The Day It Began

Chapters

Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14(Act 2)
Chapter 4
Complications

Chapter 1

“I told you that I shall deal with Huffington today, and I meant it when I said it as much as I do now,” Celestia said staring down at her sister. The two were alone as they walked through the hallways of the palace.

“I know what you said, but I feel that your personal proximity to this matter might cloud your judgment,” Luna replied.

Celestia gaped, wondering if she had heard her sister correctly. “What do you think that Huffington is to me exactly Luna?”

“Celestia, I know how much time you have spent with the stallion.” Luna began, turning to open the doors to the throne room. “I do not presume…” Luna stopped in her tracks, looking into the room with a mix of fear and confusion showing on her face.

Celestia stepped up to her sister peering into the room as well. In the middle of the room sat a creature completely covered in black lying across her and her sister’s thrones. Though the creature seemed to have four limbs it was very different from a pony. For the most part it was completely bald, except for a patch of long black hair hanging from what Celestia assumed to be it’s head. Upon closer inspection Celestia realized that the creature wore all black clothes, which covered most of its body, except its front legs. Where there should have been hoofs the creature had what appeared to be talons though they did not appear sharp, in one of these it held a metal flask, which it swirled around before tilting to its mouth and taking a large swig of whatever beverage it contained.

It took a moment but the two sisters gathered themselves and proceeded into the room. They stared at the creature as they made their approach, but it remained completely oblivious to them. When they stood a mere ten feet from the cloaked figure, Celestia cleared her throat, annoyed at being ignored for so long. The noise didn’t seem to surprise the being that laid across her throne, it lazily turned its head to look at the two regal sisters. For a moment the three stared at each other, Celestia unable to break her gaze from its amber eyes. When it spoke, Celestia almost jumped. Almost.

“Why hello there, I didn’t see you come in. It has been a long time Tia,” the creature said smiling at the eldest sister.

“What brings you here Apollo? I don’t have much time for your games today,” she replied flatly.

“You will not even indulge me in small talk? Tia where have your manners gone? Oh I didn’t see you Luna. Are you having a nice day?” it asked Luna who now had its attention.

“How long has it been since we last spoke Apollo? A thousand years?” Luna replied, not allowing herself to be put off guard by the intruder.

“More or less. I heard that you recently got back from vacation. How was it?” He took another swig of his flask.

“The moon is a desolate place as you no doubt know,” Luna said, annoyance beginning to creep into her voice.

“Yes, not much to do there,” he replied, taking another draw of his drink before turning back to Celestia. “Is that really so hard Tia? You didn’t always use to be so uptight. What happened to the good ole’ days when you would enjoy a laugh and the finer points of conversation?”

“We must all grow up at some point. Have you merely broken into our castle to frustrate me?” she asked, keeping her expression stoic.

“I was just hoping to have a nice pleasant conversation with some dear old friends before I told you of the problem at hand,” he replied before tilting back the flask again and draining the last of it. He then tossed it across the floor where it slid into a wall, it seemed that he was purposefully trying to annoy the sisters.

“If you have something that you want to say then I suggest you be out with it,” Luna advised.

The creature attempted to stand, and on the third attempt managed to keep its balance. Apollo stood now looking down at the two sisters. Being surrounded by small ponies sometimes made Celestia forget that she was not the tallest being in the universe. He then cleared his throat.

“Princess Celestia and Luna, Stewards of the Sun and Moon respectively. I come to you today to deliver a message of grave importance. It would seem that earlier today a hole in the fabric of the universe was ripped open and through it fell a being of immense power. Fret not my fair maidens for there is a spell in place which protects this world from the outsider’s interference. I just felt that you might need to know,” he gave the princesses a very shaky bow.

“When you say a being of immense power what are you talking about exactly?” Celestia asked.

“A human of course,” Apollo answered.

“Of course,” she responded flatly. “You said that there is a spell in place to protect Equestria?”

“Yes! It is a fun little thing I came up with.”

“What exactly is it if you don’t mind me asking?” Luna prodded.

“Oh you know some basic elemental fabrication along with a wide spread filtration barrier. The basic kind of stuff.” He gave Celestia a wicked smile.

“I do not have time for your games! We have a kingdom that we have to take care of. Tell me who has brought the human here?” Celestia demanded.

“Tia you really should relax. Trust me, there is nothing to get all worked up over. I am only telling you this information because of our long standing friendship, but I will not have you demand things of me as if I were one of your subjects.” He pulled another flask from his jacket and unscrewed it so he could take a swig.

“Do not attempt to change the subject. Tell me who has brought the human here,” she said again.

“This I do not know. All I know is that he is here. It would take an extremely strong magic user to cause a rift in the dimensions, and summon one here. Do you know of any being in Equestria capable of such a feat?” he asked.

“I can think of a few,” Celestia replied, hoping that she was wrong about whom she thought might have done this.

“Well then I leave this matter in your capable hands… or hooves, whatever,” Apollo said before trying to walk past the two alicorns towards the door.

“Wait. I haven’t seen you in so long, and you are just going to take off and not even help?” Luna asked catching his attention.

“Do not worry Luna. I will be around. I am curious to see how all of this works out.” Having said his piece, his body turned to black smoke and he was gone.

Celestia and Luna stood in the throne room silently contemplating the news that was brought to them. Apollo had never lied to them before, but he was never completely truthful either. It was Luna who broke the silence.

“Who do you think did this Tia?”

“In truth there is only one unicorn in Equestria capable of such a feat. I just hope I am wrong.”

The two sisters made their way to their respective thrones and laid across them. They beckoned the guards into the room so that they might start court for the day. The guards then quickly left the room and the sisters so that they may retrieve the first petitioner.

“You know what could happen if we do not address this matter Celestia,” Luna said, taking on a serious tone.

“I know what harm can come of a human sister. I also know that if Apollo said he had countermeasures in place, there is no reason to doubt him. Court has not been suspended in over a thousand years. If I were to close the castle so that we may leave to address this we may end up sending our subjects into a panic. We do not want that to happen.”

“I suppose you are right sister. I only fear because if this problem was serious enough to bring him here we should be taking it seriously as well,” Luna said relaxing a little more.

“I understand Luna. We will search for this human tonight.”

______________________________________________________________

This didn’t feel like my bed. No my bed is definitely not made of wood. How did I go from the semi-comfortable mattress of my bed, to lying on the wooden floor of a building staring up at a hole I had made in the ceiling? Lying painfully on the floor of a building I feel I should add. Perhaps I was dreaming, but aren’t dreams usually by definition painless? That probably tosses that explanation right out the window.

Maybe I was on a bad trip, and this was where my inner demons lie. No, that is stupid the worst thing I have ever done is Salvia, and I doubt that I’m am having some drug related hallucination. It is possible that I passed out here after getting wasted. I have never actually blacked out before, but they say that there is a first time for everything.

I don’t think that I should move. My back is probably already broken from falling straight through the roof, and from the looks of it another story of this building. Well look on the bright side at least it’s a nice sunny day. At least I think it is, kinda hard to tell with all those branches covering up that hole. Better call myself an ambulance. Oh that’s just great, no bars. Have I ever had no bars before?

Guess I will just lay here until somebody finds me. What is that? Is that a purple horse? I think dream and hallucinations have been placed back onto the board. I suppose insanity is a contestant now also. That one is kinda disturbing.

“Are you okay?” the purple horse asked me.

Talking purple horse, pain from falling through a roof, not in my room. Insanity seems to be like the front-runner now. Well what are you doing, might as well talk to it. Wait, isn’t talking to your hallucinations a bad thing? I definitely feel like that would be a bad thing. On the other hand she, at least it sounded like a she, seems to be nice enough. What does this mean about me if my insanity leads me to create a nice, imaginary, talking, purple horse. Mother issues maybe?

“Do you understand me?” she asked.

Looks like I somehow landed in a study. Maybe it’s a library or something. There are definitely enough bookcases for it to be either. This place looks more like a house than a library so I’m going with a study. I guess that these boards are from my little adventure through the ceiling. She is still staring at me I better do something.

“Yes I understand you.” Or at least that’s what I meant to say. My lips made the motions, but no words came out. That was very unsettling, somehow more so than the imaginary creature staring at me in confusion.

“What was that I didn’t hear you?” she said.

“I said yea I understand you.” Once again no sound.

I sat up, which was a really bad idea as I felt pain lance through my back. I would have let out a groan if my vocal cords were working. How come I couldn’t talk? I hate not being able to talk. Talking is a very important thing after all. The purple horse could see my pain and walked around behind me to examine my back. Luckily it didn’t feel like I had impaled myself on anything, but I was definitely going to hurt for a while.

She prodded my back with a hoof causing more pain. I had to restrain myself from throwing the small horse across the room. I was raised not to harm women, even the quadruped kind. Luckily, it seemed that she caught on how much that hurt as she raced around back in front of me, and began to apologize.

“I am so sorry did that hurt?”

I glared at her in answer.

“Yea that was a stupid question. So um, can you tell me what your name is?” she asked.

I seemed to have found a very inquisitive creature here. The whole fact that this was a hallucination brought on by my now apparent insanity seemed to solidify in my mind. Once again I attempted to answer her, but could not make any sound come out. The irony of the situation was not lost on me.

“So you can’t talk?”

I shook my head.

“Can you write?” she asked.

I gave her a thumbs up, but she didn’t seem to understand the gesture. So I decided to nod my head. An excited look came over her before she raced to the one table that was in the room. A paper and quill began to glow before it floated into the air.

Oh floating paper. Why not see how far this crazy train goes before we jump off.

I snatched the paper and quill out of the air when she offered them to me. I wrote a simple message “Hello nice to meet you” and held it up for her to read. She looked over the paper several times before turning back to me.

“I don’t know what this means,” she stated flatly.

Of course if she could read what I write this would just be too easy. Now this situation is not only impossible and insane, but also annoying. How do we go about communication then? Man I am thirsty I wonder if there is anything to drink around here.

I looked back at the lavender mare, and thought of how I should go about asking for a glass of water. With nothing better to do, I raised my hand and pantomimed drinking from a glass. She took a few steps backwards as I put my hand up, but seemed to get my meaning.

“Would you like something to drink?” she asked.

I nodded my head, glad that I was able to at least communicate a little bit. If she hadn’t understood me asking for a simple glass of water then I would have been really screwed.

“What would you like? we have carrot juice, water, milk, and a couple other vegetable drinks,” she inquired.

I shrugged. It wasn’t that I didn’t know exactly what I wanted. It was that I couldn’t actually tell her what I wanted. She seemed to pick up on this quickly.

“You can’t exactly tell me can you?”

I nodded again. She sighed, and walked away into another room that I could only assume was the kitchen. I felt that this was a good a time as any to try and stand up. At least I wouldn’t be embarrassed if I fell over in agony with no one around. My legs were shaky as I put my weight on them, but they held firm. From my new vantage point I could see just how small all of the furniture in the room was. It seemed that here I was a giant.

The purple horse made her way back into the room with a glass of water suspended behind her. She stopped as she entered and gazed up at me in awe, well at least what I assume was awe. I stood a good two feet taller than her. I had on my jeans and black hoodie with a grey Abercrombie T-shirt on underneath. It was curious that a figment of my imagination would regard me as looking strange. That seemed to somehow discredit the theory entirely.

Well if I am not insane, and this is not a hallucination. Perhaps I am no longer on Earth anymore. If I am not on earth then that means that I have somehow slid through dimensions or am on an alien planet, or both. Crossing the universe in my sleep seems unlikely so I guess I will take the multiverse theory at this point. That would explain the crash I suppose.

I was once again stirred from my musings as the cup of water was shaken in front of my face. The water did just that, and I drank it greedily. A sigh of relief escaped my lips as I handed the cup back to her.

“I forgot to introduce myself earlier. My name is Twilight Sparkle what is your name?” she said turning up to me.

My face connected to the palm of my hand in an instant. This mare just didn’t seem to be capable of not asking questions. I would be happy to tell her whatever she wished to know. At the moment however I was unable to. Her constant questions just drove home that fact.

“That is right, I forgot you can’t talk can you.”

I shook my head.

“Were you able to talk before you came here?”

I nodded.

“Do you know why you can’t talk now?”

I shook my head again.

“That is strange. You seem to understand me, but apparently can’t write. I guess I will only ask you yes or no questions then.”

I smiled in response to this. ‘At least it seems she is learning. She asked if I was able to speak before I got here. Which means that I have traveled some place. Does she know how I got here? I can't really ask her if she does now can I?’

“So I assume you have a name. I don’t exactly know what you are, but you seem to be intelligent. At least I think so,” she said to herself.

I was slightly miffed by the comment, which didn’t go unnoticed. A clear sign that a being is intelligent is that they get annoyed when one implicates they are not. At least that is how I view it, and apparently how she did as well.

“Okay so maybe you are intelligent. This is amazing. When I did the summoning spell I had no idea what would happen, but now that you are here I can learn so much,” she said giddy with excitement.

‘Summoning spell? That sounds like something that would pull a poor man out of his sleep and cause him to crash through a roof in another world. So it was her fault all of this happened?’

Twilight seemed to catch a small amount of anger that I directed her way. Perhaps she realized for the first time that I had not asked to come to a strange new world, and had been abducted against my will.

“Are you okay? I didn’t mean to hurt you when I cast the spell. It is strictly temporary trust me. Can you wait here while I go and get some of my friends? They will be so excited!”

With that she raced out of the building leaving me alone with my thoughts.

‘Great I have been brought to a different world against my will, and now I am expected to just sit here. She will be back with friends who will probably ask me a bunch of questions, and I can't answer any. Still, it isn’t everyday that you find yourself in a different world. I should try to be optimistic about this.’

I walked a short ways over to the table in the room and sat down on top of it. I would wait here patiently for a while before the excited young mare returned. I thought that it would be wise not to wander around aimlessly in a world I knew nothing about. Being able not to communicate with anyone would probably not help my make a good first impression either.

______________________________________________________________

“5,706”

“She is still doing it.”

“Just ignore her.”

“5,707”

“That’s easy for you to say.”

“Oh you think it is easier for me to ignore that counting than it is for you?”

“5,708”

“Of course it is easier for you. You are so anti-social that it shouldn’t be difficult at all.”

“Is that how you see me? Anti-social?”

“5,709”

“It is so annoying.”

“I said ignore it!”

“5,710”

“I SAID I CAN'T!”

“That sounds like more of a you problem than an us problem.”

“5,711”

“Would you two be quiet! We have more important worries than her counting.”

“5,712”

“Are you serious. I am stuck here and have to listen to that. What could be a bigger worry? This is going to drive me insane.”

“You already are insane.”

“5,713”

“I have had enough of this.”

“5,714”

“I said stop it.”

“5,715”

“STOP COUNTING!”

“5,716”

“23, 512, 345, 792, 5706, 314, 56509, 52”

“….”

“Ha!”

“1”

“I am going to kill you!”

“Silence!”

“What are you yelling at me for?”

“2”

“You are being aggravating.”

“She is the one aggravating me.”

“3”

“You have been listening to her count for how long now? And you still can’t block it out?”

“Haha you got in trouble.”

“4”

“Be quiet Bre, don’t think I forgot about your involvement in this.”

“What did I do?”

“5”

“You kept pushing her. If the two of you keep arguing you will wake up my brother. Do you really want that?”

“No mam.”

“No mam”

“6”

“Good. Now we need to talk.”

“Talk about what? Another one of your rants about how you are going to get revenge?”

“7”

“INSOLENT FOAL!”

“Shhhh. I thought you said that you didn't want to wake him up.”

“8”

“Moving forwards. We need to talk about Discord.”

“Why would you want to talk about that blowhard?”

“9”

“If you hadn’t noticed he hasn’t talked to us in a while.”

“Good. He is almost as annoying as she is.”

“10”

“What exactly are you getting at?”

“What I’m saying is that either he is free or he has died.”

“11”

“Good riddance.”

“Oh so you think it’s a good thing that an immortal died while imprisoned? I wonder how a mortal pony would fair.”

“12”

“Okay I see your point.”

“I don’t get it.”

“13”

“Imbecile. If he died while locked away then we will too.”

“Oh is that what you are worried about?”

“15”

“You skipped a number Pris”

“… 1”

“Can we shut her up please?”

“Pristine can you please stop counting?”

“What else would I do Bre?”

“I don’t know perhaps you can play a game.”

“But we have already played all the games we know.”

“Then think up a new game.”

“Okay Bre.”

“You mean you could have gotten her to stop whenever you wanted?”

“Of course. Pris is my little sister.”

“I’m going to kill you now.”

“Focus you two!”

“Sssshhh.”

“We need to focus on this matter. If Discord is dead then we wont last much longer.”

“How do you figure that?”

“We haven’t been here nearly as long as he has.”

“But we aren’t immortal.”

“I have to agree with you on that one”

“Discord. I guess you didn’t die.”

“Of course not A, you know I cannot die.”

“Discy! I have been waiting for you.”

“Is that right my little Pristine?”

“Yea I have been counting, but meanie Spite made me lose count.”

“Why would she do something like that?”

“Because she is a meanie.”

“Watch it runt!”

“A, Spite is being mean and loud again.”

“Quiet both of you. Now, Discord what brings you here today?”

“Well I have been running around for Equestria for a while, but I just missed you guys so much I had to come back and pay a visit.”

“The Princesses caught you again?”

“No Bre. It wasn’t the princesses this time. It was some ponies from a town called Ponyville. They had the elements of harmony.”

“You got beaten by a couple of hick ponies. You are so lame Discord.”

“That isn’t very nice Spiteful. I was going to help you escape this prison, but now I don’t know about it.”

“Pay her no heed Discord. I am the one that speaks for us.”

“I was actually hoping to converse with your brother.”

“He is sleeping, and I feel it unwise to disturb him.”

“Discy, look at this new game I made.”

“That seems like a fun game Pris. Well A, I suppose I will speak with you then.”

“Yea don’t mind me.”

“Do you feel left out Bre?”

“No I was seriously saying don’t mind me. I am going to play with my little sis for a while.”

“See you later then.”

“Yea later.”

“Well like I was saying A. I can get you out of this infernal prison, but the offer is only for a limited time. I won't have the power to do it for long.”

“What do you want in return?”

“Oh A. You are a paranoid pony aren’t you? I want nothing in return. I just want to help out a friend of mine.”

“We have never been friends Discord.”

“I thought that over the past three hundred years the two of us have become acquaintances at least. I wasn’t talking about you anyways I was referring to your brother.”

“I didn’t think that you and my brother were on such pleasant terms.”

“Are you two just going to ignore me like I’m not here?”

“Spite why don’t you go sit in the corner. The adults are talking.”

“I am as old as you are A.”

“You are dreaming if you think that is true.”

“Family troubles?”

“Spite leave. I need to talk with Discord in private.”

“Fine. Whatever. See if I care.”

“Where was I?”

“You were saying that you would get us out of here out of the kindness of your heart.”

“That is right. Also there is something else you should be aware of.”

“What would that be?”

“I know that you have searched for the Well of Eternity for a long while. Would you like me to tell you where it is?”

“You mean you knew where it was this whole time and never told me!”

“Calm down. What good would it have done to tell you if you couldn’t even go there.”

“Okay then Discord. Where is the well?”

“Now that bit of information is restricted.”

“Why would you bring it up just to not tell me?”

“I need you to make a promise for me before I tell you where it is. In exchange for the information on the well you will release me from my prison once again.”

“You would have me release one of the most dangerous beings ever because of a simple promise?”

“I know that you will not go back on your word. He won't let you.”

“You do have a point there. Fine, Discord I give you our word that after we find the Well of Eternity we will release you from your prison. Shouldn’t be too difficult after we have all that power.”

“I agree. Now hold on this might be a bit painful.”

The stone around the statue began to crack and break. A light poured out of the cracks and quickly became blinding to look at. There was a loud snap and the statue of a unicorn was replaced by the living visage. The mare was green with a pink mane. On her flank were two masks, one smiling and the other frowning. She took a few hesitant steps before she sank to her haunches. She hadn’t used her legs in over three hundred years, and they felt quite weak.

“You should probably hurry and disguise yourself before the guards show up.”

The green mare nodded to the statue of the Draconequus before she focused on her magic. A green glow enveloped the unicorn and slowly her body began to change shape. After a few moments a large white pegasus stallion stood where she once was. It looked around at its new body for a moment.

“Dammit A. Why do you always stick me in a male’s body?”

There was a short pause as the white stallion waited for an answer.

“Fine I’ll get us out of here, but don’t you think that I have dropped this,” it said before taking off into the sky.

“You will find the Well of Eternity in the Everfree Forest not too far from the ruins of the castle. Hurry won’t you I do not enjoy being frozen in this pose.”

The former unicorn did not look back as it vanished from sight and into the sky. A few moments later the guards that were alerted by the noise in the garden found the pile of rubble where a statue had been a few moments earlier. After the incident a few months earlier with Discord they wasted no time making their way to Princess Celestia to inform her.

______________________________________________________________

The situation wasn’t exactly what I would call uncomfortable, but I definitely wasn’t feeling safe with the pink pony staring me in the face. Twilight had just returned when a pink blur shot into the building, and stopped an inch away from my face. She just stared at me for a long time, and I was afraid to make a move and startle her.

“Hi I’m Pinkie Pie!” she exclaimed nearly causing me to fall off the table.

