Humans in Equestria

by VisualPony

Rating: teen
Tags: Alternate Universe, Human, Comedy, Romance, Slice of Life, Dark
Length: 29747

Zeo contacts his family after his friends have suggested the idea. At first he thought it was a good idea, but after his fathers reaction, he is not too sure anymore....

After the events of A nightly guardian , Zeo contacts his family, offering them to come to Equestria as well. The advanced medical magic, the prospect of a very long life and the idea of no financial problems are very tempting for the relatives…

Will the family accept Luna and Silk as part of the Salchar family? Will they move to Equestria? Will they be a benefit to Equestria if they do, or a corrupting influence?

Follow the royal family as they come to know their human relatives, and vise versa. Witness how they overcome their trial, and how ancient evils come to life again.

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2014-03-17 21:36:24 UTC

The craziness begings

Humans in Equestria

Chapter 1

The craziness begins

“Hey Dad”, Zeo said, and everypony listened with great interest. Every conversation around the table had ceased, as Zeo was actually attempting to invite his family. Noticing the tension and curiosity in the air, he waved his hand to cast a translation spell. Once it was completed, he put the phone on the table, tapping it's screen once more. Suddenly everypony could hear an elderly man speaking. He sounded a little impatient, and more then a little annoyed.

“What is it Zeomak... I'm busy getting your grandfather ready for bed, so speak up already if you want to say something!”, the man demanded.

“Dad... could you come upstairs for a moment?”, Zeo asked calmly.

“What? Why? If there's something you want to show me, come downstairs. I really don't have the time for your games right now, son.”, Zeos father replied with a sigh.

“I... I can't. Please Dad, it will only take a minute of your time. I promise it's worth it.”, Zeo sounded a little nervous now. His father sighed, and he could clearly imagine him running his hand through his hair.

“Alright... But if this is one of your jokes, then say it now and save yourself the trouble.”

“This is no joke Dad, I promise. I'll see you in a minute.”, Zeo said, ending the call. He looked at all of them, a stern expression on his face.

“Girls... This may sound weird, but please be quiet until I say that it's OK to talk. I'd also like you to stay out of sight for a moment. I don't want to give the old man a heart attack.”

All of them nodded, moving behind the portal he had created, as he grabbed it's edges to enlarge it. Soon it was big enough for Zeos head, and they heard heavy panting from the other side. Someone was approaching the portal from the other side.

*~*~*~*~*

Peter Salchar climbed the stairs to the first floor, panting like he had just run a marathon. His son was really hard to bear sometimes. He was determined to give him a piece of his mind, should this turn out to be some sort of joke.

“ZEOMAK?”, he called, half expecting his son to be in the second floor living room. Instead he heard his voice from his fathers former bedroom. Nowadays it served as a storage area for Peters various magic tricks, and his stage equipment. But since his last stage performance had been several years back, he was not using any of it anymore. Still.... he did not like it when Zeo was in there. The equipment was delicate and expensive after all....

“I'm over here Dad! I guess I landed a bit off target.”, his son called.

“What do you mean off.... HOLY CRAP!”, he shouted, as he unlocked the door to his storage room, and found a hole that hang in the air. On the other side, he could see his son.

“Surprised?”, his son asked, a wide grin on his face. Peter went closer, checking the hole for strings or any other device that would explain what he was seeing. After opening and closing his mouth several times, he looked his son straight in the face.

“You gotta show me how your doing this....”, he almost whispered. Even he, as an amateur magician, had no explanation for what he was seeing.

“Well, that would require for you to be able to do real magic. I'm sorry Dad, but I still think the tricks you do are kind of a joke....”, Zeo started, just to be interrupted by his father, who bellowed straight at the hole in reality.

“ A JOKE? REAL MAGIC? What I do is an art! This here is some kind of trick, using some projector, I am sure!”

“Oh? Well... here's news for you Dad, THIS is actually real magic. Don't you notice anything about my surroundings? I totally forgot how unobservant you tend to be at times...”, Zeo sighed.

“What the heck are you talking about? We saw each other not even half an hour ago!”

“From your perspective that may be correct Dad... Oh to hell with it...”, Zeo said, grabbing his fathers collar through the portal, and pulling him closer. Peters was so caught off guard, that his head was soon bathed in brilliant sunlight. His body on the other hand, still stood in the dusty old storage room, shivering slightly due to the fact that it was not heated.

Peter was shocked. He could see a whole City when he looked over his sons shoulder. Not only that, but it was warm, and the air smelled fresher then anything he had ever smelled.

“What... What... the hell...”, he stammered, but Zeo interrupted him.

“Dad... I want to make an offer to you. First of all however, I must ask you a question. Do you believe me, that I can perform real magic now?”,Zeo asked and his father nodded.

“Good. I am in another dimension. Here time goes by differently. For you it wasn't even half an hour, for me a thousand years have passed. The only reason I have not aged, is that my body is, and will always be, connected to our world. I still age “normally” you could say. If I'm not too reckless, I can live for several centuries here. My offer to you, gramps and Petra is this: If you guys want to come here, then you are more then welcome to.”, Zeo said with a warm smile on his face.

“A... A thousand years? Your pulling my leg. Don't tell me you still haven't been able to produce some offspring. If anything you just told me is true, then you should have at least managed that!”, Peter grumbled. It was his way to deal with unbelievable things such as this.

“Ehm... Pleased to meet you... Grandfather.”, Silk said as she stepped forward. Zeo tried to wave her away, but it was already too late. Peters eyes fixated on her, then rolled up to the whites as the old man fainted.

“Young lady, your grounded!”, Zeo shouted, widening the portal even further to pull his father through completely.

“Wha..? But why?”, Silk pouted.

“For scaring your grandfather.”, Luna said, helping Zeo to ease his father onto the breakfast table, while Lyra cleared it with her magic. Silk flopped down to her haunches, pouting like a little girl that didn't get her will for the first time.

“Now now... I think your parents are quite right Silk. Your father told us to stay out of sight, and even though he can't command me, you are still his daughter.”, Celestia added, putting a comforting wing around her nieces shoulder.

“Besides... it won't be boring, I promise.”, she said with a wink.

“Celestia, you spoil her too much.”, Zeo groaned, as he ran his magical strands through his fathers body. He had totally forgotten how bad the shape his father was in really was. Several heart attacks, an injury in the lower back, several pounds overweight and the twenty-five years of smoking didn't help either. With a sigh Zeo got to work. It took him only a few minutes to correct most of his fathers problems. The extra weight however, he would not be able to magic away.

After some time, Peter woke up. Everypony looked at him with concern, and he jumped off of the table, almost jumping over the edge of the balcony in his attempt to escape the Ponies. Had Zeo not grabbed him with his magic, he would have jumped off for sure, without knowing that it was an almost two hundred hoof fall until he would hit the ground.

“CALM THE FUCK DOWN DAD!”, Zeo shouted at his father, as he shook him gently.

“Be careful with your father!”, Peter shouted back indignantly. “I am not as young as I used to be!”

“Oh? Feeling any pain in your chest right now? How about your breathing? Do you have any trouble breathing in and out as you used to?”, Zeo asked with a smirk.

Peter wanted to confirm that he indeed felt a strong pain in his chest, and that he had trouble breathing, but then he stopped. There was, indeed, nothing wrong. His lungs were free, and his heart beat at a healthy pace.

“How...”, he croaked, putting one hand on the left side of his chest.

“Magic.”, Silk said, still pouting. She had not moved an inch since her father had grounded her, and was playing stubborn now.

“Wait... What... What's with the talking... Ponies?”, Peter stuttered. Luna broke out in laughter, leaning on Zeo, who blushed intensely.

“He got it RIGHT!”, she laughed. “And you called us horses for what? Four weeks?”, she continued.

“Yeah, yeah... I get it... my old man is smart...”, Zeo groaned, sliding his hand down his face in an exasperated manner.

“That doesn't really answer my question!”, Peter shouted. He was about fed up with the talking Ponies, his sons claims about magic and that one with the differently colored eyes....

His own eyes shot open wide, as he pointed at Silk Light, stuttering like a mad man.

“You... a thousand years.... me... GRANDFATHER???”

Zeo began to scratch his head uncomfortably.

“Well ehm... yeah Dad... maybe you better sit down.”, Zeo mumbled, gesturing for his father to sit down. Before he could start to explain everything to his father, Celestia cleared her throat to get his attention.

“Zeo... maybe I should explain it to your father. I don't think the two of you can be quite rational right now. So if you would allow me to take your place in this?”, she asked, stepping up next to Zeo. He nodded, making place for his sister in law. Peter seemed a little apprehensive at first, but sat down after Celestia gave him a reassuring smile.

For the next ten minutes, Celestia and Peter just sat at the breakfast table. The Princess of the sun explaining everything the human needed to know, while her conversational partner nodded occasionally. The shocked glances his father threw him from time to time, made Zeo flinch inwardly. He hadn't seen his father in over a thousand years from his perspective, but these looks still made him feel like he had done something wrong.

“You OK Dad?”, Silk asked, nuzzling against her fathers shoulder.

“Yeah... I think so. I just don't know if it was a good idea to bring him here. It might have been better if I had went over and tried to explain everything to him. He might have called for an ambulance to bring me to an Asylum, but at least it would have been over quick... I hate it when others have to do things for me, cause I'm to much of a chicken....”, he sighed, wrapping an arm around his daughters neck and stroking her mane.

“Chicken? You faced off against Nightmare Moon, not only once but twice! You fought several experienced soldiers to protect your family. How can you say your a chicken?”, Luna asked, the shock evident in her voice.

“Well... yeah... I have done these things. But believe me... these were a walk in the park, compared to the guilt trips my father can send you on.”, he sighed, looking at his wife.

A sudden outburst from Peter caught their attention. As Zeo turned around, his father was already on him, sending him sprawling with one mighty swing of his fist. Silk tumbled to the floor along with her father, since he was still hugging her. Luna, sensing an upcoming fight, positioned herself in front of her fallen husband and daughter. Her head lowered and wings spread out, she faced Peter who was fuming with rage by this point.

“YOU FUCKED A DAMN HORSE? YOUR A DAMN HORSEFUCKER?”, he screamed, trying to get past Luna, who did not budge an inch until Zeo laid a hand on her shoulder.

“I think we can agree on a few things. First, she is a Pony, not a horse. Second, she is not a Pony like the ones we know in our world. She is a sentient being, like you and me. And last but not least, it is none of your business who I sleep with!”, Zeo responded, coldly. The two men stared each other down, while Zeo pushed Luna behind himself. She tried to say something, but Zeo silenced her, by placing his index finger on her muzzle.

Peter tried to take another swing at his son, but his fist was stopped in midair. Being enveloped in a pale blue glow, Peter tried to pull his fist back unsuccessfully.

“Don't do this Dad.... It is none of your business who I sleep with. I am royalty here, as well as a veteran of many battles. I can use magic, you only have your rusty martial arts skills. I think we are old enough at this point to be able to talk about things like this, unless you REALLY want to fight me. Save your dignity and back down, please.”, Zeo said more calmly.

At first Peter looked like he wanted to beat some sense into his son, but he soon calmed down. His bright red face cooled down, and he heaved a heavy sigh.

“I guess there is nothing I can do about it, and I have to thank you for fixing me up, but don't think, even for a second, that I'm OK with this! And I will NOT accept these... Ponies into the family. Your coming home with me, right this instant.”, his father said in his best disappointed father tone.

“No.”

“What do you mean, no? I am your father...”

“You may be my father, but Silk Light and Luna are also part of my family. I will not leave them. I only opened the portal to our world, so I could offer you to come here as well. I extend that offer to gramps and Petra as well. You could live for centuries here, and all your little illnesses can be healed. Even grandfathers Dementia is no big deal when it comes to medical magic! Silk could heal it in a few seconds! But I see that it might have been a bad idea after all....”, Zeo interrupted, tears starting to form in the corners of his eyes. He did not like it when his father showed his disapproval.

Something about what Zeo had just said, seemed to have reached Peter however. He was no longer looking at his son, but through him instead like a man who was deep in thought. Finally he broke the awkward silence again.

“You say you could heal your grandfather here? He would be one hundred percent OK again?”, he asked with disbelief. It was Silk who stepped forward cautiously.

“I... I think I can. Regeneration spells are my specialty. With a bit of modification, it can be applied to a slightly damaged mind.”, she said almost timidly.

“Then what are you waiting for?”, Peter bellowed, to which Silk squeaked and hid behind her father again.

“I don't appreciate how you are talking to my daughter Dad.”, Zeo said coldly, stepping forward until the two of them were almost nose to nose. Zeos hands were glowing, indicating that he was too angry to control his magic completely.

“Ehm... OK, OK... I guess I went a little overboard there... I'm sorry...”, he finally said, scratching his head.

“But you must understand that this has been quite the shock for me. I would be very grateful, if you would help my father, but I just can't accept that I am related to an equine....”, Peter said, looking past his son and into his granddaughters eyes.

Zeos face softened at these words, even though he didn't drop his guard.

“You heard him Silk. Are you willing to try, even after what he said?”, Luna asked, addressing her daughter who was close to tears now. She still feared that others did not accept her, and this man had outright told her that he did not see her as part of the family.

“He... He is your grandfather, right Dad?”, she asked, addressing her father, who nodded. He was not willing to take his eyes off of his old man.

“Then... then I'll... I'll do it. He's my great grandfather after all... I can't leave him hanging, even if I have never met him. He's still family....”, Silk sniffled.

It was then decided, that it would be for the best if Silk and Zeo went over to Zeos world. Peter was to stay with Celestia and Luna, since they did not trust him not to try anything funny once his father was healed. It also was a better opportunity for the both of them, to try and find out if he would be willing to move to Equestria.

Stepping through the portal, Silk found herself in a cramped room. The light was out, and it was pretty dark. Lighting up her horn, she finally saw why there was barely any space to move around. Several suitcases and and boxes made it hard to move in the small room. When something suddenly bumped into her from behind, Silk shrieked and darted forwards a few steps, throwing several of the suitcases over. When she turned around, she saw her father standing there.

“Calm down sweetie. This is just as creepy for me, as it is for you. You've never been in my world, while I haven't been here for over a thousand years.”, Zeo explained.

“Are you trying to wreck the house?”, a disgruntled voice called from the lower floor.

“Who was that? Was that him? He doesn't sound very nice...”, Silk whimpered, backing away from the door, and towards her father.

“Don't you worry. He's as tame as a kitten most of the time. Just never try to argue with him about something he thinks is abnormal. He won't accept your point of view.”, Zeo said, trying to reassure her.

“If you say so....”, Silk didn't sound convinced.

“OK then... before we go downstairs, I think I will go to my old room and get some things. Want to come along? If you don't, you can just wait in the hallway.”

Seeing her fathers old room excited Silk beyond anything. She wanted to see it so bad, that she forgot all about her fear, following her father out of the door. The next room they entered looked like a dining room, in which all the furniture was covered up. Silk guessed that it was not used very often, and they wanted to prevent dust from gathering on the furniture. The only thing she did absolutely not like, was the smell of the place. It smelled dusty and old, not to mention.... unclean in a way.

After walking up a very narrow flight of stairs, her father led her into a room that was smaller then her personal bathroom. There were several shelves with books, some strange machines, and a bed that looked not very comfortable.... Silk did not understand what her father wanted to take from here. All of the stuff looked old or damaged in some way.

“OK, let's just...”, Zeo mumbled to himself, while his magic reached out, packing several of the devices into a few boxes he conjured up from somewhere. Silk was not too impressed with the magic her father was performing. It was something that most Unicorn foals could perform. The only thing that got her, was the speed in which he dished the spells out. After a few minutes, in which her father had packed almost all of the things that were in the room, they descended the stairs again. The boxes he had packed, were floating down the stairs ahead of the two.

“What did you pack all that stuff for? Most of it looks pretty ragged....”, Silk asked.

“Well... some of it is nostalgia, but there are some useful things in here too. My computers for example.”, her father explained with a giant grin on his face.

“Computers?”

“Well... you know that my phone can hold much information like music, videos and other stuff, right? My phone is only something like a miniature computer. If you look at the content on it, you can multiply the amount of it by at least a hundred times. And now, let's go meet your great grandfather... To be precise... you better wait in the hallway, while I go inside.”, Zeo explained, and Silk agreed. She was suddenly in full fear mode again. Her wings were trembling, her coat felt cold and she was suddenly not too sure that she could pull this off anymore.

Noticing his daughters distress, Zeo turned around.

“No worries. My grandfather may be a stubborn brick sometimes, who is one of two people who can actually make me angry, but he is also a kind and thankful soul.”, he explained, hugging his daughter.

