The years and centuries seemed to run together. Time was limitless wherever he was. All the thoughts of this oblivion returned always to the sister of the one who had betrayed him after he had showed them how to defeat that Lord of Chaos. If he could speak in his oblivion, he would always repeat one word, “Celestia.” Instead, he heard a word that caused him constant pain.
His body didn’t exist here in the void. He was merely energy. If he concentrated, he could make out his physical body. The phantom pain of his limbs and six wings still gave him hope despite the pain that there was a way to escape this void.
Then he felt a different pain. Instead of being the numbing pain of this black abyss that engulfed him, this pain was more localized and sharp. Something was sliding on his wrists. It hurt, but there was something else. A rush in the void creaked with each push and pull of what felt like a saw.
The creature wanted to laugh as the void began to crumble with the increase in pain in his hands. “Soon,” he said. Light began to fill him again.
Twilight Sparkle was a most orderly and mostly polite pony. As the afternoon started to disappear, she knew that Luna’s Night would allow for a good night with a bit of astronomy. However, there was something off in the air that she couldn’t put her hoof to.
And then she heard a familiar scream. “Oh the horror! The horror!” screamed Lily. Of all the ponies in Ponyville that Twilight knew, there were three that always panicked at well . . . anything. Rose, Daisy, and Lily seemed to exist just to exasperate the situation.
“What is it this time?” asked Twilight to her companion who was riding on her back. Next to her, Spike probably had the best idea of unusual phenomenon considering they both read constantly. Though the baby purple dragon did it more because it was required of him, Twilight just enjoyed reading. And honestly, it didn’t matter whether it was fiction or practical books on magic: if it was a book, she was going to read it.
Spike shrugged his shoulders. “They probably saw a bug or something again. Let’s hope that Fluttershy isn’t around like last time.”
Twilight shook her head. Their friend the timid light yellow pegasus with a pink mane loved animals of all types even bugs. She did have a fear of dragons that with enough prodding could be overcome. Insect and spiders didn’t seem to bother her though. Well that wasn’t exactly true. Nightmare Night, a day to celebrate the spooky, caused her to fear even things that usually she didn’t.
“Yeah Spike,” Twilight nodded, “I don’t think I’d ever seen a pony cry about a spider being crushed, but poor Fluttershy just loves everything, pony or not.” Twilight wouldn’t wish ill will on her friend to see another spider get crushed by a stallion trying to be nice to the terrorized trio. Then again, Twilight didn’t particularly like spiders either.
Trotting passed a couple of buildings, Twilight was about to open her mouth when she lost the words to describe the situation. She seemed flabbergasted. Spike on the other hoof just blurted out what she was feeling. “What in the hay are those, Twilight?”
For once, Twilight had no idea. They appeared to be slimy frogs that had grown slightly taller than an average full grown mare, but at the same time, something had stretched them out as well making them long and lanky. Skeletal thin didn’t begin to describe how narrow these mostly green creatures were. The most unusual thing was that they appeared to being wearing a white mask with a long snout that shot downwards with small black ovals for eyes.
The creatures just passed the terrified trio without any indication of harm. There were probably hundreds of these bipedal things slowly lumbering down the road. Twilight narrowed her purple eyes to notices that the creatures had three long slimy slightly webbed fingers on their hands.
One of the creatures looked at Lily, Rose, and Daisy who were huddled together in a terrified embrace. “The Horror! It looked at us,” screamed Lily. Daisy pressed her front hoofs to her checks. “It’s coming this way,” she screamed.
And then the creature who had studied them for a second with its peculiar mask like face shrugged its shoulders and creped away. Rose looked dumbfounded. “Wait, isn’t it supposed to try to eat us so the stallions of our dreams will finally come?” asked the magenta manned earth pony. She then proceeded to land on her flank dejected and in a huff.
Lily in her deeper voice tried to reassure her friend. “Don’t worry; the next panic will bring each of us our big, strong stallions to protect us for the rest of our lives.”
