Inhuman

by Octorok92

Rating: teen
Tags: Adventure, Dark, Human
Length: 40019

A human has to rely on new friends to adjust to Equestria. But when rumors of a mysterious organization pop up, his story seems just a little off to the ponies of Ponyville.

Zachary Cricket is an "ordinary college student" that is "average" in every sense of the word. So what is an "average college student" doing in Equestria? Regardless of who he was, he's going to have to rely on his new "friends" if he wants to adjust to life in Equestria.

However, when Twilight Sparkle's friendship studies reach their culmination, rumors of a mysterious organization begin to surface. At this point, Zachary's story seems a little off to the ponies of Ponyville, and he begins to exhibit odd behavior.

Questions arise about whether Zachary is truly an average human, or even human at all. At this point, it may have been too late, for the mysterious organization in question has big plans. And Twilight Sparkle is right in the middle of them.

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2013-11-25 01:47:33 UTC

Twilight Sparkle's Diplomacy

Chapter 2: Twilight Sparkle's Diplomacy

"Humans?  What are those?

The odd pink pony in front of him said those four words in response to his question, and Zachary's mind went blank.  Not what he was expecting, but considering he had already dropped into a world where small, technicolor ponies exist, he supposed it was possible.

"Calm down... calm down.  Maybe this pink pony just lives very, very far away from any human civilization.  It's possible that they never come into contact with humans because they're so far away from them," he thought.

It was a possibility, but at this point he was probably just kidding himself.

Before Zachary had a panic attack though, he needed to act fast.  He felt a few lumps in his pocket; he hadn't brought his cell phone or any other technology with him, but he had at least something in his pocket.

He reached into his pocket and pulled out a lighter, and grinned.  Exactly what he needed.  There were three other lumps in his pocket.

Zachary reached into his other pocket, pulling out what looked like a long, brown stick.  Pinkie Pie was looking at it with abject curiosity, "oohing" in childlike wonder.  When he waved it around and Pinkie glanced at the green leaflike material inside the hollowed out middle, she oohed even louder.

He laughed outloud when he noticed that she was getting all excited over a blunt.  Maybe he liked this pony after all.

Zachary stuck the blunt between his lips, raising the lighter closer to his mouth and lighting the marijuana on the end of it.  The blunt began to burn, and he waited for the sweet weed to work its magic.

He took the blunt from between his lips, and blew a fat cloud of smoke.  Pinkie's grin wavered as the human stood there in silence.

As more time went on, the serious look on his face devolved into a relaxed smile.

"Man, no humans around here.  That's cool, I guess..." he said in a lower voice.  He suddenly decided he was tired of standing, and collapsed onto the forest floor and sat there.

He laughed.

"This welcome party of yours sounds real nice, Pinkie.  Is there gonna be food there?" Zach asked the pink pony.  He didn't seem really concerned about the fact that a pink pony was talking to him anymore.

Pinkie perked up at this.

"Yes!  Of course!  I mean, what kinda party doesn't have yummy food?  There'll be dancing and games and yummy treats and cake and ice cream!  Just like a party should have!"

"Man, Pinkie.... bro.  I could really use some food right now, so why don't ya just take me back to the Ponyville place and we'll chill at this party..." the high young man said.

Pinkie beamed.  She didn't even really notice the change that had occurred in Zachary's attitude.

"Okey dokey lokey!"

"What in the hay is that?"

Twilight's mouth went dry when she saw the creature in the woods, and the fact that her friend Pinkie Pie was standing right next to it, animatedly chatting with it, was secondary to her.

It seemed to resemble a monkey in some ways, but it was clear that it was very different than any monkey that she had seen or read about.

For starters, from what she could tell at this distance, it was almost completely hairless, save for a short, scruffy mane on its head and some light smatterings of fur along its forelegs and back-legs.

She couldn't really see anything from this distance in the dark, even with her horn lit up.  The only other thing she could really see was the way it stood on two legs with absolutely no difficulty.  It didn't even have a tail, so how it managed that was beyond her.

As she worked the appearance of the creature over, the gears turned on within Twilight's head, pitting her memory against what she saw.  She recalled multiple books she had read on unique animals and mythological creatures, and she scanned her memory for something even remotely resembling what she was seeing.

She came up with nothing.

"Hey, get away from PInkie Pie.... you... you... thing!" Rainbow Dash roared, darting ahead at full speed.  Twilight's mouth went even drier as she was unprepared for it, but after a second or two she managed to find her voice.

"Rainbow Dash, stop!"

Too late.

The creature seemed to have a relaxed look on its face, but when it saw Rainbow Dash barreling towards it, a look of fear crossed its beady little eyes, and it held up its.... appendages in alarm.

Twilight winced as there was a thud of impact as Rainbow Dash collided with the unprepared creature, sending it sprawling to the ground.

The purple unicorn shook her head free of thoughts, her heart pounding in her ears as she galloped as fast as she could up to her friends and the creature, hoping that nothing disastrous had occurred when Dash had attacked the creature.

"What are you doing?  Stop it!" a male voice rang out.  Rainbow Dash's disturbance had apparently bothered Pinkie Pie quite a bit, because the characteristic smile was no longer on the party pony's face as she waved her hooves around frantically.

"Dashie!  What are you doing?!  This is our super special guest "Welcome to Ponyville" pony.  Even though he's not a pony, we still need to make him feel welcome like one!"

"Welcome nothing!  That huge explosion coming from the forest was caused by you, wasn't it?  What is something like you doing out here?!" Rainbow Dash said, wrestling with the creature on the ground.

Twilight arrived at the scene after a good sprint, panting slightly for breath.  Her horn glowed magenta, and a similar colored force field enveloped around Dash's body.

Rainbow Dash herself didn't notice that she was getting caught by Twilight's magic, until the purple unicorn began to forcefully lift her off the creature.

"Hey!  Twilight, what are you doing?!" she cried indignantly.  Twilight released her magic, allowing Dash to flop back onto the ground.

"Man, what's wrong with you technicolor, talking ponies?  I'm just tryin' to get along here and get some help, and Skittles over there attacks me out of the blue!  What's with that, huh?" the creature spoke up, its voice a little bit dazed.

"S-Skittles!" Rainbow Dash piped up in anger, rising to her feet.  "My name's not Skittles!  It's Rainbow Dash, the fastest flyer in all of Equestria!  You got some nerve talkin' to me like that."

"Rainbow Dash..."  Twilight said dangerously, her eye twitching.  Her mind was already working out that the creature was talking, but her prismatic friend wasn't helping matters much.

The gears began to turn within Twilight's head again.  If this creature was talking, then it was obviously intelligent.  She had never seen a creature like this, but as it was it seemed lost and confused in this forest.  The fact that Rainbow Dash had just attacked it probably also didn't help matters. Nevertheless, there was also the matter of the explosion, and this unknown creature's origins.

Naturally, it was Twilight's role to take up the diplomatic mission.

She cleared her throat.

"Hello!" she said, trying to sound as polite and cheerful as she could possibly be.  The creature looked up at her, abject curiosity in its eyes.  It talked, and it didn't seem close to attacking her, so the purple unicorn figured she was safe talking to it.

"My name is Twilight Sparkle, representative of Princess Celestia of Equestria and librarian of the Golden Oak Library in Ponyville!"

It continued to stare.

"As a local scholar, I can safely say that I have never seen one such as yourself.  Let it be known that as long as you are accommodating, you are always welcome in Ponyville.  May I ask your name?" she asked politely.

The creature drew itself to its knee, and Twilight cringed as she noticed the odd angle in which it sat.  It looked... painful.  It sat on its rump with its back-legs crossed over, with its back tilted at an odd angle and its forelegs flopping around in mid-air.  Then, it grinned at her.

"Zachary Cricket.  But you can just call me Zach, purpley pony..." he chuckled.  Twilight raised an eyebrow, and noted the slightly vacant look in his eyes.

Yes, his eyes.  The voice was distinctly male, but she had to admit she didn't know the vocal patterns for this particular species.  Since he sounded male, she would refer to him as a male for the time being until she could collect more information.

"A whole new species that I don't know about!  This is going to be so exciting!  She couldn't to find out more.  If she were lucky, this was a wholly undiscovered species that lived deep within the woods of Equestria, and she would be the first to document it!  Likewise, it could just be some extremely obscure species that was already written down.  Less exciting, but she still got to learn something new at least.

"Strange name, though..." she couldn't help but think to herself.

"Okay then, Zach...  Would you-" she was cut off by the rainbow-maned pegasus who had gotten right up close to his face, beginning to heckle him.

"Yeah, I got a couple questions for you too.... Zach.  What was something like you doing out in the woods in the middle of the night?" she asked in an accusatory tone.

"Well, I-"

"And, what was the explosion that happened out here?  Were you the one who did that?  What ARE you anyway?"

"Uh..."

"Not to mention- HEY!" she was cut off again as Twilight grasped Dash's tail in her mouth and began dragging her away from the creature.

"Eh heh heh, excuse us for a second..." Twilight said awkwardly, dragging Dash away until she assumed they were out of earshot.

When she assumed Zachary couldn't hear them anymore, Twilight hissed at her friend.

"What do you think you're doing?" she asked angrily.  Rainbow Dash stared at her.

"Don't tell me you trust this thing?!  Just look at it!" Dash whispered.  Zachary had apparently turned his attention on something else.

"That's beside the point, Rainbow.  Ponyville has an obligation to welcome all sentient creatures, regardless of their appearance or background.  I'm just trying to be polite... and also..." she leaned over in a hushed whisper.

"I don't want to scare him off.  I don't know where he came from, but this could be an entirely new species!  Think of the scientific breakthroughs this could accomplish.  Another sentient species discovered!"

"But, what about the explosion!  You don't think that explosion happening and then this thing appearing was all just an act of luck, huh?" Dash replied.

Twilight sighed.

"No, I don't.  But, we have no proof of anything, and even if it was true, it does not indicate that this creature is in any way dangerous.  We have to wait until we get more information on the subject before we begin to point hooves..."

Dash looked desperate.

"Twilight, please.  Don't invite this thing back into Ponyville with us.  I'm way too awesome to admit this... but... but..." she trailed off.

"... I have a bad feeling about this thing.  There's something about it that just seems... off to me.  I don't know how to explain it.  And take a look at it.  I tackled it to the ground and must've hit it half a dozen times, but there's not a single scratch on it!  Call it a hunch, but I think we should leave this thing out here."

Twilight wasn't amused.

"A hunch?  That's it?  Rainbow, you shouldn't fall for such silly superstitions.  There's nothing to indicate that he should be left out here, regardless of how you feel on the subject...  And..."

As the two argued, Twilight felt she had forgotten something.  Something important.  Pinkie had been uncharacteristically quiet during the whole ordeal.

There came another bang, and Twilight instantly felt a stone drop into her stomach.  Pinkie Pie had found her party cannon again, and had fired off a shot of confetti right into Zachary's face.

"Pinkie Pie!  What are you doing?!"

"Oh, you girls were getting so boring with all your questions and stuff!  So, I decided that Zachy here didn't need to be bored while he's getting his Welcome to Ponyville party!" Pinkie exclaimed.

Twilight fumed.

"Pinkie Pie, we are not having a Welcome to Ponyville party in the middle of the night!" Twilight ordered, to which Pinkie pouted.

"Awwwww, why not?"

"Well, I'd imagine that Zach's very confused as to what he's doing here, and a little disoriented from the earlier explosion.  The best course of action would be to head back into Ponyville and get settled back down..."

"Aww, I don't mind, Sparky..." Zach blurt out.  "In fact, I want that party now, cuz I heard that there's gonna be food and stuff, heheh..." he said dumbly.

Twilight's eye twitched, while Pinkie burst out laughing at Twilight's new nickname.

"Sparky?!" Twilight thought in offense, before she snorted.

"No, you two will not cause a ruckus in the middle of the night!  And that's final!" she demanded bossily, to which the pink pony and displaced human whined.

Rainbow Dash giggled slightly, before she remembered she was supposed to be untrustworthy of the human.

"Hey, Twilight!  I just realized something!  Where's it gonna stay for the night.  I'm definitely not gonna take him in, if that's what you're wondering.  Don't tell me you're gonna let him stay at the library tonight..."

Twilight flinched.  She was excited when it came to learning about this new guest, but letting a potentially unknown creature stay in her house was a little much, especially with Spike there.  Still, she couldn't just leave him out there lost, and with this chance...

"You know what, Dash, that's exactly what I'm going to do!  Zach can stay with me tonight!" Twilight said proudly, to the surprise of Dash.  She got a little smug pride out of accepting her friend's challenges.

Dash looked affronted.

"Fine, whatever!  Just don't blame me when he ends up trying to eat you in your sleep!" she said indignantly, before taking off at full speed, ignoring Twilight's shouts.

"Dash, wait!" she called out, before she gave an exasperated sigh and turned back to the others.

"Alright... Pinkie!" she called the pink pony to attention.

"I'm really only doing this to settle you down, but we really can't hold a party for Zach right now.  But, I promise that we'll have one the first chance we can!  Okay, Pinkie?" she bargained.

Pinkie pondered it for a second.

"Hmm, okey dokey lokey!" she said cheerfully.  Twilight and Zach took their eyes off her for just one second, and then she was gone.

"Hey, where'd Chicken Pot Pie go?" Zach asked.

Twilight sighed for what seemed like the millionth time.

"Don't ask.  You'll get used to that crazy pony doing things like that.  Now..." she trailed off.  "let's get back to Ponyville now; we have a lot of things to talk about on the way."

The high from the weed had already completely wore off.

"Ugh, what was I even doing with that?  I really shouldn't be smoking weed at a time like this; it will make me even more out of touch with reality..." Zachary thought to himself.

When the astronaut came crashing down to Earth, his mood went with it as well.  He supposed he lit one up so he could relieve himself of the stress of the situation, but he had gotten too relaxed around that pink pony afterwards.

Thankfully, the weed had prevented him from freaking out over the fact that there were no humans here, and the talking ponies of all things had never even heard of them.

Now that the weed had worn off, he was finally able to think about these things, and actually be worried about his future.  He looked over to the side; somehow he had found himself walking back to a town of miniature talking ponies with a purple unicorn by his side, stealing glances at him every once in a while.

During his high, he remembered this purple pony coming up and talking to him, something about being a representative of a Princess or something.

What confused him was the fact that she didn't freak out at the sight of him.  If this was in his world, any talking creature other than a human would've not gone over well.  But she talked to him like it was nothing, like the species differences didn't exist.

This purple pony, Twilight he remembered her name was, seemed to notice that the two of them kept stealing glances at each other.  She smiled nervously, hoping to break the ice.

"So..."  she seemed almost embarrassed to ask the question.

"I've never seen anything like you before!  What are you?" she, and Zachary could see the glint of curiosity and wonder in her eyes.  Didn't she mention she was a librarian?

"A bookworm, no doubt.  She's probably jumping over the chance to learn about some creature she's never seen before, I bet...

He didn't vocalize these thoughts, and rather just snorted.  Twilight winced.

"Oh, I'm sorry!  That must've been pretty rude, actually!" she blurted out hastily, trying to apologize as best as she could.  Zachary sighed.

"It's fine.  I don't mind.  To answer your question, I'm a human.  Haven't you ever heard of us before?"

"No, I can't say I have...  Is your species a secluded race from far up north or something?" Twilight said sheepishly, before she asked that question.  It seemed to make the most sense to her at least.

He shook his head.

"I don't think so.  I've never heard of anything like you ponies before.  Where I come from, ponies don't talk or have horns and wings.  They're just... ponies, I guess..."

Twilight's eyes widened, and she twitched.  That wasn't possible...

"WHAT?" she screamed shrilly, making Zachary cringe.

"This place, too.  I've never heard of any such country called "Equestria" or whatnot.  I don't know where on Earth a place could support a country of talking ponies..."

"WHAT?" Twilight shouted again.  This time she latched onto one particular tidbit of information in that sentence.

"Earth... what's Earth.  Is that where you come from?  I can safely say I've never heard of a place called Earth..." Twilight explained.

Zachary looked strikingly calm when he was told that information.

"I realized that I probably wasn't even on Earth anymore when that pink pony told me she had never even heard of humans before.  We've dominated practically every square inch of that planet; there's no way..."

At this point, Twilight's head was close to exploding.

"Planet?  You're not talking about the planet Equus, are you?  There's definitely not one species alone that dominates the entire surface of it.  With the Zebras, Dragons, and Griffins, how could there be?"

Now it was Zachary's turn to blow a head-gasket.

"Dragons?  Griffins?  Okay, I'm *definitely** not on Earth anymore.  It's like I dropped straight into some fairy tale book with all these mythological creatures around...*"

Twilight was done asking questions, for now at least.  She broke out into a full gallop, calling out to him.

"Come on!  We need to get back into Ponyville and into the library pronto!  If you are what I think you are, then this could be the discovery of the century!  I need to get back there and consult my material!  Oooh, I have so many more questions to ask you!" she yelled frantically, urging the human to follow her.

Zachary looked at Twilight disappearing into the distance, breaking into a light run to follow her towards Ponyville.  However, after a few seconds, he stopped.

His stance went rigid, his fists balling by his sides.  He stood there for a few more seconds, staring into the distance with a vacant look in his eyes.

An... Interesting Breakfast

Chapter 3: An.... Interesting Breakfast

While Twilight dabbled with humans, there was something much more concerning and mysterious going on within the capital city of Canterlot.  The city was fairly quiet, or at least as quiet as the city could be, because most of its residents were now asleep.

That definitely wasn't true for a certain Princess.

Princess Luna was always awake at this time of night, as... she WAS the Princess of the Night after all.  Night was her domain, and guarded it while her sister slept, for when she awoke, it would be time to raise the sun.

Luna's night court was always much, much smaller than Celestia's day court, but Luna made a habit of holding it every single night if possible, to make sure that her subjects were always attended to, even during the time they were supposed to be asleep.

Tonight, there were much more pressing matters to be attended to, however.  So pressing that she had sent the guards to wake up her sister.

This was because earlier, when she was holding her night court, she had been interrupted.  Her personal guards were usually draped away in the shadows, guarding quietly.  They were much less flashy and far more subdued than Celestia's guards, and some ponies even thought they didn't exist.

It's easy to see why Luna would be so surprised when one of her guards barged into the throne room while night court was taking place.

Naturally, the somewhat temperamental princess did not take kindly to this approach.

"What is the meaning of this?!" she exclaimed, this time in the Royal Canterlot Voice.  Those attending the court winced at the volume, but the guard was not perturbed.

"I bring important news, your highness!  I have to immediately inform you that we have reported another disappearance.  It is indeed another unicorn..."

"WHAT?!  Another one!?" Luna exclaimed, stomping her hoof against the marble floor as her voice shook.  Fuming, she began to calm herself, speaking in a much quieter, modern voice.

"That is the fifth disappearance this month.  Are you sure this one is linked with all the others?" Luna asked.  Ponies came and went after all; there could be an alternative explanation for this.

"Nay, your highness.  It happened in Baltimare.  They must be getting extremely confident, for it occurred where there were a number of witnesses to be found.  The disappeared pony's name is Trixie, though, uh... she prefers to go by the Great and Powerful Trixie..." the guard explained.

"I do not care about the title that she wishes to call herself!  Tell me the details of the disappearance, now!" she demanded, and this time the guard winced.

"Yes, your highness!  There is absolutely nothing else to say but that it was the same as all the others.  A unicorn going missing, with strange reports surfacing directly after.  This time though, somepony managed to get a picture..." he leaned over, producing a small portrait from his armor, and showed it to Luna.

Her eyes widened, and her horn glowed as she looked upon the picture.

"Awaken my sister, immediately!"

Despite just crawling out of bed, Princess Celestia managed to make herself look regal in a quick span of time.  That did not mean she was happy about being woken up, however.

She walked into the throne room, a little on the grumpy side, which was considerably rare for the calm, motherly Princess that always seemed to radiate a feeling of warmth and happiness.

"This had better be important, Luna..." she warned, and the close observer could see very slight bags underneath her eyes.  Even the Princess of Equestria was subject to biology.

The Night Princess nodded.

"It is, Tia.   There has been another one..." she said, in a subdued tone.  As soon as Luna finished that sentence, all the sleep and crankiness seemed to disappear from Celestia's visage, and she was at alert.

"What?  Are you positive, Luna?   Where was it this time?" she asked.

"Baltimare.  A unicorn mare named Trixie disappeared there not too long ago.  That's not what makes this disappearance so important, though.  One of the eyewitnesses managed to take a picture of the rumored "Hooded Gorilla"."

Celestia's eyes widened.  This string of disappearances was definitely bizarre.  Prior to Trixie, there had been four earlier disappearances in this month alone that all carried similar circumstances.  They were all unicorns, they were all magically gifted unicorns, and they all disappeared without a trace.

During the second disappearance, things took a turn to become even stranger.  Ponies who had been at the scene said they caught a glimpse of a strange beast that walked around on two legs.  It wore clothes, and its face had been obscured by the hood it wore, they said, but the slightly humpbacked nature of the beast seemed to give off the appearance of a somewhat leaner gorilla.

Rumors were being thrown around as to what that thing was, if it even existed, but until now the crown had just regarded them as just that: rumors.  The crown really didn't pay attention to the disappearances and were content to let the local authorities handle it.  That is, until Celestia realized that only magically talented unicorns were disappearing.  She had wanted to keep a personal eye on the investigation from that point on, in case there was something bigger at work here.

But now, this changed everything.

The picture glowed blue, and Luna levitated it over to Celestia, where the sun Princess scanned the picture.  Trixie wasn't in it, but she did notice the hooded figure that seemed to be running away from through the outside of Baltimare, being pursued by stationed guards.

Celestia took in the figure.  It matched the description almost perfectly.  It stood about a head taller than regular-sized ponies, and walked on two legs.  That's about all she could tell from the quality of the picture and the clothes it was wearing.  The clothes were the real problem.  It was dressed in a loose blood red robe from head to foot, its hood up and concealing its head.  On the back of the robe was a strange symbol of a pentagram or magic circle covered in what appeared to be spines or thorns.  All in all, it was an extremely baffling picture.

"Well, what do we do, sister?"

"I see.  Well, unfortunately we cannot draw any conclusions from this alone.  We do not know what it is, and we did not see Trixie within that image.  However, we have gained some particularly valuable information with regards to these disappeances through this..."

Luna nodded, before her sister turned to her with a serious look in her eyes.

"At the very least, we know that there is something much bigger at stake here..."

"SPIIIIKKKE!" Twilight Sparkle shouted as she entered her home.  She didn't even care about the fact that it was the middle of the night; she needed her assistant right there.

The baby dragon had taken the opportunity to go back to sleep with Twilight, but with her back and shouting at him, he woke with a start and tumbled out of his basket when he heard his name.

"HUH?!  WHAT?!  I didn't shut the window on Owloysius again!  I promise!" he explained frantically, as he crawled to his feet and realized that he just woke up.

"Never mind that now, Spike!  I need you to find every single book on fauna and mythological creatures you can!  Get them to me immediately!" she demanded.

The confused dragon got even more confused when he halted on the steps and saw the strange two-legged creature walk right into through the door.

"Whoa, you live in a goddamn tree?" Zach asked, his eyes alight with wonder.

"Uh, Twilight.  What is this?" he asked bluntly.  Zach himself seemed confused and even perturbed at the sight of the baby dragon.

"Yeah, Twilight.  What is this?" he asked, pointing to Spike.  Spike and Zach stared at each other for a few awkward seconds, neither of them saying anything.

Twilight grunted; she was already flipping through a book at a near impossible speed, her brow knit into a picture of frustration.

"Zach, that's Spike, a baby dragon.  Spike, that's Zach, a human.  Now you know.  More importantly, why aren't you getting those books, Spike?!"

Zach looked at her incredulously.

"Seriously?  A dragon!?  Well, you mentioned those before, but I didn't think you were actually serious?" he asked, but then he thought about it.  He was in another world... universe probably, populated by magical talking ponies and not a human in sight.  The fact that there were dragons should be the least of his concerns.

"Hey!  What's wrong with dragons?  And sorry, but I don't think I've ever heard of humans before!" Spike asked irritated, his small claws on his hips.  Zach just set a deadpan look on him.

"Uh, nothing really.  It's just that well... dragons don't exist where I come from..."

"Oh..." said Spike.  There was an awkward silence again.

Twilight decided to get in on the conversation, snapping the book closed as the boys spoke.

"You say that dragons don't exist where you come from, but you seem to be familiar with the concept of them.  Care to explain?" she asked.