I collected myself and gave her a wave. She turned and bounced back to the center of the room, yes she bounced. I was so thrown off by Pinkie Pie that I didn’t notice the other four unknown mares enter the room. Twilight got my attention and motioned to her friends. The white pony that had entered with the rest stepped forwards and gave a bow.

“My name is Rarity. it is a pleasure to make your acquaintance,” she said.

This was weird. The three colorful horses I had seen speak so far were a pink lunatic, a purple bookworm, and now a WASP. Next, you will be telling me that one of them will have a thick southern accent.

“Well howdy. Ah’m Applejack, and it's mighty nice ta meet y’all,” Applejack gave me a tip of her hat. I didn’t know why a pony was wearing a cowboy hat, but it seemed to fit.

The remaining two winged ponies remained silent and stared at me. Well the blue one stared. The yellow one glanced at me through her pink mane that hung over her face. I wasn’t even bothered that these two had wings; I had stopped trying to make sense of the world by this point.

“It is customary to give your name in return,” chimed the white unicorn in front of me. Twilight was about to inform her of my inability to speak, but was cut off by a pink ball of energy.

“Don’t be silly Rarity. He can’t talk!” she said, bouncing around the room.

“How do you know that Pinkie Pie?” Twilight asked.

“Well its obvious Twilight. I said that I was Pinkie Pie, and he didn’t tell me what his name was. Which means that either he doesn’t have a name or he can’t talk. It would be so sad if he didn’t have a name, I mean imagine going through your whole life never having a name. But then I looked at him, and he doesn’t seem sad so it has to be that he can’t talk. I mean, duh,” she replied stopping to face the purple unicorn as she spoke.

I facepalmed once again because of how convoluted her logic was, which was made worse by the fact that she was right. The other mares in the room seemed to share my feelings, but quickly moved past it.

“Oh my. He can’t talk? Is something wrong with him?” asked the yellow pegasus (yeah I know what a winged horse is called) as she peeked out from behind her mane. She saw that I was looking at her and quickly hid again.

“I was hoping that you could help me out with that one Fluttershy. You are good with animals so you might be able to do something,” Twilight said, prodding her friend trying to get her to come out of hiding.

I folded my arms at the remark, and gave Twilight a warning glance. I didn’t like to be referred to as an animal. I mean it's true that humans are animals, but we generally avoid making that association. To be called an animal by a talking horse just seemed downright insulting. Twilight noticed my glare, and shot back one of her own.

“What?” she asked. I turned my nose up at her, that would show her.

“He probably doesn’t like being called an animal Twilight,” Rarity informed her.

“Well look at him. He obviously isn’t a plant or any kind of single celled organism. What else should I call him?” Twilight replied to her friend.

“Well you should probably address him formally by his name. I mean look at him he is wearing clothes so he is obviously not some dumb beast,” Rarity stated motioning to me.

The blue pegasus that had been still throughout this entire scene shot into motion and was staring me in the face in a second, she was really fast. She hovered in the air inches from my nose glaring daggers at me. I returned the stare, and we sat there glaring at each other for a while.

“I don’t know Rare,” she started, “he doesn’t look all that smart to me.”

I snapped my teeth at her causing her to shoot backwards and slam into a bookcase on the other side of the room. I then proceeded to burst out in laughter, well silent laughter. My actions caused Applejack to also start to chuckle lightly.

“That wasn’t funny,” said the blue pony as she climbed out of a pile of books.

“Perhaps you shouldn’t go around insulting ponies,” Rarity told her before she turned her attention back to me. “So I understand that you can't talk, but we must certainly call you something. Could you perhaps write your name down for us?” she asked.

I had already been down this road with Twilight, but the mare has asked so nicely so I decided to give it another try. I picked up a piece of paper that was sitting next to me on the table and pulled a quill out of whatever it was that held quills. I then wrote my name down for all of them to see and held it out hoping that one of them could read it. They all gazed at the paper, and tried to decipher its contents.

“Fluzzah?” guessed Twilight.

“No, Ah think it says Horgin,” Applejack chimed in.

“That definitely says Gallroop,” the blue pegasus said confidently.

“Well I am certain I don’t know what it says,” Rarity resigned.

“Don’t be silly it says Darky, clear as day,” Pinkie Pie offered.

I turned the sheet of paper back around to inspect it. I could clearly see the name written on the paper, and it didn’t have any Z’s in it. While I was studying the paper everyone else’s attention seemed to have turned to Pinkie Pie.

“Why do you think it says that Pinkie?” Twilight inquired.

“Well I mean look at him. He has dark hair and is wearing dark colored clothes. What else would his name be,” she explained.

Twilight then turned to me, “Is your name really Darky?” she asked.

It seemed like a mile better than any of the other names they had managed to come up with for me so I shrugged and nodded at her question. At least they would have something to call me and not just have to refer to me as “It” or “Him”.

“Well okay then. Fluttershy can you go take a look at Darky and see if something is wrong with him,” Twilight said turning to the her winged friend again.

Fluttershy nodded and trotted over to where I was sitting and looked up at me. I was guessing that the “shy” part of her name meant that she was naturally bashful. She prodded my leg with a hoof, and looked up at me.

“Doesn’t it hurt to sit like that?” she asked.

The question caught me slightly off guard. I had never really thought of a different way to sit. I looked down at her and shook my head. She smiled at my confirmation.

“Um, if it’s okay I mean, can I take a look at your throat. That is what where there would probably be a problem that would stop you from talking,” she asked.

I nodded an affirmative, and she stood on her back hooves and braced herself against me. She then raised one of her front legs to my throat and began to feel it. It was kind of strange, the feel of her hoof. I thought that a pony’s hoof was supposed to be hard, but her’s wasn’t. They seemed to even feel kind of soft. She rubbed my throat for a little while, and I held myself still so she could finish her inspection. I was as anxious to hear her diagnosis as anyone else was.

After a moment she took a step back, and turned to Twilight again. “I can’t find anything wrong with him physically. I don’t know why he can’t talk.”

I silently swore to myself, and looked at the ground in defeat. I felt a yellow hoof make its way under my chin and lift my head up.

“Now don’t look so sad. You are perfectly healthy, which is a good thing. I am sure Twilight will be able to figure out what is wrong in no time,” Fluttershy said reassuring me.

“Yea Twilight is a smarty smart smartypants. She can look in her books and find out anything about anything,” Pinkie Pie added, bouncing into my vision.

“In the meantime, Darky we can learn so much about each other,” Twilight said approaching me. “I can show you all about the history of Equestria, and about our government. I guess I could even see how good you are at math. Oh this will be so much fun!” she exclaimed.

The girls seemed to take that as their queue to leave.

“I got a party to plan,” Pinkie pie stated as she dashed out the door.

“I have work to get back to,” Applejack explained as she hastily made her way out as well.

“Me and Fluttershy have uh, pegasus stuff to do,” the blue mare said grabbing Fluttershy as she made her way out of the room.

“I am just so backed up in my designing. I must simply get back to it,” Rarity said quickly making her escape.

Twilight didn’t seem to notice all of their hurried excuses and waved to them as they raced out of the building. She then turned to a bookcase, and I saw dozens of thick history books fly off the shelf, and land next to her.

“Okay so where should we begin?” she asked.

Dear god what have I gotten myself into?

Chapter 2

“I believe your concerns are valid, and we shall look into them. Thank you for bringing this to my attention Swift Note,” Celestia said to the small blue pegasus in front of her.

The pegasus gave a deep bow and turned to leave. Celestia watched as the last solicitor of the day exited the throne room. Today had seemed to drag on forever with an endless stream of ponies that had minor complaints that they wished to have addressed. Celestia sometimes grew tired of listening to ponies that brought their troubles right to her doorstep, but it was her job, and she would do it for as long as she could. Celestia let out a sigh and roused her sister out of her nap with a light jab.

Luna was startled from her sleep and looked around the empty throne room. The Steward of the Moon’s face flushed red as she realized that she had fallen asleep during court yet again. The sun was beginning to set on the horizon, and it would soon be time for Luna to raise the moon. Luna was about to apologize to her sister for failing in her fight against boredom when a frantic white pegasus guard ran into the room.

“You Highnesses,” he said bowing hurriedly. “There is great trouble. One of the statues in the garden has disappeared.”

This alarmed Celestia immensely. “Which statue was it?” she asked frantically.

“It was the one of a unicorn mare next to the statue of Discord,” he informed.

It took Celestia a little while to realize just which statue the guard had been referring to. At first Celestia was relieved that it had not been Discord who had escaped again, but when she figured out which pony had been freed she wasn’t so sure who would have been worse to let loose upon Equestria. Discord was evil that was certain, but he did not seem to go out of his way to harm others. She wasn’t so sure what Apathy would do when she was free in Equestria.

“Leave us,” Celestia commanded to the guard. He bowed and turned to leave, closing the doors to the chambers behind him.

“What is this Tia?” Luna asked, clearly troubled.

“This is very troubling news sister,” Celestia replied.

“Who exactly was the pony that escaped?” Luna asked her sister.

“In truth I don’t think I can answer that Luna. I don’t know what pony would be in control at the time,” Celestia said.

“I do not understand your meaning sister,” Luna replied.

“I think it is time I told you Luna. It was my greatest failing as a teacher, and I hoped that it would never come to light. Now I see that was foalish,” Celestia said before she began to recount her tale from long ago.

_________________________________________________________________________

The academy was dark at night. Torches lined the halls lighting the way to the dean’s office. During winter break most of the students had left the school to be with their families. Celestia walked the halls, slowly making her way to meet her old friend and former pupil. Spellock was now the dean of the school, and he had been one of the most powerful unicorns Celestia had ever seen. She was lucky to have found the young colt, and nurture his gift.

Warm memories of times past filled Celestia’s mind as she approached the tall wooden doors that stood before her. With a thought the doors slowly opened with an ominous creak as the goddess made her way into the room. From what Celestia could see there was nopony waiting for her in the room. The fire from the fireplace cast sharp shadows off of the chair that sat in front of it. Celestia slowly made her way to the chair where she expected Spellock to be napping. What greeted her was not the pony she had expected.

In the chair sat a green mare with a pink mane. She seemed to not even have noticed Celestia’s entrance into the room. She continued to stare ahead into the fire, which gleamed viciously in her eyes.

“Hello Celestia,” she spoke after a minute.

“Hello my little pony do you know where Spellock is? I have come here to meet with him,” Celestia informed the strange mare.

“I apologize, but that is quite impossible,” the mare replied.

“What do you mean by that?” Celestia inquired, it was at this point that she noticed the pony before her used no honorific when she addressed the princess.

“It would seem that he was unable to hold up against the breaking as well as he had hoped. He is gone, and will never be returned,” she replied candidly.

“I am not sure I understand,” Celestia stated.

“He discovered something in the archives. He wanted to share it with you since it troubled him so much, but he didn’t last as long as he had hoped. He is gone Celestia, and now we know the truth.”

“What truth do you speak of? And what have you done with Spellock?” Celestia asked trying to look threatening. The green mare didn’t seem to care.

“I did nothing with him. He found out the truth about you and about us ponies as a whole. He tried to master all of magic himself, but the breaking was too much for him and his mind evaporated. Now we are all that is left. You may call me Apathy.” The green mare got up from her seat and approached the sun goddess.

“What truth do you speak of Apathy?”

“The truth of how you have kept ponykind under your tyrannical rule for so long. The truth of how you have limited us. Spellock sought to break this limitation, and acquire more than just one talent. Sadly he wasn’t as powerful as he had thought himself. He learned of the Well of Eternity, and of its power. The power that you have kept all to yourself. We will take this power for ourselves, and liberate ponykind from you,” she said as she brushed past Celestia.

“You will do no such thing. The Well of Eternity is something that shouldn’t be tampered with by the likes of you. You know not what you are trying to do,” Celestia yelled at the pony walking to the door.

“We know enough Celestia. You shall not keep us down any longer,” the green mare called back as she opened the door so that she could leave.

Celestia had acted before she could even think about what she was doing. Apathy was lifted into the air in a torrent of magic, and tried to free herself. Against the awesome power of the sun goddess she was completely helpless. After a few moments her screaming was cut off, and she was completely still. Celestia slowly lowered the statue of the mare to the floor where it rested.

“What have I done?”

_______________________________________________________________________________

“She was going after the Well of Eternity?” Luna asked, shocked at the implications.

“That is what she said,” Celestia replied.

“How did she learn of such a thing?” Luna inquired.

“When I searched the office after the incident. I found a very ancient tome hidden in the desk. In the book it told of the well and what it was capable of. I wish I knew where the book came from,” Celestia said.

The two sisters sat in silence in the throne room for a while. They were completely alone and able to speak freely, but neither knew what to say. This was something that both never expected to happen since the Well of Eternity was supposed to be a secret, and never be talked about.

“What will we do now sister?” Luna asked.

“We will warn several ponies of the green mare, and we will send guards to search for her,” Celestia replied.

“That is not what I am talking about Celestia,” Luna glared.

“I know sister. I just don’t want to think about who would have given this information out,” Celestia said looking defeated.

“We have to find out sister. This is a serious breach of the rules. The only one that would do such a thing is probably Discord, but there are others we cannot rule out,” Luna said to her sister.

“Discord is probably the one who would unleash this knowledge on the world,” Celestia agreed. “I do think however that Terra may have written the book.”

“Terra? I don’t see how that would be possible,” Luna replied.

“Like I said the tome was ancient. It could have likely been many thousands of years old. So it is possible that she was the one to write it,” Celestia stated.

“Then it could have possibly been her I suppose. I suppose that any of us are capable of writing the thing, except Artifia,” Luna mused. “What did you do with the book Tia?”

“I destroyed it immediately after finding it. The knowledge it contained was far too dangerous for Equestria. I could not let it fall into the wrong hooves,” Celestia replied.

“I agree sister, that was the right thing to do,” Luna said trying to cheer her sister up.

“I am just worried about what is to come next,” Celestia said leaning back in her throne.

“What do you mean Tia?” Luna asked.

“So far today we have had sompony we haven’t seen in hundreds of years casually show up in our throne room to tell us of a human coming to Equestria. Now I have news that an extremely dangerous pony has broken free of her prison. I am afraid of what will happen next,” Celestia replied.

“I don’t know what else could possibly go wrong today Tia,” Luna said half joking.

As if on cue the doors to the throne were thrown open, and a creature stormed into the room. She was humanoid in shape, but instead of skin she had thick green scales. Green fire blazed on her head where she should have had long hair, she didn’t look very happy. At the end of each of her arms were wickedly sharp claws able to tear a pony to pieces with no effort. A couple of guards ran into the room behind her, and started to surround her.

“Your highnesses hurry and leave here we will take care of the intruder,” The captain, Chain Mail, called to Celestia and Luna.

“MOVE ASIDE MORTAL OR YOU SHALL BE REMOVED FROM MY PATH!!!” the scaled creature screamed at the pony. Black smoke began to make its way from her flaring nostrils as she stood in the room seething.

“Captain Chain Mail,” Celestia called. “Take your guards and leave us.”

“But your highness,” Chain Mail began to argue.

“That was an order captain,” Celestia said sternly, something that was rare of the princess.

The captain motioned to the other guards that were in the room watching the exchange. They quickly filed out and closed the doors behind them leaving the three immortal creatures in the room. The scaled creature was beginning to calm, but her hair was still ignited in flame.

“Empress, what brings the queen of dragons to our throne room on this fine day?” Celestia asked trying to break the ice.

“DO NOT PLAY DUMB WITH ME CELESTIA! I HAVE BEEN INFORMED OF HOW ONE OF YOUR PONIES HAS SUMMONED A HUMAN TO THIS WORLD! ARE YOU PLANNING TO THROW US ALL INTO RUIN!” the queen of dragons exclaimed.

“Can we take it down an octave? You will no doubt scare the ponies working in the building,” Luna said, garnering a glare from Empress and Celestia.

“Is this more to your liking child?” Empress asked.

“Just because I am smaller than my sister doesn’t make me a child. I am just as old as you are,” Luna shot back.

“Could have fooled me,” Empress replied candidly.

“Now now girls. Wasn’t there some purpose to you barging into our throne room?” Celestia said trying to calm the two down.

As long as she could remember Luna and Empress had never seen eye to eye, and would bicker at every opportunity that they got. For beings that were thousands of years old they could act like children sometimes. Celestia wondered if this was what Luna was talking about when she told her about how she seemed to act differently around Apollo.

“Indeed there was a purpose. Apollo paid me a visit earlier today and he informed me that a pony in your domain has summoned a human to the world. What is the meaning of this Celestia?” Empress asked turning to the white alicorn.

“Of course he did,” Celestia said rolling her eyes. “The truth is that we became aware of this just earlier today and we will deal with the situation. Do not bother yourself with this matter.”

“Do not bother myself? Do you not comprehend the ruin that a single human can bring to this world?” Empress asked Celestia, beginning to fume again.

“When Apollo paid you this visit did he happen to mention that he has a spell in place to keep that from happening?” Luna inquired causing the dragon queen to stop in her tracks.

“He failed to mention that,” Empress conceded.

“Then it appears he has gotten what he wanted. You to come here and angrily interrupt my day,” Celestia sighed. “I wouldn’t be surprised if he was back at your lair picking through your gems and trophies.”

Empress let out a menacing growl at the thought of Apollo tricking her so he could steal her possessions. Dragons were not normally known for their charity, and robbing a dragon was often thought to be a very foalish thing to do. Empress turned and began to walk to the large doors at the entrance of the room.

“Then I leave this to you Celestia. Do not disappoint me,” she called over her shoulder as she made her way out of the room.

“Well sister you were right about more things happening today,” Luna said once they were alone.

“I suppose I was. It seems to be time to begin organizing a search party,” Celestia replied.

“For whom?” Luna asked.

“First we shall search for Apathy since she is actively trying to destroy us. Next I suppose we shall look for the human,” Celestia replied.

“I wonder what kind of human was brought here sister,” Luna mused aloud.

“So do I Luna.”

___________________________________________________________________________________

My head was swimming with information about Equestria, the country I had apparently landed in. Twilight was not one to go easy on somebody when teaching them new things. She could even get excited about showing me how math works. Even though math in this place seemed to work exactly how it did back in my world. I didn’t stop her when she tried to teach me about Algebra. I was currently taking Calculus back at school on Earth, but her reviewing algebra gave me time to think about my situation.

Equestria seemed to be ruled by two all-powerful princesses that controlled the sun and moon. When Twilight explained this to me I couldn’t help but wonder exactly what shape this planet was. Could this planet be flat and the celestial bodies are literally guided around it. Or was the planet just being turned by the goddesses so it seemed like they were raising the sun and moon. Or was this all just a metaphor.

The idea of it being a metaphor didn’t really seem to match up. In Equestria apparently magic was an everyday thing. All the ponies seemed to have some sort of magic that they could do. Earth ponies were magically strengthened and could grow plants where the other two kinds of ponies could not. Pegasi flew with magic, and could manipulate clouds and weather with their hooves. Unicorns, which seemed to be the most magical of all, could actually cast spells like the one that had brought me here. So who was to say that their rulers couldn’t move a star whenever they wanted to?

I had been given a lecture for the past couple of hours over the entire history of Equestria, and it left me reeling. It seemed that mostly nothing had happened for the past millennium until two years ago when super villains somehow managed to come into the world just to be beaten by the mare in front of me. That part I took with a grain of salt.

Despite there being no major events for almost one thousand years, that did not stop Twilight from filling me in on every single thing that had happened in Equestria. In hindsight she probably skipped over a lot of things, but it still seemed like she had told me everything that was in the history of this country. I had never been someone who paid that much attention in history class so trying to follow the excited mare’s ranting was very taxing.

I now sat with my back to a wall listening to some Guns and Roses on my phone. I would never be able to put into words just how grateful I was that my phone had made the trip with me to Equestria or how thankful I was that it had not broken when I fell through the roof. Rather than thinking how happy I was I just strummed my air guitar to the opening riff of Welcome to the Jungle.

After a little while I opened my eyes so that I might somehow ask Twilight if she had anything to eat just to be startled by the sight of the lavender unicorn staring at me in disbelief. I didn’t like how she was looking at me at all so I took out my earplugs and waited for her to speak her mind.

“How are you doing that?” she asked.

I hadn’t been ready for the question. I was honestly expecting something along the lines of “Why are you bobbing your head like that?” But instead I got a question that I had no idea how to answer. What was I doing that was disturbing her so much?

I motioned for her to walk closer, and she hesitantly made her way to where I was sitting. I held one of the earplugs up so that she could hear it, since it didn’t seem to have been made to fit in a pony’s ear. Twilight listened to it for a little while before stepping away.

“Yes I know what music is. Though I don’t think I have ever heard any quite like that. I was asking how you were making that sound,” Twilight clarified.

This confused me even more. The phone was how I played the music, if that wasn’t what she was talking about then I honestly had no idea what she meant. So I just shrugged, and put my earphones back where they belonged so I could continue to listening to my music. Twilight didn’t seem to like that, and stormed away.

A few minutes later I was once again interrupted as Twilight made her way back over to me. She used her magic to yank the headphones out of my ears so that she could glare at me.

“Tell me how you are making that sound,” she demanded.