That didn’t seem to reassure Daisy either who landed in a huff on her flank as well. “That’s what you say every time. The best we ever got was with that spider squishing incident. Let’s face it; even most of the stallions in this town are too cowardly to take action with all the oddness that happens in Ponyville. “
Lily shied. However, she decided to reassure her friends to stay the course. She gave her usual post panic pep talk. “Girls as my mother always said the stallion of your dreams will come in your darkest hour. And considering Ponyville is right next to Everfree Forest, it surely will be soon.”
The two others immediately nodded. Rose smiled. “You always know how to get right back on course, Lily. Something will eventually come out of that dark and mysterious forest that will get us some stallions.”
Twilight on the other side of the creature impromptu parade down the main throughway of Ponyville sighed that there was no reason to panic. “Well, let’s go figure out what these things are Spike,” Twilight said.
Spike shrugged. “But Twilight, I was hoping that we could go do something other than research tonight like go visit Rarity,” the purple and green baby dragon said ending with a bit of long pause on Rarity’s name.
Twilight turned her dark purple manned head to her assistant. “Spike, we have to report this situation to Princess Celestia.” And then with a bit more bravado to her voice and eyes wide shut, she spoke with an air of confidence. “The library will be the best place to solve this situation. So let’s get reading!”
And then the creatures all turned around.
Twilight opened her eyes to see all one hundred of the creatures looking at her. Her heart sank when she heard one word repeated by all of the creatures at once with a bit of a croak. “Books!”
Twilight’s heart started to beat like her friend Pinkie Pie’s tail right before something dropped from the sky. Suddenly faced with her book being taken from her, Twilight did the one thing all ponies of Ponyville seemed to excel at in difficult situations: panic.
As she trotted away screaming with Spike holding on to her tail for dear life, the creatures followed. The terrorized trio looked on in awe. Lily put it simply, “Now that’s the kind of screaming that will attract the stallion of your dreams, girls.” They all nodded as Twilight raced back to her home, the Ponyville library.
At the swamp, the water looked cool to the touch with the late afternoon dying sun, but there was something bothering Fluttershy as she looked for her foggy friends. “Angel, do you see any of them,” asked the timed pegasus to her small rabbit. She smiled at the bunny.
The bunny sighed, and then pointed at something. Fluttershy looked concerned. She asked the rabbit, “Do you see the frogs, Angel?”
The rabbit shook his head no. And then he pointed again away from Fluttershy. The pony turned her head to see a figure standing in the dim moonlight. It seemed to being wearing a robe made of white feathers.
With a bit of squeak, Fluttershy witnessed the creature turned its head towards her. It was obvious that it walked on its hind legs like Spike, Discord, or even the occasional pony. However as the creature got closer, it stretched out its right arm.
“There is no need to worry, pony. I mean you no harm,” the male voice said. It was steady and soothing to Fluttershy.
Fluttershy looked at the end of the appendage put before her. It was not a hoof, and it did not end in sharp talons like a griffon or dragon’s claw. It had digits like a claw, but instead of being sharp, they were covered in pale off white skin almost a peach color.
Fluttershy raised her right hoof timidly to shake the claw like appendage. “Thank you for taking my hand,” said the male creature. It beckoned with its other hand to several logs nearby. Fluttershy noticed what appeared to be boots on what was probably feet.
“I apologize for being a fright. It’s quite possibly that I’m possibly the first of my species that you have ever seen, Miss?” the creature stated with a confused end. “I apologize, but I don’t even know your name other than the butterflies on your flank.”
Fluttershy laughed. “Well, I’m called Fluttershy,” she offered. The creature was about to sit down, but then it remembered something.
“I hate having to sit on my wings. So I apologize if I frighten you, Miss Fluttershy” he offered. And then the robe and cloak peeled of the body of the creature. On the erect creature with arms and legs, there appeared six wings one the back. The largest pair was the middle pair.
Fluttershy marveled at the wings which reminded her of a swan or the Princesses’ wings. There were two sets of wings smaller located either above or below the middle set. Fluttershy marveled at their glow like they were created from energy.
But just as soon as they had formed, the creature pulled them into his body. And suddenly, he was wingless. Fluttershy then noticed the creature was wearing clothing which most ponies used only on occasion. The pants were made of some slick material colored black. The long sleeved shirt appeared to be baggy with no obvious opening for wings on either. Boots were on the feet of the creature.