"Yeah.  Dragons don't physically exist where I come from, but the idea of them does.  They're mythological creatures basically, used in stories and fairy tales and the like.  Kinda like... well, unicorns... actually," he finished lamely.

"I see..." Twilight regarded him with a narrow look.

"Oh yeah!  Spike!  Where are those books?!"

The poor assistant dragon was running all over the place, looking for books on animals and mythological creatures to give to Twilight.  He was handing her them one by one, and soon enough there was a stack of at least a dozen books on the desk where she was studying.

"What exactly are you looking for, anyway?  We sorta rushed here kinda quickly..."

"I'm looking to see if there's any information on your kind, whether it be in these animal books or books on mythology." she explained, flipping through pages.

"That's it?  I don't see the point of that, really.  No one here so far has ever heard of a human, and believe me... if we're around, you'd definitely be hearing from us.  The only conclusion that I can come to is that I'm not even from this planet..."

Spike backed away quickly.

"What?  You're an alien!?  For real!?" he asked, a twinge of fear in his voice.  Zach looked at him bluntly, while Twilight closed her book.

"We can't be sure of that, though.  That's why I'm looking.  Besides, I think it's a little far-fetched that you came here from another planet..."

"At this point, I'm not even sure it's just another planet..." Zach said somberly.

"What do you mean?"

"I'm starting to think that I'm really in another universe, or dimension if you will."

Twilight looked at him incredulously, before she scoffed.

"That's ludicrous.  Even if other universes existed, at this point that's nothing more than a hypothesis.  Not to mention, there's no real way to travel between universes anyway." she said, levitating a book.  She was ready to ask another question, but Zach seemed to be staring intently at the book floating in mid-air.

"How the fuck are ya doing that?" he asked in amazement.  He was fairly observant, so he noticed the stream of energy around her horn, and the same color around the book.

Twilight looked confused.

"Huh?  What do you mean?  I'm just using my magic..." she said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.  Well, for Zachary, it clearly wasn't.

"Magic?!  You can't JUST be using magic!  That's a pretty big deal here!" he said, his mouth practically hitting the floor as he saw it.

"I still don't see how it's such a big deal.  Magic is something that exists in everything; you shouldn't be that shocked when you see it..." she explained.

"Oh, that's right.  I'm in a world of talking ponies, for God's sake.  I shouldn't really be surprised by anything I see here.  Besides, I probably already saw it when I was high on weed or something..." he said, forcing himself to calm down.

Twilight was still confused.

"I probably shouldn't even mention the fact that magic doesn't even exist in my world..." he commented with a quick, cracking laugh.

"WHAT?!" Twilight screamed, for what must've been the one-hundredth time that night.  Once again, it looked like she was about to have an aneurism.

"But... how... why do... how do.... WHAT?!" she managed to stammer.  Both Spike and Zachary looked at each other, and a brief moment of understanding flashed between the two.

Twilight's whole body was twitching now, and her face had scrunched up into a permanent grimace of confusion and over-thinking.  Spike actually had to walk up to her and adjust her face back to normal.  When he did, the only thing she had to say was...

"HOW?!"

"It just doesn't exist.  That's probably the best way to explain it.  Keep in mind that you saying magic does exist has got me just as confused as you." Zach explained.

Twilight shook her head, allowing herself to calm down.

"That shouldn't be possible.  Everything needs magic to live, no exceptions, and for a creature to just show up and say there's no magic where he lives is just... it can't be true!"  It looked like her entire life was being turned around at the thought of it.

"Does this mean you finally believe me when I say I'm from another universe?" he asked, grinning at her like he had just won.  Twilight scowled at him.

"You just keep throwing that idea around without really knowing anything.  And maybe you think there's no magic where you come from, but that doesn't make it true..."

Zach frowned at her.

"Do you even know how I got here?"

Twilight shook her head.

"Well, I got home from to my dorm after I had finished my classes at college... that's a school, by the way.  And I was so tired so I basically collapsed on my bed and fell asleep as soon as I hit the pillow.  The next thing I knew, I was waking up to an explosion and I found myself in some bushes in the forest you found me in  I'm guessing the explosion had something to do with me arriving here, but I can't say for sure," he commented.

"Well, that certainly is strange, but still... that's pretty circumstantial if you ask me.  There's no good enough evidence in that story to be able to conclude that you're from another universe..." Twilight said skeptically.

"Well, that's my story so I'm sticking to it.  I'm from another universe and that is that..." he said bluntly.

Twilight huffed at his stubbornness.

"Fine!  Be that way, then.  But see what happens when I find an article about humans in that book.  Then you'll find out you're just a far-flung civilization that just hasn't had any contact with ponies..."

"Twilight... you're not going to find anything in that book.  How many times do I have to tell you that?  But, if you're really insistent on that, don't you have someone you can ask about this kind of stuff?  The sooner we figure that out, the easier it'll be for the both of us," Zachary said.

Twilight actually stopped reading her book and looked at him, pondering the course of action.

"Hmm, that might not be a bad idea, actually.  I can always talk to my teacher, Princess Celestia, about this.  Is there's anyone who would've ever heard of humans, it's her..."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!  Hold up a second!  You mean that you're teacher is a princess of all things.  Doesn't that mean you're like... a bigshot or something?" Zachary asked, his eyes wide.

Twilight smirked at him, her eyes alight with pride.

"Yes, she took me under her wing when I was just a little filly.  She said she's never seen anypony with such a magical talent.  I've been happily studying underneath her ever since," she beamed with pride.

Zachary's eyes softened.  It seemed that this purple pony was really close to her teacher.  The way she talked about her made it seem like she regarded her almost like a mother.  It was unlike teacher-student relationships on Earth.

"Ha!  I've done things your feeble human mind couldn't even comprehend!  But I'll make sure to tell you about those later.  I'm not one to brag about them after all!" she huffed.

"Yeah, right..."

"Uh, yeah, Twilight.  I'll make sure to ask about them later..." he added.

"Well, your feeble human mind actually had a good idea.  Spike, take a letter!" she ordered her assistant.  The baby dragon had been watching the two of them argue in silence, waiting for a chance to butt into the conversation or sneak away back to bed entirely.  The opportunity hadn't presented itself yet.

"Dear Princess Celestia,

Today, something very interesting happened.  I'm afraid I don't have a friendship report this time, but there is something I would like seek your guidance.  You see, tonight there was a large explosion coming from White Tail Woods, but more importantly I made a very interesting discovery.  A creature I have never encountered before.  He calls himself a human, and as you might have guessed, he has the ability to talk.  I've never seen anything remotely resembling him before, except maybe a monkey.  He is almost completely hairless, walks and two legs, and is much taller than a normal pony.  The strange thing is that he's claiming he's from another universe, or dimension if you will, but both of us have no idea how he got here!  He also seems to lack a common level of knowledge on basic subjects such as magic and ponies themselves!  I have no idea how to handle this situation, and I would be incredibly enthused if you would happen to know what a "human" is or how I might handle this situation.

Your Faithful Student,

Twilight Sparkle."

"And... done!" Spike called out, as Twilight recited the letter to him.

"Pretty flattering words you have of me there..." Zach commented.  Twilight blushed.

"Hey, I'm just telling it like it is!"

"What's a "friendship report"?" he deadpanned.  Normally purple cheeks got even redder at that.

"Uh, I'll tell you later.  Spike, send it!"

The baby dragon blew a stream of green fire over the parchment, watching it crumble into incinerated fragments.  Zachary looked at it in amazement.

"What was that?"

Twilight grinned at him.

"Magic..." she said in a condescending tone.

"You're right, though.  The only to do now is wait for Princess Celestia's response, but she shouldn't be awake right now.  I really do need to slow down..." she yawned.  "I have so many things to ask you, but they can wait until the morning..."

"No kidding.  If I told her about the type of technology we have, she may never shut up..." Zach thought.  He made a mental note to never go into detail about that.

"Well, if you're getting ready for bed, I'll just be going then..." Zach said hastily, and a little overly polite.  Twilight stared at him quizzically.

"Where are you even going to go?  You don't have anywhere, do you?  You just dropped right into the middle of White Tail Woods, as far as you're concerned..." Twilight noticed.  Zach halted in his tracks, his hand on the doorknob.

"Uh, we barely know each other.  It wouldn't feel right to stay with you..."

"Nonsense.  You may be a new species, but so far you've been nothing but civilized the entire time, even if you are a bit annoying.  I'm the one that found you, and I don't shut the door on any sapient creature who might be in need. Not to mention, I still have so many more questions to ask..."

Spike's eyes widened.

"Wait, wait, wait!  He's gonna be staying here?!  B-But... but he's an alien!  Who knows what'll happen if we let him stay under our own roof! He might zap us with some kind of weird beam or whatever!"

Twilight looked at him, unamused.

"Spike, he's probably not even an alien.  And we can't just throw him on the street like that.  There's no reason to believe that he's any danger..." she turned to Zach.  "You can stay here, until you get back on your hooves- I mean... whatever... those are..." she said awkwardly, looking at his shoe-covered feet.

Zachary smiled at her.

"Well, it's hard for me to turn down such a generous offer..." he remarked.  Spike just stared at both Twilight and Zachary in terror.

Twilight smiled cutely at him.

"I'll pull out the extra mattress for you and you can make your own bed from that.  Follow me upstairs and I'll show you..." she said, as the human quickly shut the door, walking past a wary dragon and up the stairs.

Twilight didn't seem to care about Spike's reservations, but there was one thing that was bugging her though.  If she were in Zach's situation, she'd probably be very eager to find her way home.  But not once that night had he mentioned or asked about a way to get back to his home.

She couldn't help but wonder why...

The morning sun peek through the window and hit Zach's face.  He had taken to sleeping on a mattress on the floor that night, a few feet away from Spike's basket.  Of course, he took up a lot more space than the little dragon, but man could that kid snore.

Nonetheless, he had gotten a good sleep last night anyway, so he was already in a good mood.  He cracked an eye open; neither Twilight nor Spike were there.

Yet as he woke up, he realized that it wasn't all a dream.  He was half-expecting to just wake up in his own bed back at his dorm, yet he was still sleeping on a mattress on the second floor of a library in a town of talking ponies.

Meh, it didn't hurt his mood that badly.

There was something wafting through the air right now, and it made his mouth water.  He had had a long night yesterday, and he hadn't had anything to eat since he got here.

Luckily, they spoke his language, if the smell of breakfast from downstairs was anything to go by.

He got out of bed and stretched, his mind fixated on only one thing: food.

He smiled and began his way downstairs, his weight making a light creak as he descended out of the bedroom.  As he neared the kitchen, his hunger was forcing his mind into overdrive.

The smell was getting more pungent too, and it was definitely coming from the kitchen.  As he entered into the room, he saw both occupants already up and getting ready for the day.

Twilight was perched at the breakfast table, while Spike was at the stove, dressed in an apron and chef's hat, toiling away on what appeared to be some type of dish.

"Good morning, Zach!" Twilight said, her nose already in a book.  Spike grunted something from the stove, clearly not trusting Zach all that much yet.

"Yeah, mornin'" he yawned.  The smell was still overpowering him.  He noticed that breakfast had already been made; Spike had apparently been hard at work, because there was a big plate of pancakes stacked at the table, and a couple of them were already on Twilight's plate.

It smelled so good.

"Spike already made breakfast.  Hope you like pancakes, Zach, because there's plenty.... of.... them... to.... go.... around...." she trailed off.

Zach didn't pay attention to her, and he walked right by the plate of pancakes and the breakfast table, confusing Twilight.  There was a strange look on his face...

The human was still sniffing out the source of the good smell.  He walked past the breakfast table, nonchalantly walking up to the large wastebasket next to Spike.

With a deep breath, he opened his mouth and shoved his head straight into the plastic liner of half-eaten food and disposable goods, and began to eat...

Secrets and Lies

Chapter 4: Secrets and Lies

Twilight had been levitating a bite of pancake to her mouth when Zachary had pulled his latest... stunt.

Needless to say, the bite didn't find its way into her mouth and the fork clattered onto the table as her magic failed her, and she stared at the spectacle in disbelief, her mouth literally wide open.

The human she had invited into her home looked like he was about to sit down at the breakfast table.  That seemed perfectly normal; she expected him to eat breakfast like any other pony would.

Except, at the last second, he had turned away from the breakfast table and stuck his head directly into the garbage can near the sink.

Twilight and Spike stared at the human with their mouths open as he ate.  The human pointedly decided to ignore them and continued to enjoy his meal.

He was eating the garbage with a supreme amount of gusto, as well.

"Uh.... Zach?" Twilight squeaked out.  Honestly, this whole situation just felt a little bit awkward.  Spike was already backing away from the human.

Zachary withdrew his head from the garbage bin at a frightening speed, and then turned to look at her.  Slop was dribbling down his chin, and he looked at her with a much more wild quality.

One thing that struck Twilight were his eyes.  They had changed.  Before, she had noted that the human's eyes were more of an almond-shape, and somewhat small.  Now, however, they were just noticeably bigger, but they were rounder than before.  And the sclera.... the sclera had turned black and had overtaken the iris of his eyes, meaning that they were pitch black.  It was like staring into an abyss.

"Z-Zach..."

Twilight didn't admit it, but she felt a slight twinge of fear at seeing the human.  Those pitch black eyes seemed soulless and evil.  Her flank hit the wall as she backed up, her ears drooping.  Spike was even more wary than her; he had already bolted from the room.

A few very awkward seconds passed, before Zachary seemed to snap out of... whatever had taken hold of him.  Twilight's ears drooped even further as he shook his head frantically and pushed the garbage can away.  She turned away, and when she looked at him again, his eyes were back to what they were before.

She noticed a slight look of fear pass over his face, and he shook his head while appearing to shudder slightly.  The whole scene was becoming more confusing by the second.

"W-What w-was that?" Twilight asked, working up the courage to speak again.  Zachary grimaced, and she could tell already that there was something bothering him.

A look of sadness passed across his face that Twilight also picked up on, but it was gone before she knew it.  It was replaced by a light smirk, followed by a much wider grin.

"I'm sorry, Twilight.  I didn't mean to be so rude to my esteemed host.  You were just introduced to humans yesterday, so you wouldn't about certain... biological features that we possess.  What you just saw was one of them."

Twilight's heart seemed to calm down at that;  the weird and scary sight fading from her memory.  If it could be explained to her using science, then there was no reason for her to be afraid.

"B-Biological features?" she asked, curious.

"Yes.  Once again, I'm sorry for that.  We humans have a few instinctual tendencies, one of which is in regards to food.  I'll keep in mind that I shouldn't eat out of garbage cans, but there was something in that trash can that stimulate one of these biological tendencies.  I take it you eat a lot of fruit?"

Twilight shook her head.

"That's something that can induce such a thing.  Well, I called it an instinctual tendency, but it's probably more accurately called a craving.  Fruit is a very essential part of a human's diet, and our human bodies are biologically wired to crave it.  Fruits with a high level of sugar can cause EXTREMELY strong cravings, which is basically what you saw..."

"Usually, we don't lose control so much that we begin to eat out of garbage cans, but there may be something about your food or some new foods in Equestria that I've never seen before which may have caused that...  Now that I know, I'll probably be able to help myself a little more..."

Twilight seemed to relax more.

"And those eyes... were they a part of that too?"

"The eyes... did they turn pitch-black?  Yeah, that probably also has something to do with it.  Well, at least everyone I know has that happen when the cravings take hold.  I don't know how it works or anything; I'm no scientist."

Twilight narrowed her eyes, and Zach knew that she was filing that information away for later.  She had calmed down, but she seemed a little bit more wary around him.

"Hmm, I'll have to ask you about that later, but right now that seems like a very strange, but ultimately harmless phenomenon.  However, I would appreciate if from now on if you told me in advance if things like this were going to occur.  I'd like to avoid having a heart attack.  But now that I think about it, this change in behavior is so fascinating!  You'll have to tell me more later!"  Twilight remarked.

"Ooh, I'm getting so excited.  I want to study more!" she clapped her hooves together as she spoke.  This was the opportunity of a lifetime.  She could actually right a book on this human if they happened to be an undiscovered species!  Her name could potentially be heard throughout all of academia!

Zach raised an eyebrow at her.

"Stupid!  Stupid!  How could I be so stupid?!"

He had dodged a bullet on that one, truly.  He was supposed to act normally as he blended into Ponyville, and was not to exhibit any odd behavior that may make him seem suspicious.

Fortunately, he seemed to have retained Twilight's trust for a couple of reasons.

One, ponies in general seemed to lack of basic understanding of what humans were like.  With that in mind, he could lie through his teeth and try to pass this up as normal human behavior, which is exactly what he did.

Secondly, ponies in general seemed to be a fairly trusting folk, perhaps to a fault.  Perhaps it was their herd mentality, but he didn't know.

Still, he shouldn't have allowed himself to succumb to his biological needs.  He had hoped he could eat some meat here, but that was now clearly out of the question.  He was smart enough to say that it was fruit that generated the cravings, but if he hadn't thought it through enough and said it was meat that sent him into an uncontrollable craving, he doubted that would go over well with the vegetarian ponies.  Twilight could also put two-and-two together if he told her about a human's diet, and she could probably deduce that humans might be capable of going on an uncontrollable craving for meat, even if what he told her was all bullshit.

He eyed the purple pony in front of him, who had sat back down at the breakfast table.

"Damn, I better not let this bit of information slip.  If I told Lambda I almost blew my cover, she'd probably kill me.  And Shadow Star probably wouldn't be very happy either..."

"No more slip-ups.  I gotta transition this well.  Get back on track with acting like a normal human, and there shouldn't be anymore problems."

Zachary sat down at the breakfast table, and an awkward silence overcame the two of them.  Spike of course wasn't in the room any longer, and Zach got the feeling that the baby dragon would be far more wary of him from now on, much more than Twilight.

"I'm sorry about that little incident, but now that we have everything cleared up, I'll keep that kind of behavior under control..."

Twilight took a sip from her mug as she began to eat again.  Zachary didn't know what she was drinking; it didn't look like coffee.

"Oh, it's no bother!" she said hastily.  "Nopony got hurt or anything, and I should have expected new and alien behaviors from a race that I've never heard of!"

Zachary breathed out.

"Well, I'm glad that we've got that out of the way.  There's something I'd like to ask.  I have a family and friends back home... and I think it's pretty obvious that I don't want to spend the rest of my life here.  I mean, you've been very nice, providing me with a roof and shelter and all, but I'd actually prefer to get back as soon as possible..."

Twilight smirked at him.

"I was wondering when you would start feeling a little homesick.  You went all last night without even asking how to get home.  Don't worry; things might already be covered, but..."  she said, and a frown spread across her face.

"I'm still having trouble buying that whole "from another universe" thing.  Part of the reason I sent that letter to Princess Celestia was about getting you home.  If it turns out you are from some part of Equus that I don't know about, then it would be fairly easy to send you back.  However, if your crazy theory happens to be true... then we may have a problem on our hooves,"  she finished, staring seriously at Zachary.

"At that point, we'd be delving into aspects that are still nowhere near understood well enough by modern Equestrian society.  I could look through all my books on magic, but there won't be a spell on how to even know if there are multiple universes, let alone a spell that can transport somepony from one to another!"

"Unfortunately, based on your bizarre appearance, I can't rule out this possibility.  However, when the Princess writes back hopefully both of us will have a great deal of clarity on what to do next."

Zachary slumped slightly, and his face took on a melancholy expression.  Twilight sensed this, and reached over and Zachary stared as she placed a purple hoof on his shoulder.

"Hey, don't worry about a thing.  The Princess has ruled Equestria for over a thousand years.  I'm sure she'll have a solution to your problem," she reassured, her face turning into a smile.

"A-A thousand years?!  Ponies live that long!?" Zachary said, a tinge of shock in his voice.  Twilight just continued to smile at him.

"Well, not really.  The Princesses are the most powerful ponies in all of Equestria, and they're much much longer lived than the rest of us.  Nopony else lives anywhere near as long as a thousand years..."

"I see."

"But because of that, there usually isn't anything that Princess Celestia doesn't know!  We just have to wait for her response.  In the meantime..." she trailed off, levitating out a checklist.

"I have a checklist of things to do in the meantime, so right now at least you're welcome in Ponyville!  Hopefully you'll be back on your way home soon, but for right now you might just want to enjoy it here, kinda like a vacation!" she encouraged, pouring over her checklist.

Zachary seemed depressed, but before long he managed to cheer himself up.

"You know what, you're right.  What's the point of me sitting around here and worrying all day?  I'll just have to make the most of this situation." he said, more to himself than Twilight.

"Well, there were a few things I had scheduled to do today, but your arrival threw this schedule for a loop.  I'll have to push some of these things to the side..." she said, somewhat frantically.

She groaned.

"Ugh, there's no time!  There are so many more questions I need to ask you, and I need to do some things out in Ponyville, but I don't have enough time to fit all that in today!  What to do?!" she cried.

Zachary just looked on, as if he were looking for an exit to get away from the obsessive purple pony.

He placed a hand on her withers, and she flinched.

"Look, Twilight.  Don't worry.  We'll find the time to do all of those things, and I'll be happy to answer any questions you might have.  For now, why don't you just take me along while you go do your thing out in Ponyville?"

Twilight rolled up her checklist and went into deep thought.  She then smiled.

"You're right.  Here I am telling you not to worry about something of great importance, and then you have to reassure me over something as silly as a checklist!  You're right, I'll just take you out into Ponyville with me!  It's the perfect opportunity for you to get adjusted to this place."

Twilight finished the last few bites of her breakfast, and levitated the dishes into the sink for Spike to take care of later.  She cantered into the main room of the library, and when Zachary poked his head out into the foyer, she was putting on her saddlebags.

He cringed.

"Now that I think about it, the only ponies I've actually seen are you, Pinkie, and that rainbow one that was with you in the forest.  Walking directly into an entire town full of them might be a little overwhelming..." he said, a tinge of nervousness in his voice.

Twilight waved it off.

"You probably won't have to worry about that.  These townsponies may be a little crazy and skiddish, but nothing should happen.  They might avoid you at first, but be out there long enough and they should warm up to you, and then you'll find that they're actually quite friendly!"

A look of annoyance passed over Twilight's face.

"Spike, what are you doing?" she deadpanned.  The little dragon had huddled himself in the corner, looking at Zachary with a tinge of fear.

"You're going out there... with him?" he asked.

Zachary thought he was already scared, but that look devolved into an expression of abject terror when Twiight levelled him with a fierce glare.

"Spike... is there anything wrong with our guest here?" she asked in dangerously low voice, almost daring him to talk back to her.

"W-Well, y-you saw w-what h-happened in the k-kitchen..."  he squeaked, the poor baby dragon trying to look smaller against the bookshelves.  Twilight sighed.

"Spike, we've already cleared that up.  There was nothing dangerous about it.  It's just a particular custom that we in Equestria are not familiar with.  Nothing more..." she recited, trying to draw Spike out of the corner.

"Now Zach and I are going to out to Ponyville.  Make sure you finish the dishes while we're gone, and don't make a mess!" she called out to him, already out the door, apparently not waiting for him.

Zachary shook his head.  This girl was unbelievable sometimes.

"Everyone's staring at me..."

"Just ignore it.  It'll go away..."

"But I can feel it.  They all think I'm weird..."

"That's because you are weird.  These ponies have never seen anything like you before..."

"Maybe I should just go back..."

"Hey, this was your idea.  I'm not gonna let you back out now!"

The duo of pony and human walking down the street like nothing drew a lot of odd stares from the local residents of Ponyville.  Most of the time they were just content to stare, but a few others would also whisper in hushed voices to their friends, and it most likely wasn't anything good.

"Well, I think we can put off getting more quills for now, but the first thing we should do is visit the Mayor's office.  She's bound to have had a hectic time since last night over the explosion, and she doesn't know about you yet, so we need to clear up that..."

"Whatever you say.  I'm down for anything..."

As the two of them walked, ponies continued to whisper.  Twilight could tell Zachary was getting bothered by it, so to take his mind off it, she started asking various questions that she had been meaning to ask.

They talked for a few minutes, and Zach seemed to be lightening up in face of all the pressure from the townsponies.  She asked him various questions about how human society worked, and frankly she found most of it unbelievable.

She learned of a species seven billion strong that had built hundreds of cities spanning across the globe.  She learned about the various ways that humans were able to get by without magic, through the use of their really advanced technology.  They almost talked a bit about the more... unsavory aspects of humanity, but they arrived at City Hall before Zachary could actually talk about that.