“And besides.... even if it doesn't work, I'm here to support you...”, he added. This was enough to reassure Silk, who then followed her father downstairs....

Zeo was uncomfortable. He had never had a very close connection with his grandfather, but he wanted to help him, if he could nonetheless. As he stepped into the kitchen, he walked over to his grandfather, who was sitting in a wheelchair. Silk was waiting in the darkness of the hallway obediently, while the door stayed open.

“Zeomak? Gimme something to drink.”, his grandfather demanded.

“Ehm... alright gramps... But before that... listen... I have an offer for you. Are you willing to listen?”

“Sure. Just spill it, and get me that drink while your at it.”

Without thinking about it, Zeo levitated a cup and a bottle of milk over to himself. His grandfather stared in awe, not believing his eyes.

“Look gramps... I have an offer for you. What would you say if I told you that I have a way to heal everything that is wrong with you? What if I would also say, that I know a place where you could stay healthy and live for several hundred years?”, Zeo asked, not seeing his grandfathers surprised look. Finally the old man pulled himself together.

“How.... how did you do that?”, he asked. In his eyes Zeo could see a glimmer of the man he had once been, when he realized what his grandfather meant.

“Doesn't matter. So what do you say? Do you want to be healed of all your little pains? Do you want to live for a long time, if you were fit again?”, he asked while placing the cup of milk in front of his grandfather. The old man had completely forgotten about the drink he had asked for, only staring into his grandsons eyes.

“Don't joke around, boy. This ain't funny.”

“I'm not joking gramps. Only one word from you, and it can happen. So what will it be, yes or no?”

“YES!”, he answered, not even taking a second to think about it. Zeo looked to the open door, nodding. A light pink glow began to illuminate the darkness in the hallway, and Frank Salchar looked to see what the source of it was. Before he could make out the shape of Silk however, he fainted. He was enveloped in a her magic, which started to heal him.

At first, he was lifted out of his wheelchair and floated a few feet above the ground. Zeo could observe as his grandfathers twisted fingers straightened, his worn out knees that always seemed to be swollen, shrank a little and he could see the muscles on the legs start to regenerate. The same happened to the ones on his arms. When it was all over, Silk put the old man back on his wheelchair.

“Did it work?”, she asked timidly from her position in the hallway. She was obviously not willing to step out of the darkness and into the brightly lit kitchen.

“I honestly don't know. We'll see once he wakes up. Should take a bit longer then... WHOA!”, Zeo exclaimed, jumping up and stumbling over his own feet. His grandfathers eyes had shot open and fixed on his, without a warning whatsoever. The awareness he saw in them, was something he had not seen in a long time. This man, that had struggled just to follow what he was saying earlier, was now aware of himself again. With a swift motion, Frank Salchar stood up from his wheelchair, stretching his arms and legs, before he bend down to help his grandson back to his feet. As he did so, he pulled Zeo into a bone crushing hug.

“Thank you.... Thank you so much. I don't know how to repay you...”, the old man wept into his shoulder. Zeo patted his grandfathers back in an effort to calm him down.

“Actually, it wasn't me who healed you. It was my daughter who did the deed. I can't do the spell she used for it, myself.”, Zeo explained.

“Your daughter? Where is she? I wanna thank her!”, Franks exclaimed, separating himself from Zeo, so he could look him directly in the eye. Tears of joy were still flowing down his face.

“Gramps... Ehm... you seem to take your sudden recovery pretty well, even my mentioning of magic... How come?”, Zeo asked carefully.

“I don't care what healed me, as long as it did the job! So where is she?”, Frank asked, looking around. Then, his eyes fell on the open door, and the darkness beyond. One front hoof was illuminated by the kitchen light. Spotting this with his eyesight back to twenty twenty, Frank shot towards the door, finally releasing his grandson. Zeo could barely believe how fast his grandfather was moving.

“Come on out girl! I don't bite. Just wanna welcome ya to the family!”, he laughed as he pressed the light switch in the hallway. His smile faded for a moment when he saw Silk. Her head hang low, and she tried to back away from him, but Frank Salchar wouldn't have any of that. His smile returned, as he put a hand under her chin to lift her face up to eye level.

“You are my great granddaughter?”, he asked laughing. Silk nodded, not meeting his eyes. She was more then surprised when she found herself in a strong hug.

“Thank you girl! I'm looking forward to meeting your mother.”, the old man laughed, heartily.

“I thought you'd be angry. She's no human, and neither is her mother.”, Zeo said, walking up to the two of them.

“It's none of my business who you screw. All that matters to me, is that your happy. And it's not like I didn't get anything from this, now is it?”, Frank laughed, releasing Silk and slamming his massive hand down on his grandsons back. The sheer force of it made Zeo stumble once again. Silk caught her father on her back, looking at her great grandfather with confusion on her face.

“I don't get it. Grandfather reacted with violence when he met Mom....”, she said, meeting Franks eyes for the first time.

“WHAT?”, Frank interrupted, disbelief in his eyes. “What did that over protective lump of meat say this time?”, he asked.

“Well... He practically said that Silk Light here, and my wife Luna, are not a part of my family. Oh, and he send both, Silk and myself, sprawling after he caught me by surprise.”, Zeo explained, righting himself.

“Bring me to him....”, Frank sighed, looking apologetically at Silk.

“So Silk Light is your name? Strange but beautiful. Fitting for our family. I apologize for my son. He's not a bad guy, but he has this strange idea that you always have to act your best. As if the neighbors were watching us constantly.... Everything he does not deem “normal” is a taboo for him. I'm a little more open minded in that regard. Besides, who am I to judge my grandsons relationships?”

Silk nodded, looking at her father.

“Ok gramps, I guess I'll ask you again. You want to leave this place behind for good, and move to a world were you can stay fit until the day you die? You could live for several centuries actually.”, Zeo asked again.

“Why do you even ask? Since your grandmothers death, there has been nothing to hold me here. I just wish this opportunity had arisen much sooner...”

The three of them climbed the stairs, Zeo took the boxes he had packed earlier in his magic, and then they passed through the portal to Equestria. Zeo closed it, once they had passed through, since he was a little worried about damaging either world, if he kept it open for too long.

“PETER JÜRGEN SALCHAR!”, his grandfathers voice bellowed, and Zeo could see his father flinch.

“Ehm... yes Paps?”, Peter asked, already guessing where this was going.

“I heard you hit your son, and sent your granddaughter to the floor with him, even though she healed me. SO what do you have to say for yourself?”, Frank went on.

“Just look around! His wife is not even human!”, Peter tried to defend his actions, until Frank hit him across the face.

“You may grow over my head, but you will never grow over my hand Peter! You must finally accept, that what your son does is NONE of your business! You can make suggestions, but there is no FUCKING way you should try to interfere with his life. And now apologize!”, Frank demanded, looking into the shocked face of his sixty years old son.

Peter looked like he wanted to retaliate, but thought better of it. After a few minutes, in which Zeo introduced all the Ponies who were present, Peter finally came around. He apologized to Zeo for hitting him, to Silk and Luna for screaming at them, and even to Celestia for interrupting their conversation with his earlier outburst. None of them had expected an apology, but they all accepted it. It was a shock for him after all.

Frank asked Celestia if it would be OK if he started a business in Canterlot. The Princess was more then happy to allow it, given that Zeo would finance his grandfathers start up. Zeo agreed to this, making a mental note to go to the treasury later on. Then Luna startled all of them, by pointing at Silks flank and gasp loudly.

As Silk turned her head, she saw what had shocked her mother. There, where there had been nothing but midnight blue fur before, was her cutiemark. It was a red heart, that lay on a blue cross. She had finally found her own special talent, after over a thousand years of being a blank flank. Like her father, her talent was medicine....

Problems

Humans in Equestria

Chapter 2

Problems

It had been two days since Peter and Frank came to Equestria. Zeo wanted to invite his sister as well, but had not come around to it yet. Now that he was reinstated as a Prince of Equestria, he had to fulfill certain royal duties. Celestia had taken this opportunity to assign him the task to process funding requests, from all over the place. For this, he had been given an office in the new palace where he could work. The Princess of the sun did not want him to do it in his private study, in fear that he might be “distracted”. Had she known what awaited him in an office which he could not even lock, she might have reconsidered.

“And I tell you, that your doing it wrong!”, Peter said for the hundredth time. He had come to check what his son was up to, and ended up checking all the work he had done so far.

“Dad, please stop! This stuff is my responsibility, not yours. I thought you wanted to help gramps get his bar started. I have already approved a budget for you to start up a business.”, Zeo sighed, while running a hand through his hair.

“Your grandfather can handle things on his own. Something you obviously can't!”

“Then tell me.... Why should I approve a budget to somepony who wants to built an experimental power-plant? And in the middle of Canterlot of all places! These Ponies don't even really need electricity, since they have magic!”, Zeo argued, but his father would not back down.

“And what about me? When you finally open up another portal, I wanna bring my equipment over. How do you expect me to do much of anything without it?”

Zeo sighed again, and put the pile of parchments his father had thrust into his face aside.

“First of all, you can always go down to the archives. There is a converter in my study that will produce all the electricity that you could ever want. It uses the ambient magical energy that is floating around, and converts it. As long as you don't want to power a supercomputer, this should be more then enough.”

“Oh and I am to draw a cable from your study all the way to where I need it? So you can unplug me, if you feel like it?”

“Dad, that's something YOU did to me, not the other way around. If you really feel that anxious about going without electricity, then I guess I can whip up a converter for you to use. The only problem is, that it will have less capacity then the one in my study.”, Zeo tried to negotiate, and failed miserably.

“Why so? I have three computers, two Laptops and a server to run! You take the one with limited capacity then!”, his father almost shouted.

“I have a whole lab to run! The converter in my study is unique, since it uses a type of gem that I got from the Zebras over a thousand years ago. They are very rare, and therefor very valuable. I was lucky that I got one for free.”, Zeo explained, fighting hard to keep his cool.

“Then why don't you just buy one? I mean your a Prince and all....”, his father started, but Zeo interrupted him.

“Because when I say “very valuable”, then I mean that one gem of the size of your fist, is worth more then this entire castle! I got this gem because I helped the daughter of the Zebra villages elder, after a life threatening injury. It was a thank you gift, and I can only replicate it's properties to a certain degree. That's why I can only offer you a converter with limited capability, and even then it will take weeks to make it. Take it or leave it.”, Zeo said, slamming his fist down on his table. Parchments were sent flying and his father took a step back, when he realized that he had pushed too hard.

“How are you speaking to me, I am still your father!”, he tried to reprimand his son, when Celestia entered the room. Her office was next door, so she had heard most of the exchange, and had come to try and resolve the situation.

“Your son is a Prince of Equestria Peter. You have made your request, and he has denied it. Also, I think that he is more then old enough so that you can't really demand anything of him. As far as I heard, he was even more polite to you, then you were to him. I think his offer is reasonable, unless you think you can go on without electricity after all.”, Celestia interjected.

Peter looked from his son, to the Alicorn that was standing in the door. His mouth opened and closed a few times, before he threw an angry glare at his son and left the room for good. Celestia on the other hoof, stayed as her brother in law sat down again and buried his face in his hands.

“Is everything alright Zeo?”, she asked, already guessing the answer.

“No, not really. This has been the fifth time he came here to demand something unreasonable, and just between you and me, I think he put that request into my inbox himself. I did a little research, and there is no Pony called “Hammer Wrench” at the royal academy, or anywhere else....”, Zeo explained without looking up.

“So... he's basically breaking the law already.... Why do you oppose his request anyway?” Celestia asked, as she sat down in front of Zeos desk.

“Because ninety percent of the requests I have on my table are from him! All of them are technological in nature, and all of them would pollute Equestria in some way. The generator he wants to build is only the tip of the iceberg. I don't even know where he plans to get the material, but I can assure you that an atomic generator in Canterlot would be bad news.”

“How so?”

“If anything goes wrong with it, it will cause a meltdown. The resulting chain reaction will kill all life in a several mile radius, and make the land uninhabitable for centuries to come! I don't like it. Why does he want to generate so much power anyway? I guess he's leaving me no choice but to assign Night Trotter to him...”, Zeo sighed again, finally meeting Celestias puzzled gaze.

“Night Trotter is one of the Nightguards. He is specialized in observation and stealth. I want to know what my Dad is up to, so I can put a stop to it if I have to before it's too late.”, he elaborated.

“I guess you are having second thoughts about bringing him here. To be honest, after learning that he wants to build something that dangerous in Equestria, I would have to agree.”, Celestia  said, tapping her chin with a hoof.

“Well, I would send him back, but then gramps would give me hell. Also, I can't do that any time soon, even if I wanted too.”, Zeo explained, while picking up the fallen parchments with his magic.

“How come? You opened that portal just fine when you brought them here...”

“That was something else. I can still do it, but not right now. The dimensions are surrounded by their own.... atmosphere you could say. This atmosphere also handles how time flows there. By opening a gate, I force two incompatible atmospheres to work together for a short period of time. It damages them, but not permanently. They need a few days to recover. If I were to open a gate right now, and go through the whole procedure with Petra again, I might risk damaging both worlds permanently, and I don't want that. That's the reason I won't risk to open a gate for at least another week.”, Zeo said, and decided that he had done enough work for the day.

“So... how come Silk was OK in your world then, and that you are OK here? You just said these worlds are incompatible.”, Celestia asked curiously.

“That's actually pretty simple. Silk can cross over, since she is not one hundred percent Equestrian. She's part human, remember? Her metabolism can cope with the conditions on earth. I don't know how your or Lunas body would react however. As for why we are OK here, I have no idea. It may be that the incompatibly is on a magical basis. That would mean that I was protected when I first came here, because I couldn't do magic. Nowadays, my body is used to process magic, but you know better then anyone that the transition almost killed me.”

Celestia frowned as she remembered the night in which Luna had woken her up, by storming into her chambers, screaming and crying all the while. It had taken her almost an hour to get a coherent sentence out of her sister, who had been worried sick for her newfound mate.

“Then....”, she started but Zeo interrupted her.

“I am afraid so. If you or Luna were to try and visit my world, I don't know what would happen to you. It is possible that you would simply adjust to it, like I adjusted to Equestria in the end, but it is also possible that you die the moment you set hoof onto earth.”

Celestia sighed. She would have wanted to see the world her brother in law originally came from, but she was not willing to risk her life for it. The two of them talked for some time, since they had a lot to talk about. They talked about affairs of state, if Luna was carrying a clot or another filly and the preparations that would have to be made, should Zeos sister decide to accept his offer.

*~*~**~*~**~*~**~*~**~*~**~*~**~*~**~*~*

Two days later

Peter Salchar was cleaning the surface of the bar his father had put together in record time. Today would be the “grand” opening. Zeo, Luna and Silk Light had all helped in their free time, even though Frank Salchar had insisted that they had done enough. The amount of money Zeo had provided the two of them with, had been enough to basically build a four star hotel, and not having to worry about paying the staff for at least a year. Nonetheless, Frank had settled to rent a small building, stock it with different kinds of Cider and employ a Pony cook.  Especially the latter didn't sit well with Peter. He himself could cook well enough, for a bar as small as this one. There was no need to waste the money for a five star cook.... He remembered the argument with his father about that only too well. They had stood in this very room, while shouting at each other loud enough to be heard on the street outside.

“Your wasting the funds we were granted! Why do we need crystal glasses and golden tabs on the bar? Why do you employ a cook, when I can cook well enough for a “bar”. It's not like this is some high class establishment!”, he had shouted, gesturing to the items he spoke of while he did so.

“That is why I AM in charge and not YOU! You have no idea of gastronomy! This is no shabby little Pub you idiot! What I am trying to do here, is creating an establishment, where both nobles and commoners like like to go!”, Frank had shouted back, his face red with anger.

“Nobles? AS IF! All the customers you will attract will be commoners and homeless drunks!”

At that point, Frank had taken a swing at his son that sent him flying across the room.

“Just because you have a better education then me, doesn't mean you know everything! Never forget who gave you your first job! Never forget that high and mighty Peter, started out as a simple WAITER in my first bar! You have no idea of what you are talking about, and are not willing to try something that you don't deem worthy of trying, without knowing how it will turn out! That has always been your problem. It is the reason your daughter moved out as soon as she could, and that your son prefers to keep to himself. It was YOUR unwillingness to let others do what they thought was right, that drove this family apart, and I will NOT tolerate it any longer! Either you work here, along with me as PART of the family, or you GET! THE! FUCK! OUT! OF! MY! BAR!”, Frank had shouted, while holding his son by his shirt collar.

In the end, Peter had stayed. He had no other place to go after all, and he had no idea what he should do in this new world. Sure, he had accepted to live here after a while but his son was slowing him down considerably. The only thing he could think of to make a living here, would have been to bring technology and civilization to these Ponies, but his son refused each and every one of his funding requests. He had even come up with a Pony name, to disguise his requests, and still they got refused.

