Jacob had stayed up all night, keeping an eye on the group's newest member. The second I let my guard down, he'll kill me. Jacob continuously thought. This new member had not done anything yet, but Jacob knew better than to fall asleep.

"Feeling tired, Jacob?" The Skull taunts.

"I'm not trusting you." Says Jacob. "Not in a thousand years."

"Too bad your feeble body won't last that long." The Skull says with a grin. Chills went down Jacob's spine just by looking at that face. Even after he thought that the Skull was gone for good, nightmares had haunted him. Nightmares of this monster ruthlessly killing his friends while Jacob helplessly watched...

"What you tried to do was unforgivable." Jacob says to him.

"No, what is unforgivable is what you filthy humans did! You polluted your environment, made multiple species of animals extinct, and now this!" The Skull anigry yells. "If I had killed all of your kind, this would have never happened." He hisses.

"You were once human too." Jacob retorts. The Skull roars in anger.

"Stop it, both of you!" Rarity calls from the tent.

"You're awake." Jacob comments.

Rarity snorts. "How could I not be? No one could sleep through all that yelling."

"My apologies." The Skull says, slightly irritated by the interruption.

"Apology accepted. Now will you two keep it down?" Rarity asks between her teeth.

"Alright." Jacob agrees.

Rarity walks back into the tent. Jacob glares at Skull as soon as she's out of sight.

"You touch any one of them, and you'll regret it." Jacob threatens.

The Skull slowly shakes his head. "You don't understand, do you Jacob? It's humans I want to kill, not those peaceful creatures. They are not the ones destroying their planet." He says.

"That still doesn't justify what you've done." Jacob says coldly.

"Jacob." Jacob turns around to see Rarity watching them from the tent. "Can I talk to you for a moment?" She asks.

Jacob slowly walks toward the tent, his eyes still intently watching Skull.

"What is it?" Jacob asks.

"Look Jacob, I understand that this thing has been following us, and that he's a little creepy. But your behavior is unacceptable." Rarity tells him in a motherly tone.

"Unacceptable!? I think my behavior is rather calm considering what he tried to do. What he did do." Jacob says in a quiet voice, making sure that the Skull did not overhear their conversation.

"What did he do?" Questions Rarity.

"Some things are better off-" Jacob begins but is cut off by Rarity.

"Jacob Mallers, you are going to tell me right here, right now what he did before I lose it." Rarity says in a hushed but harsh tone.

Jacob sighs. "He... he killed millions of people back on Earth. He wanted to kill every single human that exists. He hates us." Jacob reluctantly tells her.

Rarity looked aghast. "Why would he do such a thing?" Rarity asks.

"He used to be human. Then a accident happened, and now he's that. I don't know much about what happened." Jacob explains.

Rarity finally regains her voice. "That's horrid Jacob! I feel sorry for him."

Jacob becomes mad. "Sorry!? You feel sorry for that thing!? He's a monster, Rarity. A monster. No one should be sorry for him." He yells.

Rarity shushes him. "Shhh. You'll wake up the kids." She says.

"We're already awake." Sweetie Belle says from the bed inside the tent.

"Oh, darling, I'm sorry Jacob woke you up!" Rarity exclaims.

Jacob leaves the tent while Rarity begins to fuss about Sweetie Belle's mane. Jacob walks out of the tent. The Skull seemed to be crouching down, his back open revealing a solar panel beneath the armour.

"What the hell are you doing?" Jacob asks.

The Skull looks up. "Recharging myself. I do need a dource of power, you know." It simply explains.

"You never struck me as a eco-caring freak." Jacob says smugly.

The Skull just laughs. "I care about the environment, different from your kind." It retorts.

Jacob drops the conversation. Soon Rarity and the two fillies come out of the tent, and the group eat breakfast, all except for Skull.

"Why aren't you eating?" Scoolatoo innocently asks it.

"Why little child, that's because I already had breakfast." The Skull gently replies. To Jacob it only sounds like the voice of a predetor.

"What do you eat?" Scoolatoo asks.

"Scoolatoo, it's not very nice to ask things like that." Warns Rarity.

The Skull seems unoffended. "I can't eat food like you do. I live off of energy from the sun." The Skull says, and turns around, revealing his still open back.