".... Okay, this is all pretty incredible.  I almost don't believe it, because I'm pretty sure you'd have to be from another world in order to accomplish this... Oh!  Look!  We're here!" Twilight remarked, as Zachary had just finished talking about a small flat box called an iPhone, which could do so many things that it made Twilight's head spin.

When he heard her words, he turned to look up at the building.  It was fairly large, and had the same architectural style as the rest of Ponyville.  Still, beyond this door would be peop- ponies of authority.

"Uh, Twilight... could you go on ahead by yourself.  I don't feel comfortable stepping into his building," he admitted.  Twilight gave him an odd look.

"If you say so.  I was just going to go in and clear up any confusion that might be had.  It shouldn't take longer than five minutes," she said, her eyes narrowing slightly.  Zachary waved her off.

"Yeah, yeah, go ahead.  I'll just wait out here..." he said, a little too quickly.  Twilight stared at him for a couple seconds longer, before disappearing into city hall.

Zach stood outside while Twilight took care of her business.  Ponies passed every few seconds, giving him weird looks.  He spaced out, staring at a group of three fillies who were looking his way with a look of excitement in their eyes.  His heart plummeted, and he suddenly got the feeling that he needed to run away before a disaster happened.

"Hey!"

"Crack rock?" Zachary mumbled, jumping out of his stupor when he heard a voice, calling out to him apparently.  He looked around, his head tilting upward.

He felt something long and winding wrap itself around his midsection, and wheezed for breath as it tightened.  His hands were bound tightly, but he tried as he might to undo the bindings on him.

"A lasso?" he thought, wincing at the tightness of the rope.

"YEEEEEEE-HAW!  Ah got ya, ya varmint!"

The rope pulled suddenly, and Zach found himself flopping onto the ground, being dragged along.  He got a brief reprieve when the lasso released itself, but before he even knew it he was bound again.  This time it was his legs that were tied up.

He tried to splutter something out, but it just came out as an angry mutter.

"Quit strugglin'.  It won't do yah any good..."

Zach rolled his eyes.  Looking sideways, he could see four orange hooves standing on the ground before him.  His eyes panned upwards.  He took in the appearance of an orange earth pony mare with a blonde mane and a stetson hat perched directly on her head.  She seemed angry with him for some reason.

"Now what in the hay is a creature like y'all doin' in Ponyville?  Ah know that somethin' like you shouldn't leave the Everfree Forest an' come here causin' a ruckus and rustlin' up the townponies!" the orange pony said, in a thick Southern accent.

Zachary sighed.

"A ruckus?  What part of me sitting there doing nothing is causing a ruckus?  It's not my fault that you ponies are so skittish!"

The human looked around, several ponies had gathered in a circle around him.  They were casting him wary looks.  If he had to guess, they saw the orange country pony lasso him up, so they assumed that he must've done something wrong, or gone on a rampage.

"Applejack?!  What are you doing?!"

Zach recognized Twilight's voice, and he could see her push through the wall of ponies that were gathered around him.

"Hey Twilight!" Applejack called out.  "Just helpin' round up this here critter who was botherin' the townsponies." she said, no small amount of pride in her voice.  She didn't seem to notice that Twilight looked furious.

"APPLEJACK?!  You release him this instant!  Do you just go around lassoing everything you see!"  Twilight shouted at her friend.  The farm pony at least had the decency to look intimidated in front of the irate unicorn, as did everypony else.

"Bu.... But- the townsponies were afraid a' him..." Applejack said lamely, the rope coming undone and allowing Zachary some freedom.

"Of course they were, Applejack!  The townsponies here are afraid of everything that's even slightly different here!  That doesn't mean you can go lose your head the first chance you get!  Didn't you learn anything from Zecora?!" she lectured, and Zachary was actually stunned at how intimidating Twilight could actually get.

Applejack's ears flattened against her head.

"He can talk, by the way!  He's not just some creature from the Everfree Forest.  He's as smart as you and I.  Now I want you to apologize to him!" Twilight continued, laying it into Applejack.

Applejack gave Twilight a look of offense, before she grudgingly trotted up to Zachary.

"Uh... hey there pardner.  Ah'm awfully sorry about thinkin' you were some no-good varmint from the Everfree Forest here to stir up trouble.  An' ah'm sorry about goin' off without thinkin'.  Y'all really weren't causin' a ruckus after all, were ya?" she said awkwardly, a slight blush on her orange face.

"That's better, Applejack," Twilight sighed.  "And I'm sorry I had to go off on you like that, but you must understand that Zach is a complete stranger to Equestria  We have little information about what he is or where he came from.  All we know is that he appeared in White Tail Woods last night.."

"Wait, that huge explosion that happened las' night?  That was you?" Applejack asked, eying the human.  Twilight clapped her hooves together.

"I was going to tell you later today when we saw you, but I took Zach here in for the night when we found him lost in White Tail Woods.  That explosion apparently did have something to do with him, but he isn't sure how he got here in the first place.  Because of that, I thought it would be hospitable if we were welcomed here in Ponyville while we sort out his circumstances, but I can see that that isn't going to happen..."  At this point, she wasn't just talking to Applejack, but the entire crowd ponies.

"Well, I think he can feel super welcomed in Ponyville!"

Twilight snorted as a blast of confetti went off, covering her, Zach, and Applejack in the papery substance.

"Pinkie Pie, where did you come from?"

The three of them heard a faint, high-pitched giggle, and they were all surprised when the pink earth pony appeared right in the middle of them, drawing her forelegs out to... abnormally long lengths and grabbing them all in a huddle.

"From Sugarcube Corner, silly!" she said, answering Twilight's question.

"But that's not important right now!  What is important right is that I remember I am a super forgetful pants and... wait, am I super forgetful if I remember that I'm forgetful right now!?  Oops, silly me, I forgot again!  Oh well!  I'm here to tell you all that I forgot I needed to throw a "Welcome to Ponyville" party for our special not-pony pony!  And you all need to be there!" she said, producing invitations from nowhere and handing them to anyone in sight.

Zach poured over his; it was so strange.  This pink pony didn't even know his name and here she was throwing him a party.  Well, at least the invitation looked solid.  She spelled "human" like "hyoo-men" but other than that it was okay.  Apparently, it was at Sugarcube Corner, and it was tonight.

He would go, but he hoped it didn't last into the wee hours of the night.  He had other... business that he had to take care of afterwards.

"Dear Princess Celestia,

Today, something very interesting happened.  I'm afraid I don't have a friendship report this time, but there is something I would like seek your guidance on.  You see, tonight there was a large explosion coming from White Tail Woods, but more importantly I made a very interesting discovery.  A creature I have never encountered before.  He calls himself a human, and as you might have guessed, he has the ability to talk.  I've never seen anything remotely resembling him before, except maybe a monkey.  He is almost completely hairless, walks and two legs, and is much taller than a normal pony.  The strange thing is that he's claiming he's from another universe, or dimension if you will, but both of us have no idea how he got here!  He also seems to lack a common level of knowledge on basic subjects such as magic and ponies themselves!  I have no idea how to handle this situation, and I would be incredibly enthused if you would happen to know what a "human" is or how I might handle this situation.

Your Faithful Student,

Twilight Sparkle."

"This is.... very disconcerting, sister."

This time, it was Celestia's turn to wake up her sister, but it was for reasons much different than before.  This time, Celestia was concerned over the safety of her most faithful student.

"I think it is fairly obvious that you have put two-and-two together, Luna." Celestia remarked.  Celestia rolled up the scroll which both of them had read, and Celestia couldn't keep the worry out of her voice.

Celestia paced back and forth in her throne room, while Luna looked on with curiosity.

"This may just be too big of a coincidence.  Twilight Sparkle is the most magically gifted unicorn that I know, and this comes at a time when..."

"There have been five disappearances in the last month of exceptionally gifted unicorns..." Luna finished her sentence for her, a feeling of unease washing over the area.

Celestia shook her head.

"I can't help but feel that these two events are linked in some way.  I felt the tremor from White Tail Wood last night, but I can't..."

"One thing that is bothering me, sister, is the appearance of the creature that Twilight Sparkle described.  Two legs, tall, and she described it as monkey-like.  I know that we have no definite proof of the Hooded Gorilla yet, but I'm getting a bad feeling that this creature is at least in some way related to the rumored beast."

"I get that feeling too Luna.  It is purely too much of a coincidence for an unknown creature that Equestrian society has never heard of to just fall on the doorstep of the most magically talented unicorn in Equestria, while simultaneously there are disappearances of magically talented unicorns all over Equestria."

Celestia continued to pace, while sighing heavily.

"What do we do then, sister?" asked Luna.

Celestia mulled over the question.

"Twilight seems to have taken this creature under her wing.  Although it is very suspicious, we have no proof of anything treacherous occurring in Ponyville.  We do not even know what the creature looks like, let alone its intentions.  We cannot act rashly in a moment such as this.  There's still the possibility that it is just a lost and confused creature that is trying to find its way home..."

That didn't seem to cut it for Luna.

"So you're just going to do nothing?!  Simply allow that beast to kidnap poor Twilight Sparkle, just like the rest of them?!" she cried in the Royal Canterlot Voice.

Celestia gave her a stern look.

"That is NOT my intention by any means, Luna.  This creature is very suspicious, yes, but Twilight Sparkle is the most magically gifted unicorn for a reason.  What I plan to do with this suspicious creature is have Twilight Sparkle and it called up to Canterlot.  We will assess it with our own eyes, and see if it is any threat whatsoever.  If it is, we shall take action immediately!" she bellowed.  Luna's look soured.

"Very well, sister.  But keep in mind that every moment you leave Twilight with that thing, she may very well be in danger.  I would advise you to make haste to delivering Twilight Sparkle up to Canterlot," Luna huffed.

"I understand, little sister.  I will make the arrangements for passage up to Canterlot immediately..."

Alpha

Chapter 5: Alpha

Well, Pinkie at least knew how to welcome someone to Ponyville, that was for sure.

Even if Zachary's welcome party didn't have the turnout that Pinkie expected, she still didn't let anything like that get her down, and focused on giving the human the best possible welcome she could.

There were less than ten guests in the top room of Sugarcube Corner, but Pinkie Pie had put her heart and soul into transforming the room into the pinnacle of a partying experience.

Zach surveyed the room; she really did go overboard.  The tables in the room were filled with cavity-inducing sweets and drinks, and there was a mountain of balloons and streamers strewn across the room.  Not to mention the dancing and the games.

Honestly, the party seemed a little bit.... kiddy, at first.  But Zach had realized that is was the thought that counted, and since she had gone through so much trouble just to welcome him, he might as well enjoy it.

The rest of the townponies must've still been wary of them, because there really weren't as many guests as Pinkie had said there would be.  Of course Pinkie was there, being the host, and Twilight and Spike, but other than that it seemed to be only close friends of Pinkie herself.

He had already met most of them.  Besides Twilight, Spike, and Pinkie, he had met the orange earth pony named Applejack earlier that day, and the rainbow-maned one in the forest the previous nights.

Applejack was looking at him with something... regret?  He didn't really know, but it was clear that Rainbow Dash was still very untrusting of him, and she obviously did not want to be here.

The only ponies there who who hadn't met were the timid-looking yellow pegasus off in the corner, and the alabaster white unicorn who was talking animatedly to Twilight.

It was about an hour into the party, and everyone had clearly arrived.  He looked at the clock upon the wall, which read nine o'clock.  He hoped that the party didn't last past midnight.

He didn't get to dwell on that further as a pink muzzle suddenly appeared in his visage, grinning at him widely.

"Hi!  What are you doing staring at the wall for!?  This is your party, silly Zachie!  Get out on the dance floor and have some fun!" the party pony insisted.

Zachary blinked as Pinkie appeared practically teleported right behind him, pushing on his back forcefully with both of her front hooves.  The human stumbled forward into the thick of things, while Pinkie giggled from the dance floor.  How she got there in such a short time, he didn't know.  What he did know was that the pink pony didn't make any sense whatsoever.

He stood there dumbfounded, until a hoof lightly tapped him on his shoulder.

He turned around to see Twilight, smiling at him lightly as she levitated a glass of punch to her muzzle.

"Hi there.  Enjoying the party?" she asked.

"Oh, sure.  Honestly, you girls didn't need to put so much effort into welcoming someone like me.  The fact that you're welcoming me into your town alone when I'm so different makes me very grateful," he said, smiling.

"I keep telling you, it's no problem!  Once I get a letter back from Princess Celestia about your situation, we can figure out living arrangements for you until the time comes where you can return to your home," she said, taking a sip from her drink.

She sighed, smacking her lips over the taste of the punch.

"Now, enough about that!  You've met some of my friends already, with... mixed results.  But there are a couple of my best friends here that you haven't met yet!  I'll introduce you!"

With that in mind, Twilight led the human towards one of the ponies he hadn't spoken to.  It was the rather stuffy looking white unicorn they walked up to first.  He didn't even know where the other one went.

He walked along behind Twilight up to her friend, who was chatting with Spike.  The little dragon didn't seem to be listening to a word she was saying though, and was instead just transfixed on staring at her longingly.

"Anyway, darling, as I was saying, the other day I saw Aloe and Lotus..." she cut herself off when a shadow cast itself over her, and she peered over to the right in alarm.

"Oh my goodness!" she cried out, when her eyes peered up to look upon the human.  One of her front hooves trembled, and even though she knew the party was for some strange creature and she had seen him from a distance, she hadn't been this close before.

For her credit, she managed to keep her composure.

"T-Twilight... darling!  How lovely to see.... you," she stuttered, at the apparently carefree unicorn, who was standing in front of the looming human.

"Lovely to see you too, Rarity!" she greeted, while Zachary stood awkwardly behind her.  There was a tense silence for a couple of seconds.

"Rarity, have you met the guest of honor?" Twilight asked.  She was seemingly oblivious to the tension that existed between human and pony.

"Rarity, this is Zach, a human.  Zach, this is Rarity."

Rarity eyed him awkwardly, taking note of his bizarre appearance and relatively casual clothes that she noted with distaste.

"Oh.... no.  Charmed..." she said simply, without the usual flair that accompanied her voice.

"Yeah... nice to meet you," the human greeted awkwardly back.

"Forgive me for being rude, but... what exactly is a human?" Rarity asked, much more to Twilight than the actual homo sapian within earshot.

Rarity got her answer in the form of a loud voice blaring in her ear.

"Silly Rarity!  It's what Zachie is!  I mean, I said we were throwing this party for Zach the human, so it wouldn't really make sense if Zachie wasn't a human, right?!" Pinkie yelled in Rarity's ear, making her face scrunch up into a hearty cringe from the volume.

"Oh, Pinkie Pie... you gave me quite a start..." Rarity said, looking at the beaming pink pony before her.

"She's right, though.  Zach here is a human; he comes from a faraway place, and as you can tell, he's probably not like anything that you've ever seen before..." Twilight explained to Rarity.

"I tell ya, it sure surprised me!  Ah nearly hogtied the poor feller 'fore Twilight here explained the situation to me!" Applejack said, coming to mingle with the group.

All throughout this, Zach still remained silent.

"I heard there was some sort of commotion going on in the town square earlier today.  That was you, Applejack?  I would think that we have told you more times than once to not act so rashly over things..." Rarity lectured.

"Hey!  It wasn't my fault!  Ah thought he was terrorizin' the townponies!" Applejack defended, to which Rarity huffed skeptically.

"Oh please, Applejack.  You know it's like you to just jump in there without thinking first.  I doubt the poor dear was doing anything of consequence..." she said, eyes pouring over Zach.

Applejack frowned and blushed, but her stubbornness reigned out, and she refused to admit she was wrong.

"Anyway, darling!  I hope your little escapade in Ponyville was not ruined by some of the more... rude residents." Rarity said, glaring at Applejack.  "I'm sure you'll find this quaint little village quite friendly!"

She winced.

"Though... I must say, your choice of wardrobe is not... what I had in mind.  If you're going to wear clothes, I simply must design a much more fitting attire for you.  Oh, don't worry, I shall not not charge you a bit!  Just think of it as my own personal gift!"

As Rarity began her rant, Twilight and Applejack shot a look of pity at the confused human, who was listening to the white unicorn ramble.  Rarity was certainly generous, but she had a fatal flaw of always impeding on ponies' right to make their own decisions.  And it looked like Zachary was about to be her next victim.

Zachary looked down at his clothes, frowning.  The unicorn didn't seem to like what he was wearing, but he couldn't say he blamed her.  Since his arrival here had been... unexpected, it's not like he had more than one set of clothes.  He might have to take her up on her offer anyway.

"Well, that's very generous of you.  You see, I didn't really have time to... prepare for this arrival or anything, so I don't have anything more than this pair of clothes.  And well, humans kind of need to wear clothes," he said.  He was talking to Rarity, but he noticed a gleam enter Twilight's eyes.

"That's very peculiar!  Why is there such a-" Twilight began to ask, but there was a banging noise from a few feet over, followed by the wobbling of one of the food tables.

A glass of punch that was resting on the table toppled over, and the group heard the shattered of glass as there was a loud, surprised squeak coming from under the table, followed by a head that poked out.

"E-Eep!  I'm so sorry!"

"Huh?" Zach asked outloud, already forgetting about Twilight's question.  He peered over at the table which housed the punch bowl, where he saw the yellow pegasus from earlier peeking out from underneath, stealing terrified glances at him.

Her rattling underneath the table had apparently caused the glass of punch to topple over, which had spooked her out of her hiding place.

"Fluttershy, what are you doing down there?" Rarity asked.

"O-Oh.... w-well.... I...... um.... um..." Fluttershy started, but her shyness quickly overtook her, and she crouched back underneath the table again.

Rarity sighed, trotting over to the table where the butter-yellow pegasus was crouched under.

"Fluttershy, darling, don't you know it's terribly rude to avoid the guest of honor?  Come out from under there and meet him!  I promise he won't hurt you."

When Fluttershy mumbled something again, Rarity just sighed.  Twilight smiled at Zachary.

"Fluttershy.  Her name's pretty fitting.  She's just as skittish around normal ponies she's never met, let alone humans she's never met.  She's really the sweetest little pony you'll ever meet though," she said.

At this point, Rarity had managed to "coax" Fluttershy out from her hiding spot by grasping her pink tail in her mouth and literally dragging her own from underneath the table.

The pegasus didn't seem to struggle on the way, but she curled up into a ball when she was deposited in the middle of the group, directly in front of Zachary himself.

Her face in her hooves, she poked an eye out and looked at the human, before squealed and covering her eyes with her hooves again.

"Fluttershy... this is Zach.  I'm sure he'd very much like to meet you..." Twilight said, in a slightly stern voice to the cowering pegasus.

Fluttershy uncovered her hooves and cautiously climbed to her feet, and her aquamarine eyes stared directly at Zachary's face for the first time.  For her credit, she didn't cower again, but she still didn't seem all that comfortable around him.

"Um.... hello," she said simply.

Zachary smiled at her, crouching slightly so he'd meet her eye level.

"She's quite the cutie..." he thought to himself.  Most of these ponies looked like something straight out of fairy tale land, and many of them were cavity inducing, but this one... this one really took the cake.

"It's nice to meet you, Fluttershy," Zach said kindly, watching as the shy pony began to come more and more out of her shell.

"See, now was that so bad, darling?" Rarity piped up, as Fluttershy blushed lightly.  Twilight, Applejack, and Pinkie all laughed lightly as her shyness, but Fluttershy seemed to be getting more comfortable now.

"Um, it's nice to meet you too..." she said, a little louder and clearer than her first.  Zachary smiled at her, which made the rest of ponies there light up with their own grins.

"Well, you've been introduced to all my friends now," Twilight interrupted, with what sounded like a tinge of relief within her voice.  "And I'm glad to say that they've mostly accepted you.  Except..."

Her eyes flickered over to the corner, where Rainbow Dash had her back facing the rest of the group.  A stony expression was set upon her face as she sulked.

"Don't worry about her, Twilight.  I don't mind," Zachary reassured, brushing off the rainbow pony's unfriendliness.  Twilight didn't seem to be set at ease however.

"But it's not okay.  She shouldn't be acting like this, she-" but she was cut off as Zachary leaned in close and whispered in her ear lowly, so that not even the other curious ponies could hear.

"Just drop it, okay.  I don't need the two of us making a fuss here at the party.  Just let her sulk for a day or two and then she'll come around; trust me," he said.

Twilight looked skeptical, but she nodded nonetheless.

"Anyway..." he continued.  "It'd probably be best to let your friends now how I got here, and what needs to be done with how I'm going to get back, right?"

Twilight couldn't argue with that.  She nodded at him, before Zachary turned back to the rest of the group at her behest.

"Well, first of all, I'd like to say thanks once again to Pinkie Pie for throwing me this very special "Welcome to Ponyville".  But since you're all here celebrating my arrival here, there's something I need to say..."

At this point, Zachary began to tell his story to the ponies who didn't know his story.  Speaking loudly enough so that Rainbow Dash could hear him, he began to tell them about Earth, his home.  He told them about the college he went to.  He told them about how he went to sleep, and heard a gigantic explosion.  He told them about how he had awoken in White Tail Woods with no clue where he was or how he had got there.  He told them about being found, and how he spent last night with Twilight in the library.

And finally, he told them about his own theory, about how he was from another world.

"-And right now we're waiting for a response from your Princess to see if she'd know anything about this situation.  But until then, I'm sorta stuck here..."

He gauged the various reactions, from shock, to pity, and when he glanced over at Rainbow Dash in the corner, he saw suspicion.  She was being uncharacteristically silent, but her expression was telling the whole story.

"O-Oh my, you poor thing..."

"Yes, that is quite the story.  Honestly, separated from my family and friends with no certainty of getting back; I wouldn't be able to take it.  I don't know how you do it!"

"Well, never going back sounds super-duper lame, but at least you'll have a bunch of new friends here in Ponyville!"

"So, lemme get this straight.  Y'all are from 'nother world?"

"We don't truly know if it's another world, Applejack.  We don't have evidence of a thing like that, but what we do know is that Zach here is lost and confused in a place he is unfamiliar with.  He is someone that really needs our support throughout this tough time.  Are we gonna give it to him?" Twilight asked, after her friends had all given their opinions over the subject.

The human looked at the ponies longingly, as they mulled it over.  Then, they all smiled at him genuinely, as they nodded their heads in union, basically promising to become friends with the human.

That is, except for a blue pegasus huddled in the corner.

Twilight beamed, but her face took on an expression of alarm as Spike, who had been sitting there silent along with the group, suddenly burped out a stream of green flames.

The green swirled around in a vortex, before there was a small popping noise, and a scroll popped into existence where the green flames once were.

"It's a letter from the Princess!  It must be about Zach!" Twilight cried out in excitement, levitating the scroll up to her eyes and unfurling it.

"My most faithful student, Twilight Sparkle,

What a truly interesting discovery you have made!  I am afraid that I do not have the slightest idea of what a human is nor where they come from, but there are more urgent matters that I must address.  This is a matter of grave importance, and is a matter that may be related to your newly found friend.  This is a matter of great secrecy, and as such I would like to call you to Canterlot so I reveal to you this great matter of important.  Please bring along the other Element Bearers as well as the human in question.  I have arranged for a chariot to trasnport you to the castle, arriving in Ponyville at 8 o'clock sharp tomorrow morning.

I wish you a safe journey,

Princess Celestia"

She read the letter outloud to her friends, whose eyes widened as they transfixed on the unicorn.  Twilight herself seemed to be in shock as well.  Instead of the advice on humans that she had been seeking, she had once again been dragged into a matter that involved the fate of Equestria.

She just did not know what it was.

"That... was not what I was expecting..." Zachary piped up.

"A matter of grave importance?  What does this mean, Twi?" Dash asked, finally coming out of her slump and flying over to the group.  Their party attitudes had vanished, even Pinkie Pie's, and they all had serious expressions on their faces.

"I don't know.  But, I'm guessing... we may found out more about the mystery of your arrival, Zach.  The best thing we can do is go tomorrow and talk to Princess Celestia about these matters.  We may need the Elements of Harmony..."

The party wound down shortly afterwards.  It seemed that with such a tense day tomorrow, nopony was in the mood to party anymore, despite Pinkie's insistence on the matter.

The six ponies, one dragon, and one human broke for home at around midnight.  Princess Celestia's letter still rung in all their heads, but most of them still reassured Zachary that he would have their support.

Twilight, Spike, and Zachary headed back to the library directly after that, pleased with the night but also nervous about what tomorrow would bring.