There was so much potential in this new world for him to shine, but his son was dead set on not allowing him to. This was one more thing that angered him. He had done so much to help his son. He had pulled strings to get him jobs, only for his son to get fired soon after.... Had he just put a little effort into it, his son could have become a high ranking man in some company or another. Instead he had preferred to become a nurse of all things....

He could practically imagine his son, sitting in his office with that white horse and laugh about him. They were surely doing just that when he wasn't looking. Laughing at Peter Salchar who had a PHD in a field that was practically useless in Equestria. Oh how they must enjoy, putting him in his place.... His son was royalty now, but he was not? How could that even be? Surely he should at least get some title. Peter had not asked about this however, since he could guess what the answer would be. He did not fuck one of the Princesses, so he did not qualify....

His anger made Peter squeeze the rag he used to clean the bar, splattering the dirty water in it onto the floor again. Groaning, he knelt down to clean the mess up again. The fact that he could do so, without his knees hurting, reminded him of the fact that his son had mended all his ailments. He dismissed the implications however. His son had done it, so he would not look bad in the Ponies eyes in his opinion.

*~*~**~*~**~*~**~*~**~*~**~*~**~*~**~*~*

As the day wore on, Zeo found himself unable to do any more. He had left his office hours ago, and attempted to clean up his study, which had suffered some damage over the centuries. His wife had did her best at cleaning up, but she had been unable to go into some of the rooms. These were, where he kept his more dangerous research projects. Not “dangerous” as in lethal, but dangerous as in “if Luna found out about them she'd kill him”.

Since he had left his office, Zeo had cleaned up broken glass cylinders, burnt up research notes and had even replaced the floor in one room entirely. The nutrient fluid in one of the cylinders had dried and turned into something that resembled amber. Though it looked quite interesting in a way, it made the ground uneven, and hard to walk on. Therefor it just had to go.

In the farthest corner of the room, there was a single glass cylinder that was illuminated by a combination of a preservation and protection spell. In the greenish fluid inside, Zeo could make out the figure of a fully grown Alicorn. It was one of his earlier attempts to cure Luna, after he had found out that his daughter was the will that was corrupted by the Death-root. Had he succeeded to trap her will in the transparent Soulgem... he could have tried to transfer it into this body. The green goo made it hard to see, but Zeo knew that it looked almost exactly how his daughter looked now, after the Elements of Harmony had given her a body of her own.

For a moment, he hesitated. What should he do with this? He would not need it anymore, but he could not simply discard it either. Though soulless, this body was still alive. Then there was the matter of... “the other one”. Behind a metal door that was reinforced by magic, was another body Zeo had created by magic.... but he did not dare to open the door to check on it...

In the end, he decided to seal the room with every protective spell he knew. Nopony should ever get a glace at the research he had done here, or the magic that he used to do so.

*~*~**~*~**~*~**~*~**~*~**~*~**~*~**~*~*

A week later

Zeo stood in the courtyard with his father by his side. The opening of “The golden Barrel” had gone well, regardless of Peters predictions that it wouldn't. Now it was time for Zeo to invite his sister to join the rest of the family in Equestria, and give his father the chance to get what ever equipment he wanted.

“Don't forget, forty-five minutes is the maximum that I can hold the portals open. After that, I can't open them for some time, unless I want to damage Equestrias dimensional barrier.”, Zeo explained to his father once again.

“I'm not senile yet. You don't have to repeat yourself constantly!”, Peter retorted.

Zeo didn't bother to reply. His father had been in a bad mood, ever since he had confronted him about his fake pony name of “Hammer Wrench”, so there was really no point in talking to him right now. Instead he spread his arms and created two portals to the world he was born in. Calling it his “homeworld”, didn't seem right to him anymore. Equestria was his home now.

Suddenly, there was the sound of rushing water, and the scream of a woman from the portal to Zeos left. Peter didn't care for that, and strode through the portal to Zeos right to pack. As Zeo turned to his left, he saw that he had opened a portal directly in his sisters bathroom, where she was evidently taking a shower at the moment.

“Oh... ehm... hi sis.”, he stammered at his shocked sister.

“What the bloody hell! What is this? Was that Dad behind you just now? What... WHAT?”, she stammered, while grabbing a towel to cover herself.

“Calm down Petra, I can explain....”, Zeo began to explain. After he was done, his sister stared at him blankly.

“Your serious, aren't you? Well that would at least explain that... that.... window hanging in the air.”, Petra finally sighed. She took the whole thing better then his father had.

“So? What do you say? It's a whole new world, with a whole new Psyche to study for you. Not to mention the advantages of a life that spans over centuries.”, Zeo asked, with his back turned to the portal.

“Mhmm... I'm not quite done with my studies here, but your offer does sound tempting. Ah heck... give me a moment. I haven't unpacked yet, so if you can give me a hand?”, she responded, much to Zeos relief. He liked his sister, and would have hated to never see her again.

“Are they in the next room?”

“It's just a one room apartment, so yes.”

“Just open the door and I'll get them over here, while you get dressed.”

With that Zeo turned around again, and started to levitate the boxes that stood in his sisters apartment through the portal to Equestria. Once the last box landed on the grass of the courtyard lawn, Petra followed suit. She ran a hand over her brothers face, tracing the four scars that ran over it.

“What happened to you?”, she asked compassionately.

“Nothing. The three parallel ones are from a Griffin who had decided to crash my wedding, and the one that runs the other way, was inflicted by my daughter over a thousand years ago. Don't worry though, it was not her fault.”, Zeo explained with a laugh.

“A... A Griffin?”, his sister stammered.

But Zeo didn't reply with words. Instead he embraced his sister in a hug for the first time, in over a thousand years in his relative time.

Intruder

Humans in Equestria

Chapter 3

Intruder

“It's really nice here. I wish we had a place this tidy and big back home. If we did, I might actually move back in with my family.”, Petra chuckled.

“You are welcome to stay at the palace for as long as you want. You are royalty here after all.”, Luna responded, as she levitated several books onto the shelves in the room.

“I don't know... Zeo and I get along pretty well, but our old man? I guess it depends on either or nor he decides to get his own place. If I had to guess, he wants to have an eye on Zeo, now that he knows that his son plays an important role here.”, her sister in law sighed.

“Oh? What do you mean by that?”

Petra put the clothes she was unpacking onto the bed, and turned to Luna who was helping her to settle in.

“It's just... Back home Zeo has barely ever accomplished anything. Not that he is dumb or something, cause he's not, but he used to be pretty lazy sometimes. Especially when our father tried to force something on him. Now that he has an important position, he might decide that he wants to make sure Zeo does not “embarrass the whole family.”, she explained, sitting down on the marvelous four poster that had been provided to her.

“Embarrass... No.. Surely not. Zeo may have had his escapades in the past, but those lie over a thousand years in the past by now.”, Luna said, a little angry at the thought someone would think of her husband as an embarrassment. Petra began to chuckle again.

“You know... I still can't believe that my “little” brother is now supposed to be so much older then me. But I am glad that he has finally found a purpose in life. I guess... you are the right wom... ehm mare for him.”

Luna blushed a bit and waved her hoof dismissively.

“Ah come on. He's sweet, and he has helped me during a time in which I needed a friend. But I must say... he does have quite the temper... Is that normal for humans? I mean, your fathers reaction when he first saw me was not really a reason to hope.”, Luna asked, sitting down on the bed next to her sister in law.

“No, not really, but it does run in the family. We all have short tempers when it comes to certain things. Zeo is usually ticked off by anything regarding his family or friends, our father climbs the walls when we do anything he does not deem normal and I myself can't stand if people are impolite. Grandfather... I don't know what it is that he reacts to, but I have heard stories. He used to be a miner you know, and after that he ran his own Bar. There is this one story, where he threw all his customers out by himself, because one of them had started a brawl.”, Petra explained, tapping her chin with her left index finger.

“Sounds dangerous....”, Luna half joked. She had seen Zeo and Celestia go at it, and she sure as Pie never wanted to see something like that happen ever again.

“Oh don't worry! We are usually a very tame bunch. Zeo in particular. He's... what would you call it... Ah! He's as tame as a kitten, even when he is angry, compared to the rest of us.”, Petra laughed.

This statement did not reassure Luna, and Petra saw it in her eyes. Immediately she tried to take a verbal step backwards.

“No, no, no. Don't get wrong. It's usually just shouting matches if someone of us gets really into it. That our father actually took a swing at Zeo surprises me though.... He hasn't done that in years. Probably because Zeo is bigger then him now. He know that there is a good chance he would loose, if my brother decided to fight back.”

Luna thought for a moment, before speaking again.

“You know... that doesn't sound anything like the Zeo I know. I know him as a kind and gentle person. The only times he got really mad was, when I was targeted by rebels.”

“Yeah, he told me all about that. I still can't believe he actually killed another intelligent being.... But it was to be expected, if I am honest. Did he tell you that he once broke a guys arm, and sent another to the hospital because one of them slapped me?”, she asked, looking Luna directly in the eye.

“No... he never mentioned it...”, the Princess of the Night said, looking a little confused.

“Well, we were out for a drink. I didn't want to go along you see, so I took Zeo with me. When he was in the bathroom, these two guys approached me and....”, Petra started to tell the tale, how she had seen her brother loose his cool for the very first time....

*~*~**~*~**~*~**~*~**~*~**~*~**~*~**~*~*

Celestia, Silk and Zeo sat on one of Canterlot castles many balconies. While Celestia and Zeo were enjoying the sun, and a light conversation, Silk was trying to figure out her homework. Ever since she had gotten her cutiemark, she was attending medical school to gain more knowledge on the subject. Some parts however, did not come to her as easily as other.

“Daaaaaad.... I don't get it.... Why can't I just use my regeneration spell and be done with it?”, she whined for the millionth time. Zeo sighed once again, turning to face her.

“Dear, it is important that you know as much as you can about a subject. Your regeneration spell is a wonderful gift, and I would do almost anything to be able to use it myself, but it is no wonder weapon against illnesses. You can heal ALMOST anything with it, that's true, but what about those things that you can't? Poisoning, for example, can not be healed by it, because there is nothing to regenerate. Do you get what I mean? What if your little brother or sister eats a poisonous plant, and needs medical attention immediately? What then? Will you bring him or her all the way to the hospital wing, because you are unable to perform a detoxification charm? I think not. If you need any motivation, then think of me. I am over a thousand years old, and I can also heal almost any injury or illness. Yet I do everything to deepen my knowledge on the subject, in case I encounter an illness one day, that I don't know yet. If you miss the knowledge, you might miss what you need to save a patient. Do you understand?”, Zeo explained, again.

Silk nodded, rolling her eyes at her fathers lengthy speech.

“Can I at least go to that show later? Diamond Shine has already bought the tickets....”, she asked, hoping her father would let her off the hook. Giving him her best puppy eyes stare, she waited for an answer. When Zeo finally turned away to face Celestia again, he sighed and waved a hand.

“OK, young Lady, you are dismissed for today. But if you are in later then ten tonight, I'll have the Nightguard look for you, do I make myself perfectly clear?”

“But Daaaad! I'm over a thousand years old!”, Silk protested.

“I think your father is right, Silk my dear.”, the Princess of the sun interjected.

“You may be over a thousand years old, but your living experience is almost non-existent. He just wants your best Silk.”, she added, throwing her niece a smile. When Zeo didn't see it, she added a wink, that told her that she should let Celestia worry about her father.

*~*~**~*~**~*~**~*~**~*~**~*~**~*~**~*~*

The twentieth floor of Canterlot castle was deserted. The only Ponies that came here, were the maids, to keep in everything nice and tidy, and the guards, to make sure no intruder was hiding in the guest rooms.

Suddenly the thin layer of dust that had gathered on the white marble floor, began to clear in one place. It swirled upwards like a miniature Tornado, until it had reached roughly the size of an average sized human. On that point it split apart as if invisible hands were parting it like a curtain. Immediately, the hallway started to fill up with dark, black smoke that smelled like hot metal. A wave of heat followed, giving the impression that the palace was actually on fire.

A foot, that wore a black leather boot, stepped out of the newly formed portal. It was soon followed by another one. Attached to those, were two beautiful legs which belonged to an equally attractive woman. The ash and sud that covered her from head to toe, did nothing to hide her features. Her Ponytails, that reached all the way to the floor, drew tracks into the ash and dust that was now covering the white marble floor as she came through.

On a belt around her shoulders, she wore several strange looking items. One a tube that looked like a pipe with a sharks mouth on one end. Another a cylinder from which several smaller pipes stood out.

The woman stretched lazily, as if she had just gotten up from a particularly good nap, and looked around. After confirming that she was indeed where she had intended to go, the portal closed behind her.

“You.... will.... pay... for.... your.... crimes..... bitch....”, a robotic voice croaked, and the woman began to laugh as she took something from her belt, that looked eerily like a human head.

“Oh... you are such a sore looser Franky.”, she giggled, before giving the metal head a kiss on the forehead.

“The... core... will... destroy.... you.... one... day...”, the artificial head added, the slid that was where a mouth should have flashing red with each word.

“Oh? I don't think so. Newsflash Franky, your “source” is nothing but a pile on metal now. The next guy to visit your world will make a fortune with scrap metal, that much I can assure you.”, the woman chimed like a little girl.

“My.... Production....number.... is F.....R....8...7...23...A, not.... Franky....”, the head croaked indigently.

“Ah shush. Your name is Franky. I say so, so it is so!”, the woman waved a hand dismissively, before reattaching the head to her belt.

Franky had been the very first of those Robots that she had destroyed. After finding out that she could power his head with her magic, she had decided to keep him as a souvenir. After all, she did feel lonely sometimes, and talking to him was always so much fun! The woman knew that he was just DYING to make her laugh. DYING to make her smile. That was why she liked him so much after all.

For a moment, she had forgotten what she had wanted to do and put a finger on her chin, tapping it lightly as she looked around.

“Mhmmm... Why did I come here again? Oh! Yes! To have fun of course!”, she laughed manically as she started to bounce down the hallway, like a little kid on it's way to the toy store.

*~*~**~*~**~*~**~*~**~*~**~*~**~*~**~*~*

“.... and then he said.....”, Petra said, but was interrupted by a ruckus outside of her room. It sounded eerily like gunshots to her, which made her flinch involuntarily. Luna also perked up, sensing that something was amiss.

“What... what's going on out there?”, Petra asked no one in particular, as she heard a scream of pain, followed by more gunshots.

“I don't know. I have never heard anything like it, especially inside of Canterlot castle. You stay here, while I go and check it out.”, Luna replied, making her way to the door. Petra sprang from her bed to block her way.

“Luna, that sounds like gunshots! If that's true, then it's dangerous out there. Think of your foal.”

“I am capable of defending myself. I'm an Alicorn, remember? There shouldn't be any other being, short of another Alicorn, Discord or your brother that could pose a real threat to me.”, Luna said, gently pushing Petra away from the door.

“You stay in here. If anything unforeseen happens, use that device of yours to alert Zeo.”, she added before stepping out into the hallway, and closing the door firmly behind herself.

Almost instantly, another loud booming sound echoed through the hallway, as something struck her left flank. It was painful, but did not draw any blood. As Luna looked up, she saw a woman standing in a circle of corpses. Only the shredded armor on them made her identify them as royal guards. The white marble of the floor was nowhere to be seen, since it was covered with a thick layer of red.

“Interesting!”, the blue haired woman giggled manically.

“Who are you, and what is your business here?”, Luna demanded, not interested in the slightest in what was interesting to this murderer.

“That you are not bleeding. I just hit your ass with a bullet and it just dissipated. Looks like you will be a much more durable toy then these guys.”, the maniac said, winking at her and waving her weapon around to indicate the dead guards.

“LET'S PLAY!”, she added, before Luna had any time to say anything more. Instead the Princess quickly evaded the charging woman. She could see that it was a human woman, but something about her seemed to be off. Just as she wanted to analyze what this could be, she was distracted by flying shards of marble. The floor where she had stood just seconds ago, was gone. Luna could see all the way into the hallway below this one, through the hole the womans fist had created.

“Oh, I see we will have soooo much fun!”, the woman laughed, while charging her again.

*~*~**~*~**~*~**~*~**~*~**~*~**~*~**~*~*

Petra wanted to follow her sister in law into the hallway, as she heard th dull thud of Luna being shoved against the door, but decided against it. Luna had been right. Yes, she was pregnant, but she was still an Alicorn. Any foe that would be a danger to her, would be able to tear her apart in an instant. Petra listened for a moment, with her ear at the door. She could hear loud noises, but no further gunshots. What was unsettling however was, that she could hear Luna galloping around the room frantically. Not being an experienced fighter, she was still able to guess what was happening from the footsteps she heard. Luna was obviously fighting a bipedal creature, and was running away from it.

