Chaos Rising.

Chapters

A short escort.
Back to the roots.
First of many.
Rainbow Dash crashes (with excellent results)
An ill omen.
The final brother.
All for One...
Preparations.
A small problem.
Chaos Rises.
End of the Game.
Departure.
Prologue.
Epilogue.

A short escort.

The wooden boards of the Princessa's deck slowly and almost impercebtibly swayed below J´zar's feet. His eyes were fixed above the banks of mist in the shores of Chesapeake Bay and his hands were firmly gripping around the gunwale of the frigate's main deck.

"¿What are you looking at, my lord?" Zephir asked him.

"It is always wise to scrutinize the battlefield before bloodshed" J´zar answered, taking the hands off the gunwale and turning around to look at Zephir. The sound of the ship's sails catching the afternoon's wind was now quite familiar to J´zar. The trip from Europe to America had taken him six months due to pirates, privateers, trading complications and bad weather. J´zar believed in God, but he also believed in fate, and it seemed as if fate was trying to tell him not to go there "¿How many of us are in this ship?".

"Five or six, I think, my lord" Zephir answered, counting with the fingers "Enough if they try to board us"

J´zar didn't answer and walked through the deck, accidentaly trampling a man in his way to the opposite gunwale. He stopped and looked over the edge again, watching with hate the french ships stationed between him and the traitor's lands. The Princessa's captain, a man who's name J´zar didn't know approached him.

"The Intrepid has just opened fire and we will do so too soon" he warned.

"¿And you tell me this because...?" J´zar inquired.

"I know we aren't nearly in the same side..." the captain said, reaching for his pocket.

"We both fight for our nation and our king ¿isn't it?" J´zar cut him off.

"...but you have accompanied this ship since we left England, and if this battle goes as bad as I think, I want you to keep this" the captain ignored J´zar's words and pulled out a spyglass from his coat's pocket, then handled it to J´zar.

J´zar looked at the captain and saved the spyglass.

"The Réfléchi is closing on us. I must leave" the seaman finished. His coat made a rustling sound as he ascended to the forecastle.

J´zar looked at the ship the captain had mentioned and noticed it was indeed close to them.

"¡Load the cannons!" the captain yelled from above J´zar. His order echoed in the voice of other sailors as the rumble of metal against metal filled the ship.

"¡Prepare!" the captain ordered yet again "¡On my mark, unleash hell!"

The french warship was now exposing its broadside at the Princessa.

"¡Fire!" J´zar heard before the entire upper deck exploded with the sounds of the cannons.

"¡My lord!" Zephir's voice called "¡Wake up!"

"¿W-wha-what?" J´zar mumbled.

"Good to see you up again, my lord" Zephir greeted him back to the conscious world "Sp´hre needs escorting to her meeting ¿remember?"

"Yes, of course" J´zar moved his lower half away from the bunk he was laying on and into the floor to stand up, using his knees more than his legs.

J´zar walked with Zephir through a very small and simple kitchen and into a long tight hallway. The walls were painted a yellowy white which remembered of unwashed teeth grinning at the armour-clad men which walked between them. J´zar's right pauldron constantly rubbed against the wall due to a light limp. J´zar looked down at his ankle and remembered he had earned that wound in a different dimension. A nostalgic needle pierced his nerves.

The warriors crossed an arabic arch to get to the dimly illuminated street on which another masked warrior waited them.

"Hello J´zar" the man said.

"Hello Lethe" J´zar coldly answered.

Lethe opened the door of a black limousine and got inside. J´zar had to walk all around the car to open the other door and enter the car as well. On the back seath there were Lethe, against the left door, and the Commander Sp´hre in the middle. She was wearing her full battle armor, unlike J´zar who only had a chainmail robe and hardened leather boots and gloves. But they both donned hefty black iron masks with silver filigrees, except Sp´hre's mask had six horns and J´zar's had only two, a symbol of rank.

"Good night, Commander" J´zar said bowing his head.

"The same goes for you, Principal" Sp´hre answered. Though they had a friendly relationship (J´zar had been there when she was named Commander), they didn't had the confidence to show it in public. Especially with a public like Lethe.

Zephir got in the driver's seat. "No bombs in the car" he announced, turning on the engine and accelerating towards the corner of the street.

"We must be very careful" Sp´hre said "This deal will provide us with enough surgical quality steel how to arm an entire generation of warriors"

J´zar realized the might of such a thing. A generation was the word the Order used to describe the full ammount of men the twenty-two Brotherhoods had.

"But if something goes wrong, Commander" Lethe said with his raspy voice "I always have Wail with me"

J´zar knew he was meaning his flail. It was a tradition for the members of the Order to name their weapons. Sometimes two different weapons had the same name due to an Aspirant's lack of creativity. In the hundreds of years he had fought for the Order, J´zar hadn't named his swords yet.

J´zar looked through the window at the passing stores and kiosks, which were invariably locked with chains, metal curtains or other devices. It was 2:00 AM and in Jerusalem few people were up. "It is curious" J´zar thought for himself "That I saw this city under siege and now I walk through it freely". They had decided that place to conduct the transaction because it was a very important stronghold for the Order and would give them ample opportunities if things didn't go as expected.

J´zar's reveries were stopped when the car suddenly halted. In front of them there was the metal curtain of a warehouse. Two floodlights provided illumination for the door and a small zone of the sidewalk. J´zar, Sp´hre, Zephir and Lethe all got out of the car walked up to the door. Sp´hre pulled a keycard out of her leather pant's pocket. It took her some time to find the hidden pocket between the armour plates, but finally she managed to pass the magnetized stripe through a reader at the side of the door. With a metallic creak, the curtain rolled up, revealing a storage room with a single hanging light which birghtly illuminated the center of the room where four large metal containers layed. A man with a business suit waited them in the center of the light.

"¡Hello!" he said "As you can see, here is my part of the deal. Two hundred and fifty tons of the best steel my company can provide. Now, your part of the deal"

As only answer, Lethe pulled out a briefcase from a puch he had tied around his waist and threw it at the man, who catched it and opened it greedily. Whatever he had looked at, he was very pleased by it. The man closed the briefcase.

"It's a pleasure doing business with..." he started saying.

A strong boom was heard as the businessman's chest was pierced by a bullet fired from an unknown direction.

Back to the roots.

A man wearing a tight fitting jumpsuit colored black jumped from a hidden catwalk which had been hidden in the shadows over the containers. Strapping a relatively small rifle to his back, he rushed past the four warriors, surrounded the containers and crossed a simple aluminium door.

"¡Quick!" Sp´hre yelled, unsheathing her greatsword "¡Zephir and I stay, you and Lethe catch that murderer!"

J´zar and Lethe didn't stay to answer: as soon as Sp´hre finished talking, they furiously stormed after the killer. They couldn't keep up with his speed, but J´zar believed their stamina would be superior to his.

The assassin was now running trough a small street filled with garbage on the floor. J´zar and Lethe quickly followed him. The man in the black jumpsuit suddenly looked over his left shoulder and saw something. He then rushed to the wall he had been looking at and grabbed something which J´zar couldn't see well.

"¡A stair! ¡A goddamn stair!" He thought for himself.

When the Principals reached the stair, the assassin was already at the top of it. J´zar and his companion quickly reached the top as well and saw the assassin sprinting through the rooftops. Running as fast as he could to catch him, J´zar couldn't keep up with his agility. The assassin could simply vault or jump over his obstacles, but J´zar had to find a way around them. Finally, they reached a plain rooftop with no obstacles. The assassin reached the border of the building and noticed the street there was too large how for him to simply jump at the other side.

"¡It's over!" J´zar told the man "Surrender, and death will not reach you by my hand"

The man turned around. Even though his face was concealed by a mesh of black fibres, J´zar could notice he was smiling.

"¿You think so?" The assassin said before leaping off the building.

J´zar gasped and hurried to were the man had been and looked over the edge of the building. He saw the assassin in black jumpsuit grabbing to an emergency staircase at the other side of the street. How the hell had he managed to jump that much was a mystery for J´zar.

"I will not allow that foul pig scum to escape" he promised to himself.

He went back to the begginning of that rooftop and ran at full speed towards the edge of the building. But before he could reach it, an ocean of white opened, an ocean he already knew. He wasn't able to think for a moment and ran head first into the portal.

The first thing J´zar noticed that was different to his previous situation was that he wasn't running on a rooftop. Then he noticed it was evening instead of full night. Finally, J´zar realized he was laying on the gorund. J´zar use d his arms and helped himself into his kneels.

J´zar looked at the ground and saw it was dusty. But it wasn't common dust. It looked as if some massive machine had grinded to dust the road of yellow bricks that would lead Dorothy to the Emerald City and then spread the remains all over a standard dirt road.

J´zar stood up and looked around.

With a gasp, he realized he had returned to the world which he had left almost a year ago. The world inhabited by those strange creatures which called themselves ponies. He looked at were the yellow dirt road took him to and gazed upon the main plaza of Ponyville, filled with mares and stallions of diverse colors and species. It wouldn't take too long before they noticed he was there.

"¡Hey there, Jazzy!" a happy voice greeted him "¿Thought you could drop by here without saying hello, huh?"

"Hello there, baker" J´zar said turning around to look at the pink mare which stared at him "It is astonishing for me to find myself here yet again"

If Pinkie Pie noticed how surprised he actually was behind his mask of impassivity, she didn't say anything about it.

"Well, ¿why don't we go warn the other gang members about this?" she suggested, a permanent smile on her face.

"If you adivice so" J´zar accepted, shrugging.

Pinkie Pie led J´zar through the main street and into what seemed to be a hollowed out tree. A balcony popped out one of the bigger branches. Pinkie stopped by the door and knocked. A sound of hooves against wood came from the inside as the door opened.