A few moments later, and Spike had dozed off on Twilight's back.  The unicorn herself looked a little drowsy, but Zachary himself was awake as could be.

The unlikely group stumbled back into the library, and fifteen minutes later all the lights had been shut off in the tree, and its occupants were securely tucked away in dream land.

However, at roughly one o'clock, the front door to the library creaked open slowly, and a shadowy figure slunk out into the streets.

There were no lights on, and not a soul was on the streets at this time of night, so the figure could move out and about with a great amount of freedom.  But it wasn't concerned with anything in Ponyville.

It slunk out of the village quietly, towards the west.  It continued on the beaten path into White Tail Woods, slinking along with all the grace of a stealthy predator.  When it had been moving for a few minutes, it turned to the right directly off the trail and into the undergrowth.

It continued on this path for roughly half a mile, until the forest thinned and the figure crept into a large, flat clearing of grass and weeds.  In the center of the clearing, a tiny one-roomed shack stood, barely functional as a place to live.

Nevertheless, the figure moved up to the cabin, grasping the door knob with a hand and opening the old wooden door.  It was sparsely furnished inside; the only items in the single room were a small table, a few chairs, and a single candle lit on top of table.

There was a figure sitting in the chair opposite the door, though the candlelight obscured its face.  The arriving silhouette moved into the house, shutting the door behind it.

"Were you followed?" the figure in the chair asked.  It had a deep male voice, thick and guttural, and it spoke with a hint of an edge to it.

The other figure, a young human male, scowled from across the table.

"Of course not... what do you take me for?" Zachary said, irritated.  He took a seat at the table, his features stony as he regarded the figure across from him.

"Have you come closer to achieving your objective?" the figure asked.

"Yes.  I have befriended the unicorn in question, Twilight Sparkle.  I can proceed with my orders at any time now..." he stated emotionlessly.

The figure across from him hummed.

"The preparations on our end will be finished at approximately midnight tomorrow night, meaning you have permission to proceed at approximately eight o'clock P.M.  The rest of the organization will be busy with the Equestrian crown case, so it's up to you to finish the duty with Twilight Sparkle."

"I don't understand why I'm the one who has to fulfill this job...  Why couldn't you just send a foot solider to her, like all the rest of them?" Zachary commented distastefully.

"Are you mad?  Twilight Sparkle is the most magically talented unicorn in Equestria.  Her magical ability and potential are off the charts.  She could wipe out a whole line of foot soldiers with nary a thought.  But that's not the main reason you were assigned to this case..."

The figure trailed off, before resuming again.

"Unfortunately, the changeling attack could not come at a worse time.  The city of Canterlot is on lockdown, especially the castle.  We were ready to engage the castle, but an unforeseen event occurred in the wake of the Changelings.  We cannot enter.  Only those approved by the Princesses themselves are allowed to enter. Through the power of the Elements of Harmony and Celestia herself, an enormously powerful barrier has been erected.  Our top magicians have studied it; it cannot be penetrated."

Zachary stared in silence.

"The power of the Elements of Harmony is not to be underestimated.  Normally, it can only be dispelled should Princess Celestia or the Element of Magic herself will it.  From the outside, it cannot be destroyed.  However, that's where you come in..."

Zachary mouthed something.

"I think I get it.  You predicted this, didn't you?  That's why you had me befriend Twilight Sparkle herself, instead of proceeding with my mission in secrecy.  You predicted that she would be confused over me, and ask her teacher what to do.  Celestia, on the other hand, is very suspicious over the disappearances and understands the potential consequences.  She's suspicious of me, which means she wants me away from her precious student as soon as possible.  Twilight Sparkle, as well as myself, were to be called up to the castle, where Celestia can keep a close eye on her student while simultaneously keeping tabs on me."

"Then I was correct.  You have been invited into the castle.  Once inside, you are the one who can break the barrier from the inside." the figure said.

"What should I do once I'm inside?  I would imagine that there would be many prying eyes in the castle."

"Celestia is smart, but she also doesn't understand what you are.  I imagine that you'll be in for a welcome through many, many watching eyes.  She might be looking for any excuse to throw you in a dungeon or interrogate you over the disappearances  She thinks that she can control you if you are kept within the castle, that she has custody over you, but she doesn't understand that your simple presence there is already a grievous error on her part."

"I can understand what to do with regards to the barrier once I'm inside the castle..  It should be fairly easy for me to find a way to break the barrier, even with watchful eyes.  However, at that point, the charade will be blown... for all of us.  What should I do at that point?" Zachary asked.

"It does not matter at that point.  Our own cover is not important anymore once the assault begins, but from that point on you will finish your original task.  I have gone over the plans for the assault on Canterlot; they are reckless, but they are direct orders.  It is very possible that we may fail, but it has been setup so that you shall succeed, and one of our primary goals will have been met either way..." the figure continued, a tinge of happiness in its voice.

Zachary scowled and crouched low.  He had remained relatively stoic the entire time, but now he was staring at the figure with an intense amount of venom in his eyes.

The figure noticed this, and it moved forward into the candle stick.  Zachary made out the equine face and green eyes of the matte black earth pony in front of him.

"Do not challenge me, Alpha..." he said in a low, dangerous voice.

Alpha cast his eyes down, frowning as he nodded.  This seemed to satisfy the stallion, who then sat down in the chair.

"Good.  Then we begin our glorious future tomorrow.  For the Arcane Ascension!" he chanted.  He thrust forward a large hoof across the table in a gesture.

A midnight black, shiny, insectoid claw reached across the table.  Its two forked pincers wrapped around the pony's claw, and grasped gently...

New Friends

Chapter 6: New Friends

The library was buzzing with activity by 7 o'clock the next morning, and there were no signs that anyone noticed the escapade by Zachary in the middle of the night.

Speaking of Zachary, the human was still in dreamland, his body strewn all over the place as he tossed and turned on the mattress on the floor.

However, the noise that radiated throughout the library, particularly the sound of hooves clopping against wood, couldn't help but awake him before long.

"Zach!  You have to get up!  The chariot that the Princess is sending will be here in less than an hour!"

Zachary's eyes fluttered open as he registered the sound of an annoyed female voice.  A tired frown marred itself on his face, as he sat up in the mattress.

"Ugh, what time is it?"

He was there at the party; he knew what time the chariot was supposed to come.  It was a one-way ticket to Canterlot Castle, and there wasn't going to be another one.

Last night had left him a little irritated.  He hated that stallion; he truly did.  And now there was a whole new set of objectives that he really didn't want to fulfill, but it wasn't like he had a choice.

It had left him in a foul mood.

Still, the job itself shouldn't cause him any trouble.  Already, he couldn't believe how easy it was.  Two days, and he had gained the trust of Twilight Sparkle.  He was supposed to rendezvous with Shadow Star anyway, but he just expected to tell him that he was making progress.  He didn't think he'd already gained her friendship, and moreover, he didn't think he'd actually get an invitation to the castle this early.

"Are you up?!  We don't have time for this!" Twilight's voice rang out from downstairs.  He sighed and lifted himself off the mattress.  He hated to have to do this to Twilight; she was innocent... she wasn't involved.

He lifted up his shirt and took a whiff.  He had worn the same clothes non-stop for the last two days, and they were starting to get a little ripe.  Last night, he had talked to Rarity about getting him a new wardrobe, but clearly that wasn't necessary.  He wouldn't have any use for this set a clothes after today, and it wasn't like it mattered whether he offended the Princesses or not.

"Yeah, I'm up!  I'll be down in a minute!" he called back.

Do or die time.  Today was going to bring about big changes.

He proceeded down the staircase; there was no smell of breakfast this time, even if what they ate he didn't consider breakfast.  At least, not anymore.

He noticed Spike running around the library with a stack of books in his claws.  The little dragon didn't even have time to notice and then look suspiciously at him.

When his right foot stepped down the last step, he noticed a standard sized scroll underneath it that he had stepped on.  Raising an eyebrow, he lifted the sheet up to his face.

They were notes of some kind, scribbled down slightly illegibly.  Poring over them a little bit closer, he noticed that it seemed to be a description of human behavior that Twilight had observed so far.  The notes were apparently taken down by the unicorn herself; she mentioned the little episode with the garbage yesterday as a facet of human diet.

Too bad it was all false.  Honestly, Twilight really hadn't gotten much right, though that was probably because he wasn't exactly indicative of normal human behavior.

It creeped him out how she took these notes however, and he got a strange feeling that he was being regarded as some kind of science experiment.

He folded up the scroll and stuck it in his back pocket for later.  He really should've acted more like a normal human.  No use in Twilight having this around, not with...

"Good morning, Zach!" Twilight said hastily.  She was rushing throughout the library, taking scrolls and sheets of paper off shelves.  There were a couple saddlebags strapped to her sides, and she was putting plenty of scrolls into them.

"Probably more notes she's taken about me..." he thought to himself, and he wondered where exactly she would have the time to do that.  Was she watching whatever he did, and writing about it later when he wasn't noticing?

The clock on the wall read 7:30, but Zachary was all ready for the trip.  Twilight looked downright in a hurry, on the other hand.

"I'm glad you're finally up.  We gotta hurry!" Twilight called to him.

"What's the big rush anyway?"

The lavender mare paused in stuffing another scroll into her saddle bag, and stared at Zachary like he was crazy.

"What's the big rush?!  Do you understand what's going on today?!  There's a very important announcement that Princess Celestia is going to make to us, and it's a matter of Equestrian security!  I need to be prepared for every single possibility of what has gone wrong.  And then there's you!  I'm presenting a brand new species to royalty today, and I need to show that I'm serious about my discovery!"

She looked him over, and narrowed her eyes at him.

"And you!  You're far too casual about this whole thing!  I mean, just look at you!  You're wearing the same clothes three days in a row!  Don't they stink?!  You're going to be meeting royalty, for Celestia's sake!  You should at least be presentable!"

"Well, I don't really have any options, y'know.  This is my own set of clothes for the time being, and I can't exactly walk around without any like you ponies..."

Twilight grimaced.

"Alright, fine.  But, at least be on your behavior when you're meeting the Princesses.  You need to make a good impression, especially during this important time!"

Her horn glowed for a second, and her saddlebags zipped close through the use of her magic.  She looked over, and noticed Zachary was giving her an odd look as she used her magic.  Come to think of it, he had done that before.

"We need to meet the rest of my friends in the town square in approximately ten minutes.  A chariot will arrive at eight o'clock sharp, and we should arrive in Canterlot by noon."

She opened the door through levitation.

"Are you ready?"

Zachary looked at her, a condescending look on his face.

"Does Kobe play for the Lakers?"

Twilight shot him an odd look.

"Huh?  What are you-?  I don't..." she said, fumbling over herself as she tried to work out the meaning of what Zachary just said.

"Nothing.  You'd have to be a human to get it... Anyway, let's just go..."

Twilight frowned as he excused himself out the door, before she turned the baby dragon, who had finished moving books and was now reclining in a chair in the kitchen.

"Goodbye, Spike!  We should be back by no later than tomorrow, but if circumstances force us to be there longer I'll send you a note!  Be sure to let Owloysius in for the night, and keep the library neat.  Oh, and don't stay up too late!" she called out to the dragon, who waved a nonchalant claw at her.

"Yeah, yeah.  I got it, Twi.  Just get going already.  I can cover this..." he said casually.

Twilight shot him a stern glance from the doorway, but he didn't notice.  She wanted to reprimand him so badly, but she was running late, and she didn't have any other choice.

"Alright, Spike.  I'm trusting you..." she warned, before she trotted out the door and closed it behind her, leaving the baby dragon alone in the library.

She cantered along the streets of Ponyville away from the library, catching up with the human.  He seemed a little out there today.  A little moody.

Zachary didn't say a word the entire way to the town square, and Twilight wished he had.  The awkward silence that had fallen over the two of them was unbearable, but she couldn't think of anything to say.

Something seemed to be bothering him, but when she tried to ask, he just reassured her that everything was fine.  Despite that, he continued to be far more reserved than when he was at the party.

"Twilight!"

Once the human and unicorn entered the town square, Twilight noticed that most of her friends were already there.  Pinkie, Applejack, Rarity, and Fluttershy were all present, waving a hoof at her.  Rainbow Dash was the only one who had not arrived yet.

"Hello, everybody!  Where's Rainbow Dash?" she greeted, mingling in with the group of ponies.  Zachary fell into place behind her.

"You know Rainbow Dash, darling.  She is likely still sleeping the day away at home.  She'll be late, regardless of whether or not it's for an important meeting such as this..." Rarity huffed.

It was 7:50, which meant that the royal guards would be arriving with chariots no more than ten minutes later.  They might even arrive a little early.

Twilight struck up conversation with her friends for the time being.  Zachary himself seemed to try and act as normal as possible, but the girls would often ask him questions and he would only answer in subdued, one-word answers.

Ten minutes later, the five ponies pointed in awe at the sky, where there was a trio of golden chariots descending upon Ponyville, each them being pulled by two of Celestia's royal guard.

There was a big gust of wind as they landed in the town square, breaking out into a gallop as they folded in their wings and tried to stop as soon as possible.

They snorted proudly, thrusting their golden-clad chests out as the chariots laid before the bearers of the Elements of Harmony, and one human.

The stoic pegasus guards saluted the Princess' personal student, and Twilight chuckled at their display.  Waving a hoof at her friends, she opened the doors of the first chariot.

"Wait for me!"

A rainbow blue surged through the marketplace, coming to a halt at its edge.  Twilight frowned at the presence of Rainbow Dash, who was slightly sweaty and breathing heavily.

"I'm.... I'm here!"

"You're lucky, Rainbow!  The chariots just got here, and you didn't get left behind!" Twilight lectured.  Rainbow rolled her eyes.

"What can I say, I overslept.  But I'm here now, so what does it matter?" she cried, trying to defend herself.  She stole one glance at Zachary, before she leaned against the second chariot.

"I'm not riding in the same chariot as him..."

"Rainbow!"

"Just forget it.  Someone else ride with him, because I'm not doing it!" she demanded, and Twilight knew that reasoning with her would be pointless.

"Well, okay.  The Princess sent us three chariots, and with seven of us, that means that one extra pony will have to sit in one of the chariots.  How about... Pinkie and Applejack, you go with Rainbow Dash.  Fluttershy, would you mind pairing with Rarity?  And..." she trailed off, looking around at her friends.  None of them seemed to object so far.  She looked at Zachary.

"I'll go with Zach.  Does that sound good?"

"Mmm-hmm!" Pinkie hummed cheerfully, while the rest of the ponies nodded.  Twilight smiled at them, climbing into the first chariot, while her friends went off to their own seats in the others.

Zachary was staring suspiciously at the chariot.

"Come on!  It'll be fine!"

"We're actually going to be flying in this thing?" he asked.  Nonetheless, he crawled into the chariot apprehensively and took a seat next to Twilight.

The two chariots next to theirs took off, and Zachary gaped in amazement as theirs followed suit, taking to the skies with an amount of grace that he had never seen before.

Taking to the sky like this was something that Zachary had never experienced before.  The way the chariot moved effortlessly through the skies thanks to the incredible strength and skill of the two pegasi that drove it.

He grunted as the chariot lurched suddenly and he grasped the railing on the side to brace himself.  Twilight just hummed a cheery tune, seemingly unperturbed by the unstable chariot.

The other chariots had pulled away from theirs, and Zachary could see them in the distance.  However, what he was really paying attention to was the city of Canterlot, which was becoming much clearer to him.

"Wait, wait, wait.  Is that Canterlot?!" he asked incredulously.  The skyline of the city looked so perfect that it seemed like it went on a postcard in the middle of a fairytale.

Most of the buildings were spectacular in their own right, but what really stood out was the castle in the middle of it all.  It was unlike anything he had ever seen before.  It was a whole mess of colors bathed in an alabaster white, with multiple towers adorning the standard of Equestria.

Twilight giggled.

"I imagine you don't have anything like it where you come from, right?"

"We have cities... but they're a lot different than this.  I don't think I've ever seen architecture like this before.  Honestly, this city looks straight out of a fairytail to me..." he whispered.

"Hmm..." Twilight said wistfully.  She was happy; Zachary's previous bad mood seemed to be withering away as the day became older, which was probably for the best if he was to meet the Princesses.

"What if she doesn't know how to send me back?" he asked.  Again, he continued to pretend that he needed to go back to his world, but Twilight didn't pick up on it.

She frowned at him.

"Well.... she may not.  But I'm sure she'll do everything in her power to make sure you're sent home safely!  You can trust Princess Celestia; she's very reassuring!" Twilight said.

Zachary smiled lightly at her, before he noticed something surrounding the city.

"Now, uh... what is that?" he asked.  Twilight looked at him oddly, though as they came closer it was apparent that he was talking about the magenta bubble that was encompassing the city.

"That must be the barrier that Shadow Star was talking about.  No wonder they can't get in; it looks complicated."

"Oh!  I didn't tell you!  There has been some increased security over the city of Canterlot as of late.  You see, Equestria's capital was not too long ago invaded by a race known as the Changelings.  They're creatures that feed off of love and can impersonate the ponies you love.  So Princess Celestia and I developed a spell to shield Canterlot in my brother's stead.  That way, we can prevent something like the Changeling invasion from happening again!  The barrier is impenetrable, and any Changeling that touches it will be instantly repelled!  Fortunately, since we have a royal escort, the barrier will let us in no problem!" Twilight explained.

Zachary fidgeted in his seat, though Twilight didn't notice.  The purple unicorn continued to hum that cheerful little tune, completely unaware of what was at stake.

At approximately eleven, they arrived.  Zachary shuddered as he, Twilight, and the chariot phased through the barrier like it was nothing.  The chariot continued to fly above the skyline of Canterlot, and when Zachary looked down, he saw a multitude of high-class ponies milling about the picturesque city.

The chariot took a sudden turn down, and the two pegasi guards landed the golden vehicle in the center of the castle courtyard.  The other two chariots had already arrived.

Zachary looked up at the castle that he was to enter.  He took a blunt out of his pocket, and lit it.

Ghastly Gorge was likely the least populated area of Equestria.  By that, it meant that no ponies lived within in at all, and nopony definitely came around there with the exception of the occasional daredevil pegasus.

That meant it was the perfect place to make a hideout.

If anypony had bothered to look, they would find a cave directly on the southeast side of the gorge.  It was the biggest cave within all of Equestria, but what's more, it housed a labyrinthine underground complex that stretched on for several miles.

Within the cave, Shadow Star paced within a particularly wide area of the underground complex, looking at the forces that he had to work with.

The black earthpony had met with Zachary the previous night, and had learned that he had a direct invitation to Canterlot Castle.  The barrier would be down today, which meant they were to leave immediately.  It had come as a surprise to Shadow Star; he didn't think that they were to leave this early.  Zachary was in instrumental piece, and if he couldn't get into the castle, then they couldn't proceed.

As such, he had twenty ponies and three-hundred humans to work with.

The fighting force of three-hundred humans was to be teleported to the capital city of Canterlot.  That was what the twenty ponies were for.  A force of that many humans was likely to draw attention on the way to Canterlot, but if they were teleported in, it would be a sneak attack.

Normally, teleporting such a large group over a distance like that was impossible.  But with the power of the twenty unicorns that were gathered, it could be done.  The organization had developed a special spell like that, and it could even nullify the human's.... weakness.... to magic.

The crown didn't have any idea they were coming.  They barely even knew they existed.

There wasn't much to work with though.  Twenty ponies and three-hundred humans were likely not enough to take the city of Canterlot, especially fresh off an invasion.  He knew this, but their leader didn't seem to grasp it.

He wasn't the one who would be leading them, however.

Shadow Star looked over at the twenty ponies.  Like him, they were dressed in blood-red robes with a symbol of a magic circle with thorns sticking out of it.  Their faces were concealed by their hoods, and one couldn't tell their gender, fur color, or cutie mark from their uniform.

These were his spies.

He didn't lead "armies" into battle.  Well, nopony had within their organization before, but that wasn't the point.  Shadow Star was the lead spy within the Arcane Ascension.  It was his job to scout and research potential.... targets, as well as brief anybody under his jurisdiction.  Nothing more.  These twenty ponies were a part of his special squad.  They would not be doing any fighting.

The three hundred humans behind them though; that was a different story.  They were the main bulk of the fighting force for this time.

Yet he was not impressed.

The humans were not dressed like the ponies; there were no blood-red robes.  They were mostly dressed in old, worn-out clothes.

For this group to actually succeed in taking down Canterlot Castle would be an absolute miracle.  They were not equipped well.  Most of them were armed with cheap knives or other sharp objects such as axes that the organization could get a hold of.  A few of them were armed with what the humans called "guns", but that didn't make anything better.  The Arcane Ascension had an astounding lack of weaponry at this stage in their lifetime, and it was very difficult for them to get their hooves on guns since they rarely had access to the human's world.  When they did happen to get some, they were usually quite old and out-dated by the human's standards, or there wasn't enough ammo anyway.

This group was ill-equipped, ill-trained, and outnumbered.  Against the Canterlot Royal Guard, it would take a miracle.

Shadow Star had talked with the leader about this, yet he learned that she didn't care.  The more he thought about it, the more he realized that this was likely a ploy for attention.  To make themselves known, and that they weren't ready to hide anymore.

She wanted to show Celestia something.  Why, Shadow Star didn't know, but he knew their leader wasn't all there in the head.

Yet, as long as their mole was still in place, they would be fine.  They would no longer have the need to hide anymore.

"Lambda!  Hurry up!"  Shadow Star called out, into the darkness of the cave.

Footsteps echoed against the ground, and out of the darkness a human came into view.

She was a young woman around Zachary's age.  Unlike the rest of the humans there, she was dressed in the standard robe of their organzation., to show her status as being somewhat above that of the other humans within their militia.

She was tall, closing in on six feet, which gave her the ability to tower over almost any pony.  Her blonde hair hung out of her hood, but other than that her face was concealed underneath.

"Yes, Shadow Star..." she said humorlessly.

"It is time..." the earthpony said.

"Your Majesties, they have arrived..."  a royal guard said.  He bowed before Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, as the grand double doors to the throne room opened before her.  The two Princesses looked at each other cautiously.

"Princess Celestia!"

The Princesses heard the galloping of six sets of hooves as they rushed into the throne room, but their eyes were really locked on the strange, bipedal creature that entered the room at a much slower pace.

"Sister, that is-"

"Hush, Luna..."

"Twilight Sparkle, my most faithful student!  How good it is to see you!  And your friends as well!" Celestia began cordially, while Luna did nothing to mask her discontent.

"We got here as fast as we could, Princess Celestia!" Twilight said proudly, unzipping her saddlebags with her magic, but Princess Celestia held up a hoof.

"I understand.  Thank you, thank you all.  But you will not be needing anything you have packed in those saddlebags, Twilight Sparkle," she said lightly.

Twilight pursed her lips as she zipped up the bag once again.  Behind her, Zachary had finished walking up and put a hand on her withers, looking up at the Princesses with an unreadable expression.

And then, he bowed at them.

Celestia smiled.

"Thank you for your show of respect, but there is no need to bow like that.  We are here to talk as equals.  Forgive me for being rude, but I trust that you are the being that Twilight spoke of in her letter?" she asked.

"I am.  And I'm sure you are Princess Celestia.  Twilight seems to talk a lot about you..." he commented.  Twilight spluttered something out, and a blush creeped onto her face.

Princess Celestia laughed, a quiet, classy tinkle.

"Yes.  You are correct.  I am Princess Celestia of Equestia, and beside me is my dear sister Luna.  On our behalf, we would like to welcome you to Equestria, and hope your stay is a wonderful experience."

"If it is not too much trouble, I would like to return to my home as soon as possible..." Zachary said, looking Celestia directly in the eye.  The Princess' eyes went downcast a little, but they twinkled with light after a few seconds.

"Indeed.  Twilight Sparkle mentioned that you believe you are from another world.  As the regent of Equestria, I have ties and alliances all across the world of Equus, yet in all my time I have never heard of an intelligent race such as your own.  The idea of you coming from another world may not be as far-fetched as one would think.  Yet..." she trailed off.

"We do not understand the method of how you came to be here.  However, I will do all in my power to help you return safety to wherever you came from," Celestia pledged.  Twilight shot Zach a knowing smile.

"Wait, so he is from another world!?  How am I gonna throw parties for all the humans in his world!" Pinkie cried indignantly, while Twilight grumbled in annoyance at her antics.

"Land sakes, that's unbelievable!" Applejack cried.

The ponies began to chatter amongst themselves, but when Princess Celestia held up a hoof, they all fell silent.

