vortex of many hues, much like the portal they arrived in Equestria from. Princess Luna continued;

“As the letter tells, the General has a mission for you. You may enter when you are ready…”

Princess Luna vanished in the form of a bright light; the foursome stood there for a moment and stared at the portal. Mina broke the group’s silence;

“So is there anything else we need before we go in? I imagine that this Canis guy is gonna hold us for a while with a lot of military jargon.”

Cole shook his head and said;

“I don’t think so, let’s go on ahead and get this thing going.”

Cole walked through the portal, followed immediately by Halie. Mina jumped through next, and finally Jonah.

The opposite end of the portal landed them in a large office, it was clean, and the air felt a fresh as a meadow. The walls aligned with pictures of guard ponies and other military ponies standing together, with proud faces, the four look around briefly until they see a desk at the far end of the room, placed in front of three large windows. Four chairs were set facing the front of the desk. The four choose where they’d sit; Mina sat on the far right side of the row of chairs Halie sat to Mina’s left, and Cole sat next to Halie on her left, and Jonah sat next to Cole on his left. Cole grabbed two pens from a cup of pens placed on the desk. Cole tossed a pen to Jonah; Jonah caught it and read Cole’s devious expression. The two boys began swatting their pens at each other and blocking each other’s' jabs, laughing as they goofed around. As Cole flung his wrist around towards Jonah, he taunted;

“Bitch. Bitch. Bitch! BITCH!”

The only sounds coming from Jonah were excited grunts and yelps as Cole’s pen dominated his. Jonah got strength and jabbed rapidly at Cole’s abdomen, Jonah laughed. Mina leaned over to clear the obstruction made by where Halie sat, she looked at how Jonah overpowered Cole in their playful pen jousting. Mina became annoyed by the boys’ hijinks and sternly called out;

“Cut that shit out!”

Jonah’s attention was caught by Mina, in his distraction; Cole went forward and harmlessly slapped Jonah’s cheek rapidly about five times. Jonah dropped his pencil, Cole looked at Jonah with a smile and stated;

“I win.”

“No! Interference! Interference!”

“Uh-uh, I won!”

Mina, still irritated, says to Cole;

“It’s too damn early to hear you two bullshit around, also… you… a man doesn’t slap another man!”

The excited atmosphere around the friends was finally pushed out of the way, the door opened behind them, and a dark green coated, male Pegasus entered the room. His mane was slicked back and was a shiny dark gray color; his eyes were a peaceful ocean blue. He walked around the four friends looking at the closely, observing his new elite soldiers with eyes that sunk into them. He sat on the chair behind the desk, and positioned himself;

“Good morning to you all, is it safe to assume that you two are the men that our Princess has recruited?”

The stallion pointed a hoof in Jonah and Cole’s direction, Jonah and Cole nodded their heads in unison. The stallion continued;

“Good, you two look sharp. I am General Canis Major, the leader of Princess Luna’s personal army.”

The General took notice of Halie and Mina’s presence, and did not expect to see any extra recruits. He asked Jonah and Cole;

“So, just who are these pretty lookin’ foxes? Eh?”

Jonah and Cole looked at each other for a brief moment; they had not expected such a loose personality from the General. They looked back at the General, Jonah answered;

“Um, this is Mina; my girlfriend, and Halie; Cole’s girlfriend.”

The General raised a grin, and replied to Jonah’s answer with a laugh;

“Ha, I bet you’re likin’ ‘at huh? Hahaha!”

Halie rolled her eyes, Mina lowered her head into her hand, and her face had a dark scowl. Jonah could tell that without the fear of guard ponies rushing in and apprehending her, Mina would attack the General with full ferociousness. Mina instead motioned her eyes to Jonah, and rapidly to the General and back. Jonah knew that Mina expected him to tell the General to ease his offensive words. Jonah did not want to make any negative first impression, so he remained silent. Cole noticed Jonah’s discomfort, and though Cole did not like Mina, and almost felt like laughing with the General, he spoke up and tried to move off the subject;

“So, about our mission...?”

The General’s eye raised, he quickly remembered the task at hand and said;

“Oh, yes of course. It just so happens that a body was found dead in Fillydelphia today, it was found in an abandoned warehouse. The victim was a female unicorn, and looked roughly to be in her late teens. From the reports provided by the pony who found the body, it seems to have a single hole ‘bout the size of a gold bit, through the noggin. The victim's death is without a doubt connected to the serial killer, judging by how the wounds were described. We need you guys to go investigate the scene, ya got it?”

The four of them understood, the General gave them a sticky note with an address written on it. The four of them exited the General’s office through the same portal left buy Princess Luna, and returned outside of Ponyville town hall.

A mission has been given, and now it will be accomplished. The four young heroes have taken more steps into freeing the once peaceful Equestria, they’ve gotten to know the setting around them, and now it is time to take action. What about all of the ponies who are still afraid? What of the ones that have no ability to take but a step outside their front door? What can be done to raise their spirits?

Masked

A daunting task was upon them, as Jonah led the team, the others could pick up on what the situation was. A unicorn academy filled with hundreds of small fillies and colts, excelling in magic and beginning their first steps into a carrier of spells and sorcery; was receiving a deadly attack. The sound of shotgun blasts could be heard from inside the school, the screams of children and the cries of parents and teachers thickened. The four approached the sidewalk adjacent to the school, Jonah stopped the team;

“Let’s enter slowly and quietly, we’ll ambush the shooter once we’re in!”

Cole asked Jonah;

“Do you think it’s the serial killer?”

“Equestria knows no firearms, so I imagine yes…”

A window from the second story of the school shattered, a small colt was thrown out of the window, and his body splattered on the ground. A bullet hole was visible through his bloody and beaten head. He four jumped at the sight, Halie screamed;

“Oh god..!”

Cole thought of Halie’s safety, Halie had hydrokinesis, but there was no water around her to manipulate, and she was not skilled enough to generate water, like Jonah could with Ice. Cole grabbed Halie’s shoulders and told her;

“Go back to Ponyville; tell General Canis what’s happened. Stay safe.”

Jonah looked at Mina;

“You too, Mina!”

“What the hell? I came all the way out to this place; I’m going in to help! Don’t you remember, I have the ability to control the atmosphere, I can send a lightning strike down on this bitch!”

“You can’t do it from in the building, get out of here!”

Mina swung her arms down angrily;

“... SHIT… Come on, Halie. Let’s hop on the next train.”

Mina bumped Halie on the shoulder, and they both left. Halie looked back at Cole several times before she finally ran with Mina.

Jonah and Cole entered the school; the front door was kicked in. Jonah observed;

“Whoever this guy is, he’s got some confidence in himself, he just busted down the front door, he didn’t even try any back or side exi-!”

Cole interrupted;

“COME ON! We’re wasting time!”

Cole ran down the first hallway on the right of the entrance, Jonah took a second and ran after him. Jonah was at Cole’s side again. Jonah looked around rapidly, observing the lockers that were dented and scratched by shotgun blasts. The two boys came across a stairwell, and climbed up it, a bloody trail led up the stair case in front of them. At the top was a filly, bleeding out but still conscious. Jonah stopped Cole;

“Help her; I’ll look for the shooter.”

Cole kneeled down before the little girl, applying pressure to the large wound in her left thigh. Jonah ran down the hall, another shotgun blast was caught by Jonah’s ears and he followed it. The blasts became louder as Jonah ran to the source; he paused for a moment and backed himself to the wall. He shimmied his way along the wall to the entrance of one of the classrooms, he peaked in. Jonah’s sight revealed to him a pony cloaked by a black leather robe facing the opposite direction. The pony telekinetically levitated a shotgun in the air; then slowly floated it down to the forehead of a captive student. Around the predator and prey was a sickening sight of roughly twenty other deceased children, blown to the ground corrupted from bullets to the cranium. The final student began to tear up and whimper, the wielder of the gun cocked his weapon.

Jonah sprung into the classroom and sent a blast of ice to the barrel of the gun, trapping the bullet as it just fired. The student ran away, running passed Jonah. The shooter levitated his gun to his eyes and observed his frozen weapon, then floated the gun down and turned his masked face to Jonah slowly. Jonah looked into the shooter’s mask; it was a shiny silver color, and had three black visors; two for the eyes, and one for his horn. The mask was decorated with two gray sheets of cloth that hung from both of the cheek plates. The top was pointed, and was decorated with four fake, long, white dreadlocks with two black bands that stretched around each of them. The mouth piece of the mask was sliced with rectangular air holes. Jonah held his hand towards his opponent, warning the criminal not to move, or else he’d fire. Jonah tightened his eyes to make out the color of the shooter’s fur, by looking through the mouth piece he could identify that it was a dark brown color. The shooter did not move or speak, he would rarely blink, and he seemed just as intrigued as Jonah was. The shooter did nothing but gaze, creating a mysterious atmosphere for the both of them. Silence remained for a moment; Jonah shook his head and finally spoke;

“… My… my name is Jonah… of Princess Luna’s elite force, identify yourself…!”

The shooter did not respond, he continued gazing. Jonah warned him;

“SPEAK! Or… I’ll shoot!”

The criminal stood there, no changes in his posture, position, or dialogue. He was like a statue. Jonah said again;

“I’ll do it! … I will!”

Nothing happened; there were no movements from either of them. Jonah suddenly heard something approaching the room, it entered;

“What are you doing?!”

A source of bright light drew behind Jonah’s vision and was pointing itself directly at the shooter, the shooter’s eye finally shifted off Jonah and to the bolt of electricity as it began to manifest out of the figure’s finger tips. Jonah turned, it was Cole. Cole fired a massive amount of lightning from his fingers and sent it to the shooter; the shooter conjured a shield and deflected it hastily. The deflection traveled and blasted a photo of a little filly and a mother on the classroom front desk, a meter from where Jonah and Cole stood. The shooter aimed his shotgun at the two friends and cocked it. At the sound of the prepared firearm, Jonah conjured a thick wall of ice in front of himself and Cole. The shooter fired, and left only a crack in Jonah’s barrier.

Jonah summoned his strength and sent the ice barrier flying at the shooter, the ice smashed against the wall. Cole moved forward, preparing another round of lightning. The shooter was trampled by the heavy ice barrier; his disrupted telekinesis dropped the shotgun, and encased the ice. The ice shattered into twinkling, sharp fragments that sprayed across the room. The sharp particles left cuts on Cole’s face and hands, his electricity weakened. The shooter focused his magic energy on the shotgun again, and levitated it. The shooter aimed for the boys, Jonah bounced forward and lifted Cole to the ceiling to evade the next round fired by the shooter. The shell from the blast shattered and a piece penetrated Jonah’s foot. Jonah yelped in pain, his flight power withered and soon lost all altitude. The two friends fell to the floor, Jonah bent his knee two his chest and applied pressure to his foot. Cole looked at Jonah’s wounds and grew furious at the killer for harming him; Cole gathered his electrical energy again and fired into the shooter’s mask. The shooter’s mask detached from his face and slid to the far corner of the classroom underneath a desk. Jonah could not look at the killer’s exposed face; Cole caught a brief glimpse before turning to assist his friend. The shooter panicked and focused his magic to lift his mask back up and over to him, he quickly placed it on his face. The shooter retreated and jumped out of the classroom window, he flew into the cloudy skies of Fillydelphia. Cole helped Jonah to his feet; Jonah jumped and limped a little from the pain. Jonah sat back down on the floor for comfort and angrily yelled;

“Damn! He’s gone!”

Cole looked out the window, and back to Jonah;

“Don’t worry; I got a good look at his face, I blew his mask off. But why the hell didn’t you shoot him when you had the chance!?”

Jonah tilted his head down;

“I… I don’t know Cole. He… only gazed at me strange. I don’t know what it was but he… gave me a weird vibe…”

Cole rolled his eyes;

“Well what kind of vibe do you expect, he’s a serial killer!”

Jonah shook rapidly and shut his eyes;

“I’m sorry, okay! I don’t know why but he just… came off to me as ambiguous… He was hesitant to do anything to me until you fired at him.”

Cole sighed and said;

“Man, you gotta stop being so hesitant, no offence but you gotta be more decisive.”

Jonah sat there for a second, Cole put out his hand to help him up. Jonah activated his flight to avoid the anguish of his wound, and levitated his way out of the classroom, following Cole as he walked.

As Jonah paned through the air behind Cole, he asked him;

“What did he look like, Cole?”

Cole tried to remember every detail he could cogitate. He turned and walked backwards, saying;

“I can’t remember every detail; I only caught a small glimpse. He was a brown color of fur. His mane was brown, like your hair, just lighter.”

Jonah thought about this for a moment, Cole interrupted his pondering;

“He had a small scar on his left cheek. Not like a blade scar, but a burn. That’s about all I can remember.”

Jonah processed the information, saying;

“We’ll find our more soon… Let’s look for any more students in the building. Hopefully the casualties aren’t too high.”

A devastating event ends with a mysterious exchange between Jonah and the infamous unicorn killer. Many young lives have been lost, and many families will be torn. The anomalism of the killer has been stripped another layer, but in the end, was it worth the sadness and loss? No.

There is no excuse; neither can there ever be an excuse for the amount of lives taken at the Fillydelphia Magic Academy. Jonah and Cole must do better from this point on if they want to keep their heads above water, and to calm the souls of the pony populated land.

Inconvenience

The sounds of a train screeching to a halt filled the air at the Ponyville Train Station. Few visiting ponies exited the train, while Halie and Mina hid on top of one of the carts. Their hair was frozen and blown back by the powerful gusts of air that forced it while the train carried them. Halie blinked her dried eyes several times before turning to Mina and asking;

“I cannot believe… we just rode on top a train… that was freaking terrifying…”

Mina formed her hair to its original pose;

“What do I look like? An N64 cartridge? I can’t pay someone 64 ‘bits.’”

Mina jumped off the cart, hitting the wooden surface of the station loudly. Halie carefully climbed herself down, saying;

“Wow, how funny…”

“Ah bite me, Halie! I’m only trying to make the best of a bad situation.”

Halie raised her voice;

“It was a school shooting! How can there be any sort of positive outcome of that?!”

Mina kept her calm attitude;

“Simple, maybe Jonah and Cole caught this guy, and then we can finally leave this planet and go back home.”

“Don’t you care, Mina? Those were little kids, small children, no older than at least nine! I want to help everyone out as much as possible.”

“Well Halie, we’re waiting, you haven’t done jack shit for anyone since we got here!”

Halie became annoyed;

“Well what about you, Mina? What have you done?”

Mina gave a fake chuckle;

“Hm, I would if Jonah had allowed me to go into that school with him and that troll of a friend of his! Plus, I stole food for the team once.”

Mina opened her long coat to reveal what was left of her stolen fruit and other goods.

Halie got furious and got closer to Mina’s face;

“Don’t you ever talk about Cole like that around me! You got it! Cole has been a huge emotional support for me! He helped me get out of something I thought I never could!”

“Oh yeah, you and Cole, you two are the PERFECT couple. The both of you are the cutest pair of blonde haired, National Socialists I’ve ever seen!”

Halie was deprived of any words, she turned and walked away. Halie looked back at Mina and said sternly;

“… Cole was right about you, you ARE an inconvenience, and you ARE a waste of our time. I honestly can’t see what thought crawled into Jonah’s head when he asked you out… I’m going to see Canis, don’t talk to me.”

Halie continued her way to Canis’ office. Mina stood there for a moment, taking in what Halie said; she kicked a tiny stone on the ground in anger. Mina left the scene.

Later:

Halie arrived through the portal into General Canis’ office. She looked around and saw that he was not there; she exited the room and walked down the hall to see if she could find him. Halie became nervous; she had no idea how to explain the horrors she had seen in Fillydelphia, and the heartbreaking sight of children dying. Halie looked into a door to see a book keeper mare working. Halie spoke to the mare, breathing heavily;

“Excuse me, this is an emergency, I need to see General Canis!”

The book keeper looked at Halie with concern; she could tell something was wrong;

“I’m sorry but General Canis has just gone home, he said he was having a terrible migraine.”

Halie was shocked; she did not know what to do. She only asked;

“What time would you think he’d be back?”

“Hm, I wouldn’t know what to tell you. General Canis hasn’t punched out early in thirteen years. But he should be back tomorrow.”

“Thank you.”

Halie returned to the portal where she arrived from. With no other options, she decided to go see Twilight, since she had close relations with both Princesses of Equestria. Halie assumed that Twilight would have wisdom.

She returned to Ponyville and began walking; as she walked he heard a loud “crash” and “bang” from behind her. She jumped at the sound and looked back, head turning rapidly; sweat forming under her soft blonde hair. There was nothing, no one was outside besides her; the only thing she could see was the closed stores and businesses. Halie wiped the sweat from her forehead with her sleeve and continued walking. Remembering the sound, she felt like it was from within herself, and did not seem to echo after she heard it. It was most likely that she only imagined it, and needed rest after such an eventful day.

Halie finally arrived at Twilight’s tree house library, she knocked on the door slowly, trying to remain as calm as possible for the news she knew had to deliver. Twilight opened the door, she smiled, happy to see Halie. Twilight said;

“Oh hello, Halie! How have you and the others been?”

“We’ve been… well…”

Halie was hesitant, she did not know what to say first, and she shrugged and jittered a little in nervousness. Twilight’s smile became a confused gesture, waiting for Halie to respond. Halie finally spoke;

“During our investigation at the warehouse, over in Fillydelphia… we heard a siren coming from a school…”

Halie paused for a moment; Twilight put a hoof on her hand and said;

“Let’s go inside, you look like you need to sit down.”

Halie allowed Twilight to guide her through the front door; Twilight used her magic to pull two stools for Halie and herself to sit down on. Halie sat and continued her report;

“We approached the school, and we heard… we heard…”

Halie choked up a bit. Halie exhaled loudly and concluded;

“… We heard gunshots being fired… from inside the school…”

Twilight froze; she motioned her eyes down, her eyebrows firmed. Twilight only said;

“Um… I don’t… I must have heard you wrong, Halie. Please… come again?”

Halie just remembered how peaceful Equestria was; they had never known a terror such as what had happened. The ponies were not even fully aware of what guns were; Halie spoke again clearer than before;

“The serial killer, he broke into a children’s school in Fillydelphia. He had his shotgun on him; he shot at all the fillies and colts…”

Twilight’s eyes widened and her face became an expression of sadness. Twilight finally understood the situation, she began to weep;

“Are… are you sure…?”

Twilight spoke faster, unable to believe what happened;

“It could have been anything, it might have been a food fight in the cafeteria, or maybe someone’s desk fell over! Maybe it was a colt pretending to be the killer as some sick prank!”

“Twilight, I saw a child being thrown out of a second story window of a school… He had wounds from a shotgun shell…”

Twilight whimpered, she was hardly able to speak;

“Oh…! No, no no. Halie that’s not… Why…? WHERE ARE THE OTHERS!?”

“Jonah and Cole are taking care of it; they are still at the school helping everyone. Mina and I aren’t talking right now, but she’s okay too.”

Twilight rested her face in her hooves, she shook some and sniffled. All of a sudden, a boy’s voice could be heard from upstairs;

“Twilight? What’s the matter? Is everything okay…?”

It was Spike, Twilight’s little assistant. Twilight heard Spike’s voice, immediately a million memories with him ran through her head as if they were a subway train. Twilight spoke loudly;

“STAY UP STAIRS SPIKE…! Stay up stairs…! Stay there until I come up…”

Spike jumped at Twilight’s scolding voice, it corpse through him. He found himself backing away from the stairs slowly, returning to where he once was. Halie became scared, she knew telling Twilight about what happened would be difficult, so she was not too surprised to see Twilight breakdown like she did. Halie stood from the stool she sat on and asked;

“Should I leave now?”

Twilight looked up at Halie, eyes watering and dripping with tears, she mustered up a soothing voice;

“… Um… No, you don’t have to, Halie… Please, take the extra bed upstairs for a few hours… You look exhausted…”

Twilight sunk her head and continued sobbing; Halie neither did nor said nothing to Twilight. Halie only did as Twilight suggested, and walked up stairs. Halie was upstairs, she approached the extra bed provided by Twilight and kicked off her shoes and removed her sweater. Halie laid down on the soft platform, she fell asleep in what seemed like a few seconds.

Horrible actions have been done, and emotions have been shattered. How can the adventure these young heroes carry out get any worse than what they already are? What is next for Twilight? And what of little Spike, what will happen to the little dragon later?

Tears from Mother

Halie awoke from her nap, still feeling on edge like before. There were no dreams, just voids of darkness that filled her thoughts, her conscience and sub-conscience. Halie sat up slowly and put on her shoes, then her sweater. Halie stood up and looked over at Twilight’s bed; there she saw Twilight lying with Spike wrapped in her embrace. Twilight was awake, Spike slept, Twilight had him encased in her fore-legs and back-legs, kissing his forehead with watery eyes. She patted his head, Spike’s sleeping body responded by cuddling Twilight closer, nuzzling his face into her neck. Halie looked at the heartrending scene and smiled, Halie felt a tear forming in her right eye and rubbed it. Halie whispered to Twilight;

“Thank you…”

Twilight did not notice; she just kept holding Spike, gently rocking him. Halie walked down stairs and gave the two their privacy. A thought ran through Halie’s mind, Spike was not just an ordinary library assistant, he was Twilight’s son, as close to a son as possible. To Spike, Twilight was a mother, a mother he could hold and cry with when the going gets tough, and when the world shatters around him. Halie exited Twilight’s library.

Upon stepping outside, she noticed it was night time, meaning Pinkie Pie’s “cheer-up” party was ready to commence. Halie was skeptical to believe that anything could cheer her up at this point, with what all has happened today. Halie did not want to be rude and just not attend, plus Jonah, Cole and Mina were invited too; she pulled out her invitation from earlier and read, a tiny layer of cake frosting residue was mushed inside of it. Halie traveled down the gravel road to Sugar Cube Corner, where the invitation said the party would be. She approached the building; the lights were on and could be seen through the windows. Halie took a moment to admire the bakery’s format, taking in its gingerbread house like structure, finally she walked in.

The party was surprisingly lively, after three days of being there, Halie finally got to see more ponies. There were big ponies, small ponies, mares and stallions, fillies and colts; all having a riveting time The worries from before had appeared to be lifted, and Pinkie’s party was so far a success. But in hindsight, the reality was still among them, and they were still unaware of what happened in Fillydelphia. Halie figured that it be best to perhaps not tell anyone else, seeing how torn apart Twilight was, she feared that telling anyone else would only create chaotic fear, and ruin the party that Pinkie worked so hard to put together. Halie maneuvered her way through the crowds of dancing ponies looking for Jonah and Cole. The music was lively and loud, a sign was posted in front of a small makeshift stage in the far side of the bakery lobby, the sign said; “PLEASE ENJOY THAT FRESH BEATS AND WUBS! BLASTED TO YOU BY DJPON-3 AND HER NEW PARTNER, SHADE!" Halie disregarded the loud volume and kept searching. Suddenly, a loud, cheering voice traveled its way to Halie;

“Hey there, girlfriend!”

Halie turned to see it was Pinkie Pie, Halie spoke above the ear busting music;

“Pinkie! Where are Jonah and Cole?”

“They aren’t here yet! But isn’t this party great?”

Pinkie jumped repeatedly, Halie responded;

“Yeah! You’ve really got everyone in town fired up, I’ve never seen this many ponies in one place until now!”

Pinkie shook with excitement and said;

“Great! I wish my friend Rarity would have come. I really wish she could just come back from her vacation, it’s been weeks now! I guess a party is still a party, even with only thirty-seven ponies.”

“You counted everyone…?”

“Yep! Well I gotta go, there’s a slice of cake right behind you with my name written on it! Have fun, Halie!”

Pinkie bounced past Halie to land herself face first into a small slice of cake set on a bar. Halie walked back to the front door of the bakery to wait for Jonah and Cole, sometime past and eventually they arrived. Jonah’s foot was dressed with a white cotton cloth to better protect his shell wound; Cole’s face was rattled with tiny cuts from shattering ice. Halie sprung from her seat to the boys, she said to them;

“Jonah! Cole! What took you two so long, and what happened to you both, you’re hurt!”

Halie placed her hand on Cole’s cheek and observed his cuts, they were rubbed with a chemical to relieve pain and fight any infection. Cole responded;

“We found the serial killer in one of the classrooms, got into a fight with him, and then he flew away! We couldn’t catch him! I got a bunch of ice blown into my face; Jonah was shot in the foot! Hang on, can we step outside?”

“Yeah.”

The three friends stood outside Sugar Cube Corner, sitting on the steps which led to the front door. Jonah asked Halie;

“Are you okay? And where is Mina?”

“I’m okay Jonah, just a little worried. I told Twilight about what happened and she lost it right on the spot. I don’t think we should tell anyone else about what has happened. Also Mina and I aren’t on speaking terms for the time being…”

Cole immediately asked;

“What did she say…?”

“She made fun of you, I stood up and told her to shut her mouth, and she made fun of us dating…”

Cole was the least bit surprised, he told Halie;

“Well, get used to it Halie, you’ll be getting a lot of it.”

Cole directed his attention to Jonah;

“I still wish she could have just stayed on Mobius, I’m sorry Jonah, but we don’t need her.”

Jonah was unsure of what to say, he only looked down nonchalantly. Halie backed up Cole, saying;

“Jonah, why do you go out with her? What connection do you two hold?”

Jonah finally spoke;

“She helped me get over something a very long time ago, and had she not done it, I would have never met you or Cole…”

Cole was confused; he thought he met Jonah before Mina did. He asked;

“What? But you met me first, I remember you two introducing each other to yourselves in seventh grade.”

Jonah thought deeply, and began telling Cole a tale from his childhood;

“When I was six years old, in 2002 when I still lived in Chapmanville, my mom and my dad left the country again after havin’ only spent a week at home, already after two years of bein’ gone in some other country. During those two years between when I was four and six, I never saw my brother, Seth and I were separated by force for a reason, and I have yet to figure out. Anyways, after my folks left in 2002, I was heartbroken; I was cryin’ to myself out in the streets, that’s when Mina found me. Somehow Mina found a way to travel back in time, and when she found me, she comforted me and got me more motivated to run away from home with my brother. Mina also gave me somethin’ that ended up helpin’ us beat King Zoxus back in 2012; I kept it hidden for ten years, hopin’ I would see that kind girl again.”

Cole was surprised to hear that Jonah and Mina’s history was as far back as it was. Cole did once hear Jonah mention that she “began” his journey, but he only thought he was being metaphorical. Jonah continued;

“Had she not come to me back then, I might’ve not left West Virginia, and I never would have met you or Halie here.”

Halie looked at Jonah with sorrowed eyes, feeling moved by his past. Cole remained silent for a moment, he finally spoke;

“Jonah, I’m sorry. We shouldn’t put you in such a difficult position with Mina just because of how we feel. I guess Halie and I just gotta ignore her.”

Jonah responded sternly;

“No, don’t be sorry. There’s no reason for Mina to be so rude to y’all, I’ll talk to her later.”

Cole smiled, and said;

“Thanks, Jonah.”

In the following hours, the three friends enjoyed themselves, partying, playing, dancing, and even singing to DJpon-3’s world renowned beats. It was as if what happened earlier that day was only a nightmare and world was at a state of peace and carefree joyfulness. Jonah met with Rainbow Dash who also happened to be at the party, Jonah greeted her;

“Hey Rainbow!”

Rainbow Dash directed her attention towards Jonah;

“Hey there, Jonah! How’ve you and Cole been since I last saw ya? What happened to your foot there?”

“It was an accident… and we’ve been doing well. How about you?”

“I just got accepted into the Wonderbolt academy! Finally, after all these long years, I’m finally good enough to fly with Equestria’s best air patrol!”

“That’s awesome, congrats!”

Jonah activated his power and levitated a foot above the floor, he said to Rainbow sarcastically;

“Maybe I could get in on that, haha.”

Rainbow, oblivious to Jonah’s sarcasm, smirked and challenged him;

“You think you got what it takes to take me on? I’m the best flyer in Ponyville, Cloudsdale, and every other place around these parts!”

Jonah was caught off guard; he didn’t think Rainbow would take him so seriously. He could tell she was enjoying this so he accepted this challenge;

“Very well, Rainbow, let’s go have a race.”