As soon as this realization hit her, Petra grabbed her Tablet and connected it to the Intranet that her father had set up. It took a moment for the small device to establish a connection, but finally she had a way to reach her brother. She opened the “Vicinity” App on it, selected her brothers Cellphone, that was also logged in, and hit the call button. She just hoped that he had not forgotten it somewhere again....

*~*~**~*~**~*~**~*~**~*~**~*~**~*~**~*~*

Zeo was checking his daughters homework, when his cellphone began to ring. Startled by the sound, he almost fell over with his chair. It hadn't rung in over a thousand years! Then he remembered the little WiFi his father had set up a few days before. With an APP the family members were now able to communicate with each other, as long as they were in it's range. Looking at the screen of his phone, he started to get a little puzzled.

“Unknown number? How can THAT be? There are only three Cellphones here in Equestria, for gods sake!”, he murmured as he picked up the call.

“Zeo?”, his sisters voice sounded panicked, and he could hear shouting in the background.

“Nah, here is the pope, so what is it I can do for you my child?”, he answered jokingly.

“Stop goofing around, and get your sorry ass up here! I don't know what's going on but....”,the connection broke off with a thunderous boom, and his sister screaming in fear. Almost simultaneously, debris started to rain down from the higher floors of the tower. Zeo cast a shield spell to protect himself from the chunks of stone, as he looked up. His blood began to freeze in his veins, as he saw a dark blue figure plummeting to the ground. It was not moving, and was falling with it's legs upwards. Dropping the shield, Zeo ignored Celestia, who was coming out onto the balcony again to check what had happened. Enveloping himself in a pale blue light, Zeo cast two blasting spells, that exploded right under his feet. The small explosions incinerated his daughters homework, and threw the table off of the balcony.

He didn't care for any of that right now. Instead he triggered four more of them, to gain even more speed. With a tremendous effort, Zeo managed to catch his wife in his outstretched arms, even though he had a hard time holding her. She was much heavier then him after all, and he had to use his magic to keep himself in the air, so he could not levitate her. As if on cue, Silk Light appeared out of a nearby cloud, looking utterly shocked.

“What in Equestria....”, she stuttered upon seeing her unconscious mother. There were some smaller cuts on her body, and one of her legs seemed to be broken, but she seemed to be fine otherwise.

“I don't know, but I am eager to find out!”, he growled, placing Luna gently on Silks back, before adding, “You go and bring her to the hospital wing, I will check out whatever did this to her.”

Nodding, Silk Light dashed off, careful not to loose her mother. She didn't want to use her regeneration spell on her mother either, since such high level magic might have harmed the foal. Just then did she understand her fathers words from before. If she were to rely solely on her regeneration spell, she would be utterly helpless in a situation like this....

Zeo on his part, used another spell to dash towards the hole in the tower. It was exactly where his sisters bedroom should be, which was one more cause for concern for him. He wondered what might have happened, but his train of derailed when he reached the hole.

There stood a woman, in skimpy clothes, with blue hair and something that resembled a Minigun in her right hand. In her left, she held his obviously unconscious sister by her throat. The business end of the Minigun pressed into Petras stomach. Without thinking, Zeo cast another eruption spell, propelling himself forwards just in time to knock his sister out of the way, as the woman pulled the trigger.

For a moment the blue haired woman looked perplexed. Her left hand opened and closed, as if she was sure that something should be there. Then, she looked around to look at Zeo. Her expression was indignant, like a child that has one of it's toys taken away.

“Hey!”, she pouted. “I was about to have a little fun with her!”

“Not with my sister, you bitch! Who are you, and why did you attack my wife and sister?”, Zeo growled, while placing Petra on the ground gently.

“Bitch? Who do you think you call a bitch? I don't see any doggies here.”, the woman said, looking around excitedly, as if she was expecting a puppy to come around the corner at any moment. Zeo was shocked by her antics. The destruction she had caused, and the fact that she had taken out Luna without being seriously hurt herself, spoke of an immense power. Her behavior however, was that of a child that wanted to play.

Thinking about this, had been a mistake. He had left his guard down for a second, and before he knew it, the woman had slithered over the ground like a snake, only to wrap herself around him. It was then that he realized that this was no ordinary human woman.

“Awww... No doggies here, but I think I've found something else to play with for a while. If your good, I might even stop before you die. What do you say?”, the maniac whispered in his ear in what seemed to be an attempt to sound seductive.

“What the hell?”, Zeo croaked. He had a hard time breathing, since that womans hold on him was quite strong.

“Oh, you know what I mean. I haven't met a human man in centuries. I can make it worth your time, so what do you say?”, she added, caressing one of his cheeks with her left hand.

“I think....”, Zeo replied, and the woman leaned in closer. “.... THAT YOU ARE FUCKING NUTS!”, he added, head-butting her as hard as he could. The shock caused her to loosen his grip on him long enough to escape his predicament. Tumbling to the floor, she lost her weapon and looked up at him with anger in her eyes.

“You don't know what you are missing.”, she pouted again.

“Oh, excuse me if I am not too interested in sleeping with a woman who almost killed my wife and sister!”, Zeo retorted.

“Awww... you're no fun! Let's see how long you last.”, she spat a bit of blood, before attacking Zeo in close combat.

*~*~**~*~**~*~**~*~**~*~**~*~**~*~**~*~*

Celestia had followed her niece to the hospital wing, to check if her sister was alright. To her relief, Luna was not seriously injured. Aside from the bruises and cuts on her body, the only had two broken ribs. Nothing that a bit of rest couldn't heal. Now that this matter was off her chest, she had to take action against whoever had caused this.

“GUARDS!”, she shouted, and in an instant several Unicorn and Pegasus guards heeded her call.

“You highness.”, they said in unison, bowing before her.

“Princess Luna has been attacked, and Prince Zeomak is investigating the scene in the humans tower of the castle. The culprit may still be there. Go and see if he needs any assistance. I want the Pony that has done this in chains before me, and I want it five minutes ago!”, she ordered them fiercely. They nodded and dashed off.

*~*~**~*~**~*~**~*~**~*~**~*~**~*~**~*~*

Zeo dodged several blows from this mad woman, who had somehow infiltrated the palace and attacked his family. She was skilled, that much he had to admit. It had been ages since he had fought another human, and her attacks were so fast that he had no time to concentrate on a spell either.

Then his back hit a wall, and he suddenly knew that there would be no way to run anymore. The tiny fist of the woman came rushing towards his face, when something amazing happened. He remembered how his father had insisted on teaching him some basic techniques, that he remembered from his martial arts classes. Clumsily, since he had not done it in centuries, Zeo grabbed the hand that was about to strike him down, smashed his other hand against the shoulder of the attached arm, and twisted his body around like a Ballerina. As a result he used his attackers momentum to throw her to the ground. The expression on her face was one of utter surprise. She had obviously never encountered someone who could put up a fight.

“You... are fun after all.”, she grinned, while Zeo let himself fall to one knee, burring it in her stomach. Instead of the groan of pain that he had expected however, the woman grinned.

“Too bad that it's over already.”, she grinned, and Zeo suddenly realized his mistake. Something round and cold pressed against his right shoulder. It was the Minigun....

Even though he was on top of her, Zeo knew that he was at a disadvantage. He had never bothered to learn how to teleport properly, so he could not get away fast enough to evade a speeding bullet. He sighed, knowing that he had most likely forfeited his life. Would Celestia be able to defeat this woman with her guards at her side? Would Luna and Silk be OK? What about the new foal that was growing inside of his wife? Had this woman eventually killed his unborn child?

Zeo closed his eyes, as the woman beneath him pulled the trigger.....

Death

Humans in Equestria

Chapter 4

Death

Guard captain Bright Shield galloped to the hallway that led to the chambers that had been assigned to Prince Zeos sister. Princess Celestia had ordered her and her squad to help the Prince as good as they could, to fend off some attacker that had been powerful enough to knock out Princess Luna. She and the other guards were just about to turn a corner, when they heard a thundering booming sound. She increased her speed a little, with her fellow guards following suit.

What she saw when she turned the corner, made Bright Shields blood freeze in her veins. A human woman lay panting on the floor, holding some strange device in her right hand. Prince Zeo lay only a few feet away from her, bleeding badly. From her vantage point, she could see that most of the right side of Zeos torso was gone. His right arm lay a few feet away from his body, and Bright Shield could tell, even from a distance, that the Prince had stopped breathing.

“RESTRAIN HER!”, she ordered her guards, never once stopping. Her subordinates fanned out from behind her, ready to attack the strange woman who had obviously just murdered Prince Zeo. Before the first of them reached her however, the blue haired woman disappeared in a flash of light. The last thing Bright shield saw of him, were here red eyes and her yellow eyeballs.....

*~*~**~*~**~*~**~*~**~*~**~*~**~*~**~*~*

Petra awoke to the clip clop of hooves, and somepony nudging her side gently. Her whole body hurt, and she felt as if someone had just dragged her through a meat-grinder. Slowly, but steadily, she opened her eyes. Two bright blue eyes looked back at her. They belonged to an Earthpony guardsmare.

“Are you alright your highness?”, the Pony asked her.

“I... I... I am not sure. I'm hurting all over, but nothing seems to be broken. What about my brother? Is he alright? Who was that woman?”, she asked frantically, remembering that she heard Zeos voice shortly before she passed out.

“Your highness... I am... I am sorry for your loss....”

The implications hit Petra like a hammer blow. Despite the pain in every inch of her body, she jolted up, and scanned the room. She didn't have to look for long. There, in a puddle of his own blood, lay Zeos badly torn body.

“No....”, she whimpered, her voice breaking. Petra crawled over to her dead brother on all fours, and slumped down next to his lifeless form. His eyes were closed, and only a trickle of blood flowed from the left corner of his mouth. Had there not been a gaping hole in his body, she could have believed that he was simply taking a nap. Tears started to well up in Petras eyes, as she placed her brothers head on her lap, stroking his face and hair affectionately.

“Your highness... Maybe you should come with me. A doctor should....”, the guardsmare addressed her again, but Petra slapped the hoof away that the mare had extended towards her.

“Leave me alone! LEAVE ME ALONE! GET LOST! ALL OF YOU!”, Petra screamed, never taking her eyes off of her brothers face.

“As you wish.... your highness...”, the mare responded with a bow, nodding to her fellow guards to leave the room.

*~*~**~*~**~*~**~*~**~*~**~*~**~*~**~*~*

“Captain, do you really think it is a good idea to leave her alone like this?”, her second in command asked, as Bright Shield closed the door behind herself.

“And what do you suggest I do? Knock her out and drag her to the hospital wing? Make yourself useful and get a Unicorn here who knows a slumber spell. It's the only way we can get her to the hospital wing, without actually hurting her. While you do that... I will report to the Princess... She won't like this one bit. Might as well get over with this as soon as possible.”, Bright Shield sighed.

*~*~**~*~**~*~**~*~**~*~**~*~**~*~**~*~*

“Repeat that.”, Celestia said aghast.

“I said, that Prince Zeo is dead. My squad arrived only moments after he died. I am very sorry that we have failed you. Had we been there earlier, he might still be alive....”, Bright Shield bowed so low, that her muzzle was touching the ground.

“Don't martyr yourself Captain. If my brother in law was unable to stop that intruder, even after she had knocked out my sister, then there was nothing you could have done. More likely, you all would be dead by now.”, Celestia interrupted her, but Bright Shield disagreed.

“Your highness. Had we arrived earlier, we could have assisted in the fight. That woman looked like she was ready to faint, shortly before she cast that teleportation to escape. Had we arrived earlier, Prince Zeo might still be alive....”, but Bright Shield was interrupted by a gasp that came from the door to the throne room. As she turned around, she saw Princess Silk Light, standing in the doorway.

“No....”, she shook her head, her eyes already filling with tears.

Celestia strolled past her guard Captain, and made her way towards her niece, embracing her with her wings.

“You are dismissed Captain. Find that woman. I want her in chains, before me as soon as you find her. I don't care what methods you have to apply to find her, but you have full authorization to do what you see fit.”, Celestia said to her.

“Your highness.”, Bright Shield saluted and left Celestias office. She was determined to find that woman and drag her by her hair to the Princess, if she had to. No one killed a member of the royal family on her watch, and got away with it....

*~*~**~*~**~*~**~*~**~*~**~*~**~*~**~*~*

Celestia guided her niece to a sofa in her office, so she could lay down, never taking her wing off of her back.

“I... I can't believe he's dead.... After all this time.... I wanted to... I wanted to....”, Silk sobbed into the pillows of the sofa, while her aunt stood next to her, stroking her mane with a wing.

“Shh.... I know. You wanted him to be proud of you, after all that has transpired a thousand years ago.... He was proud of you, of that much I am sure. Don't be too hard on yourself. Nothing of this is your fault.”, Celestia tried to reassure her.

“But... But... had I returned after I brought mom to the hospital wing... I could have helped him!”, Silk insisted.

“No you couldn't after Nightmare Moons death you lost all your knowledge of combat spells. Zeo was a very capable fighter, and if you had tried to help, you might have ended up getting in his way. That could have resulted in both of you dying, and he wouldn't have wanted that.”

Silk obviously wanted to say more, but couldn't Celestia knew that sensation all too well. She had outlived her parents as well, due to her ascension into an Alicorn. She had carried both of them to their graves, and she had loathed herself for being immortal, and yet powerless to safe her own parents. It was a pain that Silk would have to face again in the future, for she would outlive all of the friends she would make during her long life.....

Celestia dreaded the moment Luna would awake. She didn't want to be the one to tell her sister the bad news....

*~*~**~*~**~*~**~*~**~*~**~*~**~*~**~*~*

Three days later

Luna was still in a coma. Even the doctors could not explain why this was the case, but Celestia could guess. Her sister had most likely felt the moment in which Zeo passed away, for one of her domains was the realm of dream, that bordered on the realm of the dead. She would have felt it, if her beloved entered the latter. Maybe she didn't want to wake up because of it. Maybe she couldn't stand the thought to live without him again, after being reunited with Zeo after over a thousand years.

Frank and Peter had been shocked beyond measure. Peter had demanded that he was sent back to his own world, if Equestria was this dangerous, but Celestia could not grant this wish. She didn't know the spell that Zeo had used to open the gateways, and he had destroyed all of his research notes....

*~*~**~*~**~*~**~*~**~*~**~*~**~*~**~*~*

Almost a month had passed since Zeos death by now, and Celestia could not hold of the funeral any longer. She had preserved his body for as long as she could, but her preservation spells had never been very good. So far this lack of magical knowledge had never bothered her, but now it did.

She stood on a podium, next to Silk Light and in front of a crowd of gathered Ponies. While the Princess of the sun prepared herself for her speech, she mulled Bright Shields report over in her mind again. She did that a lot lately, to distract herself from the fact that Luna had still not woken up.

“...yellow eyeballs with red irises....”, the white Earthpony mare had said. Something about that struck her as familiar, but she didn't know what it was.... Celestia was pulled back to the present by Silk Light nudging her side gently. Her niece looked like she had aged a lot in a short period of time. The bags under her bloodshot eyes told the tale of sleepless nights spent crying. Celestia nodded, and stepped forward to address the Ponies who had come to attend the first royal funeral ever to occur in Canterlot.

“My little Ponies.... We are here today to pay our respects to my brother in law, Prince Zeo. He was not a Pony, like us, but he did more for our race then I could possibly relate in a single speech. He was kind, determined, he loved his family and he never once raised his hand against a Pony that did not have ill intend against him or his family. Even though I must admit that I thought that he was dangerous at first, I can't imagine where we would be today, had he not been here. I owe my life to him, and I never thanked him appropriately... I regret that now. He may have been rough at times, and outright disrespectful at others, but he  was always someone I could rely on. He will be missed greatly.”, Celstia said, bowing her head to the coffin that stood a few feet to her right before stepping back to make room for Silk.

“My... My father.... I didn't have the time to get to know him very well.... but he saved me. He freed me from Nightmare Moon. He endured a thousand years in stone, due to my corruption. I love him, and that will never change... I... I...”, but Silk Light could speak no more. The tears she had tried so hard to suppress, broke free and a lump in her throat made it hard for her to breathe. Celestia rushed to her side, embracing her with her left wing, and taking over again.

“Zeo... I hope you finally have the peace you longed for. I swear on your grave, that I will find your murderer and punish her.”, she added as her horn glowed and she levitated Zeos coffin into the hole that had been prepared for it.  As she did so, her gaze fell on a statue that stood farther back in the gardens, and she finally remembered where she had seen eyes like the ones Bright Shield had described to her before.....