"Unfortunately, we must transition this conversation to a much more serious subject.  This is also the reason why I have called you here, as well as our guest..."

"I would like you all to listen carefully to what we have to say, without interrupting us.  Luna, would you care to give them the full details?"

Luna cleared her throat, and spoke for the first time.

"Perhaps you have already heard of this, perhaps not.  But the reason we have called the bearers of the Elements of Harmony here is because of a series of strange events that have occurred over the past month.  Ponies have been disappearing, vanishing without a trace," she began ominously.

The Element Bearers gasped in surprise, and Fluttershy put a hoof over her mouth in horror.

"O-Oh my... t-that's awful..."

Zachary looked at the Princess calmly.

"They know... those humans have not been stealthy enough..."

"Princess, that's horrible.  But, what does it have to do with us?"

"Everything, Twilight Sparkle," Luna continued.  "These are not indiscriminate disappearances.  Five of them have occurred this month, and the victims all have one thing in common.  All of them have been unicorns, and all of them have been magically talented unicorns at that..." she finished.

The girls and Zachary murmured amongst themselves, while Twilight struggled to think clearly.  Magically talented unicorns were disappearing?  What could that mean?  It was then she noticed that all of her friends were staring at her with concern.

"To top it all off, there have been rumors floating around of a strange creature that has appeared during the case of every single disappearance.  We believe it was involved with the disappearances, but we did not have any proof of its existence.  That is... until we caught it on camera..."

Twilight's mouth went dry, and the murmuring amongst the Elements got louder.

"They were spotted..." Zachary thought.

"What could a ruffian like that have to gain by abducting magically talented unicorns?" Rarity asked.  The others murmured in agreement.

"We do not know, but we do know what the creature looks like, and that is the most important reason of why we have gathered you here..."

"It is tall, much taller than normal ponies..."

The girl's eyes widened.

"It stands on two legs..."

"It lacks a tail..."

"And it was dressed in blood-red robe.  Unfortunately, we could not make out its physical features beyond that..." Luna finished.

The Element Bearers stood there in stunned silence as they tried to process the information they had been given.  Their eyes flicked back and forth between Zachary and the Princesses, shock and disbelief in their eyes as they matched the descriptions.

Twilight herself seemed to have worked two-and-two together, and she discovered why she had been called to Canterlot.

Her legs were shaking as a look of fear entered her face, but when she looked over at Zachary, he looked just as confused and dumbfounded as she did.

"P-Princess... are you really insinuating what I think you are?!" she asked in a light whisper, but it had the same effect as if she had screamed.

"Yes, Twilight Sparkle!  We believe that-"

"Silence, Luna!" Celestia barked, before her voice took on a much more gentle and motherly tone.

"Twilight, we understand that this is a very hard thing to deal with, but we believe that you are next in line.  You are the most magically gifted unicorn that I know of, and we are just worried about your safety.  We called you up to Canterlot to tell you that I will not let any harm befall you, and also... to take some precautions..."

"B-But... Princess.  Are you really accusing Zach of being the one that abducted all those ponies?" she asked her teacher incredulously.  Zachary's eyes wavered.

"Twilight, we have no intention of doing anything harmful to your new friend, and we do not believe that he is responsible for anything.  Yet, we just want to make sure you are safe.  After seeing him with our own eyes, we believe he has no ill intent, but we just wanted to see him for ourselves.  He is welcome in the castle..."

"She's lying..." Zachary thought to himself.

"Zach..." Twilight began.

"Twilight, I honestly have no idea what she's talking about.  Kidnapping ponies?  Tall creatures that walk on two legs?  That does sound like humans, but I would never do something like that!  I just want to go home!"

"It's alright, Zach!  I believe you... Besides, you've been living with me for the past few days, and at any moment you could've had the perfect opportunity, but you didn't.  I trust you..."

"Yeah, there's no way he could've done something as mean as that!  I mean, he enjoyed my very special Pinkie Pie parties and became friends with us!  He's our friend!"

"U-Um, I don't believe he is the o-one who did such a-awful things!"

"Of course not.  There's no way such a gentlecolt would be in with such riffraff..."

"Well, shoot!  I kin spot a liar a country mile away, and it don't look ta me that Zachie boy here is lyin' one bit..."

Twilight smiled at her friends, especially with Applejack's proclamation.  The Element of Honesty would be sure to pick out a liar.

Rainbow Dash was the only one who hadn't said anything, but when her friends looked at her with pleading stares, she caved in.

"Ugh, fine.  If you girls trust him so much, I will too.  He's our friend, I guess..." she said unhappily.  The other five Element Bearers beamed at her.

Zachary looked pretty moved, and he smiled at them.

"Thanks, you guys..." he said emotionally.  Fluttershy trotted up and nuzzled his side gently, causing the human to smile at the adorable display.

The Princesses looked at each other, and the display of friendship.  If it came at any other time, Celestia would've been proud of her student.

The friends all embraced, and Celestia cleared her throat.

"Yes.  I understand the important of trust among friendship, but I'm still worried about all of you, especially Twilight Sparkle.  You never know when the true culprit could show up for you, and that is why I'd like all to stay in the castle underneath my protection for the time being.  Here..." she levitated a small box and unlatched it, showing five golden necklaces and one golden crown.

"I have brought the Elements of Harmony and would like you all to wear them during your stay during the castle.  Underneath our protection and the protection of the Elements of Harmony, no harm should come to you..." she said, levitating them as they attached the necks of their bearers.

"Well played, Celestia...  The Elements of Harmony do normally keep them safe.  Too bad it isn't enough..."

"I would also like to request one more thing of you... all of you.  Twilight Sparkle, your intelligence would be of great help of us during the investigation of the disappearing ponies.  I humbly request that the six of you help Luna and myself determine the whereabouts of the missing ponies.  As well as you, Zach the Human.  I feel as if you too can be of great help to our investigation!" Celestia said.

The chatting between the ponies increased once again, before Twilight looked at her mentor with an expression of pride and sincerity.

"You can count on us, Princess!  We will not let you down!" she exclaimed, while the other bearers nodded their praise in agreement.

Along with that, Zachary smiled with his new friends.

"Oh my!  I simply do love the Canterlot Dining Hall.  It is the most wonderful place to enjoy a meal!" Rarity gushed, dramatically covering her forehead with a hoof.

The other ponies and Zach laughed at her melodrama.

"Well, that was quite a dinner.  Princess Celestia always has the chefs prepare the best meals when I'm around," Twilight remarked.

It had been quite a day for the group.  They had spent the day getting informed about the curious case of the disappearances, and the more they heard, the more they were convinced it was not Zach.

The human had been entirely helpful during the entire time.  The Princesses even showed him the picture and he had confirmed that it was not a human.

After that, they had a lovely dinner with the Princesses in the Main Dining Hall, where Princess Celestia seemed to warm up to Zachary a little more.

It was now eight o'clock in the evening, and Princess Luna had just left to raise the moon.  They had got a good chuckle out of Zachary when they told him that the Princesses actually raised the sun and the moon, and the look on his face when he actually saw it happen.

Speaking of Zach, he was chatting animatedly with the ponies as they meandered down the corridors to their rooms.

"About time to begin.  Just a little more time..." he thought to himself, and he was beginning to wonder why he was doing this.  I mean, these ponies seemed to genuinely like him, and considered him their friend, so... why?

"Oh yeah!  It's because I'm pretty much bound to the organization and I have no choice!  That's why!" he reminded himself in his thoughts.

"Well, we're all here!" Applejack called out.  The castle was so lavish that all seven of them had their own assigned rooms.  Big rooms, to be exact.

"Come on, silly fillies!  We can waste the night away telling spooooooky ghost stories!" Pinkie chanted, opening the door to her dark room.

The other ponies chuckled, while Fluttershy cowered underneath her own mane.

Zachary laughed, before his eyes panned over to the side.  A Lunar guard just walked right past him, eying him suspiciously as he passed.  He spotted another peeking out of a room at the end of the hall, spying on him.  The girls did not notice.

"Ha ha!  That sounds great, Pinkie!  But I think I'm going to turn in for the night.  We have another long day of investigation ahead of us tomorrow!" Zachary called out.

Pinkie Pie whined.

"Awwwwwww!"

"He's right, Pinkie.  As much fun as we had at dinner, we should really turn in for the night, even though it is pretty early.  I'm sure the Princess wants us up early tomorrow..." Twilight said.

Before they could say anything else, Zachary had opened his door and was already walking inside.

"Well, good night girls!" he called out, to which the ponies waved back at him.  He silently shut the door behind him.

A half-hour later, and the lights were off in the room, with Zachary lying in bed.  He had had to maintain the charade for one more day, behaving like a normal human would upon arrival to Equestria.

The timing was all off right now, but the forces shouldn't be arriving for a couple more hours.  He just needed a chance to move.

He lied in bed, pretending to be asleep.  He knew there were guards watching him right now.  Hopefully, they made the first move.

After ten minutes of agonized waiting, Zachary heard a bristle of movement.  He pretended to be asleep, and gasped in alarm as a hoof covered his mouth so he couldn't cry out, while two more sets of strong hooves wrestled him down and grabbed him.

Wide awake, he looked down as he was being hoisted in the air.  Three of Luna's guards had entered his room silently, and were apparently forcing him off to a place where he could be held.

He continued to struggle in their grasp, as the guards hoisted him out of the room and down the hallway.  After around five minutes of walking, they were in the backside of the courtyard, walking down a set of stairs that led to a much darker, gloomier area.

The rustling of metal reached his ears, as the guards roughly carried him down the stairs.  He had stopped trying to cry out or struggle, and simply allow the guards to take him.

When they came to a halt, he realized that they were in one of the castle's dungeons.  But it was totally empty; not a soul resided in the dozen or so cells. One of the Lunar guards let go of him, opening the first cell on the left.  The remaining two guards glared at the human, before tossing him him in none too gently.

One of the guards forcefully grabbed both of his arms and legs, fitting the shackles on the shackles on the wall against him and locking them tight.  Zachary was now bound in place.

"What are you doing?!" Zachary demanded, as the guard locked the cage and stared at him severely.

"Silence!  You are to speak only when spoken to!  By order of Princess Luna, you are to be detained here until further notice, and the interrogation is complete.  If it is found that you are not dangerous, you will be released immediately!" the guard who had locked him in said.

"You two may return to your stations!  He will not be going anywhere!  I will see to it that Princess Luna is forewarned that the creature is in custody..." the first guard said, before the other two saluted and flew out of the stairway.

The first guard glared roughly at the human, before he too took flight and exited the dungeon, leaving Zachary alone in the dark dungeon...

"Thou speakest the truth?!  Thou hast taken him into custody?!" the Night Princess demanded, as her guard escorted her down into the dungeon.

"Yes, your highness!  He will not be able to cause trouble in his current state, and you may interrogate him at will!" the guard reported.

"Very well then.  Let us hurry!" she ordered, as they raced down the steps.  Celestia would probably kill her for this, but it had to be done.  The human could not be trusted.

However, when Luna breached into the dungeon to confront the human, what she saw shocked her.

Her accompanying guard had told her that they had imprisoned the human in the first cell on the left, but there was no human in the cell.

"What is the meaning of this?!" she demanded, as her guard fell into line.  When he saw the empty cell, he broke code for the first time ever.

"H-He was right here.... I-I swear, your Highness!" he stammered, wondering just what happened.  They had definitely imprisoned him, but the human wasn't here.  And there was no sign of activity either.  The door had been tightly locked just as they had left it, and the shackles hadn't been unlocked either.  They just hung on the wall, silently captivating an invisible being.

Luna steamed.

"Well... go... FIND.... HIM!" she roared at her guard, whose ears flopped against his helmet.  Luna thrust a hoof out, and leaned her head against the bars of the cage.  This made no sense.

When she was just about to move onto the next step, something even stranger happened.  The Princess heard the thick crackle of magical energy, and nagging thought pervaded her being.

Leaving her guard behind, she zoomed up the stairs as fast as she could, the crackling noise getting louder as she reached the courtyard.

Her mouth dropped as she realized what was happening.  The pinkish barrier bubble protecting Canterlot was fluctuating wildly.  And she didn't know how.

The Princess watched as it continued to fluctuate, before it finally fizzled out completely...

Insect

Chapter 7: Insect

"Hi, Twilight!"

"Gyahhhhh!"

Twilight flopped out of bed as she heard the loud voice speak directly in her ear.  She groaned in annoyance, drawing herself to her hooves, where she met face-to-face with a pink muzzle and bright blue eyes.

It didn't take long to figure out who it was, but something Twilight didn't figure out and would never figure out was how Pinkie was hanging from the ceiling, as she was right now.

Regardless of her own logical misgivings with the situation, Twilight looked affronted.

"Pinkie!  What are you doing here right now?  Don't you think you should be in your own room?  We need to rest up for a busy day tomorrow!" Twilight fumed.  The fall had messed up her mane somewhat, and as she straightened it back into place with her hooves, Pinkie looked sheepish.

"Well... it's not like I could get to sleep with all the stuff going on around here!" she beamed at her friend.  "Besides, I'm not the only pony who's up past her bedtime!" she laughed.

Twilight mulled over what she meant for a second, trying to figure out what that meant.  When she was struck by realization, her horn lit up frantically, and the magic lamp on the nightstand flicked on.

"Gyahhhh!  What are you all doing in here?!" she cried indignantly.  In the middle of the room, three of her friends stood.  In the small bathroom overhead, Fluttershy poked her head out through the doorway.

All six of the Elements of Harmony were there.

"Well, golly Twilight.  Reckon that none of us could sleep with all this stuff we're involved wit'.  Don't know about y'all, but I'm mighty nervous 'bout what tomorrow's gonna bring!" Applejack piped up.

Pinkie nodded her head enthusiastically, while the magenta barrier gleamed in the moonlight outside.  Twilight still looked grumpy.

Rainbow Dash smiled deviously, slinking up to her friends while wrapping a hoof around Fluttershy's shoulder sinisterly.  The yellow pegasus flinched.

"So, all these disappearances are really becoming a problem around Equestria.  Who do you girls think was the one that took them?  That spoooooky Hooded Gorilla?" Dash started dramatically.  Fluttershy whimpered while the others placed their hooves on their chins in thought.

"Well, I..." Dash began, before Twilight groaned.

"Dash!  How many times do we have to tell you this?!  It wasn't Zach!" Twilight shouted at her friend.  Dash's ears flattened against her head.

"I know!  I wasn't even going to say him!  After today, and the way he's done everything he can to help, there's no way its him.  I was just gonna say that it was a creature from the Everfree Forest!" she said angrily.

Twilight blushed, embarrassed over her outburst.

"R-Right... Of course.  I-I'm sorry Rainbow; I just got a little bit carried away!" she stuttered.  Her other friends looked at her with odd expressions.  Rainbow Dash's anger paved the way to concern.

"Are you alright, Twi?" she asked.

Twilight grimaced.

"Ya'll are still hung up over what the Princess told you, aren't ya?" Applejack pointed out, to which Twilight's eyes went downcast.

Applejack sighed.

"Listen, sugarcube.  The Princess is just worryin' 'bout your safety, that's all.  We don't even know whether this no good varmint is actually after ya or not, but I can reassure ya about Zach.  What that colt said was the honest truth.  He'd never do anythin' to hurt ya.  And in the castle, you'll be safe.  So jus' try an' relax, ya got it?" Applejack said, placing a hoof on Twilight's shoulder.

"Y-You're right... of course!  But.... even with all that, this is so strange.  Magically talented unicorns disappearing left and right, and knowing that I could very well be the next target...." she trailed off.

She pulled the blanket across her body with her magic, seemingly for protection against an unknown force.

"I-I'm scared..." Twilight said quietly, her face and eyes still downcast, as she shook slightly in her bed.  Her five friends looked at her in sympathy.

Twilight whimpered slightly in her fear and paranoia, but she yelped as two hooves grabbed her, forcing her to look up at the one who had grabbed her.

"Don't you worry Twilight!  We'll stay the whole night with you if we have to!  No mean ole monster's gonna take you on our watch!" Pinkie yelled at her friend.  Her tone was unusually serious.

Twilight's eyes welled with tears, and she smiled softly at Pinkie.

"T-Thank you!  You girls are the best friends a pony could ask for..." she said.  Rarity smiled at her.

"Of course we'd do such a thing for you, darling.  But don't you fret; you'll be fine!  Besides, we are equipped with the Elements of Harmony.  With those, I'm sure we will be able to handle anything that may come our way..."

Twilight beamed at her, using her magic to grab her Element of Harmony from the nightstand.  She placed it on top of her head.

"I should really wear this even as I sleep... Can't be too careful," she said.  The six ponies exchanged a quick group hug; they were happy that Twilight was no longer frightened.

Though Twilight claimed she was going to sleep, it looked like anypony couldn't bring themselves to sleep with all six of them in the room.

With the issue settled, the six mares delved into more happy things.  They spend the night telling stories and generally getting laughs from each other.

"....And this one time, at Flying Camp.... I told Gilda that Thunderlane was always staring at her with a wingboner..." she paused in uncontrollable laughter.

"I don't think his mane's ever grown back the same way again!" she guffawed, drawing a few giggles from the others and raucous hooting from Pinkie Pie.

"Hahahahaha...." Twilight wheezed in laughter.  "Well, that sure would be a way to..."

She paused in mid-sentence as a strange feeling overcame her, and the laughter completely left her face.  Her expression was set in a stony frown, and she bit her lip as a strange worry overcame her.

"Twilight, is there something wrong?"

"I feel..... I feel weird.  It's difficult for me to describe.  It's like there's some kind of strange spell being worked right now, and it's pervading my senses.  I don't know how to explain it..."

"Wait, do y'all hear that?"

All of the ponies heard the strange crackling noise, even those who were not magically attuned.

Twilight focused her horn, which lit up with a magenta glow, as the other ponies began looking around, hearing the high-pitched crackling noise.

"This... doesn't make any sense.  It's feels like someone is trying to cancel out a spell, and on a big level!  But they're going about it in such a strange way.  Usually you would apply a counter-spell to diffuse the spell's matrix, but that wouldn't make any noise, and it wouldn't disrupt any magical force nearby.  It's like they're trying to attack the spell head-on!" Twilight said.

"You don't think....?" Rainbow Dash cried.  A sinking feeling settled into Twilight's gut, but before she could dwell on it, the crackling noise became a low hum, before they was a huge rumble.

When she looked out the window, Twilight's heart almost stopped.

The magical barrier protecting Canterlot was fluctuating wildly, as the magical energies behind the spell began to diffuse and fall apart.

"No, no, no.  This is impossible... the barrier!  It's breaking, but that's impossible!  This barrier is completely impenetrable!  Has Princess Celestia decided to lower the barrier?" she asked herself, as the other ponies gathered around the window.  Confused and worried faces gave hold to hushed murmurs.

And then, the barrier disappeared, and Twilight became even more stunned.  Not so much by the fact it was broken, but more by the way that it was broken.

When the barrier was broken, it should've slowly fizzled out, or cracked and shattered.  At the very least, it should have given some indication that it was slowly being dissipated.

But... Twilight had never seen anything like this.  The barrier had begun to fizzle for a moment, but the next minute... it was gone.

Just gone.  It had disappeared faster than the blink of an eye, like it was never there in the first place.

The night was getting stranger and stranger.

Twilight Sparkle turned away from the window, a look of determination set on her face.

"Come on, girls!  We need to find Princess Celestia immediately!" she roused.

Too easy.

He couldn't believe it was this easy.

Could it be this easy?

A lone human sat on the very edge of the courtyard.  It was eleven thirty at night; they were going to arrive at twelve.  He sat there patiently, a forlorn look in his eyes.

Honestly, Zachary had only half-expected that Celestia or Luna would try to pull something like that, but even then, it had still been so easy.

They would think a cell would be enough to hold him.  Shadow Star was right; they simply did not understand what he was.

Even so, they were without a doubt looking for him now, but it was too late anyway.

He eyed the pinkish bubble of magic in front of him.  Luckily, the castle was in the very back of the city, and directly outside of the castle courtyard was the edge of the city, and by proxy the edge of the barrier.  Beyond it, there was nothing but steep mountain cliffs.

"Well, guess it's about time for me to drop this disguise..." Zachary sighed, rising to his feet and brushing himself off.  He would have no need to use his mimicry of his past self right now.

He hummed as he focused and meditated, clasping his hands together as he began to exert himself.

A crack appeared on his right cheek, where the skin on his face began to peel and chip off as if it were made of glass.  He brought a hand up to his face, peeling off the skin like it was a mobile cocoon.

And that was exactly what his human body was like: a cocoon.  The skin all over the rest of his body began to crack and peel away too, as a moderate amount of blood poured out of the holes that Zachary was deliberately making in his body.

As the human body melted away, a new figure emerged from the cocoon.  Peach-colored skin gave way to a matte-black shiny material.  His eyes changed to the black sclera that he had when he had eaten from Twilight's garbage can.

Zachary Cricket was becoming a human-sized, insect hybrid.... thing.

His torso gave way to a two segmented beetle's thorax, where a shiny black exoskeleton covered the softer features underneath, protecting them.

His legs did the same thing, changing as the same exoskeleton covered them.  His backside changed into a shiny shell of a beetle's abdomen, ending the exoskeleton.

His arms and legs turned into spindly appendages, thinning out considerably.  It almost seemed that walking on two of them alone would mean that he couldn't support his own weight, but he seemed to handle it well.  At the end of his limbs, fingers became sharp claws and pincers designed for slicing and cutting.  Two small stumps directly below his first set of claws suddenly branched outward, forming two more claws for a total of three pairs of limbs.

His face also became more of an insectine quality, but it seemed to retain fairly humanoid features.  His eyes were still nothing but black sclera, his nose disappeared, and the black exoskeleton covered most of his face and his hair.  Two long, skinny antenna sprouted from the back of his head and started feeling around.

He vaguely resembled a humanoid version of a changeling, but he wasn't one of them.  Not even close.  He did not have holes, he did not have wings, and he did not feed off of love or emotions.

He was something different entirely.

Zachary screeched, testing out his claws.  Changing like that always seemed to have a bad effect on him, but he was at least used to it by now.

What needed to be done was very clear.

This barrier was in the way, and he needed to take care of it.  His abyssal eyes studied the barrier closely; it was as well made as could be.  The Elements of Harmony and Princess Celestia's power combined to create a double fail-safe.  Even providing one matrix of the spell was "hacked", the other one could hold its own while fixing the problem on its own.

From the outside... that is.

On the outside, the spell was so complicated that even he couldn't do anything about it.  However, Shadow Star was correct.  Once he was inside the barrier, it was easy to take care of.  There were far less precautions taken on the inside.

He flexed his right set of claws, sticking them both out.  He shuddered slightly as he plunged them into the barrier, the shield having the consistency of gel to him.

That was pretty much all he needed to do.

A minute after he had plunged his hand inside, the barrier began to crackled and fizzle.  He waited one second, closed his eyes, and plunged his claws in deeper.  By that point, the barrier was gone.

"All done..." he said out-loud.  His voice was higher pitched and far more alien.  There was a mixture of clicks that mixed in with his words as he spoke.

"Time to move.  It won't be long before they arrive.  The castle will have no doubt taken notice to the missing barrier.  It's time for me to move on to the next part of the job..."

The far more important aspect of the job remained, and as long as Twilight Sparkle remained in the castle, she was a sitting duck.

But first, he had to meet at the front of the castle.

While the castle was busy registering the fact that their barrier had been broken, a large vortex of energy crackled into existence at the very front gates of the city.

It was like a storm descended itself upon the city of Canterlot.  The winds picked up on their own, without any pegasus ponies of control.  The citizens felt it all, and some of them paused on the streets or in their houses to stare at the strange phenomenon.

First the barrier had broke, and that had easily been enough to throw the citizens into a sense of dread and paranoia.  But then there was an enormous crack of magical energy in the air, followed by the effects that it had on weather patterns.

Near the gates of Canterlot, something was already beginning to go down.

A bloodcurdling moan of agony pierced the air as the vortex of energy popped and dissipated, and approximately three-hundred humans were deposited near the outskirts of Canterlot.

Yet not everything had gone according to plan for them.

A tall young human woman was the only one to get to her feet immediately after the mass teleportation.  She brought her hands up to her head, pulling her hood off.  Calculating green eyes met the city of Canterlot, which had not been ready for something such as this.

"Looks like Alpha took care of the job well enough.  He better not have been reckless though, or I'm gonna whip his ass..." she muttered, shaking her head.  Her blonde ponytail whipped from side to side.