Sweetie Belle instantly hugs Rarity, but Scoolatoo's eyes just widen. "That is totally awesome!" The pegasus exclaims.

"I think that's enough questions for now." Jacob says, and begins to pack up the tent. After they store all their equipment and check the their location and that of Foal Mountain's, the group set off.

"It'll be about a two day walk from here." Jacob informs the group.

"Two days!" Groans Rarity. "I don't think I'll last two days in this pony foresaken land!" She complains. The group just ignore her, and sett off.

"My feet are tired!" Complains Scoolatoo after two hours of walking. Sweetie Belle was already on Rarity's back.

Jacob sighs, and picks up Scoolatoo.

"Do you want me to carry her?" Skull asks.

"Beat it." Jacob says dismissively. But Scoolatoo has a different opinion.

"Ooh! I wanna ride on your head!" She exclaims and tries to squirm out of Jacob's grip.

"No, you will not be taking a ride on his head." Jacob tells her.

"Jacob, give him a chance." Rarity pleads.

Jacob and Rarity stare at each other. Finally Jacob relents. "Not my responsibility if she get's hurt." Jacob grumbles. He lets Scoolatoo go, and the filly trots ove to the robot. It picks her up, and Scoolatoo shivers.

"Why are you so cold?" She asks.

"Why dear child, that is because my body doesn't need to be warm, like yours, but my head does." He answers kindly.

"Why just your head?" She continues to ask.

The Skull pauses. "It's the only part of me that's not dead." He answers flatly.

"What do you mean?" Scoolatoo presses.

"Scoolatoo." Rarity warns.

"Oh, um sorry... what's your name?" Scoolatoo asks appologetically. Rarity hoofpalms.

"My name is the Skull." It answers.

"Skull? That's a weird name." Scoolatoo comments.

"That's just what people call me." The Skull says as he places the little filly on his head.

Scoolatoo stops asking questions after that, and the rest of the walk is done in silence. As night falls, their objective can be seen in the distance.

"Time to set camp." Jacob declares. Skull lowers Scoatoo, and Sweetie Belle hops off of Rarity's back.

As Jacob sets up the tent, the Skull aproaches him.

"Anything I can do to help?" It asks.

"Nope." Jacob answers.

"Jacob, he's just trying to help." Rarity says.

"He's trying to fool us." Jacob snaps back.

"Why can't you trust him? He hasn't hurt us yet." She points out.

"She does have a point." Mutters the Skull.

"He's waiting for us to let our guard down." Jacob responds.

"Jacob, you know if I wanted to kill you, I would have already done so. You should know that beyond anyone else."

Jacob knew it was right. It had had plenty of chances to kill him, yet it had kept it's words.

"Go find some food in the wilderness. We need to resupply our food." Jacob mutters.

The Skull walks off into the wilderness without response.

"Can't you be a little nicer?" Rarity scolds Jacob. She is trying to keep the fillies from tunning off, specifically Scoolatoo.

"I say it's time for some crusading!" The pegasus filly shouts.

"Scoolatoo, it's not very safe out here. I think we should hold off on the crusading for a while." Sweetie Belle objects.

"What's with all this talking about crusading?" Jacob asks.

"We're crusading so we can get our cutie marks!" Scoolatoo happily yells.

"What the heck is a cutie mark?" Jacob inquisitively asks.

"A cutie mark shows our special talent. Grown ponies like my sister already have one." Sweetie Belle calmly explains.

Jacob wondered what those strange symbols on the ponie's flanks had been.

After the two fillies had been put to sleep, Rarity sneaked out of the tent. She was visibly exhausted. She sees Jacob poking the fire with a stick, keeping the smouldering coals hot.

"He's not back yet?" She asks.

Jacob know who she's talking about. "Stop talking about it like it's a person." He grunts.

"But he is!" Rarity says to him.

"It was. But not anymore. It's just a shell of what it used to be." Jacob replies.

Rarity turns around, and walks back into the tent. Jacob just watches her go. After she reenters the tent, Jacob watches the glowing coals.

"Why do you want me to do this?" The voice wakes Jacob up. When did I fall asleep? Jacob wondered, but for now he needed to find the owner of the voice.