And then Angel Bunny rushed forward to the creature. Landing in his arms as he sat down, the creature smiled at the small bunny. Fluttershy was aghast at her friend who was being tickled by the fingers of the creature.
“Angel, that is not proper behavior,” she said.
The creature smiled. “Indeed, I am an angel, Miss Fluttershy,” it offered. The bunny chuckled to itself as it was continued to be tickled.
Fluttershy at the revelation looked at the creature. “Oh no, I meant my bunny. Wait, you are an angel?”
The angel nodded as it put down Angel Bunny. “Indeed, I am Miss Fluttershy. You can call me Zabi.”
In the Ponyville library, Twilight was panicking as she tried to look through a book on odd creatures to no avail. All she seemed to be doing was get Spike to laugh. Her latest attempt to push them out of her library with her broom had only resulted in disaster. Twilight instead of hitting the creature hit a shelf of books that landed on the ground only to be swarmed by more of the odd creatures.
She abandoned direct confrontation to instead focus on research, but that was proving tiring with the creatures seeming stealing the book anytime she opened one.
“Oh come on,” she bellowed with frustration. Twilight just wished that she could figure out how to get rid of these frog creatures. And then salvation rode in on pegasus wings.
“Hey Twilight, do you have Daring Do and the Fate of . . .?” Rainbow Dash asked before she saw the book she wanted bearing carried by a frog creature. “Ah, Twilight, what in the name of Cloudsdale is that thing?”
Shaking her head, Twilight Sparkle frowned. “I have no idea, but these annoying creatures have no concept of being polite at all. Just look at how slimy they left Starswirl the Bearded: an Expanded Annotated Biography. It’ll take weeks to clean it properly.” Indeed, the large tome which reached Twilight’s body was covered in slime.
“And I wanted to read it tonight!” the lavender unicorn bellowed.
Rainbow Dash thought for a moment as she floated in air with her wings fluttering. “Well, we could always bring Derpy here that should drive them away. She always gets my wings in a frizzle. She’s always talking about muffins, her unicorn kid, and that odd colt with the hourglass on his flank. Honestly if she’d just stop talking about them all the time, she’d be tolerable.”
Twilight was taken about. “Rainbow, is that anyway to talk about Derpy?”
Rainbow Dash shrugged. “I guess you’re right, Twilight. It’s the fact she constantly has things blow me up that’s the real problem.”
Twilight nodded, and then suddenly, she shook her head. “Wait, that’s not what I was talking about!”
And then suddenly one of the frog creatures croaked. It was looking at a familiar book with a golden unicorn on the cover. Twilight gasped as she tried to stop the creatures from looking at the book, but it was no good as several of them guarded the one reading. Though Twilight noticed there was a difference as it read the book incredibly quickly. At first, she thought it was just flipping the pages, but then Twilight noticed the dashes that it had on its mask moved as well.
It was almost mesmerizing.
That is probably why Twilight didn’t notice another creature croaked as well. It was reading what appeared to be the Ponyville directory. It did the same as its compatriot. And then when both finished, Derpy Hooves appeared.
“Oh Twilight, do you have that book that I requested?” asked the grey pegasus with bubbles on her flank. And if on cue, the creatures all disappeared in smoke only to become frogs.
Rainbow laughed for once as Derpy entered. “See what did I tell you Twilight? Derpy was the solution to getting rid of those thi. . . frogs?” exclaimed Rainbow as noticed the once enchanted frogs hopping away out the door.
“That’s not normal. Froggies usually stay in that bog that Fluttershy takes care of,” said Derpy. Worry was in her eyes as they rolled around their sockets.
Twilight agreed. “This calls for the Princess!” Twilight trotted off to contact her mentor Princess Celestia with the help of the still laughing Spike.
Depry waved at Rainbow Dash. “Hello Rainbow Dash!” exclaimed the delivery mare. “Are you here to pick up a book too? Twilight was so nice to order me Quantum Magic: The Nature of Rearrangement.”
Dash was aghast at the title of the book that Derpy wanted. “The Doctor says that it’ll help make better muffins,” smiled Derpy.