"¡Oh, Pinkie! ¡I didn't expect you! ¿What is it?" a voice J´zar hadn't heard in a year sounded from the inside.

"¡Come and see it for yourself!" the pink mare answered.

Twilight Sparkle's lavender head popped from the doorjamb.

"¡Oh my!" was her first reaction "¡J´zar!¡I didn't expect to see you ever again!"

"Neither did I" J´zar said.

After a few questions and salutes, they set off for the town's boutique (even though J´zar wouldn't stop calling it a tailor shop). Rarity's reaction was similar to Twilight's, except the fashionista had acted in a slightly more formal way.

"¿Do you want to come in for a cup of tea?" Rarity asked.

"No thanks, we are looking for our other companions" J´zar explained "¿Would you come with us?"

"Why yes, dear, I would love to" she answered, accompanying them outside.

Then they went to find Fluttershy. On the way, they crossed Sweet Apple Acres and found both Rainbow Dash and Applejack resting besides an apple tree. The pegasus was laying over the treetop eating an apple while Applejack spoke to her.

"...an' they crashed into mah" when she noticed her friends apporaching her, she stopped talking "Oh, hello there friends ¿how hav ya...?". However, when she saw J´zar standing almost twice her height among them, the farmer stopped mid-sentence again.

"Hello there, J." Applejack said, almost spitting the words. J´zar had expected her actions towards him to soften after the time separated, but it seemed that the time without him hasd only given Applejack more time to reflect on what was wrong about J´zar.

"¡J´zar!" Rainbow Dash said, swooping down from the treetop and looking up at J´zar "¿How has time treated you, pal?"

"Better than other years, I must admit" J´zar said smiling and looking down at the cyan pony.

"¿What are ya here for?" Applejack asked.

"This time, fate has brought me here rather than my own will" J´zar said trying to stay as friendly as possible. He would hate having Applejack as an enemy. If it was inevitable, better to smile at the bad weather.

"We have one more to find ¿remember?" Twilight said.

"Fluttershy" J´zar said, remembering the other mare "¿Do you know where she is, Rainbow Dash?"

"Well, last time I saw her" the pegasus explained "she said she had to walk the ducks from the lake to her cottage. So she should be in the town now"

"Let's find her there, then" the warrior claimed. He then hastily walked back to the town, looking over his shoulder to check if the mares were following him.

Fluttershy was in the middle of a street, behind a straight line of small ducks which obediently moved through the street towards the town's exit.

"Okay, that's it" she said to the ducks in a loving tone. When J´zar covered the ducks with his long shadow, they ran off in all directions, scared of the tall black figure. As Fluttershy was very focused on her animals, she hadn't noticed her friends walking towards her "¡Oh, not again! ¡Come back here, little duckies!"

"Hello, little mare" J´zar used the less terrifying nickname he could think of. Fluttershy jumped back and let out a little scream. She had adopted a curled up positon. When she noticed the one standing in front of her was J´zar, the look of fear in her eyes softened a little.

"J´zar" she said, still cowelling and with her common shy voice "¿How...How have you been?"

"Things could have gone worse for me" J´zar said, growling.

"Well, we're all back together" affirmed Twilight Sparkle "So ¿what do we do now?"

"I think we should show him the landmarks in this town of ours ¿don't you think?" Rarity proposed.

"That's an excellent idea, Rarity" Twilight accepted "¿What about if we show hims Sweet Apple Acres the first? He hasn't seen it in full detail yet"

The other mares quickly agreed (albeit Applejack did it reluctantly) and they set off for the place they just had come from. As they were passing near Sugarcube Corner, J´zar stopped without prior notice and looked into a dark hallway.

"¿What are you looking at, J.?" Rainbow Dash asked.

Then, a slow and chilling voice spoke, slowly dragging each letter, savoring them.

"¿Thou dare to call thyself a knight, oh, neatly garnished sir, of glossy cape and magnificient surcote? For there are many who would rather die for their own than to fight for thine knighthood" the voice claimed.

J´zar turned around.

"A legend meets another" he said "¡But you weren't meant to meet dawn ever again!"

First of many.

The creature which had spoken came out of the dark alley it was in, revealing itself to the group. The mares gasped.

It looked like a common man in an entirely white straitjacket. The creature wore a hood and a short cape of the same snow-white than his straitjacket. The creature's arms weren't restrained by the straitjacket, as it wasn't tied. However, the most disturbing thing in his body were his hands. These looked normal at first, but then the mares noticed he had no fingers. In place of those, he only had piano string-like cables. They constantly twitched and swirled, as if they were worms crawling towards a rotting body. Even though they couldn't see its face, the creature was clearly male.

"I expected thou to receive me in such a fashion" the strange character said, tilting his hooded head.

"You sound just like..." Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes.

"Silence, maggot" interrupted the creature, suddenly straightening his head.

"Well, that's new" the daring pegasus admitted.

"For thousands of years thou have kept us locked in a cold purgatory. For thousands of years, thou have tried to keep a god chained by thine feeble webbing. Those days are long gone and we shall rise yet again. Chaos was the beginning, and now he shall be the end" continued the white figure "Revenge will be attained, no matter the cost"

"That explains why you are here" J´zar said, still pointing his sword at the creature "But I am still intrigued as how you got in this dimension"

"It was easy. The Maw has a very blurry border with other realms. Using our godly skills, we simply tore open space and time, trying to get in thine dimension. But we couldn't as thine pathethic Order's spell burned like molten bronze in our consciousnesses. So I had to create a second plan. We ripped asunder the fabric of reality yet again, this time into this particular dimension,as we knew it was the weakest one" the creature mockingly explained.

"¡Hey!" Rainbow Dash yelled, but she was silenced by J´zar's wary stare.

"But of course, there were flaws in that plan as well. It seemed some other inhabitants of the Maw had came here, and we couldn't afford them to destroy this dimension, we needed it to latch into thine" the creature started to slowly walking up and down the small portion of land that separated them "So when Ix appeared, I summoned thou to kill him. I knew thou would return to thine dimension in due time. Duty is rather predictable, as thou can see"

"I do see. But you didn't expect me to return here, ¿now did you?" J´zar said, slightly lowering his blade.

"No. I didn't. But of course, such a thing can be fixed easily" the creature said.

"Wait, wait, wait ¿Who the hay are you?" Twilight asked quite hurriedly.

The creature turned towards her.

"My name, is that of the one who moves the threads, who cleaves security asunder leaving but a sea of doubt on its wake. My name is the one who means deceit, the one which calls for lie and summons conspiracy. I am the Trickster" the aforesaid seemed to vibrate with pride.

Taking advantage of Trickster's momentarily distraction, J´zar leaped forward, sinking his blade into Trickster's chest. The sword quickly seared flesh and bone piercing his body cleanly from side to side. Trickster looked down at the blade plunged into his heart (a crimson flower was starting to paint itself around the bloody blade) and started laughing. J´zar tried to jerk the blade off from Trickster's chest, but it was firmly locked in place. Suddenly, Trickster's wire-like fingers started to extend beyond any human's reach, quickly coiling around the blade, even though his hand didn't move.

"Fool" he said, effortlessly extracting the sword from his chest using only his fingers. The wound started to mend extremely quickly. Muscle welded again and blood returned to Trickster's veins. In seconds, there was no sign of there being a wound "No mere blade can kill a god"

J´zar attempted to drop the sword, but the seemingly sentient wires crawled over the blade, into the hilt and then wrapped themselves around J´zar's hand. Trickster moved raised his arm over his shoulder and the wires obeyed, hurling J´zar five meters behind him. The warrior landed in the ground and didn't move. Trickster advanced towards him. J´zar waited until he was very close and then stabbed Trickster's foor with one of his many knives, even though it had no visible effect.

"¿Don't thou realize I am unkillable by a simple sword?" Trickster mocked. This time, the wires surrounded J´zar's chest, spreading like a web. They raised him up to Trickster's face.

"How lucky I have something better then" J´zar said, pulling from his pant pocket something which looked round. A loud "click" was heard and a blinding flash of light ensued. When the mares regained their sight, J´zar was the only one standing in the middle of the street. On his right hand there was a bloody knife, and on his left, a strange orb which seemed to be made entirely out of silver.

"Paper" he said "Paper and ink"

J´zar hurriedly wrote a few words in the vellum scroll Twilight had given him. He had lost some practice using a feather to write, but he was faring better than what he had hoped:

"Danger. Chaos is awake. Come through the portal -J´zar" he wrote.

"Done" J´zar said, folding the scroll into a square "This must reach my dimension"

"¿Who whas that "Trickster"?" Twilight asked.

"Yeah, he spoke very freaky" Rainbow Dash said.

"He was a piece of Chaos" J´zar said, quickly walking towards the town's end "And he is the greatest threat this dimension will ever see"

"¿Chaos?" Twilight Sparkle pondered, and then affirmed "We have faced chaos once"

"¿Oh, really?" rebutted J´zar "¿Did you faced Chaos, the cosmic deity which inhabits every universe even before it exists, or did you face chaos, raw disorder?"

"I...I..." Twilight Sparkle was speechless "I couldn't say"

"Exactly. "This" Chaos I have to deal with now is of the former kind. He was here when this universe didn't exist, and he is the one who created this dimension" J´zar explained.

"¿Created it? ¿Why would he do that?" Rainbow Dash inquired.

"Chaos creates realms to feed in them" J´zar said "He created my realm to "eat" it. But the Order casted great spells to prevent him from doing so. He swore to destroy my dimension, and it seems he is willing to consume this in order to comply his oath"

"¿Magic? ¿Is there magic in your dimension, J´zar?" Twilight asked.

J´zar stopped and looked into her eyes.