Rainbow Dash and Jonah stepped outside. Jonah knew he would probably lose this race, he had only gained the power of flight one year ago, Rainbow however has been a Pegasus her whole life. As they descended from the stairs, Jonah saw Mina approaching in the distance. He called out to her;

“Hey Mina!”

“Hey Jonah, listen I need to talk to you about something.”

Rainbow was already sitting on a small cloud above Ponyville, tapping her hoof impatiently. Jonah said to Mina;

“Sorry, Mina. Could it wait ‘till later? I got something to do.”

“Yeah, sure…”

Jonah proceeded to fly up to where Rainbow was in the sky. Mina walked into Sugar Cube Corner.

Rainbow Dash and Jonah were lined up evenly in the night sky of Ponyville, ready to take off as fast as possible. Rainbow instructed;

“Alright, see that big collection of clouds over there?”

Jonah tightened his eyes to make out the large abundance of clouds Rainbow Dash was referring to; it appeared to be a city made of clouds and sky matter. Jonah responded;

“I see it! Is it some floating town? Or something?”

“That’s Cloudsdale, the home of the Pegasi race. We’re gonna race to its entrance, and back. Got it?”

“Got it!”

Rainbow focused on her target, her adrenaline built, ready to explode with ferocious velocities of speed. Jonah was prepared; he knew he would most likely lose, but wanted everyone to have as much fun as possible. Rainbow began the countdown;

“3! 2! 1! G-!”

Something interrupted them, it was screams terrified panic, Jonah and Rainbow looked down. Underneath his feet, Jonah could see everyone running out of Sugar Cube Corner, frightened and scared out of their minds. All the ponies ran fast, mothers and fathers carried their children on their backs and returned to their homes; doors were locked and sealed from society. Jonah and Rainbow Dash floated down and ran into the ruined party. Jonah saw Pinkie Pie on the floor, crying over a towering cake that had been knocked into the floor by the crowds’ panic. Halie was slouched over a table that was pushed out of alignment, Cole was yelling in Mina’s face;

“What hell is your problem!? You ruined the whole meaning of this party!”

“Hey I thought they’d be aware, usually back on Earth when this shit happens every one hears about it!”

“I don’t give a damn! You shouldn’t have said that! You ruined everything!”

Mina was silent; she looked from Cole to Jonah. Mina said to Jonah;

“Jonah, shouldn’t we have just told them? They were gonna find out anyway! If anything this whole party is pretty much a giant middle finger to them!”

Jonah did not respond. On one hand he felt that he should support Mina, on the other he felt that she was wrong to tell the ponies what happened at such an inconvenient time. Jonah could not speak. Mina said to him;

“Jonah! Answer me!”

Jonah didn’t do anything, Mina spoke again;

“Don’t you support me? Don’t you think it’s more convenient for me to just tell them? Look at me damn you!”

Jonah looked into Mina’s eyes briefly; they were desperate for someone to listen and to support and encourage. Jonah remained silent, unable to speak. Mina sighed heavily, she gave up;

“You know what? If you all think I’m so fucking worthless, and so much of a fucking inconvenience to you… then I’m leaving…”

Jonah went from confusion to fear for her, Cole’s expression changed from anger to surprise. Halie stood up, alerted. Mina stormed out of Sugar Cube Corner; she slammed the door behind her, creating a loud “BANG” noise making Halie cringe a little, Halie felt lightheaded and had no choice but to sit down. Jonah looked up at Cole with tears beginning to form in his eyes. Cole could only make out;

“I’m… I…”

“No… Cole… This was my fault; I should have said something… You were right before, I need to be less hesitant… What happened today was clearly a sign, and I screwed up!”

“Jonah no! I yelled at her, I shouldn’t have, I put you in a shitty position…”

Jonah glanced at Halie’s distress, then back to Cole;

“Cole, don’t worry, we’ll find Mina… Go to Halie, she doesn’t look good.”

Cole nodded silently and walked over to Halie, kneeling and hugging her close. Jonah gave his attention to Pinkie Pie as she sobbed in front of her destroyed cake; Rainbow was resting a hoof on her shoulder to comfort her. Jonah walked over to Pinkie and kneeled down before her, rubbing his fingers into the cake, and smearing the frosting on her cheeks to resemble war paint, like how he first saw her that morning. Jonah put some on himself as he silently cried, and smiled a little. Pinkie smiled and reached out to hug Jonah, he held Pinkie back.

All that work to raise everyone’s spirits, and then to have it crash down upon them, and to make the ponies feel even more threatened than before. From this point on, missions will be more difficult to pursue, the reputation of Luna’s elite team has fallen before it has hardly even started. Their first mission was horrible failure, and they’ve just lost one of their teammates. The odds are not in the teams favor at this point in time, they must make a sharp turn around.

Aftermath

The next day came; Mina had not been seen since the party. Jonah, Cole and Halie got up bright and early to speak with General Canis. There were no dreams amongst the three, only worries for their missing friend. They left the bed empty that night incase Mina decided to come back, she never did. They walked down stairs at a slow pace, Jonah’s foot still hurt, Cole’s face hardly healed of its tiny cuts; they were not looking forward to the aftermath of yesterday’s tragedy. Applejack leaned her head back from the kitchen entrance; she looked at the three from down the hallway and asked;

“Y’all want some breakfast? I got some mighty fine apple fritters cookin’ up!”

Cole shook his head and replied;

“Sorry, but we should really meet with the General today, and try to push this school shooting off our shoulders as quick as possible.”

Halie added to Cole’s rejection;

“Everyone in town probably thinks we don’t have what it takes to hunt this serial killer, we need to act fast.”

Without the three knowing of her presence, Fluttershy walked out of the kitchen with a smile and said sincerity;

“I believe you can do it.”

Jonah and Cole spoke at once;

“Fluttershy?”

Jonah continued;

“When did you get here?”

“One of my chickens got loose this morning, I found her here and Applejack offered me breakfast. So I brought my chicken home and came back.”

Fluttershy looked around us, then at Halie;

“Where is the other girl? And who are you?”

“I’m Halie, and you must be referring to Mina. She isn’t talking to us right now; she’s actually been gone since Pinkie Pie’s party last night.”

“Oh that’s no good, is she okay?”

Jonah answered;

“She’ll be okay, if anythin’ this is all my fault. I didn’t help her when she needed it… Now she thinks I don’t care about her at all, I just want to find her now and apologize.”

“You seem to care an awful lot about her; I’m sure that as long as you truly care for her, then you’ll have no trouble reuniting with her.”

Jonah smiled slightly;

“Thank you, Fluttershy.”

Cole reached his hand around Jonah’s face and fake-slapped it rapidly;

“Let’s go, Jonah. We’ll come back for breakfast.”

“Right, talk to you later Fluttershy.”

Fluttershy called out trying to retain her soft voice;

“Oh, okay! It was nice seeing you all again.”

The three walked out, ready to face the aftermath. Before they shut the door behind them, Fluttershy looked back for brief second, her eyes widened when she saw the bandage around Jonah’s foot. She flew to the door quickly before Cole could shut it all the way. The door smacked Cole in the nose as Fluttershy flew through it; he let out a groan;

“Ah!”

Fluttershy looked at Cole when he cursed, noticing the tiny cuts on his face. She gasped;

“Oh my goodness! You both are hurt! Was this from yesterday? Did that big meanie do this?”

Jonah and Cole nodded;

“Yep.”

“Oh no! You should have come to me last night! Oh, why don’t you come over later so I can doctor you both up.”

Cole said to Fluttershy quickly; ready to get to business;

“Okay Fluttershy, we’ll come.”

“Oh perfect! Come see me at my cottage later.”

Fluttershy flew back inside, Cole sighed in relief. The three continued to walk away from Applejack’s barn, suddenly Jonah felt something tap him from behind, and it was Fluttershy again;

“It’s just, I help take care of so many animals. I also want to take care of humans too, surely you can understand since there are no other humans here… Not that I’m only doing it for my benefit, I want you to get better too! It’s-!”

Halie interrupted with a raised voice;

“We understand, Fluttershy! It’s all okay! We’ll be there.”

“Oh okay, see you later then…”

Fluttershy finally flew away, the three kept walking. Cole laughed a little and said to Jonah;

“I hope she doesn’t kidnap us and throw us into an old chicken coop…”

Later:

The walk through Ponyville was as baron as the previous days, though it still felt different. They could not help but feel that there were disappointed eyes directed at them. Halie glanced to her left where Twilight’s library stood. Halie thought about Twilight’s episode from the other day, she couldn’t shake it off. Halie finally asked;

“Would it be cool if I went to go see Twilight, I told her what happened yesterday since Canis wasn’t in his office. When I did she lost control of herself and broke down, she wouldn’t stop crying.”

Cole answered;

“Of course, go on and see her, Jonah and I can come by later.”

“Thanks guys.”

Cole said to Jonah;

“Okay, let’s get a move on. I bet the General is torn up about yesterday too, by now word has probably spread all over Equestria of what’s happened.”

Cole’s words failed to reach Jonah. As Jonah saw Halie run towards the library, he couldn’t help but notice Spike’s face in the one of the windows, staring down at him with the same empty look as before. Jonah looked back at Spike with a grin and waved, trying to get some sort of reaction out of the boy. Jonah could hardly see it from such a distance, but he thought he saw Spike snarl a little, blinds from inside the window fell and obstructed his view of Spike. Jonah’s concentration was interrupted by Cole’s call;

“HEY! BITCH!”

Jonah took a second to respond;

“Oh, Cole. Sorry, let’s go now.”

Cole looked at Jonah with confusion, Jonah noticed Cole’s gaze;

“I think Spike hates me…”

“Spike? Twilight’s friend? He barely knows you, why would he hate you?”

“Because he didn’t say a thing when I first met him, all he did was gaze at me with this emotionless, blank stare… And I just saw him in the library window too! All he did was stare at me! Halie was going over there and he didn’t even glance at her!”

Cole sighed;

“Ugh… Jonah…”

“I tried waving to him and smiling, all he did was roll down the window.”

“We can try talking to him later then; he probably wants to get to know you. Maybe he’s shy or intimidated by out tall humanly selves.”

Jonah looked back at the same window where he saw Spike, it was still blocked off. Jonah spoke again;

“I hope you’re right.”

Jonah followed Cole. During the walk to the General’s office, Jonah compared Spike’s silence to that of the serial killer’s, both atmospheres felt the same to him. Given the difference in species, it was impossible for Spike to be the killer, but Jonah could not help but feel that there was some sort of connection. One thing was a certain fact; Spike was the witness to the killer’s first strike.

Later:

Jonah and Cole were finally in the General’s office. The General faced the opposite direction of the boys, looking out his window with no movement. He knew of what happened; they told him the reports from the warehouse, and Cole described what little he saw of the killer’s face. The General responded with a voice, far different from the excited and cut loose tone he had the previous morning;

“So… That’s what you have?”

Cole responded, getting a sense of emotional pain from General Canis’ dry voice;

“Yes, General. That’s what we have. Are there any updates from yesterday’s shooting? Are there any missions you want us to go on…?”

“No.”

Jonah felt uncomfortable staying in the office. He could tell that the General, being in his position and all, took his duty to the ponies of Equestria seriously. The General’s obnoxious personality from before was only mask his true thoughts for everyone’s wellbeing. The General spoke after a period of silence;

“You can leave now…”

There were no words. Jonah and Cole only left the office through the portal; their destination was for Twilight’s library. On the other side of the portal, Jonah spoke to Cole;

“Wow, the General is like a completely different pony now.”

“I know, I feel bad for him, he must feel so obligated to these ponies.”

“According to Halie, Twilight reacted pretty badly to the shooting. Let’s get over there, quick!”

Jonah and Cole started running to the library.

Meanwhile:

Halie and Twilight sat together at a table set up in the downstairs lobby; Spike was on a ladder organizing books on a tall shelf for Twilight as he drank from a cup of a cherry flavored liquid. Twilight had just heard Halie’s story about the previous night, how Mina ran away. Twilight gasped;

“Oh my gosh, I hope she’ll be okay. So, what happened? Did someone say something? Or…?”

Halie was slow to respond;

“I yelled at her earlier that day, but it was only because she insulted my relationship with Cole. Maybe I should have ignored her. I don’t know how to explain it; she treated me and Cole like shit all this time, so why am I so worried for her?”

Spike could not help but over hear;

“Sometimes, you don’t know how much you like someone, until they are gone.”

Spike returned to his work. Halie looked down with a guilty look about her. Twilight felt the need to change subjects;

“Where are the boys?”

“They’ll be here soon; they went to go see the General.”

Spike overheard Halie’s words, the rocking ladder he stood on stiffened suddenly. He looked over quickly to Twilight and called out;

“Twilight!”

Twilight looked to Spike; he was motioning her to come over to him. Twilight got up from the table and walked to him. She asked him;

“Yes Spike, is something the matter?”

Spike motioned Twilight further from where Halie sat, he whispered;

“Twi, I don’t want HIM here…”

Twilight rolled her eyes and whispered back;

“Spike, we’ve been over this, I promise you he’s not the one.”

“But Twilight, you’re a unicorn! I’m only looking out for you.”

Three knocks came from the front door; Spike looked up at Twilight with pleading eyes;

“Twilight! Please…”

Twilight rubbed a hoof against Spike’s face softly to calm him;

“Maybe you should just get to know him better, now relax and enjoy your company.”

A lump formed in Spike’s throat, he swallowed his fear.

It is clear now, Spike is afraid of Jonah, but for what purpose? Who does he think Jonah is? How is it relevant to Twilight being a unicorn? So many more questions are coming; can they all lead to the great mystery that is the serial killer’s true identity?

Voice of the Dragon

Twilight opened the door, she was happy to see Jonah and Cole behind it;

“Jonah, Cole, it’s good to see you. Come on in.”

Jonah and Cole walked in, Cole spoke;

“We thought we should come see you since Halie wanted to.”

“Yeah, I wasn’t feeling so good yesterday, especially after I heard about what happened. Its things like that this that make you wanna just hug your family members.”

Twilight motioned her head to Spike;

“And your number one assistants.”

Twilight winked to Spike, Spike blushed a little in embarrassment. There was a brief conversation between Cole and Twilight. Spike looked behind Cole to see Jonah, this time when Jonah looked back; he could see fear in Spikes eyes. Spikes eyes had a worried look, one that begged Jonah to leave. Twilight then said to Spike;

“Spike. Why don’t you introduce yourself to him?”

Spike was silent, Twilight spoke again;

“Go on.”

Spike finally conversed to Jonah;

“Heh… Hey there…”

Jonah responded with a small wave with his wrist;

“Hi there, I’m Jonah, we met the other day.”

“Um, yeah… Sorry I ran off.”

Spike began to shiver, his nervousness passed on to Jonah. Jonah now feared that he would say something to set him off. Jonah assured him;

“It’s okay; I use to be very shy when I was little.”

“Yeah, shy. That’s right…”

Spike made a noise with his breath. Twilight intervened the awkward moment;

“Why don’t all of us sit down for breakfast? Spike here can make a mean omelet, can’t ya?”

Spike agreed;

“Yeah, I can.”

Jonah declined with;

“Oh, actually Applejack already offered us breakfast. In fact we should probably be leaving soon; we just came by to see how you were doing.”

Twilight looked disappointed;

“Aw, well. Maybe we can have breakfast together some other day. But before you go, Princess Celestia is coming to Ponyville tomorrow morning to give us a speech about what happened yesterday, followed by a press conference for what’s going to be done. She’s actually going to each major location in Equestria to speak, she’s in Canterlot today.”

“You want us to come?”

“Yes, and she does too. Princess Celestia and I converse through letters; she sent me one saying that she wants to get to know you both better.”

Jonah and Cole nodded, Jonah spoke;

“We’ll be there.”

“Perfect, just come over to Ponyville Town Hall in the morning. She’ll probably give the speech outside.”

Cole continued;

“Okay, Twilight.”

Cole looked over to Halie;

“You coming back with us?”

“Nah, I’ll hang out with Twilight for a while. Save some breakfast for me though, and don’t forget to visit Fluttershy to get those injuries taken care of.”

“We won’t forget, Come on Jonah.”

Jonah and Cole left the Library. During the return to the barn, Cole told Jonah;

“Ya see? Spike was just being shy. He’s a baby dragon after all.”

“I guess you’re right, I could feel a sense of doubt coming from him, but I’m sure it’s nothing. I wonder what Princess Celestia has to ask us.”

“She probably wants to know how we’re gonna improve on trying to capture the killer, considering we’re her sister’s ‘elite’ team.”

Jonah looked up into the sky; he turned to see a mountain with a large city on its cliff. From the distance it appeared to be very high budget and well refined, it even had a castle. Jonah could immediately determine that it must be where the sister princesses resided. Jonah looked down to the ground, and then giggled;

“Do you think Princess Luna would be offended if I called her ‘Mein Führer’?”

Cole busted out laughing; he then raised his arm with his hand flat open, chanting;

“’Es ist zeit für RACHE!’”

Both the boys laughed uncontrollably, several windows from the locked up homes and businesses slid open some. Jonah and Cole looked around to see ponies looking at them from their guarded homes with a stern faces. Jonah and Cole’s laughing died down and eventually stopped. Jonah suggested;

“This isn’t the time for jokes I suppose…”

Cole added to the statement;

“Yep… We’re still going to hell for that ya know.”

“You know, considering that we’re the first humans in Equestria, and we’re white. I wonder how everyone would react to a black guy coming here. They’d probably be like ‘Halt!’ ‘Halt!’ ‘Who is this mysterious nigger on our planet?’ Hahaha!”

The boys started laughing again; they continued their travel to the barn.

Later:

After Jonah and Cole were given breakfast by Applejack, they proceeded to see Fluttershy, Applejack gave them directions. They approached their destination, noticing that it was a small cottage on top of a small hill. The house was surrounded by a thin stream of water, with a bridge that led to the other side. Jonah and Cole knocked on the door, Fluttershy opened the door slowly. Finally seeing who was visiting her, she smiled;

“Good, you both are here. Come right in.”

Jonah and Cole entered the cottage; Fluttershy immediately had them sit on a couch. Fluttershy went into another room for a moment, while she was gone, Jonah bumped Cole’s elbow with his own and said;

“Uhhuhuhuh, she’s our nurse… Uhuhuhuhhuh…”

Cole understood Jonah’s reference;

“Hmhmhah, yeah yeah! Hmhmhahahmha!”

Fluttershy returned with a doctor’s uniform on and a box full of medical supplies. She approached them; she looked to Jonah and told him;

“Um, I’ll have to ask you to remove your shoe, please.”

Jonah complied, he took off the bandages around it, and he removed his shoe and sock. Under his sock revealed a wound roughly a centimeter wide. There was no exit wound from the shell fragment so Fluttershy reached for a pair of tweezers to remove it. Fluttershy warned Jonah while having the tweezers fixed in her right hoof;

“This will hurt a little, but I should be done in a quick second.”

Fluttershy reached in, closing one eye for better focus. Jonah flinched from the cold metal of the tweezers touching the sensitive area of the wound. Fluttershy pulled back and said;

“You’re going to have to stay still.”

Jonah held his breath, Fluttershy returned to her work. She tightened her eyes and found the shell fragment. She brought the tweezers around the small piece, Jonah shivered in pain. Fluttershy tried pulled the piece out quickly and forcefully, Jonah yelped in pain, Fluttershy was not successful in pulling the piece. She tried again, Jonah hollered in pain. Cole giggled a bit and said;

“Puss-puss…”

Jonah grunted a bit and said;

“Nnng… Shut up!”

Cole stopped joking around and said;

“Do you need some water or something?”

Fluttershy’s tugging and pulling was no use, she had to resort to drastic action. She reached into her box of supplies and grabbed a small knife with her left hoof. Jonah looked at the knife with scared eyes;

“… What are you going to do with that…?”

Fluttershy only responded with a faint and sympathetic;

“I’m very sorry…”

“No no! No damn way you’re coming near me with that shit!”

“Um… Cole, you may want to hold him for me.”

Cole grabbed Jonah’s shoulders pinning him down to the couch;

“Stay still, bro.”

Seconds felt like hours to Jonah, Cole had him pinned down in such a way that it was obstructing his vision of Fluttershy at work. Suddenly, Jonah felt searing pain come from the wound in his foot. Fluttershy used the knife to slice a piece of epidermis that kept Fluttershy from completing her work, she cut through causing the wound to bleed again, and she quickly used her tweezers to pull out the fragment.

At the very second that Fluttershy pulled the fragment, Jonah’s mind jumped from the pain he saw a flashback of the day in 2000 when his dad picked him up from school. Jonah entered his dad’s jeep and his dad asked him;

“How was your day, buddy? Where’s your brother at?”

Jonah slowly responded, not wanting to tell his dad what Seth had asked him to;

“Seth ain’t here… I’m not sure where he is…”

“Oh okay, well, I guess more ice cream for you ‘n me! Let’s git on over to the Dairy Delight.”

Paul pressed his foot on the gas pedal and drove the jeep from the school parking lot to the main road. Jonah asked;

“Don’t we have to go to your police office like we usually do?”

“Nah we don’t gotta, tomorrow your mom and I are leavin’ the country to work, I had to resign my position.”

Jonah looked out the window in deep thought; the burden of Seth’s request and his parents’ inevitable departure was like carrying boulders on his neck. Paul noticed Jonah’s discomfort, he asked;

“Somethin’ wrong, buddy? Is it because we’re leavin’?”

Paul put his arm around Jonah while using one hand to steer the jeep, Jonah nodded;

“Yeah… I still don’t see why y’all gotta go for two whole years…”

“Oh, don’t worry. You can always call us, whenever you or Seth wants. How has Seth been today? It’s like I hardly seem him anymore.”

Jonah shook some;

“He’s just like he always is. Seth told me something today… I feel really weird about it…”

“Ah, that brother of yours goes on about some strange things. He’s in to all ‘at paranormal and super natural stuff, it all just sounds like a bunch of heathenism to me. He always wants to watch that show, what is it called…? I don’t remember somethin’ ‘paranormal’ somethin’ or other. A boy like him outta watch the game with his old man, haha. It’s just ‘at I’m worried Seth is losin’ his faith because of those powers. The powers that Seth possesses are a blessing from god in my opinion, who knows; maybe one day you’ll get it too. Don’t listen to any of that nonsense Seth is talkin’ about.”

Jonah did not respond.

Paul pulled the jeep into the Dairy Delight, him and Jonah got out of the car and went in.

Jonah awoke from his flashback, lying on Fluttershy’s couch. Cole notice Jonah’s body moving and rolling as his eyes opened, Cole reach down to perform their one of a kind fake slapping on his cheek;

“Jonah! Thank god you’re finally awake! I was worried.”

Jonah looked at Cole and smiled, then out Fluttershy’s window, it was night time. Jonah asked;

“Have I really been out that long?”

“Yeah, man. Fluttershy got done with me, we had dinner, and she even went to sleep. Also check out my face, it looks perfect!”

Cole leaned in, Jonah looked at Cole’s face; it’s as if the cuts had never existed. Cole lean back up, and bumped his shoulder with his hand;

“Let’s get back to Applejacks, Halie must be worried sick.”

Jonah got off the couch, they exited Fluttershy’s cottage in route to Applejack’s barn. The moon watched them closely that night.

Another flashback from that same day in 2000, what else happened that day? What does it have to do with what is happening now? Jonah’s mind is riddled with so many questions, he believes that somehow these unanswered questions are pieced together, or is he too observant? Does he hesitate too much, like Cole said?

A time of peace is approaching, but there will be no signs of the serial killer. Jonah and Cole must stay in Equestria to stay on patrol until they know that the killer is either in custody or dead, they must also search for their missing friend.

Dreams of Mother

To Cole’s surprise, Jonah returned to sleeping once he returned to Applejack’s barn. His night of slumber was catastrophic to his mind. His dream was another flashback of that same day in 2000, Jonah and his father had just finished scarfing down on their ice creams cones in the Chapmanville Dairy Delight. Paul talked a bit about where he and his mom were going for the next two years, it would be Somalia in Africa, to defend U.S. Embassies from any intrusions. Their conversing was cut short when Jonah pointed to a small glowing light, coming from the mountain side about two miles away from them. Paul looked at the light closer, it was a fire. The very police office that Paul worked for was in flames. Paul quickly turned to Jonah;

“Woah! Call the fire department! Then go on find your mom and stay with her, I’m going up there to check it out!”

And like that, Paul ran out of the restaurant and hopped into his jeep, driving off with hazardous turning and speed. Jonah did as his father asked and called the authorities, followed by panicked running to get home.

Jonah hopped over the chain gate that surrounded his family’s home, it was there that he once lived with his mother, Kristina; his father, Paul; and his older brother Seth seemingly without conflicts.

Jonah entered his home, running into the parents’ bedroom to see his mother. Kristina was packing her suitcase of everything she would need for her and her husband’s long time away;

“Mom! The police station is on fire! Dad went to go see.”

Kristina’s happy face from seeing her child return home turned to one of shock and worry;

“Is everyone okay? Where is Seth at?”

“I don’t know, I haven’t seen him since…”

Jonah remembered earlier that day in the bathroom, it was as if the fire smothered that conflicting thought dead. It was resurrected, but this time, it didn’t feel so bad to talk about. He continued speaking to his mother;

“Since Seth told me something strange.”

Kristina closed her suitcase and sat on her bed, Jonah sat with her. Kristina asked him;

“What did Seth say to you?”

“… He told me to tell Dad that he hated him and that he didn’t want to see him again…”

Kristina became annoyed;

“He told you that!?”

Jonah only nodded, looking away. Kristina put a hand on her youngest’s shoulder;

“Don’t you worry, I’ll handle this. Seth should never have asked you to do something like that, it was wrong of him. You just take your mind off it.”

Jonah smiled a little and said;

“Thank you, mom.”

Jonah got up and left the room.

Kristina tried her hardest to shelter her and Paul’s extended family’s conflicts, hardships and controversies from her children, especially Jonah. She had always known that Jonah was easily distracted from these sorts of things, and how he could sometimes over examine and let things linger in his thoughts. Jonah having a relaxed and creative mind was always within her best interests. It was also always in her and Paul's dreams to one day move away from Chapmanville together with their children, leaving behind the nonsense and reaching out to new and vast opportunity. One place she favored above many others to move to was Virginia Beach, she often spoke of her desire to move to Virginia Beach with Seth.

Jonah got himself some potato chips from the kitchen, went into the living room and watched some television.

At this point in the flashback, Jonah’s present day physical body moved and rolled so much that it woke Cole, Halie was not there to be woken; she had spent the night with Twilight. Cole walked over to his sleeping friend; he bent down to fake slap Jonah awake. Jonah finally opened his eyes to Cole’s words;

“Hey! Wake up! What’s the matter with you?”

Jonah was unaware of his physical trauma as he slept. Jonah thought that maybe it would be appropriate to finally tell someone about it. Who better to tell than someone he considered to be his true brother? Jonah spoke to Cole;

“I’ve been havin’ these flashbacks…”

“What of?”

Cole sat on the floor with Jonah; the both of them gazed out of the moonlit window. Jonah answered;

“… When I was very little, four years old to be exact, Seth told me to tell our father that he didn’t want to have anything to do with him again… It placed me in one of the most awkward situations that I’ve ever been in, even more so than our three year adventure… Later that day, after my dad picked me up from school, the police station where my dad used to work ‘mysteriously’ caught on fire, and I ran home while my dad went to investigate… Until this point I hadn’t seen Seth since his request, but later that evenin’, my dad came home… he had Seth with him… Seth’s face… was… covered in suit and ash…”

Cole looked confused, Jonah continued;

“The thing is, and I’ve recently figured this out… originally… my dad and I was supposed to be at the station when he picked me up from school like we usually did before.”

Cole went from confusion to concern, Jonah concluded;

“… And Seth… was the only person my Dad found at the fire. No one else was there that day.”

Cole was speechless; he understood why this was messing with Jonah. Cole didn’t speak, he felt like any words at this point would only make things worse for Jonah. Jonah topped off his story;

“I always wondered why Seth and I were forced apart for two years… Now I’ve got my answer.”

Jonah kicked the wall in frustration, not even acknowledging the pain in his wounded foot after. Jonah thought for a moment and said one last thing;

“But what I can’t seem to determine is why I am rememberin’ this day so much lately. All these years I’ve been okay, I hardly remembered it until now. But ever since we got here, it has stayed in my dreams.”