Dash merely planted her face in her hoof as frogs continued to hop out of the library.
At the pond, Fluttershy was quite interested in Zabi’s story. She had listened as he told her that he had arrived there to fight a Lord of Chaos. Though Fluttershy wondered what had caused him to become stone and trapped here.
“Zion sounds wonderful, Zabi,” Fluttershy mentioned, but the angel with his blond hair that was like a mane seemed to be looking at the sky.
“To be no longer weighed down by the gravity of this world feels so close Fluttershy, and . . .,” Zabi said as he suddenly held his head who his hand showing a bit of stress. “I know who has the key to my freedom.”
The angel stood erect once rising from the log that he had sat on. “I’ll have to leave you now, Miss Fluttershy. My Master looks favorable on those that are meek, so don’t worry Miss Fluttershy.”
Fluttershy held Angel with her hoofs lying on a log. “Mr. Zabi would it be okay if you take Angel and me with you to find the pony who has those . . .,” Fluttershy had trouble with the word.
Zabi smiled with his blue eyes showing. “Those would be the stone hands, and it would be no problem. If my information is incorrect, it might in fact be helpful.”
Zabi’s wings extended out of his body again, and the two were engulfed in a light.
Twilight was shocked with the frogs hopping down the street back to the bog that they apparently came from in the first place. Something magical was a hoof, and according to the message from Princess Celestia indicated that her mentor would be there soon to personally investigate.
However at the moment, Twilight Sparkle was watching the three Cutie Mark Crusaders watching the parade of the frogs. The three were always searching for ways to get their cutie marks to signify that they had found their purpose in life. The young white unicorn Sweetie Belle, sister of Rarity, with her purple mane was trying to kiss one of the frogs.
Scootaloo, an orange young pegasus, was trying to egg Sweetie into kissing the frog. “Come on, it might be your prince,” she said.
The younger member of the local Apple clan, Apple Bloom, was trying to hide her head. “This isn’t going to end well. I just know that we are going to get covered in sap again. Big Macintosh scolded me rotten after the last time,” she lamented.
Sweetie Belle was a being cautious as she examined the frog. “Rarity does say that I could get the stallion of my dreams if I kiss a frog, and if it is good enough for my sister, I’ll do it,” she squeaked. So Sweetie Belle puckered her lips, and she lowered her hand next to a frog.
And then there was nothing but dust. Sweetie looked up. “What gives?” asked the confused filly. Her friends shrugged.
Their answer was Rose kissing the frog madly. “Come on you, toad! I need a stallion to by special somepony!”
The kiss didn’t seem to have any effect directly.
However a bright light did occur that caught the eye of Twilight. “What the hay?” she asked. She got her bearing as the light died down. “That came from Lyra’s house!”
For a second, Twilight thought of the situation. Her mind toyed with the idea that the enchanted frogs and light had something to do with each other. “The answer to the oddness of this night has to be at Lyra’s place.”
She turned to Rainbow Dash. “If Princess Celestia gets here, lead her to Lyra’s house.” Twilight trotted briskly to the aqua colored unicorn’s house.
“It was here,” lamented Zabi. His wings seemed to sag as he knew that fate was starting to turn against him. His sister, Fortuna, always had hated him. The finding spell that he had cast discovered nothing except the remnants of the presence of the hands, and its use had probably alerted Celestia or her agents to his location.
“Maybe she took the . . . hands over to Bon-Bon’s place,” offered Fluttershy. Angel Bunny nodded in agreement to his pony friend.
Zabi laughed. “Fortuna, I’ll get back home without your help yet.” He made a fist with his right hand, but the space inside the house revealed that he was three times taller than the ponies. It was a good thing that he had transported himself here. Otherwise, he’d had to break down the door.
The one thing that he could tell about Lyra Heartstrings was that she was obsessed with humans. Though the various figurines of humans seemed to be naked in a Greco-Roman style with exaggerated hands, Zabi observed. His great uncle hated humans for various reasons which had made the great angel fall, and his cousin named for his fallen uncle loved to trick humans into becoming nihilist or insane. His cousin Lucifer had escaped the title of fallen for some odd reason. How exactly his cousin escaped being thrown out of Zion to the Pit, Zabi could never exactly figure out.
