The Never-verse

I woke up early as usual, at the alarm clock’s ring, roughly 4:00 am equestrian time. I stood up, stretched my legs, looked in the mirror, saw a white unicorn with black spiky hair and tail, with a yin-yang cutie mark about 25 years old, and looked at the calendar I have next to my bed. My eyes widened at the realization at what day it was. Graduation Day. I had completely forgotten that it was coming up. I heard a knock at my door. “Hey Thunder are you awake?” A voice I’ve known since my early childhood asked.

“Yeah, Twilight, I'm up” I said, I galloped out the door, and almost ran into Twilight, who was waiting right outside the door. I put on the breaks, and it took most of my monk reflexes not to accidently tackle her and knock us both onto the floor, I was able to stay on my hooves. Twilight however was not so lucky. She backed up as to avoid my charge out the door and tripped over her tail and landed on her flank. Spike, her draconic familiar, started laughing. She gave both of us a glare and I extended a hoof to help her up. She accepted it and I helped her up. “So… today’s graduation day, what exams do you have?” I asked her trying to diffuse a awkward situation.

“I have my final magical exam, and then… I believe that’s it. What about you?” she asked.

“Well, I have my final combat exam, and thats it for me. How about after one of us finishes we wait for the other one by the entrance to the room of their exam? Sound good?” She nodded and we went to the main combat room where we wished each other good luck and we went to our different exams. I went to the main combat instructor, the only minotaur instructor in the Academy, Iron Will, and said “Thunder Quill reporting for final combat exams sir!”

“Its about time you showed up recruit. As you know, today is your final combat exam, you are report to corporals Heavy Weight and  Caramel respectively for your melee and ranged exams. Dismissed!” He told me, I went to corporal Heavy Weight, it was strange for a pegasus  to be in highly skilled in melee but it was what he was skilled in so, its not my place to criticize. My challenge was to destroy a practice dummy in ten seconds flat. I put on the speed and force behind my hooves and destroyed in in about 5 seconds. Corporal Heavy Weight seemed to be impressed with my combat prowess.

“Its not very often that you see a unicorn with melee skills, they mostly go towards magical classes, like your friend, Twilight Sparkle. But you have far exceeded my expectations, you believe will prove to be invaluable in the war.”

“Thank you sir.” I said.

“That will be all. Dismissed!” He said, I then went to corporal Caramel for my ranged exam. This was gonna be a little bit harder, seeing as i haven’t trained as much in the use of shuriken, darts, or sling. But I took the shuriken, took a breath, and threw the shuriken. It hit its mark dead center, I did it, I was finished. I had graduated! Corporal Caramel motioned me over.

“That was a job well done Thunder, I honestly expected you to fail this exam outright, you never showed any promise in ranged weapons. But I am pleasantly surprised that you passed the exam with flying colors. You are to report to Sir Shining Armor, to receive the blessings of Celestia before you leave the Academy. Dismissed!” He said to me I left him and saw Twilight waving me over.

“So how’d it go?” She asked.

“I passed with flying colors! How about you?” I replied.

“Instructor Trixie gave me a little tutorial about magical safety, and then I had to take two scrolls and use them to destroy a statue in the middle of the room. It was easy, and i got this from her!” She held up a magic rod. “It has unlimited uses of ray of frost, I know its only a cantrip, but unlimited uses! I know that’ll be useful!” She said getting more excited with every word she said. I chuckled lightly at her enthusiasm.

“Thats awesome Twilight, really, it is, but do you know who’s giving us the blessings of Celestia before we leave?” I asked her. She shook her head no. “Well, who’s your BBBFF?” I said with a grin. She froze, and a huge smile came to being on her face.

“Shiny?” She asked, I nodded, my grin growing. She started jumping up and down, yelling “YES! YES! YES! YES!” Before releasing other ponies were starting to stare. She stopped and blushed so hard, her face might catch on fire. We then proceeded to the graduation room. After asking the Guard entry, we entered and Twilight rushed forwards to her big brother best friend forever, Sir Shining Armor, also dubbed Shiny by Twilight and me.