I quirked an eyebrow at this. I honestly had no idea what she was asking of me, but taking away my music was not a wise move on her part. I grabbed the earpieces that were suspended in the air and tried to pull them out of her magical grasp. They didn’t budge an inch, even after I got to my feet and put all my weight into pulling on them. Maybe Twilight’s stories about lifting a seven story bear into the air with her magic were true. After a while I sat back down and pouted.

“I will give them back when you tell me how you were playing that music,” she stated.

I franticly pointed at the thing she had taken away from me. This only seemed to annoy her.

“Not this thing. I am asking about what you were doing with your hooves,” she clarified.

What was she talking about? I was sitting here listening to my music, and she came and took it away like she was my mother or something. What did she mean what I was doing with my hooves, by which I assumed she meant my hands. A sudden realization dawned on me in that instant.

I put my hands up like how I would if I was playing a guitar, and strummed the imaginary chords. To my surprise a sound rung out in the air. This caused me to jump back. Since when had I been able to create sound out of nothing. Not to mention that I had no idea how to actually play the guitar. Twilight saw the surprise on my face.

“Did you not realize that you were doing that?” she asked.

I shook my head as I lifted my hands up again. I strummed the imaginary guitar and was again greeted by a sound. This time I actually tried to play a little bit of Welcome to the Jungle, and once again to my surprise the invisible instrument complied. It sounded as perfect as it did in my head, and I played the opening riff. This was an incredible feeling.

“So how are you doing that? Is it magic or something else?” Twilight asked again.

I shrugged in response. I had no idea how I was doing it, but I knew that it was the most awesome thing ever. Being able to magically play an invisible guitar was the most exciting that that had ever happened to me, and that included being summoned to a different universe. I wondered if I could do this with other instruments.

I immediately moved my hands to imitate holding a drumstick and struck an invisible symbol that was next to me. The sound was jarring, but was still completely awesome. It was like I had some sort of super power and could just create music by thinking about it. Twilight didn’t seem to like that she had shown me that I could do this. She levitated the earphones back to me.

“I am sorry for taking these from you,” she apologized.

I waved away her apology. I was honestly happy that she had been so insistent on getting an answer, because it had led me to realizing this amazing thing that I was apparently able to do. I continued to beat on my invisible drum set, and noticed that the sound was actually getting louder. Was I making it get louder by wanting it to or was it just because I was paying more attention to it.

“It is pretty late so can we not be so loud,” Twilight suggested.

I conceded her point and mentally quieted the drum set. It wasn’t long before I became bored of the drums and switched back to the electric guitar, and began to try out all my favorite songs.

“I just realized that you haven’t eaten since you got here. Do you want me to get you something?” Twilight asked, to which I just nodded and returned to playing my air guitar.

Twilight rolled her eyes and walked into the kitchen leaving me behind to play One by Metallica.

___________________________________________________________________________________

Apollo paced in the dark cave while admiring the myriad of golden trinkets laid out before him. He stopped and picked up a golden crown that was inlaid with far too many gems, and placed it on his head. He then walked over to a mirror that was on the wall so that he could admire himself.

He looked completely ridiculous with all of the necklaces he was wearing. His hands were completely covered in rings that shone all the colors of the rainbow when held up to the light. On his head the crown he had picked up sat tilted sideways to emphasize his complete disregard for whomever the trinkets belonged to.

“Perfect,” se said sitting down against the wall.

Apollo had very little that kept his interest these days. Part of the drawback of living forever was that one would often find themselves completely bored to tears. Aggravating others seemed to be the only thing that could relieve his boredom these days. So he would wait here until Empress returned so that he could antagonize her, and hopefully be able to keep him from being bored for the rest of the day. It had been many hours since he had told Empress about the human and she had flown away without thinking.

He had expected her to do this; she had always been the hotheaded kind. So he decided to pick through her jewels and other trophies so that he could get a little more excitement out of her later. He even reorganized all of the letters she had in her desk, but he wasn’t going to be around when she found that one out. Waiting was something he had become very good at over the years, but it was still boring.

Apollo sighed as he sat on the cold stone floor of the cave. Just then something caught his attention. He had stopped looking over Equestria when he came to this country, but there was movement near something that he usually kept a keen eye on. This was far more interesting than pissing off a dragon so Apollo rose to his feet and tossed all of the jewelry off himself.

He barely had to concentrate, and he was immediately teleported across the world to a clearing in the middle of the Everfree Forest. The clearing was calm, and it seemed that all of the wildlife had scattered when they sensed him coming. That was typical in this the forest, since there was no one to take care of the animals here they had become wild. At least, there had been no one to take care of the animals for a very long time.

The tall black figure paced in the clearing as he waited for the pony that had alerted him. He froze as he heard the bushes near him begin to rustle, and he turned to face the green mare that made her way into the clearing. The mare was babbling to herself incoherently but this didn’t bother Apollo as he waited for her to notice him. When she did she froze and stared at the tall figure.

“Are… you a human?” she managed to ask.

This caused Apollo to break out into a monstrous roar of laughter. He had never been asked the question, and it caught him completely off guard. The green mare began to slowly back away from him, clearly wary of the insane creature before her.

“No I am not a human, though I do look like one. Jumping to conclusions like that is a bit racist don't you would think,” he answered as he took a step towards the mare.

“I did not wish to insult you. Would you happen to know where the Well of Eternity is?” she asked still slowly backing away.

“The Well of Eternity? Of course I know where it is. Why do you want to know?” Apollo replied keeping step with the retreating mare.

The green mare stopped in her tracks. “I am looking for it for some… research,” she lied.

“Well that is obviously a lie. Would you like to try again?” he asked.

“Fine. I am looking for the well so that I can claim untold powers,” she said taking a step towards Apollo.

“Well then, since I am the keeper of the well you must get past me,” Apollo said causing the green unicorn to deflate.

“You want to fight me? Fine,” she replied as her horn started to glow.

“You misunderstand. To see the Well of Eternity you must answer riddles three,” he stated with a smile.

“Are you serious?” she asked clearly put off by the idea.

“Completely.”

“Fine then ask your questions,” she said clearly not amused.

“What is your name?” Apollo said beginning the game.

“Apathy.” The green mare said slowly, not sure if she had heard him right.

“You don’t look like an Apathy to me, but oh well I guess you got the first question right,” Apollo confirmed. “What is your favorite color?”

There seemed to be an internal debate over this, but eventually the mare answered. “Black.”

“What do you know that is my favorite color too. It looks like you had a bit of trouble answering that one. Hope you can get this last one right it is the hardest,” Apollo said hoping to draw the small pony deeper into his game.

“What is… the meaning of life?” he asked after a dramatic pause.

“The meaning of life is… well it’s… to live?” she replied after a moment.

“I am sorry we were looking for the answer 42. It seems that you missed the very last question. Do not worry though. Two out of three is passing in my book,” Apollo said smiling down at the confused green mare.

“Does that mean that you are going to let me through?” she asked hesitantly.

“I will do you one better. I will take you to the fountain myself. Why don’t you just follow me,” he said as he turned and began to walk through the clearing.

The green unicorn named Apathy quickly followed behind him. This little pony would bring him lots of amusement. Especially if she was intending to do what he thought she was. He chanced a look back at her and saw that she was staring at his back.

“Do you find me interesting?” he asked.

“Um no, well yes I do? But not in the way you are implying,” she said looking away.

“What exactly do you think I was implying?” he asked smiling to himself.

“You know exactly what you were implying,” she shot back at him.

“Do I?” his question went unanswered as the mare lowered her gaze to the ground and silently followed him through the forest.

It wasn’t a long walk from where they had been standing in the clearing. Apollo had barely managed to notice in time to catch the mare. If he had not reached her in time then she would have walked straight past the well, and he would have missed his chance to mess with her. He did not like that thought at all.

Apollo pulled back a branch that hung in front of him, and stepped onto a brick path. A short distance away he could see the blue light of the well being cast against the trees. He could tell that the mare behind him saw it as well since she gasped as she stepped onto the path behind him. He slowly made his way up the path to where the well was shining in front of him.

He stopped a couple of feet from the Well of Eternity and looked into its depths. The well swirled with what appeared to be blue water that had white wisps running through it. It was a sight that seldom before him had seen. There was a small enchantment on the well that stopped anyone from finding it unless they already knew where it was. A simple enchantment, but it was extremely effective.

“Well here we are,” Apollo announced as the mare made her way beside him.

“Good then I shall be taking over,” came a distinctly masculine voice from the small green unicorn.

The unicorn’s horn lit, and her entire body began to glow. She lifted into the air a few inches, and her body began to shift. She grew slightly taller, and seemed to put on a lot more muscle. After a few seconds a black unicorn stallion with a white mane stood where she had before. He looked up to Apollo with burning red eyes.

“Now what should I do?” he asked.

“Just who exactly are you?” Apollo asked back.

“I have no name,” he replied.

“That should do nicely then,” Apollo said as he kicked the pony into the well.

The black stallion was completely caught off guard by the swift movement, and was unable to stop himself from flying into the water. Before he could get a hold of himself the riptide of the well had already caught him, and was beginning to pull him under. He let out a terrified scream, which was quickly cut off as the water invaded his mouth. It wasn’t long before the stallion disappeared completely beneath the swirling waters of the well, leaving Apollo staring down at the Well of Eternity with a smile on his lips.

__________________________________________________________________________________

I sat near the wall in the library allowing my mental guitar to let out random tunes as I tried to think of something to do. It had taken a while for using magic powers to lose its novelty, but nothing stays new forever. Twilight insisted that I needed to stay in the library, and not go outside. She was afraid that one look at me would scare somepony to death, which I thought was absolutely ridiculous.

But she was the boss and this was her world, not mine. So I sat against the wall trying to think of a song that I hadn’t played through yet. I have always been pretty good at storing music in my head, but when you have hours to yourself to just sit and go through every song you could think of, you find yourself running low after a while. At the moment I was referring to my phone to see if there was something on it that might brighten my spirits.

Twilight was sitting at her desk studying a book. I had come to the conclusion that Twilight was what I might think of as a college student, and as such she seemed to study a lot more than I ever did. Which wouldn’t be an incredibly uncommon thing, I had never been that great at studying. Spike, the baby dragon I had been introduced to was napping in a basket near Twilight. I know that I should have been more excited about meeting a dragon, but when everything in the world seems to come straight out of myths and fairytales you tend to suspend disbelief and just accept everything. As such I had merely shook the dragon’s hand, or was it claw? Our arms had met and gone up and down when Twilight introduced him to me.

Twilight had told me about how she didn’t like me playing heavy metal in the library so I had taken to playing acoustic ballads, which my phone distinctly lacked. I sighed as I dropped the device, and decided that I should just catch up on my rest. I put my head back against the wall, and started to drift off to sleep. I hadn’t realized just how tired I had been until then. I had almost lost consciousness when a loud belch roused me.

I looked over to where Spike had been sleeping, and caught the sight of a scroll falling to the ground. Twilight looked to where the parchment had fallen and deftly lifted it off the ground with her magic. It unfurled in front of her, and she read it. She read it very quickly I might add. She then looked from the scroll to me, and motioned for me to come over. I begrudgingly obeyed, and got up from my semi-comfortable position to see what was on the letter she had received. She turned the note to me, but all I could make out were indistinct letters so I simply shrugged. Twilight rolled her eyes and began to read the paper aloud.

To My Most Faithful Student,

It has been made aware to me that earlier in the day a pony that had been imprisoned in the statue garden, much in the same way Discord had been, has escaped. I want you to be on the lookout for a green unicorn mare with a pink mane. She has the cutie mark of two masks, one frowning and the other smiling. If you spot her contact me immediately, please do not approach her. I know that you are not afraid to put yourself into dangerous situations and I admire you for it, but please Twilight do not engage her. I have sent guards all over Equestria in search of her so I know that it is simply a matter of time before we find her. Do not worry too much about this Twilight, and continue with your studies.

Thank You,

Princess Celestia

P.S. Did you happen to summon a human to Equestria? I am not angry if you have, but I really need you to contact me if you did. Hoping to hear back from you soon.

Twilight finished the letter and looked up to me trying to gage my reaction. The fact that the princess of the country I was currently in knew that I was here didn’t surprise me in the least. As I said before I stopped being surprised a while ago. When Twilight was unable to make out any particular reaction she decided to simply ask.

“What do you think we should do about this?”

I shrugged and walked back over to where I had been sitting. It was late in the night, and I didn’t feel like doing anything about anything. If Twilight wanted to write a letter to the princess to tell her I was here, that was her thing to worry about. I was extremely tired, and just wanted to get some sleep. So I once again leaned my head back against the wall, and began to slip back into sleep. This time I wasn’t disturbed as I made the dark descent.

Author's Note

Author's Note: Thanks everybody for reading the first chapter and encouraging me to continue writing this fic. I have been moving and driving long distances over the past week so it took me a while to get around to writing this chapter. Future updates will hopefully come faster.

You can contact me at connornutt@gmail.com

Chapter 3

“Good job genius.”

“Do you have a problem Spite?”

“Ya I got a problem. We are dead. That’s what you get for trusting a random thing that comes up to you in the forest.”

“I have to agree with Spite here A, that was a dumb move.”

“No one asked you Bre. Why don’t you go play with your sister and mind your own business.”

“Us dying is kind of my business don’t you think?”

“I will say it again. Good job genius.”

“Oh would you two shut up.”

“Bre are we really dead?”

“No Pris we aren’t dead.”

“Oh good.”

“Why would you lie to your sister like that? We are spinning around in blackness without a body. Yea we are pretty much dead.”

“Bre doesn’t lie to me!”

“You have to be stupid to believe that kid.”

“Must you argue with everypony Spite?”

“Yea. Its kinda my thing.”

“Arguing is your thing? Is that like your special talent or something?”

“No kid. You can’t have a special talent for arguing.”

“I disagree Spite. A pony could probably have a special talent for arguing.”

“What makes you the authority on the matter Bre?”

“My big sis is smart. She knows loads of stuff.”

“Well isn’t that special. Does she know a way of not being dead? That would be a bit of useful information right now.”

“We are not dead.”

“Oh looks its mister no name. Finally decide to chime in?”

“I will speak when I wish. Your incessant ranting has begun to grate my nerves. Bre is correct on this matter. We are not dead. The Well of Eternity is breaking down our body and infusing it with power.”

“And how you would know such a thing?”

“Discord told me.”

“Discord told you. Well that just solves everything doesn’t it. You blindly follow that loser, and look where it has gotten…”

“Sleep.”

“…”

“Thank you brother. She was beginning to wear on me as well.”

“Apathy now is not a time for division. We must pull together now, and I did not believe that possible with Spite being awake. In order for us to assimilate into our new body we must be in unison.”

“I understand brother. I shall do as you command.”

“Very good. Bre you must instruct Pris to follow my lead as well.”

“If you say so. Pris we are gonna listen to him. I trust him to get us out of this mess.”

“Okay sis. Whatever you say.”

“Excellent. Now allow me to take the reigns.”

The waters of the well began to swirl faster and faster. It became a roaring whirlpool, and began to glow bright with power. Apollo stood above the waters looking down into it. The pony he had kicked inside apparently knew how to use the well to some extent, though its true powers were not known to him. The water splashed violently against the walls of the well, and threatened to pour out. Every time the water would spill over the edge it was met with an invisible wall keeping it inside.

The water continued to swirl faster, and slowly the bottom of the well started to become visible. A small circle expanded out from the center of the well revealing the marble surface beneath the water. A glowing mass of pure white light rested at the bottom of the well. The water continued to swirl, and began to rise. Eventually, a tornado of swirling water towered before Apollo as he looked into the Well of Eternity.

Suddenly and violently the water collapsed on the glowing mass of white light. The water of the well became calm, and no longer flickered with light. All the was left was the dark water sitting still in the night air. After a moment a single black hoof broke the surface of the water. It reached out over the edge, and attempted to pull the rest of its body out.

Apollo saw that the pony inside was clearly exhausted so he reached down and grabbed the hoof. He pulled the pony out of the water and tossed him onto the wet grass. Before him laid a black alicorn with a red, black, and purple mane. Apollo noticed the new alicorn bore a cutie mark of an eye eclipsing the moon. He was breathing heavily, still trying to adjust to his new body. It was not often that a new immortal emerged into the world so the dark figure took a moment to marvel in the moment.

“So what is your name?” Apollo asked after a few minutes.

The black alicorn was still breathing heavily, and it took him awhile to answer.

“I still have no name,” he replied.

“Well that is no good. You are an alicorn now. Or at least as close as you could get. You must name yourself or you will be unable to claim your powers,” Apollo stated flatly.

“What do you mean as close as you could get?” the black alicorn asked now having calmed his breathing.

“Well you didn’t go about it exactly correctly, but who cares right. You are now very powerful, and that is what you wanted right. You are also immortal now to boot. All good stuff I would say,” the tall human looking being answered.

“If I didn’t go about it correctly then how should I have done it?”

“Don’t worry about that. There is no going back now so it doesn’t matter. Like I was saying. With the new body comes a new name. You must name yourself. Usually with an immortal body you need to pick a name that matches your powers. It looks like you are a pony that deals in deception and trickery so think of something along those lines,” Apollo replied as he began to pace in front of the newborn alicorn.

“Following that logic. If I would have to pick a name for myself I think a name like Malitia would fit nicely,” the black alicorn said as it began to rise to its hooves.

The pony that now stood before Apollo was considerably shorter than Celestia, but still managed to be taller than Luna. He figured that Malitia would probably grow a bit more as he aged over the next couple hundred years, but it was truly impossible to gauge how an immortal might grow. There had never been a male alicorn until now so it was also impossible to estimate what his final height would be.

“Malitia huh. Going with a Latin name I see. Nothing wrong with that I suppose, but it is so played out. Don’t you think? Whatever I actually think its pretty good,” Apollo responded.

“Then I shall be henceforth known as Malitia,” the black alicorn proclaimed as it spread its wings.

“Well that’s nice. What are you going to do now then?” Apollo asked having already grown bored with the topic of names.

“I have a promise that I must keep,” Malitia replied candidly.

“What promise would this be?”

“I promised to release Discord from his prison once I had this new power. With my new immortality I shall take whatever I want, and shall hold the world in my hooves. I can overthrow Celestia and Luna and free ponykind from their dominion,” Malitia proclaimed.

‘Well this guy is either very confident or very dumb. Why would he just tell me his plans like that? As if I would just let Discord be released into the world again…’ Just then a terrible thought occurred to Apollo, and a plan began to form in his head.

“There is no way you could release Discord,” Apollo informed the over confident alicorn.

“What?” Malitia asked completely dumbstruck.

“The enchantment keeping him in stone has just recently been secured. You don’t have anywhere near the power needed to break him from that prison. There is only one pony that could do it,” the dark figure answered.

“Who?”

“Celestia of course. Good luck getting her to unlock Discord. I mean the only possible way she would do that is if something unfathomable happened. Like if Porosis managed to get out of his own prison or something,” Apollo immediately bit his tongue knowing he had spoken too much.

“Porosis you say? Who is this pony?” Malitia asked taking a step forwards.

“No I have spoken to much already. If he were to escape he would take Celestia and Luna from the throne easily,” Apollo said backing away from the approaching newborn god.

“Is that so? Foalish human you have given me exactly what I want,” Malitia took to the air and soared out of the forest. He glanced a look back to Apollo whose face revealed true horror at what the black alicorn was planning.

After Malitia was out of sight Apollo relaxed a bit. He always had thought himself to be a great actor, and proved it time and time again. He began to whistle as he walked to the edge of the clearing. He looked back the place that Malitia had been standing moments before, and smiled.

“Idiot.”

__________________________________________________________________________

Twilight was pacing back and forth when I woke up. From what I could tell mornings in Equestria were pretty much like mornings back on earth. You wake up feeling like you need to sleep another couple of hours. You lay there with your eyes closed for as long as you can possibly manage until something makes you get up and actually move. Twilight just so happened to be that thing that got my ass in gear.

“Darky? Are you awake,” she asked having seen me stir.

I sighed and reluctantly opened my eyes to see the pacing unicorn watching me as she moved back and forth. From what I knew about pacing, it was something that you did when you were worried or anxious. Looking at Twilight now I couldn’t tell exactly which of the two she was. It looked like the lavender unicorn had managed to wear an actual rut in the floor as she moved back in forth. I didn’t know such a thing was possible.

“The Princess hasn’t sent word back yet. What if she actually is mad that I summoned a being to Equestria? What if there is some law that I have broken. I have never read of such a law in any of the books I have in the library, but what if its some ancient decree. What if she banishes me for doing this. I don’t want to spend a thousand years on the moon. I don’t think I could survive for that long. When I got back to Equestria would I even be able to adapt back into society. What if everypony in the future thinks I speak weirdly because I have been out of the world for a thousand years,” she stopped and looked at me. “What do you think?”

I gave her a shrug causing her to almost scream in frustration.

“You are absolutely no help at all,” she then sighed and returned to her pacing.

It wasn’t my fault that I had no idea what she was so worked up about. From everything that she had described about the Princess she seemed like a really nice pony. I couldn’t imagine the Princess Celestia that I had heard about banishing someone for a thousand years. Then again I had never actually met Celestia in person so for all I knew she could be some bipolar dictator. Now I was starting to become anxious, but I wasn’t going to start pacing. There is a much better way to deal with stress. Just don’t think about it.