Discord

Humans in Equestria

Chapter 5

Discord

A day after Zeos funeral

Celestia stood in front of the statue of her ancient foe. It had been over a thousand years, since Luna and she had used the elements of harmony to defeat him. The incarnation of chaos itself, Discord. Beside her stood the new bearers of the elements, whom she had summoned here. All six of them looked worried, but determined to go through with the Princesses plan.

Twilight Sparkle had tried to talk her out of it, remembering the tales her mentor had told her about the spirit of chaos. Celestia however, would have none of it. She had lost her brother in law, her niece was inconsolable and her pregnant sister was not waking up, even though she was physically fine. The Princesse of the sun was determined to find out if Discord knew something about the intruder, that had caused all of this.

“Are you ready girls?”, she asked, never looking away from the statue. After a short pause, Twilight confirmed that they were. A moment later, Celestias horn flashed in a brilliant golden light, as she dispelled the prison that she and Luna had cast on Discord. As soon as the last piece of stone had fallen away from the former statue, the Draqonecus  that had been trapped within wrapped himself around Celestias midrift. At first, she thought that he was attacking her, until she felt him trembling. There was also none of his trademark laughter, which disturbed her even more. Before she could speak, Discord broke the silence.

“Hide me! For everything that's holy Celestia, HIDE ME!”, Discord pleaded, and Celestia could not detect any trickery.

“What? What should I hide you from Discord?”, Celestia asked, completely caught off guard.

“HER! JANE! HIDE ME! SHE'LL KILL ME IF SHE FINDS ME!”, Discord wailed, now shifting his attention to the bearers of the elements of harmony.

“Oh? The elements? Good thinking, but they won't work against her.”, he added, scratching his chin with his talon.

“So you know who attacked us then?”

After some small talk, Celestia decided that Discord was no threat to Equestria right now. He was too frightened to even use his magic for fear of being detected by this “Jane”. She was not foolish enough to let him roam about freely. The bearers of the elements were to stay in the palace for now, just in case they would be needed after all. Celestia and Discord retired to the Princesses private study to talk more privately.

“So... Who is she? What does she look like exactly? I only have a vague description of a human woman. I hope you can give me a little more.”, she demanded once they had settled onto sofas on opposite sides of a small table.

“Jane... is not really a human. How do you know about humans anyway Celestia? I thought I was the only one who liked to travel between dimensions for some fun.”, Discord replied, helping himself to a slice of cake from the table. Celestia eyed this critically. She did not trust Discord yet, and had only agreed to talk to him in private, because she knew she was immune to his magic.

“Shortly after we turned you into stone, a human came to Equestria by accident. We are currently housing his family as well. And even though I noticed you did not answer my question, it would be helpful if you could send them home. They have expressed that wish since... well since the first human that came here died.”, Celestia explained, wary not to reveal to much to the master of chaos.

“Killed you say? That's not good....”, Discord looked even more frightened then he had when Celestia had released him from his prison, and appeared to loose himself in his thoughts. The Princess let him do so for a few minutes, before clearing her throat to regain his attention.

“It is oddly out of character for you to be so serious Discord.”, she mused as his gaze fell on her again.

“Well excuse me Celestia, but my own life is on the line. I find it hard to stay serious, but I can't joke around, or spread chaos when it is in my best interest that Equestrias defenses are at their best!”

“You still haven't answered my questions.”, Celsetia stated blantly. Discord began to fidget a little, but started talking eventually.

“You see.... Jane is my daughter. I transformed her body into that of a human, before she was even born. Her mother was a human, so I thought it would make it easier for her to live among her mothers kin. The only problem were her eyes. They resisted my magic vehemently. After she was born, she grew up quite normally and no one suspected that anything was wrong with her. Then, one day, she started to develop her magical potential. She was almost twenty at the time, so I had almost given up on the possibility that she had any....”, Discord trailed off, grimacing as if remembering something very unpleasant.

“She was out with a few of her human friends when it happened. Jane suddenly became violent and ended up killing her friends. I stopped her in the end, but before I could, she had laid waste to the village that she and her mother were living in. My daughter killed every single one of the villagers, but they did not stay dead. She has a very unique talent for magic that involves souls...”

“You don't mean to say that she resurrects them?”, Celestia interrupted aghast.

“In a way, yes. But it's certainly not what you have in mind Celestia. As an Alicorn you should be familiar with souls. You are a Demigod after all.”

“I have never really looked into the matter. Luna is the one who has a connection to Tarterus, not me.”

“That's a shame then. I hate to explain things, but I will if I have to... You see, it is like this. Imagine a ball that is made purely out of gold. That is the core of the soul. But you can rarely see it, even if you look into the soul of somepony, because it is surrounded by other balls that are completely black. The golden core, harbors all that is good in a being. The others house all the negative emotions, desires and the like. My daughter takes all of these into herself when she kills someone and creates a body for them. The result is an exact copy of the one she killed. There will only be a few minor differences. The first is, that this “copy” is utterly loyal to Jane. The second is, that it is also completely evil. A good person, that has violent fantasies, but would never give in to them, will be a murderer for example. The saddest thing however, is that a soul that has been cripled like this will be unable to move on. Tartarus only accepts souls which are whole. Those who are incomplete, are doomed to wander the world in search for their lost pieces until they find them, or their souls energy runs out. If that happens, they simply vanish.”, Discord explained, a sad expression on his face.

“...so.... What... What did you do with her? You seem pretty sure that she will kill you, if she is given the chance, so you surely did something to protect yourself.”, Celestia stuttered, hard pressed to take it all in.

“I did take precautions. I took Jane to Equestria, and she was furious about it. The more magical energy she absorbed, the crazier she got. I believe that this may also be the reason for her insanity. However, once we were here she started to wreck the place. Since this was aeon's before the first Pony ever crawled out of the seas, there were no casualties. After a while she decided to go after me. That's when I.... I banished her. I used my magic of creation to create a barren planet in a dimension that was uninhabited otherwise. After a long struggle, in which I got badly injured, I managed to seal her in that dimension. She was still my daughter however, so I did not want her to be all alone. After I had recovered a bit, I took her favorite toy when she was a child, and gave it life and awareness. It was to keep her company. I didn't dare to open a portal to her world that was big enough for her to step through, so I just kinda tossed it through a small one. Some years later, I took another look and found that the “toy” had created a whole civilization of machines. Their sole purpose was to destroy Jane, but she plowed through their ranks like they were mere flies. It was.... horrifying what that cute little girl had become... Somehow the seal I put on her world must have been broken, or she wouldn't be here right now. I sensed her, the moment she came through. You are  quite lucky that she was weakened when she did, or Canterlot would not be standing anymore.”

“Weakened? What do you mean? She defeated Luna, escaped several royal guards with a long range teleportation spell and killed my brother in law, who was more then capable to look after himself! Are you saying she did that while she was tired?”, Celestia burst out, and Discord nodded.

“She is a powerful little chap. Wait... don't tell me... your brother in law? So sweet little Luna finally found a stallion she fancied?”, Discord grinned.

“Not so much a stallion, I admit. It was the first human who came to Equestria.”, Celestia sighed. Now that she had slipped, she might as well tell Discord everything.

“A HUMAN? That is interesting. I hope she doesn't take his loss to badly. The worst is still to come after all. Once Jane has recovered, she will form his bad side a body and sent him to do her bidding. Luna might have to face him.”

“She... She hasn't woken up since the encounter with your daughter.”

“She hasn't? Oh... I think I know what happened. Jane has a habit that has always kind of annoyed me. If she is not strong enough to win a fight, but is sure that a fight with her full power would be fun for her, she puts her victim into a coma until she has recovered enough to be at her best. Luna can consider herself lucky that Jane sees her as a worthy opponent, or she would b dead by now. I can break her spell pretty easily. We will need every Alicorn we can get to fight Jane off. I just hope you two are enough to deal with her.....”, that was when someone interrupted the master of chaos, by clearing her throat.

“Make that three.”, Silk Light said, as she entered her aunts private study.

*~*~**~*~**~*~**~*~**~*~**~*~**~*~**~*~*

He felt cold. Every inch of his body felt as if he was standing in the middle of a snowstorm in the dead of night. He did not know where he was. When he opened his eyes, he found that he was surrounded by darkness. Only a small red light blinked in and out of existence a few feet away from him.

He tried to move, but couldn't. His body seemed to be encased in a block of solid stone. The only things he could move were his neck and his.... ears? He felt strange for some reason. He could feel magical energy all around him, but it refused to come to him. There was no magic whatsoever in his body to cast an illumination spell, or to break free from whatever it was that was holding him. When he started to move his head around, to see if he could make anything out in the darkness, the red light started to flash more rapidly, and a low buzzing sound could be heard.

This was quickly followed by the hissing of something next to his head. Before he could make out what it was however, he fainted again....

*~*~**~*~**~*~**~*~**~*~**~*~**~*~**~*~*

“Oh? And who might you be? My my, you are quite the cute one. Do you have any plans for tonight already?”, Discord asked, eying the newcomer with interest.

“My name is Silk Light, and your “daughter”, killed my father.”, Silk said coldly. Discord recoiled, looking from Silk to Celestia and then to Silk again.

“Your father is the human that was killed? As in... Lunas lover? Now that is certainly interesting. I did miss some fun stuff while I was decorating your garden Celestia.”, Discord tried to joke, but failed. Even the spirit of chaos had noticed that he had been a tad tactless.

“Yes. My father is.... was Princess Lunas husband, and I will do everything in my power to bring his murderer to justice.”, she answered with more determination then Celestia had ever seen in her.

“Think it through Silk. Your father was a skilled fighter, and he was killed. You lost all your knowledge about combat magic when you were freed of Nightmare Moon. You wouldn't stand a chance if you....”, but Celestia got interrupted by a fireball that flew past her, and into the fireplace.

“I did loose all the knowledge Nightmare Moon had, yes... But you forget that I spent quite some time in my fathers mind. I just didn't want you to worry about me.”, Silk admitted.

“So...”, Discord began. “You think you can fight Jane on equal footing?”

“I don't think so. I know so. I have memorized each and every spell my father had in his minds library while I was looking for what I needed at the time. If these are not enough, then I don't know what is.”

“But Silk... you have never been in a fight since you were freed. You have never actually used these spells in a combat situation.”, Celestia tried to reason with her niece, but she would have none of it.

“I can fight. I might have lost all magical knowledge that Nightmare Moon had, but I still remember my fight with dad in old Canterlot quite well. I know how to look for an opening in my opponents defense, and when to strike. Aunt Celestia, if you won't let me fight, then I will go out alone and hunt that witch down myself.”, Silk said, with more then a bit of steel in her voice.

Celestia sighed. She knew what drove her niece. It was the grief for her dead father, whom she had loved dearly, that drove her forward. If she forbade her to participate in this, she was sure that her niece would make good on her words and go alone.

“Very well... I don't know what's gotten into me, but I suppose it is better then having you wander around Equestria alone, without a clue on where to look. Not to mention taking on an enemy, that I am not sure you can take on alone. I'm quite certain that Luna will be mad at me for this....”

“I most certainly will not sister, for I understand my daughters reasoning.”, Lunas voice came from the shadows of the room, shortly before she stepped out of them.

“Luna!”, Celestia exclaimed, jumping up and hugging her sister.

“It is good to be back... again. Sister, Silk has told me everything, and I can assure you that Zeos soul has not moved on. His soul got nowhere near Tartarus. I will set out and try to find what is left of it, before it is too late. I may be able to conserve it, until we can get the rest of his soul back where it belongs.”, Luna said while nuzzling her sister affectionately.

“I don't want to interrupt the heartwarming reunion, but you do realize what this means, don't you?”, Discord interjected.

“That she is ready to fight me again. Let her come. She caught me by surprise last time. This time, I will be prepared for her.”, Luna hissed in Discords direction

“I meant, that you might have to face your husband, before Jane shows herself. She's sure to send him first, just to see how you react.”, the spirit of chaos sighed. It became harder and harder for him to stay this serious. It was just not in his nature.

“I....”, Luna began, but was interrupted by a munching sound that came from the half open door of Celestias study. As the four of them turned to look for the source of the noise, Zeo stood in the half open doorway. He looked exactly as Celestia and Silk remembered him, just before he had flown head first to his death. His face was split by a feral grin, while fat glistened around his mouth. A terrible smell wafted into the room, that made Luna gag. Celestia knew the smell however. As she looked down on her brother in law, she saw what looked like the roasted remains of a Pegasus wing. There were teeth marks in it, where he had taken a bite out of it.

“You know....”, he began after he swallowed the bite he had been chewing. “These Pegasi taste almost exactly like chicken.”

The Queen

Humans in Equestria

Chapter 6

The Queen

He opened his eyes again, looking at the red light that seemed so far away. The blinking was slow, yet rhythmic. He felt dazed, as if he had been drugged. Again, he tried to move his body and was surprised to notice something, that he had not noticed before. His body seemed to be in a vertical, yet standing position. What was this? After a quick assessment of his body, he noticed another thing. There were more limbs then he remembered to have....

But it was so hard to concentrate... The haze in his mind made it hard to think straight. Suddenly a question popped up in his mind, that let his heart-rate skyrocket from one moment to another.

“Who... am …. I...?”, he murmured in a hoarse voice. He had barely the time to realize that the red light had started to flash rapidly again, before he heard the hissing sound again, and fainted once more.

*~*~**~*~**~*~**~*~**~*~**~*~**~*~**~*~*

He didn't know how long he had slept this time, but his entire body felt sore. As he slowly came to, he realized what the red light in the darkness must be. It was monitoring his pulse, triggering some sort of sleeping gas to be released if it reached a certain number of beats per minute. Why was he trapped here?

There was something on the back of his mind, that tried to come forward, back he was unable to put his finger on it. He tried to stay calm, to keep his pulse at a minimum. To his utter surprise, it worked like a charm. The light had begun to flicker on and off in a faster pace, but it seemed that he had succeeded to calm himself enough to keep the machinery from triggering the gas....

But... how did he know that it was a machine? His head started to hurt badly, but he couldn't even touch his forehead. At least something changed, now that he was awake for longer then five minutes. The haze in his head started to lift.

There was a Pony in his mind. An unconscious mare with a midnight blue coat. He had... He had.... He couldn't remember what he had done with her. Had he knocked her out? Had they fought? He didn't know.... Why was it so hard to remember? He knew he had fought somepony.... but he did not know who... What was wrong with him? Why couldn't he move? Where was he?

Suddenly, he felt something that had not been there before. A presence that seemed to envelope him in warm and gentle magic.

“Close your eyes, young one.”, he heard a gentle female voice call out to him. He did as he was told. The darkness behind his eyelids, which he had expected, was not what he got however. He  saw a plain that was bathed in brilliant sunlight. Under a nearby tree stood a regal white Alicorn mare. She had her back turned towards him, so he could not see her face, but what he saw was a sight that looked for it's peer. He wanted to walk closer to her, but could not move.

“Who... Who are you?”, he croaked.

“My name, young one, does not matter. All that matters is that I am here to help you.”, the mare said calmly.

“So you know why I am here? Why I am trapped?”

“I do.”

“Why then? Why am I imprisoned? Is it because of that mare? Did I do something to her?”, he asked nervously.

“Yes, and no.”, she answered without turning to him. Her auburn mane and tail flowed a mild breeze.

“Yes and no? What do you mean? I... I... I don't understand.”, he stuttered.

“It has something to do with her, yes. But you did not hurt her. You saved her. As to why you are trapped... You have to ask yourself that question. I never understood why you did it myself.”

“Ask... myself? I.. I don't remember... I don't remember!”, he complained.

“Technically you are not even imprisoned. You are dead, young one.”, the Alicorn mare said in a soothing tone of voice.

“Dead? But... I'm breathing. How can I be dead?”, he asked aghast.

“You died protecting your family and friends. I have reserved a place in Tartarus for you, yet you can't pass on yet. The reason you are so confused, is because your soul has been ripped apart. In it's confusion, it possessed the only body that it knew would be able to support it. A good thing too... The only problem is, that you yourself imprisoned that body out of fear. You feared it's potential, even though it had done nothing wrong. You are needed.”, the mare spoke softly.

“But... who am I? How am I supposed to get out of here? I... I don't know!”, he paniced.

“All you need to do, is to remember. I have deactivated the gadget that triggers the gas, so you have all the time you need to remember, what you need to know. Remember what you thought when you trapped it. Remember your failsafe mechanism, and you will egt out of there.”, she added, before she vanished into the darkness.

He did not understand what the mare had told him, or who she was. The only thing he knew, was that the red light that had been flashing in the darkness had gone out for good.