“Twilly!” he said also rushing forwards to give her a hug. He then noticed me standing behind them. “Thunder! How are you? How was the ranged exam, I know you were worried about it?” He asked me.

“It went much better than i expected, I guess i was worried for nothing.” I said with a laugh.

“And Twilly, how’d the magical exam go?” He then asked his sister. As she went into great detail about her exam, I started thinking about how I met them, it was a dark point in my life…

It was a dark and cold night in  the Crystal Empire, the ponies of the Blacklake District, the rich and the famous, were snobs, not willing to help anypony in need. I used to live there, with my family, but they were some of the first to fall to the Wailing Death, and I was cast out into the streets, having to resort to stealing scraps from the garbage just to survive. I was about maybe 10 years old at the time, just a blank flank, so no one cared about me anymore. And it was so cold. I was just laying there, under some garbage, trying to leave this world that had given me so much misery and hatred. That was not to be. As I lay there freezing and dying, I noticed a bright lavender light shining up above me. I turned my head towards the light and saw what I believed to be an lavender angel come to take me away from my misery. Her lips were moving but I heard no sound. I closed my eyes and all was black. When I came to, I was in a warm bed. I got up as quietly as I could, and walked out the door of the room. I then started to explore the house I was in. I saw pictures of a family, and one particular member stood out to me. It was the lavender angel who had saved me, now that i looked at her, she appeared to be the same age as me. “Where am I?” I said to myself.

“You're in the house of Sparkle.” A voice behind me said. I whipped around, not the smartest move because i became light headed, and fell to the floor. The person who spoke to me galloped over and helped me up. I started to say thank you, but the words died in my throat when i took a look at the person. It was the lavender angel.

“W-who are you?” I asked. She straightened.

“Oh, I'm sorry, I’ve forgotten my manners, my name is Twilight Sparkle.” She said. “What’s yours?” She then asked me.

“My name is Thunder Quill.” I said, “You saved me, why?”

“Well I couldn’t just let an innocent pony freeze to death could I?” She said matter o’ factly.

“Well in one night, you have shown me more kindness than any other pony in this district.” I said.

“Thank you, Where do you live? Your parents are probably worried sick about you.” She told me. My whole body started shaking at that, Twilight noticed and rushed over to me to make sure I was ok. “What's wrong?” She asked me.

“My parents, they died of the Wailing Death five years ago, I was cast out onto the streets and abandoned.” I said. While Twilight gasped.

“Oh my god, I am so sorry, I didn't know!” She said.

“Its ok, you didn't know, how could you know.” I said to her, which calmed her down. “So, anyway, where are your parents? Do they know i'm here?” To this she nodded.

“We were walking home from the library, I was learning new spells, and I was casting a detect life spell to see if it worked. I sensed a faint life signature near me, near death, and I told my parents. We then rushed over to see who it was. We found you, freezing to death underneath a pile of garbage. We lifted you up and brought you here so we could heal you back to health.” She finished the story.

“I would have died if not for you, thank you.” As I said that, a colt ran up to Twilight and said...

“Twilly, mom and dad want to see you in the living room.” He then took notice of me. “Hey are you ok, when we found you, you were pretty close to death, we weren't sure if you would make it, good to see you did.” He said to me. “What’s your name?” He asked me...

“Thunder Quill, and yours?”

“My name is Shining Armor, I'm Twilight's older brother.” He said to me. “My parents would probably like to talk to you as well, Thunder.” He told me. Twilight told him thank you and she showed me the way to the living room. When we got there, Twilight's parents rose when they saw her and me, Twilight's mom asked me, “Are you ok dear, we were afraid we were going to lose you, we are so glad you are ok.” She said. “What’s your name dear?”