I put my headphones in, and got up from my seat against the wall. As per my regular morning routine I made my way into the kitchen to scrounge up some food. I had managed to sleep past noon, which I found amazing since I was sleeping with my back to a wall. I opened the fridge to see if Twilight had anything that I would actually eat. Yesterday she had tried to get me to eat hay. I wanted to tell her ‘Hay is for horses’ but my brilliant pun would go unheard. Man I hated not being able to make jokes.

Inside the fridge I found various kinds of grass, and some eggs. The choice between the two was rather simple. I pulled the eggs out of the fridge and began to look for a pan to cook them in. While searching I contemplated just why one would need to refrigerate grass. Does grass go bad after some point? I suppose since it can be used as a biofuel then eventually it probably would spoil. How long did it take for grass to spoil? Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to follow this train of thought to completion since I was hit in the back of the head with a skillet.

I turned around and saw Twilight levitating the iron weapon in the air behind me; she didn’t look very happy. Her lips were moving, but not producing any sound. Was she mocking me? Her eye twitched, and she yanked my earphones out.

“What are you doing?” she practically screamed.

Assault me with kitchenware and then scream at me. Ponies sure had really weird house manners. I pointed at the eggs that I had laid on the counter to try and make her understand I was just trying to make breakfast. She sighed and floated the skillet to me so that I could use it to cook. I hesitantly took it from her and set it on the stove. Twilight’s horn lit up, and the burner under the stove ignited.

“I’m sorry that I tapped you with the skillet, but it seemed to be the only way to get your attention. I just received a message from Princess Celestia, and thought you should know,” she informed me.

The first thing I thought was about how she definitely did not just tap me with the skillet. Did she assume that because I was so much larger than her it would take a lot to bruise me or did I just come off as stupid? Then I wondered how she could have gotten a message from the Princess in the time I had been in the kitchen. It seemed awfully convenient that when I woke up and left the room that the letter had come. I mentally sighed, and motioned for her to continue. She floated up a letter and unfurled it so that she could read it to me.

Dear My Most Faithful Student Twilight,

I am sorry for not sending correspondence sooner, but things around the palace have been absolutely hectic as of late. I am glad that it was you that brought the human to the world, and not some other pony with nefarious intentions. I hope that you will make your way to the castle with the human so that I may meet them in person. Please hurry Twilight.

Sincerely,

Princess Celestia

Twilight then curled the note back up and placed it in the saddlebags she was wearing. It seemed that I was going to be going on a road trip to meet the ruler of the country. I had once met a senator, and that was the most important political figure I can say that I have ever been introduced to. Now I was apparently big news and was going to meet the monarch of a country herself. My head may have begun to grow, but I didn’t really care. Being important was cool.

Twilight didn’t look as thrilled as I did about going to meet Princess Celestia. From the way that she had spoken about her mentor I thought that this would be exactly what she would have been hoping for. Instead she furrowed her brow in concentration and stared out into space. I shrugged and returned to my cooking.

I cracked two eggs and deposited them on the skillet. I was by no means a cook, but I could definitely make scrambled eggs. I grabbed a spatula from the wall near the stove and began to stir the eggs. Soon I was left with a yellow liquid that slowly began to solidify on the iron pan.

“What do you think it is the Princess wants?” Twilight asked, but the question sounded rhetorical so I continued cooking. “Is she really not bothered by this? If so then why did she contact me immediately about you? How did she even know that you were here?”

This mare really did think too much. My philosophy on life was to go with the flow. Don’t rock the boat. Twilight seemed to take a more cognitive approach to dealing with everything. It seemed like it took way too much effort, and I am not one to put much effort into what I do.

“We will leave for Canterlot this afternoon,” she announced before walking back into the main room of the library.

My eggs were finished so I chopped them up with the spatula and deposited them on a plate. Usually I like to have a lot of pepper on my eggs in the morning, but I was not able to find any. It seemed odd that it was so hard to find things in a kitchen owned by a neat freak, but what could you do about it. I pulled a fork from the third drawer I checked and carried my breakfast back into the room Twilight had walked into. The eggs were really fresh, and tasted magnificent. I wondered if everything here would be fresh or if they had a Walmart where you went to buy foods packed with preservatives. I hadn’t actually ventured outside of the library so I had no way of knowing.

I sat down on the table and continued to eat my eggs. Twilight seemed to be making some sort of list. She called for Spike and he lazily made his way down the stairs. The dragon looked annoyed to be roused from his nap, but took the note she was offering to him. It turned out to be a checklist. As I watched the odd back and forth of the two checking off items for a future checklist the bell above the entrance rung. In walked Rarity with two little fillies behind her. One was white with a purple and pink mane, and the other was pink with a white and red mane. It looked like a candy cane. Neither of the two had a mark on their flanks like I had seen on all of the other ponies I had encountered so far.

“Oh hello Rarity,” Twilight said turning away from spike and making her way over to her friend.

“Good afternoon Twilight. I stopped by to show my sisters the new visitor to town,” Rarity informed motioning to the two unicorn fillies behind her.

“Sisters?” Twilight asked moving closer to look at the pink filly. The two stared at each other for a little while before Twilight sighed. “Oh yes how are you two today?”

“Great,” the two fillies answered in unison.

“Well why don’t you go introduce yourself to the gentleman sitting on the table girls,” Rarity prodded.

The two fillies then raced over to me where they stared at me in awe. Children were not who I usually associated with. In fact I had a habit of avoiding children for the most part. Something about them just grated my nerves, but the two in front of me seemed pleasant enough.

“Hi I’m Sweetie Belle,” the white one declared.

“And I’m Pristine,” the pink one added.

I gave them a smile and waved at them, trying to seem as unthreatening as possible. I may have not particularly liked children, but I didn’t make a habit of going around and scaring them either. These two didn’t seem very wary of me though, which I was grateful for.

“When I got home yesterday I told Sweetie Belle about meeting Darky, and this morning Pristine was very adamant about meeting our mutual friend here,” Rarity said once against turning to Twilight.

“That sounds just like her,” Twilight replied.

I stopped listening to the two mare’s conversation as my attention was forced to the fillies in front of me. Pristine grabbed my pant leg to make sure that I was paying attention.

“Hi!” she exclaimed. I gave her a confused smile and another wave. Hadn’t we already been over this?

“He can’t talk Pris,” Sweetie Belle informed her sister.

“Oh yea,” Pristine replied. “Why can’t you talk?”

I felt déjà vu as I was once again assaulted by a question I had no way of answering. Even if I knew the answer to it, which I didn’t. I gave the small pony a shrug, which amazingly seemed to suffice.

“Can you do magic?” Pristine asked.

“Don’t be silly he doesn’t have a horn,” Sweetie Belle interjected.

“Yea, but dragons don’t have horns and they can do dragon magic. I heard that griffins can shoot lightning, and they don’t have horns either,” Pristine countered.

“Hmmm,” Sweetie Belle considered the possibility. “Well can you do magic?” she repeated her sister’s question to me.

I hefted my invisible guitar into place and strummed out a few chords. Both of the filly’s eyes lit up as they listened to me play a bit. I even seemed to draw the attention of Rarity for a moment, but once she saw me notice her she turned back to her conversation with Twilight.

“That was so cool!” Sweetie Belle exclaimed.

“You can play magic music?” Pristine asked slightly confused.

I considered the statement for a moment and then nodded an affirmative. Essentially that was what I was doing I guess. The exact origins of the ability were completely lost on me, and Twilight hadn’t been able to find out anything about it so simply labeling it “Magic Music” seemed appropriate.

“What songs do you know?” Sweetie Belle asked.

I then began to give a simple demonstration of the different songs that I could think of off the top of my head. I wisely didn’t delve into the heavy metal genre and kept to things that were a little more PG. To my amazement Sweetie Belle joined in singing the lyrics to a couple of the songs. Apparently there was some crossover when it came to music between these two worlds.

The visit lasted for a while, and I had to admit that these kids were leagues better behaved than any that I had ever run into. Twilight was the one that reminded everypony that we couldn’t stay too long. She mentioned to Rarity that we would be headed to Canterlot in a few hours. Immediately the two fillies raced over to her.

“Rarity can we go to Canterlot with Twilight and Darky?” Pristine pleaded.

“Yea Rarity we haven’t been to Canterlot in so long,” Sweetie Belle added.

“Oh girls I don’t know. To just drop everything and leave like that, and on such short notice,” Rarity said chewing over the idea.

“Plllllleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaseeee!” Sweetie Belle and Pristine begged in unison.

To her credit Rarity held out for a while before caving to the begging of her younger siblings. “I suppose there is some business that I need to handle in Canterlot,” She conceded trying to save face.

“Oh thank you thank you thank you Rarity,” Pristine said hugging the older pony.

“You are the best big sister ever,” Sweetie Belle added.

“Well you two better go pack so…” Rarity was unable to finish her sentence as the two fillies raced out of the library. She then sighed and turned back to Twilight. “Well it looks like I will need to make arrangements for lodging once we arrive in Canterlot.”

“Don’t worry about that Rarity. I am sure that Princess Celestia will let you stay in that palace with us,” Twilight said.

“Are you sure Twilight? I wouldn’t want to put anypony out,” Rarity replied.

“It would be no trouble at all. I am sure of it.”

“You truly are a great friend Twilight,” Rarity said giving the lavender mare a hug. “I suppose that I should get to packing. There are so many things that I must bring. I will have to put together a few pieces to show the upper class dressmakers. There is so much to do and so little time to do it. I will see you later this afternoon Twilight,” Rarity said making her exit. She stopped at the door and gave me a nod before leaving.

That certainly was exciting. It had been brought to my attention that I would be staying in the palace. That was certainly something that had been glossed over. I was later today going to be staying in a palace and meeting the leader of an entire country. It was amazing how being pulled into a different dimension could change your life. That sounded better in my head.

__________________________________________________________________________

The castle library was very extensive. Floors upon floors were lined with books of every kind. Well over a thousand years of knowledge was stored on the walls of the library, and Quick Wit was the pony who was in charge of it all. Being the librarian of the largest collection of books known to ponykind was something that was an immense honor. In fact there was a competition held for the position after the previous librarian passed away of retired.

Quick Wit was on the second floor reordering the books in the zoology section. Some prankster had gone through and switched all the books about rabbits with the ones on penguins. Since the books were ordered by author Quick Wit’s task or putting the books back into proper order was very time consuming. The elderly red unicorn sighed as he finished placing the last book “Bunnies and Rainbows: A Field Guide” back into place and climbed down from the ladder he was on. Two hours of time completely wasted.

Quick Wit had been in charge of the library for nearly thirty years, and had seen many great mages study the books in these halls. Most of the ponies that came to check out and read anything in the library were unicorns that lived within Canterlot. The third floor was partitioned off so that only students at the magic academy and government officials could access the more powerful tomes.

The library was completely quiet at the time. There were no ponies studying or browsing for something good to read. This was something that occurred often during the summer when the students were out and playing with their friends. This time of year gave Quick Wit much needed time to himself. He made his way to the stairs and proceeded to descend the steps back to the first floor and his front desk.

As he approached his desk he noticed that there was a pony waiting for his return. He immediately recognized the tall dark alicorn as Princess Luna, and forced his tired bones to carry him across the floor quicker. The princess smiled down at him as he made his way behind the desk so that he could properly address her.

“Princess Luna it is a pleasure to see you today. What can I do for you your Highness?” Quick Wit asked after giving a bow.

“The pleasure is all mine Quick Wit. I was hoping that you would help me locate a very old and very rare book today,” Luna answered.

“Oh? What book are you looking for princess?” Quick Wit said pulling out a large registry from behind the desk.

“I am afraid that the tome I seek would not be in your registrar. I was hoping that you could lead me to the sealed archives,” Luna replied not letting her smile disappear.

“The sealed archives. What would you seek in there princess?” Quick Wit asked surprised at the princess’ request.

“I am sorry, but I cannot tell you. I do not take the matter of browsing the sealed archives lightly. Trust that I seek something of the utmost importance,” Luna said trying to get the consent of the elderly librarian. Luna had the right to access any of the archives in the library whenever she wished, but going through the librarian showed that she had respect for the position. Something that Celestia had told her she needed to show to win favor with her subjects.

“I would never doubt that your Highness,” Quick Wit said giving another bow. He pressed his horn to one of the drawers in his desk, and formed a simple unlocking spell. The lock to the drawer clicked open and the drawer slid out to reveal a large key resting on velvet.

Quick Wit lifted the key into the air with his magic, and turned to lead the princess to the archives. Luna walked quietly behind him, and he marveled at just how graceful the alicorn could be with her movements. Celestia had had a particular grace to everything that she did, but Luna had a pure beauty that could be seen from the simplest acts that she performed. The two reached the back of the library, and were stopped by a wall blocking their path.

Quick Wit held the key up to the wall and tapped it against the stone. There was a deep rumbling as the stone began to shift. The blocks moved slowly at first, but then began to spread more rapidly until they revealed a marble staircase lined with unlit torches that descended into the lower levels of the castle.

Quick Wit turned back to Luna, and waved her into the staircase. “I hope you find what you seek princess,” He said as Luna began to descend into the darkness.

The stones began to shift back into their original places, and soon Luna was surrounded by complete darkness. Since Luna was the princess of the night, she had no problem seeing through the dark shroud, but with a simple spell she ignited all of the torches along the pathway. She then slowly continued to make her way into the sealed archives.

The staircase wound around itself several times before it opened into a small room lined with bookcases. The books that were in the archive looked ancient; as if a simple touch could make them crumble to ash and cause their knowledge to be lost for all time. Luna knew that a spell protected any books from being destroyed or damaged while in the archives, but time still took its toll on the pages.

Luna walked along the aisle slowly making her way to the back of the dark room. Unknown to even the librarian that looked over the books, there was a small room at the back of the archives that only Celestia herself had ever seen. Celestia had told her about the hidden passage in the archives some weeks ago, and this would be the first time that she had ever laid eyes on it.

Against the back wall of the archives stood a small statue showing Celestia with the sun shining behind her. Luna gently nudged the sun out of its place behind her sister and down to the left. The stone behind the statue began to slowly move away to reveal yet another hidden room.

“How cliché,” Luna said to herself as she entered the last chamber.

This room was even smaller that the archives, and possessed only three books. They were protected inside glass cases that were enchanted with powerful warding magic. Luna looked over the various tomes before her. One was a small black journal that had no writing on the front of it. Luna remembered all those years ago when the notebook had wrecked havoc on Equestria.

On the center pedestal was a blue book that had one word printed on the front “Cookbook.” Luna had not been around when this book had appeared in Equestria, but the title was deeply concerning. Luna moved onto the final dark tome that laid to her right. It was the largest of the three books in the hidden room, and on its cover it bore the title “The Well of Eternity.” Luna frowned as she read the title.

“Tia said she destroyed you,” she accused the book, but it did not reply.

Luna’s horn pulsed with energy and suddenly she could see the magics that surrounded the case protecting the book. Slowly Luna began to undo the spell one by one until the wards were completely gone. She then opened the glass case and levitated the book out of it. The book opened in front of her and she began to read it.

The entire thing was written by hand, and told of the events that took place thousands of years ago. Celestia had not been lying when she said that the book was very dangerous and should be destroyed. Why she hadn’t done so was a mystery to Luna, or at least it was until she read the inside inscription.

The story of the beginnings should be told, and must be written down somewhere. The burden of the telling seems to fall to me. I want you to have this so that you will never forget that time. I know that I for one look back on it with fondness. Please keep it safe. I don’t know what would happen if this tome fell into the wrong hands.

With Love,

Anthony

Luna closed the book, and placed it back in its casing. She knew why her sister hadn’t destroyed the tome, and Luna felt the betrayal. Luna’s anger burned, and a deep seeded jealousy began to blossom anew. Luna quickly squashed the emotions and composed herself once again. She knew what that path led to, and never wanted to venture down it again. She began to replace that magic seals that were once protecting the large book so that nopony would know what she had been looking at.

Once finished Luna turned and left the secret chamber. She would not tell her sister about her visit to the sealed archives or about what she had found. If Celestia was going to keep secrets from her then she would keep secrets of her own.

__________________________________________________________________________

Waiting. Waiting is something that I enjoy very little. In fact it is something that I downright despise. I stood outside of the library waiting on some flying chariot to arrive that would whisk me away to Canterlot. One would expect that if ponies were able to create flying chariots that at least they would be on time.

I had to admit however that the Equestrian landscape was beautiful. At least what I could see of it. The library was in the middle of Ponyville so I wasn’t exactly able to get a great view of everything from where I was. I sighed as I leaned back against the tree and watched the ponies of the town pass by, and give me odd looks. I no doubt looked odd to them, and I had to admit that I still could not get over how many different colors the natives came in. I imagine that if you rounded up a thousand ponies and made them stand together then you would feel like you were staring at a rainbow.

Noticing the different colors that the various residents of Ponyville were did little to alleviate my boredom. I sighed again, and this time Twilight looked up at me.

“Are you okay?” she asked.

I nodded my head. For some reason I felt that she might not like me very much. It may not be that she didn’t like me it may just be that I seemed able to aggravate her easily. It is not like I was trying to get on her nerves. Boredom just has a very negative effect on me.

I estimated that we had been waiting outside of the library for a whole twenty minutes. Twilight had told me that I should not try and play any music while outside because I may spook the ponies. Was a being from a different universe magically playing heavy metal truly that frightening? I didn’t think so, but apparently ponies can be frightened really easily so I wasn’t going to take the chance.

I looked down the road and spotted Rarity with her two sisters in tow walking towards us. Some of the ponies were giving Pristine a strange look. Some of them even seemed to be wary of her. I knew what they must have been thinking “troublemaker.” In my youth I had been one known to stir up trouble so I was used to the looks. I felt bad for the girl, but knew that one day they would eventually drop it. Or it would continue to get worse; you can never really tell in a small town.

Rarity made her way over to us and greeted Twilight and I “Hello Twilight and Darky. Have you been waiting long?”

I gave Rarity a deep bow like I had seen on TV. That seemed to excite her, and I couldn’t help but feel happy with myself.

“That was very good. Are you going to greet the princesses like that?” she asked.

I shrugged. Honestly I had not actually thought about how I was going to present myself to the princess when I met her. Now that she had brought it up I had to admit that I was a little bit anxious. Celestia was supposed to be royalty so would a simple wave and smile seem rude? Would a simple breach in decorum end with me being ejected from the castle? I doubted it, but at least the thoughts kept my mind of off the boredom.

Pristine and Sweetie Belle seemed to be playing some game that I did not understand the rules to. I doubt that there even were any rules as I watched the two fillies running around in the grass. Oh to be young and wild and free. What song was that from? I know that I knew it. Now I had something else that would occupy my time while I waited.

I thought to myself for what must have been another ten minutes before Twilight called out. She was pointing a hoof over to the city that was on a cliff face. I can’t believe that I hadn’t noticed it before, but that must be Canterlot. It looked like a city right out of Lord of the Rings. I found myself wondering how exactly someone had managed to build an entire city on the side of a mountain.

I imagine that first you would have to create the entire base of the city halfway up the mountain. The base would have to be reinforced as more buildings were built on top of it. Eventually an entire city could be built, and its position would be very strategic for defense. Or some pony magic could have been involved making all of my observations pointless.

The two golden chariots touched down in front of the library. I had been expecting an actual flying chariot, but this was just one pulled by pegasi. I felt cheated, but at the same time kicked myself for thinking that it would be anything different. Twilight began to load the luggage onto the vehicle closest to us, and Rarity started to load the other. One of the pegasi that had been pulling Rarity’s chariot detached himself from it, and opted to load her possessions instead.

The look Twilight gave was absolutely priceless. I was one that wasn’t able to judge the looks of the ponies, but I had seen men do the same thing for a beautiful girl back on earth. From the looks all of the armor-clad ponies were giving the fashionista I was betting that she was a looker. I decided that since no one was giving Twilight a hand that I might as well.

I bent down and picked up two suitcases that she had dragged outside and tossed them into the vehicle. They were amazingly light, but I guess that would be expected since I was so much larger than the ponies. As I began to move around the guards tore their eyes from Rarity’s flanks and began to watch me with caution. I noticed that they tensed up when I came near. This was going to be fun.

I looked down at one of the guards and gave him a toothy grin. I made sure to expose my canines, as much as was humanly possible and the reaction that I earned was priceless. The white pegasus first looked startled and then backed up a step towards his companions. I would have bowled over in laughter if I were actually able to laugh. Twilight gave me a look of disappointment, but I had been earning so many of those from her that it didn’t really bother me too much.

It didn’t take too long for us to load all of the bags into the chariots, and the guards to take their positions. We all piled into the various vehicles, and oddly enough I ended up alone with Rarity. Her two sisters had wanted to talk to Twilight about something so they had jumped into her chariot before I had been able to climb in.

The inside of the chariot was surprisingly roomy, and was able to fully stretch out my legs. There were two seats on the inside, and Rarity and I sat across from each other. Whatever preconceptions I had about sitting on gold were completely unfounded. The seats were surprisingly comfortable and I felt myself relaxing. I hadn’t been on something that wasn’t hard for over a day, and lying back on the seat felt amazing.