*~*~**~*~**~*~**~*~**~*~**~*~**~*~**~*~*

Zeo threw the half eaten Pegasus wing aside, as he entered Celestias study. His wife, daughter, sister in law and a creature he had never seen before looked at him in shock.

“What's up? You don't seem very happy to see your “beloved” husband and father.”, he said sarcastically.

“You are not my father.”, Silk snarled.

“Oh? Am I not? Have you completed your homework for medical school, like I told you to?”, he asked, his voice full of contempt.

“Stop this charade. You are not Zeo. At least you are not complete.”, Luna reprimanded, positioning herself between him and Silk.

“And who do we have here? The little Princess whos fault it was that I ended up in this godforsaken place in the first place. Can you even imagine how hard it was for me not to eat any meat, just because YOU disapproved? At least now I don't have to pretend to like you anymore. It was disgusting to sleep with you.”, Zeo said. Luna recoiled, her face showing that she was obviously hurt.

“Stop it Zeo. You are not yourself right now. You don't know what you're saying.”, Celestia interjected, throwing a glance at Discord, who nodded ever so slightly.

“Awwww... Celestia. I thought you wanted me to be honest with you. But now that I have found a human woman, I don't need Luna anymore. You horses disgusted me from the moment I saw you.”, he snarled, wiping his mouth with the sleeve of his coat.

Celestia took a careful step forward, spreading her wings protectively to shield her sister and niece from plain view.

“You don't mean that. Do you remember the talk we had over a thousand years ago? That night on the balcony? You told me that you loved my sister more then you loved any girl before her.  You gave up eating meat for her, and even found some recipes that you liked. All of them completely vegetarian.”, she said, slowly advancing towards Zeo.

“Not one step closer you freaking mule.”, he growled, pointing at Celestia. The Princess of the sun was not fazed by this outburst however. Instead she threw herself forward, towards Zeo, calling out to Discord over her shoulder.

“NOW!”

In a flash of light Discord, Luna and Silk Light disappeared. A flash of golden light burst forth from Celestias horn, and shot towards Zeo, who raised a shield to protect himself. It shattered, and Zeo got confused for a split second. He did not react in time before Celestia brought her hoof down on his face. The force of the impact was enough to knock Zeo out of her study, and into the technology section. He could not stop his flight in time, before he hit a shelf. All the books spilled onto the floor, burring him under them.

“You are not my brother in law. You have no right to be here, or to speak to my family that way. He would not have fallen for such an obvious distraction!”, Celestia shouted at him, using her royal Canterlot voice.

“I am Zeomak Seline Salchar, and nothing you say can change that fact. I will rip you apart, and see what Alicorn meat tastes like. Then I will do the same to your sister and her abomination of a daughter. When I'm done with them, I may go to Ponyville and visit Twilight Sparkle. I have wondered how Unicorn meat might taste for a while now anyway.”, Zeo responded, as he rose out of the rubble.

Celestia knew that the fight was no on for real. If she held back, he would make good on his threat. Luna would hate her for a while, but she might not have another choice then to kill Zeo. In her inner most parts, she knew that this was not really her brother in law, yet she still didn't like the idea of attacking him with full force.

*~*~**~*~**~*~**~*~**~*~**~*~**~*~**~*~*

Discord stepped out of his teleportation on top of Canterlot castles highest tower. Silk Light and Luna dropped to the floor beside him.

“Why? Why did he say such a thing?”, Luna wailed, tears streaming from her eyes. Silk Light put a wing around her mother, trying to console her.

“It's her influence.”, Discord said softly.

“Your daughter...”, Silk whispered.

“She will know that I am here now. If I know her, she will come to get me soon. I hope you two are ready for a fight. LUNA, get it together!”, Discord snapped at the still sobbing Luna.

“But why did you bring us here?”

“Isn't that obvious beautiful? You are both emotionally vulnerable to the taunts of that fake. Celestia does not have that problem. She is a pragmatic mare, who will do whatever she needs to do to protect her subjects. If you two were to stay down there with her, you would have just gotten in the way. Believe me, she can handle herself.”, the spirit of chaos tried to reassure the two Princesses.

Before any of them could say anything else, something gigantic appeared in the night sky. It was cone-shaped, and it's rear seemed to be on fire.

“Here she comes, brace yourselves....”, Discord said, summoning a giant cloud of cotton candy to intercept the thing that was coming right at them. As the two collided, the cone-shaped object exploded, destroying the cloud, and unloading it's payload of chocolate rain on Canterlot.

Using the blast of the explosion, a figure came flying towards them. It was human in shape, held some strange device in each hand, and had all fours spread while it fell.

“UUUUUUIIIIIII!!!!! DaaaaAAAaaaaAAAaaAAAAaaAAD!”, a female voice cackled manically, as the figure tackled Discord to the ground. It turned out that the object in her left hand resembled a metal shark, with it's mouth wide open. The one in her right, was the weapon she had used to kill Zeo.

“A little help here?”, Discord wheezed as Jane directed the business ends of both weapons towards his face. Silk took the hint, and rammed her shoulder into the woman, who tumbled off of Discord, loosing both of her weapons in the process.

“OUCH!”, she exclaimed, as her head hit the ground.

“You killed my father you bitch!”, Silk screamed, while charging up a blast spell on her horn. Luna, who recognized the spell, raised a hoof to stop her, but was too late. This kind of spell was not meant for attack. It was a spell meant to gain speed in flight, or to remove obstacles close to oneself. The result was a disaster.

Silk Lights blast spell erupted, knocking her backwards into Luna. Both of them slammed into a wall,giving Jane the second she needed to regain her bearings.

“Playing with the both of you was fun, but I'm here for my Dad. I'll come for the both of you some time soon. Tata...”, she giggled, while Discord tried to snap his fingers, to defend himself. The glass door to the balcony shattered before he could. Petra Salchar came charging through them. She had seen what was transpiring there, and charged at Jane. She was holding a shield from one of the decorative armors that lined the hallways on this floor.

Jane was so surprised by this sudden change of events, that she totally forgot to defend herself. Petra slammed into her with all she was worth, all the while screaming in utter fury. Discords daughter got knocked over the railing of the balcony by the force of the impact, all the while cackling in delight.

“I will be back Dad!”, were her last words, before she disappeared in a flash of light.

*~*~**~*~**~*~**~*~**~*~**~*~**~*~**~*~*

Celestia was panting hard. The technology section of the archives was already laid to waste. This version of Zeo was certainly stronger then she remembered him to be. He was not even breaking a sweat yet. Slowly but surely, she began to doubt that it had been a good idea to face him alone. She fired another blast of concentrated sunlight at him, which he matched with a fire spell of his own. The two of them collided, annihilating each other and destroying even more of the valuable scripts.

“Let's just stop this Celestia. Just give up, and I promise I will make it painless.”, Zeo chuckled, playing with a few magical strands that he let dance around his hand.

“Never.”, was her reply. Even if she had wanted, she couldn't say anything more, because she was so out of breath.

“Oh, there you are mistress.”, Zeo said, looking past Celestia at a spot behind her.

“Do.... you... really... think.... I'd... fall for that?”, she wheezed between pants.

“I don't know, do you?”, a female voice from behind Celestia spoke up. Horrified, she turned her head to see a blade coming for her neck. There was no way she would be able to dodge it, and she was too spent to teleport away.

*~*~**~*~**~*~**~*~**~*~**~*~**~*~**~*~*

He felt tremors run through the ground, as if there was an earthquake going on below. The temperature of the room he was in, rose considerably as well with each time the ground beneath him shook. The heat reminded him of something. A white Alicorn with a multicolored mane, who was firing fire spells at him for doing something bad.

It was a long time ago, that much he remembered.... Then, the scene before his eyes changed, and he saw a black Alicorn that was towering over the white one that lay on the ground. He... attacked the black one.

Another scene, again he was fighting the black Alicorn, but she was talking to him.

“Then please don't make me do this, dad!”, she cried, while tears poured from her mismatched eyes.

“S...Si...Silk.”, he croaked. He finally remembered his name. He remembered who he was, and he finally remembered where he was, and how to get out of here.

“R...Release code.”, he said, trying to steady his voice.

“Please enter the code.”, a soft female voice came from the darkness.

“Silk.... Light.”

There was a short pause, in which he could feel the magic return to him. The field that had kept it from his grasp dissipated slowly, while the walls of the room began to glow in a soft light. The room looked exactly like he had left it.

He looked down on himself. He was, indeed, stuck in a block of magical steel. As the light around him intensified, the block began to evaporate. As soon as it was gone for good, the security door at that could only be opened from the outside, started to unlock. Zeo fell to his knees, and then onto his side. He was not used to this body yet.

It took him what felt like an eternity to even stand up on his four legs. It took a conscious effort to fold his wings to his sides, since they had been hanging down limply. As soon as the door had opened to it's full extend, he realized that he would not have the time to get used to his new Alicorn body. With quick teleportation jumps, he began to move forward, since he was not too sure if he could walk in this form yet.

The order of justice

Humans in Equestria

Chapter 7

Order of Justice

Zeo teleported as fast as he could, but it was an enormous strain on his new body to do so. As a human, he had known the theory of this spell, but had never actually been able to do it. Now that he could, he understood why Celestia had stressed the point that he should not overexert himself while he did it. Even so, he did not dare to teleport more then ten feet at a time....

As he finally reached the door, that led into the main room of his study, his blood froze in his veins. There, leaning on a half destroyed shelf, was another Zeomak! This other him looked like he had used quite a lot of spells over a short period of time. It reminded him of that one time that Platinum had captured him, because he had used too many spells in rapid succession. His other self was unable to hold his fascination for long however. In front of him, lay Celestia. She lay in a puddle of her own blood, her body twitched uncontrollably, while the eyes of her severed head roamed around the room in disbelief. There was no time to loose. He knew what that woman, that was now looming over his sister in law, was about to do.

A quick teleportation spell later, and he stood directly in front of her. He extended his wings protectively, as to shield Celestia from view. He had no idea if eye contact was necessary for what she had done to him, but he thought it likely. Not ALL hope was lost for her. If he could just....

Something flowed into him from behind, struggling with his fragmented soul for control over his Pony body. In the last moment, Zeo cast a shield spell. Not a second to late, as several magical strands and bullets began to rain down on it from both sides. It was hard for him to channel the next spell that had to be done, but he managed it with a last effort of will. A soft pale blue shimmer began to encase Celestias fallen form. As soon as the spell was done, the something that had flowed into him, made his knees give out and forced him into his minds fragmented library. Zeo just hoped that his body would keep pouring magical energy into both spells. If it didn't, then he was done for... again.

“Who are ….”, came Celestias voice from a secluded corner of his fragmented self, but he cut her off. He was the inventor of the mind-link spell, and he was NOT happy that it had been used on him in such a crucial situation.

“Shut the hay up Celestia! Do you even have the slightest idea that you yourself are endangering your chances of survival? Had I not erected a suspension spell around your body, there would have been no chance for you. And then your so STUPID and invade my mind.... Good for you that I cut that transfer of with the suspension spell. Otherwise you would have been BRAINDEAD!”, he raged at the radiant presence  of his sister in law.

Just now that he actually walked the halls of his minds library, he saw how serious the damage was. Most shelfs were intact, but some of them were damaged or missing. Amongst them, hovered a glowing sphere of golden light. As he drew closer, he could feel how Celestias magic tried to hinder him from advancing any further. There was no time for this. If he wanted to get himself and her out of this, then he had no other choice.

The light threatened to burn his eyes out but he didn't care. Slowly the figure of a stunned Celestia came into view. She did not resist when he grabbed her by her horn and pulled her into a tight embrace. The only reaction from her was a surprised gasp at being pulled forward.....

The dark blue Alicorn stallion opened his eyes again, standing up as if it was as unconscious as breathing. His eyes were glowing in different colors. While his right one emanated a brilliant golden light, the left one glowed pale blue. His black mane and tail started to grow considerably, and began to flow in a nonexistent breeze. As he spoke, his voice sounded like a mix of Zeos and Celestias voices. They were in perfect harmony with each other, which made the fake Zeo and Jane stop in their tracks. The fake Zeo understood instantly what had happened and turned to run.

“You will pay for what you have done.”, he stated flatly.

Jane on the other hand, started to grin. Her minigun vanished from her hands, and was replaced by a rocketlauncher that was shaped like a shark, that had it's jaws wide open. The fraction of a second later, a rocket emerged from it, hitting the shield had erected earlier. It had no effect whatsoever.

“Looks like I lost ONE new puppet and get an even better one! Oh this is so exciting!”, Jane giggled, never ceasing to shoot her rockets at the shield. Two magical strands erupted from the horn of the stallion. They were pale blue, but sheathed in golden flames. One of them shot towards Jane, who dodged it with practiced ease. Her weapon was not so lucky. She threw it away, because it had turned into a mess of melting metal. The second strand shot towards the fake Zeo, who had almost reached the door that led into the archives.  It wrapped itself around his ankle, and pulled him back into the fight. He was kicking and screaming, but had no chance of breaking the strand that was holding him. Before the puppet hit the shield, the stallion raised him into the air and threw him into Jane who had just resummoned her minigun.

“You have no chance.”, the stallion spoke without emotion. “I have the combined power of Celestia and Zeo, combined with Zeos knowledge of combat spells. Make it easy on yourself, and give up.”, he added.

Janes grin grew even wider. Her Zeo puppet struggled to his feet, pale blue magical strands already erupting from his fingers. It seemed that, now that his escape route was cut off, he was determined to put up a fight. The stallion showed his first sign of emotion. His lips curled upwards in an amused smile.

The door to the technology section burst open, and as if this had been the starting pistol the three threw themselves into the fight. Luna, Discord, Silk Light and Petra could only watch in awe as the three of them went at it. Silk wanted to interfere when she saw the suspended body of her aunt, but Discord stopped her with his paw.

“What are you doing Discord?”, she screamed at the Draconeques.

“Don't worry. Her head an neck may have parted company, but the spell has stopped time around her. The body is still alive and I imagine that there are things that can be done to safe her. But can't you feel it? If we were to interfere in the fight now, we would only get in the way. I don't know who that stallion is, but he could have a chance against Jane..... It's amazing....”, Discord said, his voice barely above a whisper.

Just as the spirit of chaos finished his sentence, the Zeo puppet charged at Luna and Silk, but was hurled back by one of the magical strands. The impact it's body made in one of the walls, made the entirety of the archives shake. Even Janes smile had faded, as she jumped around to dodge the increasing number of flaming magical strands that tried to get her.

She failed to evade one of them entirely, and the strand grazed her chin. It's intense heat was enough to burn that half of her face, leaving behind a mess of raw flesh and charred skin. Jane dropped her minigun as she clutched that portion of her face, and screamed in unbelievable agony. Something white dribbled forth from in between her fingers, and the stallion realized that one of the bitches eyeballs had popped.

The Zeo pupped lay in the rubble of the wall it had smashed in, a bleeding wound on it's forehead. The stallion withdrew most of his strands, keeping only a few of them in place to keep Jane and the puppet in check.

“Will you give up, now that you see that I can overcome your protection spells without even touching you directly?”, he asked softly, unable to keep a victorious grin from his face.

“I'LL KILL YOU! I'LL FUCKING KILL YOU!”, Jane screamed in between gasps of pain. She had been injured before, but never this severely. This damn HORSE was going to pay for spoiling her fun and hurting her this badly. She just wanted to have some fun, what right did IT have to interfere with that?

“But maybe you are in the wrong...”, a meek and scared voice inside of herself spoke up. Jane snorted. This always happened when she got overexcited or used too much of her magic.... As much as she hated to admit it, but right now she was at a disadvantage. It would be suicidal to fight that horse now, not to mention that she saw her father and several others at the entrance to this room. She was outnumbered, outclassed and she was hurt. Gritting her teeth, Jane jumped over to her puppet, teleporting to safety with it.

“Oh now you don't!”, the stallion shouted, trying to stop her, but he was too late. She had already disappeared.

“DAMN IT!”, the stallion growled, stomping the ground so hard that it shook violently. That was when somepony tapped his shoulder with a hoof. He turned around, to find himself muzzle to muzzle with Silk Light, who was staring at him intently.

“I would appreciate it, if you would not trash my late fathers archives any more then necessary. Oh, and by the way, WHO THE HAY ARE YOU?”, she asked furiously. A quick glance around herself showed her that the damage to this particular section of the archives was immense. Without her father the knowledge he had recorded here was most likely lost forever.

“I would like to know as well.”, Luna added, as she stepped next to her daughter. The stallion sighed, and Discord broke out in uncontrollable laughter while Petra just stood there, dumbfounded.

“You really don't recognize them, do you?”, the spirit of chaos laughed, slapping his knee with his paw.