"It's the only way to keep you from killing him." A femenine voice says.

"Why do you not want me to kill him!? He stopped our plan." Jacob recognises the voice as Skulls.

"Terrel, sometimes killing isn't the answer." The femenine voice replies. Jacob is close to the source of the voices.

"Don't call me that. That was my old name. Terrel is long gone." Jacob hears the Skull say with a growl.

Jacob risks a peek. He sees Skull, but cannot find the owner of the female voice. Jacob quickly hides behind a tree again.

"You still are Terrel. You just pretend that you're different. If only-" the femenine voice says but Skull cuts her off.

"I am not Terrel! I am the Skull, the one who shall bring judgement upon those foolish humans!" The Skull says with a roar.

"I can't let you kill all the humans. No matter what they did, killing them isn't right." The femenine voice calmly replies.

There is a pause. "You did it." The Skull begins. "You revealed the base's location, didn't you?" It coldly asks.

"I did what you have to." The femenine voice answers.

"I should destroy you right now, Navi." The Skull hisses.

Navi!? So she didn't die!? Jacob is bewildered by the revelation.

"But you won't." Navi says.

Jacob nearly holds his breath.

"No, I won't." The Skull replies.

Jacob stealthily sneaks his way back to camp. The coals were dead by the time he returned. As he rekindled the fire, Skull returns from his search for food. In his robotic arms several types of fruit and plants were being cradled.

"Here." The Skull gruffly says, and lowers the fruit and plants on the ground next to Jacob.

"Took you long enoughe." Jacob mutters.

The Skull doesn't reply. Jason inspects the food, seeing if it was edible. He couldn't identify most of them.

"Are you sure these are safe to eat?" Jacob dubiously asks.

"I've been stuck in this dimenyion longer than you. I think I should know." Skull retorts.

"Yeah, but you don't need to eat." Jacob replies.

"I didn't say you had to eat them." It tells Jacob.

Jacob gives another glance at the supplies. He slowly picks up the food, and stores it in his pack. Jacob catches himself before he snoozes off. He still didn't trust the Skull.

I don't think I'll ever will. Jacob thinks to himself.

As the sun rises up, Jacob yawns. Two nights of no sleep were weighing down heavily on him. As he prepared that morning's breakfast, peanut butter & jelly sandwiches and some apples he had found. He was still hesitant to test the food Skull had found last night.

Rarity walks out of the tent, and is noticably surprised by Jacob's appearance.

"Jacob," she says, "have you been sleeping lately?"

"Not while it's here." Jacob states.

"Why can't you give him a chance? Ust one little chance?" She pleads.

"I'll never trust it. Never." Jacob repeats.

"...I'll go wake up the fillies." Rarity finally says.

Soon the two fillies are up, and after a rather plain breakfast, the group is ready to go.

Within hours they are near the foot of the mountain. They stop outside of the forest surrounding the mountain.

"Looks like we'll need to go through the forest." Jacob says with exhasperation.

Rarity gasps. "T-through the f-f-forest!? Do you know what kind of beasts live in the forest!?" Rarity says, teeth chattering.

"If we stay quiet, we won't run into any animals." Jacob promises.

Rarity is reluctant, but in the end she follows the rest of the group into the forest.

Navigation was difficult in the maze-like forest. The trees blocked the mountain from their sight, and Jacob was forced to rely on his instinct most of the time. Occasionally he would catch a glimpse of the mountain, and correct their course. Rarity turned towards every little sound in the forest.

"It's fine, Rarity." Sweetie Belle reassures. "What's the chance that we'll run into a monster?"

Just then a roar resounds in the forest. The group looks towards the sound, and see a guant bear with a faint purple glow emitating from it.

"Just my luck." Mumbles Jacob. He pulls out his pistol and shoots at the bear. This serves to only irritate the bear even more, and it charges. The group scatter in all directions. All except the Skull.

"Skull!" Shrieks Rarity.

The bear raises his claw to strike. It brings the paw down on Skull. The Skull stops it with one hand. A grin, deep and wicked, forms on the Skulls face. The bear is stunned by this feat, but only for a moment. It swings it's paw from the side, scoring a direct hit. The Skull goes flying into a tree, and for a Jacob thinks he is dead. To his relief, or shock, the Skull stands back up, unharmed.