The chariots rocked into the air with surprising ease, and we were quickly flying over the landscape. I did not chance a look outside the chariot since I have a fear of heights. I used to be unable to ride on roller coasters, but over the years I had been able to get over that. I was still hesitant to look out the window and down several hundred feet to a deadly drop knowing that the ponies pulling the cart were the only thing keeping me alive. I didn’t even look at them because I was worried about distracting them.

“I noticed that you didn’t seem to have any luggage,” Rarity said trying to spark a conversation.

I lifted my head from the seat and looked at her. I wasn’t actually able to confirm anything she said so she simply continued speaking.

“Do you not have any bags, or a change of clothes?” she asked.

I shook my head. It actually hadn’t hit me until that moment, but I didn’t have anything to change into. I had no idea how long I was going to be here so this was very troubling. I noticed that most of the ponies I had seen didn’t wear any clothes. Would they expect that I would be okay walking around naked? That was a very disturbing thought.

“I noticed that you have been wearing those clothes since I met you yesterday. Do all of your people always wear clothes?” she asked.

I nodded trying to convey to her how dire the situation was. Eventually I would need a change of clothes and I very much doubted that I would be able to walk into a store and browse their collection. I would have to find somebody to make me a change of clothes, and that would probably be expensive. Since I had no money I would have no way to pay for new clothes. I was really screwed.

“That is amazing. So you always wear clothes everywhere. Your world must have a huge fashion industry. I wish that ponies here would dress up on more occasions, but I still am able to scrape by. I imagine that if I worked in your world I would absolutely be rolling in bits. Oh my! That means that you have no change of clothes do you. I must certainly make you something to wear. I have never designed anything for a non-pony before. This project will be a challenge. That is if you would allow me to make you something to wear,” Rarity added looking to me expectantly.

I smiled and gave her a small bow. It seems that this marvelous and amazing white pony had saved me from disaster. Now I would need to find a bathtub that was big enough for me. I imagine that would be an even more difficult challenge.

“Do you have any requests? I would hate to make you something for it to not be your style. Would you like some formal wear or something more casual? I expect that you wouldn’t be able to tell me now would you. Let me just ask yes or no questions then. Would you like a suit?” she asked waiting for my answer.

I considered the question for a moment and then nodded an affirmative. I had only ever owned one suit in my life, and that had been bought for a specific occasion. I thought that I actually looked pretty good in a suit, and would like to have one tailor made for me. Rarity seemed to like that I had a taste for formal wear.

“That is absolutely terrific. Suits and dresses are my specialty I will have you know. Yes I can think of some excellent things that we can do. I will have to find a studio to work in when we arrive in Canterlot, but I think I can have you this suit by tomorrow. I hope that works for you.”

I smiled and tried to convey my thanks to her. I think she got the message, and began to speak to herself about exactly what she was going to do with the design. From what I picked up this suit was going to be one of the most amazing pieces of clothing that I had ever seen. With that I laid back down on the bench and took a short nap.

I was jarred awake by the chariot touching down. I sat up and hit my head on the roof of the vehicle. I winced as I looked around trying to get a feel for where we had landed. It looked like we had landed in a large stone helicopter pad. I saw that Twilight had already made her way out of her chariot and was waiting for Rarity and me. Pristine and Sweetie Belle were running around marveling at the castle.

As I stepped outside I too looked up at the structure in awe. I had seen castles in history books and on TV, but this was something completely different. I felt like an ant in the shadow of the huge building. Actually the castle was made up of a lot of different buildings, but what towered before me seemed to blend together into one impressive monument to ponykind. The stained glass windows reminded me of a catholic church, but the architecture was a mix of all different European styles. I actually knew next to nothing about architecture, but I still felt reverence for the castle.

Apparently I had drifted off because Twilight had to jab me in the leg to get my attention. I stared down at the lavender mare as she motioned to the doors. Rarity and her sisters were already making their way inside, and various ponies were carrying our luggage inside. Twilight turned and trotted off into the castle, and I followed closely behind.

The inside of the building was almost as impressive as the outside. The halls were lined with paintings and small busts of various ponies. Every single thing that we passed seemed to be completely unique. Thinking about it though I guess that having a thousand years of peace would have culminated in an abundance of art. A thousand years of peace.

Now that I thought about it that seemed odd. Ponies were a peaceful race, but to never have a single war just felt out of place to me. From the last century alone I could count at least four different wars that my country had taken place in. Did that make humans a warlike race? No wonder the aliens always lose when they try to invade us.

During war is when humans have made their most rapid leaps in technology. So if a race didn’t have war at all would that stunt their technological progression? Ponies were capable of using magic, and flying around on their own so I guess they might be able to get over the handicap. Wow, thinking of not having war as a handicap. Humans really are a warlike race. I hope Equestria doesn't have large oil reserves.

We reached the large doors that lead into the throne room. Our guard escort and Twilight both stopped when we reached the doors. Rarity and her sisters had been directed to their rooms as we had walked through the halls and made their way to their chambers. Slowly the large wooden doors began to open with an ominous creak. Inside sat two very large ponies that looked at me with a mix of suspicion and hesitation.

The guards motioned for us to enter, and Twilight made her way into the throne room. I followed quickly behind her, not wanting to get left alone with the very sour looking pony guards. The doors slammed closed behind us causing me to jump a little. This did not seem like a very warm welcome.

Twilight didn’t seem to notice as she made her way over to the tall white alicorn and hugged her. The two embraced for a moment, and then the princesses rose and slowly made their way over to where I was standing. Celestia was just as tall as I was, and her sister Luna slightly shorter than her. The two princesses seemed to be sizing me up and trying to determine my intentions.

Then Celestia lifted her hoof and offered it to me “I am Princess Celestia of Equestria and this is my sister Luna. We welcome you to our country,” I looked at her extended hoof not actually sure what I should do. I mentally shrugged and bumped my fist against it hoping that it was the appropriate thing to do.

Celestia seemed genuinely surprised by the gesture and Luna began to snicker. The white princess quickly recovered and gave me a soft smile. At once the tension that was in the air melted. Celestia certainly had a disarming smile, and I immediately relaxed.

“It is customary to give your name when meeting somepony knew in Equestria,” Celestia informed me not losing her smile.

“His name is Darky, or at least that is what we have been calling him,” Twilight informed.

Celestia turned her attention to her student “Why do you call him Darky?” she asked.

“Because that is what Pinkie thought his name was,” Twilight replied.

“Can he not tell you his name himself?” Luna asked clearly confused.

“No he can’t talk. We don’t know why,” Twilight answered managing to make the dark alicorn look even more confused.

I thought I heard Celestia say something under her breath that amounted to “clever” but I was not entirely sure. The sun goddess then turned her attention back to me.

“That is unfortunate. It seems that we will not be able to converse very well then. I can have some researchers look into this matter, but know that Twilight is one of the brightest mares that I have ever had the pleasure of knowing. I am sure that she will unravel this mystery eventually. Is there anything else that you find out of the ordinary since you have come to our world?” she asked.

I nodded and demonstrated by playing a chord on my invisible guitar. Celestia seemed to brace herself as if expecting some kind of attack, but Luna just looked excited. Her jaw dropped and she looked to where my instrument should have been.

“Do you know Stairway to Heaven?” she asked earning her a not so inconspicuous kick from Celestia. Luna frowned and then harrumphed. She was clearly displeased with her sister denying her song request.

“Well it has been a pleasure to make your acquaintance, but my sister and I have matter we must attend to. The guards will show you to your chambers in the castle. I hope that you enjoy a pleasant stay,” Celestia said ending the conversation. With a flash of her horn the large wooden doors began to open.

In walked several guards and they began to usher us out. They looked to be on edge, and something told me that I was not the only unusual visitor that they had in the last couple of days. We made our way from the throne room, and I looked back to see Celestia whispering something to Luna while keeping her eyes locked on me. The doors closed with a loud thud.

Chapter 5

Hot.

It was very hot. If there was a word to describe the arid desert that I walked through at this moment it would be that it was hot. There were only so many ways that I could say that it was hot. The sun was hot. The air was hot. The dirt against my uncovered feet was also hot. I wiped some sweat from my brow and stopped again to look around the landscape.

Nothing as far as the eye could see except more dirt, and more hot. This was probably hell, I really couldn’t think of another place that it could be. Even the Arizona desert had mountains, and life right? I had been walking in what I presumed to be a straight line for three days now. At least I thought it had been something close to three days. The sun never set, and just continued to beat down on me relentlessly.

My shirt was on my head trying to keep some of the sun off of me. If only someone had told me not to wear a black shirt and jeans when I came to Hell this place might not have been so bad. My feet were probably cooked enough to eat by this point. They certainly felt like it.

There was another mirage ahead. I had been seeing a lot of those lately. When people see mirages on television it isn’t much like what actually happens. Yea you see a shimmer in the distance of the heat hitting the earth. Other than that there isn’t much else to see. At least at first. Now I was starting to see the vending machines, and other ridiculous objects that my brain conjured onto the landscape.

This one looked to be a water fountain. As I approached it I could still see that it shimmered as it stood there. Nice try brain, but I am not falling for it. You can just put a magic water fountain out in the middle of nowhere and expect me to walk right up to it like an idiot. I am not that stupid. I waved to the gleaming fountain as I passed it.

I once again returned to the task of walking across the barren wasteland towards a destination that I didn’t know. It was actually really surprising that I had been walking for so long. Shouldn’t I have died of dehydration by now? If you walked in a straight line for three days with the sun beating on you every second without a drop of water would you still be alive? I know that I shouldn’t have been able to so why was I still alive. Another factor pointing to my idea that this was indeed Hell.

A cloud might have been nice. I would have sprinted if it meant that I could stay in the shadow of a cloud and not have the sun beating down on me. Of course there were no clouds in sight, and there was no wind to blow clouds if they even existed here. I wonder what I must have done in order to land myself here. Honestly I couldn’t remember too much about myself.

I remembered what my name was, but everything else was kind of fuzzy. I could remember some pictures of where I had been before, but every time I concentrated on it the image would slip out of my mind. In the end I just decided to give up on trying to remember, and continue walking.

I don’t know why I kept walking. It seemed like such a stupid thing to do since there was absolutely no landscape to tell me if I was even walking in the right direction. I just felt like I needed to keep walking. It at least helped keep my mind off of things. I don’t know why I didn’t want to think about what had happened before, but something was telling me that I should leave it alone.

Why couldn’t I at least have shoes? Was it too much to ask for that when you find yourself in Hell that you at least get a pair of shows so that your feet aren't cooked well done? Maybe that was the point and I was supposed to eventually eat my own feet. Without feet I wouldn’t be able to walk, and I would eventually die out here. Ha you are not smarter than me desert. You can’t just tempt me with cooked meat and expect me to kill myself.

Though I could have really gone for some steak. I slapped myself to get the thought of eating myself off my brain. I would probably bleed out before I even finished one foot, which would make the whole exercise a waste. I once again slapped myself hoping that I would somehow be able to keep my mind off of self-mutilation.

I looked up once more at the sky. It was blue of course, but the sun was hanging directly over me. I wondered if time had stopped here or the sun just didn’t feel like moving. Wow, the sun was a dick. It couldn’t just set so that I could freeze to death, and not have deal with this heat. Fuck you sun.

I felt done. This was it. I wasn’t going to go any farther. I fell on my face not caring that it hurt. It didn’t actually hurt that much, but a lot of dirt was kicked up into the air. I coughed trying to dislodge the dust from my throat. That was a stupid idea. Why couldn’t I just sit down like a normal person instead of trying to be all dramatic, and fall straight on my face?

I flipped onto my back, and looked up at the sky. It was the only thing here that wasn’t red. The sky was blue, the dirt was red, and the sun was yellow. The whole world consisted of only three primary colors. No wonder I was dying here. Look at me bringing all of these different colors into the world that just didn’t belong. This was my punishment for being a nonconformist. I really was delusional if this was where my thoughts carried me.

I heard soft footsteps in the distance. That was the first auditory hallucination I had so far. I must truly be slipping. I turned my head in the direction of the sound, and in the distance could make out a figure walking towards me. Would this be the devil, or just another mirage? My money was on mirage, but since I didn’t even have a wallet I guess I didn’t even have any money to bet.

The person continued to walk towards me looking just about as tired as I felt. They must have had some miraculous resilience to be walking around this place. I had firmly given up ever getting out of here, but maybe I was a quitter in a past life. As they approached I was able to make out that it was a woman.

She actually looked pretty, hot. Good going brain if you are going to make a mirage you might as well cook something up that is good to look at. She had long black hair that hung down to almost her waste. She couldn’t have been more than five and a half feet tall, but that was just fine with me. Actually she looked to be exactly my type. Of course, since it was my mind creating her why wouldn’t she be?

She continued to walk towards me until she was just a few feet away. She stopped and looked down at me with a puzzled look on her face. I suppose that I would be quite the sight to a random passer by. I was covered in dirt and sweat, and laid on the ground with my shirt wrapped around my head.

“Are you okay?” she asked.

“Peachy. I mean I will probably die of dehydration in a few hours, but since this is Hell I don’t think that matters,” I said looking away from her and back up to the sky. She walked over to me and sat down in the dirt.

“So this is Hell then? I was thinking that it might be,” she said as she turned her gaze towards the sun also.

“So I am guessing you aren’t another mirage then are you?” I said as I propped myself up on my side so that I could look at her. She was even more beautiful up close. Her light blue eyes shone bright as the sun’s rays were reflected off of them.

“You have been seeing mirages?” she asked probably more than a little concerned that I was hallucinating.

“Yea I’ll see vending machines or a water fountain or something,” I replied.

“Have you seen any bottled water laying around?” she asked.

“Sure. Also saw some in a cooler filled with ice,” I said as I lay back down. I felt something cool against my forehead and lifted my eyes up so that I could see what it was. A cold bottle of water was resting on my face, and I couldn’t move.

“I found a couple of bottles a little while back. Maybe you should have stopped to pick some up,” she said as she wrapped her arms around her legs.

I didn’t even stop to consider how dumb I had been all this time as I grabbed the bottle, and tried to suck down the water as quickly as possible. I hadn’t truly appreciated how thirsty I was until there was water right in my hands. I finished the bottle and began to cough as some of the water tried to make its way back out of my stomach. I wasn’t going to let it though.

“Are you telling me that those bottles of water I saw were real?” I managed to choke out.

“Probably. I have found a couple lying around here and there. Why are you doing lying down in the dirt?” she asked turning away from the sky and towards me.

I also sat up so that I could properly talk to her. This woman had actually saved my life by saving me from my own stupidity. She wasn’t a hallucination or at least if she was then she was a really good one. I was completely shocked that there was actually someone else wandering around out here.

“I was lying here waiting to die. I have been walking around this place for what feels like days with no sign of anyone else or anything else living here,” I answered.

“Are your memories also gone?” she asked leaning towards me. I could tell that she was really hoping for me to say yes.

“Yea. When I woke up here all I could remember is my name, but everything else about me is just a blur,” I replied.

“That is exactly what happened to me,” she said excitedly. “I woke up in this desert a few days ago all alone, and I haven’t seen anyone since. You are the first person I have seen in days.”

“Wow and I thought that I was the only one. Well this kind of puts a cramp in my whole idea that this is Hell. That is unless you are the devil disguised as a beautiful woman and are trying to trick me somehow,” I said giving her a smile. Oh yes, I was very smooth.

She completely ignored my obvious flirtation. “What do you mean that it makes this place not Hell simply because there are two of us here?” she asked.

“Well if this were some kind of personal Hell then I would be the only one here. If this were just a general Hell that everyone gets lumped into then there would be a lot more people here than just the two of us,” I explained.

“Okay well if we aren’t in Hell then where in the world are we?” She uncurled her arms and rested against her elbows on the ground.

“I don’t think we are in the world anymore,” I replied also laying back.

“So not in Hell, but also not on Earth. That narrows it down a lot,” she said as she sighed.

“I don’t think it really matters in the end. We are here and that is about all there is to it. So what’s your name beautiful?”

“Jessica,” she replied simply.

“Hello, Jessica it’s nice to meet you. My name is Anthony.”

__________________________________________________________________________

The night was darker than any I had ever seen. I could not recall another time that I had actually seen the night sky, but there was no way it could possibly be darker. There were no stars sparkling in the sky; only the moon and the blackness. I sat on the edge of a lake staring out across it. The only light for miles around was the full moon that hung ominously in the sky, and its reflection off the water.

I didn’t know how long I had been sitting here. It felt like weeks, but it couldn’t possibly have been that long. The moon never moved from its position in the sky, and just continued to hang over me. I squeezed my arms tighter around my knees hoping that I would wake up from this dream soon.

This was an absolute nightmare, and I had no idea of how to wake up. I would hear a sound, and turn around only to see nothing there. I would turn my head back to the water, and just stare at its still surface. Then another noise would catch my attention, and I would turn to find that I was still alone.

My blonde hair hung in front of my eyes helping to shelter me from the noises, but they would not go away. I had stopped looking to see if there was anything behind me waiting to make me a midnight snack. There was no point in looking if I could never see what had been there. The noises were coming more often ever since I stopped looking. They were trying to taunt me, and get me to turn. Every time that I did turn the fear of seeing something there would almost suffocate me. I wouldn’t give into their taunts any longer. If they wanted to harm me I wasn’t going to give them the pleasure of being their plaything.

I curled myself into a tighter ball, and continued to stare out at the water. I must have seen this lake before, but I couldn’t remember where. It was so familiar almost as if I was at home, but when I tried to think about if I had been here before my head would start to hurt. It hurt too much to think so I stopped, and just stared at the water.

I heard footsteps behind me, but refused to turn. A twig broke as the steps got closer. I still wouldn’t turn around. The steps stopped right behind me, and I froze. I don’t think that I was breathing anymore. A breath blew against my hair as whatever it was standing behind me bent over.

“You will die here,” I heard it whisper into my ear.

I turned around, but once again there was nothing there. The dark blank landscape was all I could see for miles around. I curled up tighter and began to cry. I was completely alone here and I knew that eventually I would die. It had been right. This wasn’t a dream this was a real nightmare come true.

I don’t know how long I sat there crying into my knees. When I finally calmed down and looked up everything was exactly as it had been. I felt so alone sitting on the edge of the lake. I couldn’t remember anyone else that I had ever met, but I knew that I had never before felt so lonely.

There had been someone before that had been with me. I could remember that much, but not anymore about them. I tried to focus so that I could see them clearly, but the headache returned, and sent me reeling. The water rippled in the middle, and the circles began to spread. Another ripple broke the surface of the water, and began to spread out.

I stood up and backed away from the water. I didn’t know what was going on, but I knew that it was bad. More ripples broke the surface of the water, and began to come faster and faster. I continued backing away from the water ready to run at the first sight of danger. Then everything began to get darker.

I looked up to the sky and saw that the moon was starting to go out. There was no cloud covering it up, and it didn’t start to wane as it hung there in the sky. It just simply started to fade away, and its light grew weaker and weaker. The lake began to gurgle and a dark mass broke the surface. Then the light completely disappeared.

I heard something start to make its way through the water. It waded slowly to shore, and then it stepped onto land. I did the only thing that I could do. I ran.

I turned and ran as fast as I could away from the sound. No matter how hard I pumped my legs I could still hear it right behind me. It wasn’t trying to run, but instead slowly walked forwards. Tears streaked down my cheeks as I continued to run. Eventually I wasn’t able to hear the sound as clearly.

The sound was growing fainter as I ran through the darkness. I wouldn’t slow down, because if I stopped for a second then I would never be able to start running again. I continued moving forwards as swiftly as my legs would carry me hoping that the darkness would eventually end. I got my wish.

One second I was in the complete blackness of night running for my life, and the very next step it was daytime. I stopped and looked around at where I had come. The ground was dry and cracked, and there wasn’t a thing around for miles. I turned around and dared a glance behind me, but all I could see was more nothingness. The lake I had been sitting on was nowhere to be seen.

I fell to my knees completely drained. I couldn’t even lift my head as I sat there with the sun beating down on me. I couldn’t form a coherent thought, and there were no words to describe what I felt. Tears continued to fall from my eyes, and I started to shake.

Where was I?

__________________________________________________________________________

“Where are we going?” Jessica asked from behind me.

She was a nice girl to talk to, but after a while the constant questions started to get on my nerves. Had I really longed for companionship, because that didn’t seem like me? Now that I actually had someone to walk around the barren desert with I could see how silence is golden. Maybe I was just the kind of person that hated everything they had and wanted everything they didn’t. That sounded a lot more like me.

“I don’t really know,” I answered.

“Then why are we going this way? I was going the other direction so why couldn’t we go that way?” she asked clearly miffed that I wanted to go this direction.

Honestly, any direction seemed to be a moot point. There wasn’t a way to tell if we were going in circles or not, and I didn’t have a compass to keep us going straight. I just felt like this was the right direction to go so that is the way I decided to walk. That was a good a reason as any I suppose.

“We are going this way because I feel like going this way,” I replied not bothering to turn and see the face she was making.

“Oh so you are the big man so you decide which way we go,” she said sarcastically.

“I found you by walking in the direction I felt I should go. It only makes sense that we will find others by going the direction I feel like going. That is called logic,” I replied trying to be as belittling as possible.

“First of all I was the one that found you. Secondly, that isn’t logic at all. That was a completely random isolated event that has nothing to do with anything,” she really didn’t like that I had no reason to go this direction.