“Thunder Quill.” I said. Her parents were startled at that. Her father said,

“We heard that the whole Quill line had been killed by the Wailing Death. If you really are who you say you are, then the person in charge of the Quill estate would be in big trouble for lying to officials.” When he said this I snarled,

“My so called uncle, he told the officials that my parents and me died so he could get his hands on the Quill fortune.” I sighed, “I guess he won, nopony is going to believe the word of a 10 year old, and no offence, but even if you do believe me, we have no evidence that proves that he lied. So at this point he has won.” I said slumping a lot. “I thank you for saving me, and for your hospitality, but I’ll think i’ll go now.” I said, starting to move towards the door, when suddenly, a lavender light stopped me in my tracks. I turned my head around and saw, not Twilight's parents horns glowing, but Twilight’s horn glowing, stopping my movements.

“No.” She said. “You are not leaving, you have no where to go, you are going to stay here with us, where you will be part of our family. Is that understood?” She asked me. I nodded weakly. She released her magic, and started to fall to the floor. I stopped her from falling and caught her in my arms. I looked up at her parents, for confirmation about what she had declared. They smiled and nodded. I looked at Twilight's sleeping face, and smiled, for the first time in five years.

I came out of my flashback with Twilight and Shiny looking at me strangely.

“You ok there dude?” Shiny asked me.

“Wha- yeah, I'm fine” I said.

“You were thinking about that night, weren’t you?” Twilight asked me, looking concerned. I sighed, she could read me too well.

“Yeah I was.” I said.

“What nigh- oh, that night" Shiny said. “The night that we found you?” I nodded. “Well, I guess it’s time to get your…” Shiny stopped. Many ponies in masks had teleported into the room and had started attacking the other graduates. “We’re under attack, destroy the invaders!” He yelled to the room. Me and Twilight wasted no time rushing into action. I charged at one and started beating the pony to death, whilst Twilight Started Flinging spells across the Room, She cast summon creature, and a dire badger came into our plane of existence, and started attacking the masked assailants. She then used her rod of frost and used that to freeze the attackers in their tracks. I had killed the first enemy, and started rushing towards another, when I noticed an assailant sneaking up behind Twi with a dagger, she didn't even notice the bastard. I changed direction immediately, but I realised that i wouldn’t get there in time. The mare who had changed my life, saved me from death, became friends with me when she didn't even know me, was about to die and I couldn’t do anything about it. I felt all the anger and hatred towards the people who knowingly screwed with ponies lives and made their lives miserable, the killers of innocents. My eyes started glowing white, I felt, strangely calmer, more relaxed than i had felt since Twilight took me in. I ran faster, four other attackers jumped in my path, I punched them each in the muzzle, i heard their noses break, each of the collapsing to the floor not moving. I was almost to her, but the dagger was closer to to her back. I felt my magic being activated, and I teleported right next to the  attacker, I could feel his eyes widening behind his mask. I smiled and punched him in the mask, so hard it broke, and the face behind it exploded. Twilight jumped forwards and looked back behind her, and her eyes widened when she saw what had happened, and was even more shocked when she looked at me and saw that what I had done, and what my appearance was, with my white glowing eyes, and my bloodspattered appearance. The fight was then over with the last invader being the one whose head exploded from my puch. My eyes lost their glow and I fell to the floor. Twilight was still standing there in shock. Shining Armor, rushed over to my side and helped me up. I leaned against his side trying to regain my strength.

“Twi, you ok?” I asked. She snapped out of her shock and nodded.

“Yeah, i'm ok, how did you do that?” she asked me in awe. I shook my head.

“I don't know… I just started feeling something, I felt like i couldn’t help you, the Mare who changed my life, saved it, took me in when no one else would, became my friend, you were about to die, and if i couldn’t save you, I felt like my life would be meaningless again.” I said feeling both shocked and embarrassed at my sudden emotional outburst. By the look of Twilight's face, I had shocked her too. If the redness on her face was any indication, I had embarrassed her as well. Shining Armor was the first to recover.