Cole put an arm around Jonah, he suggested;

“Well, Seth did betray us in 2011 remember? He’s been gone for two years now, maybe you just miss him.”

“I think you’re right… I feel bad for him too; he’s had a complicated life… He had us both away from home a week after getting’ back together; he was placed into a psychiatric institute by my friend’s parents in 2004, our house burned down in 2009 and he had us move to Virginia Beach. Then in 2010, after the flood that ruined Virginia Beach, Seth changed considerably, it was at that point when he became more sarcastic and less willin’ to work with us. Do you remember, Cole?”

Cole pondered for a moment, trying to remember;

“… Yeah… yeah he did. I guess that was the turning point for him, and that he began waiting for an opportunity to run away again.”

“Maybe it was us, maybe he was just sick of our adventure. In those three years of fightin’ King, we moved around a lot.”

“Maybe he felt threatened when we arrived in Mobius to look for him in 2011. That could be why he tried to kill us then, he might’ve just not wanted us in his life again.”

“That’s why I think we shouldn’t try lookin’ for him. I believe he is going to be okay, and that he could be tryin’ to better himself in solitude.”

There was silence for a moment, Cole remembered back to the time in 2011 when Seth hunted him and Jonah. Cole tried to remember the weapon Seth was using; it was some sort of firearm. Cole couldn’t remember what it looked like, or what type of gun it was. Cole shook his head;

“… Let’s get some sleep. We gotta meet the Princess in the morning.”

“Yeah you’re right, and hopefully I won’t have any more of these dreams… Sleep well, Cole.”

Cole and Jonah returned to their spots on the floor, they finally fell asleep. The night time air of Ponyville kept Jonah company as he slept, it soothed his thoughts, and he was gifted with a peaceful night of rest.

The night was cool and relaxing, Jonah felt more weight being lifted off his shoulders as he conversed with Cole that night. It was a relieved beginning to the era of peace that was coming.

Supposed Peace

The next morning, everyone gathered around the Ponyville Town Hall, regardless of their fears. They knew that if their Princess had words to say, then they must listen to them. Princess Celestia stood upon the Town Hall balcony on its second story; guard ponies from Canterlot surrounded her, standing near her was Twilight, and the mayor of Ponyville. Jonah and Cole were inside the second floor of the building, awaiting their queue to properly introduce themselves to the world. A safer atmosphere followed Princess Celestia, a warm sense of trust and optimism began to alleviate the worries of the ponies as she spoke;

“Citizens of Ponyville, it has come to my attention that an attack was brought upon a school in Fillydelphia a matter of days ago. A cringing thought has been placed into our minds, and in the past we have never had to worry about something as shocking what has happened recently. But our hearts have to be strong and unite, and prepare for the worst that may come from the threat we face. With new allies on our side, and our hearts together, there is no doubt that our odds outweigh the mysterious fiend. Fillies and Colts, Mares and Stallions, I introduce to you… Jonah and Coltrane!”

Jonah and Cole heard their queue; they began walking to the Balcony from where Princess Celestia called. As Cole walked, he said to Jonah;

“I don’t like being called ‘Coltrane.’ I mean I’ll use it for my signature or whatever, but hearing it out loud makes me sound uppity.”

To which Jonah then said with a laugh;

“Cole, we’re not black, we don’t use the word ‘uppity.’ It makes us sound ignorant.”

Both of the boys laughed together, and then quickly smothered the joke with inviting smiles to all of Ponyville’s population. Jonah and Cole waved to the mass crowd of ponies, they all retained their depressed and hopeless faces, and if anything they were confused by the boys being human. Princess Celestia spoke to the crowd again;

“These two young men have braved many obstacles in their years, just last year they defeated a horrible foe that threatened the very existence of their home planet, Earth. Now they have come here to aid us in our struggle and cease the casualties brought by the strange character among us.”

Jonah and Cole stood there, silent as the Princess continued her uplifting speech. Eventually the Princess’s speech concluded, she walked into the second story of the town hall where the light shining though the tall windows bathed her white coat. Her appearance was similar to that of Princess Luna’s, the both shared the same face and style of hair, only Celestia’s was rainbow colored instead of dark blue and purple. Princess Celestia’s wings were much larger in comparison with Luna’s, as well as her horn. She motioned to Jonah and Cole to follow her; they did as implied by her and walked behind her. Cole’s attention to Princess Celestia was snatched away by Twilight who ran after him;

“Cole, I need to talk to you. It’s about Halie…”

Cole seemed confused as to whom to follow, Princess Celestia said to Cole;

“Go on, Coltrane. I will talk with Jonah.”

Cole was annoyed, and then followed Twilight for a private matter. Jonah stayed with Princess Celestia, she spoke to Jonah;

“It’s good to have finally met you boys. My sister and I have researched your colorful adventures from before, and feel you two are the perfect solution to our problem.”

Jonah smiled brightly, but said nothing; he was not sure how to respond. Princess Celestia continued;

“Let’s take a moment to know each other before the press conference begins.”

Jonah still wasn’t sure how to respond, he felt like the Princess knew him more than she was letting on. Little did he know that the Princess has secretly watched his entire adventure, ever since a mysterious invader stole unicorn powers from Equestria over twenty years ago. Those unicorn powers were modified and eventually found their way to Jonah’s older brother, from which the powers spread to those he came in contact with, including Jonah and his friends. Jonah did not know of the Princess’s deep knowledge, and only asked;

“Okay, so… what is there to know about you? I’m sorry it’s just I’m not so good with introducin’ myself unless something really spontaneous happens. Kinda like how I met Cole long ago.”

Princess Celestia thought for a moment;

“Hm, well I’ve been the ruler of Equestria for over a thousand years, and I represent the sun. It is my job to raise and lower the sun, just as it is for my sister to raise and lower the moon. I can tell that you’ve become acquainted with Twilight as well as her friends, am I right?”

“Yeah, that’s right.”

“Has everything been okay with them?”

“Yeah everythin’ has been just fine so far, Applejack gave us a place to sleep, and Fluttershy has pretty much begged us to be our doctor. And… hm…”

Jonah kept trying to think of something to say, Princess Celestia waited for a response. Celestia looked into Jonah’s eyes and saw nervousness he jittered around and shook a little; she put a hoof on his shoulder and said to him;

“Just say what’s in your heart.”

Jonah flinched a bit and looked back at her, the Princess’s eyes looked so gentle to him, so nurturing. Jonah felt calm for once and said with a laugh;

“How do you raise the sun? Do you use some kinda muscle toner supplement?”

Princess Celestia laughed a little, Jonah laughed with her.

Three Months Later:

A time of peace was among the ponies, to Jonah and Cole’s knowledge not a single soul had been brutally murdered since the school shooting. General Canis had not updated them on any missions or objectives. The ponies were less afraid now; they were outside again, enjoying freedom. The serial killer had not been found, so it was unsure if he was dead or still alive. Regardless of the serial killer’s ambiguous status, there was still the issue of Mina. It had been three months, and Mina was nowhere to be found, not a clue was been given as to where she could have been, all of the mysteries were much to Jonah’s worries. Twilight and Cole had been closely watching Halie, and came to the unfortunate conclusion that what she saw at the school in Fillydelphia affected her in some form. Not long after the shooting, Halie saw everything differently; she was sensitive to loud noises and certain colors. Twilight finally decided to research more into psychology, and eventually diagnosed her with post-traumatic stress disorder. Cole was been advised by Twilight to keep constant surveillance on her and to calm her during any ‘episodes.’ But the situation also came with a brighter side; as Cole and Halie was definitely becoming a closer couple.

Since Princess Celestia and Jonah met at the Ponyville Town Hall, the two befriended each other. Celestia would come to Applejack’s barn and have Jonah and Cole meet her outside; she would then teleport them to Canterlot where she resided. Canterlot was clean, far more populated than the country style setting of Ponyville. The majority of ponies that lived here were unicorns; it was surprising that the serial killer never made a mark there considering unicorns were his primary target. It was almost as if the killer never even set foot in the unicorn city, or maybe it was because he was afraid that too many unicorns could retaliate.

Jonah, Cole, Halie and Celestia would walk the beautiful and shining streets of Canterlot. The city was held on a mountain side, the view of Equestria from such a height was breathtaking. Jonah and Cole would admire the lush green land and how it blended with the snow covered mountains in the distance. Halie could not take it in; the height of the city was too great for her to mentally bear.

One night, a thunderstorm was scheduled to be in Canterlot; Jonah, Cole, Halie and the Princess were walking together as usual. The sound of thunder was brewing, and then an ear gouging strike of powerful and eye blinding lightning struck the tallest tower in Canterlot. Halie screamed at the noise and jumped back, she fell to the ground in a puddle of rain. She looked down to her wet clothes, damp and ruined, she thought to herself, “Why can’t things be like before?” she cried quietly, and Cole kneeled to her and held her close;

“It’s going to be okay, Halie…”

Halie sobbed more, she didn’t say a word. The depression resulted by her delicate sanity blew through her like debris from an atom bomb. Cole hugged her tighter, he looked up and over to Princess Celestia;

“Princess, I need to take Halie back to the barn…”

“Of course, Coltrane. And Halie, I hope you will feel better.”

Halie gave no response; it was as if she was deaf to everything except Cole’s words. Cole turned to Jonah;

“Jonah, could you stay here for the night? Halie and I need to be alone, it’s very important…”

“Yeah, I’ll stay… I can try to find a hotel or somethin’.”

Celestia turned to Jonah, and said;

“No Jonah, you may stay with me in my private quarters.”

“Thanks, Princess. See ya tomorrow, Cole.”

Cole smiled to Jonah and nodded while still saddened by Halie’s status. Princess Celestia’s horn glowed a yellow color, and Cole and Halie were gone within seconds. Jonah stood there for a moment, observing the spot Cole and Halie had just sat. Princess Celestia drew her wing across Jonah and pulled him to her side, they walked together.

Later:

The royal home was large and filled with shiny objects and soft furniture. The home was the highest story of the tallest castle in Canterlot; the tower was cylindrical so the rooms were set up in rings. The outer ring was the living space, surrounded by one glass window that stretched all the way around the cylinder, and from the floor to the ceiling. Princess Celestia took Jonah by the hand;

“Why don’t I give you a tour?”

The Princess walked and Jonah followed. She led Jonah through the outer ring, pointing to a balcony and finally revealing a kitchen on the opposite side from the living space. Princess Celestia opened a door between the kitchen and living space, bring Jonah to the inner ring; her bedroom. The bed room ring had a bed on one side the one opposite side was a fireplace. One-fourth of the ring was a bathroom blocked off by a two walls between the bed and fireplace. The middle of the ring led to the largest room of the home, the core of the cylinder. Jonah attempted to open the door, but it was locked. Princess Celestia walked behind Jonah and said;

“Oh that room is unavailable. Fun fact; it’s completely impenetrable, and can only be opened with my magic. Why don’t we go to the outer ring and talk? We’ll make us something for desert.”

Jonah looked back at her and nodded, Princess Celestia felt a twinge. She immediately said;

“Excuse me, I have to use the restroom, go on and have a seat on the couch. I’ll be in momentarily.”

“Sure.”

Princess Celestia walked to her bathroom. Jonah listened for the door to shut; as soon as it did his curiosity ensued. Jonah returned to the locked core room, he peered into the keyhole of the room. The keyhole did not look like any other that he had seen before; it was a complete circle, almost as if a unicorn could stick his or her horn inside and lock it with magic. It was large enough to look into though; however the room was shrouded in darkness. Jonah activated his power, just so his eyes could glow and reveal anything to him. His illuminated eyes only brought a faint light, and the only thing he could make out was a strange shape in the center of the room. The shape was tall and rectangular; the darkness covered the bottom of it as well as the floor. Jonah gave up and deactivated his power. He heard the door open from the bathroom, and ran to the couch in the outer ring to remain unsuspicious. Princess Celestia exited the inner ring seconds later; Jonah was on the couch leaning his head on the soft cushion to make it seem he had waited a while. Princess Celestia said to Jonah;

“Sorry about that, come, let’s bake some cookies together.”

Princess Celestia winked at him; Jonah smiled at the idea and followed the Princess to the kitchen.

It was time to be treated to a lovely desert. Being served any sort of food or beverage by a Princess was unthinkable to anyone in Equestria. Jonah had no clued what sort of luck he had that night, neither did he know what he was getting himself into later on...

Becoming Mother

The kitchen was dancing with excitement, Jonah and Princess Celestia laughed as they mixed and stirred ingredients. Cookie batter was flung and eaten by both of them, at one point they ran out of batter to actually bake. More was made and things became more serious, chocolate chips and nuts were thrown in. Finally the dough was placed on to a metal sheet and placed inside an oven to heat. Jonah and the Princess retired to the couch, accidently tripping over one another landing the Princess on top of Jonah. She immediately sat back up on the soft cushion;

“Woops! Sorry, hahaha!”

Jonah could barely control his laughter; he sat at the opposite end of the couch;

“Hahaha, it’s okay. Haha!”

Princess Celestia smiled as bright as the sun she lowered just hours ago;

“Oh, that brought me back to my days with my son.”

Jonah giggled a little, pleased to see the Princess so happy. Jonah took a pleasure in making the ones he held close to him happy, especially Cole. Jonah then caught the end of what the Princess just said;

“Wait, you have a son?”

“I had one. He was the most playful and happy little colt, in a way, you remind me a lot of him.”

“Really?”

“Yes, he always kept such an optimistic attitude and made others laugh. You also have his mullet, hmhm… with the exception of the ponytail on the back.”

Jonah put both hands to his hair, brushing his thick mullet back and poufing it up a bit. Princess Celestia asked Jonah;

“Have you always had that mullet?”

“Yeah, I put it up like this every day. I just love the shape, my brother had one like this when he was younger, then he started makin’ it pointier, like a crown almost.”

“What’s the story of that ponytail?”

Jonah gripped his ponytail;

“This has more emotional value to it; I’ve had this ever since someone very special gave it to me. When I was little, my parents left home for another two years after being home for only a week. I was alone to myself out in the street, and a girl came by. She gave me some good advice, and gave me the one of the cuffs on her trench coat. She told me to use it for my hair, sayin’ that it’d turn ridiculously long. I’ve been wearin’ it as a ponytail ever since. After that my brother and I ran away from home, and I never saw my parents again.”

Princess Celestia became concerned, realizing she was tapping into a sensitive memory. She confessed her own past to him;

“They must miss you both. I still miss my son, not a day goes by when I don’t think of him, and how he could have grown up, and what he would have become.”

Jonah realized what happened now, the Princess’s son died a long time ago. He did not want to continue the conversation, but he scooted closer to her and said;

“I’m so sorry; I shouldn’t have brought up what happened to me. I’m sorry…”

The Princess rested a hoof on Jonah’s back;

“No don’t be… I do miss him though, and I sometimes become upset, but I’m okay now. Are you okay, Jonah?”

Jonah took a moment to respond;

“I’m okay with everythin’ that happened, I moved on from that a long time ago. The only thin’ is… two years ago, my brother betrayed my team, and he tried to kill me and my friends and I haven’t seen him since then. I want to believe that my brother is okay now, and that he is tryin’ to become a better person, but… but… I’m sorry, everythin’ is too confusin’. When I first came here, I had these flashbacks of this really disturbin’ day from my childhood. It before my parents left home for the first time, it involved my brother. I put the pieces together from the flashbacks, and I came to a horrifyin’ conclusion about what happened that day, and finally realized what my brother tried to do to me back then. I think it transcends into what he tried to do two years ago.”

Princess Celestia sat there, letting Jonah pound his feelings into like a punching bag. Jonah concluded;

“I just don’t understand why I had those flashbacks, why then? Nothing changed except coming here.”

Princess Celestia breathed heavily;

“Maybe you miss your brother; maybe you’re only worried about him.”

“That’s what Cole told me, and I think you both could be right. But I can’t look for him, I’m probably the reason he betrayed our team in the first place. I dragged him through hell during those three years, I could tell that he hated every moment of traveling and fighting. I was the one who sent him off the edge.”

The Princess turned to Jonah and spoke to him with a serious tone;

“Do not say that, you are brave young man. It sounds to me that he left because he was a coward. You are the stronger one compared to him. You were able to put up with the senseless hardships that you and Cole faced, he wasn’t. You were able to handle the struggle and threats thrown by your opponent, and he wasn’t, he quit and you continued.”

Jonah felt uplifted, but only slightly. He replied;

“Thank you, Princess. But still, it doesn’t change my worries. I’ve been worried about a lot of things lately, Mina is missing, Halie has ‘at post trauma stress; I shouldn’t have to worry about my brother anymore. I should just be able to believe that he’s okay, and that he’s bettering himself. But those flashbacks, they’ve got me on edge. I don’t know what to do about it.”

“I’m sure things will become clear to you soon. I felt the same way years after I lost my son, I felt confused and unsure of myself, I realized later that it was my desire to be a mother again. A mother has her needs too… And the truth is, I still want to be a mother. I want to have the satisfaction of making a child happy, giving him a home, tucking him in at night, holding him, bathing him, playing with him… baking cookies with him…”

The Princess put a foreleg around Jonah. Jonah smelled the aroma of the heated cookie dough travel; he became tense from the Princess’s hints. He felt that his being there was tapping into the Princess’s thoughts too far. Jonah then understood why the Princess wanted him around, it made sense; comparing him to her deceased son, baking cookies for him, going on about her motherhood memories. He did not want to hurt the Princess, but even he knew that he could not be a son for the Princess. A ding interrupted the moment, Princess Celestia stood from the couch;

“Mmm! Cookies are done! Stay here; I’ll go get them.”

The Princess rushed to the kitchen, within a few moments she was back with a big plate of hot, fresh and delectable cookies. She said to Jonah;

“Let’s see how our project turned out, huh?”

Jonah reached for a cookie, then immediately dropped it when the melting chocolate chips scolded his fingers, he let out a yelp. The Princess grabbed Jonah’s hand to inspect;

“Oh no! I’m sorry I should have had us wait!”

The chocolate left a bright red mark on the tip of Jonah’s right index finger. Princess Celestia continued;

“Let’s get that under some cool water right away.”

“It’s okay, it doesn’t look bad.”

The Princess insisted;

“Don’t say that, now come on, sweetie.”

Jonah jumped at the Princess’s final word in that statement, he did not like where the situation was leading him to. Jonah was dragged off the couch to the kitchen area; the Princess ran his finger under some cool water. The water alleviated the burning sensation in Jonah’s finger, the Princess smiled and asked;

“There, better?”

Jonah said with a concerned voice;

“Yes, but Princess… Are you okay? You seem to be acting very strange right now…”

The Princess took a moment to respond;

“Why of course, I’m okay. Don’t worry.”

The two walked back to the couch. Jonah found himself on the couch alone; he looked over and saw that the Princess was standing still, head lowered. He wanted to help the Princess, but he had no choice other than to say;

“Princess, I’m very sorry for your loss. But I can’t be your son. I’m seventeen years old now; I’m pretty much an adult now.”

The Princess thought for a moment. She used her magic to turn the knob to the inner ring; the door opened and she looked up at Jonah and gave him a pleading look. Jonah understood the provocative alternative she had in mind, and said to her with stern words;

“There is no way… No, Princess… That wouldn’t even work…”

The Princess shut her eyes, she began to sob;

“Jonah… I’m so sorry! I must be going crazy; I can’t believe what I just attempted! I’m not okay, Jonah! I need help! All I want is to be a mother again, I miss my little boy! He had so much potential!”

Jonah did not know what to do, he only stood and watched. He was hesitant to provide physical comfort to her, afraid that it would only worsen her situation. Celestia sat on her floor and cried more;

“You must think I’m insane! I am aren’t I?”

Jonah said nothing, this out poor of emotion from the Princess made him think of his brother, how things were after he betrayed him, and the sadness he bottled up since then. Princess Celestia continued her cries;

“Just tell me the truth. Tell me I’ve lost my mind…”

Jonah forced himself to do something, anything. He ran to her and hugged her, his weight pushing Celestia backward. He nuzzled his head into her neck under her chin. He said to her;

“Princess, I believe you are a brave and strong person. But I think you suppress your emotions, I have the same problem… I hid my true feelings from my friends after my brother betrayed our team, I never allowed myself to feel any sadness or pain. That must be my problem…”

Jonah began to tear up; the Princess looked down at his face as it began to stream with tears, she stroked his shivering back. He spoke again;

“My suppressed feelings could be the reason why I had those flashbacks, and why they are bothering me so much. I think you’re experiencing it too.”

The Princess looked down at Jonah, she thought about what he said and smiled;

“Let’s go to sleep after we have these cookies. I want you to sleep with me in my bed, would you feel comfortable with that? All I need is for someone to hold me… Please?”

“Yes… I will.”

Jonah looked up, he noticed her smile, and he smiled back. They hugged each other a little tighter, before parting to the couch. After they dined on the desert they made together, they retired to the Princess’s royal bed. He was encased by the warm, furry coat of the sweet and caring Princess and for the first time in months, Jonah had a most peaceful sleep.

The next day:

Princess Celestia teleported Jonah back to Applejack’s barn. Halie and Cole stood outside on Applejack’s porch, waiting for them. When Jonah and the Princess appeared in front of the barn, Cole said to Halie;

“It’s time, Halie. Tell everyone else to come on out.”

Halie had recovered fully from the trauma brought on by the thunder; she smiled and said with great excitement;

“I’m on it!”

Halie ran into the barn as quick as she could run. Jonah and the Princess walked to Cole, Jonah said to Cole;

“Hey Cole, I trust it was a good night for you.”

Princess Celestia added to that;

“Halie seems a lot happier now.”

Cole smiled proudly;

“I know, and you’re not gonna believe what we have to announce now. Just wait for everyone else to come out.”

Moments later, Halie came out of the barn with Applejack, Twilight, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie following her. The five ponies talked amongst themselves as they came out, Rainbow Dash was continuing a conversation from inside the barn;

“I don’t get Rarity; she came back from vacation a month ago and now she won’t even leave her house for food!”

Twilight explained to Rainbow Dash;

“I told you, Rarity didn’t find out about that shooting three months ago until last month. She’s horrified because of it.”

Applejack suggested;

“She’s known about it for a month now; I think it’s about past time for her to get a grip on herself. I sure hope she ain’t nothin’ like how Halie is.”

Twilight declined Applejack’s assumption;

“No, Rarity would have had to experience something traumatic in order for her to be like Halie.”

Fluttershy suggested;

“I think later today, we should ALL go over to try and help her out. Maybe introduce her to Jonah and Cole.”

Pinkie Pie bounced, and said;

“Yeah! And we can bake her a super delicious cake!”

Rainbow Dash looked over at Jonah, then replied to Pinkie’s suggestion;

“Yeah, but first!”

Rainbow Dash zipped through the air, appearing in front of Jonah within half a second;

“WE’VE still got some unfinished business!”

Jonah and Rainbow Dash raced each other many times during the previous three months; each race was a longer distance. Jonah was confused as to why Rainbow said that they had “unfinished” business, Rainbow beats Jonah each time. Unless it was to rub his face into the fact that she was faster than him. Jonah ignored and stepped around Rainbow Dash. Jonah proceeded to ask Cole;

“Okay, Cole. What’s up?”

Halie stepped beside Cole; they both put their arms around one another. The ponies had looks of excitement, ready to hear whatever good news was to come from the young couple. Suspense was high, a moment of whispering and giggling between Cole and Halie passed. Halie finally delivered the news she had been waiting so eagerly to share all day;

“… I’m pregnant!”

The crowd of friends was silent; smiles began to develop on the faces of the ponies. Princess Celestia smiled the most, feeling the utmost happiness for Halie and Cole’s future. Jonah was the only one who wasn’t truly smiling, he faked a grin. His false grin did not last, his breaths became heavy and rapid, his pupils shrunk, sweat rolled from the pores of his forehead; dampening his thick brunette hair. Everyone began clapping their hooves and cheering in happiness. Jonah stood there stiff as a board, unable to process what has happened. He felt guilty, his heart made him feel like he should be happy that his best friend was finally going to have a son or daughter to call his own. But at the same time his mind was in a cataclysmic state, wondering just how the hell can Cole, at his age be able to raise a child. Cole was still sixteen, same with Halie. Jonah shook back and forth, he stepped back slowly, he turned to a bush that stood next to the fence surrounding Applejack’s barn, and he allowed himself to fall back first into it.

A night of sorrow and revelations were met. Two lost and confused souls let a tremendous amount of weight roll off their shoulders in the form of tears. They found peace within themselves and let themselves fall asleep in each other’s arms, peace was found inside of Jonah’s mind. This peace was not to last, with Cole and Halie now expecting, Jonah has felt an even worse form fear possess him. It was fear for Cole’s future, Cole himself was still a child, and Jonah did not want to watch his best friend fall under the stress of parenthood while trying to stay on task with his mission. Jonah did not know what sort of affects being a father would have on Cole, but he still did not like where it was leading. The day brought forth a new type of fear; it was fear of the unknown.

On top of this happening, who is this “Rarity” character that had been mentioned so many times?

Bolted Sealed Locked

Celebration was made. Eventually, Princess Celestia teleported back to her home in Canterlot, and the five ponies went to comfort their friend, Rarity. Jonah, Cole and Halie stayed at Applejack’s. Halie was outside ready to go to Rarity’s “Boutique” to meet back up with the others. Jonah and Cole had a private conversation in Applejack’s living room;

“WHAT THE FUCK!?”

“Look, Jonah. I know this is a shock to you since we’re both from Earth and we’ve seen a lot in the media about THIS kind of thing. But we’re not on Earth anymore; we don’t have the same restrictions and opportunities as they do. So maybe having this baby with Halie won’t be as bad as it could be on Earth.”

Jonah gripped bundles of hair from his mullet; he paced in small circles;

“You don’t know that!”

“Jonah calm down, it’s not like we’re in school or anything.”

“We have a serial killer maniac on our hands! And Mina is still missing!”

“For NOW we do, we can just look Mina and this killer more thoroughly. I’m sure both can be accomplished before the baby arrives.”

Jonah was not sure what to say;

“Cole!… Cole… ugh… What happened?”

Cole grinned for a second;

“Um… we had sex…?”

“No! I mean before, how did it come to that?”

Cole thought for a moment;

“Halie, she was having another episode. I didn’t know how to calm her down so… things happened… and eventually… yeah.”

The two sat together on the living room couch, silent for a moment. Jonah’s arms pressed against the cushions of his seat. Cole twiddled his fingers around, looking down to the floor. Jonah asked Cole;

“Cole? Are you ready for this? This kind of responsibility? It’ll be so different… and I’m afraid for you.”

Cole did not respond, instead he put a hand on Jonah’s shoulder jolting him lightly. Cole gave Jonah an assuring smile, and then moved his hand to Jonah’s face to fake slap his cheek for a matter of seconds. The two boys sat there together for a while.

Later:

The boutique was quiet, hollow, and polished. A sweet fragrance bounced from all angles of the building, encasing the many hoof-made dresses in a marvelous scent. Twilight, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy and Applejack were in the front lobby of the boutique waiting for their sixth member of their friendship ring. Time passed, and Jonah, Cole and Halie finally arrived; the front door led them to the same lobby that the five ponies once were, no one was in sight. Cole asked rhetorically;

“Where is everyone?”

Jonah tried calling out toward the ceiling;

“Anyone here!?”

A few seconds passed with no response. Then suddenly, knocking was heard from the top of a stairwell, followed by Twilight’s voice;

“Rarity! Come out of that room!”

Jonah, Cole and Halie followed the voice up the stairs. Before them were the five ponies and a humongous cake baked by Pinkie Pie. The five friends were arguing with a trans-Atlantic accent from behind the sealed door;

“I’m not coming out until that wicked BEAST is gone! So we might as well part ways my friends!”

Fluttershy pleaded with Rarity;

“Please Rarity! Come out, we’re only trying to help you, we’re all scared of that big meanie…”

“’Meanie’? Perhaps you know not of the severity of the situation! He’s a MONSTER!”

Rainbow Dash flew to the door and scolded at Rarity;

“Come on, Rarity! Get your prissy butt outta there before I have to break through a window and force you out!”