"¿Magic? Yes, Twilight, there was once magic in my world, around the days of my birth. But with time, the ones who practiced it died, the sounds of its words were forgotten, and the runes emblazoned in stone were erased by weather. Magic, in my world, is now nothing but a dusty bone" J´zar admitted "However, the spells I am speaking about were made hundreds of years before my birth"

They had reached the white portal which J´zar had crossed to reach Equestria. The warrior threw the piece of paper at it, praying for the portal not to disappear. The white square met the much whiter circle and disappeared without sound.

"Last question" Twilight said "¿What is that orb you used to defeat Trickster?"

"Oh. That" J´zar said. It was a great secret of the Order, the existance of the silver orb, but since he had told so much to the mares already... "It's a relic of the Order, found in the year 1734. We didn't knew what it was at first, but the crypt we found it in said it could be used to trap evil spirits in it. Sp´hre, my Commander, gave it to me with the mission of protecting it until we could find an use to it. It seems it is good at trapping evil spirits after all"

J´zar rolled the orb in his hand and showed the mares a single small button it had.

"Once you press it" J´zar explained "You cannot turn back"

"¿What now?" Rainbow Dash asked. It was becoming a bad habit of her to ask that question.

"Chaos was split in several pieces. I have imprisoned one. I presume the others don't have Trickster's accuracy when travelling through dimensions, or they would be here as well" J´zar grinned maliciously "Let the hunt begin"

Rainbow Dash crashes (with excellent results)

"¡¿W-What?!" Twilight Sparkle was clearly surprised "¡¿You are going to hunt them?!"

"That is my plan" J´zar drew one of his swords and started sharpening it with a whetstone.

"¿But how are you going to find them?" Twilight asked.

"Their brother will guide me to them" J´zar looked at the silver ball in the ground. He dropped the sword and the whetstone to grab the orb "¿Are you there, Trickster?"

The unexpected happened. A metallic voice answered from the inside of the silver orb.

"¡Of course I am here, maggot!" Trickster still dragged each letter "¡Let me out so I can rip off thine arms and ram them down thine throat!"

"I need your help first" J´zar remained inscrutable in face of the horrible threats Trickster kept yelling at him "You must lead me to your brothers"

"Give me one reason to do it, and so will I" Trickster answered mockingfully.

"Because if you don't I will keep you locked inside this thing until Judgement Day" J´zar said.

"Fair enough. Besides, it will be very entertaining seeing my borthers murdeer you" Trickster let out another cackle.

As if obeying an awaited signal, J´zar got up, picked up the whetstone from the gournd, grabbed his sword an sheathed it. He raised the orb in one of his hands.

"¡Wait for me!" Rainbow Dash said, galloping towards the warrior.

"¿You want to come?" J´zar looked surprised.

"¡No way I'm missing this chance of going on an adventure!" she answered.

"We could die" J´zar warned "And it won't be easy"

"¡Hey, if it was easy, it wouldn't be fun! ¿right?" Rainbow Dash looked up at him in a rather arrogant posture.

"¡Good luck guys!" Said Twilight Sparkle.

Suddenly, a flash of white light engulfed the entire world, and after that, everything turned into darkness.

J´zar and the mares landed in the middle of a common street. To their left and their right, skyscrapers standed still like grey guardians of an inmense treasure. Cars of all colours, shapes and fabrications lined the sides of the street. Beneath their feet rested cold concrete, forever silent while men and machine alike treaded upon it. J´zar rose up, and like it happens with the great felines, his sruprise quickly boiled into anger.

"¡TRICKSTER!" he roared at the silver orb, and his scream crossed the street echoing in the glass windows of the buildings "¡YOU DID NOT TELL ME YOU WERE GOING TO TAKE US HERE!"

"I did told thou, warrior" Trickster sounded amused "I told thou that I would, not when"

"¡Now we are all stuck here because of you!" J´zar seemed less angry, but with his black armor and tall shape, he hadn't lost his imposing figure "¿Who of your brothers resides here?"

"Typhon of course, the Stormcaller" Trickster answered without doubt.

The sky looked leaden and angry indeed. Massive clouds colored in various shades of grey and black crossed it propelled by great winds which howled through the empty-looking street.

"¿Where are we?" Twilight Sparkle asked.

"Yeah ¿where?" Rainbow Dash followed.

"¿Where have ya brought us?" Applejack seemed to be implying something.

"First, I have not brought you anywhere. Trickster did it" J´zar tried to keep his anger at bay "Second, if I am right, this street is one of the many this city must have. However, this place seems to be dead empty, which contradicts the previous statement of this place being a city"

J´zar turned around and inspected the street. It looked like any other city street, with a few shops in each sidewalk and the entrances to apartments buildings scattered between them. J´zar had treaded such places for many years, but this time the familiar location was lacking the condemning (or amused) eyes of the persons who stared at him, surprised of his armor and scabbards.

"¿What's he looking at?" Applejack whispered in Rarity's ear.

"Probably searching for something to use as a landmark" Rarity answered in the same low tone "¿Why?"

"Who knows what's hes her fer" Applejack sounded alarmed.

"He told us he didn't came here willingly" Rarity said "¿Why shouldn't we trust him?"

"¿Who conceals his face but a criminal, huh?" Applejack had returned to her implying tone.

"Maybe I'll ask him about that" Rarity still sounded sure on his friends.

J´zar was still trying to know where to go. If they couldn't find Typhon, they couldn't trap him. But finding him would be quite hard. A lightning soared through the storming sky above him, but J´zar didn't pay attention. Due to the clouds and the wind, it was expectable for a few thunders to break the otherwise complete silence. But then, a sound of cracking wood and breaking stone filled J´zar's ear, and he knew those sounds were hardly related to lightning.

"¡J´zar, look!" Twilight said, prompting him to look at the other side of the street, where the sound had came from.

One of the citie's buildings was crooked, one of its base pillars blown to smithereens and a smoking hole in place of the middle section's facade. J´zar ran towards it quickly, but not so fast how to leave the mares behind. Rarity tried to catch up with him as they ran, panting due to an effort she wasn't used to.

"¿J´zar?...May I...¿Ask you a question?" she said, breathing heavily.

"Yes" J´zar payed little attention"

"¿What's...the mask...for?" Rarity asked between breaths.

"To make my enemies fear the unknown" J´zar cryptically answered.

They reached the building which had been thunderstruck. The smoking hole was highlighted by a few hanging wires and the smell of charred wood. Besides the building standed the only other living creature in that dimension: A man, no taller than the average, dressed in black leather pants and dress shoes, covered by a green leather duster. The man turned around, revealing his face.

There was no face. In place of it, there was only what could be best described as a raging storm. It constantly swirled, making the black smoke it was made of weave, creating new and monstrous sketchs. His hair was arranged in a bush of dreadlocks, colored icy white, as if they were made of snow, creating a furious contrast between white and smoky black. Below his green leather duster, he wore what seemed to be a gown made of tornadoes, lightnings and other natural disasters (tsunamis, eruptions, hurricanes and many more).

"My name is Typhon. I am the doom of worlds" he announced "And you, J´zar, ¡will give me the orb that holds my brother!"

"¡You don't speak like Luna!" Rainbow Dash said surprised. J´zar couldn't help but wonder who Luna was, but he reminded himself there were more important matters to attend right now.

"¿You mean that eldritch dialect my brother utilizes?" Typhon said in response "No, I use more common expressions. If he does that, it's because he likes to exasperate his foes"

"Typhon" J´zar returned to his original purpose "You must return to the Maw. If you do so willingly, I promise you your stay will be neither bad nor uncomfortable"

"I will make you a proposal. Return to your dimension and we will let the Order thrive in the ashes of the Earth" Typhon answered.

"Here's my counter-proposal: Go back to the Maw or I will turn you into minced meat" J´zar pulled his sword slightly out of the sheath to reaffirm his threat.

"Yet again you defy the supernatural with mere steel" Typhon reached forward to grab an invisible object. A shaft materialised in his hand, and in its tip there was a falchion-like blade. The entire weapon was white and crackled with electricity. It looked like a glaive made of lightning "¡Fear the wrath of the storm!"

Without waiting any other word, J´zar roared a battlecry, unsheathed both of his swords and charged forward. His descending slash, capable of splitting an ox in two was stopped by the bright glaive. The metal made a ringing sound against the ethereal weapon. It sounded like a bell being hitted with a sledgehammer. J´zar proceded with a stab to the gut, but Typhon swirled his weapon and deflected the blow. J´zar followed up with a series of quick slashes to the waist, neck and head, but all were blocked. On a particularly dangerous moment, J´zar used one of his swords to attack Typhon's ribs, while almost simultaneosuly striking at his collarbone. The god parried the sword flying at his ribs with the blade of the glaive and used the other side of the shaft to block the second sword with inhuman speed. Typhon swirled his crackling weapon and sent J´zar to the ground completely unarmed. One of J´zar's swords fell on the ground. The other one soared the air and buried into a nearby lampost.

Typhon advanced, coming side by side with J´zar. He held the white glaive just hovering about J´zar's throat. J´zar tried to pull the silverish orb from his pocket, but Typhon kicked it away.

"Fool" Typhon said "We do not hit the same stone twice"

Typhon raised his head and looked at a speeding meteorite flying towards him. It seemed Rainbow Dash had charged forward in order to ram Typhon. The latter almost lazily swinged the blunt tip of the glaive upwards, striking the pegasus right under the chin as she was just a few inches away from him. Rainbow Dash traced a nearly perfect obtuse angle as she passed above Typhon and crashed into the smoking hole, hitting another major structural hotspot.

"Another fool" Typhon pointed the glaive back at J´zar. He didn't noticed the already weakened structure was starting to dangerously bend outwards, almost about to fall. The mares had noticed and had quickly gotten out of the block "¿Any last words?"