"Now..." she turned around, and for the first time she noticed the condition of her "army".  The mass teleportation was apparently not as safe as Shadow Star had advertised.

While most of the humans behind her were standing, ready to go, several of them were writhing on the ground, apparently in a huge amount of agony.

"Lambda, we have a problem!" one of the people near her exclaimed.  Lambda glared at him.

"Yes, I can see that.  How many are dead or incapacitated?" she asked.

"Fifteen dead and ten down, ma'am!"

Lambda growled, rushing out into the mob of humans.  They gave her a wide berth.  She crouched by a woman who had been killed in the teleportation, surveying her close.

It was a grisly sight.  It was always a grisly sight.

Her face had swelled up completely, and her entire body was covered in nasty, black and blue sores.  Her skin also looked somewhat burned, and her eyes... her eyes gave it away.  The teleportation had caused to to melt out of their sockets like some sort of free-flowing goo that was oozing down her lifeless face.  This was one of the luckier ones.  At least she hadn't been deformed.

"Magical poisoning.  Of course..." she sneered.  She solemnly looked at the rest of them, while the group uncomfortably looked upon their fallen brethren.  Lambda closed her eyes; she hated having to this.

"All of you, proceed on!  We have lost twenty-five of our number, but we must press on!  Today, we will capture the city of Canterlot!  For the Arcane Ascension!" she cried to the remaining two-hundred seventy-five.  She felt sick to her stomach as she said that.

She knew a speech like that wouldn't raise their morale.  Not this group...

Sluggishly, the group of humans began to rally around their temporary leader, even as the ponies out at night in Canterlot began to take notice of them.

Lambda glared as she noticed the watch towers the stood adjacent to one another directly outside the city walls.  The royal guards were already aware of their presence.

One particular squad of royal guards stationed at the front of Canterlot seemed to be the most bold, and they confronted her and the rest of the humans on their way into the city.

"Halt!  What is the meaning of this?!" a guard asked, as a group of half a dozen guards formed a line blocking the entrance to Canterlot.  The one that had addressed the army of humans stepped up to Lambda, poking a hoof into her chest.

"Such an act can only be considered an act of war.  You... things have clearly come here with hostile intent.  By order of the Kingdom of Equestria and the Princesses of the Sun and Moon, you are under arrest!" he boldly said.

Lambda fixed him with a glare of hatred.

"Shut up, horse..." she hissed at him.  The royal guard looked like he had been slapped.

Before he could react further, Lambda's arm shot out and grabbed the crest of his golden helmet.  The guard gave a surprised cry, trying to tug his head away, but there was too much force for him to pull away from the profoundly strong human.

Lambda gripped tighter, then pushed down, slamming the royal guard's face into the cobblestones.

"There it is!  Those superhuman abilities!" a human from the crowd called out.  Lambda's attack had easily knocked out the guard pony, who made the mistake of approaching her completely unarmed.

The other guards took that as a declaration of war, and so four of them attacked.  They were heavily outnumbered though, and their only hope was to hold them off.  The last one had been ordered to return to the castle and alarm both the Princess and the Captain... that this was an act of war.

Lambda wouldn't allow any of it, though.  Less than a minute later, all of the guards had been knocked out by her magically enhanced abilities, including the guard that was fleeing to the castle.

"Pay them no mind!  Pay the city no mind!  The only thing that is important is the castle; we will march in there and demand the crown's surrender!" she shouted.  A lackluster response followed.

"Let's move!"

The mob of humans rushed through the gates of Canterlot as fast as they could while staying organized.  The civilian ponies of Canterlot, from peasant to snooty noble, looked on in fear at the ragtag group of humans who were marching on Canterlot, carrying a variety of weapons.  Luckily, the curtain of night limited the amount of ponies on the street anyway, so the group proceeded through a small amount of citizens who enjoyed the night.

They didn't seem all that animated though, which perplexed the ponies.  Nevertheless, they were smart enough to stay out of their way, for they had no idea what they were.

Lambda continued to lead the group as organized as she possibly could through the main streets of Canterlot.  The streets were wide enough for all of them to proceed in a single group, but once they hit the castle they would have to break off into smaller groups.

With the speed that the group moved, it took them around thirty minutes to reach the front gate of the castle.  Lambda held a hand out, when she saw a familiar face standing directly outside the gate.  A very familiar, insect-like humanoid.

Some of the other humans backpedaled away slowly.  Lambda growled; Alpha was always an intimidating presence in the organization, what with that appearance.

"Alpha, I see you've completed your duty!" she started.  Alpha's insect features took on a hint of disappointment and annoyance, but he answered the question anyway.

"Yes, Lambda.  I brought down the barrier, as you can clearly tell.  The crown clearly didn't expect this to happen, and neither did the Elements of Harmony, but they're alerted to it now.  I wouldn't be surprised if they know you're coming by now." Alpha explained.

"It doesn't matter..." Lambda muttered.  Alpha pulled her away from the rest of the crowd, and whispered lowly in her ear.

"You're right, it doesn't matter.  That force is gonna get themselves killed.  There's no way you'd be able to defeat Canterlot Castle with this..." he hissed.

"Well, what do you want me to do about it?  You and I both now that we have no choice in this matter, and I was selected to lead them.  It's not like Shadow Star would actually lower himself to leading humans..." she whispered back, out of earshot of the rest of them, who were sitting idly.

"I know.... I know!" he whispered loudly.  "And I know the Boss is crazy enough to try something like this, though I'm tempted to believe this is just a ploy to get attention..."

"That's not all, Zach..." she told him, using his human name.  "The teleportation wasn't perfect.  We had roughly one-tenth of our force succumb to magical poisoning."

Alpha leaned back, and spoke in a normal voice.

"You can't honestly tell me you're surprised.  Shadow Star's the type of stallion who would be sure not to take precautions to ensure their safety.  And with that whore running it behind the scenes..." he trailed off, and Lambda knew already what he meant.

"She's not the type who would ever care about their well-being.  She's already done so many horrible things to her own kind... this is exactly what she's known for," Alpha hissed.

Lambda could sense his distress, and she knew why.  Out of all of them, he was the one who loathed that woman most of all.  But she and Shadow Star were of immeasurable importance to the President of the Arcane Ascension, so there wasn't much either of them could do about her.

"Enough about that!  What about your main job?  What about Twilight Sparkle?" Lambda asked.  Alpha looked at her.

"It's going along smoothly.  They've no doubt suspected me by now, but you know I should be able to slink back in then undetected... with my abilities," he said.  It was only then that Lambda noticed a fat blunt was hanging between his lips.

"Oh... I see.  The organization really wants you to succeed in this job.  That's why they're loading you up with that stuff..." she noticed.

He pulled the blunt from his lips and blew a puff of smoke.

"Take your lead, Lambda.  We don't want to be here any longer than we have to.  For our own sanity..." he advised.  Lambda didn't blink as he slunk against the gate, and then wasn't there anymore...

"Princess Celestia!"

The six Elements of Harmony tore into the throne room, galloping madly with their respective elements hanging from their necks.

Both regents of Equestria were in Celestia's throne room.  They were apparently discussing something with each other, in a very heated exchange.  The absence of the barrier weighed on both of their minds.

"I was just about to call for you, but it seems that won't be necessary.  Thank you... thank you all for coming..." Celestia said seriously.

Twilight was the first to speak.

"Princess, what's happening?!  Why is the barrier gone?!"

Celestia and Luna looked at each other.  If Twilight was hoping that either of them had the answers, then she was going to be sorely mistaken.

"We do not know, Twilight Sparkle..." Luna piped up.  "But we believe we know who the culprit is..." Luna explained.  Celestia gave her sister a stern answer.

"I disapprove of your methods, Luna, but I am afraid you might be right.  Because of the circumstances, I'll turn a blind eye because you were likely correct, but next time I won't be so lenient!" she scolded her sister.

The Elements of Harmony looked at each other strangely.

"I don't understand."

"Girls, do you happen to wake up Mr. Zachary on your way here?" Celestia asked, beginning delicately.

"No... we thought about it, but we figured it would be best to find you as quickly as possible..."

"You would not find him in that room regardless.  He is not there..." Celestia explained.  Twilight's eyes widened, and she bit her lip nervously.

"W-What do you mean?"

"Earlier tonight, Luna did something a little.... reckless... and brought Zachary into custody to be interrogated.  Let it be known that neither of us trusted him in the slightest, and it looks like our intuition was correct..."

"What?!  What do you mean "interrogate"?!" Twilight said.  "Princess Luna, what do you did?!  How could you do something like that to him?" Twilight screamed at the Princess.  She looked livid, and a few tears were pricking at the corners of her eyes.

"What did he even do?!  Tell me!" she demanded.  Luna looked affronted, but when faced from a stern glare from her sister, she relented.

"Think about it, Twilight Sparkle.  His appearance in the castle when creatures like him are abducting magically talented unicorns is no coincidence.  Neither of us wanted to suspect your friend, but there was no way we could leave him be with you around.  I had my guards throw him in the Canterlot dungeon temporarily for interrogation.  If it was found that he had no connection to the disappearances, he would have been released... And yet..." she trailed off.

"That interrogation isn't the main problem anymore..." she finished.  Celestia nodded at her sister forlornly, but the Elements were wearing looks of anger and disappointment in the night princess.

"I am sorry... all of you.  I should not have acted so rashly.  I'm sure that we could have reached a solution through alternative means, but... I never got the chance to interrogate him..."

"The human has disappeared from his cell..." she finished.

The six Elements gasped in alarm.

"H-How?" Twilight asked.

"We do not know; it was the strangest thing.  The chains remained in place, like they had never been unlocked, and the cell door had not even been touched.  It was like he just disappeared into thin air..." Luna explained.

"Twilight Sparkle, you claimed that this human was capable of using magic, yes?" Celestia asked.

"W-Well, he claimed there was no such thing as magic where he came from, ridiculous as it sounds.  B-But, I've never seen him use an ability like unicorn or even earth-pony magic.  It just didn't seem to be there..."

"Careful, Twilight Sparkle.  I did not think to magically restrain him, because I assumed that he did not need to be magically restrained.  There may be some sort of magic underhoof here, but be warned.  Whether he is innocent or guilty, whether he is connected or not connected to the disappearances, we know one thing..." she trailed off.

"He is hiding something from you..." Luna finished.  Rainbow Dash exchanged a worried glance with Twilight, who seemed to be getting very upset.

"And that's not all.  The barrier situation may have something to do with him as well.  For directly after he escaped his cell, the barrier surrounding Canterlot disappeared in a manner that neither of us have ever seen.  Regardless, one of our top priorities should be to find Mr. Zachary right away," Celestia piped up.

At that point, a loud rumble was heard all throughout Canterlot, even stronger than the one that had occurred when the barrier had been dispelled.

"Ugh?  What is this?  A mass teleportation?" Twilight grunted.  She recognized the sound.  It was a mass teleportation of sorts, but it was a ludicrously strong one.

Celestia's eyes widened.

"And things continue to get worse.  A mass teleportation?  Almost immediately after the barrier goes down?  They were trying to catch us off guard!  You!" Celestia shouted to the guard at the base of the throne.

"Report to Captain Flare right away, and tell him to mobilize all active troops for battle immediately.  We may be facing a force of up to five-hundred..." Celestia ordered.  The guard saluted the royal and galloped away immediately.

Celestia grimaced.  Shining Armor was away running the Crystal Empire with his wife, and this invasion couldn't have come at a worse time.  She had to promote one of her other guards to be the new Captain of the Royal Guard, but Captain Flare was brand new to the job, and already he was tasked with leading a defense of the castle.

Meanwhile, Twilight forgot her anger towards Luna, and her voice wavered in slight panic and fear.

"P-Princess, what's going on?" she asked her mother figure.

"Invasion, Twilight Sparkle.  That mass teleportation you felt can only mean one thing.  The enemy has found a way to break the barrier, and they are invading.  It cannot mean anything else..." she explained.

"E-Enemy?  Is it changelings?" she asked.  The other Elements seemed to have that on their mind as well.  It seemed to make the most sense.

"I do not know, but my hunch is telling me something different.  Whatever the case, there is an invading force within Canterlot, but given the circumstances, I feel that this is connected to the disappearances..."

The mares sat in stony silence, even as the sounds of a panicking Canterlot grew louder.  MInutes passed, and still no course of action had been decided.

The doors slammed open.

"Your Majesties!" a guard shouted, as he penetrated the throne room.  He was accompanied by another guard, one who had been stationed outside the castle.  He looked a little worse for wear.

"Your Highness, I have come to inform you that Captain Flare has stationed guards all throughout Canterlot, but once we saw the enemy, he ordered the half of the guard to return and fortify the castle.  The rest are already out there engaging the enemy.  They are not interested in the city of Canterlot; they want to capture the castle..." the first guard reported.

Celestia placed a hoof to her chin in thought.

"I see.  What of the invasion force?"

"Uh... yes, your highness.  They are not ponies, griffons, or changelings.  They are... they are something like I've never seen.  They are completely foreign to me, but they number in around the three-hundred range.  They do not seem to be well-equipped, but a small percentage of them are carrying a dangerous sort of weapon that the Royal Guard cannot identify..."

"Three-hundred?  Seems very low..."

"I see.  Tell the guards out in the city of Canterlot to return to the castle immediately.  If they are not interested in the city, engaging them there would only bring danger to the population.  We will rout them at the castle and eliminate the threat in the courtyard..." Celestia ordered.  The guard saluted.

"P-Princess..." Twilight asked her mentor.  Celestia and Luna looked down at the six young mares who had been once again dragged into a conflict.  It was fortunate that they were already wearing the Elements of Harmony.

"Listen, you six.  You are the finest gifts to Equestria; you exemplify everything that Equestria stands for, you are national heroes, and you are the bearers of the Elements of Harmony.  That is why I am going to request your help..."

"I would prefer to end this conflict in the most non-violent way possible.  It is because of this that Luna and I will be taking to the castle courtyard, to see if we can negotiate with the invaders.  As the Elements of Harmony, I would be honored if you six would accompany me.  If there's anything that can make these invaders see reason, then it is the power of the Elements of Harmony..."

"Princess, we would be honored to, but...." she trailed off, a hint of nervousness in her voice.

"I promise that no harm will come to any of you.  As long as you don't leave Luna's or my side, then you will be safe.  I guarantee it..." she reassured, in a matronly tone.

"Girls?" Twilight asked, turning to her five friends.  All of them had mixed reactions.

Rainbow Dash seemed to have the most bravado, and seemed thrilled to go out there and kick the flank of whoever would dare attack Canterlot.

Fluttershy just looked fightened.

Applejack didn't seem to like the events at all, but she was happy to support the Princess if she was needed.

Rarity seemed scared as well, but she was also complaining about the "brutishness" of the invaders and why anyone would ever negotiate with "ruffians" like them.

Lastly, Pinkie Pie seemed to think this was all a game.

Nevertheless, they all agreed to support their nation when it counted, even if it meant throwing themselves into dangerous territory.

"Let's go!" Pinkie Pie shouted enthusiastically.

The force of humans had dwindled down another fifty as they made their way into the castle courtyard.

The Royal Guard had apparently gotten wind of the oncoming humans, so they did the best they could to halt them before reaching the castle.

It was at this point that the humans realized that they were heavily outmatched.

Only a few of them even had guns in the first place, and the rest of them had to settle for things such as knives and axes.  It became apparent that those sharp melee weapons were no use against the guard's special armor.

Some of them even had to tangle with their bare hands.  That was just how little of a weapon stock that the organization had for them.

Of course, them trying to tangle barehanded against one of the Royal Guards was just asking for trouble.  Lambda watched as one of her own threw a punch at a golden-clad guard, only for it to clang against the armor.  The royal guard grunted and struck back with a hoof to the jaw, knocking blood and fragments of teeth out of his mouth.  The guard wrestled him to the ground and began hoof-punching him repeatably.  Blood and gore flew through the air as the human's face was battered.  He gurgled and screamed for mercy through a swollen bloody face, but it wasn't until he lost consciousness that the guard stopped.

Lambda heard another shriek to her right.  She saw another man get impaled through the abdomen by the trademark spears of the Royal Guard.  Armed with only a knife, he gagged up blood as the guard withdrew his spear, and blood rocketed from the wound.

It was becoming too much for Lambda, especially after a seeing a girl barely older than her get riddled with a barrage of arrows from guards on top of buildings.  She was one of the few with a gun, but she hadn't been trained well for it, and she had already run out of ammo anyway.

It was really only her who was keeping them advancing.  Her abilities allowed her to tangle with any guard she came across, and she was keeping their numbers manageable while reducing the losses on her side.

It was beginning to get a little too hectic though, and the Royal Guard seemed to be ready to take their victory.  Yet as soon as they advanced... they retreated.  The Royal Guard stopped their attack and galloped and flew away from the scene.  They appeared to be going back to the castle.

Lambda didn't waste this opportunity.

"They're retreating!  Break into the castle, hurry!" she shouted to the remaining two-hundred or so humans.  It wasn't like any of them had a choice though.

With her leading the charge, they broke into the castle courtyard.  The other humans followed right behind them, slightly more energized than when they were in the city.  They waved their weapons around, but they everyone halted in place when they glimpsed upon the Royal Guard.

At the center of it all, underneath the pale moonlight, Lambda saw them standing directly in front of the door leading to the interior of the castle, flanked by six mares.

Princesses Celestia and Luna had came out...

Parasite

Chapter 8: Parasite

Humans....

It was a mob of humans who had descended upon Canterlot in all their fury, and had made their way towards the center to storm the castle in the dim moonlight.

A group of humans... who showed up to attack Canterlot... while Zach was missing.  With all the events occurring over the past day, Twilight was finding it harder to believe that all of it was unrelated.  Her mind was beginning to struggle to rationalize that her new friend... their new friend hadn't betrayed her.

Twilight gulped.  She could see the expressions on the human's monkey-like faces, even if they were so foreign to her.  They were almost mad in the way they moved.  It was like they were desperate, but what it was they were desperate over Twilight did not know.

She took shelter behind her mentor, her Element of Harmony adjusted on her head in case she would have to use it.  The wall of humans were entering the courtyard at this point, and she didn't know if they could end this peacefully.

Her eyes locked upon a human in the center of it all.  This one seemed to be using its strange hands to direct the flow of the humans, as if it were the leader.

Twilight compared the human's appearance to that of Zachary.  This one was taller, but also far leaner.  Compared to Zachary, its mane was far, far longer, and was blonde instead of brown.  Its face seemed softer and more feminine than Zachary's, and Twilight's eyes were drawn to two strange mounds that jutted out of the top half of the human's torso.

This one was quite different than Zachary was, and it occurred to Twilight that this one might be a female.

The robes she was wearing... Twilight couldn't help but feel that she had seen those before.

"Those are the same robes that the abductor of those unicorns wore..."

Her mind reeled; had they come for her?

"Princess!"

"Stay behind me, Twilight Sparkle.  Do not come out unless it's safe..." her mentor said, putting up a wing in order to protect her protege.

While Celestia tended to her student, Luna was not content merely standing idle.  Flapping her wings, she took to the sky like a navy-blue rocket, before crashing down and landing in the middle of the courtyard with a mighty thump that shook the earth around them and made many of the surrounding humans lose their balance.

Some of the humans around her screamed in terror as deep shadows fell over them, and Luna stared at them all with glowing white eyes.  To them, it was as if she was trying to steal their souls.

"BE STILL!!" she commanded to the humans.  The under-equipped humans scattered into chaos, little organization underneath their mob-like mentality.  A trained military force they were not.

"Do not follow her orders!"

And yet, there was still one person keeping them together.

"She is not to be feared..." she attempted to reassure the humans underneath her command.  Walking up to the Princess, they gave her a wide berth while muttering to themselves about the intimidating Princess of the Night.

"We are not to be feared?  I can assure you that after what you have wrought upon Canterlot, there will be plenty of reason to fear us!" she roared.  Lambda looked unimpressed.

Twilight looked over Celestia's wing to try and get a glimpse of what was happening, but the Sun Princess simply tightened her grip on her student.

"Luna!" she shouted at her sister.  Luna snarled at her sister and the impudent human in front of her, but her voice went away from the Royal Canterlot Speech.

"I have many concerns right now.  One of them I will make known now is how you..... humans... managed to dispel the barrier.  But all that can be addressed from A DUNGEON CELL!"

"Luna, stop!  Do not be so hasty!" she shouted to her sister, who was standing in the mix of a group of petrified humans.  The majority of them were still tussling with the Royal Guards, and were now feeling just how woefully unprepared for this they were.

"This may be something we can resolve peacefully, little sister," Celestia pointed out.  Her warm gaze turned into ice as she regarded the apparent leader of the force.

"You!  You are the one who are leading this attack.  Although I hope to resolve this peacefully without any lives being lose, I must ascertain your purpose first.  Why have you invaded our fair city?" she asked, her stare cold and her voice unfriendly.

Lambda frowned at her, Celestia's icy gaze apparently being met by her own angry gaze.

"First of all, it's not "you"!  I don't exactly have a true name anymore, but you can call me Lambda!  Do NOT call me "you", especially when you're just some fucking horse!" she snarled at Celestia.  Celestia's gaze seemed to have gotten even icier, but she managed to control herself.  Inside though, she was beginning to feel that a peaceful solution to this could not be accomplished.

"HOW DARE YOU?!!" Luna spat at Lambda, her voice rank with anger.  A few of the Elements of Harmony shared in her sentiment.  "Horse" was not a nice term to call a pony.  Rainbow Dash in particular bristled with anger at the statement, and she almost lunged to attack Lambda.

"And shouldn't it be pretty obvious what's going on at this point in time?  We're invading, which means we want to storm the castle and overthrow your rule!  Don't even talk to me about these "peaceful solutions"," Lambda snarled.

"YOU INSOLENT HUMAN!" Luna bellowed.  She raised a hoof and slammed it against the ground once again, intimidating the humans and guards around her, while Lambda remained steadfast.

She had said those things, but she could feel the power radiating from both Princesses as they spoke.  She had pretty much already lost.

Suddenly, she felt a slight tingling sensation run throughout her body, before fizzling out completely.  She raised a confused eyebrow, before she looked forward and saw Luna trying to use her magic on her.  Apparently she thought she could incapacitate her by levitating her in place with simple telekinesis.  How wrong she was.

As Luna exerted her magic, the Princess seemed to lose control over it, and as she tried to levitate Lambda, her horn eventually died out, and the magical energy exerted on Lambda disappeared.

Luna looked like someone had kicked her.

"What did thou do?" she asked quietly, not using the Royal Canterlot Voice.  Lambda brushed off her robe, before she surprised Luna by kicking the ground and moving forward at speeds that resembled a pegasus.

Lambda was much stronger than an average human due to her special status, and when she reached the surprised Princess her foot snapped out and connected with the side of her head.

Luna grunted in surprise and pain, but her alicorn durability made it so she wasn't injured.  That didn't change the fact that her pride was wounded and she flung back several feet and forced to take to the sky.

There were several hushed gasps that drew Lambda's attention.  She took her eyes off of her opponent for a moment, and regarded the group of ponies huddling behind the protection of Princess Celestia.

The purple one in the middle was beginning to bug her.  The unicorn winced when Lambda leveled her with a heavy stare, and the human girl knew that this was Alpha's target.  Which meant that those six mares were the Element of Harmony, judging by the necklaces they were wearing.

The situation got even worse; if they decided it was necessary to use the Elements of Harmony...

She didn't even wince when the knocked out body of a human almost fell on her, apparently pushed her way by a royal guard that had gotten the best of him.  Without even thinking, her fist shot out and connected with the royal guard's chin, shattering his helmet in two as he crumpled to the ground.

"I hope you don't think you act however you feel like and not expect me to take action..." Celestia pointed out, a flare of anger settling in her stomach as her guard went down.  He wasn't the only one; there was fighting going on throughout the courtyard.

Lambda's eyes widened when the sky became overcast, and several of the humans underneath her command paused to look up in fear at the alicorn goddess resting on a cloud overhead.

Her eyes were glowing once again, and she raised her hooves over her head as a crack of thunder and lightning startled the force of human.  Lambda didn't flinch.

She winced when she heard the humans scream once again, this time it appearing as if they were in a massive amount of pain.  Just from being around that, they were being affected.  They were just lucky it was the Royal Guard engaging them, as she noticed that the Royal Guard had taken the opportunity to cut down more members of the Arcane Ascension.