“I believe that, power you just exhibited was called zen, it allows very powerful monks to sense danger, hit harder, be hit harder and longer, and be faster. But anyway, you two need to secure the Waterdhavian creatures.” He told us. We both gave him confused looks. He sighed, “The Waterdhavian creatures are four creatures that when certain regents are gathered from each creature, will hopefully cure the wailing death." Our eyes went wide at this. "Go. Take this key, this will unlock the door which leads to the creatures. Now go! There isn't much time!"

"You can count on us Shiny!" Twilight said. We rushed out the door and stopped at the carnage that awaited out right out the door. Bodies of mutilated ponies and goblins littered the hall. A lone masked figure stood in front of us.

"What's this? I was expecting Armor, not some wet behind the ears adventurers!" He said. "Let's see how you deal with my minions fools!" And with that the figure teleported away, leaving four goblins behind. The goblins looked at each other then at us, then charged at us, swords raised. The first goblins face met my hoof and fell to the floor,  I sensed danger and dodged right before Twilight cast burning hooves and burnt the second and third goblin to a crisp. The fourth goblin made it past me and made a mad dash for Twilight, but before it could get more than 5 feet, spike, Twilight’s draconic familiar burned that goblin into ashes.

"Nice job Spike!" I said. He grinned smugly. We then rushed to the door that the key opened. The door led to a hallway, which we galloped full speed into the next room. The next room was a storage room. At one end of the room, the mysterious masked pony was waiting.

“What!? You survived!? It matters not, you shall die here!” The pony yelled. With that, he summoned more goblins while teleporting away.

“Ugg, this again?!” Twilight groaned. I readied my hooves, while Twilight readied her Rod of Frost. The goblins charged at us, a couple fell my hooves, while more fell by Twilight's powerful magic. Goblin after goblin fell to her Magic Missile and Flaming hooves. I saw a goblin coming after Twilight, but this time she was able to sense the attack coming, she whipped around and cast a Magic Missile right into the bastards face. The goblin flew across the room and exploded on a wall, spewing guts and gore everywhere. Thankfully that was the last goblin, for after that spell, Twilight’s face went a nasty shade of green, and then proceeded to vomit on the floor. I rushed over, careful not to step on the puke. I started rubbing her back, telling her it was going to be ok. After a couple of more minutes, she calmed down enough to talk. “I didn't know my magic was that powerful…” She said, still looking a little pale.

“We need to keep going, are you ok to travel?” I asked her, She nodded. “OK then, lets go.” We continued on, fighting the occasional goblin and trying to find the Waterdhavian creatures. We eventually came to a three way split. We decided to take the middle door. Through the door was some more goblins and…

“Skeletons! Really!” Twilight yelled, It was true. There were the skeletons of ponies galloping towards us, ready to mangle us, we galloped to meet them. One of my hooves met one of the skeleton’s skulls, shattering it instantly. Twilight used her Rod of Frost to freeze another, and I gave it a roundhouse kick to shatter it completely. We then saw the main attacker to the Academy, the masked mage, who, I was just noticing now, didn’t have a horn that I could see, so what was he? We galloped towards each other, me going into zen mode, him casting a powerful spell at me. I gave him a confident smirk, completely believing that my newfound Zen powers would protect me.That was completely false. The spell hit me and instantly, I screamed in pain and was thrown across the room. I lay there, trying to re-gather my senses. I heard Twilight scream, and winced at the noise. I saw her eyes start to glow. Her horn glowed with a light that almost appeared white. The mysterious mage started to glow, he was lifted into the air. He then started screaming, and his limbs started ripping off, one by one, which fully snapped me out of my stupor. I leaped to my hooves and I ran to Twilight's side.

“Twilight stop!!!!” I yelled at her. “This isn’t you! What would your parents think?” She didn't even look up. She continued to try to tear the mage apart. “What would Shiny think?” That made her look at me. Her eyes lost their glow, and started to tear up. She then fell to the ground. I caught her, and helped her up. She was able to stand albit shakily. She was looking at anywhere but me. “Twilight, look at me.” She still refused to look at anywhere but me. “Twilight, look at me.” I put a hoof to her chin and made it face me. Her face was tear stricken, and tears were still streaming down her face. I pulled her into a hug. She tried to pull away, but I wouldn’t let her. She finally gave up and sobbed into my shoulder. I patted her on the back and shh’d her. She calmed down after 10 more minutes. She sat sniffling on the floor, me sitting right next to her.