The first couple of days of traveling with my newfound companion had been fun. We could joke around, and debate just exactly where we were. As time drew on it became readily apparent that she was in fact smarter than I was. She would win every argument, and every time we would find something she knew exactly what it was. The only chance I had at beating this woman in conversation was to cheat and be illogical. It was working so far.

“You were walking towards me and I was walking towards you. For some reason in this wasteland the two of us walked for days on a collision course. Therefore I theorize that there is some unseen force that will guide us to someone else. I feel like I should go this way so that is the way I am going. Do you have any better ideas?” I asked knowing that she didn’t.

“You make absolutely no sense you know that,” she huffed.

“Is that a no?”

“No, Anthony I don’t know where we should go you guess is just as good as mine,” she conceded.

“Excellent. Anthony one Jessica seventeen!” I exclaimed turning around.

She wasn’t looking at me though, but instead was staring past me. I turned towards the direction she was looking, and saw someone lying on the ground. I broke into a run, and made my way over to them as quickly as I could. The man was lying facedown in the dirt. I knew that feeling.

“Hey buddy what are you doing down in the dirt there?” I asked as I stood over him.

“I am having tea. Isn’t it obvious?” he replied.

“Not to me, but I’m not exactly the sharpest tool in the shed. Would you like some water instead?” I asked handing him a bottle.

He reached up and plucked the bottle out of my hand. He then turned over onto his back and drank it greedily. As expected he began to cough, and I felt déjà vu having been in that exact situation not too long ago. He tossed the bottle behind him and turned to me with a smile.

“Thanks mate don’t know what would have happened if I had been left like that.” He offered me his hand and I helped him to his feet. I thought that I was tall, but this guy was a giant. He must have been at least six-five.

“No problem at all,” I said looking up at him. “Just passing forward the good deed.” I turned back to Jessica who was watching our exchange. “See I told you we were going the right way.” I motioned back to the man proving my point. She turned her nose up at me, and I felt another small victory had been won.

“So what’s your name stranger?” I asked turning back to my new companion.

“David,” he answered simply.

“Are you sure it isn’t Goliath?” I was so funny.

“Very original I have never heard that one before.” He rolled his eyes obviously not amused.

“I wouldn’t think you had. You would have to be very clever to come up with something like that,” I replied turning insult to compliment.

“It is nice to meet you, David. I am Jessica, and this hilarious man is, Anthony,” Jessica said as she stepped past me and offered David her hand. He shook it, as he looked her over.

“So David how do you like Hell so far?” I asked steering the conversation away from Jessica. I wasn’t exactly with her, but I was flirting with the idea. I didn’t want this tall muscular guy swoop in and steal her away.

“Hell? I don’t think this is Hell mate,” David stated.

“Oh and what makes you say that?” I asked.

“There is no way that there could be an angel as beautiful as this in Hell,” he replied motioning to Jessica. Damn this guy was good.

“You have a good point there. Well now that we have found another I suppose we should keep searching for more,” I said trying to gather the other two to follow me.

“What makes you think there will be any more?” Jessica asked.

“Simple. Nothing really big has happened yet. We would know that there was no one else to find if we found somebody, and then something happened. Since that hasn’t happened yet I think there are others. Since I was able to find David here I think I should decide the direction we take,” I stopped for a moment and considered my options. I closed my eyes and spun in a circle with my hand held out in front of me. I know I must have looked like an idiot, but this way of deciding our heading was as good as any.

When I opened my eyes I was pointing the same direction that we had come from. I knew this because I happened to be pointing straight at David. He didn’t look too enthusiastic about me deciding where we should go.

“This way,” I said as I began to walk.

“Is he okay in the head?” I heard David ask behind me.

“I honestly don’t know,” Jessica replied.

__________________________________________________________________________

“Get up!” she screamed at me as she kicked me over.

I sprawled out on the ground still keeping my eyes closed. If I just kept them closed then eventually they would go away. They always went away if I just kept my eyes closed.

“What are you doing Aria don’t hurt her,” The other one said as she ran to my side.

“We don’t have use for some bitch who just wants to sit on the ground and cry.” The mean one snorted.

“She is scared Aria. You were scared too so don’t be so mean to her,” The other one touched my shoulder and I pulled away from her. “It’s okay I’m not going to hurt you,” she said trying to reassure me.

“This is a waste of time.”

“Don’t listen to her. I want to help you if that’s all right. Will you please look at me?” she asked as she put her hand on my shoulder again.

I shook my head. I didn’t want to open my eyes because as soon as I did they would be gone and I would be alone again. They were just trying to trick me so that I would trust them. I didn’t want to be alone anymore. I would rather just lay here and let them talk to me. It was better than no one being there.

“My name is Alicia, and I promise that I am not going to hurt you. What is your name?” she asked.

“I’m… Danielle,” I answered still keeping my eyes shut tight.

“That’s a very nice name Danielle. Why won't you look at me?” she asked.

“Because if I open my eyes you won't be there. They are never there when I look. I don’t want to be alone anymore.” I sniffed holding back more tears.

“Danielle don’t worry I won't go anywhere I promise.” She was trying to get me to trust her.

I was hesitant, and for good reason. Every single time I let my guard down I was rewarded with disappointment and fear. She didn’t sound like any of the other voices that had come to me. So far all of the voices had been mean, and wanted to hurt me. She seemed nice, and I wanted to trust her. I just couldn’t.

Something that felt like a shockwave lifted me from the ground and tossed me several feet. I grabbed onto the first thing that I could, and I rolled across the ground. I opened my eyes to see what exactly was going on and found that I was holding a stunned silver haired girl in my arms. She was probably fifteen, and looked as shocked by what was going on as I was.

“What was that?” she looked back to her companion that sat on the ground holding her head.

“No idea,” She answered looking across the landscape to where a mushroom cloud rose out of the desert. “Looks like some sort of explosion happened over there.” She pointed to the cloud.

“Um, you can let me go now,” the girl in my arms informed me. Slowly I released her, and she picked herself up off the ground. “Hello Danielle it’s nice to see that you will look at me.” I assumed that this was Alicia, and the other was Aria.

Alicia was an average height for her age, and her silver hair gleamed in the sunlight. Her eyes were a dark amber color, and she wore a pretty white dress. The dress had no dirt on it even though dust was blowing everywhere around us, and we had just rolled through the dirt.

Aria on the other hand was very tall and wore all black. Her hair was also black, and ended at her neck. It had veins of electric green running through it. She scowled at me, and I backed away from her. She was someone that I didn’t want to meet in a dark alley.

I looked over to where the mushroom cloud was rising into the air, and wondered what could have made such an explosion. It was still miles off, but I felt like I should be heading towards it. It was a strange pulling feeling that made me want to go there, but my head told me that I should stay away.

“Well it looks like that’s where we are going next,” Aria informed.

“I think so too,” Alicia agreed.

“No!” I exclaimed surprising them both.

“Who said anything about you coming.” Aria scoffed.

“We aren’t just going to leave her here,” Alicia argued.

“She would just slow us down, and I don’t want to drag her all over the place,” Aria shot back.

“You shouldn’t go over there. Something bad must have caused that explosion,” I interjected.

“Do you have a better idea of a place to go? I am all ears princess,” Aria said knowing that I didn’t have a better place to go. “No? Well then you can stay here and die if you want. I am going over there.” She pointed at the cloud in the distance and began to walk towards it.

“Please Danielle come with us,” Alicia begged trying to pull me to my feet. I reluctantly got up, and dusted myself off.

I was no longer alone, and I felt a lot better knowing that there were actual people here. I had been all by myself for what felt like weeks, and I was not just going to let them leave me behind. I didn’t like the idea of heading off towards that explosion, but I didn’t have anything better to do.

“Okay, but I don’t like this idea.”

__________________________________________________________________________

“So where are you from David?” I asked knowing that he had no answer.

“I don’t know Anthony. Where are you from?” he countered.

“I asked first.”

“Well I asked second. Isn’t it boring that the person that asks first always gets their answer first? Why can't second go first for once wouldn’t that be a nice change of pace,” he replied.

“Touché.”

“Anyways isn’t that a kind of pointless question since neither of us know the answer?” he asked.

“Why shouldn’t I ask a question I know I won't get the answer to? If no one asked a pointless question then where would the world be? The human race would have likely died out, and all we would be left with would be nothing. Do you think that’s what happened here?” I asked Jessica.

She looked surprised to be asked anything. Me and David had been going back and forth now for a while about useless things, and she was just walking beside us kicking a rock. Wait a second where did she find a rock. I hadn’t seen a rock the entire time I had been here, and she was just kicking one. I wanted a rock.

“I doubt it very much,” she replied.

“Forget about that. Where did you get that rock?” I asked.

“I don’t know I was just kind of bored, and I found this rock so I started kicking it,” she answered.

“I have been here for days, and I haven’t seen any rocks. You just happen to find one, and don’t think anything of it. How about you David have you seen any rocks?” I turned to him.

“Come to think of it I haven’t.” He put his hand on his chin and stared into space.

I stopped walking, and bent over to pick up the rock Jessica was kicking. She tried to stomp on my hand to impede me but I was too fast. I scooped the rock up and turned it over in my hand.

“Maybe this is some kind of magic rock. Maybe, just maybe, this is the Rock of Destiny.” I mused.

“The Rock of Destiny,” Jessica deadpanned.

“The Rock of Destiny. You know, the super weapon of the gods disguised as a simple rock. Whoever wields the Rock of Destiny shall be unstoppable.” I said holding the rock up dramatically.

“I find that very unlikely,” David said returning to the world.

“Oh yea.” I pointed to rock in a random direction in the desert. “Bang!” The explosion knocked all three of us off of our feet and back at least ten feet. I was honestly not expecting that to happen.

I got up and looked at where I had been pointing the rock. About a mile away a giant mushroom cloud was starting to rise into the air. It looked like the aftermath of a nuclear strike, and had the whole thing come from a rock that I was holding. I looked down at the rock that I was still holding in my hand. I was glad that Jessica kicking it hadn’t accidentally set the thing off.

“Holy shit.” Was all I could manage to say. The other two were still picking themselves out of the dirt, but I was standing and pointing the rock in a different direction.

“Did that just happen?” Jessica asked as she got up off the ground.

“I think it did,” David replied.

“I told you that this was the Rock of Destiny,” I held up my trophy.

“I guess I believe you,” David conceded.

“I don’t know that could have just been a coincidence,” Jessica argued.

“You are right. I guess I should try it out again.” I pointed the rock back to where the explosion had gone off.

“NO!” she exclaimed stopping me from causing another explosion.

“Why not I thought you wanted more proof?” I asked turning back to her.

“Fine whatever it’s the stupid Rock of Destiny. Just don’t do that again,” she begged. I had to admit that I was hesitant about carrying this thing around, but I slipped it into my pocket anyways.

“Who wants to go check out that crater?” I asked turning back to my companions. Jessica rolled her eyes, but fell into line behind me, and David just shrugged.

We marched across the desert proudly towards our destination. At least I marched proudly while the others just slowly shuffled after me. Why couldn’t they be more happy that I had caused a massive explosion? The idea of doing something so incredibly improbable filled me with excitement.

Why were they even following me? A rational person would have left my ass behind long ago. On the other hand these people had nowhere to go, and no one to lead them. Since it seemed that I was taking over the role of leader they followed me, albeit reluctantly. Perhaps people just naturally wanted to be led. I didn’t like that idea very much, but judging by the behavior that I was observing it seemed to be true. Maybe I should ask.

“So why are you two following me anyways?” I asked trying to sound as nonchalant as possible.

“I’m not following you. I am following this beautiful creature here.” David replied motioning to Jessica. Damn him.

Jessica ignored the compliment once again. Man she was good at that. “I am following you because it seems like you are the only one that actually knows anything about this place. Even though I found you dying of thirst after having passed up water that was just lying in the dirt.” She pulled another bottle of water she had stored in a bag she had picked up somewhere.

“I never got that. How come there is just water lying around, but when I was all by myself there wasn’t any water anywhere?” David asked, taking control of the conversation.

“Maybe you weren’t thirsty enough,” I replied.

“I wasn’t thirsty enough? I was plenty damn thirsty.” He seemed to get agitated easily.

“You had been walking around in the desert for what, a couple of hours? It was at least a day before I saw any water lying around. Jessica said it was the same for her. I don’t think you were thirsty enough yet to find any water. I don’t think the rules in this place work quite the same as the real world.”

“We are thirsty so we find water just lying on the ground. She is bored so she just happens to find a rock to give her something to do. I pick up the rock and say that it is some omega weapon, and it causes a massive explosion. Face it. This place is absolutely insane.” I turned to look back at them. Jessica was completely stunned and David was looking contemplative.

“How come I didn’t pick up on that,” I heard Jessica mumble under her breath causing me to smirk as I turned back around, and continued to lead the group.

I had given them something to think about. In truth the idea had actually come to me as I was talking, and I was very glad that I had somehow made sense. If this were actually true then what I had just explained to the two of them was staggering. Could we actually make things, as we want them in this barren place? If so then why was the entire world just one massive desert?

__________________________________________________________________________

I trudged along sticking close to Alicia, and not venturing anywhere near Aria. Aria led the way towards the quickly disappearing cloud of dust that was just little over a mile away now. She would glance back at me every now and then to give me a glare. I don’t know what it was about me that she didn’t like so much, but I knew that I was on her bad side.

After a while I got the nerve to confront her about it. “What is it? Do you have a problem with me or something?” I tried to sound as confident as possible.

“Yea I got a problem with you,” Aria said as she turned on me. “A full grown woman is cowering in the middle of the desert, and now she is sticking to a child’s side like a lost little puppy.”

That completely stunned me. I had been expecting something a lot pettier than how I had been acting. I thought that she might just have a problem with the way I looked or some other nonsense. She had a very good point. Alicia could have only been fifteen at the most, and here I was her elder by many years hugging her side like an infant. I felt disgusted with myself for being so feeble, and could see how Aria might think the same.

“I thought I said don’t be so mean to her. You have no idea how long she had been here,” Aria defended.

“Can’t have been that long. Someone like her would probably have died after a few days.” Aria turned to me, and glared at me asking for my input.

“I have been here for a few weeks now,” I answered drawing surprise from the both of them. “At first I was just wandering around this desert, but after so many days I had just given up and collapsed. When I woke up I was by the lake and everything was dark. I sat there for what felt like weeks before I finally couldn’t take it anymore. There were things in the night, and they came and taunted me. When I ran from them I found myself once again back out in the desert. That is when you two found me.”

“Weeks?” Aria asked in a hushed tone.

“Yes,” I affirmed.

“See Aria you have no idea what it would be like to be alone here for weeks. You have only been in the desert for a few days so how could you possibly judge her,” Alicia said as she rounded on the taller woman.

“I wouldn’t break down like that,” Aria said turning back to the cloud. She continued moving again and both of us once again started to follow her.

The dirt was beginning to even out, and seemed not to be as dry. The cracks that ran through the soil began to fade as we approached the edge of the blast zone. Aria began to pick up the pace the closer we got.

“How long have you been here?” I asked Alicia.

“I have been here a while, but it isn’t really a big deal. So what was it like being alone here for so long?” Alicia asked leaning over to me.

“It was very lonely. I thought that I would be alone here forever,” I answered as I tried to keep up with our leader.

“I can’t even imagine what that must have been like. You said that there were voices taunting you. Who or what were they?” she asked clearly interested.

“I don’t know. Like I said every time I turned to look at them they would disappear. I am not entirely sure if they were actually there to begin with. Maybe it was just me going mental,” I replied.

“I don’t think that you are going crazy.” Alicia said trying to banish the thought from my mind. “I only know a couple of things about this place, but evil things lurking in the dark doesn’t seem out of the realm of possibilities.”

“What do you mean you know a couple of things about this place?” I asked.

“I will explain in a little bit once we have caught up to everyone else,” she answered.

“What do you mean catch up to everyone else?” I asked clearly not following her line of thought.

“Just look.” She pointed across the wide crater where I saw five people talking to one another. One of them, a tall man with black hair, was pointing to a pair of shoes that he held over his head and yelling something to the others.

Aria began to run across the crater towards the others, and me and Alicia soon followed. They seemed to notice our approach, and the dark haired man turned to us and exclaimed to his companions once again. A dark haired woman rolled her eyes at him.

Wait. I knew that woman from somewhere, but I couldn’t quite place it. I tried to think hard about it. This was something very important, and the migraine that I would get from thinking back on my past was worth it if there was a clue hidden away in my memories as to who she was. Then like a piece of a puzzle falling into place I knew exactly who she was.

I picked up my pace as I raced across the crater that divided us. She noticed me, and also ran towards me. We met in the middle, and caught each other in a tear filled embrace. I hadn’t known anything about my time before I came here, but now I was certain of at least one thing. I had a sister before I had found myself in the wasteland, and now she was in my arms.

“Oh my god Jessica is that you?” I asked fearing that this was another illusion.

“It’s me Danny it really is. I thought that I would never see you again.” She cried into my shoulder.

We fell to our knees on the ground and just held each other. We had both been completely lost in this place, but now we once again had each other. At that moment I don’t think I could have been happier.

__________________________________________________________________________

Well I certainly hadn’t expected that. I had just been talking to my two new friends, Jake and Sera, that we had met when we finally arrived that the blast site. They had seen the explosion, and made their way over to its source. It seemed that my moment of unintentional destruction had ended up in finding us more people. Though I neglected to tell them that it was I that caused the explosion.

Then three more women had walked towards us from the other side of the crater. I had pointed them out to everyone, and Jessica had taken off running towards some blonde girl. The two were now hugging, and crying. I was definitely not comfortable with that.

To top it all off now there was some strange teenager holding onto me crying into my chest. I had no idea who this child was or how I should react in this situation. Would it be rude to simply push her away? No, I had not expected this.

“Um. I know that you are very emotional right now and everything, but… who are you?” I asked the silver haired girl.

She looked up at me with pain in her eyes. Clearly I had said the wrong thing, and had hurt the girl. I mentally chastised myself for asking something so dumb.

“Anthony don’t you remember me?” she asked. I had to shake my head since she didn’t ring any bells. Tears began to well up in her eyes again.

“Don’t worry though,” I tried to stop her from crying. “I don’t really remember anything so don’t take it personal.”

“I’m your sister. Alicia,” she cried as she curled her hands in my shirt, and started to sob into my chest again. I looked around at the others standing there for help, but no one seemed to want to touch this situation. Some emo chick that had arrived with the other two was glaring daggers at me.

“Don’t worry Alicia I will remember. I promise. So um, it’s okay.” I patted her head trying to calm her down. I was so not ready to handle an emotional teenager right now.

“You promise?” she asked looking back up at me.

“Yea sure sis don’t worry about it.” I smiled down at her. “Why don’t you introduce me to your friends here.” I said trying to get her to cheer up.

An excited look flashed across her face, and she took my hand leading me over to the “emo chick”. Mrs. Black Eyeliner didn’t look too pleased with me, but didn’t walk off as we approached.

“This is Aria,” Alicia informed. “I met her a couple of days ago right after she woke up here.”

I extended my free hand towards her, “It’s nice to meet you.” She huffed and blew a green lock of hair out of her face. So she was the pouty type. Just like that we were off again, this time racing down into the crater towards Jessica, and the blonde.

“This is Danielle. We found her a little while ago. She is really nice I think you two will get along well,” she said as we approached.

I once again tried to shake hands with the complete stranger, and this time was pleasantly surprised as she returned the gesture. I looked to Jessica who was standing behind her drying her eyes.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you…”

“Anthony,” I finished for her.

“Well mister Anthony thanks for helping bring my sister back to me,” she said as she removed her hand

“Sister?” I looked to Jessica who was nodding behind her. “I don’t see the resemblance.”

Jessica didn’t seem to like the comment, but Danielle giggled a little. Finally someone that understood my sense of humor. I would get along well with this one.

“It seems like this place is just lousy with siblings doesn’t it.” I asked earning another small laugh. “Let me introduce you ladies to the rest of us that are here.” I said leading the three women out of the pit.

Introductions were fairly simple. Everyone gave their names and received another. I was thankful that there weren’t any more siblings that had met up here. I don’t think my head could handle trying to remember a big mess of interconnections. Aria still seemed to be angry with me for some reason. Maybe me not remembering my own sister really got to her.

“Well now that everyone is here. What do you guys think we should do now?” I asked turning to the group.

“Wait a second. How do you know everyone is here?” Jessica asked.

“I just do.” I earned another eye roll from her.

“What do you think we should do?” Danielle asked me.

“Great question my dear. I think that we should do something about this barren wasteland,” I answered.

“What do you mean do something about the wasteland?” Aria asked stepping towards me.

“It is quite simple. He means that we should make a change of scenery,” Sera explained stepping in front of me. She was of a medium height and build with brown hair, but I could see something in her eyes that just screamed maturity.

“Again I have to ask what you mean,” Aria deadpanned.

“Well if you haven’t noticed yet. We can pretty much do anything here,” I explained stepping next to Sera.

“Are you trying to tell me that we are some sort of gods?” Danielle asked from behind Aria.