"¿Is it not amazing how falling buildings save my life?" J´zar said these words and used the only close combat technique he knew. He pushed himself towards one side using one leg, kicked Typhon in the back of the knee with the other, got up taking advantage of the momentum and ran away just as the cracking sound of metal frames and construction materials lashed through the air. Typhon was soon buried under an avalanche of debris.

But J´zar knew victory hadn't been attained yet. The cairn started to shine like a firefly before exploding in a million pieces. In the middle of ground zero Typhon was kneeling, his entire body crushed under the weight of the building, holding J´zar's sword in one hand and his own glaive in the other. A metal beam pierced his chest and impaled him to the ground. J´zar approached him. When he was right besides him, the warrior ripped the sword off the god's arm and returned it to its sheath. J´zar then grabbed the silverish orb laying where Typhon had kicked it (recovering his other sword in the way), returned to the side of the god and prepared to activate the weapon.

"You will fail" Typhon said lowly "You cannot stop Chaos"

J´zar payed no attention and pressed the button. A blinding flash of light ensued, and Typhon dissapeared.

An ill omen.

J´zar looked around, feeling his body weight more than usual.

"¡Twilight! ¡Fluttershy!" he yelled. However, his equine companions seemed to have vanished. But that was expectable when a building was about to fall on top of you, J´zar thought "I trapped the shard of Chaos, you can... ¿how was it said?... ¡oh, yes, come out! ¡That's it! ¡You can come out!"

J´zar started to look among the rubble. He eventually found the mares, all in different places. Except for Rainbow Dash, who was still missing. The mares said things when he found them, but J´zar didn't payed much attention. He was worried. ¿If his skills couldn't stop a shard, how was he going to win?

"¿Saved the best for the last, huh?" the only voice J´zar wished to hear ringed, tired, but not very hurt. J´zar looked at his friend. Rainbow Dash was standing in the place where the top of the building had been. Now that floor was entirely barren, with a few metal rebars sprouting off the destroyed pillars like the teeth of a monstrous being. Rainbow Dash swooped with elegance from the ruins of the skyscraper and soundly landed in the concrete floor.

"¿Shall we move on?" Trickster said from inside his prison.

"You sound too happy" J´zar would rather be on guard from the very beginning.

"Just because one of my brothers failed it does not means luck won't fail thou next time" Trickster indeed seemed to be joyful. Maybe he had been somehow reunited with his brother.

"Onwards I guess then" J´zar grabbed the orb firmly.

Another flash of light invaded J´zar's sight.

Yet again, the place where they had appeared looked grim and grey. But this time, it was different. Instead of towering buildings, now they were surrounded by a small row of trees, with the short, cropped grass at their feet. The sun was shining, and a towering metal construct, almost 900 feet tall.

"¿The Eiffel Tower?" J´zar thought, looking at the iron colossus "¿Why do we keep appearing in this dimension?"

A small breeze ran through the field. There was only one place that could be.

"The Field of Mars" J´zar said "Another famous place from where I come. Why we are here I cannot tell"

"Idiot ¿Thou demand me to bring thou to my brother and then thou disown my skills?" Trickster yelled, offended.

"Your brother I cannot see" J´zar answered.

"He is here, even if hidden from the eyes of those too unworthy how to find him" Trickster affirmed.

"Let us find him ¿shall we?" J´zar didn't even look at the mares as he walked through the small extension of grass keeping them from the metal tower.

Walking through a plain of grass had never been so stressing before, thought the mares as they reached one of the metal legs holding the tower in its place. The shadow it casted made the place under it refreshing and rather cold. J´zar heard a small hiss, such as the sound of something falling through the air. He realized something was wrong.

"¡To the center! ¡Get away from the sides!" he screamed.

Just in time. Seconds after his scream, the ground in front if the warrior crashed open and stones flew around as a black object crashed into the concrete. Whatever that thing was, it was heavy. J´zar looked at what had caused such commotion. He gasped, for he had seen that attire many times before.

Before him there was a man dressed in a black robe which seemed to be covered in wax. His boots and pants were equally protected, and in his right hand there was a large stick, almost a meter long, made out of oak wood with stylized carvings of runes and spells. The robe's hood was put on, hiding the back of the man's head. He wore a cape made of cotton, which also seemed to be covered in wax. Finally, so as to mark it as something horrible, a mask concealed his face. It wasn't a mask which reassembled an human. It covered his entire faced and was held in place by invisible straps. The mask was made of ivory, carved as well in runes and sigils. The strangest thing about it, however, was its shape. It had no mouth not nose, only a long beak-like protrusion. The holes for the eyes the mask had were filled with two obsidian gems. The shard of Chaos rose up to his feet and rested on his stick.

"Hello J´zar" the creature said, looking at the warrior with its crystal eyes "I am Haures, the Sower of Plague. I would like you to give me my two brothers"

"¿Will any of you come willingly with me or will I have to fell every single one of you?" J´zar wasn't sure he could defeat another one, but Haures didn't need to know it.

"If you seek defeat, defeat you will have" Haures stood on his own feet and grabbed the cane as if it was a longsword "But of course, there is no need for such..."

"¿Are we going to fight or not?" Rainbow Dash interrupted "Because I'm getting pretty bored over here"

"I guess so" J´zar said.

He slowly walked in circles around Haures, waiting for the inevitable attack. However, there was no attack.
Haures stopped walking and simply stood still. He didn't move at all, and returned to standing on his cane.

"This is senseless" he said "I do not wish to spill blood without need"

J´zar was still wary, and kept both of his swords pointed at him.

"¿What do you mean?"

"I shall go with you. Without a complaint" Haures sound bothered " Now, take me to my brothers"

"¿So easily?" J´zar had learned that things so good could only be a blatant lie "¡I do not believe you! ¡Stay away!"

Haures had walked closer, and J´zar pointed his sword at him again. But nonetheless, Haures had already grabbed the orb and used it to trap himself. The blast of light almost leaves J´zar permanently blind.

"¡God damn it!" J´zar brayed.

"¿How could this be wrong?" Rainbow Dash said "After all, it was easier than what we thought, ¿right?"

"When things are so easy, it is a trap" J´zar kept lookingall around, waiting for something horrible to happen.

"¡Oh, let's just go home and be done with it!" Rainbow Dash was hovering above him with a confident stare.

"I agree with the foolish mare" Trickster's slow voice said "I am tired of failed attempts. Confine us to our prison so that we may think yet again of a new one"

J´zar said nothing as another blast of light was born in front of his eyelids.

The final brother.

J´zar and the mares appeared, yet again, in a manmade structure, this time a skyscraper. The building had at least seventy stories.

"¿Where are we?" asked Rainbow Dash.

"He...He..." J´zar was confused. ¿Why Trickster didn't bring them back to dimension where the mares had been born? "Trickster..."

"I forgot something, mere mortals" Trickster aclaimed form his metallic prision "I couldn't allow you to forget my big brother"

Trickster laughed with his characteristic insane pitch. J´zar felt a chill running dow his back and he noticed how his eyesight sharpened to notice anything unusual. But he failed to see anything, except the fackt that the floor they were in was entirely empty save for the pillars connecting it to the next floor. Another strange thing was the lack of stairs or elevators leading into that floor. J´zar wondered why would someone put such an empty space in the middle of a building. Then he realized that since they had just traveled through dimensions, essentially everything was possible.

"¿Did he just said something about another borther?" Twilight Sparkle said. She and the other mares then started a very quick discussion, but J´zar payed no attention. He had just seen what looked like avery large shadow passing over the building. He couldn't hear well because of the mare's arguing.

"Silence" He said with strenght, and the mares almost instantly went quiet.

"¿What is it, J´zar?" Twilight said, walking over to him.

"I think..." J´zar heard a low cutting sound, like a wing running through air. The mares noticed, but they didn't care much, thinking it was the wind or something similar to it. BUt J´zar knew his luck too well how to be fooled so easily.

"¡GET DOWN!" he screamed, grabbed the nearbiest mare, (who turned out to be Rarity) and threw her to the ground. He then followed her into the concrete floor. He prayed for the other mares to obey his command.

He heard the crash before feeling it. J´zar heard the sound of something very large hitting one side of the building, and the shattering of glass. J´zar then felt the small pieces of debris hitting his shoulders, back and legs. J´zar smelled a terrible scent of blood and decaying flesh, but he still found the strength to raise his eyes and look at what had hit the building.

It looked like a huge bat. But it was not. To begin with, the piece of chaos had no hair. Second, it had a wingspan of at least five meters.

The creature used the talons in its wings to crawl into the hole it had just made in the building.

J´zar quickly reached for his sword, but the monster leaped and pinned him to the ground before he could do so. Whatever that thing was, it had amazing strenght. J´zar used his free hands to barely manage to hold the creature's great jaws open in front of his face. Ordering his thoughts, J´zar smashed a knee into the beast's neck and pushed the head away from himself. The monster tried to sink his gargantuan fangs into J´zar's chest, but the warrior had already slipped between a small space between the leathery wings of the beast and the floor.

"¡Turn around, fool!" Tricksters voice said, and, surprisingly, the beast obeyed.

"¡¿That thing is your brother?!" J´zar yelled, finally unsehathing his sword "¡¿Does he even have a name?!"

"I think it was something with J... But no, I cannot remember" Trickster said.

J´zar had no more time to speak as the giant bat turned to him and charged again. J´zar pulled out the orb from his pocket and activated the device. The monster was engulfed by the flash of light, but when J´zar managed to see his enemy, the creature was merely stunned. However, it quickly recovered and rampaged towards J´zar yet again. The man readied his sword. The monster jumped on him, and J´zar felt his body hitting the ground, as his legs pushed against the chest of the creature. J´zar had his face (yet again) below the maw of the beast. J´zar used one of his hands to forcefully stab his blade into the exposed throat above him. Droplets of blood fell on his face. It refused to die, however, and J´zar was now locked in palce, since the only thing holding the beast from ripping him to pieces was his sword. J´zar used the free hand to forcefully slam the orb against the bellie of the monster. His armored finger managed to accidentally press the button and another flash of blinding light ensued, but this time, the creature finally dissappeared.