“Just leave! I want to be safe in my room, locked away from that horrible scoundrel!”

Applejack’s patience wore to its thinnest, she pushed her friends aside and approached Rarity’s bedroom door. Applejack turned around leaning down while keeping her rear end high;

“Allow me, gals. Alright Sugarcube, ya got five seconds ta open ‘is door ‘ere! One!”

“You go away, Applejack! You especially! I’m so stressed right now; you’re the last pony I should be around right now!”

A matter of seconds and bickering passed. Then like a lightning bolt, Applejack threw her strength into her back-legs and kicked the door to Rarity’s room into pieces. The fragments of wood flew through the once bolted and locked room, the five ponies stepped in, followed the three adolescents. Looking around the room revealed a beautifully maintained bedroom and workshop, filled with blueprints for pony sized dresses and accessories. The source of the anxiety ridden sixth was neither heard nor seen. Everyone looked about the room; the five ponies looked thoroughly for their isolated friend. Finally, Rainbow Dash saw it, a silk purple tail poking itself from under the queen sized bed. Rainbow sunk down to the floor and grabbed the shiny tail with her teeth, dragging a white-coated unicorn pony out from under the plush mattress. Rainbow Dash let go of the squirming mare;

“Here she is!”

Before she could run away, Twilight used her telekinetic magic to bring Rarity to her;

“Rarity! We’re here to help you! You’ve been like this for a month!”

Rarity used her telekinesis to pry herself from Twilight’s magical grip;

“I’m surprised YOU are not scarred, Twilight! You’re a unicorn too!”

“I am afraid too Rarity, the only difference between you and I is that I’m remaining strong! You won’t even set hoof outside this boutique!”

“It’s easy for you to be strong. You’re the one with all the GOOD magic. I only possess the flash, but I can’t say the same for any substance… Any useful substance at that…”

Twilight looked saddened;

“Rarity… You’re very useful to us.”

Pinkie Pie jumped between the two;

“Yeah! Who else could make a dress as good as the one you made for me! It was made of candy for pony’s sake!”

Rairty sighed heavily;

“That’s just it! Twilight, you have your vast and spine chilling magic… Rainbow Dash, you have incredible speed and agility… Applejack, you have your powerful DOOR CRUSHING strength… Fluttershy, you have your kind and calming words for when the tension is too high among us, as well as hospitality for when we’re harmed… And Pinkie Pie, you have your sense of optimism to keep us going… But what do I have? What does Rarity have that can help anyone?”

The room began to feel cold, a wave of guilt speared into the hearts of Rarity’s friends. Jonah, Cole and Halie did not know what to say, they only watched and waited for something to happen. Rarity became distracted from her self-loathing, she finally noticed the three humans standing idly by in her room. She walked to Cole and said;

“Oh my, I’m terribly sorry. It was not polite of me to not introduce myself, I am Rarity, the fashionista and dress designer of town and… I think that’s all there is to it. Would it be safe to assume that you three are the ones who have come to find the… killer…?”

Cole examined Rarity;

“Yeah, that’s us. The name’s Cole. This is Jonah and Halie.”

Cole pointed to Jonah and Halie respectively as he talked. Fluttershy walked to Rarity’s side and said;

“We’ve brought them here to help you feel safer; they’re trying very hard to locate this criminal.”

Jonah added to Fluttershy’s statement;

“We haven’t got him yet. We actually haven’t seen or heard anythin’ about him since the shoot-out. The General we work for just says that nothing is happenin’, and that nothin’ has been reported. I guess we can all assume that there haven’t been any murders since then.”

Twilight put a hoof on Rarity’s back;

“You see, Rarity? They’re here to help us; as long as they are around we’ll be okay. They’re skilled fighters, equipped with powerful abilities. They are experienced in adventure and hunting. If anyone can find the killer, it’s them.”

Rarity shut her eyes tight;

“I… I’m still not coming out! I want to know that the killer is gone before I do! You can’t make me come out, so you all might as well leave!”

“But Rarity-!”

“No.”

“Listen, Sugar-!”

“No!”

“If you just-!”

“NO! Now leave my shop!”

“But I’ve got this yummy cake-!”

“GET OUT!”

Within seconds, all of them save for Rarity was outside the boutique. Applejack threw her hat to the ground and stomped it into the dirt;

“Con-sarnit! We gotta git her outta ‘at shop!”

Rainbow flew to Applejack;

“Well what are we gonna do?”

Fluttershy gently flew closer and answered;

“Um… panic?”

“That’s your answer to everything!”

Twilight sighed and rolled her eyes as her friends bickered. She began walking away, and then a look of enlightenment crossed her face. Twilight turned to Jonah, Cole and Halie;

“Hey, you three. Come with me to the library! I have an idea!”

Twilight galloped towards her library, the three friends shrugged their shoulders and followed, leaving the rest of the ponies to argue.

A new project is to come; whatever Twilight has up her sleeve just might be what Rarity needs to see. At the same time, nothing is mentioned by General Canis regarding the serial killer. What is happening? Why would the serial killer just all of a sudden vanish after the shooting he committed? What of Mina? Where has she been in the past three months?

Age Spell

Jonah, Cole and Halie entered the library, Jonah was instantly at the grasp of Spike’s trademark soul creeping stare. Spike has been sweeping up the library floor with an old broom, the motions of the sweeping slowed as he stared at the mullet headed boy. Jonah had enough of this awkwardness between them; he raised his hands in confusion and looked back at Spike with a scowling set of eyes. Spike returned the same expression, he threw the broom he worked with to the ground and walked up the stairs behind him. Without knowing, Twilight had been talking since they entered the library, Twilight noticed Jonah’s distraction;

“Hey!”

Jonah directed his attention to the purple unicorn;

“Hm? Oh sorry. What was it you were saying?”

“I was saying that when Lemmour was here last year, Princess Celestia told him and me the story of your power’s origins. It turns out, you have a modified version of unicorn magic, and they are modified to be more powerful but are limited in variety. I have a hunch that if I used my magic on you, then you could be able to learn new abilities.”

The three were surprised that the very place they were investigating was the birthplace of the powers they possessed. They were confused while at the same time intrigued. Halie asked Twilight;

“How does this help Rarity? How is it going make her see that Ponyville is safe?”

“Because, if I can teach you three some new extraordinary magic, then you can show her what you learned. If she sees that you can perform the same tricks as I can, then she may feel safe enough knowing that she has multiple sources of powerful magic protecting her!”

The three looked at each other and shrugged their shoulders; they agreed to give Twilight’s plan a shot. Twilight smiled and said;

“Excellent! Your lessons begin now. You can feel free to stay for the night for more practice or studying. It’s always good to know the history of the magic you can perform.”

Twilight turned to one of the many bookshelves; she looked for a moment and used her magic to obtain a tattered, leather-bound, red book. She sent it into Jonah’s hands; the three friends gathered around to look through it. Twilight said to them;

“This is my first book I got about magic, it will help you three a lot.”

Looking through the old book, the three blew away obstructing dust to reveal lists of spells and hand drawn pictures of ponies from millenniums ago, creating their own magic. There were spells for energy, healing, telekinesis, mind reading, pyrokinesis, electrokinesis, atmosphere manipulation, gem tracking, and pages more. Twilight grabbed their attention;

“I’m going to try an energy spell; maybe it will unlock the ability for you to learn new magic.”

The three stood together, they watched as Twilight’s horn glowed a bright shade purple. Seconds later came a blast of greens, blues, reds, and whites. The lights encased the three, and they all fell to their knees. The light disintegrated into the air, the three stood to their feet again feeling light-headed. Twilight jumped to Halie’s side and said;

“Try telekinesis, focus your thoughts and power on the book that Jonah is holding.”

Halie looked to the red book Jonah held; he turned towards Halie to give her a clear view. Halie stared at the spine of the book, focusing her thoughts on levitating it. She extended her arm and aimed her palm to the book to better focus her energy. Cole and Jonah watched with anticipation, curious to see whether or not they could learn more than just the primary powers they possessed. Halie continued to try her hardest to move the book in anyway. Suddenly a spark formed in Halie’s mind, her hand began to glow a faint yellow. The light grew brighter and bigger, the opacity was at its fullest, and without her knowing Jonah’s body became surrounded in the same color. Jonah yelled;

“Woah! Hey! Halie!”

Halie’s eyes shot open, she saw Jonah surrounded in the same light as her hand was in. She swung her hand back on impulse, and Jonah went flying crossed the room, hitting his back on one of the bookshelves. Jonah sat up slowly, his back cracked. Halie looked at her hand and smiled;

“Twilight, you did it! We can learn new powers now!”

Twilight smiled, proud of her proven hypothesis. Cole’s mouth dropped; he instantly lifted the book that Jonah dropped in midair. He flipped through the book to find more complex spells; he found one that send frequencies to objects, making the selected object explode on impact. Cole walked to Twilight and crouched down to her to show her the spell he wanted to perform;

“I wanna do this one! How do I make shit blow up?”

Twilight glanced over the spells description;

“Oh the fragmentation spell, it looks really difficult; it’s recommended that you master telekinesis and pyrotechnics before trying it.”

“Damn. Well I’m gonna try it!”

Twilight rolled her eyes;

“If you’re going to do it, do it outside.”

“Sure.”

Cole took the book with him and exited the library, giddy to try out what he discovered. Jonah stood up and fixed his damaged mullet. He tried to use telekinesis on one of the books on the shelves behind him, he focused for roughly thirty seconds determined to move at least one book. His hand glowed a calm blue color, and a small book levitated in front of him. Jonah smiled at his success, and twisted the book around with his fingertips. Then something in his mind struck him, it was a flashback to when he was of the age of three.

It was the year 1999; Jonah and his older brother were outside shooting each other with plastic squirt guns filled with water. At this age, Jonah was not able to perform his ice power he had gotten a decade later; instead he had to use his wits and raw stealth to blast Seth with water. Going up against Seth was no use; the older brother would often use his own telekinesis to maneuver the water gun into the tiny crevices that Jonah hid in that Seth could not physically reach. Seth would fire water at Jonah until he was on the ground in brutal defeat. Seth would look down at his dominated younger brother and laugh childishly. It was during the moment of defeat that Jonah would conceal his weapon behind him and unscrew cap of the water supply, then swing the uncovered weapon up to sling water into Seth’s face. Jonah’s flashback ended, the book was on the floor while his hand remained elevated. Jonah wasn’t bothered by the flashback; to him it was only a mere memory that triggered when he performed the very power that Seth used most.

An explosion was heard from outside the library. Jonah, Halie and Twilight exited the front door to investigate the noise. A black streak was left in the burned grass; it led to a large rock that had been moved some. The opposite end of the steaming grass showed Cole on his rump, his hair was blown back and his face had been covered in ash. Halie gasped and ran to Cole, helping him up and holding him close. Cole announced that he was just fine. Jonah used his new found telekinesis to levitate the spell book that Cole dropped into his hands. Jonah flipped through the book, and found a spell under the “advanced” section. Jonah became curious and pointed it to Twilight, Twilight’s eyes jittered;

“The age spell? There’s no way you can do that, I can’t even do it. The age spell is only for the highest level unicorns.”

Jonah did not let Twilight’s facts dissipate his interest; he picked a dandelion from the ground and stuck it in the page containing the spell’s information for later study.

The night came. Cole and Halie had gone back to Applejack’s barn to retire for the night. Jonah took advantage of Twilight’s offer and decided to stay overnight and read more about the many spell books she supplied. Jonah opened the tattered book back to the page he marked the dandelion with; he read more about the age spell, learning that only few ponies have been able to use it successfully and consistently. Twilight was getting ready for bed; she walked into the lobby where Jonah sat on the floor. She let her curiosity stroll her way behind Jonah to see what he was reading so deeply about. Twilight giggled;

“You still want to learn that spell don’t you?”

Jonah nodded in agreement, Twilight use her telekinesis to lift a plant up from one of the bookshelves. Her power carried the plant to the floor in front of Jonah, she said to him;

“It’s good to start out small, but let me know how you do. I’m going to bed; don’t be up too late, okay?”

Jonah gave no response; he glanced at the book again, then to the plant. The plant was a white flower, thin with skinny petals. Jonah began to focus his energy on the plant, aiming both palms at it, trying to get it to reverse to its younger budding state. Hours passed, no visible changes could be seen in the white flora, but Jonah remained determined. Another matter of hours flew by, Jonah sat in his same location, and he could feel the blood gather and clot beneath his thighs. More hours came, his senses became higher; the hairs of his head scrapped the small particles of his scalp as they pushed up and out. His eyes stung as the tiny red vessels stiffened around the dry white sphere they hugged. Each breath he took rocked each of the puny hairs deep in his nostrils. The hours passing became challenging, Jonah’s own gravity and weight were betraying him. He would constantly slouch over in exhaust, and then quickly pick himself back up. The process repeated itself for many nights to come.

One month later:

Jonah would take breaks during the day, but during the night was when he put all his focus into performing the age spell. Over the month, the only souls that died were the ones of the many plants Jonah would experiment on, and often neglect their need for hydration or sunlight. The amount of time Jonah spent with the plants, became concerning to his friends. Cole would sometimes stay at Twilight’s house with Jonah and practice magic with him, rarely would Jonah sleep at Applejack’s barn. Cole perfected the fragmentation spell, and would blow up many stacks of blank paper and scrolls until Twilight would catch him and scold him for performing such a hazardous spell inside the library. One night came, Twilight tried to get Jonah to rest from his study;

“Now, Jonah. I’m pretty big on learning and studying myself, but you’ve got to stop trying to get this spell to work. The age spell takes years to perfect, like I’ve said, even I can’t do it. Plus let’s not forget why I even suggested learning new magic.”

Twilight’s intentions with the magic had been met weeks ago already. Jonah and Cole had finally gotten Rarity’s attention and showed her a marvelous display of what they like to call their “dual-firework spell.” It was a massive show of lights and explosions, with the exciting sounds of crackles and pops, all spread out across the star filled night of Ponyville. Rarity, for the first time in over a month took a step out of her home. Since then her friends have been getting her reacquainted with Ponyville, and calming her worries. Jonah knowing this, argued with Twilight;

“It’s just somethin’ I wanna try. Plus Rarity is all better now.”

“Rarity may not be the only pony who could get stuck in the same situation! And this age spell isn’t just something you want to try anymore, it’s become an obsession!”

Jonah gripped his mullet, trying to think of an argument;

“Twilight, I think I need to learn this. I don’t know what it is but when I found this spell, it just screamed at me to try it!”

Twilight stomped the ground of the library;

“Fine, keep sitting there.”

Twilight walked up the stairs of her library with frustration;

Jonah kept focusing on the flower in front of him. One hour passed and Cole came by;

“Hey, buddy. I hardly see you anymore at Applejack’s. Come on, take a break from that and let’s grab a bite to eat.”

“Hang on, Cole. I’m still workin’ on this.”

Cole rolled his eyes, he kneeled to Jonah. He raised his hand to his face and fake slapped him to distract him;

“Come on! You need to take a break for once, I know General Canis hasn’t said anything in a while but MY GOD, you’ve been sitting here like a damn Chinese monk or something!”

Jonah smirked a little. Cole could tell he was getting somewhere, he continued;

“Are you a chink, Jonah?”

Jonah chuckled, trying to hold his laugh and concentrate on his project at the same time. Cole bucked his teeth and pulled the skin around his eyes to squint them;

“Do you rike a shalty egg rorr, Jonah-san?”

Jonah laughed aloud, no longer holding back. Cole laughed with him, Jonah added to the joke with a fake Asian accent;

“Wow mishter Cole-shan, I sure hope your new baby ishn’t a girl, or elshe I may have to put her in shweat shop, becaushe I Chineshe!”

Cole busted into laughter, slouching over and pounding the floor with a balled fist. After a few moments of laughter, Cole wiped his eye of a happy tear;

“Okay, come on zipper-head… Jonah?”

Cole looked down to see Jonah, he was passed asleep. The laughter broke the camel’s back and knocked Jonah out. It was understandable; he had not had a goodnights rest in many weeks. Cole lifted Jonah off the ground with telekinesis, and carried him back to Applejack’s barn, leaving the spell book and plant behind them.

By the time Cole returned to the barn with his sleeping friend, it was still morning. Halie was kneeled over the toilet seat in the hall bathroom, across from their bedroom. Halie had been sick from her pregnancy every morning for the last few weeks; Applejack would often be behind her to give her comfort as she let her twisted stomach release itself. She heard Cole coming up the steps, she leaned her weary and sick head towards the door to see him. She and Applejack were surprised to see Jonah with him, more so to see him knocked out and levitating at the hand of Cole’s power. Halie gathered her strength and stood back up to go see her friend. Applejack called out to her;

“Be careful, and watch where yer steppin’ Sugarcube.”

Halie tumbled over her own footsteps as she went to check on her sleeping friend. Cole had just laid Jonah onto the bed. Halie staggered to Cole. She grabbed onto him for support, saying to him;

“Cole… I feel so sick…”

Cole held Halie close; he stroked her blonde hair, and gave her encouraging words with a soothing voice;

“It’s only your first trimester; it will be over soon… Soon we’ll have our beautiful little son or daughter, to love and to care for.”

“We still haven’t come up with a name.”

“Maybe we should figure that out once we know what the gender will be.”

“I wonder who the baby will look like; I’d like it to have your rosy cheeks.”

Halie giggled, Cole chuckled in response and said;

“I’d like it to have your delighting eyes.”

The two held each other for a moment, embracing each other in happiness and excitement for their child’s arrival, even though it was still expected to be eight months away. Cole kissed Halie’s forehead, he said to her;

“Lay down in the bed with Jonah for a while, you need your rest, and so does he. Yell for me if you need anything, okay?”

Halie nodded, she slowly moved to the side of the bed where Jonah wasn’t, she slipped herself under the soft and warm covers and shut her eyes. Cole walked to the window and pulled down the curtains so that Halie could rest without so much bright sunlight. Cole exited the room with four brief words;

“I love you, Halie.”

Halie smiled in rapture and returned;

“I love you, Cole.”

Cole shut the door, and Halie slept, wrapped in a cocoon of sentiment.

The rest Halie felt that day could only be described as magic; she and Cole had never been as close as they were just then. It was the very definition of beauty, a bond that began with Cole as on edge as a cricket evolved and blossomed into the climax of his and Halie’s lives. No sort of hardships could break them; they were locked together in harmony and pure love.

Ambushed

The time was upon them, they entered General Canis’ office with the dire information regarding the unicorn serial killer. Cole told Halie to stay home for safety, leaving Jonah, Cole and Spike to take care of business. Canis had his head sunk low, he spoke with his slow and dry voice;

“What is it?”

Jonah did not question the General’s cold, cutting voice;

“We have extremely important information, it’s astounding, and it may just change what little we know about this killer. Spike, tell the General what you saw.”

Spike stood on one of the chairs in front of the desk to give himself better ethos as he talked;

“When the killer got my brother, Lemmour, he wasn’t a unicorn in a mask. He was a human, like Jonah and Cole, here.”

The General stiffened a bit; he dragged his neck muscles to look up at the three. He asked them;

“Then… there must be two different killers out there…”

Cole denied the idea;

“No, that would be impossible, sir. The weapon according to Spike was the same weapon as the one Jonah and I saw when the shooting happened.”

Spike backed up his argument;

“He also wore this black leather cloak!”

Jonah added to his and Cole’s description;

“The same cloak that the killer wore when he shot up that school.”

The General looked down and choked a little. Jonah began to notice something in the General’s eyes and posture, it was fear. Jonah continued examining the General’s movements as Cole spoke;

“With this information, we can conclude that either this serial killer was BORN a human, or he’s some kind of odd being from a foreign planet. Either way I think what we have here is relevant.”

The General shook his head violently; he looked up quick with regained calmness;

“Good, this information is most likely worth a great deal, I’m glad you three brought it to me. I’ll have this information recorded. I’m also glad you’re here this morning, because I have a new mission for you.”

The skin of Jonah’s forehead clenched to the bridge of his nose, he found the coincidence of a new mission arriving on the same day of this reported information to be unbelievable. Cole however had eagerly awaiting a new assignment for the last six months, Cole asked without hesitation;

“Oh sweet, what do ya want from us, General?”

“I want you to investigate an abandoned psychiatric asylum in Manehatten. Several residents in the neighborhood near it reported hearing banging noises, like explosions. It could be the serial killer’s hideout and place to fire some practice rounds.”

“We’re on the case, come on guys.”

Cole and Spike left the office through the portal to Ponyville. Jonah was slow to pass through; he could tell that there was something suspicious brewing.

The three friends approached the Ponyville train station, Cole was ready to buy tickets with the bits he had earned doing various odd jobs around town during their down time in the last six months. Jonah told Cole;

“Cole, I don’t think we should go on this mission…”

“What? Why not, we’ve been sitting on our asses for months waiting for this guy to show up.”

“I know, but don’t you think it’s odd that the General would have this ‘new report’ on the same day we give him important information regarding the killer’s identity?”

Cole thought for a moment, Jonah continued;

“Plus, the General seemed extremely nervous when we presented it to him. I was looking at his body language and listening to the way he was talking, it didn’t seem right.”

“I suppose you have a point. But at the same time this whole planet is depending on us to find this serial killer. Even if it’s a trap, we can escape, and possibly come back with more information.”

Jonah was still hesitant;

“How can we be so sure that we can get out of any traps if there are any? At the school we barely got away, the shell in my foot was a perfect example of that.”

“’How can we be so sure?’ We’re humans! We’ve got something these ponies only WISH they could have, WE HAVE DICK!”

Spike muttered;

“What are you talking about!? If I’m able to see mare vagina every day without even TRYING then the stallions OBVIOUSLY have-!”

“Shut up, Spike! Also, Jonah, we’re from Earth, and people kill each other every damn day there. We have an advantage from being witnesses! That AND we have these new powers, I can blow shit up and you’ve mastered telekinesis.”

The little purple dragon muttered again, sarcastically;

“Because that’s SUCH a hard power to use…”

“SHUT UP! Now we’re getting on that train, and we’re going to nab this killer in the ass!”

Jonah thought of Cole’s lecture, though irrelevant and for the most part untrue, it motivated him. Jonah nodded and smiled, and the three friends boarded the train to Manehatten.

Later:

They exited the train; the towering cities of Manehatten intimidated the three. They were so use to the country side of Equestria, that the thoughts of enormous cities such as this was unthinkable. They walked through the narrow streets of the seemingly endless rows of multi-floored buildings and soon gained some peculiar looks from many residents. Jonah looked at some of the antagonizing eyes he was attracting; he bent down to Spike;

“What the hell is wrong with these ponies? They all look so hateful; they’re all lookin’ right at us!”

“Manehatten isn’t especially known for having a friendly atmosphere, but I will say, I feel just as uncomfortable as you right now.”

Jonah directed his words to Cole;

“Man, I don’t like this…”

Cole could tell what made Jonah so tense;

“I know, it’s like these ponies got some kind of beef with us or something.”

The three kept walking through the angered street, as casually as possible. They turned left on the street leading to the asylum, after the turn, a stallion who passed Cole perched his head back and then forward and spat on Cole’s sleeve. Cole turned to the stallion, furious;

“The fuck!? What’s your problem?”

Spike and Jonah stopped and stood on Cole’s sides to back him up in the event of any physical violence. The spitting stallion laughed sarcastically;

“Really? You can’t think of any reason why any of us would at the least be annoyed with y’all? After the neglect Equestria has been feeling for the last several months?”

More ponies began to gather around the conflict, Jonah picked up Spike and held him for protection. Cole continued to argue with the stallion;

“What the hell are you talking about? What neglect? No one has asked for us!”

“Wow, really!? Everyone across Equestria has reported about that serial killer! He’s been sneaking into countless homes slaughtering every unicorn in sight! There have been hundreds of reports straight to your General! From here,”

The building crowd of ponies spoke at random turns; Cole, Jonah and Spike’s shocked mentalities grew at each term;

“-Las Pegasus!”

“-Manesachusetts!”

“-Applelossa!”

“-Foal Mountain!”

“-Vanhoover!”

“-Baltimare!”

Many other names were brought to the three friends’ attention. Jonah began to sweat, perspiration dampened his neck collar, and his legs began to shake. The crowd inched its weight closer and closer to the small team, the air became difficult to breath. Spike raised his head to Jonah’s ear and whispered to him quietly;

“Get us outta here…!”

Jonah activated his power of flight; he levitated five feet into the air and yelled;

“Cole! Grab on and let’s go!”

Cole looked up and latched to Jonah’s shins, the crowd below them closed in just after the ascended, trying to jump high and pull them down. Many angry Pegasus ponies flew up to follow us; Cole would fire warning shots of lightning randomly in the distance to frighten them away. Jonah flew higher eventually reaching hundreds of feet above the broad city. Jonah flew back towards Ponyville, using the railway below their flying feet to guide them back. Jonah spoke sadly;

“This whole time… The General… he’s been sabotaging us… and his own kind…”

Cole added;

“That cunning piece of shit, this time we’re gonna whip some ass!”

Spike asked, unsure of the situation;

“Is it safe to assume that… General Canis is the serial killer…?”

Jonah answered Spike with;

“No… Canis is a Pegasus, not a unicorn. Then again the serial killer already uses a morphing ability. But still, the General can’t be the one behind the murders, though he has to be affiliated…”

Later:

The General sat idly in his office; he fiddled with something under his desk, something with a bright screen and buttons beneath it. The strange technology was encased in shiny plastic. The General’s concentration on the device was disrupted by a loud entrance; it was Jonah, Cole and Spike. Cole slammed his hands on the General’s desk;

“It’s over! We know you’ve been sabotaging us! We know about the reports that YOU never alerted us about! And now, everyone in Equestria is pissed at us because of YOU!”

Spike added to what Cole said;

“I’m sending a letter to Luna right now! You’re going down!”

The General placed his advanced technology on the desk in front of him, he breathed heavily and smiled. Jonah looked at the device; it took him a couple glances to process it;

“A… CELL PHONE!?”

Jonah was confused, from what he saw over the previous six months electrical technology in Equestria was extremely limited. Spike asked Jonah;

“What’s a Cell-?”

The General yelled loudly;

“GUARDS!”

Within a second, a plethora of the General’s personal guards busted through the door and crowded around the three friends. The guards apprehended the three boys; they were suffocated by the push and pull of the many Pegasi that betrayed them. The three were hand-cuffed and silenced by a tied cloth around the mouth. The General instructed his guards;

“Take them to the jail cells; I’ll inform the master about this after the takeover. Speaking of which… let’s get this thing started, tell the press that their serial killer problem is ‘over’, hahaha… Say that these three have their thumbs up their rumps or something, I don’t know.”

The guards dragged the three boys out of the room and down the hall as they squirmed and struggled. They were taken to a dark cell, and locked down by thick metal bars.

Something big was about to go down, the truth was about to be revealed. The endgame was upon them, and it would be the most crushing, disgusting and heart twisting events in not only Equestria, but for Jonah, Cole and Halie as well.

Mute

It was only a matter of hours after the daily paper hit the doorsteps of everyone’s homes. Immediately there were dances in the streets, cheering and laughing, and sighs of relief. Halie and Applejack sat on the porch together, rocking back and forth in their squeaking rocking chairs. Applejack picked up the newspaper, reading the biggest Headline on the first page;

“Yeeee haw! They got ‘im! Jonah and Cole got ‘im! WOOO-weee!”

Halie sat from her chair and looked over Applejack’s shoulder; Halie read the headline aloud;

“’SERIAL KILLER FOUND AND EXECUTED TODAY!’ Oh my god! They did do it!”

Applejack sprang from her chair jumping with Halie; Halie held her hooves as they both danced happily. Halie stopped and asked;

“But, where are Jonah and Cole?”

“Hm, that’s a good point, let’s see…”

Applejack skimmed the article;

“Ah! It says right ‘cheer! They weren’t able to be reached for questionin’… It also says there’s a celebratory victory party tonight in Canterlot, everyone is invited! I betcha it’s gonna be packed!”

An idea sparked in Halie’s mind;

“Ohh! Let’s go see Rarity and get some nice dresses!”