“I don’t know. You tell me.” Sera turned to face off into the desolate desert. She lifted her hand up, and closed her eyes in concentration. All of us kept quiet, and stood behind her waiting for something to happen. Then I began to feel it. I could feel some sort of energy creeping up from the ground and through my legs. The energy spread up through my entire body.

I closed my eyes, and tried to feel it. I can’t really describe how it felt to have this energy flowing through me, but all I can say is that it felt green. It felt like I was being invigorated by the very earth, and it was empowering me. I opened my eyes again, and almost couldn’t believe what I was seeing.

In front of us there was a small patch of grass that was beginning to grow. Then very suddenly the patch of grass began to expand across the landscape. After a few minutes everything in front of us was completely green as far as the eye could see. Flowers began to pop up from the grass in a wide array of colors. After having seen nothing but red dirt for days the sight of a meadow was like the most beautiful thing I had ever seen.

I looked down to Alicia who was still holding onto my hand, and staring out at the field with wonder. Sera opened her eyes, and collapsed onto the ground. David quickly moved to help her, but the rest of us were completely stunned by what we had seen. It was then that my opinion of this place completely changed. I was going to like it here.

_________________________________________________________________________

“Still can't do it?” asked a voice behind me.

I turned around to see Anthony walking up the slope towards me. He was a nice guy, and tried to get along with everyone. Ever since we first saw Sera create a field of flowers from nothing we each had tried to make the world different. Some like Aria set about making mountains and hills, while David just liked to bring random things into the world, and Jake would destroy them. Those two had a good back and forth.

My sister and I felt that we should change the sky while everyone else concentrated on changing the ground. Jessica was very good at making all different sorts of clouds that filled the air, but the job I was attempting was far more difficult.

“I have been trying to move the sun for days now. It still hasn’t budged an inch.” I turned back to the glowing orb in the sky that was being so obstinate.

“Well it is a star after all,” Anthony said trying to make it sound better.

“This is important I just know it,” I replied sinking down into a sitting position.

We hadn’t really moved too far off from the crater where we had all come together. The origin of the crater was still a mystery, but it didn’t seem like anyone was too worried about it. The hillside was nice, and a cool breeze rolled down from the mountains to the north. Anthony joined me sitting on the ground.

“Yea a lot of the plants will probably die if it is always daylight. What I don’t get is why you are having so much trouble. The others do what they do because they feel like it's what they need to do. At least that’s what Alicia thinks,” he said covering his eyes with a hand and looking up at the sun.

“How are you two doing by the way?” I asked trying to get off the topic of my inadequacy.

“Fine I guess. When someone comes up and tells you that they are your sister, and you don’t remember a thing about them I guess you just have to try and be friendly. She is a good girl though, and I know that she helped you out. Maybe one of these days I will remember something, and the two of us will be as close as peas in a pod.” He turned to face me. “But don’t try to change the subject. Jessica asked me to come over here, and help you out with this whole day and night thing. So here I am to help.”

“I don’t know what I am doing wrong. I raise my hand like all the others do when they make stuff, but nothing happens. I close my eyes and try to imagine it moving, but it won't. Maybe I am just not good enough to do it.”

“I don’t believe that. I just think you are going about it wrong. I myself am really bad at creating stuff. Both Alicia and me are actually. The others just close their eyes, and visualize something coming into the world, and then suddenly there it is. This is different though. Instead of making the sun all you are trying to do is move it. Here let me help.” He grabbed my hand, and pointed up to the sky. “Now try to feel the sun. Don’t try to grab it just feel it out.”

I closed my eyes, and tried to do as he instructed. I didn’t know where all of his knowledge came from, but somehow it seemed that he knew the most about this world. I felt the sun’s warmth on my skin, and concentrated on that. I was starting to feel something deeper that lay behind the warmth.

The more I concentrated on the heat I was feeling the more I could imagine something more. Then suddenly I saw it in my mind. A giant orb of white hanging in front of me in the darkness. It just sat there waiting to be told what to do, and I knew that it was waiting on me.

“What now?” I asked quietly, scared of breaking my concentration.

“Now just ask it to go to bed,” he instructed.

I kept my attention on the glowing white orb in front of me and kindly asked for it to set. It began to drift away back into the darkness of my mind, and became darker and darker. I didn’t open my eyes, but I felt the warmth on my skin begin to fade. My hand however felt like it was in a fire. Anthony didn’t seem to notice as he continued to hold onto it.

After a minute I opened my eyes, and gazed up at the sky. Clouds drifted back and forth in the dark sky above. From the west I saw the moon begin to rise into the sky. I looked around and spotted Jessica standing on a hilltop looking at it also. I looked at Anthony who was gazing at me with a smile on his face.

_________________________________________________________________________

“Your move,” Jessica said from across the chess table.

She was really good at chess, which was something I hadn’t entirely been expecting. Of course it seemed that the world only existed to dash my expectations and surprise me. She had now beaten me five times in a row and knew she would win this game as well. I sighed and moved my rook ahead hoping to gain some kind of advantage.

“Do you take pleasure in my misery?” I asked as she conquered my rook.

“Maybe I do. Is that so wrong?” she replied.

“No I guess it isn’t, but you could at least let me win one of these games,” I said as I took her knight with my own.

“Would you really be happy to win if you knew that I through the match?” she asked as she took my knight.

“Yes actually I would. A win is a win after all.” I recalled one of my bishops.

“Can I ask you something.” She took said bishop with her own.

“Anything beautiful.” I took her bishop with a pawn.

“Why did you have Aria raise a mountain for us all to live on, and what is with all of this stone architecture. Are you trying to make this place look like Mt. Olympus or something?” She took my sacrificial pawn.

“That is exactly what I am trying to make this place look like.” I replied as I moved my queen ahead. “Check.”

“Why would you want to put us on the mountain of the gods?” she asked as she retreated her king.

“We are gods so why not live on the mountain of the gods.” I took one of her rooks with my queen. “Check.”

She once again moved her king out of check. “I don’t like to think of us as gods.”

“If you don’t think of us as gods then what do you think of us as?” I asked taking a pawn.

“I like to think of us as artist painting the world.” She took one of my defenseless knights with a pawn.

“That is a very romantic idea. Would that make your talking horses a masterpiece then?” I asked moving my rook to take her knight.

“Ponies.” She huffed and killed one of my bishops with a rook of her own. “Me and Danny worked very hard on them so yes I would call them a masterpiece.”

“I think I see what you are trying to say here,” I said as I took another one of her pawns. “You don’t want you ponies to think of you as a god. Why not Jake has his zebras bowing before him in worship. I think that he only made them in the first place because you and your sister made the ponies. Aria has crowned herself a queen in her own corner of the world. What is wrong with being worshiped by your creations? I would probably kill for that chance.”

“We don’t want to be worshiped.” She took a pawn of mine. “We want our ponies to live their own lives and think for themselves. They may have had a bad start in the beginning, but once they got over their differences they founded their own country, and now get along better than ever. That brings up an interesting point though. Why haven’t you created any life? Everyone else seems to be doing it like it is some kind of craze. Sera has gone out of her way to make as many different things as possible, but you and Alicia haven’t made anything. Why is that?”

I moved my queen to check her once again. “If you really want to know it’s because I can't. I just can’t make anything that breathes, and I don’t know why. After I got a little practice making the stars was pretty simple.” I pointed up at the night sky. “I can’t tell you how many times I have tried to create a dog to be my companion, but I got nothing.”

She moved a pawn to block my queen. “Well that sucks.”

“Yea it does.” I took the pawn with my queen putting her back in check.

“You know we won't live forever Anthony. I can see the grey starting to spread in your hair.” She pointed to the side of my head.

“Thanks.”

“If you don’t make something that last in the world then what will your legacy be?” she moved her king back again.

“Well I would say that it would be a kid, but it doesn’t seem like we can have those.” She sighed as I reminded her of our sterility.

“It has been a hundred years, but I know that one day we won’t be here anymore. You should think about the future.”

“I always think about the future.” I moved my rook to the other side of the board. “Checkmate.” I stood from the table and turned to leave. “Winning one out of five isn’t exactly a great record, but at least I can win one time. Alicia said she needed me for something so I am going to go meet up with her. I will see you later beautiful.”

I moved myself away from the board, and across the mountain to Alicia’s house. It seemed that I was the only one that was actually able to move myself across the world at will, and because of this I ended up being a taxi service. Alicia had told me that she needed my help with something that was really important, but coming from her that could just mean that she wanted to show me a new toy she had made.

She was really good at making crazy toys that did weird things. Instead of making a gun she made something that looked like one and shot hearts that made people fall in love. Most of it was harmless, but I knew that she had several things in the works that were far more nefarious. As if sensing my presence the door to her home opened, and she stepped out into the street.

She had grown a lot since I had first met her all those years ago. She was now almost as tall as Danielle, and her silver hair flowed down past her waist. I had never recovered any memories of her but over the years the two of us had grown very close.

“Anthony you are late. I was hoping that you would get here a lot sooner it is almost sunrise.” She pointed at the setting moon to make her point.

“Well I had to win at least one game before I could leave. Now what is it you wanted me to help you with?” I asked steering the conversation away from my tardiness.

Her eyes lit up at the question, and she pulled me inside. We made our way through her house over to one of her walls that she had covered in maps that showed the entire world. She had been working on them for some time and they constantly changed week-to-week deciding on how Aria felt.

“I have made something, and I want you to see it,” she said pointing to an X that was in the middle of one of the forests.

“So you want me to take you there?” I asked earning a nod from her. “Okay hold on.” She grabbed my arm tight, and I looked over the map that had an X in it.

I cast out my mind to the spot in question and found that there was in fact something there. I don’t know how Alicia could have made something so powerful without me knowing. The power I felt coming off of it was immense. It wasn’t hard to bring both of us to the location, and when I opened my eyes we were standing on the edge of a well.

I looked down into the swirling waters that danced with all sorts of lights. I turned my head towards my sister, and saw that she was also gazing into its depths. “What exactly is this?” I asked.

“I call it the Well of Eternity,” She answered not looking away.

“What does it do?” I asked turning back to the well.

“It makes us immortal,” she answered simply.

The answer to my question caught me completely off guard. I was not expecting something like that to even be possible, but here it was and if Alicia said that it could do it then it could. She had made something to keep us alive forever, and I hadn’t even noticed until now.

“Why are you showing me this?” I asked looking back to her.

“I don’t want you to die Anthony. I don’t want any of us to die, but every day I can see us growing older and weaker. This is the answer to our problems, and I want us all to live together forever,” she replied looking up to me.

I looked back into the swirling water. This was something that I never actually thought could happen, but here it was staring me in the face. Alicia had shown me the key to immortality, and wanted to share it with everyone else. This was amazing, and all I could do was stand there stunned. I needed to go tell the others.

_________________________________________________________________________

“I need your help Jess I can't do it all by myself. I don’t want to,” I begged my sister, but she didn’t seem to understand. “Anthony said that this will give us a new chance at life, and we can spend it with our ponies as one of them.”

“I don’t know if I can just give up everything like that Danny.” She sat back in her chair.

“What else should we do Jess? Just live a secluded life for the rest of eternity. I know that you don’t want that and I don’t want it either. We have a shot here at a better life than we could have ever imagined and I want you to come with me.”

“Think of what we would be leaving behind though,” She countered.

“All we would be leaving behind is some stone house on top of a mountain. Is that really something that you are unwilling to give up?” I asked trying to convince her.

“Think of who we will be leaving behind.”

“I know that you don’t want to leave, but trust me this is the best possible thing for us. You will see. We can live out the rest of our lives caring for others, and helping them. I think we have a responsibility to them to do this.” I crossed the room and knelt down in front of her. “But I don’t want to do it alone.”

“I don’t know Danny.” She looked away from me.

“We can decide after, but I really want you to think about it.”

“Okay. I will think about it, but I am not making any promises.”

“That is all I ask.”

__________________________________________________________________________

It was a dark night, and we had all gathered in the clearing near the well. Most of us went in, and came back out easily enough. Alicia had been the first, and had showed us all what we needed to do. She came back out looking exactly the same. I guess she didn’t have anything else she would rather be.

She told us that even if we didn’t change our bodies at all we would still need to take a new name. She had opted to be called Artifia from now on and I had to admit that the name had a ring to it. The others had emerged from the well looking very different.

We now had a half dragon that called herself Empress. A massive zebra with bat wings that went by the name Porosis stood next to her. Sera had become some kind of plant woman, and had taken the name Terra. A very strange creature flew in the air next to her who was named Discord. He looked like a fun guy to hang out with.

When I came out of the well I had taken a few years off myself. Call me vain, but I thought that I looked pretty good in my youth. I had also done a few other things to my body, but I wasn’t exactly advertising those to everybody.

“Apollo,” I said finally deciding on a name.

“Apollo, you are really naming yourself after a god.” Empress scoffed.

“Oh and you are one to talk. Who names themselves Empress I mean you really have to be conceited to do something like that.” I shot back.

“I actually like both of the names. Not as good as mine, but they are still excellent,” Discord chimed in.

“Thanks.” I rolled my eyes at the lot of them.

I walked away from the squabble back towards the well. Danielle and Jessica had been the last ones to go in, and they had done so together. Artifia had told them that it would be okay, but they had to be very careful not to mess with each other. The water was swirling and performing its magic on them, and they would soon come out reborn. I wondered what forms they would take.

A hoof shot out of the water, and tried to grab the side. I bent over and pulled a huge pony from the water. She was white, and had both wings and a horn. She was also something that had not been seen in the world yet. Another hoof broke the surface of the water, and I also helped that one out. After a moment two alicorns stood before me one white the other a dark blue. Their manes swirled around them in an ethereal breeze.

“So what do you call yourself?” I asked turning to the taller one.

“Celestia,” she replied and looked to her sister.

“I think I will be called Luna,” she answered after a moment.

“Well then Celestia and Luna welcome to immortality.” I smiled at the two of them and led them back to where the others were gathered.

“Looks like everyone is finished then,” Discord said as he floated over to us. I didn’t quite understand how he flew, but I had to admit that it was kind of cool.

“Very good,” Artifia began. “Now there is something that I need to tell you all.” Everyone in the group grew quiet. “We will no longer be able to create anything.”

“WHAT!!!” Empress raged causing her hair to ignite. That was a really neat trick.

“That is part of the deal. We can’t be immortal, and be able to create anything at will. That would just leave the world imbalanced. I created the well after we had covered the entire world in life, and we wouldn’t need to make anything new. While we can no longer create new things we still have all the power that we used to, but it is just changed a little.”

“You still should have told us,” Discord said.

“Hey you won't die anymore. So don't sound so ungrateful,” I said defending my younger sister.

“I agree this was a very good thing that Artifia has done for us,” Celestia chimed in. “I thank you for offering this to us.”

“It is nice to hear those words Celestia,” My sister said turning to the tall white alicorn. “There is just one thing that I need everyone to agree on.”

“Great there is another catch.” Empress crossed her arms and looked away.

“It is simple. After we all leave here no one is to speak of the well ever again. If a mortal found it the repercussions could be dire,” Artifia said addressing us all.

“I agree,” Luna began. “We should never speak of this again.” No one dared argue.

“Well I am glad that is settled,” I said trying to cheer the group up.

“Thank you Artifia. Now I think that Discord and I will take our leave. We have matters that we need to attend to.” Terra turned to the draconequus and the two proceeded to leave the clearing.

“I am also leaving. You should have told us everything,” Empress sneered, and wings sprouted from her back. She took to the air, and was soon gone from sight.

“I have a banquet that I need to get to,” Porosis announced, and also took to the air.

I turned to the two alicorns that had remained with us, and hoped that they would not leave like the others. Luna looked away from me, but Celestia met my eyes with some emotion that I could not place.

“Luna and I have somewhere that we need to be,” Celestia said as she lifted from the ground. After a few seconds Luna also took to the air, and proceeded to fly behind her sister. Before they were out of sight I swear I saw Luna look back to me with a tear in her eye.

I couldn’t believe it. The well was supposed to bring us all together so that we could live forever, but my friends had abandoned me. It only took a few seconds, but they had all gone their separate ways, and I doubted that it would ever be the same again. I looked to Artifia that was standing to my side not saying a word as everyone abandoned us. I took her hand causing her to look up at me.

“Come on sis. Lets go home.”

Author's Note

A/N: Sorry that this chapter took so long to get out. This ended up being a really long chapter, but i felt that I needed to get everything down. I did leave out a lot of things that happened back in the past, but explaining everything right now would leave nothing to be desired. In the future i may cut in scenes from this past period, but I haven't decided on that yet.

Thanks everyone for reading, and comments are much appreciated. If you want to reach me I am at connornutt@gmail.com.

Chapter 6

Twilight was stunned by what she had just been told. When she had asked where Celestia knew humans from she had not expected to find out that her mentor had once been one. What’s more, she had been unprepared to learn just how the world she lived in came to be. She sat on her rump staring at Celestia who waited patiently for her to organize her thoughts. It took a while, but eventually Twilight was able to make words come out of her mouth.

“Is all that true Princess?” she asked knowing that Celestia would never lie to her.

“I am afraid it is Twilight.” The white alicorn bowed her head looking ashamed. “I have hidden this from ponykind for so many years. I was afraid of what would happen if everypony learned of this. It has been such a burden all these years and it feels like a heavy weight off my shoulders to tell you. I trust you Twilight, and know that you won't go spreading this information. That is why I can trust you with this secret.”

“Ha.” The laugh caught both Celestia and Twilight off guard and they turned to its origin. Against the wall Apollo stood eating an apple, and looking thoroughly amused. “You told her because you knew that eventually she would find out, and you wanted it to be from you.” He took another bite, and then chucked the core to the back of the throne room.

“Do you have to always intrude on others private conversations?” Celestia asked rising from her throne.

“That is like asking if you always have to raise the sun in the morning, which by the way you wouldn’t have to do if we followed my original design,” he countered.

“Princess who is this?” Twilight asked as she moved alongside her mentor.

“This is…”

“My name is Apollo, and it is a pleasure to make your acquaintance.” He moved away from the wall and proceeded over to the two ponies standing near the throne.

“That same one from the story I assume.” To her credit Twilight didn’t back away from him.

“The one and only,” he confirmed.

Celestia took a step in front of Twilight shielding her from the man. “What have you done with the human?”

“Oh him? I am sure that he will make his way back to you in no time so don’t worry about that. What I would rather talk about is Twilight here. I assume that she is the one that summoned the human to the world. Well I guess I don’t have to assume do I? Or guess for that matter.” A smile found its way to his lips. “Tell me young mare what frequency did you attune the spell to in order to reach that planet?”

“91.7623 Arcanohertz.” Twilight answered, but quickly placed a hoof to her lips.

“Interesting.” Apollo placed a hand to his hand to his chin and contemplated the information.

“You will not harass my student.” Celestia informed him as she drew herself to her full height.

“I wouldn’t dream of it. You always were so protective of your ponies. It has driven you to do some very… extreme things in the past.” His smile vanished instantly. “You should ask her about the parts she left out,” he said once again turning to Twilight.

“What did I just say?” Celestia placed a wing between the two.

“You will not harass my student.” Apollo’s impersonation of Celestia was dead-on. “Moving forwards. I was hoping to find out if you have been keeping the elements of harmony safe.”

“They are in the safest place possible. Why would you bring up the elements?”

“No reason really. Recent events have just gotten me worried about the state of the world and what not. I know that seems really out of character for me, but I had a hand in shaping things,” Apollo explained.

“I find that incredibly unlikely,” Celestia deadpanned.

“Well we did get the Elements of Harmony to you in the first place so you can’t truly say that I don’t care can you?” he countered.

“You were the one that gave the elements to the princess?” Twilight asked moving out from behind Celestia.

“Not me exactly, but I had a role in it,” he answered garnering a glare from the white alicorn.

Silence fell over the throne room, as the three standing in it didn’t know what to say next. Apollo had gotten all of the information that he had come for so he didn’t have anything else to say. Celestia hated talking to him so she wasn’t about to start up the conversation either. Twilight was afraid of the repercussions of ignoring her mentor and engaging the ancient being. They were thankfully saved as another decided to enter the throne room.

All eyes turned to Luna as she strode into the throne room, and stopped in her tracks. Twilight was the only one unable to hear her swear under her breath as she caught sight of Apollo standing in the middle of the room. She rolled her eyes and walked over to the group in the middle of the room.

“Another visit from you, and so soon after your last. What special occasion is there to warrant this?” Luna addressed the cloaked figure.

“He has taken the human to some undisclosed location,” Celestia answered for him.

“Only temporarily I assure you,” Apollo defended.

“Temporarily from you can have several meanings. You could mean that you will only be in possession of him for a short time before he expires. You could mean that you gave him to somepony else. You could mean that he will only temporarily be human, and the next time we see him he could be a chicken or something.” Luna never took her eyes off him as she spoke.

“You know me so well Luna, but in this case your mistrust is not warranted. He will be back in this throne room in a matter of hours I promise.”

“I will hold you to that,” Luna said as she turned away from him so that she could address her sister. “I came to tell you that it was time for us to lower the sun.”

“Thank you, I believe that it is time that we get going then.” Celestia turned and gave Apollo another glare.

“I get it. I get it. I know when I am not wanted,” he began to walk to the doors of the throne room, but stopped abruptly. “I just remembered something else I wanted to ask your student about.”