J´zar stood up. He looked at the orb in his left hand, now containing all the pieces of chaos.

"Come on, Trickster" J´zar whispered "Take us back to the dimension we started. I want to be there before dinner"

J´zar and the mares appeared in the outskirts of Ponyville, but yet again the scenery had changed. This time, it was almost full night, and it was snowing. The snowflakes started to perch on J´zar's armor as if they were a flock of white birds. J´zar barely had time to think about everything that had happened when he heard several muffled screams and he returned to reality suddenly.

He quickly saw what had impressed the mare so much.

A crowd of men and was reunited, forming a circle around a campfire. Around them there were many tents, standing like trees in a forest.

J´zar advanced towards them with determination.

"¡¿Who goes there?!" one of the men asked when he heard J´zar and the mares approaching. He got up and turned around, pulling a knife from his sleeve.

"It is J´zar who speaks, your Principal, I think" J´zar hadn't stopped walking when the other man spoke, and he was now standing in front of his listener "I have to talk with Sp´hre"

The watcher looked at him and quikcly adopted a respectful tone.

"Of course, my lord. Follow me" he said as he walked away.

J´zar quickly followed, and so did the mares.

All for One...

The soldier guided J´zar and his followers through the camp, dodging the tents that appeared in their way with a skill born only from constant practice. They took longer than it would have been normal, as J´zar and the others often had to pull Pinkie Pie out of the tents she would gleefully look inside. What would have commonly took J´zar a few minutes this time lasted over half an hour. He quite bitterly remarked how bothering the delay was, but quickly felt guilty for being so harsh with those who weren't used to reports nor the constrictions of disciplined life. "¿What is happening to me? I generally don't feel awful for my words" he reflected later. But, even with the delays inherent to Pinkie Pie's prescence, they managed to reach the center of the small camp.

However, the time it had taken them to cross the camp also pleased J´zar. The camps of the Order, even the smaller ones, were desgined to make any assailant have to go through multiple layers of tents, each one stocked with warriors, only to reach the very center of the storm, where it could be easily surrounded and terminated.

"A perfect defense" J´zar said to himself "That is if the enemy doesn't simply trample over the tents, of course"

"¿What did you say, dear?" Rarity asked with curiosity.

"Nothing important" J´zar answered, and he suddenly lowered his head and frowned "It will not matter once this is over"

"Speaking of which ¿where are we going to put that?" Twilight reminded him, referring to the silverish orb the shards of Chaos were encased within.

"Where am I going to put that, you mean" J´zar was now being clearly aggressive "But I am not sure if it will be here or in my dimension. I have to speak with Sp´hre"

"¿Why would you leave it here?" Twilight asked. She didn't ask about the other person because it was quite obvious she or he was J´zar's superior.

"Here, it will be away from the hands of men. For some reason, everything my race touches rots within moments" J´zar grimly claimed "But, on the other hand, if we leave it here, it will be less protected"
This time he didn't feel bad about telling them how weak their army looked to J´zar. He hadn't even seen them in battle, but he already knew (or thought, to be precise) they probably fought like paraplegic groundhogs. ¿How could people who trembled at the mere sigth of a dead body be warriors, or even soldiers? He still remembered with hate the dread in the eyes of the Guardsman he had seen in his previous visit to Equestria.

"As you see, the only option is to speak with my superior" J´zar said. They hadn't moved a lot from were the watcher had left them. They were still in the over three hundred feet wide circle which encompassed the main tent. The huge leather structure was at least three times the width of the other tents, and had two times their heigth. Around the circle there were also several other differently shaped tents. Particularly outstanding was the long and narrow one, which was very close to an almost perfectly square tent. And away from them, there was a "T" shaped tent whose entrance was closed by a long rope passed through many eyelets.

"Wait me here" the warrior announced "I will speak with Sp´hre and be back soon"

His previous anger was nonexistant now, and the young ponies wondered how could someone change so swiftly.

"You can go to the Infirmary to wait, if you wish" J´zar pointed his finger towards the "T" shaped tent they had seen a few moments ago "It is over there"

Without waiting for their answer, he headed towards the "control room" of the campsite and entered with confidence.

The tent's "main hall" was also the resting place of the Sixth Brotherhood's Throne. A long black carpet lead from the entrance to the Throne itself, a twelve feet tall armchair made entirley out of black iron and engraved in sigils and ancient litanies, words and symbols too old even for J´zar to remember. But, being sincere, J´zar barely remembered minor details of things other than the last 60 years of history. The books which spoke about the Throne said it had been forged from the wrenched souls of ten thousand slain enemies. A modern analysis, however, revealed that it was just very thick iron with a black coloration. To both sides of the carpet there were other "doors", the one in the left leading to the personal quarters of the Commander and his (in this case, her) office. The right one leaded to a small meeting room. Looking in retrospective, he noticed how similar this throne room was to the one in Equestria.

In the Throne at the far end of the carpet, there sat the Commander. Sp´hre was hunched over the edge of the Throne, holding the handle of her greatsword with one hand and sharpening the vicious edge with the other. The metal made a rasping sound every time it hit the whetstone. There were some words carved in the flat of the blade:

Night, terror of men.

And below those words a set of runes, the meaning of which J´zar didn't knew

"¡J´zar!" the Commander yelled from the Throne "¡It has been a long time since I last saw you! ¡Three weeks, to be accurate!"

"¿Three weeks?" J´zar was just as surprised as her "That is impossible, Commander. Me and my other companions were out for twelve hours at much"

"Your note was quite confusing ¿Exactly who is this Chaos you speak of?" Sp´hre stopped sharpening her weapon, and looked at J´zar, who proceeded to explain who Chaos was, and what were the potential dangers of his presence.

"But I thought you knew" he said when he finished "I thought you had read the ancient stories of our Order"

"I am not a person who looks much into the past, my friend" Sp´hre said "So, ¿you say you have imprisoned Chaos inside that dusty orb I gave you almost two hundred years ago? That obviously plants us a dilemma..."

"¿Where to leave it?"J´zar interrupted her.

"Exactly" Sp´hre then went silent for a few minutes. "I think we should leave it here. We can always come back and ask for it if in need" she finally said.

"I know where we should leave it" J´zar had planned something in those few minutes of silence "The palace in that city. The first time I came here, I went to a palace. There must be a vault there"

"Yes, of course. Not even them would be that stupid" Sp´hre still looked worried "But ¿who will guide us there? We cannot ride a chariot like you did last time"

J´zar thought of Twilight Sparkle and how she had warned the Princess so quickly during his last hours in Equestria, almost a year ago.

"I think I have the right person" J´zar said smiling "Well...she isn't exactly a human"

Preparations.

J´zar went outside the tent after talking with Sp´hre, but he didn't find the mares right outside.

"Probably in the Infirmary" he thought for himself. J´zar had offered that place as a possible place for them to stay a few minutes because it didn't had anything dangerous inside it (the surgery room was often deprived of all its tools) and it was most likely empty. After all, the Order didn't have many doctors nor patients. Any wounds caused in training or battle were left with little treatment to heal themselves. It was a common belief that pain strengthened both mind and body.

J´zar headed towards the Infirmary. He looked at the tents around him as he walked and felt in home.

"¡My lord!" a familiar voice called him from a nearby "side street".

J´zar looked at the source of the sound and found a happy Zephir quickly walking towards him. Both men shook their hands when they met. The First Marshall of the First Regiment of the Sixth Brotherhood (as that was Zephir's full title) looked happy to meet his lord. It was hard to say through the mask, however.

"¡It feels like a hundred years since we last met!" Zephir exclaimed "¿But what are a hundred years for us, isn't that right, my lord?"

"You are right, old friend" J´zar said, smiling as well. Zephir was over one thousand and two-hundred years old, and he had met J´zar during Charlemagne's campaigns against the Avars, in the eight century. He was of frank ancestry, and a formidable warrior. His preferred weapon, a spear named "Lionslayer". J´zar thought it was a very unoriginal name.

"¿Where were you heading? ¿To see the inhabitants of this dimension that have traveled beside you?" he asked.

"I see the guards keep you well informed" J´zar deduced "And yes, I am going to see them"

"They are very friendly people, I think" Zephir said with nostalgia "Makes me think of my home"

"¿What? ¿Are you telling me that in France people is actually friendly?" J´zar was playing angry. He started to walk yet again towards the Infirmary "¡They treated me like a dead dog!"

"¡That is because you are english!" Zephir laughed.

J´zar and Zephir quickly reached the Infirmary and went to look inside. Everything seemed normal at the place were the tent divided and went in different directions. J´zar turned left to see that the surgery room was still closed, and then right, to the place were most examinations took place.

J´zar entered, and saw some of the mares clutched together, talking. Except for Pinkie Pie, who was up and actively looking inside one of the shelves which held the various drugs nad medicines doctors employed.

"¡Hey! ¡Get your head out of there, baker!" J´zar yelled at Pinkie Pie, who quickly took her head of the shelve and looked at them.

"¡Oh! ¡Hi there!" she said happily "I was just looking for candies..."

"¿Candies?" Zephir was shocked "¡This is a hospital!"

"I know" Pinkie said, returning to scrutinizing the shelf "But doctors always have candies somewhere..."

Zephir looked at J´zar with an expresssion of surprise.

"¿She is crazy, right?" the Marshall asked.

"I think so" J´zar was quick to answer "But that is not why we are here"

"I'm sorry." Twilight apologized "I shouldn't have..."

"It is not a problem" J´zar assured "We just want you to help us"

"¿Help you with what?" the unicorn slowly asked.