“What do you mean? Should we know this stallion?”, Luna inquired, not taking her eyes off of the intruder. Silk tilted her head in confusion, and recoiled visibly as the realization struck her.

“I think Discord is right.... Lulu.”, the stallion said amused. Hearing the harmonic voice of the stallion up close, Luna stiffened, and so did Petra. Like they had planned this together, both of them fainted, while Silks jaw hung wide open.

“Oh my... I guess that was too much for those two.”, he giggled, picking up Celestias body, that was still frozen in time, with his magic and walking towards Zeo study. “If you would be so kind as to bring your aunt and mother Silk, I will explain everything on the way.”, he added.

Silk Light did as she was told, levitating her aunt and mother behind herself and following her fathers Pony body. She had a spring in her step that she didn't have that morning.

“Figures.... He's such a Drama Queen.”, she thought to herself and giggled. She hadn't known her father for long, but had soon learned that almost nothing was impossible when it came to magic. Aloud she asked what was on her mind.

“Say... It's really you dad, isn't it? I mean the part of you that didn't get abducted by that woman.”

“Basically yes. Zeo is in here, but so is Celestia. This form does not have a name, and I don't think it is worth of naming it. It will soon cease to exist.”, the stallion answered, and a cold feeling began to run down Silks spine.

“Cease to exist? You don't mean to say that you are going to die, are you?”

“Well... This form.... Yes, it will die as soon as Celestias soul leaves this body. But don't worry young one. Your fathers soul will remain. This body will change back to it's original form however. I apologize if I frightened you.”

“What is that body anyway? Did you just have a Pony body laying around, or what?”, Silk asked, unable to keep the irritation that welled up in her out of her voice. Almost as an afterthought she added, “And why didn't you come back sooner?”

“It's not so easy. Zeomak studied the fragmenting of the soul when he was looking for a way to cure you. He soon abandoned that line of research however, since it did not bring the results he wanted. During that research he read ancient texts that had been written by Griffon shamans. Shamanism had been outlawed centuries before he came here, so it had been hard to get any written documentation of their practices. He managed to find some, however, but they were not very useful. Next he looked into recreating your body from a strand of hair he had taken from your original body. To do that he combined the bloodmagic of the Griffons, the mana based magic of Ponies and rituals from the Zebras. The result was, due to an unlucky accident in which a drop of his blood fell into the summoning circle, this body. He stored it away in a vault, afraid of what he had created. The second experiment was a great success. He actually succeeded in recreating your body without a soul. All he needed now, was to find a way to extract you from your mothers body, and jam your soul into this new body. As you know, he failed at that attempt.”, The stallion explained, as they climbed several flights of stairs. Silk had placed her mother and aunt on the sofa downstairs, since the stairwell was to narrow to levitate them by her side all the time.

“Ok, but.... What happened to that... body he created?”

“It is still there. It's floating in a nutrient fluid that keeps it alive, while the cylinder in which it is floating is preserved by a spell.”

“No I meant the one that is talking to me right now.”

“Oh... That is not so easy to explain. Zeo hates to waste something, which is why he eventually got this body out of the vault to experiment on it. He even infected it with Deathroot, to study it's effects, but that proved to be a mistake. Even though it had no will to make it act, the twisted magic of the Deathroot somehow took control of this body. Zeo ended up killing it, but he only barely escaped that battle with his life. To his eternal surprise, the body did not stay dead however. The wounds and the cracked skull he had inflicted, healed in a matter of minutes. At the time he had no explanation for this, but now he knows. Each and every cell in this body is in a permanent state of using the Regeneration spell which is your specialty. Zeo got rid of the Deathroot he had infected this body with, and locked it in the vault again. Since he did not know if it would form a soul of it's own over time, he installed certain safety mechanisms to knock it out, should it awaken. The reason it took him so long to return is pretty simple. After his soul got fragmented, he wandered around for a while, until he remembered this body. His soul inhabited it, and started to settle in. That process takes time, and because his soul was fragmented, he didn't remember who he was at first, until somepony interfered... I don't know who she was, but I suppose your mother might know, and Zeomak has every intend on asking her about it when she wakes up.”, the stallion concluded his explanation, as they entered a room that looked like it's door had been blasted apart from the inside.

“And... what do you intend to do now? I don't know if I can heal aunt Celestias injuries with my spell.... They seem pretty severe.”, Silk said doubtfully.

“Oh don't worry. Once we get her into one of these cylinders...”, he gestured to the ceiling, where several glass-cylinders hang, ”... I will reconnect her bones and muscles. All you need to do is to reconnect her nerves and veins.”, he explained, floating one of the cylinders down and placing Celestias still suspended body inside the goo. As soon as the suspending spell fizzled away, the two Alicorns got to work.

Silk had been a little surprised, since the stallion had not warned her before starting the procedure, but she did her part in her aunts recovery. It took both of them about an hour before Celestias body was breating normally. Her heart-rate was stable and all that remained to do happened so suddenly that Silk didn't realize it at first.

A golden mist shot from the stallions body, and into Celestias. As soon as all of it was gone, the stallions eyes lost their glow an became the same brown as hers. No the same brown that her fathers eyes had always been. His mane and tail shrank quite a bit and hang limply on his sides, as he fell on his side, breathing heavily.

“DAMIT CELESTIA!”, he growled when he hit the ground. Silk was immediately at his side, but was unable to help his to his hooves. Despite that, she almost crushed him in a tight hug.

“Ugh! Easy girl, I'm hurting all over.”, Zeo laughed, stroking his daughter with his free wing.

“I thought I had lost you!”, she wailed, while burying her face in his mane.

“And you will.”, came a cold male voice from the shadows.

Silks head snapped upwards in time to see a spell come from the darkness. She tried to prepare a counterspell, but was not quick enough. The force of the spell that hit her face knocked her away from Zeo, who snapped his head around.

“You bastard! Who are you? How did you....?”, Zeo screamed, taking a quick look at his unconscious daughter. A thin trickle of blood ran down her face, but she seemed to be alright. That quick look however was all the time his adversary needed to close in on him. Zeo had used almost all of his magic to help and heal Celestia, so he could not defend himself with magic. He could not even run away, since he had no idea how to use his Pony body. It had been Celestia that had controlled it's movements... The last thing he saw, before that Pony pressed a brown Crystal to his horn, was a Pony that had covered itself with a black cloak. On it's face was a mask that was emblazoned with Equestrias flag. After that.... everything went black.

Three hours later

Silk sat on the sofa in her fathers study. She used her magic to levitate an icebag to her forehead, where she had been hit by that knockout spell. Her head felt like she had drunk too much cider, and her mothers yelling didn't help either. For about twenty minutes now, Luna had been screaming at her Nightguards to find out who the Pony was that had abducted her husband, and how they had gotten into the archives. As for Zeos doppelganger, she was pretty sure the protection spells here could not tell them apart. The woman had most likely been too powerful for those spells to throw her out, but the Pony they were looking for was most likely a Unicorn....

“Your highness? We may have found out how the intruder got in here.”, a Batpony stallion approached Luna, holding a sheet of paper in his mouth.

“So? Don't make me extract every word from you!”, Luna bellowed at the stallion in her royal Canterlot voice.

“Your highness... We have found Night Trotter, or better what was left of him. Night Trotter had been assigned to some secret task by the Prince, and had been given a permanent permit to the archives. We were able to confirm that said permit is gone, together with the journal that held the results of his investigation...”, the stallions voice cracked.

“What's the matter?”, Luna inquired.

“I.... I am sorry your highness. Night Trotter... was my brother, and his body is... in very bad shape. Whoever did this, they.... they beat him to death.”, the stallion continued, but Luna waved a hoof to stop him.

“It's OK. You are relieved for the time being, and, if it means anything, my condolences.”, the Princess of the night said, ready to start her investigation at Night Trotters death, when the stallion refused to budge.

“There is more your highness.... We already know who took the Princes soul, but it is highly unlikely that we will find them.”

“WHAT? How so? Who was it, and how do you know?”

“Princess... There is... a secret organization that is around since you were banished to the moon. They call themselves “The order of justice”. They hunt down Ponies that the law doesn't punish, and we only know that they are highly organized. Only once did we manage to imprison somepony that belonged to that order. Princess Celestia imprisoned him for treason, because he congratulated her for banishing you. He even went so far as to claim that they would have executed you, had you gone unpunished. Every time they get another victim, a file is placed on the desk of the guard captain. Tonight, when I went to my office to get my armor, I found this....”, he extracted a folder from his harness and hoofed it over to Luna, who opened it with a sense of dread.

Name: Zeomak Seline Salchar

Race: Human

Crimes:

Support of political infighting

Murder of 3742 Ponies

Ordering the killing of 7529 Ponies

Murder of Princess Platinum

Verdict: Soul-shattering

Attached to this were witness reports that were over a thousand years old. This order of justice seemed well organized indeed....

At the same time in a cave at the base of Mt. Unicornia

Two masked stallions carried a few crates and books through the tunnels that they knew since their foalhood. At their destination someone waited for them.

“We got everything you asked for. All the research material, machines and parts you have requested. When do you think you can finish what you promised us?”

“If you really got everything on the list, I think we can go into a testing phase in about two months.”, their newest member responded.

“That is too late. We may need a finished product sooner, and there may be no time for testing either.”

“Have it your way, but don't blame me if the device blows up in your faces!”

Licking wounds

Humans in Equestria

Chapter 8

Licking wounds

“Ouch!”, Jane exclaimed as her puppets magical strands snaked their way into her face. The injury that the strange stallion had inflicted on her was serious. Even her medically skilled pupped was unable to restore her eyeball, or regenerate her burnt skin completely. There would be scars on her face when it was finished. It angered her greatly to admit it, but she had been careless. In all the millenia in which she played her game, she had never been severely injured. The occasional scrape only served to heighten her excitement. This injury however.....

“I am sorry mistress, but it will only get worse if you don't hold still.”, her puppet said calmly, as its strands worked feverishly to heal her. Jane let out a long exhale to calm herself. Even though she didn't like it, but she had to try and hold still while her puppet worked.

“Say...”, she began, gaining her servants attention.

“Yes?”

“Did you feel the magic that stallion used? It felt almost exactly like yours.”

“Not almost, mistress. It was exactly the same magical aura. I have my theories, but I have nothing to prove or disprove them at this point.”, the Zeo puppet explained, never taking its eyes off of her slender body. Noticing this, a grin appeared on Janes face. Maybe she would have other uses for this puppet after all.....

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Luna paced around her study as several magical images reported the status of the investigations on her husbands foalnapping to her. There had been no progress whatsoever it seemed. “The order of justice” seemed not only to be well organized, but also to be well connected. Every lead they had found so far had led into a dead end, and the only source of ANY viable information was out cold right now, recovering from being beheaded.... Silk had told her that, even though Alicorns had a heightened recovery rate, Celestia would be out for two weeks at the very least.

The Princess of the night rubbed her temple with one of her hooves as she thought about her daughter. Ever since the incident Silk had been in her fathers hidden lab, tending to the pony body the foalnappers had left behind. It disturbed her greatly that they had only taken his soul, since in this state he would not be able to defend himself very effectively. To defend oneself, a physical body was required to channel the magic. A soul or “ghost” could rarely use more then basic telekinesis.

The problems piled up as time went on. Celestia would be more then displeased with her once she woke up. Discord was nowhere to be found, the bearers of the Elements of Harmony had been discovered slain in their quarters. Luna had went there to confirm that report personally, and had immediately thrown up at the sight of their bodies. The Element of honesty had been decapitated, and her body nailed to the wall over her bed. Her signature hat was missing. The most gruesome however, had been the execution of the element of generosity. Luna had found traces of lingering magic in her throat, which explained why no pony had heard her scream. Whoever did this, had silenced the mare before skinning and roasting her alive. From what she could deduct from her magical senses, the mare had been alive during the whole ordeal. Not only that, but her corpse had been partially eaten....

The midnight blue Alicorn didn't want to think of the horrors that had found Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie while they were sleeping in their beds in the palace. The body of Twilight Sparkle was missing entirely. Her bed looked as if it hadn't been used either. Luna just hoped that her sisters student was alright, and that they would find her somewhere, with her muzzle buried in a stack of books. She didn't want to think that, even though she had been nearby, these atrocities had happened without her noticing anything! The six mares had been under her protection while they were at the palace, and yet five of them had been tortured before death had found them...

With a sigh of resignation, Luna dispelled all the magical images around her and let herself fall onto one of the sofas. The remains of her husbands soul had been taken prisoner, her sister had almost been killed and her daughter was inconsolable about loosing her father once again... She put her head on her front legs, deciding to rest just a little. Luna had no real hope that sleep would find her, with everything that was going through her head. Yet she was fast asleep only seconds after her head made contact with her coat....

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Frank had reopened the “Golden Ciderbarrel” today, since he had decided that life had to go on. Even if he had lost his grandson, he would not come back, only because he sulked in the backroom of his bar. Peter, his son, had been more and more distant these past few weeks. Ever since Zeos death, Peter had tried to get his hands on Zeos belongings, but the Princesses had refused to hand them over. Understandably his son was furious about that, but Frank couldn't help to think that Peter wanted  to use his sons research to make a name for himself. An endeavor that he had never succeeded in while they had still been in their own world.

“You seem distracted. Is there anything I can help you with?”, a beautiful white Unicorn mare with a blonde mane and tail asked Frank, as a mug of strong Cider overflowed in his hands.

“Oh... ehm... I'm... I'm sorry... It's... a family matter. I don't think you can help me with it.”, Frank replied, setting the mug down and wiping his hands on the towel he wore around his neck.

“Is that so? Well... I am a good listener. Sometimes it helps to talk about ones worries.”, the mare said, giving him a charming smile. Frank sighed, and waved over to one of the Ponies he had hired to help out, to signal him that he would take a break. The stallion nodded that he understood, and continued to tend to the customers.

“As you might know, my grandson has been killed recently. My granddaughter has locked herself in her room in the palace and my son rarely ever comes home these days because of that. The Princesses have refused to hand over my grandsons belongings, telling us that some of them might be potentially dangerous...”, he started, and the mare nodded reassuringly.

“I know that you are the grandfather of Prince Zeo. But I can also understand the Princesses. As far as I was able to learn, the Prince has done some high level research in terms of magic. Being a researcher myself, I know that sometimes you get a dangerous result from your experiments.”, she tried to reassure Frank, who nodded his understanding. Even he had figured out as much.

“However... My son is furious with the Princesses because of this, and...”, Frank began to cry, unable to keep his sorrow at bay any longer. The mare put a comforting hoof on his shoulder over the counter and started to stroke it gently.

“Shhh... It's OK. I am sure it will all turn out alright. The Princesses will review your grandsons belongings, and will surely give you the ones that are not dangerous to you or anypony. It is Equestrian law that the rest is to be sealed away forever, and the law must be served. Don't hold a grudge against them for this, for I know they only have your own safety in mind. You are family for them after all.”, the mare cooed, comforting the hurting man before her. After a few minutes, Frank composed himself enough to speak again.

“I... I have told you more then I wanted to already, and I don't even know your name....”, he stammered between sobs.

“My name is Justica.”, she said with a smile, gesturing for her Cutiemark which depicted a judges hammer.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Luna opened her eyes, surprised to find herself in a wide open field of blue roses, instead of her study. In the middle of the field stood a tree, under which a white Alicorn mare sat. Her red hair swayed in the mild breeze, while her blue eyes seemed to pierce Luna. Even from this distance, Luna could see the frown on the mares face. She was not pleased about something, and the Princess of the night had the vague idea that it had something to do with herself.

Deciding that it was no use to make the mare wait, Luna trotted towards her. Only a minute later, she stood before the mare, who watched up at her intensly.

“I am very disappointed with you Luna.”, the mare finally spoke, shaking her head slightly.

“How can you be disappointed with me? I don't even know you!”, she tried to defend herself.

“You are a mere caretaker in Equestria, doing so because I decided that you were fit for the job. Apparently I was wrong... One of many mistakes I made it seems....”, she spoke, letting her head droop a bit.

“Who are you?”, Luna demanded. She didn't know this Alicorn, but her words made her angry. She was the Princess of the night, not just a mere “caretaker”. She had EARNED that title by defeating Discord and many others with Celestia.

The mare looked up again, meeting her eye.

“I am Faust, the creator of your world. I also assisted in creating many others.”, Faust replied without any emotion.

“Creator of my world? What are you then? Where is this place, and why do you insult me by saying I was a mere caretaker?”, Luna was fuming by this point. She didn't appreciate that she had been brought to this place without her consent.