“I wanted to destroy him…” She finally said “I thought you were dead, I just couldn’t stand the thought, I wanted him to feel the suffering that he caused you” I looked at her in surprise. She looked up at me, “When you explained what you felt, you know, in the graduation room.” She said, with teary eyes. “I… felt something… something I’ve never felt before.” We got closer to each other. “It was the most wonderful feeling I’ve ever felt.” We got even closer. “It was a feeling I’ve only heard described by Cadence, our old foalsitter.” We got so close that I was getting lost in her lavender eyes. “The feeling that she called, love.” We kissed, it wasn’t like anything that I had ever experienced. It was one of the most wonderful feeling I’ve ever felt. Our arms intertwined, bringing us closer together than ever before. The only reason why we broke the kiss was that we needed to breathe. We stared into each others eyes and smiled. Then the same thought came to our minds at the same time.

“The Waterdhavian Creatures!!!!” We untangled our limbs and scrambled to our feet. We rushed through the next door and came to the stables. We saw our old foalsitter, Cadence, fighting goblins alongside another mare who we didn't recognize. We rushed into the fray, me entering Zen mode and started punching the life out of any and all goblins near us with Twilight casting all kinds of spells, Magic Missile, Burning Hooves, Ray of Frost. It didn't take very long before all the goblins were dead. Cadence Smiled at us and pulled us over into a hug.

“Twilight, Thunder how are you?” She asked releasing us. As she released us she noticed we were holding hooves. “Oh my goddesses! You two are in love!” She gasped. We blushed but did not deny it. Nor did we stop holding hands. “You know, I always knew you two would hit it off. So, does Shining know?” At this, we froze. With the discovery of our love for each other, we completely forgot about Shiny.

“Umm, no, We kind only found out when i tore a attacker limb from limb…” Twilight said quietly, but Cadence still heard. She blanched.

“You did what? You tore a pony limb from limb?” She screeched looking very angry. She charged to Twilight, with a hoof raised. But the second before the blow landed, I came between Twilight and Cadence, taking the blow meant for Twilight. I was knocked to the floor, I forgot how powerful blows Cadence could land. Cadence’s eyes widened. She used her magic to help me up and started apologizing profusely. “Ohmygodohmygodohmygod! I am so sorry!”

“It’s no problem I couldn’t let Twilight get hurt without you knowing the full story.” I then explained the event from when after we destroyed the skeletons to now. Her eyes widened when I described the circumstances for when she tore the limbs off the mage.

“I believe the event that you are describing is called a magical overload, only the most powerful mages can access it, it increases magical ability by a factor of about 15. It also empowers and maximises all of your spells, but it only lasts about 1 min and afterwards the user is weak and tired so it needs to be used wisely.” Cadence explained to us.

“Cadence, Why are we still here, we need to be out looking for the rest of the Waterdhavian creatures” The unknown mare said,

“Ohh yes Twilight, Thunder, this is Cursed Betrayal, she is in charge of the priests helping against the plague.” Cadence said. I frowned at Betrayal. Twilight saw my frown and leaned towards me and asked:

“Hey, what's wrong?”

“It might be nothing, but the harmony of betrayal seems… off”

“How so?”

“Her evil side is much larger than her good side, but let’s keep it quiet for now. OK?” she nodded. Cadence then told us to come to the hall of harmony within the week for information about the waterdhavian creatures.

Level up sequence:

Level up X2 Twilight Sparkle

HP+ 12 total: 18

new spells: Sleep, Shield, Summon Creature II, Invisibility

Level up X2 Thunder Quill

HP+ 24 total: 36

New feats: Monk Speed, Still Mind