"We want to go to the Princess' castle" J´zar explained "To safely store the orb there. And we need you to guide us. You know the way ¿right?"

"Well, yes, I do..." Twilight admitted.

"Excellent" J´zar was vibrant with energy "No matter how many days we must march, no matter how much we must suffer..."

"Don't worry" Twilight interferred mid-speech "It is just a half day away"

J´zar had arranged with Sp´hre that they would stay there for the night and then get up in the morning to have everything packed. J´zar had no objections to this, so hea ccepted and said goodbye to the ponies, not before informing Twilight of when would the Order leave Ponyville.

He headed for his own tent. J´zar was lucky to be a Principal. Such high-ranking officers were the only ones allowed to have their personal living quarters. J´zar's abode was simple and small. It accomodated a common desk, with many drawers surrounding it. On the other side of the room he had a chest which contained all of his trophies; medals, awards and other distinctions taken from slain enemies. However, only the most honorable and worthy enemies received the ultimate honour J´zar could award someone outside of the Order: J´zar would behead them, carefully flense the skin form their skulls, and keep them in remembrance of his gretest foes. That night, J´zar arrived at his "home", and, after taking the heaviest pieces of armor off, such as the pauldrons and breastplate, he grabbed one of his skulls and started to polish it with an old rag. Within minutes, he had made the bone as clean as possible, and so he grabbed the next skull just to polish it. He finished that one. And the next. But when he was about to grab the fifth one, he heard a small rustling sound coming from the outside of his tent. J´zar left the skull in the chest and slowly moved towards theentrance. he pusehd aside the waterproof leather and unsheathed his left sword wit his left hand. J´zar started to surround his own tent. Whatever was making that sound was now behind a set of boxes and barrels which stored food and other supplies.

J´zar quickly leaped over the boxes and pointed his sword downwards, threatening however was behind it.

"¡¿Who are you?!" he asked screaming. He then realized who was he speaking to. Three small mares where before him. One of them had a yellow coat and red mane. The other had a multicolored mane and a white coat. The last one had an orange coat and a violet mane. The second one was an unicorn, and the third one a pegasus. They were obviously children, as they were cowelling against the crate behind them, scared of J´zar's tall and entirely black figure. The man's scream and sword had also likely contributed to their fear.

For some reason, their presence suddenly caused distress and a slight sense of fear on J´zar.

"¡Don't be scared!" He swiftly said, sheathing his sword "¡I do not pretend to harm you! I just thought you were someone else..."

The fillies' fear was lessened by these words, and they dared to space out a little bit more.

"¿May I ask you how you got here and why?" J´zar questioned.

"Me and my friends came here because we wanted to see how thigns looked like" the one with the white coat said.

"I see" J´zar wasn´t entirely sure they were telling the truth, but he would have time to think about that later "¿So, do you have any older relatives I can speak to?"

A small problem.

The next morning, J´zar woke up at 7:00 AM, one hour sooner than what he agreed to meet with the ponies. He did that to ensure he would have enough time to put on all of his clothes by himself, as well as finishing the most mandatory tasks any member of the Order was required to do. The long, tedious work that putting on his armor was made J´zar feel slightly dizzy, but that feeling quickly dissappeared. "I am not the one I used to be" J´zar thought for himself "Perhaps it is age".

Half a hour later, the ponies reached the camp, and looked near J´zar's tent, expecting to find him outside waiting, or to hear the sound of whetstone against metal. But there was a lack of both in J´zar's place. The mares felt surprised that J´zar had forgot or missed an appointment: They always thought of him as a very responsable person.

"¿What are you looking at? I'm over here" J´zar called them from a nearby tent. The warrior had one hand on the hilt of his sword, and the other one was holding a glass filled with something yellow and sticky "I apologize for not being there. I was having breakfast"

"¿You only get juice for breakfast?" Rainbow Dash asked in surprise.

"Actually, these are a dozen raw eggs" J´zar took the glass to his lips and drinked all of it in one go "All you need for a quick and healthy breakfast" he said, cleaning the corner of his mouth with his forearm.

"¿Does it taste good?" Pinkie Pie secretly wished she could have tasted it herself.

"No. It tastes horrible" J´zar lazily answered "But whatever..."

Another member of the Order came out of the tent he shared with other men. He saluted J´zar and moved on.

"¡Hey you!" J´zar stopped the other soldier's walk "Take this to the kitchen" he said, giving the glass he had just emptied to the soldier.

The other man looked at the glass for a moment before nodding and hurrying in a different direction that the one he originally intended to go.

"Well, we should set everything for our departure" J´zar said to the mares "I told Sp´hre to start taking down everything at 8:00 AM so that we can quickly go away"

"¿Who's going to carry all of this?" Twilight Sparkle let curiosity get the best of her.

"Probably some designated carriers" J´zar sounded angry yet again "¿Why is it taking so long? Generally, as soon as the order is issued it only takes one hour..."

"Wait, ¿Are ya telling as we gotta wait one whole hour?" Applejack complained.

"Waiting is easy. Heed my words" J´zar rebutted.

They stood there, watching as the seconds passed. Within a few minutes, men started appearing everywhere, pulling crates or sleeping bags out of the tents. At least ten men entered J´zar's tent as another four waited outside to disarm the tent intself. The men who had gone inside the tent quickly came back carrying the file-filled drawers on their backs, and the other followed them, carrying a desk, a chair, the individual pieces of a bed (pillow, blankets and a mattress) and a chest with a padlock locking it. The other four waiting outside almost mechanically disarmed the tent. The carriers went towards the center of the camp and dissappeared from sight.

The mares had their mouth opened wide. Few times had they seen such effectivity. J´zar looked at them.

"¿What? ¿Have you never seen an army before?" he gently asked.

When the two hundred men that Sp´hre had brought to Equestria were finally prepared (and half of them carrying the belongings of the other half besides their own) they finally started to move towards Canterlot, with Sp´hre and J´zar spearheading the block of armored men. The ponies walked alongside them, to provide guide.

J´zar then remembered something.

"I found your sisters in the camp yesterday night, he said to Rainbow Dash, Applejack and Rarity "You should keep an eye on them, lest they do something far too dangerous"

"Doing dangerous thing is what they do" Rainbow Dash made a gesture very similar to shrugging "Can't go against that"

J´zar didn't ask a lot more, but the mares did. They asked him of his mother (who had died giving birth to J´zar, her only child), of his father (a farmer who died after refusing to join the army of the local landlord), of the places he had been in (from the deep Brazilian jungles to the cramped battlefields of 17th century Japan) and of his family (J´zar had none). J´zar, in turn, didn't ask. The ponies were quite willing to share much personal information, and in less than an hour they had informed him of all the small nuances of their existance.

In the end, before J´zar noticed, their chat stopped in tacit agreement as they reached the doors of Canterlot's palace. Sp´hre spoke with the Princess, who was surrounded by four Royal Guardsman.

"Never even think on clicking that button" the Commander said, offering it to Celestia.

The Princess used her magic to lift the silver orb as she dropped it on her right hoof.

"How curious..." the Princess commented.

And before she could add anything else, before the ordeal could finally end, a descent, a crimson trajectory and a shrieking scream.

J´zar didn't process the scene very well, the screams mixing between each other and weaving a confusing mesh. He saw Princess Celestia laying on the ground, blood coming form her right wrist and her right hoof missing. And standing in front of the fallen alicorn, there was Ix, his hand gripping a two handed axe, stained with fresh blood. The other hand held the silverish orb together with Celestia's hoof.

"Good evening, brothers" Ix said laughing "This dimension is so fun..."

Chaos Rises.

Instantly, every single men and woman in the ranks of the Order unsheathed their weapons, not because they had been orderer to, but because of the hate they felt against Ix. J´zar, however raised his open hand, and all of the warriors stopped their charge even before beginning it.

"You are dead" said J´zar with conviction "I saw you die"

"Wrong. You saw me getting dragged back to the Maw by several cosmic tentacles" Ix was sounded cheerful even in the face of death "And even though it was not a pleasurable experience, I did not die"

"¿Why are you here?" J´zar asked, not expecting to get an answer.

"Chaos promised me power. ¡Power to punish those who had trapped me for over nine centuries in a limbo of agony!" the Arch-Traitor answered, to J´zar's surprise "And once I release him... you will be nothing but ancient history..."

"You were a fool to believe him" J´zar affirmed with his voice tainted with frosty wrath "Chaos will kill you as soon as you he gets out of there"

"¿I have to run the risk, now don't I?" Ix muttered, and his finger moved to click the button in the Orb's pole.

J´zar was faster, though. As soon as he perceived Ix moving his shoulder, J´zar reached for one of the knives crossed over his chest and threw it at Ix's hand. J´zar could almost feel the slender blade cleaving through the air and hitting the Orb with almost perfect accuracy.

J´zar had no match at less than ten feet.

The Orb bounced off Ix's hand and fell to the floor. J´zar jumped and purposefully fell on it, trying to grab it, but failed by a few inchs. He quickly turned around and grabbed the Orb before Ix could even react. With equal speed, J´zar retreated, keeping the Orb with himself.

"¡You are done for Ix!" J´zar yelled "¡We absolutely outnumber you!"

"¿What about a re-match?" Ix slowly said "¿For the old times?"

"¿What?" J´zar hadn't understood that one.

Ix didn't answer. He limited to screaming a single high pitched note. J´zar felt the sound producing intense pain in his ears, and he kneeled, grabbing his own head with both hands. But the sound suddenly stopped, and J´zar was he first to stand up, swords in hand, to murder the First Traitor once and for all.