Applejack was never fond of “dollin’” herself up for formal occasions, especially if it meant having to be fitted for the “perfect” dress at the hands of Ponyville’s best dress maker. Applejack rolled her eyes;

“I was a twinge afraid you’d ask ‘at…”

Meanwhile:

The guards finally walked away from the locked cell containing their new prisoners. Once they were out of sight and obstructed by the large metal door down the dusty hall, Cole fired small bolts of electricity from his cuffed wrists to corrode the metal bondage and break free. Cole freed Jonah and Spike and removed the cloth that disabled their speech. Spike jumped towards the bars and grabbed them, trying to push his small body through the gaps, it was no use. Spike sat in the corner of the cell between the concrete wall and bars; he asked Jonah and Cole;

“How do we get out of here?”

Cole remained quiet, trying to think of a way out. Jonah leaned against the wall and pulled his mullet down, he said with disappointment and guilt;

“This is my fault… I knew I shoulda pieced all of this together sooner… we could have made it out a lot sooner, and not be stuck in so much trouble…”

Cole comforted his friend;

“Jonah, no. This isn’t your fault, I shouldn’t have told you to be less hesitant, and your attention to detail could have saved us. That mission to the asylum was probably a bomb waiting for us or something…”

Jonah didn’t respond, instead a flash of all his life and all his adventures until the present point ran across his mind. The strand of memories that came emphasized many souls he encountered in his life; Cole, Halie, Princess Celestia, the General, Mina, his father, his mother and finally his brother. Within moments he gathered up everything he saw and pieced it together into something he deemed unbelievable, he suppressed it, trying his hardest to ignore the inevitable;

“It don’t matter right now. We need to get out of here.”

An idea sparked in Spike’s mind;

“Cole! Use your fragmentation spell on those bars!”

“Oh! Holy shit, I can’t believe I didn’t think of that.”

Cole pointed to the row of bars and fired a magic pulse to them, an explosion was made and the bars were reduced to thin stacks of crumbled rock. The three pushed the debris out of their path and ran down the hall to the exit. They barged through the thick metal door, only to be ambushed by ten stallion guards. Jonah, Cole and Spike prepared themselves for the onslaught of the many ponies opposing them.

Ice was blasted and lightning was fired, all the ponies were either frozen or stunned by shots of electricity. The three boys ran past all of them, they came to another hallway. At the end was the General’s office, which contained the portal required for a straight transfer back to Ponyville. Cole approached the door, Jonah stopped him;

“No! If he knows we’re out, then every guard in the buildin’ is gonna be after us! We’ll have to go back on our own.”

“Yeah, you’re right. Let’s find a way out.”

The three crept down the opposite way of the hall, trying their hardest not to alert anyone. They approached a door, the peaked in to see a small room containing shelves of files and folders, at the end was a window. Spike suggested;

“No one is in here, let’s go out that window!”

Jonah nodded;

“Good idea, hopefully this place ain’t too far of a flight to Ponyville.”

The team entered the room; Cole opened the window and received piles of falling snow to the face. He shook all of the snow off his head and looked outside to see snow covered hills and frozen terrain stretching for miles. He tightened his vision to try and find any signs of Ponyville, or any civilization for that matter;

“I can’t see any towns or anything; it’s all just snow covered mountains! It’s a damn blizzard out there!”

Spike stiffened his stance;

“BLIZARD!? I can’t be out there! I’m cold-blooded! I could die out there!”

Jonah shook his head;

“No matter!” Spike hop on my shoulders, Cole grab on to me once I’m out!”

Jonah kneeled down to allow Spike to climb his back and rest his thighs on Jonah’s shoulders. Jonah stood back up and jumped out the window, floating stationary in midair to allow Cole to grab his legs. Once Cole and Spike were secure, Jonah soared against the thick blizzard, struggling to break through the hurling winds and snow that pushed him and blocked his sight.

As if the atmosphere was not enough to slow the boys, a loud “BANG” was heard from behind them. Spike kept surveillance and looked back towards the sounds origin. It was the General flying towards them, on his back he carried another pony robed in black leather and wearing a mask and wielding a long object with a handle and trigger. Spike tugged Jonah’s mullet;

“It’s them, the General and the serial killer!”

Jonah and Cole looked back together, the serial killer was aiming his shotgun at them, preparing to fire again. Cole was ready, with one hand wrapped around his flying friend’s legs; he used the other to charge up an intense bolt of lightning. Cole sprang his fingertips at the serial killer letting a bright strike of lightning travel to his enemy. The shooter raised a hoof and deflected the blast back at the three; a loud scream was heard from Spike. Cole looked up at the purple dragon, a large jagged burn mark was carved into his abdomen, and it began to bleed. Spike’s grip on Jonah’s head tightened, then gradually loosened, Jonah yelled;

“Spike, hold on tight!”

“I… I can’t… I’m not feeling good… the air… it’s too cold for me… This wound is only making it worse…”

The General was gaining on them; more shells were fired by the shooter on his back, each one missing. At the sound of each fire the three became more scared than before. Jonah was scared for Spike; his cold-blooded interior was failing him. Jonah told Cole;

“DO SOMETHING!”

“I CAN’T! HE’LL FUCKING SEND OUR ATTACKS BACK AT US!”

“TRY ANYWAY!”

Cole looked back at the duo closing in on them. He charged his power, and then sent a pulse of his fragmentation spell towards them; the serial killer raised a hoof to the pulse approaching him. The pulse was much for the shooter to bear; he deflected half of the blast. While the other half of the fragmentation struck his mask, the small explosion cracked the metal plating. The deflected shot hit the three, causing Cole to let go of Jonah’s legs and fall to the snow covered ground.

Jonah descended to the ground and assisted Cole. Cole stood up again and dusted the ashes of his burned clothes off his arm. Jonah was distracted by the drowsy dragon on his shoulders, Spike pointed to the silhouette of the duo following them. Jonah threw Spike to the ground and covered him in snow to hide him, Jonah and Cole did the same for themselves.

The General landed on the frozen ground, the serial killer hopped off his back and dragged his hooves around creepily, completely silent. The shooter raised his shotgun to the air and fired twice, the sudden sounds made Jonah jump from fear. Cole whispered to Jonah;

“Use your cryokinesis and freeze these bitches!”

“We don’t have time to fight them right now, Spike is hurt, and he needs to get to a hospital. Plus remember? DEFLECTION?”

“Oh. Damn…”

The two friends silenced themselves as the killer inched himself closer to their hiding spots. Jonah peaked up at him through a tiny gap in the snow, just big enough for his eye to look out without being noticed. Jonah looked at the killer’s mask, how it was cracked and dented. The killer shook a little and his body flashed like a hologram, between each flash Jonah could see a human’s face underneath the damaged face plating. Instead of the large pony shaped eyes, he started seeing human shaped eyes; they were as green as grass. Suddenly the serial killer fazed back to his fake unicorn self. The General approached him;

“Master Final Arbiter, your physical form is fading; we best return and repair the mask before tonight. If they appear later, we’ll have their heads then.”

The Final Arbiter said nothing, he only stomped the snow with a hoof, grinding anger and hatred into the crumbling snow. The General bent down to allow his master to climb on him. The General spread his wings and took off into the cloudy, snowing sky. No words were ever spoken by the Final Arbiter.

As their enemies flew away, Jonah stood and scooped Spike out of the snow he was hidden under. Cole stood after Jonah and asked rhetorically;

“The Final Arbiter…?”

Spike shivered violently and talked with tears running down his cheeks, his speech was mute and absorbed by the howling winds and stiffness of his tiny throat. Jonah hugged him tightly to preserve any warmth and flew into the air. Cole latched himself on to Jonah’s legs. The three flew into the distance, scanning the mountains for any form of civilization.

The Canterlot night was filled with decorative lights and dazzling with colorful fireworks. A party was assembled to celebrate the victory of the young heroes who worked so hard to save the planet from the ruthless serial killer. Little did everyone know that night, that this so-called “victory” was about to dissolve into heartbreaking despair…

Farewell Mother

It has been hours since the news was brought to Equestrias’ attention, that the serial killer was “dead.” The celebration was a wondrous occasion; food and beverages were lines up on long tables that stretched through the convention room of the Canterlot Castle. Hundreds of mares and stallions were dressed from head to toe in their own fancy getup, gathering from all corners of the land. The Princesses; Celestia and Luna stood by each other, and happily watched their excited subjects as they danced, laughed, smiled and mingled. General Canis’ guards stood around the border of the large room, ready for anything. The convention room air was singing with a cello being played by a gray mare, joined by several other musicians behind her. The ceiling was decorated with giant chandeliers of glass and light. Each table was dressed with a lacy table cloth and given a candle in each center. Each of the tall walls had windows made of stain glass, making the moonlight shine across the floor in a variety of hues.

Halie, Twilight, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and Rarity arrived to the party, with the exception of Fluttershy who had been gone since the previous night. Halie walked slowly to admire the beauty of the castle, it was breath taking. No longer was she afraid of the elevation of the unicorn city, nor was she alarmed of the loud noises that would come from popping caps on glass bottles. Halie was finally at peace with her mind and traumatized condition. Princess Celestia and Luna stepped down from stage at the far end of the room to greet their special guests. Princess Luna spoke;

“Halie, Twilight and friends, how lovely to see you all again.”

The seven guests bowed to the princess sisters. Princess Celestia scanned the group, asked Halie;

“Where are Jonah and Cole?”

“We’re not sure actually, I think we can assume that they could be busy with the press or still investigating.”

Princess Luna was disappointed;

“Oh, but this celebration was for all of you. Well I guess we’ll just have to do with you then, Halie.”

Princess Celestia objected her sister’s quick suggestion;

“No, let’s wait for the boys. Surely they can’t be gone for too much longer…”

Twilight thought for a moment;

“You know, I haven’t seen much of Spike today either… I hope he’s okay.”

Halie informed Twilight;

“Spike’s with the boys; he wanted to come with them on their mission.”

“Oh, okay… They better het here soon; it’s already nine ‘O clock!”

Pinkie Pie jumped through Halie and Twilight;

“Who cares what time it is? The only thing I’m worried about is getting to PARTYYYY!!!!”

Pinkie ran into the distance, shoving her way through the crowds of ponies before her. The rest of the five smiled and looked at each other; they separated and joined in with the festivities.

General Canis sat on top of a large cardboard box to himself on the stage where the Princesses once were. He motioned to one of his many guards patrolling the room and whispered something to him. That guard whispered to another guard, then that guard to another and so on. After a few minutes, General Canis stood from the large box, and walked over to a microphone that was set up in the center of the stage. The General pulled it to his mouth level, and spoke in to it;

“Hello, everyone. I entrust that your celebration is turning out for the best…?”

The ponies cheered loudly, Princess Luna stepped over to her sister and whispered;

“He’s not supposed to speak yet, what’s he doing?”

The older Princess did not respond, she only watched. She suspected that this could just be to stall the party until Jonah and Cole arrived. But then something happened, a loud bang was heard from the stage. The crowd of hundreds went frantic and looked over; they saw the cardboard box that the General sat on it had a hole blown through it.

From inside the box a hoof tore the box apart, and out came the serial killer they all thought was dead with his infamous shotgun. The crowd went silent from the wave of fear and confusion that was casted over them. The leather robed figure glared at the audience through his wicked mask. The visor for his horn glowed a dark red and a black pulse of mysterious power blasted into a thick portion of the crowd. Over twenty ponies were struck by this ambiguous magic, and instantly they were corrupted, they remained in a seizure-like state for a matter of seconds, and then dropped dead to the cold ground.

The Princesses united their power together to form a stunning form of magic, and fired at the killer. The killer raised a hoof and deflected the blast to the ceiling, making the chains that held the giant chandelier shatter and the cracks in his mask to thicken. The chandelier fell to the ground above a larger crowd of ponies. Princess Celestia used her magic to make the chandelier levitate before it could harm anyone; she threw back at the killer. The killer used his power to capture the colossal roof decoration, and cause it to explode into billions of glass particles.

Halie covered her ears from the sounds of chaos; Twilight grabbed her by the hand and instructed her;

“Let’s get out of here!”

Pinkie, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, and Applejack gathered with Twilight and Halie. The six of them ran to one of the many exits. As they approached the exit, guard ponies blocked their path, pointing spears to them, ready to strike and kill. The six girls backed up, and took cover under the tables. Rainbow Dash said to her friends;

“I’m sure glad Fluttershy didn’t come to THIS.”

Twilight became annoyed;

“This is no time for jokes, Rainbow!”

Their conversing was interrupted by the amplified voice of the General;

“What an impressive show, Princesses… But I’m afraid your successor has the upper hand here. Fillies and Gentlecolts… please rise from behind your barricades and welcome your new dictator, THE FINAL ARBITER!”

The Final Arbiter walked slowly to edge of the stage, looking into the eyes of the many that feared him. He stepped slowly across the stage as the General spoke;

“Do not fear him! His actions were necessary for him to get to where he is now. Observe the Final Arbiter, his beauty, his swift power, his supreme authority! And to ensure that very authority, he has learned the formerly-illegal death spell! And a new form a power that he invented, from the bodies of all you outdated unicorns!”

The Final Arbiter turned his shot gun around, and revealed a bright-red gem inside the butt of his weapon. The General spoke as The Final Arbiter presented his invention;

“This, my little ponies… is the reset button! With the power of all the unicorns that have been sacrificed, this gem allows the Final Arbiter to pull the plug on the existence on this very universe, space, and time itself! If you don’t want this to be activated, all you have to do is fall in line with what he instructs…”

The ponies made more frightened noises, they quivered and tried running, only to be betrayed by more of General Canis’ guards. Princess Celestia and Luna joined Halie, Twilight and the other four girls. Princess Luna asked the girls;

“What is happening!? I thought they found this murderer!”

Halie looked around, desperate for Jonah and Cole to arrive;

“I… I don’t… I don’t know where they could possibly be, they never came back today…”

Princess Celestia became scared for the boys’ status; it was a look that Twilight had never seen from her mentor. Twilight asked;

“Princess? You’re not scared… are you?”

The fear traveled, Twilight thought for a moment, she was now worried about Spike;

“Where’s… Spike…?”

The fear was contracted by Halie, she began to cry. She shut her eyes and covered an ear with one hand, while she stroked her pregnant abdomen with the other. The four other ponies gathered around Halie to hold her in fear and comfort. Princess Luna peaked over the table she hid behind and gazed at the General she trusted for so many years. She never expected this sort of treason from him, not him. All she could ask was;

“… How could everything go so wrong…?”

Everyone else who wasn’t murdered was as still as could be, all hid behind a table or under a dead body. Children were told by parents to play dead, and the parents cried and collapsed. All they could do was hide and wait for something to happen. The General spoke again to the intimidated party;

“The Final Arbiter has a brilliant plan for all you primitive, worthless pieces of meat! He brings with him the future! A new era of technology and enhancements are coming! Something your pathetic and obsolete princesses could not provide!”

The General pulled out his cell phone and spoke again;

“Gaze upon me! This is only a small example of the technological power the Final Arbiter can give you! You could hold the same power that I have, if you simply do away with the past! Now, EVERYONE WITH HORNS ON THEIR HEADS, RISE! It’s time to do away with primitive magic, and introduce an era of technology!”

No one complied with the direct orders, the General spoke again with a raised voice;

“OKAY! THEN HE’LL JUST START SHOOTING!”

The Final Arbiter jumped from the stage and cocked his weapon. Princess Luna had her eyes closed, she felt guilt beyond any she ever felt, she opened her eyes and rose above her barricade. Princess Celestia demanded;

“No! Stay!”

Princess Luna ignored her sister’s word, she flew over the table and then back down to the ground and stepped to a mere two feet away from the Final Arbiter. Princess Luna looked into the Final Arbiter’s mask, ready to accept her fate. The Final Arbiter raised his shotgun to her forehead, just as silent as before.

A single tear ran down Princess Luna’s cheek, but then just before the Final Arbiter could squeeze the trigger of his shotgun. The stain glass windows behind Princess Luna shattered, and in came Jonah and Cole, alone. Halie looked up at her friends in relief. Despite the fear of being shot on the spot, Halie ran to Cole and hugged him tight; she kissed him romantically with tears streaming from her glorified eyes. Jonah screamed;

“Princess Luna, MOVE!”

At that very second, Princess Luna used her advanced magic to teleport back to her hiding spot. Jonah fired an intense blast of ice at the Final Arbiter. The Final Arbiter deflected each blast, sending each pulse of ice towards a pillar or window. Jonah finally sent one blast, to the ground below the Final Arbiter’s feet, this one being unnoticed. The Final Arbiter tripped on the frozen floor and fell backward, causing his mask to fly off his face. The mask went through the air, finally hitting the hard floor and breaking into two pieces. The Final Arbiter looked up, directly into Jonah’s eyes, unmasked. Jonah gave a soul piercing stare to the Final Arbiter and scanned every detail of his face and head, his left cheek was scarred, his eyes were green, and his hair was a light brunette mullet shaped into a crown like figure. Jonah’s stare became less abrasive as the Final Arbiter’s final layer of Anonymity was ripped from him. The Final Arbiter’s body began to quiver and corrupt like a hologram, a white light shined through him, and his fake unicorn form dissolved into his true, human form. The Final Arbiter looked back up at Jonah with a disgruntled expression.

The five pony friends and the two Princesses leaned their heads over to get a clear look at the Final Arbiter’s true face; he looked almost exactly like Jonah. Applejack hollered;

“A… ano… another Jonah…!”

The Final Arbiter stood stiff; his leather cloak encased his entire bare body. He wielded his shotgun in his hand but did nothing with it. He only continued to stare into Jonah’s eyes, as he starred back. Jonah was sad, and did not know what to do, he wanted to cry at what he was witnessing, and he wanted it all to be a nightmare that he could simply awaken from within moments. Jonah kneeled to the ground, his hands being the only thing holding him up. Jonah shook his head, he let his own weight dictate him and covered his ears and shut his moist eye lids. Jonah could not contain himself, he became ill to his stomach, and vomited on the spot. Cole looked down at Jonah;

“Jonah! What’s-?!”

Cole took another look at the Final Arbiter. Cole looked deeply, his eyes slowly widened, and he finally knew just who he was getting ready to fight. Halie whispered to Cole;

“Cole… Who is this man…?”

Cole did not respond. Cole felt like letting a reservoir water flow from his eyes. Regardless of how he felt, he knew what he had to do. Cole charged an extremely powerful and bright abundance of electricity in his hand, this one he knew would be fatal to whoever was hit by it. Cole swung his arm back, then forward for better momentum. A bolt of lightning traveled from his fingertips directly at The Final Arbiter. The Final Arbiter remembered his mission; he raised his palm to the incoming bolt. The lightning hit the Final Arbiter’s palm, it deflected from it. The lightning sprang back and struck Halie’s torso, entering her between her heart and the womb where her and Cole’s baby developed.

Halie’s body riddled with millions of volts of electricity. Her eyes crossed and her pupils dilated, and she dropped to the floor. Halie was killed on the spot and took her unborn child with her as electricity continued to crawl through the both of them.

Cole fell to his knees, examining his deceased lover. Cole rotated her to face him; he examined the fatal blow he fired. Cole shook Halie back and forth, his shaking became rapid rattling. The jostling weakened and slowed into a tear filled, nonstop trance of rocking. Cole just sat there, weeping and peacefully rocking the beautiful young girl and the child he made with her to their eternal sleep.

Both of the boys cried as their worlds were pulverized around them. Cole had lost his lover and his child; and Jonah lost his brother, Seth, to the darkest depths of the towering, insecure region of his dissolved mind. This darkness that was once Seth was now the Final Arbiter that stood before them. Loud shrieks of panic were heard from a familiar source, and then everything went black, pitch black. Sounds were no longer heard nor could anything be seen by the two boys.

Halie, 17, formerly of Harts Creek, West Virginia and currently of Ponyville, Equestria; went to be with the Lord, Tuesday, January 29th, 2014 at the royal castle in Canterlot, following a blast of lightning to the heart fired inadvertently by her lover. She was a loving partner of Coltrane, and was expected to be a graceful mother to their unborn child.

The end of Part 2

Wake

The beginning of Part 3

It only felt like a few minutes, Jonah woke to a blurred and indescribable image. His vision became clear, and he saw rocks and stalagmites above him; he looked around to see that the walls were covered in glossy and sparkling crystals. Jonah tried to sit up, his back arched upwards slowly, cracking as it elevated. He moved his aching legs under him and pushed his weight enough for him to barely stand. He tripped on his underused feet, and had no choice but to support him by grasping on to the crystalized walls.

Memories of what happened before he passed out rushed to Jonah, he remembered the Final Arbiter standing only a couple meters from him unmasked. It was Seth, his brother. The face underneath the Final Arbiter’s mask looked too familiar to be anyone else but Seth. For the last two years, he only wished the best for his missing brother, but just then, knowing what Seth turned into was like a knife to the chest. Jonah remembered Halie’s death, how the nice and eccentric friend he once had fell to the ground from a lightning bolt, dying instantly and taking her unborn child with her. Jonah became slow, his legs weakened as his adrenaline drained from him. He collapsed to the ground, only a couple of yards from where he woke up.

Jonah crawled forward and lost strength after only four pulls. He looked into one of the many crystals adorning the walls; the gems were polished enough for him to see his face. A feeling of shock crossed Jonah, his face did not look the same as what he remembered, and he appeared older. His face had much more facial hair than he remembered, and his hair was no longer its plush mullet form, it was long, loose, and filthy. Jonah’s focus was disrupted by familiar, yet unbelievable voice;

“Hey! Hey you’re awake! Oh thank Christ your FINALLY awake!”

Jonah dragged his head to the direction where the voice originated. He believed his eyes were deceiving him, it was Mina, her trench coat was tattered, and she also looked older. Jonah smiled at the sight of his friend after she was gone for half a year;

“… Mina…!”

Mina ran to Jonah, she dropped to the ground where Jonah laid. She scooped him up from under his back and hugged him tight, her voice turned weak;

“I’m so sorry! I should have never left you, or the others!”

Jonah hugged her back;

“It’s okay, I was just scared that you were hurt… are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m doing just fine now. But everything else has changed…”

Jonah let go of Mina and sat against the crystal wall behind him, Mina joined him. Jonah asked her;

“What’s been going on? And don’t sugar-coat it; I already know that Seth is the serial killer, and that the General betrayed us.”

“… Seth and his forces have taken over Canterlot completely; they’ve been spreading through all of Equestria. Cloudsdale is one of the last major cities that Seth hasn’t touched, but that General of his isn’t in any rush to give up.”

“How bad is Seth’s reign?”

“It’s horrible; any and all unicorns have been forced to live in concentration camps, technology has taken over and corrupted many lives. Canterlot is now a floating mechanical war ship, it could be anywhere out in the sky.”

Jonah went confused; it was hard for him to believe that all this could be done in such a short time. Then he thought, maybe it was not such a short time. Jonah asked Mina;

“Mina, how long was I out for?”

Mina was hesitant to respond, but knew that he’d eventually learn;

“Well… you and Cole were in commas when I came back. Princess Luna told me that you both were shot with something called ‘death spell’ that Seth fired, but at the same time that Princess Celestia put a shield around you, causing you minimal damage. She also teleported you, Cole, Luna and the five other ponies into these crystal caves beneath the Canterlot mountain, promising that these caves were ‘long-forgotten.’ I arrived two days later with Fluttershy and Spike. Cole woke up two weeks after I arrived, but you on the other hand… you’ve been asleep for over two years.”

Jonah’s heart rate accelerated, it beat faster than any lighting Cole could fire. His eyes widened, and his mouth dropped;

“Two years…? That’s what the Princess calls minimal-fuckin’-damage!?”

“Two years and seven months to be exact.”

“I’M TWENTY YEARS OLD!? AHHH!”

Jonah screamed, his telekinesis controlled itself and ripped about ten crystals from the wall. Mina looked around rapidly; she jostled Jonah’s shoulders to calm him;

“Calm down! Calm down!”

“’Calm down?’ How can I calm down! My brother is a psycho killer, dictator! The last thin’ I remember is Halie DYIN’! And now I just woke up from a two year comma to find out I’m TWENTY!? I was seventeen before I fell into that comma!”

Jonah grasped his messy hair, pulling it down to conceal his agitated face. Then he remembered something and became more stressed;

“Oh… shit! SPIKE! Where’s Spike!?”

Mina spoke to Jonah in a soothing tone;

“Spike is okay, he’s with Twilight. He actually did a big part in helping Fluttershy and I find the rest of you.”

“Oh, okay… Last time I saw him I dropped him off at the hospital in Ponyville, and he didn’t look good. Mina, how did you find us anyway? Where were you this whole time?”

Mina pondered for a moment, trying to remember every detail of her adventure;

“The whole time I was residing in the Ever Free Forest, I fought off many crazy-ass creatures; snakes with chicken heads, lions with wings, wolves made out of timber, they all looked like those chimeras from that jap-only GBA game, what was it…? Ah, I don’t remember… But for those six months, I was like Rambo tearing through that forest. At the six month mark, the same day that you guys got shot, I heard something creep up on me in the forest, and it was Fluttershy. It turned out that she was looking for me the whole night, and she gave me some encouraging advice.”

“Oh, what did she tell you?”

“She told me that even though you feel like an inconvenience, or only feel like dead weight, to just remember that your friends love you and understand what you’re going through, even if they may not seem like it. She said some other things, and she also told me that you were in pieces because of how long I was gone. It made me feel better, knowing you thought about me.”

Jonah smiled, but then he asked;

“What about Spike?”

“He’ll come into the story near the end. When Fluttershy found me; I was pretty deep into the forest. She was getting ready to fly us back, but then one of those crazy timber-wolves lashed out at us and struck Fluttershy, one of her wings got damaged. We had no choice but to go back to Ponyville on foot; and being in the thickest portion of the forest, we couldn’t tell which direction to head in. We had to walk for two nights before we finally got out of the forest. We ended up in a big field, and above it was Cloudsdale. It seemed to look okay at first, but then in the distance we saw several explosions and a whole army of General Canis’ Pegasi trying to invade it.”

Jonah was shocked to hear that the General had gotten so far in just a matter of days, Mina continued;

“The Wonderbolts were larger in numbers so they were able to fend them off for a good while. Eventually the invaders had enough, the General ordered his men to conjure up a giant tornado to destroy Cloudsdale, and that’s when I came in. I activated my weather powers and smothered that tornado; I forced the troops away with a hailstorm. After the battle Fluttershy and I returned to Ponyville, which had already been taken over. Spike came running up to us from the hospital asking if we had seen you and Cole. We told him no and began to wonder just what the hell was going on, because at the time we had no idea it was your brother in charge of it all. Fluttershy and I didn’t even know that the serial killer was reported dead until Spike told us that the obituary was made up. Spike sent a letter to the Princess using that green fire of his, asking what has been happening. Instead of a reply, the three of us were instantly teleported here. We’ve been hiding in these caves ever since then.”

Jonah remembered how Fluttershy left the night before the celebration, and that she never attended it the next day. He grabbed some crystals above him and pulled himself up to stand. He said to Mina;

“No wonder Fluttershy was never at the party, she went to go find you for me… I need to find her and everyone else, AND COLE!”

Jonah mustered up all his strength and grabbed Mina’s shoulders;

“WHERE IS COLE!?”

Two years have passed, Equestria has changed a lot. Advancements in technology have casted a shadow over the once dominant study of magic. Mina has changed for the better, she understands now that her friends would never abandon her, or intentionally hurt her. Mina felt loved for once. For Cole on the other hand, how has the once funny, outgoing, optimistic, brother-like, best friend of Jonah changed since Halie’s death? And what will be done about Seth? How will Jonah confront him in the final battle?

Evolution

After regaining his strength, Jonah and Mina walked through the crystal caves together. The two entered a larger room of the slithering cave; the ceiling was like a rotunda of rocks and stalagmites. As they came closer to a door on the far side of the rotunda, Jonah was tackled to the ground by a Pink blur. It spoke to him;

“Glad to see you’re awake!”

It was Pinkie Pie; she looked just like she did from two years ago. Jonah looked around to see Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and Rarity surround him. They were all happy to finally see him with his eyes open, Rainbow yelled;

“It’s about damn time you’re awake.”

Applejack added to Rainbow’s relieved statement;

“We was gittin’ scared shitless fer ya. We thought you would never come outta that comma!”