“I am one of many divine beings. We are, or so I would like to think, the complete opposite to Discord. We wield the power of creation, rather then that of destruction. We create life, rather then death. Many of us have created their own worlds, yet we are forbidden to enter them. That is why some of us have chosen caretakers that wield a part of our power, to ensure that our worlds are safe. When you and your sister defeated Loki, or Discord as you may call him, I decided that you two would do fine as the caretakers of the world that I created. You two did fine for some time, but then you got attacked. I had to do something to protect you, yet I could not enter your world to do so myself. That is why I asked one of my friends to help. Jehova, as his name is, came up with a wonderful plan. When you tried to teleport out of danger, he interfered with your magic. He redirected it, to grab one of his creations instead of teleporting you and drag it to Equestria. That was when Zeo came into your life. That was my first mistake. A human should have never been allowed into the world I created, yet I could not change what I had agreed to.”, Faust elaborated.

Luna was stunned at this revelation. At the same time, she was angry. Zeo had been the best thing that had ever happened to her. How could this mare dare to say that it was a mistake to bring him to her?

“My second mistake was, that I did not interfere when an organization called “The order of justice” formed in the ruins of Canterlot. I am disappointed with you for another reason however. You, as my assigned caretaker, should have Equestrias best interest in mind at all times. Yet you waste resources to find your husbands fragmented soul, even though your world is at the brink of destruction. I had hoped that Zeo could beat that demon, but he let her escape... You should direct all your efforts to defend Equestria, not look for a single man. The order is about to pass judgment on him anyway. There is nothing you can do. Accept it, and move on. You have a task to accomplish.”, Faust urged.

“LIKE HAY I WILL!”, Luna finally burst out. “Zeo was only able to repel that woman, because he was fused with Celestias soul at the time. Had he fought her alone, with his soul incomplete, he would have been defeated! The same goes for any of us! DISCORD HIMSELF is scared of her. Celestia is in a healing coma, and Cadence does not answer any of my letters! There are only two Alicorns present to fight that woman, and we both have close to nothing in terms of real fighting experience. Our best chance to defeat Discords daughter, is to get Zeo back! Together we can surely win, so your argument is invalid!”, Luna screamed, panting heavily once she finished. Faust seemed unfazed by her outburst.

“Is that so? Are you sure you don't just want him back because you love him?”, the Alicorn in front of Luna asked flatly.

“I love him, so what? That doesn't change the facts!”

Faust sighed and shook her head.

“Do as you wish, you stubborn foal. But remember, this is your final chance. You have screwed up several times in the past, and I was close to revert you back to a mere Pegasus. If you fail this time, I might do just that... If you are alive to receive any kind of punishment that is.”, Faust said, eying Lunas defiant expression curiously.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Lyra was going through countless scrolls with one of her teachers from the academy. Zecora had gladly offered her help to look into the method by which the Prince had been foalnapped. The Zebra was very knowledgeable, but even she had no idea what “the order of justice” had used to trap the Princes soul. A brown crystal....

After hours of silent research, Zecora put a scroll over the one that Lyra had been reading. The Unicorn looked up into the Zebras face, which wore a grim expression.

“Read this text, and decide what to do next. If we don't move faster, the Princes soul awaits disaster.”, she said, tapping her hoof on the scroll. Lyra began to read, her eyes widening in horror with each sentence she read....

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Zeo opened his eyes. Ever since he had been pulled out of his body, against his will, this was the first time he was awake. He looked around, trying to take in his surroundings, but there was nothing but blackness. Trying to move his body proved to be impossible as well. Zeo looked down on himself, seeing his human body shimmer in a faint purple light. It was semi transparent, and therefor his suspicions were confirmed. This was only his spiritual body. His memories of death had not been a dream. Suddenly a low light began to cut through the darkness, and to illuminate the faint outlines of several Ponies. He couldn't see their faces, due to the low intensity of the light and the robes they wore. Yet their faces were all directed at him.

The room seemed to be an auditorium of some sort, with a podium in the middle of the stands. On it stood a Pony that wore a silvery robe, instead of a black one like the others. Zeo couldn't see its face, but the mask it used to hide it.

“Zeomak Seline Salchar. You are charged with the following crimes.”, the Pony said in a female voice that was vaguely familiar to him. The mare started to rattle of a list of his “crimes”, while the other Ponies in the room nodded their agreement. When she was finished, Zeo snorted.

“You charge me with murder of … over ten thousand Ponies, am I right? Well isn't that a blast. If that were true, I'd be the most successful murderer in all of history.”

“Quiet. The charges are not up to discussion. We have witness reports from Ponies who lived at the time. They all point you out as the culprit.”, the mare with the golden mask hissed.

“Witness reports? No doubt from that nag Platinums followers! She was a damn racist and...”, Zeo started his rant but was suddenly silenced.

“QUIET! We will not tolerate any insults to our founders families name.”, the mare cut him off, raising her head proudly. Just now Zeo saw that her mask had a horn on it's forehead. Either this mare was a Unicorn, or it was just a decoration on the mask. He couldn't tell from this distance.

“Your sentence...”, one of the other Ponies began, “... will be soul shattering. You have hereby been sentenced by the order of justices high court. The core of your soul will be destroyed slowly, using the same vile magic you used in your experiments. Your memories will remain in the soul projector gem, so that your knowledge shall not be lost. We, the order of justice, recognize your exploits in medical magic, and will deliver the gem, containing your memories, to your wife once the sentence has been carried out. We are no monsters after all....”, the stallion explained dryly.

Punishment

Humans in Equestria

Chapter 9

Punishment

Jane stood up from her bed, collecting her clothes as she went. Her puppet was still asleep, but that was OK. Right now, she preferred to have some quiet time. Her last defeat had been a crushing new experience for her, and she wanted to set the score in her favor soon. No one had defeated her in her own game so far, but this made this even more interesting for her.

As she picked up her hot-pants, something fell out of the pouch on her belt. Five somethings to be precise. Five brown gemstones glimmered in the twilight of her hideout. Jane frowned, since she didn't remember putting these in there. Nor did she remember having any gems of this color in her possession. As she picked the first one up, she could suddenly hear the dying screams of someone. Her frown turned upside down, as she realized what she had found.

Five additional souls had been delivered to her, and she didn't even know who to thank for this invaluable gift. Now she had five more puppets for her game, and she intended of making good of them. At first however, she would have to separate what she needed from the bothersome rest....

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Luna paced up and down in her study again. Problem after problem was brought to her attention and it was still a few days until Celestia could leave the tank. Discords daughter hadn't shown herself again so far, but neither had the lord of chaos himself.

“What's wrong mother?”, Silk asked, as she entered the room.

“A better question would be what is NOT wrong these days. First this whole business with discords daughter, then your fathers soul gets abducted, we have to fight his “darker” side and just half an hour ago your great grandfather came here to tell me that your grandfather is missing!”, Luna almost shouted, while putting a hoof up to her temples.

“Sorry Silk... I know it's not your fault, but this is just a little too much for me right now.”, the Princess of the night apologized.

“Then let me help you some more mother. I'm worried about dad too, but you barely let me do anything! On top of that, you haven't slept in what? Six nights and days? That's not good for you either.”, Silk protested.

“I can stay up for weeks if I have too.”, Luna retorted, stomping a hoof on the ground for emphasis. In Silks eyes however, it looked more like the gesture of a stubborn little foal, who doesn't want to go to bed.

“And at what price? The longer you stay up, the more of your power is used to keep your bodily functions going. What if that strange woman attacks and you are too tired to defend yourself probably? The next thing we know, I'd have to fight you AND dad, and we both know that I can't beat either of you in single combat!”, Silk light shouted, her wings extended.

Luna shook her head. Her daughter just didn't understand. Faust had given her a deadline by which she had to show results, yet there was nothing she could show. Instead everything went further and further downhill! She had only three days left, until the immortal creator of this world would pass judgment on her, and she knew it would not be a good one.

In the best case scenario, she would just loose her powers, in which case she would still be able to assist her family as a Pegasus. In the worst case however.... she would be forced to let her body catch up with her actual age, which would cost her life. Faust had already demonstrated to her that she could do it, and Luna had not been able to stop her.

Just as she wanted to turn around to her daughter again, to tell her why she was so set on doing this without rest, some spell hit her in the back of her neck. Everything started to blur before her eyes, before she fell into a deep slumber.

Silk was by her mothers side to catch her, before she hit the ground. She hadn't wanted to do this, yet she hadn't seen any other option. Her mother needed rest, and that wasn't only her common sense talking. Silk had scanned her mother with her magic, and had detected unusual high levels of stress hormones, which were slowly taking their toll on her mothers heart. It was either rest, or risk cardiac arrest. Since her mother didn't want to rest out of her own free will, Silk sedated her with a spell her father had taught her. It wouldn't be the same as natural slumber, yet it would be better then nothing at all.

Already she prepared herself for the lecturing session that surely awaited her when her mother woke up. Not to mention that she would probably be grounded for the next century or so....

Silk sighed while she levitated Luna onto one of the sofas, and covering her with a comfy blanket. After she was sure that her mother was comfortable, she summoned the magical images of every guard captain, every high ranking soldier and every police pony in all of Equestria. Soon the room was filled with an enormous and confused, yet respectful crowd of magical images.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Lyra hated to bring bad news, but with the palace in such disarray and the guards having their hoofs full, this task had been assigned to her. This was one of the downsides of being the personal student of one of the Princesses.

It was particularly hard for her, since she knew all of the mares, whose families she had deliver the bad new to. First she had went to Twilight Sparkles parents. The Unicorn had helped her to become Lunas student in a way, so it was only fair, that her parents should hear the bad news first. They had taken it... very badly. Twilights father had actually hit her, and screamed something about it not being funny to spread such lies. She had accepted the punishment, without retaliating. Lyra felt bad for telling them that their daughter was missing, but it had to be done.

She had tried her best to assure them, that there was still hope. They hadn't found a corpse.... yet after all....

Raritys parents reaction to their daughters death couldn't have been more different. They embraced each other, and even extended their hug to her, once they noticed the tears in her eyes. Rarity had been a good friend of her, who had always been willing to listen to her theories about humans over a cup of tea, even if as Lyra knew for certain, they hadn't interested her in the slightest....

The family of Pinkie Pie had been the worst for her. Aside from Bon Bon, Pinkie had been her closest friend, so she had ended up being consoled by them, rather then giving them any kind of comfort.

“I am glad to know that Pinkamena had such good friends. Please tell me of her life in Ponyville, Miss Heartstrings. She has never told me much about it.”, Pinkies father had said, while hoofing her a handkerchief. Pinkies sisters, Inky, Blinky and Maud were.... hard to read, but she had been able to see the tears in their eyes, even though they tried to hide them.

And so she had spent several hours recounting how she had met Pinkie Pie on the day she moved to Ponyville. How Pinkie had insisted on throwing her a welcoming party, and how she had met Bon Bon there after years of separation.

She told them how Pinkie had helped her move, and had helped her and Bon Bon financially when the bank didn't want to give them a loan for their Sweetshop, even though it was now direct concurrence to Sugarcube corner. She told them about all the happy times she had spent with Pinkie, and about the times in which Pinkie came to her for some comfort.

She told them about Pinkies insecurities, and how she had spent countless hours consoling the crying mare, who never showed her vulnerable side to anyone but her.

After she had left the Pies Rockfarm, she had tried to get into contact with Fluttershys parents, but they never answered her letter, even though it was delivered by magical mail. Lyra just hoped that they would reconsider, and come talk to her, instead of still being ashamed of their earthbound daughter, who was afraid of heights....

That left, the most heartbreaking occurrence of the day.... The Apple family. Big Macintosh had greeted her in his usual cheerful way, but his mood soon sank, when he saw the look on Lyras face. He was not a stallion of many words, but he sensed that he had something important to tell him, that she didn't want to say.

Lyra had refused to tell him, until he had gathered Granny Smith and Applebloom in the Apples kitchen. Now the Apples had two deaths to mourn. The old mares heart had given out, at the news of her oldest granddaughters fate. Lyra had, intentionally, left out any details on how it had happened, but Big Mac wouldn't let her leave until she had told them everything.

Applebloom was sitting on Granny Smiths recliner, while staring into the distance without seeing anything, while Big Macs eyes were streaming tears as he approached Lyra. Even though the big red stallion was crying like a foal that had fallen onto it's knees for the first time, his voice was steady and full of anger as he spoke. It was the first time in all the time she knew him, that Lyra had an actual conversation with Big Macintosh....

“Y'all know who did it?”, he had asked her.

“I'm... I'm sorry Mac, but we don't. The royal guard is still investigating, and Princess Luna is doing her best in coordinating the efforts to find the culprit, but so far we only have a vague idea of who it might have been.”

“So then... SPILL IT!”, he had shouted at her. Lyra understood the rage, but other as with Twilights father, she backed away a few steps. If Big Mac lashed out at her, she feared she would end up in the hospital... or in the morgue if he lost control.

Big Mac noticed that she backed away from him, and tried to calm himself by inhaling long and deep, before speaking again.

“A h'm terribly sorry Lyra, but ya have ta understand. Ah lost mah sister and mah granny in a single day. Ah wanna know how ta buck the face for this.”, he had said in a more normal tone, but Lyra could still detect the traces of anger swinging in his voice.

“We.... Well... We think the order of justice might have something to do with it. The guards killed by the copy of Princess Lunas husband were partially eaten, but all of them were executed quickly. Not one of them was tortured. And since there was only one other group that infiltrated the palace that night, we assume that they have something to do with it.”, Lyra explained, while keeping a shield spell at the ready.

To her surprise, Big Mac relaxed after that. He seemed to have come to a conclusion that he didn't want to share with her. All he did after this, was ask her to leave the farm and not come back for a while. He was polite enough about it, but Lyra couldn't help but think that Big Mac was hiding something from her.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Guard Captain Goldshield sat down at her desk. She had just received orders from Princess Silk Light, to coordinate her search efforts with the local police and the Nightguard. The conference had been exhausting, and very time consuming, but at least they had a plan now. When she looked for a quill, to issue a written order to all solar guards that were stationed outside the capital, she frowned. There was a new folder on her desk, that she did not remember putting there. As she opened it, the faces of five of the six bearers of the elements of Harmony looked at her. All photographs had been crossed out with red marker. Beneath them was a document, which she read carefully.

Name: Applejack

Age: 22

place of dwelling: Sweet Apple Acres, Ponyville

Race: Earthpony

Crimes:

Monopolization of the apple market in Ponyville. Assisting in a coup d'etat.

Punishment: Execution

Name: Rarity

Age: 21

place of dwelling: Ponyville

Race: Unicorn

Crimes:

industrial espionage, sabotaging contestants during Canterlot fashion show, bribing judges during Canterlot fashion show

Punishment: Execution

Name: Pinkamena Diane Pie

Age:19

Place of dwelling: Ponyville

Race: Earthpony

Crimes:

Encouraging of young fillies and colts to take party drugs to make them enjoy her parties even more, suspected to bake said drugs into her goods

Punishment: Execution

Name: Fluttershy

Age:20

place of dwelling: Ponyville

Race: Pegasus

Crimes:

Animal abduction, sabotaging an a cosmetic research facility

Punishment: Execution

Name:Rainbow Dash

Age: 21

place of dwelling: Ponyville

Race: Pegasus

Crimes:

Cheating in the Equestrian 500, suspected to have used drugs to enhance her performance, causing public unrest, drunken flying, slept with a member of the Wonderbolts to get preferential treatment in the Wonderbolts academy tryouts.

Punishment: Execution

Goldshield could only read in horror. She knew for a fact that none of these accusations were true. The tryouts for the Wonderbolts academy had been held near the rainbow falls, and she had went there. Rainbow Dash didn't need to bribe anypony to impress the judges. She had also been at the Equestrian 500, and Rainbow Dash had only made it fifth place due to an injury on her wing. How was that supposed to be cheating?

She hadn't known the other bearers of the elements so well, but she knew that their criminal record was clean as could be!

Goldshield knew that the apples from Sweet Apple Acres were the best in all of Equestria, so why wouldn't everypony prefer to buy from them? Their prices were fair, and the family was nice. The order of justice had delivered this report to her, of that she had no doubt, but so far they hadn't made a single mistake....

“There is a first time for everything I suppose...”, she murmured with a grin. Now they had more charges then they needed against this organization. They had abducted the prince, which made them enemies of the state in itself, but this would be a bomb if she leaked it to the press. She could already see the headline:

Ancient justice group executing innocent Ponies!

The Princess might not approve of that method, but this would certainly turn any civilians who knew anything about that group against them. Even hardcore supporters would be hard pressed to find a reason to stay quiet, after she had told the press all the gruesome details of these “executions”. Goldshield was sure that, by tomorrow evening, the order of justice would have nowhere to hide anymore!