"My turn." He hisses in a deep voice.

The Skull runs head on towards the purple bear. The bear roars in frustration, angry that it's attack is ineffective. It goes for another swing but the Skull is faster. The Skull slides under the bear's claw, and lands a double foot kick on the bear's stomach. The bear howls in pain, and falls over.

"Now for the kill." The Skull says in dark delight.

The fillies are cowering behind a tree, and Rarity's eyes looked like they couldn't open any wider. Jacob was stuck between stopping him and letting him finish the bear.

Suddenly the Skull finds himself staring with a pair of cyan eyes. The Skull takes a step back. The owner of the cyan eyes, a yellow pegasus, closed in even further.

"What do you think you're doing, mister? Hurting a poor little ursa lika that! He's not even a adult yet!" The pegasus yells.

"Fluttershy? Is that you?" Rarity asks.

The yellow pegasus backs away from Skull. "Rarity!? How did you get here!?" She asks in surprise.

"I was escorted by these two gentlecoats." Rarity says with a gesture towards Jacob and the Skull.

"Oh! Oh my, I'm so sorry! I didn't know you were with her! I'm so sorry about my dear ursa minor, he was only trying to protect me!" Fluttershy appologetically exclaims.

"No problem, we only got nearly killed by your 'dear' pet." Jacob says sarcastically.

Fluttershy hides behind her mane. "Jacob! You don't need to be that mean to her!" Scolds Rarity.

"I-I'm sorry if h-he hurt you... and he's not my pet." Fluttershy says in a near hushed voice.

"No problem, Skull handled that ursa just fine." Jacob says with slight disgust.

"Skull?" Asks Fluttershy.

"That's me." The Skull replies.

Fluttershy turns to Rarity. "Um, Rarity, if you don't mind me asking..." She whispers.

Rarity tilts her head. "What is it?" She asks.

"Umm... well, not to be offensive, but why are you with humans? Aren't they bad?" She asks.

"He's not really a human." Jacob says, pointing a finger towards the Skull.

"Jacob!" Rarity says, her teeth clenched. She turns back to Fluttershy. "Don't worry, Fluttershy, these people are nice." She reassures.

The ursa groans, and Fluttershy quickly rushes to it's side.

"I'm sorry deary, I forgot all about you." She soothingly says. She comforts the bear, and it coos. Jacob is appaled by this pegasus' behavior towards this huge bear. Wasn't she scared of it?

Rarity sees Jacob's face, and giggles. "Fluttershy's talent is the ability to talk with animals. She loves them." She explains.

"What is your talent?" Jacob asks. "Just wondering."

"My talent is finding gems, dear. I use them to decorate my dresses." Rarity says, elaborately gestures to her cutie mark. Then she takes on a sad expression. "I guess it's useless now."

"I'm sure you'll be able to make clothes again someday." Jacob reassures.

"Umm... guys, can I ask something?" Fluttershy timidly says.

Jacob and Rarity jump in surprise. Dang she's silent. Jacob thinks to himself.

"What is it, Fluttershy?" Rarity asks.

"Why did you come all here? It's not like I'm much help most of the time..." Fluttershy quietly asks.

"Why dear, that's not true! You can be a great help to us now!" Rarity exclaims.

"R-really? How?" Fluttershy asks, slightly blushing.

"Jacob is trying to gather all the Bearers of Harmony, and you are a Bearer as much as I am." Rarity explains.

"O-okay... oh my! It's almost night! You can stay in my cottage!" Fluttershy exclaims, and leads the way. Rarity gathers the fillies, and they follow their new acquaintance deeper into the woods.

TO BE CONTINUED...

Author's Note

With two Bearers of Harmony gathered, this story now comes to an end. But don't worry! I'm already working on the sequel to this story. I decided to split it up so readers won't look at it and say, "OMC, this thing has like fifty chapters. I bet it's lame."

Thank you to all readers for putting up with my writing skills. This is one of my first stories, and I think I learned patience in a whole new way. I felt like I just wanted to rush straight to the ending and wright it. Seriously, I have the whole ending planned out. Anyways thank you all!