Jonah felt unsettled, he noticed something off about the ponies; with the exception of maybe Pinkie, they seemed to be dark and gloomier than the happy and playful gaggle they once were. Their movements were rigid and slow. Jonah pulled himself out from under Pinkie and stood in front of the four. Rarity spoke to him with a slurred voice;

“It’s good to see you awake, darling… a lot has changed during your slumber.”

Rainbow exaggerated Rarity’s comment;

“’A lot?’ More like EVERYTHING! Equestria has gone to hell in a hand bag because of that damn brother of yours!”

Jonah finally got his chance to greet the four;

“It’s good to see you all too, and I imagine that word has gotten to everyone about the Final Arbiter being my brother.”

The four ponies gave Jonah rapid nods, Pinkie asked him;

“What’s the deal with him anyway? Why is he so angry?”

Jonah thought about Pinkie’s question for a moment, it was one that he often asked himself growing up. Jonah saw no reason to bottle up his family’s hardships anymore. The four ponies and Mina sat in a circle around Jonah, and he explained the story of Seth;

“My brother, Seth, is a very insecure person; he’s had a rough life. As children, our parents pushed religion onto us from all angles possible. As Seth researched more about his psychic abilities, our father began to worry about Seth’s faith as a Christian, believin’ that he was strayin’ off the path he wanted him on. Seth and our dad began buttin’ heads some, arguments were had, and things that shouldn’t have been said were said. Soon he was under the impression that our dad didn’t love him anymore. I never spoke out against anythin’ our parents tried to teach us, Seth however wasn’t as silent as I was.”

The four ponies listened with perked ears, curious to know how the story tied in with the serial killer they put up with for so long. Mina had skeptical expressions as Jonah lectured;

“Eventually, Seth lost control of himself and tried to kill both me and our dad, but not our mother. Our mother was the one person that I think he truly loved and appreciated; mom would always talk about how she desperately wanted to move to Virginia Beach with me, him and dad. She had every motivation to one day get there...”

Mina interrupted;

“Wait, Virginia Beach? The same Virginia Beach we lived in?”

“Yes. Anyways, after my brother tried to kill my dad and me, our parents left the country and forced Seth and I apart until they returned from their out-of-country work. Two years past and the family was back together, Seth was actually happy for once, and spent more time with all of us. His happiness didn’t last long, one week after mom and dad returned; they announced they would leave for another two years. Seth and I were heartbroken, and we ran away to another town to start a new life together, not wantin’ to be raised by our extended family. Two years later, Seth was taken by authorities and placed in to a rehab institute for a year while I lived with some friends. After Seth got out, all of that forgotten insecurity, pessimism and anger returned full force. A couple years after he left rehab, our house burned down, and Seth immediately had the both of us travel to Virginia Beach.”

Mina whispered to herself;

“Virginia Beach…”

Jonah continued;

“Seth obsessed over the city, and forced every fiber of him to get to there. We finally arrived in Virginia Beach, and I later met Cole.”

Mina spoke up again;

“You met Cole, and that’s when your three year adventure started, right?”

“Yeah, the three years Cole and I spent tryna fight off King Zoxus were absolute hell for Seth, we dragged him through a lot of shit those years. Time went by and he gradually became more and more sadistic, it was like he didn’t want to have anythin’ to do with any us anymore. Seth eventually abandoned us, we tried lookin’ for him, and he tried to hunt us down the second he knew we were. During a standoff against him, I teleported him far away from us so that my friends could stay safe while Cole and I went on our own for a little while. I never saw him again until the shooting in Fillydelphia when he was disguised.”

The four ponies were deeply horrified and saddened by Jonah’s story, Mina even looked disturbed. Jonah continued;

“All I ever wanted was for him to be okay, after I teleported him away from us I figured he would start over and try to better himself… but now he’s officially gone off the deep end.”

Mina suggested;

“Somehow, the conflicts between him and your dad don’t seem relevant… I think this runs a lot deeper than you think.”

Jonah was offended;

“He’s my brother, what would you know? And plus it wasn’t just our dad; I think it was actually more of my doing that screwed him up.”

“You have a point with your doing, but I can’t help but feel that his issues with his father don’t connect to what’s happening now. I can’t put my finger on it…”

Jonah sighed;

“Well, you’re preaching to the choir Mina. Seth has always been a mystery. It’s not like he’d ever talk about his problems to someone five years younger than him, the only brother he had...”

Jonah walked away from the sitting audience;

“I don’t want to talk about this anymore, I gotta find Cole…”

Mina jumped up and called out;

“Jonah.”

Jonah turned to face her;

“I know you want to ignore this but… when the time comes for you to face Seth… you know what needs to be done… right?”

Jonah felt his stomach twist; the very thought of him being expected to slaughter his own brother scarred him. He looked at the four ponies behind Mina, they looked just as serious as her, and they too were expecting Jonah to do the unthinkable. He took a deep breath and said;

“I know.”

Jonah walked out of the rotunda to search for his friend. He traveled through the swerving hallways until he heard hoof steps, he stopped to see Twilight walking out from behind some rocks, and Spike was on her back. Twilight pounced out and hugged Jonah;

“Jonah! Oh wow, it’s so good to see you’re finally awake!”

Spike expressed his happiness;

“Man, you were out for so long, we started to think that you would never wake up.”

Jonah let Twilight go;

“It’s good to see you both are okay, especially you, Spike. I was worried about ya.”

Twilight spoke again;

“Equestria has changed a lot in your absence… Cole told all of us about Seth after he woke up…”

“I know, I talked with some of the others. I’m just not lookin’ forward to facing him, everyone expects me to kill him, but I don’t think I can bring myself to do that...”

“Well no shit you’re expected to do it, I expect you to do it. I’m sorry but after everything he’s doesn’t deserve any mercy.”

Jonah stressfully pulled his messy, tangled hair;

“Is corporal punishment even acknowledged on this planet?”

“It certainly is now! Seth made it that way. This was once a kind, fun-loving and caring world we all shared, but now he’s turned it into a chaotic slaughter house!”

Jonah looked at Spike;

“What about you? What do you think of this, Spike? You witnessed the death of Lemmour, and he was your brother. How do you think I should handle MY brother?”

Spike was silent; he looked to the ground below Twilight, nonchalantly rubbing he thumb into her purple fur. Jonah shook his head;

“Ah, I need to find Cole… Good seein’ you both.”

Jonah continued searching, eventually finding himself down a hall with a light at the end. He followed the light, anticipating his friend’s presence on the other side. Jonah approached the light, and beyond it was a winding cliff traveling to the mountain top. The cliff was riddled with thick jagged edges in the form of where Canterlot once hung. Half way up the winding path stood a silhouette of another relieved and happy face, it was Princess Celestia. She used telekinesis to pull Jonah into an embrace, Jonah spoke to her;

“Hi Princess, how’ve ya been? Heh…”

Princess Celestia did not respond in words, she only held him tighter. Jonah could swear he felt a tear drop on his shoulder as she held him. Jonah asked the Princess;

“Are ya okay?”

“… Yes… knowing that you’re here, awake and alive… I couldn’t bear the thought of losing anyone else…”

The Princess kissed Jonah’s forehead and let him go. She walked passed him and turned to him, saying;

“I’m making dinner for all of us tonight, what would you like? I want to make something special for you now that you’re with us.”

“I… ah… I like pizza a whole lot, it’s my favorite… Or anythin’ fried or grilled…”

Jonah scrapped the worn soles of his heels against the ground, he looked into the Princess’ eyes; he saw sadness and desperation in them, the same kind as the night she let him stay over. He figured if the Princess was being this motherly, then something must have happened to her while he was asleep. Someone she loved must have passed on, Jonah asked her;

“How is Princess Luna?”

The Princess began to sob helplessly at the sound of her sister’s name. Jonah realized that he chose the wrong set of words and walked away slowly, leaving the mourning Princess to be alone with her thoughts.

Jonah continued up the cliff of the mountain, the air turned thinner as he approached the top. He finally reached the flat tip, it was cool and windy. The view from its elevation provided a spectacular view over almost all of Equestria. And there from the opposite side from where Jonah stood, was Cole, sitting to himself and scanning the world below him. Jonah approached Cole, examining how much he physically changed over the last two years. Cole’s hair grew longer and frizzy, it faded into a darker shade of blonde; he also still appeared to be the taller of the duo. Cole had also gained a considerable amount of weight.

Jonah sat down beside Cole and dangled his shins from the edge of the platform, awaiting his friend’s attention. Cole made no motions; he only continued to stare down, looking straight at a strip of rocky spikes that sat on an isolated cliff of the mountain. Jonah grew impatient and waved a hand in front of his vision; Cole smacked his hand and turned;

“What do you want!?”

Cole glared at Jonah with an angered face; it devolved into a more pleasant expression, just as surprised as everyone else to finally see his best friend awake. Cole spoke again with a softer tone;

“Oh, Jonah… glad to see you’re awake…”

There was only temporary pleasure in Cole’s voice, every word after drained any and all optimism from him;

“I got worried about ya; I didn’t want to lose anyone else…”

Cole glanced back at the sharp rocks, fascinated by how sharp and large they were. Jonah spoke to him;

“Yeah, what was two years for you was like a minute for me. You doin’ okay?”

Cole shrugged and turned his head away;

“Stop. We aren’t talking about it… you damn well know what my problem is already…”

Jonah respected Cole’s request, no matter how much sadness he felt. Jonah thought that his best friend would be happy to talk to him again after so long. Jonah got up and left Cole alone on the mountain top.

Jonah was in the dark caves once again, the only light shining was the reflections of candle lights from shining crystals and other gems. Jonah came to a fork in the hallway; the same that Twilight earlier met him at. He took the bisecting path and found himself in an even darker patch of darkness, he staggered forward slowly, and his hands were out in front of him to feel for any surroundings. Eventually, he came to another wall, feeling around lead him to a sharp left turn, with another source of light in the distance. The light was dim, meaning it wasn’t the outside. He entered the dim lit room; right corner of the room had a mine-rail system set up with a mine cart in front its entrance. Suddenly a soft and familiar voice was heard, approaching him with the sounds of quick hoof-steps;

“Jonah! You’re finally awake! Oh, we were so worried!”

It was Fluttershy; she jumped and flew up to Jonah to hug him tightly. Jonah held her back;

“Nice to see you too, have you and the others been okay?”

“We’ve been doing the best we can; none of those metal ponies have found us yet. The worst part about it all is Princess Luna’s disappearance…”

Jonah let go of Fluttershy;

“Princess Luna… I asked Princess Celestia about her, and then she just started crying right there.”

“Princess Luna left to try and face Seth on her own… she never came back… it’s been a year now, and Princess Celestia is convinced she is dead. I think she is still out there though, at the very least she could be imprisoned. But then again she is an Alicorn… Seth may have put her in one of those terrible concentration camps he’s set up...”

“I think an Alicorn would be too powerful for one of those camps to hold her down…”

Fluttershy whimpered at Jonah’s last comment. She started to shiver nervously Jonah tried to calm her;

“Now, now! I didn’t mean it like ‘at!”

Jonah attempted forced a different subject in to the conversation, anything to keep Fluttershy from becoming upset. He then remembered;

“Oh! By the way, I’ve been looking for ya. I wanted to tell you thanks for findin’ Mina for us. It really means a lot to me.”

Fluttershy’s shaking slowed a little;

“It’s okay… you seemed really down about it that night. And I knew her pain; I’ve felt the same sort of self-loath that she felt back then.”

“Maybe you can help out with Cole’s pain…”

“Oh believe me, I’ve tried and everyone else has tried. But he just gets so angry and annoyed with everyone, we all just gave up trying to help. We figured you could help him.”

“I just talked to him; he acted like he didn’t even want to look at me. And we’ve been best friends for… what…? Seven years now? Not even friends... more like brothers… Cole was more of a brother to me than Seth was; I think Cole is the first friend that I ever had who I’ve considered to be my family. Now I just don’t know what to do for him… he’s so hurt and sad… I just don’t know if I can help him this time…”

“Listen; from how cantankerous he’s been towards us, I’m surprised he never tried to leave us. Then again, he’s become quite the little hermit on that mountain top of his… But I think the only reason he stayed with us this whole time was to wait for you, Jonah. I think that deep down he’s crying out to you, begging you to just be with him. You don’t even have to say anything, just go back up there and sit with him.”

Jonah felt a tsunami of encouragement fill him, he asked Fluttershy;

“Do you really think that’s what he needs? Just me to be there?”

Fluttershy put her hooves on Jonah’s hips and flipped him around;

“I know that’s what he needs.”

Fluttershy pushed Jonah’s back to send him back through the hall he came into the mine terminal from. Jonah didn’t look back, he kept moving, knowing then that his best friend needed him.

Jonah returned to the mountain top, Cole was in the same spot as before, only this time standing. Cole heard footsteps behind him; he turned to face the character that approached him;

“Jonah. I’m glad you could join me again… I have something important to say… I’ve waited two and a half years to say this, and I figured this would be better than only leaving behind a note.”

Jonah stopped about three meters from Cole, at the mention of “leaving behind a note” Jonah shook, afraid that Cole would abandon him, and for good. Jonah grew a sad expression, Cole continued with tears running, seeping from his eyes gradually faster as he talked;

“… Thank you… thank you for being my best friend… and for accepting me as yours… It’s been an honor to get to know you, to travel with you, to go on so many adventures and save so many people with you."

It was a side of Cole that Jonah never witnessed before, he shook and squirmed, his face was red with hurt and depression. He inched his way over to Jonah eventually reaching out and hugging him, A few seconds passed, Cole let Jonah go… He walked back to the edge that he made his home. Cole turned his head back, saying with hiccups in his voice;

“Good bye.”

Cole bent his knees and pounced from the edge, letting gravity drag him down on a collision course with the sharp, jagged rocks below him. Jonah’s heart stopped, he instantly ran to the edge screaming and weeping;

“COLE!”

Jonah jumped from the edge, activating his flight ability and racing gravity to save his friend.

It was at that moment that Jonah realized what happened; it was evolution at its core meaning. The evolution of the friends he thought knew so well. The six ponies, once resilient and happy residents of their care-free world; have evolved into soldiers thirsty for revenge against the dictator that caused them hardship after senseless hardship. Princess Celestia, the once strong and wise goddess of her peaceful kingdom; now evolved into desperate and gaping hole, only wanting to be filled with a son to love and nurture. Cole, the once fun-loving, optimistic and silly hearted childhood friend; has evolved into a depressed, pessimistic and suicidal wreck of emotions and tragedies. Jonah would need more than power and strategy to heal the scars left in his friends’ minds.

Invasion

Wind blowing through his face, and adrenaline poisoning his blood, Jonah’s descent finally caught up with Cole. Jonah scooped Cole up only feet before he could come into contact with the pronged rocks below him. Cole looked up at Jonah with tears in his eyes, his eyes were begging Jonah to drop him, and let him collide with his desired fate. Jonah held his head high and carried Cole back to the top of the mountain. Cole’s feet touched the ground and he ran away, taking the winding cliff down into the crystal caves.

Jonah stayed on the mountain top, with sad and confused emotions towards Cole’s state of depression. It was two and a half years since Halie’s death, with that much time for Cole to ponder, Jonah expected more strength from Cole. Jonah sat alone on the mountain top, he wondered and asked himself just how the hell he would be able to get his old friend back.

An hour passed and Jonah still sat alone. He thought about his friends, Cole, Seth, the Princess and the six ponies; and how Seth brought the absolute worst out of them. More and more, Jonah started to hate Seth for hurting so many people he cared about, and for killing Cole’s lover before he could even see the child he made with her. Jonah could not imagine Cole’s pain, he tried to grasp it as tightly as possible, but it slipped through him at each attempt. Jonah’s train of thought was interrupted by the trademark fake slap he and Cole invented, he the hand dance on his cheek. Jonah turned swiftly;

“Cole?”

Jonah looked to see Mina standing behind him, she giggled;

“Hmhmhm, sorry, were you busy with something?”

Jonah didn’t respond, he realized that he had never thought of how Mina was affected by Halie’s death. From her soft spoken apologies earlier, and her attempt to recreate the friendly gesture he and Cole shared, it would appear that Mina turned out for the better in comparison with everyone else. Mina also never giggled or even laughed with pleasant thought before, not with the carefree attitude that she was holding, it was always at another person’s expense. Jonah spoke;

“No, it’s okay. I’m glad to see you’re not as upset as some of the others.”

“Believe me I felt awful after I learned that Halie died, I moved on from it though. You should be more worried for Cole; he’s been nothing but a wreck…”

Mina walked to the center of the mountain’s tip;

“He’ll stay up here all hours of the days and nights, just staring out, sleeping, barely eating, staring out, and the cycle just repeats. I’m worried for him.”

This was foreign to Jonah, Mina actually being worried about Cole, feeling compassion and sorrow for him and Halie. Jonah liked this turn in character, he asked me;

“Sit down with me, please.”

“Sure.”

Mina sat with Jonah, rubbing her elbow into his playfully. Mina spoke again;

“Seeing Cole inside the caves is a rare sight. I just saw him there a few minutes ago. I tried saying hello but he ignored me. Did you guys talk?”

Jonah was blunt with Mina; her mention of Cole remaining silent even an hour after he saved him disturbed Jonah. He had no idea how to bounce around it;

“Cole tried to kill himself!”

Mina gagged on her own oxygen;

“What!?”

“I came up here, he told me how much he enjoyed our time together, and he jumped. He told me he’s been waitin’ for two and a half years to do it. I flew down and caught him before he hit the rocks down there.”

Mina breathed heavily;

“Well, I shouldn’t be so surprised… For the last couple years he’s just shut himself off from the world and stayed silent, so isolated… It was just suicide all along.”

“He seemed to talk around me a good bit.”

“Well you’re his best friend.”

Jonah sighed;

“I guess we’re gonna have to keep a close eye on him, make sure he doesn’t try anything else. What am I gonna do? How can I help him?”

“Just stick with him; he clearly just wants to be with you if he’s been waiting for you. But first we need to discuss business, since you’re back; what’s say you, Cole and I go do some reconnaissance in Seth’s chambers. I’ve been going in for some time now and have reported everything that’s been happening; sometimes I’ll even sneak in and steal shit, or break some of his toys that he and the General work on.”

“Sounds good, but I don’t think we should bring Cole with us. We can’t go on a mission and watch him at the same time…”

Mina thought for a moment;

“Hmm… I guess you’re right… Plus it would ruin the plan I got for the occasion when you woke up!”

“What’s that?”

The next thing he knew, Jonah was sitting back on to a shaved Crystal in the shape of a reclined chair. His head was leaned back, and Rarity stood over him giddy as could be;

“Oh goodness! I’m so excited! I finally get to design again!”

Jonah added to Rarity’s excitement;

“Bet you’re not as useless as you thought, huh?”

Rarity glanced at both Jonah and Mina;

“Certainly, thank you both for this opportunity!”

Mina winked with a smile, holding a small brush in her right hand and red paint in the other;

“Thank YOU, this is gonna help us a lot.”

Rarity went into another room of the cave for a moment. Mina leaned into the left side of Jonah’s face; Jonah shrugged a little and flinched. Mina put the brush on the ground and grabbed Jonah’s head;

“Hold still.”

Jonah complied; Mina lifted her brush back up and dipped it in the red paint. She began dragging the bright color across Jonah’s left cheek, tickling him and causing him to jitter. Rarity came back with a comb, a razor blade and a tin hair spray bottle in her telekinetic grasp, she shook the bottle and sprayed Jonah’s dark brunette hair until it was a light brunette shade. Mina kept dipping and painting and Rarity sprayed a mist so thick it blurred their vision, giving the halls an orange flavored scent. Mina stood back up, observing the work she had done. Rarity stopped spraying; she reached for her comb and began guiding Jonah’s hair upwards. The combing process lasted a good five minutes until Rarity stopped; she then used the razor blade shaved the facial hair that had grown on Jonah over his comma. Once she was done Rarity left the room again. Jonah remained reclined; he turned to Mina and asked;

“Do you really think this’ll work?”

“No doubt, I’m sure.”

Rarity came back into her crystal boutique with a black, tattered, leather robe; Rarity used telekinesis to wrap the clothing around Jonah’s back, pulling it up so his arms would fit the sleeves. Their work was complete, both Mina and Rarity admired their job well done. Rarity lifted a flat, shiny crystal off the ground and elevated it to Jonah’s face;

“How is THAT?”

Jonah jumped at the sight, he was impressed with the work Rarity had done with his hair. Jonah now looked exactly like Seth, just with blue eyes instead of green. He had Seth’s same crowned mullet, his same scar, and his same robe. Mina walked behind him and put a hand on his shoulder;

“I told ya it’d work! You look just like your brother now! This’ll get you right inside his castle; you can bring me in as a prisoner. You see, everyone including Seth believes you and Cole are dead from his death spell, so they’ll never suspect it’s you. Plus that’s why Cole can’t come along, if they found out he’s still alive then they’d probably find out you are too.”

Jonah touched his painted scar, Mina continued;

“Oh! One more thing to complete the scene!”

Mina went into the room Rarity kept coming in and out of; she came back with something;

“Here, catch!”

Jonah held out his arms and let the long object tumble into his arms. It was Seth’s sawed off shotgun. Jonah’s eyes widened;

“Holy shit! How did you get this?! Let alone how did you get this robe?”

“I stole his shit, remember? Don’t worry he had backups so we’ll still pull it off.”

Rarity encouraged Jonah and Mina’s mission;

“With this marvelous disguise, you’ll most certainly be able to get past that horrid bastard’s security!”

Jonah grabbed the cold metal of the gun, he lowered it for safety. Mina suggested;

“We should get a move on! Dinner starts up soon.”

“Right.”

Jonah and Mina left Rarity’s room; thanking her once again for her help. The boy and girl went to ask Princess Celestia to send them both to what use to be Canterlot. The Princess had no trouble recognizing Jonah;

“Jonah, you look awful in that robe, it’s so drab and lifeless.”

“Hm, no wonder my brother wears it.”

Mina asked the Princess;

“So, would you teleport us there?”

The Princess thought for a moment, she gazed at Jonah’s face worried and put a hoof around his back;

“Be safe, my child… I’m bringing you back in one hour.”

Mina whispered;

“What?! She gives me as much time as I want!”

Jonah nodded, he could still hear that motherly attitude in her voice. He tried to ignore it, and took Mina’s hand. Princess Celestia used her power and teleported the duo to a hidden area near the front gate of Seth’s towering castle. Mina forced Jonah’s head down; she peaked passed the hidden wall they crouched behind. She turned back to Jonah;

“Okay, there are two guards at the front. Can you impersonate Seth good?”

“Yeah, I think I can get him down.”

“Does he have a voice as deep as yours?”

“No, his is a little higher and flamboyant. I may be able to get it; if not then I’ll just silver tongue ‘em.”

Jonah went ahead of Mina and held a firm grasp on her wrist as if she were a captive. As the two of them walked, Jonah could not but take a moment to scan the advanced, mechanical city around him. Canterlot was once filled with tall stairs, fountains, unique structures and buildings, and statues; now it has been transformed into a metropolis years ahead of anything he ever saw in Equestria before. There were roads with cars traveling at reckless speeds, trains on tall bridges that stretch for miles across the floating land, and large air vessels soaring through the skies. Each of the ponies who walked through the town wore a brace around their front left hooves, perhaps for identification or tracking. The castle ahead of them was comprised of two parts, the lower half being a dust, smoky and busy factory; and the higher half which was spotless and shining from the sun’s reflection, it was obviously where Seth resided.

Jonah and Mina approached the entrance, the two guard ponies who stood stiffly, they were mechanized Pegasi. One half of their bodies retaining their original form, the other half being a dominant robotic skeleton structure; it disgusted Jonah to see the ponies with such a different and unnatural manifestation, regardless he looked at them straight in the eye and ordered;

“Make way!”

The guards eyes widened, they immediately shifted out of Jonah and Mina’s path with rigid movements. Mina whispered to Jonah;

“At this rate, we’ll be able to do more damage than all the times I’ve been here combined.”

They continued walking. What was once the foyer of the castle was now a sweatshop filled with fillies and colts, working their hooves to the bone on circuit chips and metal objects. Jonah looked at the labor around him, angered that his brother would labor this to mere children. Every second that these ponies worked were only more gusts of poisonous, toxic gases being inhaled by each of them. Many would vomit taking in so many flame retardants and chlorine. Jonah could not bear to watch;

“Stop! All of you!”

All of the children stopped in their tracks, ready to follow their Final Arbiter’s every word without question. Jonah continued;

“Go home! Now! Get out of my sight, don’t come back!”

The little ponies smiled to each other and ran out the front door, cheering in happiness. Jonah smiled to himself, Mina said to him;

“Impressive, you really got this down. Let’s keep moving.”

Jonah and Mina took the tall stair case in front of them upwards; there was a fork in the path leading to two more stair cases on either side. Mina instructed;

“Let’s take the right one, there’s some laboratories up there we can smash up.”

They went up the right stair case; they opened the first door they saw. The first sight beyond the tall door was a stomach churning one. There were several doctor ponies operating on a young mare; they were grabbing fists of intestines and entrails from the mare’s abdomen. Blood dripped on the white floor, forming into several puddles around the surgeons. All the body parts that were removed were replaced by a mechanized, robotic substitute for the specific anatomy. Each device to be implanted was delivered to them on a hasty conveyer belt from the foyer sweatshop. The conveyer belt suddenly stopped producing the parts they required; leaving an incomplete, bloody and carved pony carcass to waste away on the operating table. Curse words flew out the doctors’ mouths, and then they noticed their Final Arbiter’s presence. One doctor said nervously;

“Final Arbiter! Sir! I’m terribly sorry; those kids must be goofing off or something. I’ll have them back to work immediately!”

Jonah shook his head;

“No. Go home; you’re all free to go, do not come back.”

The doctors looked at one another surprised, the doctor replied;

“… Really…?”

“Yes, now GO! NOW DAMN YOU!”

Each doctor fled the room as quick as possible; Mina leaned against the wall with a weak stomach. Jonah said to her;

“Just cover your eyes until I saw we can go, I’ll take care of all this.”

Jonah aimed his shotgun and fired at each electronic or mechanical device insight. Once he was complete he guided Mina out of the room, and went straight to the next one.

They opened the door to see rows of shelves; each shelf was over stuffed with aborted Pony fetuses of a variety of sizes, cramped in small formaldehyde jars. Mina’s eyed bulged, she sunk herself down and vomited on the floor next to Jonah. Jonah only sighed depressingly at the sight, wondering what the hell kind of dark and perverted madness his brother could possibly be up to with what he was staring at.

After an hour of searching ruining more rooms and finding even more disturbing projects, they found themselves near the top where Princess Celestia’s room was once claimed, only one staircase below it. Jonah suggested;

“The final room is the Princess’ personal home, its right above us. Seth has to be up there, you know a way to sneak in, don’t you?”

“Of course, his room is the only room I ever stole stuff from. I use to climb the tower windows at night; I haven’t seen any of the lower ones until today. Hopefully that will be the ONLY time I ever see those areas...”

Jonah looked around the semi-final room they were in; he noticed it had the same furniture as General Canis’ previous office. He said to Mina;

“This must be the General’s new office, but he’s not here…”

“He’s probably with Seth up there. Come on let’s finish our mission and head back.”

“Wait; there could be something important in here.”

Jonah walked over to the General’s desk. He found book that was left in the chair, it was entitled, “THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF MAGICAL AMULETS.” He opened it and found himself looking into a book marked page. The large window behind him provided an excellent source of light to vividly observe the page. Mina walked over to read what Jonah was observing;

“The Override Amulet?”

A picture of a silver amulet with a glowing, blue, square gem bolted in the middle of it was shown. It was circled with a black marker. Jonah instructed Mina;

“Let’s remember this, it could mean something big…”

Suddenly alarms and sirens began screaming, pounding through Jonah and Mina’s ears. Mina yelled her voice over the blaring sound;

“Damn! We gotta go! Now!”

A gun shot was fired. Mina’s calf was wounded, she screamed and fell to the ground, and she asked Jonah;

“Was that you?!”

Jonah had both hands around the barrel of his shotgun the entire time; he looked behind him and Mina saying;

“... That wasn’t me!”