Zabi was about to teleport again when suddenly a lavender unicorn burst through the door. For a moment, the angel felt the memory of another pony who had asked for help ages ago. “Luna,” Zabi mumbled. Fluttershy seemed to have noticed this reaction.
T
wilight Sparkle looked at the giant creature with his wings unfolded. “Flying Monkey!” said Twilight Sparkle looking at the angel with a bit of shock.
Zabi wanted to strike down the unicorn with his flame tongue, but Fluttershy started to speak. “Oh Twilight, this isn’t a monkey. He’s not hairy or even have a tail,” offered Fluttershy. The pink haired pegasus pony placed her forward right hoof on one of Zabi’s wings. “Besides, he’s a winged human, or the namesake for my Angel.”
Angel Bunny looked at Fluttershy for comparing him to the angel. “But he is not an Angel Bunny,” offered Fluttershy as she petted her bunny. “Zabi is nice in his own way.”
Twilight Sparkle looked at the angel which she figured was called Zabi. “Okay, I don’t care if he was born of a manticore that mated with one of Lyra’s humans to create him. All I want to know is he responsible for enchanted a bunch of frogs to slime my books! Because as a part time librarian, I have to say that is the highest crime in Equestria. ”
Fluttershy looked at Zabi. “It’s not true that you hurt the froggies, Zabi,” she said with doe wide eyes.
Zabi sighed. “The magic did not hurt them, and as soon as I had what I wanted in information, I released them from my service.” Fluttershy turned away from Zabi with disgust. The angel felt the joshing laugh of his cousin, Lucifer.
It was not his cousin laugh; instead, Twilight laughed. “So you are responsible for damaging knowledge!” screamed the unicorn as she shot a beam from her horn to Zabi’s face. The magical purple beam was about to hit Zabi when it bounced off something. Causing ripples in front of Zabi, the beam bounced off it to hit a poster for a traveling troop of actors who performed plays about humans. There was nothing left of the poster.
Zabi looked at Twilight. “This is why I can’t go into villages on this world. It always shoot beams ask questions later. Your soul Twilight is weighed down by the gravity of your books. Hopefully, Celestia hasn’t been altered yet. There might still be time to find the hands and then escape . . .,” Zabi was saying when he suddenly fell back with fear. He heard a voice.
“Zabdiel!” a voice of authority screamed. Winching in pain, Zabi was starting to panic. He saw no help from the pony who he thought was his friend.
“I’ve got to go before she traps me again. I will not be weighed down by the gravity of this world anymore,” screamed Zabi as he turned into light. When the light disappeared, Zabi was gone. Fluttershy looked at Twilight who was shocked.
It was then that the multicolored haired ruler of Equestria burst through the door. “Where is that angel?”
Angel Bunny shrugged his shoulders, but no one paid any attention to him.
Bon-Bon hated it when her ‘special’ friend Lyra started to babble about humans. And now her friend was parading around Bon-Bon’s house with some sort of strange rocks. Bon-Bon wanted to talk about anything other than humans, so the earth pony with violet and red hair decided to change the subject as she brought a serving cart into her living room. “Lyra, did you see the odd creatures who paraded through downtown, today?”
The aqua and white haired unicorn shrugged her hind shoulders. “I don’t care because I’ve got hands,” she said with a creepy grin. With her unicorn magic, she held the stone fists in a magical field.
“Indeed you do,” said an unfamiliar voice. Walking out of Bon-Bon’s kitchen was something that Lyra thought that she would never see in her entire life. “It’s a man!” Overcome with joy, the unicorn then fell over. The stone hands then dropped to the ground.
Zabi walked past a shocked Bon-Bon as he picked up the fists. “I apologize for the inconvenience,” said the angel. Pulling out of seeming nothing, he produced a loaf of freshly baked bread. “Take this mana as repayment for any troubles.”
Shocking the pony, Zabi put the mana on the cart, and he disappeared into nothingness after a bit flash.