But he also heard thorugh his still hurting ears the thumping of bare feet on rock, and he turned around to see the Banished, the other traitors who had followed Ix into the Maw. Their deformed bodies were covered only by white rags, except for the hands: in place of fingernails, most of the Banished had nails or small blades crudely inserted into their flesh. J´zar raised his sword and made a sideways cut. One banished fell with its throat slit. But the next one leaped at J´zar and pinned him. The creture who had once been a man ripped the Orb off J´zar's hand (who was wondering how could he be so stupid) and tried to tear it open with its teeth, but predictably failed.

"¡Give it to me, you idiot!" Ix yelled to the Banished. The creature looked up at his master and rushed towards him.

"¡STOP THAT TRAITOR!" J´zar yelled his own order and quickly got on his feet. He saw that most men were battling with th Banished, and a few carried out his order, standing in the way of the running Banished, but Ix caught up with them and killed the soldiers.

J´zar cursed inwardly and ran as well, praying to reach Ix before he could activate the Orb. He didn't made it. Just when J´zar was about to reach Ix, the latter pressed the button in the Orb. Darkness covered every corner and structure, and J´zar could not see anything.

When J´zar regained his ability to see, he didn't see anything different at first glance. The soldiers of the Order got back on their feet and reassumed the fight. Ix and Sp´hre were locked in combat at the feet of the palace entrance. J´zar remembered Princess Celestia was missing a hoof, and after finding Buer (the "battle medic" of the sixth brotherhood) fighting in the front line, he guided the doctor to Celestia.

"The Princess is losing blood at a pace slightly unnerving" Buer said, reaching for his backpack and pulling out a bag which J´zar guessed was filled with medical instruments "I need time and space, ¡move!"

J´zar only then noticed that the six mares were gathered around the Princess' body, looking at her. However, they quickly backed off at Buer's command. J´zar catched a glimpse of something strange, and he turned around.

A fiery figure was standing far away in the road leading to the palace, more or less in the place Ix had aimed the orb at. The thing was made of incorporeal fumes, which could be better described as fire made black and very thick smoke. The body of that creature constantly swirled and writhed, it seemed every single piece of it had a mind of its own and every one wanted to go in different directions.

"Chaos" J´zar said.

Chaos had the shape of a man, but his head had no features. It was only a swirling mass of dark flames, like the rest of his body. At the mention of his name, Chaos looked up directly at J´zar. It cannot be said he was "staring" at J´zar, for he had no eyes. It also seemed impossible for Chaos to hear J´zar from such a distance, "But yet again" J´zar thought "Gods hear everything"

Chaos slowly but surely walked towards J´zar.
Or perhaps he was walking towards the palace.
¿Was he looking for the mares?

J´zar couldn't notice the intentions of Chaos, but he didn't care much. It was over. He had failed.

"¡Retreat!" he ordered as he moved swiftly towards the palace gates "¡To the palace!"

Sp´hre and the others heard him. Chosing to trust in her Principal, Sp´hre pushed Ix with the handguard of her greatsword and repeated J´zar's order of retreat, all while retreating herself. Inside the palace, they would have better chances.

Once inside, the few hundreds warriors of the Order joined their forces with the Royal Guard. "They are not so useless as I thought" J´zar thinked "At least we can use them for cannon fodder"

J´zar wanted to meet with the mares, to inform them of the situation and see if they could get a new plan. Of course, J´zar didn't believed it would work. Chaos was invencible and immortal, but J´zar wanted to try everything he could to save his own dimension.

"Chaos is here" J´zar told them as soon as he found the ponies, they were standing near a stair, with Sp´hre in front of them.

"¿What?" Sp´hre asked.

"Chaos is no longer bound to his prison" J´zar repeated "¿Any ideas?"

"¿Do you have any?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"Not really" J´zar admitted.

"¡Oh, come on ponies!" Twilight said apparently both surprised and exasperated "¿What has saved us from these kind of things before?"

"¿Are you thinking on...?" Rarity looked excited.

"Yes" Twilight Sparkle took a look of determination on her face "The Elements of Harmony"

End of the Game.

J´zar had never heard of anything (or anyone) named "Element of Harmony", but yet again, he questioned his own ability to remember things.

"¿What are these Elements of Harmony?" the old warrior asked.

Twilight briefly explained to him what they were and what was their main purpose.

"I see" J´zar said "I have to..."

"You can warn your superior later" Twiligth Sparkle stopped him "We must act now"

"I concur on that one, librarian" J´zar conceded "Very well. Be quick. I am following"

"¿And why would ya follow as?" Applejack looked carefully into J´zar's eyes.

"If it is true and you are the only ones that can use those weapons, you must live until Chaos is vanquished" J´zar affirmed.

"¿And after Chaos dies?" Rainbow Dash thought it would be terrible to end up eaten by one of the Banished.

"I said he would be vanquished. Chaos cannot be killed" J´zar evasively said.

He fretfully tapped his foot against the floor of the palace. The reason he avoided the question was quite simple: If the Elements worked and Chaos was defeated, J´zar would return to Earth once again. And he was not sad. Unlike the first time J´zar had visited Equestria, from the moment he arrived, a sense of longing came. J´zar wasn't exactly sure why he wanted to be in his home, but it was that way.

"Come on, let us get moving" J´zar hurried his co-adventurers.

The ponies nodded and they led J´zar to a side hallway, very near the throne room. J´zar remembered that one day that door had been locked. The long hallway, flanked by stained glasses of geometric shapes and forms that J´zar did not recognize (although one of them depicted ponies strikingly similar to the ones J´zar was with) ended in a stone door engraved with symbols. A single hole laid in the middle of the stone.

"¡Oh no!" Twilight Sparkle lamented when she saw the door.

"¿What is it?" J´zar said worried.

"¡I totally forgot!" Twilight Sparkle was almost crying "¡Only the Princess' horn can open this gate!"

"You should have warned me back in the entrance" J´zar reprimanded the unicorn "I could have cut off her horn and be done with it"

"It wouldn't have worked" Twilight assured "It needs her particular magic to open"

"¿Is it made of stone?" J´zar asked.

"I think so" Twilight answered.

The man waited no more. Pushing aside the mare, he walked up to the door, extracted a small black bag from one of his many hidden pockets and pressed it against the door. The bag adhered to it. J´zar walked away until he was a safe distance away.

"Stand back" he warned the mares, and waited until they obeyed to activate the bomb's detonator.

The force of the explosion was powerful enough to make the ceiling above them shake and let a rain of dust fall upon the human and the ponies.

All that was left of the door was loose rubble and piles of dust scattered around the hallway.

"Next time, tell the Princess to use thicker stone" J´zar advised between coughs.

Rarity looked at J´zar in reproval, probably thinking it was a crime to mess up such a clean place, but he walked nonetheless with the other into the room. J´zar looked at the intersection he and the mares came from. He winced when he saw Ix standing in the middle of the hallway, about sixty-five feet away from them. J´zar quickly recovered, however, and unsheathed his swords with skill. He took a quick look over his shoulder to make sure the ponies were okay. J´zar noticed they were now wearing necklaces. J´zar returned to staring at Ix with contempt.

"You are not welcome" J´zar spitted at him.

"I am just waiting for a friend" Ix smirked and laughed.

An entire wall of the palace dissappeared without perceivable reason. The flame-engulfed Chaos walked into the hallway before the wall re-materialised. Chaos turned his head towards the mares, looking at them without eyes.

"You" he said. His voice was like a torrent of flames rushing into a wall of stone "You are an anathema"

"Chaos, I have freed you" Ix pleaded to the god "¡You must give me my reward!"

Chaos didn't even move a finger, but Ix catched on fire regardless. All of sudden, flames erupted from every pore in his skin, and the Arch-Traitor screamed in agony for a short time before finally dying. As quick as the fire had appeared, it dissipated, leaving behind only a mound of dust.

"A pathethic bug" Chaos judged "Just like you"

"Use the Elements. Now" J´zar demanded, without looking at the mares.

For a moment J´zar only heard the beating of his heart and the sound of his breath, before a rainbow-colored ray erupted from behind him with a flash of light. The beam struck Chaos in the middle of its body, lifting him off his feet and making him crash a hundred feet away from them. Other than that, nothing happened. Chaos got back on his feet and looked at them again.

"¡I AM NOT ONE OF YOUR PUNY ENEMIES!" Chaos spoke with the voice of someone surprised and offended "¡I AM A GOD! ¡YOUR FEEBLE FRIENDSHIP NOTHING CAN AGAINST MY MIGHT!"

J´zar prepared to die. He just wanted to disintegrate or something similar to that, to avoid the pain of burning to ashes like Ix.
Whend thinking of Ix, J´zar remembered something. Ix had the Orb. The Orb led to Chaos' prison. And the Orb was now among the ashes behind Chaos.

A spark of hope arised within J´zar. The soldier charged forward, apparently at Chaos, who sidestepped to dodge. J´zar jumped when he saw Chaos moving, and for the second time in that day, landed against rock. He frantically searched for the Orb within Ix's ashes, and found it near the middle of the pile. Chaos had noticed J´zar had not tried to charge him at all, and turned around with a fist raised, ready to strike. J´zar in turn crouched and pressed the button in the orb aiming it at Chaos.

The Orb "unfolded". Four different pieces of metal, each one from one quarter of the Orb sprang up, revealing a perfectly flat inside of the ball.

"My prison is no more" Chaos informed, keeping his fist raised "You cannot send me back there"

Chaos swung his fist sideways in a wide arch. One second slower, and J´zar's head would have ended up as bloody pulp against the wall. However, the warrior was quick,and he rolled backwards. Chaos' fist crashed into the wall and left behind a crack. The crack was not in stone however. The crack left by Chaos was white and shimmered with energy. A few tentacles made of a strange ethereal substance stretched from it and tried to grab the closest thing to them.

"A portal into the Maw" J´zar thought.

And he had another idea. If the orb contained something that was no more, perhaps it could be "filled" again.