Mina and Jonah were turned around, looking Seth straight in the eyes, General Canis stood behind him. The General saw through Jonah’s clever disguise and yelled;

“You’re supposed to be DEAD!”

Seth remained without words and started to prepare his infamous death spell. While Seth charged, Mina instructed quickly;

“Shoot him!”

Jonah did nothing; he went stiff and nervous staring at his brother. Mina grew impatient, she snatched Jonah’s firearm and fired at Seth. Seth quickly canceled the death spell, and instead conjured a solid shield around him, making the shell deflect. Seth used his power to make the shield expand and span out fast like a wave, pushing Jonah and Mina through the window behind them. Mina dropped the gun from the impact; Jonah acted quick and activated his flight power, catching Mina from the gravity pulling her. They flew away fast, ears still ringing from the volume of the sirens. Mina said to Jonah;

“Other than the hole in my leg, I think we could count that as a success; we left that place trashed!”

Jonah and Mina heard a familiar voice in their heads;

“Your hour is past up!”

They were instantly thrown back into the crystal caves; they were on the ground right in front of Princess Celestia. She said to them;

“Supper is ready, let’s sit down in the rotunda and you can tell us all about your mission.”

The Princess looked at Mina’s injured leg;

“… He found you, didn’t he.”

Jonah nodded. Princess Celestia continued;

“Oh, I knew I shouldn’t have let you go there! I knew she would be a bad influence on you!”

Mina gave a scowling look to the Princess. The Princess continued;

“Mina, when we get to the Rotunda, have Fluttershy tend to you BEFORE you eat.”

“Yeah whatever, MOM…”

Mina tried to stand on both legs; she failed to even straighten the injured one. Jonah got up and carried her off her feet to ease the pain; he walked with the Princess into the Rotunda. Mina whispered to him;

“… Why does Celestia treat you like a baby?”

Jonah whispered back, hesitant to reveal the tragic tale of how she lost her son;

“It’s a very long story… this has been going on for a while actually… don’t worry I’ll help her…”

He saw a makeshift table made of rocks and crystals with a fried chicken placed in the middle. All the ponies sat around the table, even Cole sat at a side, though he remained as siCole looked up at Jonah with heavy eyes and exhausted eye lids. Jonah gave him a similar expression. He whispered to Mina again;

“… I’ll help Cole too…”

Sadness clouded the Princess’ judgment; she was desperate for Jonah to substitute for offspring. Depression riddled through Cole’s silent being, ready to strike at any moment, and end his life by his own hands. Lust and revenge crowded the minds of the six ponies, demanding and pressuring their friend to end his older brother’s life. Jonah had to fix everything, there had to be a revelation that night.

The time was coming, when the team of heroes would be presented with information that was dire to their incoming final battle. The one thing they required if they were to stand any chance against Seth’s dark powers, The Override Amulet.

The Override Amulet

Jonah removed his disguise and reformed his hair into its original mullet shape, and the dinner began. The fried bird was divided amongst the ponies and humans that circled the crystal table. Cole sat next to Jonah, silent as could be; Mina was in another room receiving hospitality from Fluttershy for her shell wound. Jonah sat at one end of the table, while Princess Celestia sat at the opposite, they conversed Jonah and Mina’s findings;

“The Override Amulet?”

Jonah nodded;

“Yes, that’s what the General had marked in his book.”

The Princess rested her chin on her hooves;

“I know I’ve heard of that someplace…”

Twilight’s eyes grew and she jumped in;

“Oh! I know that one; the Override Amulet, cancels out any and all projectile based magic aimed for its user.”

“That’s it! Good, Twilight.”

Twilight smiled. Jonah spoke;

“Seth must want it for defense of some sort… I don’t see why it’d be necessary; he has all that other freaky stuff…”

Twilight suggested;

“He could be up to something very destructive… Some say that he’s been getting angry with Equestria; he still can’t occupy Cloudsdale, and Mina is constantly stealing things from him. Remember at the celebration in Canterlot, the General said he would use something called the ‘reset button’ if we were too defiant.”

“I hope it isn’t that way, but I say we find this amulet before he does. If we have it, then we can finally face him head on without having to worry about the death spell.”

Applejack stood up and punched the air with her front hooves;

“Then you can give ‘at heathern a hefty wallopin’!”

Rainbow flew above the table and made a swinging motion;

“Yeah! Use your ice and slice his damn throat open! Slash ‘im down the middle!”

Jonah tried to calm Rainbow Dash;

“Rainb-…”

He was interrupted by Pinkie Pie;

“If you still got that gun of yours, you can fire all over at him like POW POW POWPOW POW!”

Jonah was shocked that Pinkie would make such a violent suggestion, he tried to speak;

“I don’t even have the shotgun anymo-…”

Twilight interrupted;

“You’re right, girls. Give him no mercy! This is for everything he’s done in the last few years!”

Jonah jumped from his seat and slammed his hands down on the table, startling everyone in range;

“ENOUGH!”

Princess Celestia tried to ease Jonah with a soft voice;

“Now, Jonah, calm down sweetie-…”

“NO! Dammit…! What’s happened to everyone here?!”

Jonah panned his irate sight over the sitting ponies;

“You! You all use to be kind and empathetic souls, without a harmful thought in the world. You were never so dark and violent until now! You expect ME to kill my own brother! Did you not even consider how I fuckin’ felt about that!? I understand how you all feel about him, and yes maybe he does deserve this kind of punishment, but cool it the fuck down! I for one am NOT looking forward to fighting this guy, and I don’t want to think about it anymore until then!”

The five ponies looked down in shame, some twiddled their hooves while some swayed back and forth; Princess Celestia sat up straight, looking at Jonah;

“Watch your langua-!”

“And Princess!”

The ponies jumped at the tone of Jonah’s voice, in their days it was not wise to yell at a Princess. Jonah continued;

“I’m not your son! I know you’ve lost a lot of people you cared for, but I can’t be a substitute for them! I’m twenty years old now; I have to get on with my life, I already had a mother. So instead of comfortin’ me, try comfortin’ yourself- no actually comfort Cole, he needs it! He literally threw himself off the cliff side earlier!”

Cole looked up at Jonah with tears forming. Jonah sighed, knowing that he just embarrassed his friend. He looked back to Princess Celestia, she also wept at Jonah’s bold and cutting words;

“I really wish I could help you Princess, but I don’t think I can… I’m sorry…”

Jonah looked back down to Cole;

“And I’m sorry for mentioning that, Cole. But you need to talk to us about this; talk to me, talk to Princess Celestia, or talk to the other ponies here, don’t hold it in anymore.”

Cole shook his head rapidly, covering his ears and holding his eyelids tight together, trying to tune out Jonah’s painful wisdom. Cole shook rapidly, seeing faint memories of the late Halie in his mind, the night they first met, the relationship they began, the sensation of their touch, and the unborn child they created together. Cole could not take it any longer; he slammed both fists on the table, sending a vibration to all corners of the rectangle. Jonah reached down and placed a hand on the back of Cole’s back, patting him slowly to ease him;

“Cole this wasn’t your fault… It was Seth that killed Halie, HE deflected that shot… It was somethin’ you weren’t prepared for, and you did the best you could with good intentions for everyone. It was Seth who made it all back fire.”

Cole swatted Jonah away and held his head low. Jonah took a few steps back, examining his hurt friend. In the past, Cole always help Jonah out of a rough patch, this time, Jonah was determined to return the favor. Jonah walked back over to him, kneeled down and hugged him from the side. Cole had no reaction; he kept the same agitated expression. Jonah said to him;

“Don’t put the blame on yourself… It was no fault of your own, we’re so use to shootin’ first and askin’ questions later, and I could have made the same move… It’s not your fault, please understand…”

Cole pushed Jonah away forcefully, stood from his seat and stomped out of the Rotunda. Cole wiped his moist eyes and looked back before exiting, giving the room a brief and depressed gesture. Cole left the Rotunda, and disappeared into the deep darkness of the crystal caverns. Jonah could not believe how cold and distant Cole became. Cole was in a depression that was so foreign and disturbing, that it began to drain the hope out of Jonah; he sighed and turned to Rarity;

“Ya know, we could use that gem-trackin’ spell of yours.”

Rarity stood with tears in her eyes from Cole’s sad words, she then smiled a little knowing she’d be used for crucial steps in ending the nightmare that reigned over her world.

Twilight gathered more memories of her amulet research, it was told that the Override Amulet was a one of a kind charm, buried someplace in the desert of Appleloosa. Twilight warned them that finding the gem would not be easy; that because the amulet cancels out any magic aimed for it, Rarity’s gem-tracking spell would not read it. Their only best bet was to find an area with the most compact gem clusters and dig there.

Transportation was as simple as before, Princess Celestia teleported Jonah, Mina, Rarity and Twilight, with little hesitation in her thoughts. Mina still limped some from her doctored injury, but she insisted that she should come. Jonah could tell that the Princess was not happy with his lecture earlier, but he knew that he said what he needed to say. Within an instant, the four were on the outskirts of Appleloosa. Jonah turned to the white unicorn and said;

“Rarity, do your stuff!”

“With pleasure!”

Rarity’s horn gave off a blue aura, the ground below them lit up the same color, each light spreading about 4 feet between each gem that buried. Twilight reminded Jonah and Mina;

“Remember you two, find the biggest cluster and it should be there.”

The team of four began their long search. After several hours of searching, digging up clusters of amulet-deprived gems, and snapping Rarity out of her obsession of gems and fascinations over jewelry ideas; the four began to feel wind gusting around them. The air grew stronger as they approached a massive source of gems; the blast became so strong that their legs trembled. The sand of the hot desert ground blew through their faces and stung their eyes. Then, something appeared a few meters above them; it was a large, cloaked helicopter. The invisibility of the chopper faded until its opacity was at maximum.

The helicopter descended and rested on the ground before the four friends, and out of its cockpit came General Canis. He sighed in disgust;

“Ah, there they are! How could I forget such children as yourselves…”

Mina snarled at the General, the General continued;

“No matter, because you’re too late! You will not be getting the amulet before my pet does!”

The four looked amongst each other, wondering what monster could be waiting for them inside the helicopter. The General called out;

“MECHA-7-2521, COME FORTH, NOW!”

An armored hoof stomped on the sand outside of the helicopter’s deck. It crept its way out with slow, intimidating and rigid motions. It was a tall mechanized Alicorn pony, armed to the teeth with guns, blades and explosive artillery. Other than its dark blue furry ears, there were absolutely zero traces of nature to this being, it was nothing but a drone composed of mysterious, yet familiar metal. Its eyes were a glowing red, showing no trace of life or thought. The General instructed it;

“Kill these four, then dig up that amulet and deliver it straight to the Final Arbiter!”

Jonah got angry and asked the General in a cutting voice;

“What does Seth want with that amulet!?”

The General looked puzzled, he raised one eye;

“Seth? The master’s name is Seth…? Seth, huh? It almost sounds like a person’s name…”

“That’s because it is, he’s MY brother, I should know.”

“He is…? I thought I saw some similarities between you both, small universe isn’t it? Any who, this my pet’s defenses dominates anything you can throw at it, so I might as well fill you in before you die… Equestria’s defiant stunts in the last few months have led the Final Arbiter to enforce punishment, by pressing the reset button. Of course, he wants protection from its devastating blast, so he has demanded that he be brought the Override Amulet. You and that girl trashing our home was only the cherry topping to the defiance of this wretched fucking planet! Prepare yourselves, you will DIE HERE! JUST LIKE THAT WASTE OF SPACE FRIEND OF YOURS, AND HER USELESS PRENATAL!”

Without anyone’s attention, Mina used her weather powers to channel a lightning bolt down on to the General, incinerating him instantly. Mina’s hair was erect from the amount of electricity she used; she straightened it and said;

“Shut the hell up already…”

The four faced the tall metal pony; it ran to them at intense speed, ready to battle for the desired amulet. The metal pony aimed the guns on its shoulders to the four and fired bullets like a machine gun; Jonah acted quick and raised an ice barrier to block the incoming bullets. He used his power to throw the ice shield at the android; the android lowered its head, opening a door in the back of its neck to fire out a bomb. The bomb impacted the shield, and bits of ice shattered and flew through the air.

Mina conjured more lightning from the sky and sent it to the android, stunning it and making it shiver. The metal pony uttered choppy sounding word, as if coming from a transistor radio;

“What?”

The android shook and pounced at Mina, displaying its shiny, pointed metallic teeth; Twilight grabbed it with her telekinesis before it could trample her. Twilight threw the metal pony in the air; it fell to the hard ground, making clanking and static-like noises. Mina electrocuted it again; the mech then said with a muffled and shattered voice;

“… Save… Me…”

Rarity used her gem-tracking spell along with telekinesis to make the buried gems rise from the desert; she pointed them all at the android and fired each of them one by one. The few larger gems that Rarity fired impaled the metal of the android and caused it to bleed at a rapid pace. Regardless of losing massive amounts of blood, the android stood tall and used its wings to fly high in the air. Its bladed wings spread and tossed spinning knifes and sharp objects towards the group of four.

Twilight conjured a shield to block off the blades flying at them; the blades deflected in several directions away from the team and the sharp rain ended. Twilight lowered the shields and grabbed the android again with her magic. Mina summoned another storm cloud and fired a devastating blast of lighting at the metal pony. The metal pony froze in midair and dropped to the ground, causing its back legs to snap off from its pelvis and break into robotic pieces. The android stuttered;

“Hurt… It did… We are… in pain…”

Its words were loud enough for the four to understand. They looked at each other, and were able to make out that it was a mare’s voice. Mina shot her full of more lightning;

“Religion… Evolve… Hopelessness… Time… Obsessed… Miss… Sadness… Tried… Neglect… Age… Why… Happiness… Tired… Era… Schoolboy…”

No one, not even the observant Jonah could find a way to connect the random phrases that flooded from the dying metal Alicorn. She continued to spray unpredictable words;

“Love… Life… Empathy… Powers… Smother… Explain… Give… Affection… Ever… Save… Ultimate… Hard… Advantage… New… Overpower… Joy…”

The android’s glowing eyes dimmed as she died, ceasing all motions. Rarity went back to business, and pulled a large chunk of gems out of the earth. Jonah pulled it out of Rarity’s grasp and tore apart the gems, eventually finding a silver piece of metal. He held it up;

“Here it is! I remember what it looked like!”

The Override Amulet was covered in sand and dirt from its long neglect. Twilight smiled and said;

“Let’s get back to the caves, we’ll unite with the others and finally confront Seth!”

Jonah strapped the amulet around his neck, ready to take on any magic projectile. Twilight’s horn glowed and the four friends vanished instantly.

The time has finally come to face the Final Arbiter. His closest ally has been terminated; the charmed he clamored over was taken out of his grasp. The odds of his success cowered to his younger brother’s chances. He sits in what was once the Princess’ private quarters, waiting for action with the lowest hesitation to illuminate the planet under him, and the universe around him.

The Core

Everyone was there; except for Princess Celestia, she refused to watch what was about to happen. Jonah, Cole, Mina, Spike and the six ponies stood in the outer ring of Seth’s private home, ready to fight. Jonah glared at the door to the inner ring, hesitant to open it. Cole leaned his emotionless self onto the outer ring window and said nothing. Rainbow Dash flew over to the sitting Jonah, and asked;

“Well, what are you waiting for?”

Jonah shook his head;

“I don’t think I can do this. Everyone is expecting me to kill him, I know he’s done some horrible things that definitely warrant it, but I can’t bring myself to do this…”

“Remember what he did, man… He deserves what’s about to come to him, if it makes you so conflicted, then I’ll deliver the final blow. It’ll be quick and painless. He won’t even see me!”

Jonah stood on his feet again;

“That doesn’t help me…”

Rainbow Dash ignored Jonah’s remaining discomfort; he opened the door to the inner ring and guided Jonah in. The inner ring bared zero resemblance to what Jonah remembered; the walls were repainted to be blue summer skies, with sand near the base. The floor of the inner ring was complete sand with sea shells scattered across it, and there was even a large puddle of water in the area where the bed once was. The side of the ring leading to the bathroom was crowded with green trees. The setting of the inner ring now resembled a beach, not one that seemed like an Equestrian beach, but like a beach from Earth. It even had a thick coastal-like smell in the air; it made Jonah think of Virginia Beach.

The team was done observing, Seth stood in front of the door to the core room. Little did Seth know, that the door before him was impenetrable, and that only Princess Celestia could possibly open it. Seth was peering into the key hole, trying to see what could be in there that neither he nor anyone except the Princess could ever access. Seth felt a presence; he turned and saw his younger brother, with his best friend as well as a girl, six ponies and a little dragon.

Seth charged his death spell, while everyone else lined up perfectly straight behind Jonah for protection. Seth fired the massive death spell, causing a wave of darkness to gust towards his opponents. The spell traveled to Jonah, and dissolved from the power of the Override Amulet wrapped around his neck. Seth admired the glowing silver charm, he breathed heavily and shut his eyes in disappointment, and it was to his belief now that his General was mere dead weight. Seth gathered his energy and fired a shield in such a co-ordinance and scale, that it separated Jonah from his friends, even Cole. Jonah instantly turned back and banged his fists on the shield; Cole was on the other side only a meter away, giving no effort to reunite with his friend. The, both of the brothers faced each other, locked inside the shield the elder sibling created.

Seth reached into his long robes and swiftly pulled out his shotgun. Jonah levitated in the air, ready to move at the very second he saw the barrel aim for him. Jonah flew rapidly back and forth around the barrier he was locked in, giving him a good seven meters in width, and five meters in height to pan across. Seth’s wrists followed his younger brother; he fired once, only barely missing Jonah’s head. Seth fired again, this time sending a shell through Jonah’s right shoulder. Jonah fell to the sand below him, skidding across the floor.

The six ponies behind him jumped and shuttered in fear. Cole jolted and walked closer to the conflict. Jonah brought himself to his feet again, Seth was ready to reload, but noticed he only had three shells left in his pockets. He instead used his prodigy skills in telekinesis to lift his little brother from the sand, and then threw him to the opposite side of their barrier like a rag-doll. Jonah’s back hit the hard, solid wall of the shield; he trembled to his knees, lungs winded.

Cole spread his sweating, shaking palms spread across the barrier, watching his friend as he was continuously thrown around, mercilessly. Mina became scared, she turned to Twilight;

“I thought the amulet cancels this shit out! He’s getting his ass kicked in there!”

Twilight came closer and observed through the transparent shield, she spoke;

“Telekinesis isn’t projectile magic; it can still be used against Jonah…”

Cole kicked and clawed at the shield, his breathing became rapid and short. Mina pulled Cole away;

“Calm down, Cole. He’s not out yet! He’ll make it…”

Mina kept watching, seeing Jonah bleed more from his shoulder made her cringe. Something exploded within her, she jumped closer and bashed her elbows and fists at the shield, and not even a scratch was left on the barrier. Her sudden transition from calmness to agitation made Cole’s knees shake uncontrollably. Applejack budged through Cole, Mina and Twilight;

“Com ‘on, boy! Give ‘im a beatin’!”

Her words failed to reach Jonah; the shield was so strong and dense that it blocked all sounds from the outside. Jonah asked Seth;

“What is this for?! Huh? Is it because of Dad? Or is it me? It’s one of us! Let’s hear it! Let’s hear your bullshit!”

Seth showed no emotions in his face or eyes and gave no verbal response; he gripped Jonah with a powerful telekinetic hold. Seth wriggled his fingers about, causing Jonah’s body to twist in disturbing directions. Jonah struggled to retain a less life threatening pose as Seth tried to churn his wrists, elbows, shoulders, hips, knees, ankles and neck. Jonah used his own telekinesis to resist his elder sibling’s manipulation; he finally regained a plausible position, breathing heavily from the pressure and pain in his bones and muscles.

Rainbow Dash flew to the shield, pounding it with her hooves;

“Come on, kid! Hit him back!”

Jonah could barely make out the muffled voice; he had no time to process it. Seth had his way with Jonah again, this time pulling his anatomy in all opposite directions; he howled in anguish then used telekinesis to fight the yanking and tugging back. Jonah spoke to Seth again;

"Seth! Try and understand! He as a father was proud of you! He loved both of us equally; he was only worried about you, that didn’t mean he loved you any less than me or mom.”

Lightning struck, Seth’s pupils grew smaller, and his anger boiled at the phrase, “mom.” Seth lifted Jonah again, throwing him up and slamming him straight down with bitter strength. Jonah grew furious; he was finally able to hear his friends from beyond the barrier. They encouraged Jonah to fight, to tear into Seth, slash his throat, slice him open, as well as do many other violent actions.

Lingering anger finally took its root, and Jonah had taken enough. Seth prepared to use more telekinesis, Jonah reacted to his charge instantly, and fired a blast of ice at Seth’s feet, causing him to slip and fall to the ground. Jonah towered over Seth with black eyes, no trace of compassion or reason was visible in the younger brother. He raised his hand, preparing more devastating rounds of freezing power and one at a time he swung fists back and forth at Seth, pounding him with his frozen, rock hard fists. Seth could only take the rapid blows, he groaned in pain as Jonah punched quicker, delivering bloody and disgusting gashes to his pale, white skin. Jonah finally jumped back from Seth by two meters, he lifted his older brother with his telekinesis and tightened his fist, causing Seth’s limbs and entire being to tighten and collapse in to an inward direction. Seth gasped and choked from the dark manipulation manifesting from each of Jonah’s tightening fingers.

Exasperation was high. Jonah was going to do it; he was going to kill his brother, his blood brother, crushing him with no remorse or emotion. It was as if Jonah was a different person at this point, over taken and possessed by the same nothingness and ambiguity that Seth displayed during the Fillydelphia academy shooting. But then, something happened and Jonah’s telekinetic grip loosened, he started looking around the room as if looking for someone. Jonah turned his head back to where his friends were blocked off at, he saw Spike remaining quiet as everyone else cheered at his dominance.

Poor little Spike was under distress, obviously not liking what he was watching, two brothers killing each other. This horrible battle disgusted Spike, and only brought back awful memories of his brother’s death. Jonah gazed into Spike’s eyes, Spike returned the glare with sadness that begged and pleaded Jonah to find another way to end this, any other way feasible. Jonah wanted the same thing Spike was telepathically asking, but he could not think of anything else. Seth did not speak at all throughout his three year presence in Equestria; Jonah had no solid motive as to why his brother went so far off the deep end. Jonah tried connecting everything relevant or irrelevant together one last time, the flashbacks of that god awful day, the obsession Seth had with Virginia Beach, the beach-themed room around him, and the scar on his left cheek. He also thought of what his friends desired, Spike wanting his brother, Cole wanting his child and lover, and Princess Celestia wanting a child to nurture.

Suddenly it was clear; Seth’s anger was never towards his father, nor his younger brother. Jonah knew then what Seth truly wanted. It was vivid to him, and he began to see everything in a different light.

Ending his concentration and train of thought, a shotgun shell penetrated Jonah’s thigh, breaking his femur. He screamed in a most terrible cry of anguish, it was loud enough to reach his startled and cowering friends. He was blown backwards by the shell's contact and landed on the floor sitting up, his power vanished and Seth was free. Seth landed on the ground shins first; he slumped over giving himself a moment to regain his strength. He reloaded his shotgun, aimed at his younger kin and fired. Jonah was shot in the stomach, the shell left a two inch hole entering his gut, and a three inch crater exiting his back, causing him to endlessly bleed out. He fell over, and his vision began to blur and fade.

Gasping and coughing, Jonah could not move, he could not stand or even sit up right. His legs were paralyzed by the shell's exit through his lower spine. He remained barely conscious, and stayed slouched over to his left side, trying to think of anything, anything that may help him at all.

Anything, even the most impossible of spells that could assist him.

Blessing to Mother

Shuffling, moaning, and whimpering; that’s all that can be heard in the quiet, peaceful night. Princess Celestia awoke from her state of relaxing, harmonious sleep. She was woken by the alarm and distress from her son’s sudden crying. She jumped from her soft bed, and followed the cries quickly. Princess Celestia entered the core, her son’s room; she scooped him out of his tall, rectangular crib and into her embrace immediately, hugging him tightly in her arms. The mother asked her three year old son;

“Hearths, sweetie, are you having those nightmares again?”

Hearths Warming held his head low; his eyes were drenched in wet tears. Hearths hugged his mother’s chest, rubbing his bright and moist face on her soft and warm fur. The mother tightened her grip, rocking her small son back and forth gently, the son cried harder than before. The mother looked at her son with weak eyes, saddened by her son’s fear. She lifted him in one fore leg, holding him close so that he could find comfort under her neck. She carried him to the living room and laid him down in front of the family fire place. The son sunk his weary head to the floor and sobbed more, the mother sat down behind her son after lighting the fire place. The mother pulled her son into her, she let him nestle into her stomach and hug her, she responded by wrapping her fore legs and back legs around him, pulling him in closer. The son smiled, the warmth he felt was like no other, he loved every moment of it, it was magical to him. He eventually stopped crying, and the mother leaned her head down and planted a soft, tender kiss on the scar of his left cheek. The son, drifted into sleep peacefully, with the words from his mother;

“Mommy loves you, Hearths… So does Daddy, he loves you, though he may be far… Your brothers love you too, and they are waiting for you, they’re waiting for both of us… We love you, Hearths Warming; we truly do with all our hearts. We will always love you; now rest my son… rest, my beautiful boy... my blessing…”

The mother placed her son in his bed, in the center of the core. The skylight of the core room shined the light of the moon on top of them. The atmosphere and air was mystical that night.

The End.

Princess Luna's Diary

Ten Months after Crossing Anthology 1 (Two months ago)

“I am Princess Luna, the younger sister of Princess Celestia. For almost a year now, a serial killer has been mercilessly putting a brutal end to countless amounts of unicorn lives, 'tis a sickening sight, my sister has tried many of her regular moves; sending out investigators, having Wonderbolts search the skies, encouraging royal guards to maintain a more keen eye for any sign of trouble. But I have grown impatient, my sister's tactics are failing before my and everyone's frightened eyes!”

“It is time for me to engage this criminal, and deliver a swift, painful end to his terror. But, how shall I perform such a feat...”

“Just who may I call upon for help...?”

Present day

“The time has come for me to set everything right for Equestria. No pony will have to live in fear, and no pony will have to hide in the shadows. I am now in the preparing myself for an interview on the planet Mobius, to recruit two misguided, but very powerful young boys to be an elite, underground team to bring down the vicious killer who sends my little ponies into panic.”

“The elder, Jonah. Seventeen years old today, with the power to manipulate large blasts of ice. The younger, Coltrane. Sixteen years old, with the power to generate powerful surges of lightning.”

“Jonah and Coltrane, you best not disappoint me...”

Manners

Rainbow Dash was impatient, she watched with amazement as Jonah and Pinkie Pie had finally reached the town. Jonah wasn’t too worried about losing contact with his friends; before, they would always find a way to reunite when they became separated. If anything he was more afraid of how everyone would stick together during this new mission; Cole and Mina never saw eye to eye, and Jonah felt too distant from Halie. He never wanted it to be this way, so he pledged to himself quietly that he would try his best to maintain a cool atmosphere amongst his friends. Rainbow flew in front of Jonah and said with a slight crack;

“Just what the hay toke you slow pokes so long?! Come on, I’ll show ya the ropes around here!”

Rainbow flew ahead, Jonah and Pinkie followed.

Meanwhile:

Cole and Applejack arrived in the opposite side of town from where Jonah was. Cole observed the small village, many stores and business appeared to be closed or vacant, and the streets were lightly populated. Any ponies trotting by only observed Cole with questioning eyes, Cole had about half a mind to ask “just what the hell are you looking at?” to some of the wandering souls. Applejack told Cole;

“Don’t mind ‘em, they just ain’t use to seein’ a big fella like you. Pardon me for a second I gotta use the little fillies’ room.”

Applejack walked away to the closest open store, Cole sat at the same store’s front steps and looked around briefly. Cole thought of just how he would ask out Halie, he was not sure how to approach her on the subject. He then thought, what would be the point? It’s not like he knew any nice places to take her on a date to in this town, or even the planet. Cole shook his head lightly and figured, “what the hell, I’ll wing it.” A familiar voice caught Cole’s ear;

“Hey, Blondie!”