"Dammit, I just need to..." she muttered, before her eyes snapped open.  Running into the battlefield, ignoring the cries of her mentor, was Twilight Sparkle.

Her horn was ablaze with magic.

"NO!  NO!!  Nononononono!" Lambda screamed in her mind.

"I must say, this is truly barbaric.  Who are these brutes who would dare invade the pristine city of Canterlot?"

Rarity's words were indeed prissy, but that seemed to be what was on all the Element Bearers' minds.

Twilight was at a loss for words.  She was used to her fair share of danger, from hunting down Nightmare Moon and Discord, to the changeling invasion.  This incident was probably closest to the changeling invasion, but even then, there were some striking differences.

When the changelings invaded, the Royal Guard had been relatively inactive.  She and her friends were the ones who fought the changelings, and it was her brother and Princess Cadence who had banished the vile creatures with their love.

But even then, the most they did was hooffight with them, and all the power of love did was knock them out of the kingdom.

With this though, she had never seen anything like it.  This display was far more brutal, and she didn't know if some of the downed combatants were even alive anymore.  The blood that was being spilled was enough to blur the line on that.

She looked up at her mentor; Princess Celestia was furious at seeing what was happening to her guards.  But she was focused on protecting the six of them that she didn't dare move from her spot.  Princess Luna was the one who had taken the more active role.

"Hey!  Is he...... dead?" a voice from across from her exclaimed.  Twilight frantically looked over to her polychromatic friend looking very much not like her boastful self.  In fact, all of the energy had been sucked from Rainbow.

It was easy to see why.  Unlike the changeling invasion, this was a fully armed conflict.  The Royal Guard was going at them with their standard assigned weapons such as their personal spears, and the rogue group of humans were responding with their own, though they seemed ludicrously under-equipped compared to the much more official Royal Guard.

Rainbow Dash was pointing in particular to a human male who had been impaled by a guard's spear mercilessly.  Twilight gulped as she saw the look of pure terror enter his face, as a fountain of blood gushed from his wound.  The guard retracted his spear from the body without so much as blinking, letting the human flop to the ground.

Applejack folded her hat across her eyes, a solemn look on her face.

"T'ain't right.  Looks ta' me that the robed fellers are outmatched by our stallions in uniform.  If they'd on'y give up and mosey on home, we coulda avoided all o' this!" she lamented.

"Savage beasts!" Rarity spat in venom at the invading humans.  She had always had an appreciation for the Royal Guard, and the way these creature simply thought they could take Canterlot set her on edge.

"Mmmm...." Pinkie Pie muttered pitifully.  Her mane had been deflated completely when she saw the carnage before her.  Her mind ran on making friends and throwing parties, and she thought those two things could solve everything.  What she saw before her did not jive with her live philosophy.  The Royal Guard and these funny things should be throwing a party for each other!  Not.... this.

Fluttershy was cowering behind her own mane in fear and sadness, tears flowing down her cheeks.

Meanwhile, Luna had spooked many of the humans into submission, but the human female was apparently not scared, Twilight noted.

Then, something occurred that bewildered Twilight.  Luna had attempted to use magic on the human female called Lambda, but had failed.  An alicorn Princess failing to do a simple spell was unheard of.

"Y'know what I think is weird.  That Zach feller is nowhere ta be seen, and all of a sudden a bunch of humans like him begin attackin' Canterlot.  Don't that strike ya as mighty suspicious?" Applejack pointed out.  Twilight gulped.  Her mentor was listening to them speak silently, like a stony statue that only served to protect them.  She was upset.

"Heck yeah!  That guys a traitor!  He's been lying to us all!"

Twilight had a hard time denying that.  He had escaped from his cell, so it was likely he was somehow connected with the group that was invading.  It stung.

Luna was making lightning rain down now, and it was spooking the humans.  Lambda was responding as fearlessly as ever though.  She didn't know how much more she could take, and she didn't know how the Elements of Harmony could help here.

A lone tear rolled down her cheek as she heard more screams, and she folded her ears together to block out the noise.  However, a sharp, shrill crack resounded in the air, and it spooked every single pony in the vicinity, including the Princesses.

The Element Bearers could only watch in horror as a female human wielded a black bar like weapon, which neither Twilight nor anyone in the group knew anything about.  She had seen those in the hands of some of the humans, but there were very few of them, and they didn't seem to be any use in combat.

Until she saw that one of the guards the female human had been fighting crumpled to the ground.  There was a small hole in the chest of his armor, with blood leaking directly out of it.  The girls stared in confusion and horror as the once proud guard's face melted into a pool of pain and agony.

Twilight couldn't take it any more.  Her mind was reeling from the sounds of the battle, one that the humans were very clearly losing.  Pushing aside her mentor's wing, she jumped down the steps into the courtyard, unmindful of both Celestia's and her friends shouting.

She only had one thing on her mind, and that was stopping the fighting before more ponies died.

"STOP IT!!!" she shrieked above the crowd, even as the Royal Guard and the humans fought, and Lambda kept Princess Luna at bay.

Lambda seemed to see her, and her face lit up with fear.  Twilight didn't stop, her horn glowing magenta.  She was determined to stop them, and if she had to burn through all of her magic, then so be it.

Her magic burst forth, going with the spell she knew best.  But she had to pour everything she had into it, and put all of it onto exact targets.

The humans numbered around one-hundred and fifty now, their forces halved since the beginning.  And when Twilight cast her mass telekinetic spell, that number went down to one.

The silence reigned in the battlefield, as the Royal Guard and even Princess Luna paused in what they were doing to watch as a magenta glow surrounded every single human that was battling.  Every human, except Lambda.

One by one, looks of pure fear entered their faces as they felt themselves being lifted upwards, but it wasn't because they were being levitated.  It was because they knew what was going to happen next.

The Royal Guard stood stunned in awe of the Element of Magic's abilities, as she used her magic to telekinetically grasp one-hundred and fifty humans and hold them all aloft.

She smiled despite the exertion of effort, and she looked at the humans floating in the air like little pods, each of them held in a cocoon of magic.

"Now..." she began.  It looked like she was going to do what she did best: lecture them!  Through her words, they would come to realize the error of their ways when invading Canterlot, and they would be able to come to a peaceful resolution.

Something made her halt directly in the middle of it, though.  The humans were acting strangely.  Though they were heavily restrained by the telekinesis, it looked like they wanted to move so badly, if only so they could grasp their necks.

A man near the front was the first to crack.  He gave out a bone-chilling scream that shocked the surrounding ponies to the core.

The horror did not stop there.  Twilight was mesmerized at the horrific display, or simply what he magic was causing.

First, the man in front of him twisted as enormous bloody blisters formed on all areas of his body.  They swelled to hideous proportions, before bursting into a splatter of blood and creating open sores everything.

Rarity and Fluttershy screamed, and the others looked like they were about lose their lunch.  It was not just limited to the man; all of the humans were suffering from the same effects.

Panicking with fear, Twilight released her magic immediately, allowing the humans to thump on the ground unceremoniously.  But it was too late.  They had been exposed to magic.

Even the Royal Guards were watching on in horror.  Their skin was a bright burned red, like it had been dipped into acid.  And some of the humans looked at them with such desperation and fear that they felt their skin crawl.

And then, their eyes melted.

Straight out of their sockets, and Twilight screamed.  Her voice stopped entirely after a few seconds of screaming, and she stood there with her mouth hung open in horror.  Luna saw what was happening as her mind shattered, and she swooped down into the fray to collect Twilight in one wing, taking her back to her mentor.

The rest of the Elements did not look in great shape either, but they were not in the thick of the action.  Princess Celestia ducked over to her student and wrapped a wing around her, shielding her eyes from the grisly display in front of her.  It was with a heavy heart that the Princess herself watched.

One by one, the humans dropped like flies, their blisters and burns becoming far too much for their bodies to handle.  It hadn't taken any more than two minutes for their affliction to take its course, and one by one they stopped moving and stopped screaming.  All of them.

Except for one.

Lambda was left without a single scratch, but her eyes were stony.  She regarded the loss of her troops with a heavy heart and a scowl, but she would be lying if she told herself she didn't expect this.

"Magical poisoning, huh?  These guys are magically resistant, so I hoped it would be enough.  But direct contact with Twilight Sparkle's magic initiating magical poisoning on all of them.  But the only true magically immune humans are "enhanced" ones such as myself.  There aren't very many..." she muttered to herself, so low no one could hear it.

Fortunately, they still had their mole.  The plan wasn't a complete failure.

Celestia hated to take advantage of such a tragic event like this, but sometimes she had to take responsibility as a ruler.

"Miss Lambda, your forces have been soundly defeated.  It would be best for all parties if you were to surrender immediately and allow the guards to accompany you to the dungeons willingly..." she stated, no faltering in her voice.

Lambda sneered.

"You'd like that, wouldn't you?  You don't even know anything.  Nothing at all!  I came into this knowing full well who would win, so I guess it's time to make my escape!" she cried, a smile bursting onto her face before she ran away with those some pegasine speeds.

"After her!" Luna ordered, to which the Royal Guards wasted no time in running out of the castle.

"What a mess..." Celestia sighed.  "You five..." she pointed to Twilight's friends, and then looked down at Twilight herself.  Her precious student had gone into a state of shock at what she had witnessed, what she had caused apparently.  Her friends needed to be there for her.

"Follow me to the throne room immediately.  There are things that need to be taken care of..." she ordered to the depressed ponies.

Word of the invasion spread quickly throughout Equestria.  Canterlot of course was on complete lockdown, and in the morning rumors would surely be buzzing around the city as to the events that happened.

One thing was clear: Equestria had triumphed, and that was enough to put the citizens of Canterlot at ease as they slept.  Yet, in the palace, there were more concerning things to address.

On the castle grounds, the Royal Guard was responsible for the grisly disposal of human bodies, but there was no sign that they knew this battle to be over.

Lambda had evaded the Royal Guard and escaped down the mountain.  Zachary's whereabouts were still unknown, but they couldn't rule out the possibility that he hadn't left the castle.

In the middle of the throne room, the two Princesses were concerned as to what would happen from this point on.  They regarded the six ponies in front of them.  Twilight Sparkle was still shaken tremendously, but she had gotten over her shock, and after thirty minutes of bawling into Celestia's mane, she managed to compose herself just enough to listen to what her mentor had to say.

"Today was a day of tragedy...  The newly discovered creatures known as "humans" have apparently decided to focus their hostilities on our fair Equestria.  The battle was short, and we may have triumphed over our enemies, but this does not mean we should celebrate..." she trailed off.

"You six had bore witness to some of the most truly horrific experiences in a few short hours.  Particularly you, Twilight Sparkle, who had to bear witness to something that I cannot even begin to describe.  I thought you and the Elements of Harmony would be helpful in this battle, but all I ended up doing is causing you great turmoil.  And for that, I am truly sorry..." she said mournfully.

"...It's alright, Princess.  I don't blame you..." Twilight squeaked in barely a whisper, as tears threatened to spill forward once again, and Pinkie PIe wrapped her hooves around her friend, her mane still deflated.

No one felt like talking, but Princess Celestia continued at behest of her sister.

"It pains me that we have to talk about such things immediately after such a traumatic experience, but this conflict is not over.  I hope you understand that we have overlooked a key portion of this event..."

Realization dawned over Twilight's face, but no one else's.

"It is about the human known as Zachary Cricket.  After talking with our sister, we believe he is the one responsible for dispelling the barrier, and is in some way connected with the organization that just attacked us..."

Before the battle, there likely would have been outrage, but this time, no one, not even Pinkie, had the energy to protest.  And deep down, everyone knew that the Princess was probably right.

"I know, Princess..." Twilight Sparkle said.  "He played us for fools..." she spat, a hint of anger tinged in there along with sadness.  "I thought we were friends, but then he caused this!"

"That no-good, rotten, lyin'...." Applejack muttered to herself off to the side. Being the Element of Honesty, she was affected strongly as well.

"I told you he couldn't be trusted!" Rainbow Dash piped up.

"I must say, he sounds like a true monster to use our dear Twilight like this...  He must know that he will receive his just desserts before long..." Rarity commented.

"Yeah!  What a super-duper, meanie-pants!  When I see him, I'm going to have a few choice words!" Pinkie screamed.

Fluttershy said nothing, but she too couldn't keep the hurt off of her face.

"His betrayal is not the main problem here..." Luna picked up, where Celestia left off.  "He is the final loose end to the incident.  We still do not know his location... He escaped a dungeon cell while leaving no remnants of escape.  It will be difficult to track him..."

"We must be up for the challenge, but be warned, none of you are safe.  For all we know, he could still be in the castle somewhere.  As we speak, Luna's night guards are searching for his trail.  They are experts in the field of espionage and tracking, but it won't be easy still."

"Right now, your safety is our number one priority.  Under no circumstances are you to leave the castle until we declare it safe.  Return to your rooms.  We will have guards stationed outside every room.  Try to remain in a group, and do not go wandering off on your own.  Do I make myself clear?" Celestia ordered.  Her tone brooked no room for argument.

Twilight sniffled, but all six friends nodded their heads solemnly.  For now, they would have to retire back to their rooms, but they did not know if they would be able to get any sleep.

The castle was on lockdown.

Day and night guards were roaming the castle halls, searching for the one who had apparently tripped the barrier. Night guards were hiding in all rooms, waiting for see if their elusive foe would reveal himself.

"Yeah, right..." Alpha thought, watching two more guards pass by him.   He had been hiding out in the castle the entire time, being completely out of sight while Lambda waged war.  Like he predicted, she failed miserably to take the castle.

That meant the castle was on lockdown, and Celestia had obviously figured out who was the one who tripped the barrier.  They were looking for him again now that the invasion was over.

Guards were posted outside of every single room, but he already knew which room was Twilight's.  And he couldn't hope to sneak in there in his current state.

He was currently perched atop of the ceiling in the corner of one of the castle's hallways, and the pitch black atmosphere was perfect for his black exoskeleton.  He had eavesdropped on everything that Celestia told them after the invasion was over, but the Element Bearers all went to bed an hour or two ago.

"Welp, time to change the tides a little bit..." Alpha thought as he used his many limbs to get down on the ground.  The humanoid insect cracked his claws, before he focused himself.

He glowed a deep green color of magic, and his body began to crack.  Unbelievably, he wasn't changing his body structure anymore, but rather was activating his true body.  Instead of changing, his body was being reduced.

He was getting smaller.

The insect hybrid got smaller and smaller and smaller within the dark corridors of Canterlot Castle.  He watched the surrounding features get larger and larger in front of his very eyes.

He did not even flinch during the whole ordeal, as he continued to get smaller.  The world was enormous to him now, and he did not stop getting smaller.

When he finally was finished, he was the size of a true insect, and was a beetle-like creature barely larger than an ant..  Less than even an eighth of an inch was his size.

He looked over his body, the structures were the same as his normal sized insect form, but he was vastly reduced in size down to a real insect.  This was probably his greatest ability yet; it allowed him to perform his job, and he was effectively undetectable.  This was how he had escaped from the dungeon cell, and how he had avoided being detected up to this point.

When he was done shifting, he stood up and surveyed his surroundings.  The once normal-sized castle was like a world of giants to him now.  The tapestries looked like they hung in the heavens miles above him, and he could squeeze underneath the cracks in the door easily.

Putting all three pairs of limbs against the ground, he moved at a super-high speed for one as small as him, darting across the massive red carpet plain.  Twilight's room was to the right, but before he could move, a massive gold-covered monolith crashed down in front of him, making a loud thudding noise.

It was the clad hoof of a royal guard.

"Whoa there..." Alpha said to himself, his voice a high-pitched insect-like noise that the guard couldn't even hope to hear.  Looking around in a stern fashion, the guard grunted and took off down the hall, continuing the search.

"Fucking idiots.  They think they're so macho and competent.  They don't even realize I'm right underneath their nose..." Alpha said, before he scurried down the hall.

He passed a couple more guards on the way, before he came to the room that he knew as Twilight's.  There were two guards perched outside the door, and Alpha easily scurried in between their legs and slid underneath the crack in the door, easily avoiding detection.

The plush carpet was like a forest to him, but he managed to get on top of it easily and was walking along the "canopy".  The room was like a landscape to him, with the window in the distance like the horizon.  In the room, there were six massive ponies that were easily much bigger than him.

Celestia had ordered the Element Bearers to stay together, and stay together they did.  They were all once again huddled in Twilight's room.  The purple unicorn had taken the bed, and the other five were huddled together on the floor to keep their friend company.

Currently, all of them were asleep, the five other ponies sleeping either in sleeping bags or mattresses on the floor.  He didn't have any need for them, so he crept past the gigantic ponies along the carpet and made his way to the foot of the bed.

Their loud snoring was starting to get on his nerves.  At his size, he could hear it fairly easily.  Even Fluttershy snored like a hobo.

Far above him, Twilight seemed to be sleeping soundly, despite the trials she went through earlier that night.  She didn't know about magical poisoning on humans; that was going to haunt her for quite a while.

With his prehensile pincers, he latched onto the wooden leg of the bed, and began the long haul up onto the mattress.  This job really sucked, but someone had to do it.

Alpha pulled his tiny body onto the thick mattress, losing his balance slightly because of the indent from Twilight's large body.  Now that he was so close, he couldn't really deny how enormous she was.

A total behemoth of a pony, even though she was actually so small earlier.  She was as tall as a skyscraper to him, but she still wasn't any match.

A five-pointed star the size of a tennis court was in front of him; not where he needed to be.  Scurrying along the mattress, he want upwards towards the front of the bed, warily eying the massive purple hoof that could move.

She was breathing rather heavily, and her chest moved back and forth in a rhythmic motion.  He continued to scurry up, and when he saw her face, he stopped.

"Time to begin..."

This was the reason he was Alpha, the reason he was so important to the Arcane Ascension.  Without his abilities, they could not function.

He looked at Twilight's head, and stepped forward.

Her mane was hanging off on the mattress, and with no hesitation he grabbed onto a purple strand of hair hanging off.  To him, it had the same consistency as a length of rope.

He shimmied himself up Twilight's mane like an agile bug, his eyes trained on her face.  Her enormous eyes were still closed, though he nervously kept his attention on them.  If they snapped open...

Nothing of the sort happened though, and he reached his destination safely.  He had shimmied up Twilight's mane completely, and was ready to begin.

The massive flap that was Twilight's ear loomed directly in front of him.  He walked up to the edge of it, the cartilage shading him from any light.

He stopped in place on the fleshy ledge on the outside of her ear, looking inside.  Twilight's body was covered in fur, but this place was relatively hairless, save for some purple hairs that lined the inside of the ear canal.

Twilight's ear canal reminded him of a massive cave; it was of similar size to one and aesthetically it looked somewhat similar to it, besides the fact that it was an organic tunnel.

The canal loomed ahead of him intimidatingly, but he was used to it.  This step was always necessary, though he had to admit he was not fond of it.

Going through the pony's ear canal was necessary to complete his real mission: take over Twilight Sparkle's brain.  Despite her intelligence and magical ability, if he had her brain, she was helpless.

Getting there was almost like a surgical procedure, and he had the tools necessary to perform it.  It was simple, go through her ear, perform the correct procedure, and reach the brain.  That was the modus operandi.

With Twilight still knocked out and with no way of knowing what was about to happen, Alpha walked directly into Twilight's ear.

The Arcane Ascension

Chapter 9: The Arcane Ascension

Alpha stopped himself from sneezing.

The fleshy ground underneath him squished as he walked through the cavern, displacing purple hairs with his pincers.  Pony ears were typically wet and moist, and he didn't particularly like this part of the process.

In Twilight's ear, he had to make sure he was quiet, lest she wake up, but the rumbling from outside every second or two indicated that she was still asleep.

The inside of Twilight's ear was pretty dark, and the canal reminded him too much of a cave for his liking.  He clung to the walls as he navigated around, trying to map out the best possible route.

He trudged through the undergrowth of hairs until he reached his destination, a thin, pink, translucent disc at the end.  Twilight's eardrum.  This was where things would get a little sticky.

The humanoid insect snapped his pincers as he regarded the throbbing disc in front of him.  Clearly it was catching sound, but it wouldn't be catching anything pleasant very soon.

Grunting, he thrust his pincer into the base of the eardrum.  At this point, Twilight should have instantly woken up when her sensitive ear organ was ruptured, but she made nary a peep.

As Alpha thrust his pincer into the disc, a strange light-blue gel was instantly secreted from his right pincer.  Calmly, he cut a hole in the eardrum large enough for him to squeeze through, before he put the fragment back up and allowed the gel to work it back into place.

He avoided the ossicles of the middle ear as best as he could, before he squeezed through the oval window of the cochlea.  The inner ear was his destination.

And now, another obstacle on his path.  The bony labyrinth of Twilight Sparkle's inner ear was the perfect place to begin.  The bony labyrinth was a part of the skull that protected the inner ear, but the temporal bone on ponies was remarkably thin, and an area where he could drill inside with ease.

He sized up his pincers once again, ready to cut through the bony layer just like he did with the eardrum.  Slowly and methodically, his pincers drilled through the skull, the blue gel numbing the pain like an anesthetic.  She wouldn't feel this for a while, and if he had to chance to close up the holes thoroughly, there wouldn't be much pain with the recovery.

The whole process was like a surgical procedure, and he even sutured the skull back together after he climbed directly through it, though Alpha had the suspicion he'd need to use that hole again soon.

Meanwhile, he had plunged himself into his destination: the brain.  Pony brains were more or less as complex as human brains, but with his modified abilities, it would be easy to control all of it.  Quick as a flash he scurried across the brain from the temporal lobe, coming to rest at the front of the head, the frontal lobe, the source of all magic.

Roaring, he plunged his pincers into the soft grey matter, being careful not to damage the brain in any way, shape, or form.  It would be very easy for him to do such a thing, but it was not his intent.

With a deep breath, he closed his eyes and from his mind, he emitted a type of magical sonar, which resonated with both him and the sleeping unicorn whose head he was occupying.  He felt Twilight's central magic system deep within her brain; the pool was enormous.  The organization was not kidding when they said that her magical ability was off the charts.

And with him connected to the brain, secreting the magical gel inside it, he would be able to control virtually all of Twilight's body functions via his sonar.

Twilight's eyes snapped open.

The unicorn slowly crawled out of bed, being careful not to wake the other five ponies who were snoozing away on the floor.   She slowly crept her way over to the window, mindful of the guards that were currently stationed outside the door.

Despite wakefulness, her eyes showed a very misty, dead quality to them, almost as if she were asleep.  Regardless of that fact, she used her magic to open the window slowly, and leaped out of it, once again using levitation magic to halt her fall before the very bottom.

Lights were being flashed all over the castle courtyard as guards surveyed the area.  She leaped into a bush as a guard passed her by, not even thinking to check behind them.

She knew she had to get out of here quickly, and risked trying teleportation.  Her horn glowing a magenta, she reappeared near the entrance to the castle, and was home-free.

She galloped through Canterlot in the middle of the night, seeing few ponies along the way.  This body was not fit to handle strenuous physical activity, so she was obligated to teleport long stretches of distance at any given time.  She needed to reach Ghastly Gorge by morning, and if that meant exhausting her magic and her body, then so be it.

She had soon made it out of Canterlot, and was running alongside the train tracks down the mountain.  If she could reach Ponyville by 5 o'clock, then everything was good.

Luckily for her, there were no trains that were on their way down the mountain at this time of night, so she was able to run and teleport along the tracks without being detected by anypony.  After a long stretch of teleports, she had finally made it down the mountain, the Ponyville Train Station looming a few miles ahead of her.

Twilight looked behind herself; the castle and the city of Canterlot loomed in the distance.  She had managed to cover that amount of distance in a short, but she didn't have time to dawdle about in Ponyville.

Uncharacteristically, she continued running and teleporting along the tracks, not even bothering to go into Ponyville to even check up on Spike or anything like that.

She continued to head south, out of the village of Ponyville and along the outskirts of the Everfree Forest.  She passed by Fluttershy's cottage, and seeing the dangerous forest, continued to merely gallop along the outskirts.

When the Sun was just breaking above the horizon, she reached her destination, Ghastly Gorge.  She paused and regarded the morning sun with a calculating gaze; the Princess was likely aware that she was missing by now, but it was far too late.

With the last bit of her magic, she teleported herself down into the gorge, near the southeast portion of the gorge to be exact, where the lair of the Arcane Ascension was.

There was a large hole near the southeast edge of the gorge that led deep into the earth, near a small outcropping of rocks.  When Twilight teleported herself next to them, there was a tall figure waiting for her near the outside of the exit.