Bon-Bon examined the bread, and then she took a bit. Her mouth exploded with a billion flavors as suddenly she was bouncing off the wall like Pinkie Pie. “My mouth is having a party, and I want everyone to try this amazing bread.” Lyra didn’t stir at all, but she slept in bliss.
Zabi breathed heavily as he stood on a hill overlooking Ponyville. After teleporting to the library, he cleaned all the books, and then he left the special fireflies that he had promised the frogs for their service. However, it was moving at near the speed of light that was weakening him. And in the rush, Zabi had almost forgotten to destroy the stone hands.
“Okay, I’ll just destroy these now,” said the angel. There was a smile on his face as he was about to shatter and then destroy the pieces. “Then I’ll be able to call down the ladder.”
“Surprise!”
Zabi turned his head to see a pink pony with balloons on her flank. “Do you know how hard it was track you down after you kept disappearing from place to place?” asked the slightly annoyed filly. Zabi was about to answer when she got in his face. “Everybody new to Ponyville gets a party, Mr. Angel! You hear me everybody!”
Zabi really wanted to run now. If it wasn’t Celestia trying to turn him back to stone, it was insane ponies trying to stop him, and this pink one had some sort of blue-white wagon as well. “Could you wait a second?” asked Zabi.
The angel didn’t wait for answer. He threw down the stone hands and shattered them. And then he took the hilt of a bladeless sword. Suddenly a flaming blade appeared. Smashing it into the remnants of the stone hands, the particles that once made up the stone hands were gone.
The pink pony liked the sword. “Can you do anything else with it?”
Zabi smiled. “Of course,” he laughed. Thrusting his arm into the air, the flame shot into the darkening sky. And then it exploded like an evening sun for several seconds.
“Oh, I can do almost as good!” said the pink pony. Suddenly the pink pony fired a canon out of her wagon. The projectile turned out to be cake batter which she somehow stepped out of and then proceeded to eat. Zabi merely burned it off of him.
“That’s no fun,” the pony lamented as the smell of burnt cake wafted through the air. “I was going to eat it if you didn’t . . . What’s that?”
Zabi chuckled as he saw the spiral descending from above. Intertwined between the two strands of multicolored material appeared to be planks. Some called it a ladder. Others realized it actually resembled the building blocks of all life.
“That is my ride home, Pinkamina Diane Pie,” said Zabi as he started to rise into the sky. The earth pony was shocked.
“I never introduced myself, Mr. Angel. And only my mother calls me by my full name!” said the pony a bit pissed.
Zabi laughed. “It’s amazing what happens if you read the Ponyville directory, Pinkie. However, I don’t have much time.” In fact he had no time as one of Celestia’s pegasus guards slashed half of Zabi’s wings off.
He fell to the ground. Pinkie had been a distraction. Tears started to crust on Zabi’s cheek as he looked at the ladder which was so close yet unreachable now. It’d take a week to regenerate his lost wings.
And then Celestia trotted forward with Twilight and several more guards. “Zabdiel, I told you that you’d never leave Equestria after your crime of trying to corrupt my sister.” Zabi’s tears were running from his face to the ground.
The ground had his chopped off wings which had turned from light to ash. Due to the ash, the ground withered and died around it for about a foot. “As I told you before a thousand years ago, I didn’t try to teach anything to Luna except for where I came from, but dear, dear Princess Celestia, you have a bit of blind spot when it comes to your sister.”
Zabi was trying to pull himself off the ground as he retracted his right wings back into his body. He still had a chance to return home if he didn’t lose all of his wing and then his head. “Though I liked the pink hair better, but a millennium or two has that effect on any mare, eh?”
Twilight Sparkle looked at her mentor. “Is this really necessary Princess? He is hurt and just trying to go home.”
Celestia looked at her student and smiled. “Twilight, he is just trying to get more of his kind to invade Equestria. When the angelic army returns, they will institute their morality on my little ponies. Limiting consumption of good sweets will just be the first,” said Celestia looking at Pinkie.
The pink pony looked aghast. “Not my cakes!”
Celestia continued. “And then there will be the restrictions on love, isn’t that right Zabdiel?” She looked at him deeply waiting for the angel to hang himself.