Cole turned his head only to be disappointed by what he saw, it was Mina. She was leaned against a support beam outside a nearby grocery store, eating an orange. Mina walked over to Cole; her arm was pressed tightly against her long, dark trench coat, as if she were hiding something. She kneeled down before him and whispered;

“Check out what I snagged outta that shop.”

Mina opened her trench coat revealing a large assortment of fruits: apples, oranges, grapes, bananas and more. She offered to Cole;

“Go ahead, take something before someone sees!”

Cole hesitantly took an apple from Mina’s coat. Mina took a big bite out of the thick hide of her orange, not caring which direction any orange juice squirted. As she talked and chewed at the same time, her voice was muffled but still understandable to Cole;

“Have you found Jonah or Halie, or that Princess pony from the station?”

“No, I did however befriend this country pony named Applejack. Get a load of her voice; it sounds just like Jonah’s.”

Mina took another messy bite out her juicy orange, and said with liquid spraying on to Cole’s sleeve;

“Oh God, this ought to be good.”

Cole became furious as the juice from Mina’s orange, in combination with her saliva sprayed on his chin and collar. He sat up with velocity as swift as his rage and said;

“What the hell!? Is it possible that you can talk without a bunch of shit in your mouth, Mina!? Please have some damn manners, don’t talk and eat at the same time!”

Mina’s face quickly turned to a dark and irritated scowl;

“Why don’t you eat THIS-?”

“Simmer down, Sally…”

Applejack interrupted as she returned from the restroom. Applejack chuckled at the sight of Mina with a firm hold on her crouch, and a nasty expression towards Cole. Cole was demoralized, and afraid. Applejack asked Cole;

“Ain’tcha gonna introduce me to your friend ‘ere, Cole?”

Cole snapped out of the trance Mina set him on, he said with a stutter;

“Uh, yeah-yeah. Applejack, this is Mina. And she is by far not my friend, but I’m forced to team up with her, again…”

Mina looked over to Applejack and said quickly;

“Yeah hey there.”

Mina tossed the rest of her mostly devoured orange at Cole, Cole caught it. Mina told him;

“You eat the rest, I’m full. Come on; let’s look around for Jonah and Halie.”

Cole looked at the bites Mina left in the orange with disgust, he threw discarded the remains in a trash can roughly a few meters from him. He and Applejack followed Mina into a deeper part of the town.

Meanwhile:

Branches, leaves and twigs surrounded her as she finally awoke, Halie looked around and saw she was nestled in a large tree, around the tree was a quaint little town. Halie tried to maneuver herself to the tree’s wide center to climb down safely, it looked wide enough to live in. Her feet made the wrong move; she came tumbling down breaking several branches and destroying a small bird house set up on one of the limbs. She impacted the rough ground with a yelp. With a groan and, eyes tightly shut from the discomfort, she sat up slowly. She opened her eyes to a light suddenly cascading through a window installed in the tree; she quickly came to terms that the tree was in fact someone’s home. A door behind her opened and a female voice asked;

“Oh my goodness, are you okay?”

It was a purple pony; she was a Unicorn judging by the horn on her forehead. She had a neatly cut mane with a single bright pink highlight coming down close to the middle of her bangs. Following the pony was a smaller character, of the same color but a completely different species it seemed; it appeared to be a reptile of sorts judging by the scales. Halie looked at them with weary eyes, trying to process what she was seeing. The small reptilian figure suggested to the purple pony;

“I think she’s unconscious, Twilight.”

Twilight was her name, her eyes widened as she examined Halie a little closer. A gasp escaped her lungs and she said;

“Wait! You’re one of them aren’t you? One of the ones who have come to help us! Did Princess Luna bring you here? Where is she? Is there anyone else here with you?”

“Twi-.”

“Oh my gosh I have so much to ask!”

“Twi-.”

“I mean we’ve been having this problem for so long.”

“Twi-.”

“Now everyone won’t be so scared anymore!”

“Twilight!”

Twilight’s attention was finally caught by her younger friend. She turned to him and asked;

“Yes, Spike?”

Spike had a blank expression, he said to her;

“She’s not responding; she’s knocked out…”

“Oh! Well, let’s bring her inside and put her in bed.”

Twilight’s horn started glowing a faint purple, and Halie began to float above the ground. Halie’s body levitated a foot above Twilight’s horn, as her telekinesis whisked Halie through the open door of the tree house and delivered her up a set of stairs. Twilight set Halie down in a soft bed where she slept peacefully.

Meanwhile:

The sun began to sink below the mountain tops, Jonah thought of where he could reside while searching for his friends. He looked at Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash walking on both sides of him, Pinkie constantly jumping positions to point and telling him of the many businesses and “fun” places in the town. Pinkie jumped to Jonah’s left and pointed to another building;

“That’s the day spa where all us girls go to relax and get all dolled up, out of me, Rainbow, Twilight, Applejack, Rarity, and Fluttershy; the ones who come here most would be Rarity and Fluttershy. I would come here more, but I’m usually running the register at Sugar Cube Corner, hey we should go to Sugar Cube Corner and get some cupcakes and-“

Rainbow listened to Pinkie ramble on long enough; she flew between Jonah’s legs and had him sit on her back while saying;

“Ah, you don’t wanna see all that, you wanna see the cool side of Ponyville, don’t ya?”

Jonah was caught off guard by Rainbow’s stunt. He fixed himself comfortably enough to sit on her back. He worried he’d be too heavy for her, Rainbow nor any other pony he’d seen that day seemed to be anywhere near the size of the ones he remembered from planet Earth. Rainbow seemed content however, so Jonah said to her;

“I’m up for anything. But I really think I ought to find my friends soon. The sun is goin’ down.”

Rainbow slowly lowered her altitude and stop to let Jonah safely hop off her back. Jonah kept thinking of any way possible to signal any of his friends, and in a way of which they’d recognize it. He suddenly remembered a time in 2012 when he was separated from Cole, Jonah had fallen off a jet that he and Cole hitched a ride on. To get Cole’s attention, Jonah had raised his hand to the sky and fired his ice powers, sending out a massive blast of ice in to the sky, luckily Cole was able to recognize it and reunite with him later. After his memories gave him an idea, he turned to Rainbow Dash and Pinkie who had just caught up with them and said;

“Both of you stand back.”

Jonah activated his powers from within and his eyes glowed a bright blue, his feet left the ground and disconnected from his shadow, he flew roughly 6 meters high and raised his hand high in the fading sky and fired a massive amount of ice particles and cold air from his palm into the feathered clouds. Rainbow and Pinkie watched with amazement, Rainbow’s jaw had dropped at least 3 whole inches. They had never seen this amount of raw power from any entity that was not a Unicorn or Alicorn. Something popped into Pinkie’s mind at the sight of the ice power, she yelled;

“Snow cones!”

Rainbow sighed and placed a hoof to her forehead. Jonah concluded his display of power, and tightened his fist to contain any sort of discharge, his power deactivated and he floated down to the ground gently as his eyes went back to their normal blue pigment. Rainbow approached Jonah and said;

“That… was… AWESOME!”

“It wasn’t to show off Rainbow, I did that to signal my friends. It worked once for me, I’m sure Cole will get the message if he was around to see it. Let’s stick around here for a few minutes and wait.”

"Whatever, I'm just happy to have a new flying buddy!"

Jonah didn't anticipate that possibility as much as Rainbow Dash did.

About five minutes passed, and Rainbow was already growing impatient. Rainbow’s hooves were set under her chin, propping up her head as she blew at the hair that obstructed her vision. Rainbow Dash let out a groan and finally said;

“I can’t take this anymore!”

Jonah’s eyes rolled, he turned his head to Rainbow Dash and said;

“We haven’t even been waitin’ for five minutes Rainbow Dash, please have some more patience… Actually, hell, if you don’t wanna wait you can go someplace else in the meantime…”

Pinkie was sitting next to Jonah, giggling at the argument between the two. Rainbow tilted back and groaned loader as she kicked her back legs around, similar to a spoiled toddler. Jonah went back to his own business, and saw another pony approaching them. This one was a yellow Pegasus with a yellow mane hiding a portion of her face; she came closer and began to say with a subtle voice;

“Oh, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, I’m glad I found you. I saw a-“

The yellow pony was frightened and silenced by Jonah’s appearance, she started speaking again;

“Oh… my… I’m sorry, it’s just I haven’t seen any creature like you before.”

She slowly flew her way into Jonah’s range to observe him; she greeted herself with a curious smile;

“My name is Fluttershy; I take care of all the small woodland creatures outside of Ponyville, what kind of creature are you? And where are you from?”

Jonah looked at Fluttershy with a confused face, he told her;

“I’m a human boy… from West Virginia…”

Rainbow Dash separated Fluttershy from Jonah’s range and said;

“Don’t mind Fluttershy, she’s always curious to meet some new animal.”

Jonah wasn’t offended at the title “animal”, it was understandable considering that he and his three friends were the only humans on the planet. Pinkie jumped in and said short laugh;

“Fluttershy has always got something new to say about her animals.”

Fluttershy lowered her head and grew a slight frown, and asked;

“Oh, was I getting too close, I’m sorry…”

Jonah was worried now, Fluttershy seemed to be unsettled. So he assured her;

“Nah, its fine. Back where I’m from people on the streets will look at ya, mouth breathing with just a blank stare. Plus I’m one of the only four humans on this planet right now, so feel free to ask away.”

Fluttershy regained her smile and said;

“Oh, um. Okay.”

Pinkie jumped between Jonah and Fluttershy and suggested;

“I think you may wanna try that ice thing-y again, I don’t think anyone else is coming.”

“You may be right, Pinkie.”

Fluttershy’s eyes widened;

“Wait, that was… you who fired that ice in the sky? That’s exactly why I came over here; you kind of scared some of the animals back at my cottage…”

Jonah ignored Fluttershy and activated his powers again, ready to fire. The just before the first particle of ice formed from his palm, he heard a familiar voice;

“Ay!”

Jonah turned and saw it was just the person he was signaling, it was Cole. Mina was with him too, along with an unfamiliar orange pony. Cole called out to him;

“How’ve ya been, buddy?!”

Our heroes are nearly reunited, they only need to find one more and then they can begin their mission. The day of their arrival is a peaceful day, is one without any casualties, but it is only the first in an era of fearful nights.

Cheer Up

Jonah, Cole, Mina and Halie walked through Ponyville, head in the direction of Fillydelphia. The entire town seemed disserted, all this time they only ponies any of them had seen were the five who greeted them. The baron environment of the village motivated them to try their best, on this, their first real mission. Cole tapped Jonah’s shoulder to get his attention, once he had it, he said;

“Hey look!”

Jonah looked to where Cole pointed; there was Fluttershy in the distance, guiding small bunnies across the intersecting road. Cole looked back at Jonah and said;

“I’m glad we didn’t stay in that cottage she said she had, I bet we’d be forced to sleep in a chicken coop! Haha!”

Jonah laughed with Cole, Jonah suggested,

“There’s probably a buncha animal shit underneath all her furnature.”

The both of them laughed harder, Mina came between the two and smacked their heads. Both the boys let out an “Oww!” and Mina said with a stern voice;

“Focus you two; I think someone is trying to get our attention.”

Mina nodded her head to her right, Jonah and Cole looked and saw Pinkie Pie skipping merrily to them. Pinkie had cake frosting smeared on her cheeks to resemble war paint. She approached with envelopes in her mouth, she held them up to us and we each took one. Pinkie said;

“Here’s an invite to my ‘cheer-up’ party!”

Halie opened the envelope and asked;

“A ‘cheer-up’ party? Are you sure anyone will come, so far none of us have seen anyone in this town except for you and about four others.”

“Oh I’m sure they will! No one misses out on a Pinkie Pie party in THIS town! And this party is hopefully fixing that problem, the party is to loosen everyone up and get them to not be so super scared.”

The four friends looked at each other with understanding looks, but were still skeptical about whether the plan would work or not. Pinkie looked at them with beaming eyes and an excited smile, she asked;

“So… what do ya say? Wanna come? Huh?”

The four looked at each other again; they all shrugged their shoulders and agreed to come. Pinkie jumped with excitement, and bounced away. Pinkie turned her head back and said;

“Oh! The party is at seven ‘o clock tonight, okay?”

The four said in unison;

“Yes, Pinkie.”

Pinkie and the four went their separate ways.

A couple hours passed, it seemed to be around 1 o’ clock in the day. The heat of the Equestrian sun took its toll on the four; Mina had removed her trench coat, Cole sweat the most, Jonah removed the band between the back of his mullet and his ponytail to let his hair fall down. Halie was the most dehydrated out of the four, she held Cole for support in walking, and Cole held her back.

They kept moving, they eventually stopped when they heard a noise. Mina put her arm out to instruct everyone to stop. She said;

“Listen… do you hear it?”

Everyone perked their ears; a loud horn was heard from a far. Mina spoke;

“It’s a train!”

Mina ran in the direction where the sound came from, Jonah, Cole, and Halie followed. They ran up a hill to see a train about a fourth of a mile away. Halie asked the group;

“Do you guys think we can catch it?”

Mina replied;

“Probably not, but that doesn’t mean there might be another coming soon, so we should probably keep an ear out.”

Cole remembered something from the other day, it snapped in his mind, and he said;

“Oh yeah! Ponyville had a train station, I forgot.”

Mina’s eyes widened she looked at Cole swiftly and scolded him;

“THERE WAS A TRAIN STATION THERE AND YOU KNEW ABOUT IT!”

Cole was caught off guard by Mina’s sudden outburst in anger; Cole could only make out stutters. Mina kept yelling;

“You stupid mother fucker! I’ll kick your fucking ass, you dumb-blonde fuck! We’ll die of fucking heat stroke because of your dumb fucking ass!”

Mina stomped to Cole and slapped him across the face with brutal force; Cole held his nose in pain. Mina prepared another strike before Jonah grabbed her arm and held Cole back. Jonah yelled;

“Both of you please stop!”

Halie intervened;

“Don’t hurt him Mina!”

Cole and Mina calmed themselves and backed away, Cole let go of his bleeding nose. Cole wiped the blood from his nostrils and looked at it on his hand, then looked to Mina. Cole said to her;

“I knew bringing you would only inconvenience us.”

Mina rolled her eyes, she told him;

“You’re a waist of my time…”

Mina strolled off, continuing with the teams’ mission. Cole stood there for a few moments, he growled in pain from the blow given by Mina. Jonah walked up to Cole and put a hand on his shoulder, he patted Cole lightly, the two caught up with Halie and Mina.

Halie inspected Cole’s injury to make sure he was okay. Jonah walked over to Mina, Jonah gave her a disappointed look. Mina looked back at Jonah and sighed, she said to him;

“Sorry I hurt your friend, Jonah. I just got angry is all… Plus it’s really damn hot out here.”

Suddenly an idea popped into Jonah’s head. He activated his ice powers, pulled Mina into him with a hug and used his power to cool them both down. Mina held Jonah back and said with a giggle;

“Well isn’t that something.”

They both smiled.

Later:

Two more hours passed, they had arrived at their destination, the abandoned warehouse in Fillydelphia. They entered the broken doors. The four friends walked in, the first thing they noticed was the foul smell of rotting wood and mold, it was certain to them that the structure of this building was falling apart by the day. They split up, Halie searched one hallway, and Mina searched another. Jonah and Cole found a small office and scavenged it together. Once Jonah and Cole were on their own, Cole suggested;

“I guess we should try to smell our way to the body.  I’m positive that buy now its letting off some kind of odor.”

“Good idea, Cole. But this whole place smells awful! How can we differentiate the smell of the body from all the mold?”

“Yeah, we could be following something real smelly and then just wind up stepping in some old turd.”

Jonah and Cole continued looking and sniffing. Mina searched in each room of the long hallway she traveled through; she kicked boxes round and looked under furniture, sometimes vice-versa. Mina was having little luck. As Halie walked slowly, she felt her foot tap something soft she looked down and gasped, she signaled everyone else;

“Hey! Everyone! Get over here! I found the body!”

Everyone else came to the sounds of distress immediately. Jonah flipped on the light switch placed at the room’s entrance, he looked down to see a bloody unicorn body, with what appeared to be a bullet hole through the head. Cole observed the body for a moment, he instructed the group;

“Okay, let’s investigate.”

Halie looked around the room, Jonah observed the body itself, Cole looked at the direction in which the blood flew and tried re-enacting the scene quietly. Mina looked around on the floor for any stray bullets or shells that may have been fired. Halie looked at the window in the room, it was shattered, she looked out it and saw hoof marks on the ground. The hoof marks we’re normal, they looked like they had been dragged violently. After roughly five minutes, they were able to piece together how the murder went down. Halie began;

“It seems that the killer dragged the victim in her through the window, by force.”

Cole added to it;

“Then once they were in, he threw the victim on the floor- here.”

Cole pointed to a spot on the floor, in front of a book shelve; the books were stained with blood and pieces of brains. Mina concluded the scene;

“The killer shot at the victim twice, once in the head, the other was a stray shell. But check this out!”

Mina held out her hand, the shell was in small fragments. Jonah scooped the pieces out of Mina’s hand and observed them closer. Jonah said;

“The killer was usin’ a sawed off shot gun.”

Cole looked confused, he asked Jonah;

“Sawed off? But wouldn’t that break it?”

“Nope, when the barrel of a shot gun is sawed off at the right place, the shell sprays into pieces, and causes a lot more damage.”

Cole went silent; Halie shook her head and said;

“This doesn’t give us enough information, we should try finding… I don’t know security tapes and stuff.”

Mina responded;

“This place is abandoned, Halie, there is no recording. Even if this place was functional, I don’t think Equestria has that type of technology just yet.”

A loud siren interrupted their investigation, the siren was loud enough to be heard miles away, it rung the four friends’ ears. Cole yelled out;

“Where the hell is that coming from!”

Jonah peaked out the window quickly; he looked around and saw what appeared to be a school being evacuated. Small fillies and colts came running out of it with their teachers, everyone was in panic. Then Jonah noticed something, they were all unicorns…

“Oh… SHIT!”

Jonah turned around to his friends, and ordered;

“We gotta get over there!”

Cole, Mina and Halie looked around rapidly, their faces confused and terrified. Jonah yelled again;

“NOW!”

Something horrible is awaiting them, something cruel, and something Equestria will only remember as “incomprehensible.” Sights will be sickening, and sounds will be disturbing, minutes will feel like hours. The dangerous atmosphere will strike fear for loved ones’ well-being. Equestria may never know another tragedy as barbaric as the one approaching.

Protecting Mother

It was two months since Jonah tried to use the age spell, the year 2014 began. Halie at this point was no longer suffering from the agonizing sickness of the mornings, and her stomach began expand from her developing child. Cole and Jonah would practice their new found magic abilities during the day, and mutually agree to retire for the night. Mina was still no place to be found, Jonah and Cole would often leave town separately to search for her. Jonah venture the Ever Free Forest, Cole would plunder Manehatten; one would scavenge Fillydelphia, while the other would creep through Hollow Shades. Not a single solitary word was spoken about the still concealed serial killer, the General’s conversations grew from the crude and carefree rants to cold and single word rants. Jonah, Cole and Halie no longer saw any purpose to look for the killer; they decided that after they find Mina, then they would leave Equestria.

One night, after Jonah and Cole returned to Applejack’s barn after a long day of patrolling the land, Jonah realized he had left the tie of his ponytail at Twilight’s library. Cole and Halie greeted each other after hours of not seeing one another and hugged each other, Jonah interrupted their embrace;

“Hey, I left something at Twilight’s this morning. I’ll be back in a few.”

Halie said to Jonah;

“Alright, hurry back. Applejack wants to play cards with us; Fluttershy is visiting to join in!”

Jonah was out the door, running from the barn into town and then finally to the library. Jonah knocked on the door of the tree house, and from the other side of the wooden passage stood Spike. Jonah asked Spike;

“Hey, is Twilight home?”

Spike nodded his head horizontally, signaling that Twilight was not home. Jonah continued;

“Oh okay, could I come in anyway? I left something here this morning before Cole and I went searching.”

Spike opened the door wider, allowing Jonah to enter. Jonah looked around the library, frisking the shelves for his hair tie. Jonah found it, and made a positive humming noise. Jonah tied the cloth around the back of his mullet to restore his ponytail. Then suddenly Jonah could not help but feel a slithering presence behind him, he turned around hastily to see Spike looking innocent. Spike had both hands behind his back trying to hide something, Jonah could see through Spike’s miniscule and cute stature. Jonah used his telekinesis to levitate what it was Spike was hiding, Spike fought Jonah’s supernatural but failed within seconds. Jonah raised his palm up, and saw a large kitchen knife float in front of him. Jonah felt like he should have expected this much from such a quiet and antagonizing little dragon. Spike looked to Jonah, nervous of how he would react to this discovery. Jonah floated the knife down to the ground and left it; he kneeled to Spike and asked sternly;

“You wanna tell me what’s goin’ on now?”

Spike was frightened out of his mind; finally Spike gained the strength and said to Jonah;

“You… you really think I would forget you, your face, your hair, your eyes and height.”

Jonah had no clue what Spike was talking about;

“What?”

Spike replied immediately, filled with hatred;

“Don’t try to hide it! It’s over! I know who you are! You’re the unicorn serial killer!”

Jonah’s eyes shot at Spike’s words. Jonah sat on the ground, Spike stood and they were both at each other’s eye level. Jonah asked;

“What are you talking about? I never killed anyone!”

“You killed my brother! Your first hit was MY BROTHER, LEMMOUR! And now, I’m gonna protect Twilight. I see what’s been going on; you’ve been secretly pumping Twilight for more magic to use on all the unicorns.”

“Spike, I would never hurt or take advantage of Twilight, I know how close you are to her. And I wasn’t on this planet when that happened! I had just got done traveling from planet Mobius to planet Earth! I wasn’t here!”

“Yes you were! You’re the spitting image of what I remember.”

Spike stomped his foot on the library floor, Jonah was only confused; he reasoned with Spike;

“Spike, when I saw this killer, he was a unicorn. He had hooves! He wore a mask! I don’t understand how you could have mistaken him for a human.”

“But he was… He had that boom stick or whatever, and he shot Lemmour… You look just like him…”

Jonah thought more, another layer of anonymity was peeled back, revealing that the serial killer was once and probably born a human. Jonah feared it could be someone he once knew. During his three year adventure; there were only a couple voyages through space. Jonah always thought that his team went places that no one else ever reached, this led him to suspect that in the end, he would have to fend off a familiar foe. He tried to come up with an explanation;

“Ain’t there any sorta ways that ponies here can change race?”

“Yeah, but that sort of thing is illegal and very hard to find.”

“Well, the serial killer ain’t gonna give a shit about legalities, he’s pretty much written the final word about that. So it’s likely he morphed himself into a unicorn after he shot Lemmour.”

Spike sat down, shivering and scared. Jonah looked at Spike;

“I had a hunch that you were keepin’ somethin’ from us. Listen, I won’t tell Twilight about what happened here, but I want you to tell me anythin’ else you saw, anythin’ at all.”

Spike wiped his face a little; he plundered his memories deeper;

“… He had a burn scar on his left cheek, and he wore a dark cloak. But I definitely saw his face and hair; he looked just like you…”

Jonah sighed heavily, he turned to Spike;

“Listen, the General that Cole and I work for hasn’t gotten any reports in months, but if he does I’ll let you come with me and Cole on a mission. Then you can see that I’m not the one, okay?”

Spike nodded in agreement and the two shook hands. Jonah and Spike stood up from their conversation. Jonah patted his mullet, trying to retain the specific shape he desired. An idea sparked into Jonah’s mind;

“Hey Spike, wanna come back with me? We’re playin’ cards with Applejack and Fluttershy.”

“Um, sure. Sounds like fun.”

Spike gave another stare at Jonah, this time he was smiling. Jonah laughed a little;

“Spike, I think YOU might be the serial killer with that psychotic stare of yours, haha.”

Spike realized that he was being rude to his new friend; he dragged his head away, and then laughed with Jonah. The two new friends left the library, in route to a competitive night of card playing with their other friends.

Later:

After a couple of rounds playing gin rummy, Spike went back to his library home. Jonah, Cole, Halie, Applejack and Fluttershy stood around in the kitchen, talking and having desert. Jonah told Cole about the new found information regarding the serial killer, the two of them pondered for a moment. They knew that if this killer was born a human, then there would be an extremely high chance of them knowing the criminal from their past adventures. The two boys decided to report this information to General Canis first thing the next morning. Cole eventually went to sleep, and Jonah stood up longer, thinking hard about the killer, he also thought about Mina. There would be times when Jonah would fall into a state of depression, worrying so much about his lost friend, his first girlfriend, wondering how she was for the last six months. Fluttershy was just getting ready to leave Applejack’s barn, on her way out, she looked into the living room to see Jonah sitting quietly by himself, and she walked in to give him brief company. Fluttershy sat down beside the chair Jonah was planted on, she asked him;

“Is something the matter?”

Jonah rested head in his hands, he said to Fluttershy;

“Ah, it’s nothin’ for you to worry about. Thanks though.”

Fluttershy was persistent to help the sad boy, and told him with a soft voice;

“You can tell me; maybe I can help with whatever is wrong.”

Jonah took a quick second to respond;

“It’s Mina. She’s been gone for six months now, I just want to find her and tell her I’m sorry for not supporting her that night. I’m worried she could be lost, or hurt, or even worse… I’m just so worried right now.”

There was a moment of silence, Fluttershy asked;

“Why did she leave in the first place?”

“She felt underappreciated, worthless, and inconvenient to us. But she wasn’t, she was only trying to help, and I never stood up for her when she was desperate for it. She didn’t see any purpose to hang around us anymore, and she left.”

Fluttershy was in deep thought; she stood up and left without any other words. Jonah turned;

“Fluttershy?”

Fluttershy shut the door, and vacated the barn limits. Jonah sat there for a while, worried that he had phrased something wrong and offended the yellow Pegasus somehow. Eventually, he let his weight of his head dominate him, and he slept in the chair.

The antagonizing atmosphere between Jonah and Spike was resolved, and more clues regarding the vicious slayer have been discovered. The General has remained quiet for so long, his sentences containing short words, his bitterness devouring him. The next day would be different; for the next day, a new mission would be given to Jonah and Cole. Finally, after six mundane months, an objective will finally be assigned to the boys. Why then? Why on such a convenient day? Why on the same day that the young men would report their new findings on the murderer?

Eternal Brother

I could not believe what was happening; there I was, watching my best friend die right before my eyes. Dying at the hands of his brother, someone who should love him, and protect him, and encourage him to do great things... but that wasn’t the reality of the situation.

Jonah was leaned right up against the shield, right in front of where I stood and witnessed it all happen. I wish I could have just busted through the shield right there and scooped Jonah out of that mess.

My pony friends stood by me, they were each crying and sobbing, their hope was gone entirely. Seth finally got up; he cracked his back and other limbs and started staggering to Jonah with a small limp. I stepped back and told them to move out of the way, I charged a bolt of electricity and shot at the shield, there was no effect on the shield… I charged my lightning longer and made it as powerful as it could be, even stronger than the bolt I fired that ended up deflecting and killing Halie. I let it fly from my finger tips and blast the shield, no results… I finally tried my fragmentation spell, and let a pulse of explosive power soar into the shield, a thick plume of smoke came rushing back.

The ponies, Mina, and I became choked and were left coughing. The smoke dissipated and there were still no signs of any wear on the shield. The only thing I could see was Seth right in front of Jonah, cocking his firearm, ready to blow and splatter his little brother’s brains all over the sandy ground. I grew furious, I gritted my teeth and I kicked, and punched, and banged my head, and shocked the barrier as ferociously as I possibly could, only to be stopped by Mina. Mina came behind me and pulled me away from the shield, she brought me back out into the outer ring, leaving the ponies to watch as Jonah was losing his life, getting ready to receive one final hit.

I cried into Mina’s trench coat, I remember it smelling like fruits she stole a while back… I sobbed harder and louder, I looked up and saw Mina in the same state… It was the first time I ever saw her cry… Everything was so different, it felt so wrong…

Finally I felt a vibration in the floor and saw a green light shine across my feet; it came from the inner room. Then I heard one final shotgun blast.

Jonah was my best friend… my family… and my brother…

I can’t wait to be with him… to be his eternal brother…

The end of Part 3