"Lambda..." Twilight Sparkle said, in a voice that was not her own.  The voice in question was much more lifeless and monotone, like she was not the one speaking.  It was remarkably similar to her dead eyes.

The human girl's hood was drawn up as to conceal part of her face, but Twilight knew who it was immediately.  Lambda looked worse for wear after coming out of the invasion short a couple hundred humans, but she seemed relatively calm.

"Alpha.  I see you have succeeded in taking over Twilight Sparkle's brain..." she commented, noticing the lack of life from within the small unicorn in front of her.

"Twilight" nodded, even though it was really Alpha controlling both her body and mind from within.  The real Twilight Sparkle had no idea what was going on right now.

"Yes, I have succeeded in my mission of transporting the unicorn Twilight Sparkle to the base of the Arcane Ascension.  Make sure that Shadow Star and Sydney are briefed on the way in..."

"That won't be necessary.  Orders from the President; she wants you back in your cell for the time being.  I'll take Twilight Sparkle off of her pincers right now." Lambda explained.

"Why?  I'll be needed back in here for the ceremony anyway.  It'd probably be easier if I just stay in here and in control for the time being.  What is the President thinking?"

Lambda shrugged.

"Beats me.  It seems she wants to talk to Twilight Sparkle personally, and for that she needs her alive and conscious.  You'll need to head back in there, I'm sure, but right now she's ordered you out..."

Alpha sighed in Twilight's voice.

"Very well.  She knows I hate doing this and probably just wants to see me do it again.  But whatever, I'll be a good little bug and head back to my cell..." she/he said bitterly.  He trotted by Lambda, and for a brief moment, the young woman thought she could see life in those eyes.

"Lambda...."

Lambda raised an eyebrow.

"I hate ponies..."

Lambda sighed.

"Yeah, I know..." she remarked.

Lambda was silent for a couple of minutes, before she saw all life fade from Twilight's eyes.  She wasn't anywhere near dead though, as her chest rose and fell with each breath.  Without Alpha controlling her, she had gone back to sleep.

She remained silent further as her trained eyes were focused on a tiny speck that went shooting out of Twilight's ear a couple minutes after the control had faded.  It landed on the ground, before it swelled up in size.

When it was done growing, what stood before he was a humanoid insect about her height, but soon the black exoskeleton was covered by peach-colored human skin, as Alpha retook his disguise as a human and stood before her.

"I hate humans too..." he said solemnly.

"Yeah, I know..." she said glumly.

Alpha walked past the unconscious unicorn, allowing Lambda to deal with the rest.  He walked past her, but as he was about to go down into the cave, he paused.

"Don't ever die, Lambda.  You and the others are the only ones I have left in my life.  I don't think I'd be able to handle it if any one of you died.  So..." he paused for a second, before his breathing quickened.

"Don't try any of that stupid stuff again..."

"Dumbass!  I'm not going to die!  Just worry about yourself for once!  This was a dangerous job you were on, and none of us will ever be able to go free if you were lost!  Just go back in there and get some rest!  You have a big day ahead of you!"

Alpha looked at her one final time, before he slunk into the cave, leaving Lambda alone in Ghastly Gorge looking upon the morning sun.  She regarded the unconscious unicorn in front of her, before she bent over and picked her up with barely any effort.

"Looks like the President wants to see you personally.  Can't say I know what for."

Prologue

Prologue: The Human of White Tail Woods

The village of Ponyville was quiet, and nopony was out on the streets at this time of night.

Ponyville was a small town, in which everypony knew each other and practically everypony went to bed at around the same time, more or less. For tonight in particular, there were no festivals or parties going on, so it made sense that nopony would be out so late.

The streetlights and houselights were all off, so the only source of light the town had at the moment was Luna's moon, which loomed directly above the town and blanketed it in a very dim light.

For better or for worse, it was a peaceful village, even if its inhabitants were a little crazy at times.

It was a peaceful night, with little activity going on.

The wind picked up slightly, rustling the sign to the Golden Oak Library. Even the tree's tenant and her assistant were asleep at this time, and Twilight Sparkle was well known for staying up late and over-studying.

The town remained still for a few more minutes, until a single light turned on in the top floor of Sugarcube Corner. The light shone into the street slightly, and within the room, a puffy-haired pink pony was sitting upright in her bed.

She was shaking all over.

"O-OOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHH! I-It's a-a-a-a d-d-doozy!" she said. Though her eyes were a little bloodshot and her mane unkempt, she gave off the impression of a pony with limitless energy, even if she did just wake up.

Pinkie Pie was rarely even woken up by her Pinkie Sense, and if it did go off while she was asleep, she most likely just slept through it. She had never experienced a "doozy" while slumbering before though, and doozies tended to rattle her to the core.

What's more, her Pinkie Sense wasn't done acting up yet. As soon as her doozy finished, she flopped out of bed and hit the ground, her head and neck bobbing up and down as she scooted along the floor in a strange act that was typical for the pink pony.

"Wait, a doozy and a head bob?! Is it a headzy... or maybe a doobob? I've never had a doozy or a head bob happen at the same time, much less a headzy or a doobab!" her bubbly voice said. It was slightly lower than normal, so as to not wake the other tenants of the house: the Cakes.

"Well, a doozy means something really, really big or super, super scary is about to happen, but a headbob always means that somepony new is in town!" she contemplated for a moment, before she gasped.

"OOOH, maybe it means that the most super-duper, amazing, spectacular pony just arrived in town!" she said enthusiastically. It didn't seem to matter that it was the middle of the night to her.

"I need to go and find this super-duper, amazing new pony right now! I need to throw them a "Welcome to Ponyville" party right away, before they leave town! I need to get my party cannon ready and give them a special welcome! But, wait, do they like cake or fudge? Fudge or cake? Cake and fudge? Whatever, maybe I'll just throw both of them into the cake cannon! I need to remember to leave the confetti out this time!" she laughed, whispering to herself once she trotted past the twins' room.

Two minutes later, and Pinkie was wheeling a small, decorative pink cannon out onto the street. She frowned and put her hoof on her chin in mock thought, as the wind rustled her mane.

"Hmm, there definitely isn't anypony out right now. Maybe this super-duper, spectacular, amazing pony is playing hide-and-seek?" she thought outloud, twirling her party cannon.

Before she could say anything else, her head began shaking once again, the spasms this time pointing her head in a specific direction. It was towards the west, the opposite of the Everfree Forest.

"Ooh, I think I can find the new pony if I go that way! I know where that it; it's White Tail Woods! Maybe the new pony is doing a little sight-seeing! But, I bet I can give them a sight to see..." she said, rubbing the party cannon proudly. Again, Pinkie didn't seem to notice that it was the middle of the night.

"Oh, but wait! I'll be leaving Ponyville if I go to White Tail Woods! Maybe I should bring somepony along with me for the walk! I wonder if Twilight is up right now?"

The library wasn't too far from Sugarcube Corner and where Pinkie was standing, but the hyperactive pony noticed that all the lights were off in the giant tree.

"Hmm, should I go wake her up right now? I know she's the smartest, most-hardworking, most sciency pony in all of Equestria, so she must've just gone to bed after a super study session. And if I wake her up right now, I know she'll be super-duper cranky! Even crankier than Cranky Doodle!" she slapped her hooves to her face in shock after that last statement.

"So no! No waking Twilight for me! I'll just have to go welcome this new pony by myself!" she declared, rolling her cannon down the street.

"This new pony sure is weird, coming into town when everypony is asleep. But I won't wait until daytime to welcome them! I have to do it NOWWWWW!" she thundered.

It took Pinkie approximately twenty minutes to wheel her party cannon to the edge of the White Tail Woods. Her Pinkie Sense was telling her the direction all the way. The new pony must still be in there.

She huffed and puffed lightly, letting go of the party cannon and taking a quick break. However, at the exact moment she did so, her whole body shook with a terrific amount of force, so much that she almost fell on her flank.

She shook her head and hummed; another doozy.

This time, before she could move again or even speak, there came an enormous explosion of force from the very center of White Tail Woods, where the new pony was assumed to be.

Boom!

The explosion that reverberated from White Tail Woods was loud, much louder than any noises that had ever come out of the region. If a pony were to stop and think, a noise like the unusual explosion would be more likely to come out of the Everfree Forest. The Everfree Forest was filled with dangerous plants and animals, as well as bizarre phenomena. An explosion like this would be commonplace there.

White Tail Woods, on the other hand, was not a place where such a thing would commonly occur. This forest was about as tame as things could get; there were no apex predators that lived in White Tail Woods, nor were there any strange phenomena.

Birds flew out of trees as little four-legged mammals scurried out of their hiding places. The air was charged with energy, and it ran up the animal's spines and tingled on their skins. They were all spooked by the explosion, no doubt, and were not keen on sticking around to find out what had caused it.

Despite being incredibly loud, there didn't seem to be any permanent effects. Any of the surrounding objects were not charred or damaged, besides a few trees that looked ready to fall. It was like an explosion of force occurred, but there was no effect, so to speak.

However, there came a stir from one of the trees affected by the blast. It was about to topple over, but there was some heavy rustling coming from inside its branches.

"AUUUUUGHHHHHHHHHHH!" a young sounding, but clearly male voice screamed.

A tall, bipedal figure fell out of a tree in the exact center of where the explosion occurred as the large oak went down, hitting his head on a outlying branch and falling into some bushes near the roots of the tree.

The young man shook the dizziness out of his head as he emerged from the bushes, blinking blearily about. A large shadow loomed over him suddenly, and he cried out in alarm as he leaped from the bushes before the tree trunk collapsed onto the bush.

He skid onto a trail near the bush, almost scuffing his hands.

"Good job, Zach. You wind up in the middle of Jackfuckistan and the first thing you do is nearly get crushed."

The human climbed to his feet, brushing the dust on his trousers. He said those things, but in all honesty almost getting crushed by a tree was the least of his worries at this point.

There were three things on his mind more important than that right now.

One, he didn't know where the hell he was.

Two, he didn't have his cell phone or any other means of communication on him. Hell, he didn't have any bit of technology on him at, so he also couldn't tell the time or figure out where he was.

Third, he had no idea how he got here!

Zachary Cricket was nineteen years old, and still in his first year of college. He transferred to a four-year university immediately after high school, and it was safe to say that he needed a long time to adjust to life in college.

His classes and workload were fairly generous, and he was in class well into the night.

He always ended his classes extremely exhausted, and today was no different.  When he got back to his dorm room, he immediately collapsed onto his bed without even taking a shower or changing his clothes.

He had woken up to the sound of a big explosion, and when he opened his eyes he was in the middle of a tree that was clearly about to topple over. He was so surprised by the event that he shouted and lost his balance, plummeting to the ground.

And that was basically the whole story. Nothing glamorous or exciting. He went to sleep and woke up in the middle of a random forest, end of story.

"Still, freaky explosions and random teleportation aside, this isn't the worst place to end up..."

It was true. Him teleporting was the only conclusion his mind could come to at the time, no matter how far-fetched or illogical it was. If he was randomly teleported, he could've ended stranded in a desert or the middle of the ocean or something with no way to get back. For a forest, this didn't exactly seem like the definition of rugged wilderness either. There was a trail right next to the area he had "teleported" into, so he could likely could to safety fairly easily.

He looked around, first to his right and then to his left, before looking down at the trail. It looked like an ordinary trail that hikers would take through the forest. At any case, if something like this was here, it probably meant that there were people around.

He got his bearings.

"March 4, 2013. When I got back to my dorm, it was around 9:15..."

He looked towards the sky. Based on the position of the moon, it seemed to be way past 9:15. At this point, it was probably past midnight or so. How long had he been out?

There was something off about the night sky though. There were too many stars and he couldn't see a single constellation that he normally could name. Not to mention the moon... the moon was large, much larger than normal, and it was full. He remembered last night... the moon was a crescent. The full moon shouldn't have come for a couple more weeks.

"What the hell..."

A cold gust of wind washed over him, and he shivered a little bit. It was getting quite chilly out, and he wasn't dressed for cold or even chilly weather. He needed to find his way out of the forest, and maybe towards a settlement, whether it was a town or a campground or something. He just needed to find people.

And fast...

A Regular Ponyville Evening

Chapter 1: A Regular Ponyville Evening

"Twilight! Twilight!"

The lights turned on inside the Golden Oak Library, shining on a terribly groggy and cranky unicorn that had just been awoken by the shrill voice of her assistant.

"Spike! What?! What is it?" she asked irritably. Her horn glowed, lighting up the magic-powered lamp on her nightstand. Her assistant had already crawled out of his basket and was shaking her furiously.

"An explosion. An explosion!" the baby dragon shouted, waving his claws around in panic. He quickly wore himself out, collapsing on his back with a heavy thud on the ground.

The bedraggled Twilight Sparkle was already sitting up in her bed.

"I know. I'm up! How could I have possibly not been awoken by such a thing? It was so loud!" she exclaimed, as she climbed out of her bed. Underneath her ragged appearance, she wore a look of concern.

As she looked out the window, she noticed several dozen ponies had already made their way onto the streets. Some of them were unclothed, but others who preferred to sleep in nightwear were still dressed in their pajamas.

"Nothing like this has ever happened in Ponyville before. Random explosions in the middle of the night just don't make any logical sense, especially for an explosion of such a size... Spike, did you happen to hear where the explosion came from?" Twilight asked, after turning to her assistant.

The little dragon bounced on his claws like a jittery insect.

"Uh, I was asleep, but when I woke up and heard it, it seemed to be coming from that direction..." he said as he climbed onto the window beside Twilight and pointed towards the western gate of the village.

"Are you sure?"

"Well, it seemed to come from outside of Ponyville, but I definitely heard it in that direction."

Twilight peered out of the window again.

"Over in that direction is White Tail Woods. I'm surprised the explosion didn't occur in the Everfree Forest, but I'm even more surprised that it would happen in a quiet place such as White Tail Woods."

Twilight cantered away from the window, grabbing her saddlebag off of her dresser.

"Come on, Spike! We need to head out into street and see that everyone's alright!" she stated, levitating the baby dragon onto her back. Spike settled into position, while Twilight burst out of the library and onto the streets.

"Twilight!"

Twilight didn't hear her name getting called at first, but the voice called again when she reached the middle of the square. Other ponies were milling around; some of them seemed to be looking at her for direction or answers, seeing as she was an Element bearer after all.

"Twilight!"

She definitely heard her name being called that time, and so did Spike. She recognized its tomboyish quality and the fact that it seemed to be coming from somewhere above them, so she began looking around.

"Rainbow Dash?! Where are you?"

"Right here!" Dash's voice exclaimed. There was a gust of wind, and as Twilight looked overhead she saw the speedy pegasus zoom down towards the ground, touching down next to Twilight just seconds after she had spoken.

Twilight coughed wildly at the cloud of dust that Dash had unsettled, as the pegasus stretched and folded her wings, looking somewhat proud.

"Dash! What are you doing?!" Twilight asked, looking a little annoyed at the rainbow-maned pegasus.

"My guess is... probably showing off," Spike said blankly, as he climbed off Twilight's back.

"Hey, I was just asleep in my house when I heard this huuuge explosion come from somewhere in White Tail Woods. I made my way here as fast as I possibly could, but it seems like everyone is alright here!"

Dash looked just as in the dark about this as everypony else.

"There's no fire coming from White Tail Woods! I don't see any smoke!" a stallion in pajamas exclaimed suddenly. Twilight and Rainbow looked over to where the stallion was pointing. He was correct; there were no signs of smoke or a fire from where the explosion seeming occurred.

"That's strange..." Twilight said to herself, "With an explosion like that, you would think that there would be a fire with so much vegetation around the site."

She trotted forward.

"Still, I'm getting a very weird feeling about all of this..."

Rainbow Dash looked at her oddly.

"You don't think there's something freaky going on, do you?" she asked. Twilight didn't respond to her. Rather, she remained pensive and continued to stare ahead towards White Tail Woods.

"I don't know..." she said, "But whatever it is, we need to make sure this doesn't happen again, and we need to make sure that nopony is in any immediate danger."

"So, what do we do?" Rainbow Dash asked, intent on following Twilight's instructions.

"Hmm..."

After a few seconds of deep thought, Twilight's horn lit up. She disappeared in a flash of purple energy, landing on top of a box in the center of the village, which she used to address the ponies of Ponyville who had gathered in the street.

"Attention, everypony! I'm sure you're all just as confused as I am with regards to the strange explosion that occurred in White Tail Woods not more than ten minutes ago! I think it would be best for all of you if you went back inside your homes and locked up for the night. Rainbow Dash and myself will take over the investigation of this strange phenomenon, so you can all rest assured!" Twilight exclaimed.

She had gathered several dozen ponies, and they were all looking at her. They were used to Twilight Sparkle taking over a kind of leadership role if the Mayor was not present (and she wasn't), but an "investigation" of sorts seemed a little strange for the mare. Nevertheless, they trusted her and agreed to the terms.

"But wait, I saw Pinkie Pie heading for those woods a little earlier. Does she know about this?" a red-maned pony, Roseluck, spoke up from within the crowd.

Twilight's eyes widened, and fear graced her visage.

"What? How long ago was this?!" she barked.

"I-I saw her about fifteen minutes ago as I was coming home from Lily's. She seemed to be wheeling something along with her, but I don't know what it was. All I do know is that it was right before the explosion occurred..." Rose explained.

Twilight looked even more afraid now.

"Okay, everybody get back into your houses immediately! I will take Rainbow Dash and pursue Pinkie Pie right away. Under no circumstances should you leave the house until morning now, okay!" She tried to make her voice sound as authoritative as possible.

"What are we gonna do, Twilight? If Pinkie Pie is out there..." Spike made his reservations known as he appeared next to the box that Twilight was standing on. Rainbow Dash also looked conflicted.

"I don't know, but we have to hope that she's okay. If what Rose said is true, she could've easily got caught up in the explosion. We need to get over there now and find her!" Twilight cried.

Rainbow Dash turned and prepared to zoom off.

"I'll go get the others!" she shouted, but she was halted by Twilight's magic. She struggled in mid-air for a few seconds, flailing her hooves above, before she looked at Twilight in annoyance.

"What?!"

"We don't have time for that! We need to head into the woods right now! Forget about waking up the others!" Twilight demanded of her friend, who looked like she wanted to protest.

However, Dash appeared to let it go, and folded her wings as she hit the ground.

"Alright! Let's go!" Spike said, jumping the gun a little bit. As he turned to take a step, an aura of purple magic grasped his tail and hoisted him into the air upside-down.

Twilight raised the baby dragon to eye level, fixing him with a disapproving glare.

"Oh no you don't, Spike! There's no way I'm going to let you tag along with us while we search for Pinkie Pie! It could be dangerous, and you've been up far too late as it is. I want you to head back to the library and lock the door, and don't answer it for anyone. Understand?"

Spike looked unimpressed, but as Twilight set him on the ground, he agreed anyway.

"Yeah, yeah, I got it..." he said in annoyance. As he ran back to the library as fast as his stubby little legs could carry him, Rainbow Dash once again looked to Twilight for instructions.

With Spike out of the way, Twilight was free to head to White Tail Woods.

"Alright, Rainbow, we don't have much time. Let's go, now!"

"Uhh..."

Zachary considered rubbing his eyes, just to make sure that he wasn't still asleep. To tell the truth, he didn't know if he was ever going to believe what he was seeing right in front of him.

"What the fuck..."

He was currently perched once again in some bushes next to the side of the trail.

"God damn it. I hear something coming... or something being wheeled down the trail, and I lose it immediately! But, it seems I at least had a good reason to stay out of sight..." he thought.

As he peered out of the bushes, he saw that the person walking along the trail wasn't actually a person at all. Rather, it was a vibrant pink... pony... thing that was wheeling a small sky-blue cannon alongside it.

Zachary didn't know why he was breathing heavily; it wasn't like he was afraid of this thing. Still, he was just struck dumb by how odd the pony thing looked. He called it a pony, but it was barely comparable with ponies he had ever seen before. It was simply the most comparable.

For starters, besides the fact that the pony was a shocking pink color, there were a few other features that set it apart. It was smaller, much smaller. He wasn't exactly the tallest guy around, but he doubted that the pony's body would reach past his chest.

And its eyes... its eyes were HUGE, and its muzzle was small. Honestly, it was the pony's face where Zachary was most unnerved The eyes sparkled with curiosity and giddiness, and a wide grin was broken out on the ponies face. This pony could display such a range of emotions, ones that were impossible for a real-life horse to display. Zachary wasn't positive by any stretch, but the pony's face and emotions were so detailed that he could sort of recognize it as a female.

"What the hell is this?"

On her flank was a tattoo of sorts, three differently colored balloons all in a row. He had no idea what that was supposed to be; maybe it was a brand or something? Whatever the case, it didn't look branded into the pony's body the way it seamlessly merged with her fur.

He watched as the small horse began to twitch, a bigger grin coming onto her face. Zachary tensed in alarm; she seemed to be looking for something. He had heard a saying that horses could smell fear, did that mean she was looking for him? It didn't explain why she was so happy though.

The thought unnerved him more, given how disturbing it was to see a pony display such a human-like range of emotion.

"I don't get it... This pony thing; I've never seen anything like her. I haven't even heard of such a thing existing on Earth. Maybe she just has a weird owner or something, and it just a normal pony? That doesn't explain the emotional capability, and I can't shake the feeling that this pony is intelligent... huh?"

While Zachary was lost in thought, he didn't notice that the pony and her cannon had disappeared. A cold feeling settled into his gut.

"Hi!" a cheery voice right next to him chirped.

"YAAGHHHHH!" Zachary shouted in alarm, as the pink pony he had just seen had managed to find her way into the bush not a foot away from him and scared the living shit out of him.

Not to mention- HOLY CRAP TALKING PONY.

Zachary fell on his ass, clutching his heart as he began to breathe heavily.

The cannon fired, blasting Zachary's face with confetti.

"You must be the new pony! Oh wait, but you're not a pony, are you?! But is it okay if I call you the new pony, because even though you're not a pony I've only ever welcomed ponies and I'm gonna treat you like a pony so you're practically a pony!"

Zachary brushed a leaf of confetti off of his face, and continued to stare dumbly at the pony, who was beaming at him. Questions exploded into his brain like firecrackers, and he said about the only thing he could at the moment.

"Uh, w-who are you?"

"I'm Pinkie Pie, the party pony of Ponyville! My Pinkie Sense went off when I was a sleepy-weepy twinkie Pinkie, and I realized that there was a pony in Ponyville I hadn't welcomed yet! So I went to find you, but then some really scary explosion happened right as I was heading into the woods. It really scared me! And then I saw you're some super mysterious creatures I've never seen before that can talk, but that doesn't mean that super mysterious creatures will get left out of their welcome party!"

"Ponyville? What the hell is Ponyville? Who the hell would name a town Ponyville? Unless..." Zachary's imaginative mind was starting to work out possible scenarios to what happened and where he could possibly be. All of a sudden, random teleportation, talking ponies, and a town called Ponyville seemed to give credence to the idea that a place like this didn't exist on Earth.

"Yeah, I just remembered I have to, uh... go somewhere..." he trailed off, creating a lame excuse to the pink pony. Sticking around here and the talking pony would probably just lead to trouble, and he needed to know if there were any people around, though the feeling in his gut told him that that wasn't the case.

As he turned to walk out of the bush, Pinkie was there, hanging upside down from a branch in a manner that seemed physically impossible. Zachary gaped.

"Don't you wanna at least see your party before you go?"

Damn. He wasn't going to weasel his way out of this one so easily.

"What party? It's the middle of the night in some forest... how can there be a party?"  Despite his thoughts telling him this, and despite the fact he was still freaked out by this pony, going along with what she said seemed like the best option for now.

"Uh, hey! Y'know what, sure! I'll accept your welcome party, but I wanted to ask you something. This Ponyville, what is it?" he asked, trying to turn things around. If he couldn't shake off Pinkie so easily, then he should at least get some information while having to deal with her.

Pinkie Pie looked at him weirdly.

"Don't you know? Ponyville is the most super, terrific town in all of Equestria. My gosh, it's like you've never been in Equestria before!" Pinkie exclaimed, rolling her eyes.

"Equestria? Definitely not Earth..."

"Uh, nope... I'm just from... out-of-town.  I was just passing through on my way to... some other place, but I need a place to rest for the night.  But I haven't heard of your little village. Tell me, are there any humans that live in Ponyville?" Zachary asked, hoping and praying that there would be people in this world.

"Humans? What are those?"

And with those words, Zachary's world came crashing around him.