Zabi laughed: though each time the alicorn used his full name, he felt a bit of pain. “Honestly, I could care less what you call love, Celestia. You so loved your sister that you locked her friend in stone for over a thousand years, and then you were shocked when after ignoring her for a several years, she became resentful and had nothing except hate in her heart.” Zabi really wished that he had built up his strength for a couple of more days, but he added a barb.
“Honestly if you want to play this game, I’d rather just go home because I’m always the bad guy with you, Celestia. Even after I helped to create the Elements of Harmony to help fight against Discord, I’m merely the interloper trying to corrupt your younger sister because she asked for my help in the first place by summoning me to this world. However, you believed I came to take her away from you. Only she could make that choice.”
Celestia was steaming mad. “How dare you, demon! You always are trying to hide your lies behinds truth to hide that you want to conquer this world for your master. Well . . .,” the Princess was cut off by the sound of a flying carriage coming down.
It was black with spikes on it; it was being pulled by bat-winged pegasuses. It held the other Princess of Equestria, Luna. She stepped from the wagon as it landed, and she gave her sister a look. “Tia, we will talk later, but WE WILL NOT HAVE EQUESTRIA’S NAME DESTROYED BY A MISUNDERSTANDING!”
Celestia looked at her almost black as night sister, Luna. Her wavy dark blue mane seemed particularly spiked with anger. Celestia spoke up. “Luna, Zabdiel is not your friend. He tricked you, and it was due to his influence that you became Nightmare Moon.”
Luna shook her head with disappointment on her face. “Neigh sister. IT WAS MY LONILNESS THAT CAUSED MY TRANSFORMATION INTO NIGHTMARE MOON.” And for a moment, Luna dropped her Royal Canterlot voice.
“Besides Zabi never needed rest, and he helped me so much with resetting the sky after you and I defeated Discord to be just right again. I wasn’t planning on worshipping his master, sister. I merely was curious of where he came from. We had never met a Knight of Order before: it was fascinating.”
Luna picked up Zabi with her magic, and she took him to her carriage where Fluttershy was also standing. “Zabi, you’re hurt. Oh I should have contacted Luna quicker after I realized that you mumbled her name, but the Princess appeared. And she said that you’d probably kill Lyra and Bon-Bon for being special friends. But then you didn’t.”
“Though Bon-Bon is really bloated right now,” said Fluttershy.
Zabi laughed as the carriage started to move into the sky. “You shouldn’t eat a whole loaf of mana. It’s supposed to last for a week, but considering the nature of you ponies, she’ll work it off in a day or two.”
“WE ARE GREATFUL AS WELL FLUTTERSHY!” said Luna in her Royal Canterlot voice again. Zabi shook his head.
“You never did lose that insanely loud voice, Luna?”
Luna laughed, but it was not a bellowing forceful voice. It was her sweeter voice. “It’s easier to lose when I’m around family, Zabi. I hope you aren’t going to bring your master’s wraith on Equestria.”
The carriage was approaching the tear in reality that was the ladder. Zabi had never climbed it before, but he could always do it for a first time. “Luna, I will not bring wraith on this world. Besides, you fulfilled the contract that was signed when you summoned an angel here ages ago.”
Zabi took a hold of the ladder with his hands. “When you helped me get home, the demands of the contract were met. So long Fluttershy and Princess Luna. Peace is with you.”
Zabi climbed the ladder as Fluttershy and Luna watched him till he seemed to fizzle out of reality. And then just as the ladder had appeared, it disappeared. The two on the carriage shed tears of their friend disappearing.
At Fluttershy’s house the next morning, she was preparing all of her animals’ breakfasts. It had been nice meeting the angel, but it was back to normal routine for her. Though Pinkie had been bummed for being used as a distraction, she threw a party on the hill to celebrate Zabi going home.
Fluttershy had returned home a bit. Ironically on her way home, Fluttershy had found an unusual feather on the ground near her house that seemed to glow like how Zabi’s wings had. She took it inside, and she placed it on her mantle.
“It’s a good memory,” said after looking at it. Then she turned to look out her window, her eyes opened brightly to see if she could look past the veil of realities to see Zabi at his home, but now Henrietta needed to be checked on.