Chaos closed in J´zar and swung its fist, but this time in a descending motion. J´zar rolled forward and ended near the swirling tentacles of the Maw. Chaos turned around once more to chase his prey, but J´zar was already in action: he opened the Orb pointing it at the crack in the wall. The tentacles coming from the Maw were sucked into it, along with a stream of white energy.Chaos was upon J´zar one more time, and tried to kick him in the chest. J´zar, however, fell backwards on purpose and the attack missed.

Praying for it to work, J´zar aimed the Orb at Chaos and pressed the button a final time.

Two tentacles created from the smae material that had composed them when tey were on a wall erupted from the orb and grabbed Chaos, one from the right arm and the other from the left shoulder. Another tantacle came off the Orb and latched into Chaos' leg. The god struggled vigorously against the tentacles, but he was outnumbered. More tentacles leaped off the Orb as J´zar held it firmly in his hand. Soon Chaos had several tentacles holding each one of its joints, but he still resisted to them. The tentacles started to drag him towards the Orb.

"¡I CANNOT BE DEFEATED!" Chaos yelled in fury "¡I AM A GOD! ¡I AM...!"

He could not speak any more as another tentacle lashed around his neck and pulled along the others, dragging Chaos' leg into the Orb.

The other leg followed.

Then the hips.

Then the chest.

One arm...
...and the other

Finally, Chaos' head dissappeared into the Orb, which snapped shut on its own and rolled from J´zar's hand into the ground. The Orb turned hot red and melted, leaving nothing but a patch of molten metal to be remembered for.

Departure.

There was a short indoors ceremony after the battle. It was presided by Celestia, who had her rigth hoof in a sling.

The fighting outside the palace was short and bloody. Even with superior numbers, the Banished could not match the skill nor the quality of the Order's equipment, and few survived the carnage. Sp´hre was surprised when Ix stopped fighting her to run away. She kept saying "she wanted the fame of having killed the First Traitor", but J´zar consoled her affirming that Ix had surely died a very painful death.

The members of the Order left shortly after. Under the condemning stare of the mares and stallions of Canterlot, they burned the bodies of their fallen on a single large pyre. The smoke made spirals in the air and filtered the sun. The Banished were left were they had been killed, and the janitors had to put the bodies in bags. The ponies were not sure of what to do with them. It was the first time they had to deal with so many dead bodies, and they decided to throw them into a massive pit which was promptly filled with earth. No tombstone is there, not even two crossed sticks. But, as J´zar said when his original travel partners complained, they deserved no "peaceful rest".

The journey back to Ponyville was a silent one, unlike the way from Ponyville to Canterlot. For what seemed years, they walked forward, following the black mass of the Order's ninety-two survivors without saying anything. The ponies, particularly Twilight Sparkle, were perplexed.

"Now I am wondering..." Ponyville's librarian finally said, unable to hold herself "¿Why didn't the Elements work?"

"Yeah, they had never failed before" Rainbow Dash agreed.

"As I have told you a million times before" J´zar grumbled "Chaos is god. He can easily survive mostly anything"

"But the Elements never kill nor destroy" Twilight Sparkle recited. She had read that in one of the many books written about the Elements "They should have just turned Chaos into something else, or trapped him, or..."

"¡Okay,okay! ¡I get it!" J´zar cut her off "Still, Chaos could probably shrug those off"

J´zar didn't understood why would somebody want a nonlethal weapon. For him, there was no point in capturing an enemy, or subduing them in any other way than immediate execution.

"But you managed to trap Chaos ¿didn't you?" Twilight rebutted.

"I used the Maw" J´zar reminded her "It was different"

"¿How so?" Twilight asked.

"Both Chaos and the Maw represent different things. Chaos is what everything was before the dawn of time itself. The Maw is just the frontier between places, an alternate reality bordering every reality. Until today, I thougth the Maw was just that, a place. But now I have seen it crawl towards something with the intent of crushing it. It is at least slightly sentient. I do not know how, I cannot begin to imagine what it is like, but it is alive. And when it came into contact with Chaos, who is utterly opposite to it, it reacted by trying to destroy it" J´zar explained slowly, thinking each word before saying it "That is my guess, but I could be wrong"

"¿And for how long do you think the Maw can hold Chaos back?" Rainbow Dash inquired.

"I think it will keep it at bay for a very long time, if not indefinetely" J´zar theorized "Chaos cannot destroy the Maw. It is too vast how to be simply erased, and it constantly rebuilds all damaged areas. The Maw, on the other hand, cannot destroy Chaos, for he is immortal and invencible"

"¿How do you know all of this?" Rainbow Dash continued.

"Your lavender friend is not the only one who reads books" J´zar said "And I am sure the Order has more books than her library"

They didn't spoke much. Mostly trivialities, and J´zar chose not to pay much attention. The mares made him wonder how could a teenager be so innocent. But J´zar reveled in that, knowing that at least not every part of the Universe was neck-deep in blood spilling.

J´zar's heart skipped a beating when he saw Ponyville closing on them, as if it was some sort of massive train wagon loaded with people, houses and stores. But there was no rail propelling them other than J´zar's feet, and for a reason he didn't understand, he was happy to end this journey. J´zar felt a desire to tread the streets of cities he didn't even knew about. But J´zar understood why he wanted to go back.

J´zar and the mares stood near the portal as the Order's warriors walked towards the portal and dissappeared, one after another.

"Last time the portal closed when you passed through it" Rainbow Dash considered "I wonder why it remains open now"

"I can't answer that either, storm-caller" J´zar admitted "¿The beastkeeper told you everything that happened the last time, did not she?"

"Only that and something about corruption" the pegasus confessed. Fluttershy tried to turn as tiny as possible while looking in fear at J´zar.

"The truth is I cannot remember what is the purpose of the Order" J´zar said, and the ponies looked at him in shock "It happened such a long time ago, I doubt anyone remembers it. My memory is rusty as well, I guess we could put the blame on that too"

"¿Your memory?" Twilight questioned.

"¿How old are you?" J´zar asked her.

Twilight Sparkle told J´zar her age.

"You are young" J´zar wasn't surprised by the number "But when you get old, your memory will not be the same anymore. Even my short-lived race loses its memory over time"

"Wait, ¿if your race is short-lived, how can you be over a thousand years old?" Rarity looked anxious to learn the secret of eternal youth.

"I said magic was a dusty bone" J´zar reminded them "But a dusty bone is more than dust alone"

The last man passed through the portal, and J´zar was left alone with the mares and Sp´hre.

"I'll see you atthe other side" said Sp´hre, and she as well crossed the portal.

"You're leaving once again" Applejack claimed. She didn't ask it. She affirmed it.

"Every thing has its place, and every place has the things that belong only there" J´zar exposed his answer to the question of why he wished to leave Equestria "So long, Twilight Sparkle, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie and Applejack"

He walked to the edge of Equestria and crossed the portal without hesitation.

Prologue.

It was a beautiful summer day in Ponyville. Since that was one of the last sunny days there would be before winter began, all the ponies were outside enjoying it. Mares and stallions walked trhought the streets looking at the showcases of the stores. The vendors anounced their products besides their stands and contributed to the general noise.

Fluttershy and Rarity, however, weren't in the streets enjoying the sun. They were in the spa taking a bubble bath.

Fluttershy had her head hung low, almost touching the bubbly water she was submerged up to the belly into.

"¿Is there something wrong, darling?" Rarity asked "¡You've had that melancholic look in your eyes all the morning!"

"No. I'm fine" Fluttershy mumbled. She still had her look lost in the swirling water "I was just remembering..."

"¿Him?" Rarity let out a muffled giggle "¡It has been almost a year now, Fluttershy!"

"I know. It's just that..." the mare sighed "I wonder what's he doing"

"Probably enjoying his life without becoming distressed by our memory" Rarity affirmed "¿Shouldn't you do the same, dear?"

"Maybe" Fluttershy said, looking at the water and thinking on that strange man she had seen almost a year ago.

Epilogue.

Once back on Earth, J´zar found Buer shortly after. The medic looked at him with surprise.

"I thought you would stay" he said, shaking hands with J´zar.

"I tried to look for you" J´zar explained "¿Where were you?"

"In the three weeks you were away, I made several tests on the inhabitants of that dimension" Buer avoided the question "And they are nothing like the ponies of Earth"

"¿What happened with Celestia?" J´zar asked, a little worried.

"Oh, nothing important, I jsut stitched her hoof back up. The suture points can be removed if everything goes well" Buer answered this time.

"Zephir will surely tell me many interesting things" J´zar affirmed with conviction "Speaking of which, ¿where is Zephir?"

"He was sleeping in some bushes waiting for his turn to leave the planet." Buer's face suddenly convulsed in terror "But he's always been a big...big...big sleeper" he managed to finish.

Zephir rushed to the place where the portal had once been as soon as he woke up, his heart racing in fear.
But when he saw that the portal was no more, every fiber in his body accepted his fate. Just then he saw the six mares that had accompanied his Lord on his many quests.

They looked quite surprised and even scared of him still being here.

"The portal just closed" said the purple one with broken voice "And we don't know when or if it's ever going to open again..."

"Since it is my fate to stay here until the ned of my days, it is better for us to know each other" Zephir had inherited fatalism from his mentor, J´zar.

"¡You're the guy who was with Jazzie back in the camp!" a pink ponie recognised him. Zephir couldn't imagine how could anyone distinguish him, because he wore a mask.

"My name is Zephir" he said "Nice to meet you"

Zephir leaned over and kissed each of the mares once in both cheeks, and they reacted quite strangely to it. They started to nervously laugh and blush.

"¿What is it?" Zephir asked "That's the way we say hello to friends in my country".

Author's Note

Done and gone!
Nobody to thank this time :applejackunsure: .

As always, leave your constructive criticism.