Celestia rolled her eyes, but allowed Twilight to walk over to him. Twilight was hesitant as she stepped past the white alicorn, but picked up her pace so that she could get this over with quickly. Apollo didn’t seem particularly respectful of Celestia, but they were peers of a kind so he may not have had the same reverence for her that she did. Something about him just did not sit well with Twilight, but she couldn’t quite place it.

“What did you want to know?” Twilight asked as she stopped to look up at him.

“I heard that you can teleport. Is that true?” he said looking down at her.

“Yes, I can teleport. What of it?” Twilight wasn’t exactly sure where this was going.

“Did you know that in the history of this universe there have only ever been two being capable of teleportation? With the inclusion of you I suppose that would make three. I just find that tidbit of information to be very interesting.” Apollo smiled at Twilight and then turned to make his exit. “You might want to cook up a good amount of meat. I have a feeling that you will have a very angry dragon pay you a visit soon.” With that he turned to smoke and was gone.

Twilight turned back to Celestia to ask her about what he meant, but found that Celestia was talking in a hushed tone to her sister. Not wanting to interrupt Twilight quietly made her way out of the throne room so that she could go find Rarity. She had been speaking with the princess for several hours, and hadn’t seen Rarity since this morning. She hoped that her friend and her sisters were having a nice stay in Canterlot.

Thinking about the three unicorns tickled something in the back of Twilight’s mind. It was like the same feeling that she got when she was looking at Apollo. She couldn’t exactly place what the feeling was, but she knew that it wasn’t something good. She shrugged it off, and continued to walk towards the room she knew Rarity was staying in.

__________________________________________________________________________

Nighttime did not suit the library very well. For one the aisles were dimly lit by the lamplight that beamed from the walls. The ancient lanterns were magically enchanted to shine with enough light to read by, but the years had not been gentle to them. Now, one could barely make out the title of a book without a light source of their own. Luckily, Pristine had such a light as she scoured the various shelves for the book she was trying to find.

She had spent hours in the library searching for anything that had to do with this Porosis figure, but so far she had found nothing. She wished that she could be out playing with the other unicorn filly that she had come to Canterlot with, but her sister told her that she needed to stay here and continue looking.

Searching through the books and finding nothing felt to Pristine like waiting for something to happen, and you never knew if it would or not. Pristine didn’t mind waiting. She had waited a very long time for things while she was a statue. This was actually the first time that she had ever been allowed to walk around on her own, and she loved every second of it.

Apathy said that she could play as much as she wanted as long as she found something. Pristine really wanted to go play, but just being alive was enough for her. She had spent years running around in their mind, but nothing could compare to the feelings of the book covers in her hooves or the smell of the old pages.

A small part of her was sad that her sister had never known the feelings that she was experiencing like she had. Bre had never walked around on her own, but she seemed happy that Pristine was able to. Bre had always taken care of her so well, and made sure that she hadn’t lost herself over the endless centuries. When they were first turned to stone there had been twenty-three of them. Now only five remained.

She used to have ponies her own age to play with, but they all disappeared one after another. Prisitne didn’t think that she would still be her if her sister hadn’t helped her out. She wanted to find a way to make sure that Bre would be able to walk around in the real world, and have the same exhilarating feeling that she did. First though, she would need to find a book on this guy.

Pristine was beginning to get frustrated since this was the very last bookshelf in the library, and it also didn’t have anything on this pony. It had taken her nearly two days, but she had eventually searched every single shelf in the library, and nothing even remotely close to what she was looking for could be found.

“What is the problem, Pris?”

“It is nothing, A I will find it.”

“You had better or else we will have to take over.”

Pristine’s breath quickened when she thought of being shoved back into her mind and not being able to walk around anymore. She knew that she had loved being able to have a body, but now that A was threatening it she was beginning to grow worried. Would she ever be able to come out again if A took this away from her right now?

Pristine ran back to the first bookshelf that she had checked since she came to the library. It sat in the front, and contained an assortment of children’s books. She knew that it was pointless to try and find the book she was looking for here, but she searched anyways. As she looked over the very last book on the shelf her heart sank.

She quickly dashed to the next shelf in line, which held more books for young foals. Her search once again bore no fruit, and she continued to move down the line. One after another she was once again greeted with disappointment as the shelves held nothing for her to bring back to A. When the hopelessness finally set in she did the only thing that a foal her age could do. She began to cry.

Her tears hit the floor of the dark and dank library, and she sniffed softly. This was the first time that she had actually cried, and now she could see why Spite hated it so much. Spite had told her that if she ever cried then it was admitting defeat. Right now Pris could not argue with that. She sat in the aisle of the library completely defeated, and she knew that soon she would no longer be able to walk around on her own.

In mere moments Apathy would see that she had failed, and take away her body from her. Pris would once again be thrown back into their collective mind where she would probably remain for years before she ever had another opportunity to live again. A life in that mind could not be considered a real life. Even with Bre trying to keep her sane Pris doubted that she would be able to keep it together after experiencing the real world.

The sound of hoofsteps brought Pris out of her thoughts and back to reality. She looked up to see an old red unicorn looking down at her. She wiped a tear away from her eye and picked herself up off the ground. She realized that she had seen this stallion before. He was the librarian of the library. She didn’t know why he was at the library so late at night.

“What are you doing in here so late at night child?” he asked as she got to her hooves.

“I was looking for a book, but I can’t find it.” Pristine wiped a tear from her eyes.

“Well it’s no wonder that you can’t find anything. You can hardly see by this light. Come on I will take you back to your room.” Quick Wit moved to escort her out of the library, but she pulled away.

“No! I can’t leave. I have to find it or I will be in big trouble.” Quick Wit was not unaccustomed to dealing with small children, and it was his experience that if a child didn’t get something they really wanted they were prone to throw fits. He definitely didn’t want to deal with a tantrum this late at night, and all by himself, so he decided that it would be best if he tried to help out the young filly.

“I am the librarian so I would probably be able to find any book that you are looking for. Just tell me what it is about, and I can get it for you lickity split. Then we can return you to your room and nopony will get in trouble.”

“I don’t know the name of it, but it is about some pony named Porosis. I have looked through all of the bookshelves in the library and I can’t find anything.” Pristine’s eyes began to water again.

“I can’t say that I have ever heard of this Porosis character, but this is the most extensive library in all of Equestria. If there is a book about anything then it can be found here. If you couldn’t find it on any of the shelves then it is likely that it could be in the sealed archives.”

“Can you please show me?” Pristine begged.

“I am sorry, but you have to get special permission to access the sealed archives. Not just anypony can stroll in there. Those books are sealed away for a reason.”

“Is that so?” Pristine’s voice became deep, and her coat started to turn black. Wings sprouted from her sides and she began to grow rapidly. His mane hung limply to one side, and he stared straight into Quick Wit’s eyes. The elderly stallion looked absolutely horrified by what took place in front of him, but after a few moments the look of terror dissipated and was replaced by complacency.

“You will take me to the sealed archives.” Malitia commanded the librarian causing him to rouse from his stupor.

“Yes my Prince.” Quick Wit gave a bow and rushed back to his desk. Malitia lazily followed the frantic librarian who was trying to find his key to the archives as quickly as possible. He had memories of how horrible his prince could be when he did not receive what he wanted. He did not want to have his head mounted on a pike in front of the castle like so many ponies before him.

The key flew into the air as soon as the drawer it rested in was opened. Quick Wit turned to show his prince that he had the key, but Prince Malitia only looked bored. Boredom was not something that Quick Wit wanted his prince to be. He did very terrible things just to alleviate boredom.

The elderly stallion moved as quickly as his old bones would allow to the back of the library where the hidden passage to the sealed archives lay. He hit the wall with the magic key a little too hard, and the passage began to open. He turned back to see the black alicorn making his way over and bowed his head in subservience.

He remembered past times when he had met with the prince and how he dreaded ever upsetting him. He had once seen a mare sentenced to life in prison for dropping a cup of tea in his presence. Ever since that day he had gone out of his way to never set anything near the edge of a table. Now he bowed his head hoping that he would be spared his monarch’s wrath. He listened as the black alicorn stepped up beside him and peered into the stairwell.

Malitia began to descend the stairs without giving the librarian a second glance. He knew that once the red stallion was under his influence that he had nothing to fear from him. He had rewritten many of his memories in order to ensure his undying loyalty. The changes would last for many hours before the librarian would forget completely that he had ever met a black alicorn.

The wall began to close behind Malitia so he lit the torches that lined the staircase. The luminance was more than what had been in the open section of the library. The trip down the stairs was relatively short, and Malitia felt something pulling him to the books. The tug that he could feel in his mind was definitely magic, but he had idea where the source of the spell was.

He decided that he would follow the pull, and find where it would take him. The dark alicorn passed many shelves littered with ancient tomes dedicated to some dark art or rewritten history. He was not so naïve to believe everything that he had been told as a foal. Even if he had never actually lived as a foal himself.

He had the memories of growing up in many different eras, and he knew that none of those memories had actually been real. All the other ponies that he shared a body with had their own set of false memories, but he had all of them floating around in his mind. He remembered growing up with a sister and being both the younger and the older of the two. He knew that Apathy was not really a relative of his, but treated him as an older brother. He knew the horrible past that Spite remembered but never truly lived.

Being imprisoned in stone for centuries had caused these memories to become more and more vivid, and now they pressed on him all the time. Most of the ponies that had initially been with them since the breaking had gone mad and lost themselves to their own memories. Malitia had to endure all of their minds buzzing together, and he had nearly lost himself multiple times. It had been Apathy that had saved him on more than one occasion from himself, and for that he allowed her to call him brother.

Her real brother had lost himself to the madness, and she was unable to accept it. Contrary to her name she was a deeply emotional pony who needed an anchor to keep her together. That is what they were for each other. Each one anchored the other to reality and kept them sane. The same could be said for Pristine and Bre. Spite was the only one that remained alone, but she had her anger to keep her grounded. Finding something to keep you together had proven to be the most important part of their existence so far.

Malitia reached the last bookshelf where he felt the magic pulling him. The light in the room was dim enough for him to see a faint blue glow coming from one of the books on the top shelf. With his magic the dark alicorn pulled the book from its place and floated it in front of him. ‘Order and Chaos’ was its title, and he opened it so that he might read its secrets. It took only a few moments for Malitia to find exactly what he was looking for and a smile began to spread across his face. This would do just fine.

__________________________________________________________________________

I was tossed into the throne room, and was polite enough to open the doors for my captor with my head. Once again I was reunited with the floor who I hadn’t seen in at least a couple of hours. Oh floor we really must stop meeting like this. I struggled against my bindings in vain hoping that my impact against the massive wooden doors had loosened them. It had not.

I was immediately surrounded by guards who mistook my flying into the throne room for some kind of attack. At least they put some distance between me and the snarling woman that walked into the room behind me. I felt that it was safe to say that she was the angriest creature in the entire world. Her hair was made of green fire, and her hands were very sharp talons. I had been made aware of just how sharp they were during her interrogation.

I was grateful that my body had toughened a good amount since I had been dropped in this world. At least whatever it was that kept me from talking hadn’t lessened the other attributes that Apollo had made me aware of. It seemed that while I was here I would live for a very very long time and I would also be stronger than most anything.

I was made aware of just how strong a body I would need as Empress tossed me around her throne room when she found me intruding. I hadn’t even gotten a chance to explain why I was trespassing before my body left a deep crater in one of the walls. After a thorough interrogation I had been bound and brought back to Canterlot.

Luna seemed a little distressed to find me lying on the ground in front of her trussed up like a turkey, but she moved past it to the fuming dragon lady behind me. I was not sure if Empress could ever become less angry or if she could only ever get angrier. Since finding me she had been gradually building herself up to a point where I thought that her head would simply explode and kill us all. Instead her flaming hair just burned brighter and brighter until it was almost white.

“Empress what is the meaning of this?” Luna demanded. The guards took a hesitant step back, which was a very good idea on their part.

“I found this human in my throne room! I thought that I told you and your sister to deal with this problem not move it to my domain!” Empress took a step toward the blue alicorn, and her guards immediately sprang between them. Even in Equestria it seemed that ponies were willing to die for their causes.

Luna turned and looked down at me. Undoubtedly I was not a very pleasant sight. I had multiple lacerations across my chest and back as well as many bruises. Luna seemed to note my pain before she turned back to the Queen of Dragons.

“He was taken away from the castle, and we have not seen him since. It would seem that Apollo was right in knowing that you would bring him back. Though I doubt he expected you to torture him first.” Luna’s horn glowed and my bonds snapped. It took me a moment to get to my feet but eventually I managed it. I quickly got behind Luna like a child hiding behind its mother from a monster. By every definition of the word I believed that Empress was in fact a monster.

“I did not torture the human. I merely demonstrated the risk that comes with entering a dragon’s territory. Had he been found by any of my kin he no doubt would not have survived.”

Apparently she thought of herself as a philanthropist. That could not be further from the truth, but I was not exactly brave enough to point that out. Luna wisely also didn’t contradict her on the matter.

“Well you have returned him and for that I thank you. Now if you would be so kind as to take your leave…”

“I will do no such thing before I talk with your sister. She has to answer for allowing this invasion on my lands.” Empress’ hair began to grow brighter. I was surprised that she was able to keep her voice even.

“My sister is resting from an exhausting day. If you wish to speak with her then you will have to come back at morning.” Luna kept her stoic expression from slipping though I doubt that she wasn’t very annoyed.

“You will wake her now!” Empress screamed causing me to leap back some more. It seemed that I was the only one in the room cowardly enough to jump away like a little girl. Then again I was the only one in the room that Empress had taken the time to extract information from in the most painful way she could find.

“I will not wake my sister for your convenience. I have been courteous so far about your reckless harm of a creature under Equestrian protection, but if you demand further from me I will pursue this matter. Now leave my castle, and do not return until you can be civil,” Luna said causing the Dragon Queen to stop her ranting.

Empress took a long breath, and for a moment I thought that she would leap at the alicorn and a massive battle would break out. Eventually, she turned and walked from the room. On her way out her tail snapped against one of the massive doors and shook it off its hinges. The wood crashed to the ground and many of the guards had to dive out of the way to avoid being crushed under it. If she could do something like that with a flick of her tail then she must really have been taking it easy on me.

The sound of her leaping through an expensive window signaled that she had finally left the castle, and caused me to sink to my knees. My day had been thoroughly exhausting, and it was good for it to finally be at an end. At least I was hoping that more awful things wouldn’t happen between now and the time that I would get to sleep in my bed.

Luna bent down and examined my injuries further. I could tell that she really did not like Empress, but she probably wasn’t able to do anything about it because of politics. If there was one thing that I knew that I shouldn’t think about it was politics. Back in my own world the way that the government ran was confusing enough, and I didn’t need to learn a whole new set of rules.

“Do you need a doctor to take a look at those?” the princess asked me motioning to the cuts across my chest. The lacerations were healing quickly, and were almost completely closed. I figured that given another hour or two they would be completely gone, though I might have a scar or two. I shook my head, but Luna’s troubled expression did not leave her face.

“Are you sure?” I got to my feet a lot easier this time and waved her off. I knew that she was only being sympathetic, and that seeing a doctor might be very helpful. Still, I felt hesitant about having medical ponies try and figure out anything about me.

I slowly made my way to the one remaining door that stood in the archway, and almost fell. Man I felt weak. Luckily the princess was kind enough to catch me, and push her body next to mine for support. Had she been a human woman then I might have felt awkward, but as it was I was grateful for the assistance.

We slowly made our way through the halls back towards my room that I had been given to stay in. A troop of guards followed us step for step never getting too close, but also never letting the princess be more than a second away. They must have lived their whole lives learning exactly how to walk behind the royalty.

“I am sorry for how you were treated,” Luna said and I could hear the sincerity in her voice. I was also very sorry for the way that I had been treated while in the custody of the draconian empire.

When I had first been told about this world, and came to see it first hand the entire country seemed too utopian. I could not believe that such a place exist that many of the vices that we have to live with day to day do not exist here. That was not entirely true. The vices exist in this world just as they do in any civilization, but here in Equestria they don’t seem to be over indulged.

At first it was almost frightening how good all the ponies seemed to be towards one another, but now that I had been told the past of this world I could understand it. The ponies had been created by their rulers, and watched over through their entire history. I wonder how humanity would have turned out if our creator sat on a throne, and handed out commandments directly to us.

Philosophy is not one of my strong suits so such a world was out of my mental grasp. I do think that there would be a lot more order if such a thing had occurred. Harmony is what I had been told defeated the greatest threats that Equestria ever faced, and harmony is exactly what sat at the center of the society. The ponies in Equestria didn’t all get along perfectly, but they were tolerant enough of each other’s differences. They accepted one another and learned to live in harmony with each other.

Draconia on the other hand was far different from Equestria. The parts that I had seen while I was being hauled back to Canterlot made me cringe. The dragons fought each other for no reason other than to fight. They seemed to live just to prove who was the strongest amongst them, and would try to crush all opposition under foot. I had read of such barbarism in history books, and those cultures always came to a violent end.

The dragon empire had existed for thousands of years though, and the dragons themselves lived for hundreds of years. With such life spans it is not surprising that their culture would be so unchanging. Draconia bordered Equestria yet their citizens were so different. I couldn’t help but wonder what the princesses had to do in the past to keep the peace. Had they themselves fought off foes to keep their country safe? Had Equestria ever seen war?

The door to my room was still ajar, and we entered easily enough. Luna had remained quiet for the remainder of the journey allowing me to lose myself in thought. This was a time that I was glad of my ability to lose myself as it dulled the pain. Getting into the soft bed was very easy, and I fell onto the mattress hard. Luna took a long look at me before she left closing the door behind her.

I didn’t even have time to take off my shoes as sleep came to me. If I had ever been glad to lose myself in blackness it was now. The morning was quickly approaching, but I felt that I would be sleeping in for a while tonight. Whatever adventure tomorrow would bring would have to wait a couple of hours.

________________________________________________________________________

The hidden passage to the catacombs beneath the Canterlot castle was difficult to find, but with the book leading him Malitia had little trouble. Just as had been described the gems that protruded from the walls were dazzling. The book had told of many ponies that had wasted their lives away trying to extracts the rare stones from the walls and hoard them in their homes.

Malitia could admit that there were in fact beautiful, but he didn’t want to possess them. He didn’t see the point in taking rare things into his possession when he could simply create them or confiscate them whenever he wished. Some ponies in Equestria were absolutely consumed with material desire, and it stopped them from ascending higher. These were the things that he wished to free ponykind from in the future. First however, he would need to free Porosis so that is debt to Discord would be complete.

Apollo had given up that freeing Porosis would eventually lead to Discord being set free so all he needed to do was topple the first domino. The only light that Malitia could see as he walked the dark tunnels were the reflection of his magic light off of the shining surfaces that speckled the walls. He had memories of visiting a carnival far in the past where he had gotten lost in a house of mirrors.

The cave had far less twists and turns than the mirror house had, but it was also far larger. The book that he levitated in front of him shed little light on the exact whereabouts of the captive he had come to save. All he had been able to glean was a vague description of what he looked like, and that he was hidden away deep in the cave.

The only thing that he could do was continue onwards and hope that he would not accidentally pass him by. Porosis carefully made his way forwards being wary of traps that may lie ahead. This was a dark place and nopony knew that he was down here so were he to fall into some hidden trap he would never be found. It was inconceivable that a pony as powerful as he was would fall victim to some ancient device, and be left helpless in the dark, but he didn’t want to take any chances.

As he rounded a corner he caught a flash of light reflect off a gem deeper into the cave. The flash had been red which contrasted with his blue light. He knew that he was drawing nearer. Malatia picked up his pace as he made his way toward where he had seen the light coming from. A few minutes later he had reached his destination, and before him stood a winged zebra made entirely out of diamonds.

No, he was not made out of diamonds, but had instead been turned into one solid gem. This is what had happened in the final battle against Discord, or at least that is what the book he had informed him. Porosis had been one of the old gods that ruled over the world, and Discord had done this to him. He wasn’t aware of what had caused the two eldritch beings to wage war against one another, but if he had been more thorough in his reading he would know the full repercussions of unleashing Porosis once again upon the world. The only information that he had pulled from the book had been towards the end, and told of how the winged zebra had landed himself in this state.

Malitia didn’t waste any time as he began to etch the runes necessary to break the spell into the ground around the glowing red diamond. The light that was given off was meant to be a warning to the danger that was trapped here, but it went ignored. The black alicorn was far too focused on his task to worry about a potential evil that he may be unleashing.

The book had given very specific details of how exactly the final battle had gone. It was also helpful in describing the exact spell was cast upon Porosis, and from that any half intelligent mage could create a counter spell. Celestia had been wise to hide this information away from the general populace, but perhaps she should have taken more precaution.

It had been millennia since anypony in the world had even heard the name Porosis, and all context of him had been thoroughly expunged from the histories. Celestia herself had probably nearly forgotten all about the evil being locked away in her basement.

Malitia finished the last of the runes that he needed in order to break the sealing spell. Everything was exactly in place, and the rest of the ritual would be easy. It would take all of his magical strength in order to break the spell, and he figured that Apollo had been right in saying he would be unable to free Discord. He didn’t know how strong the spell that the Elements of Harmony had put on the draconequus, but seeing how this one was millennia old and he would need all his power to break it he doubted that he would have been able to free Discord at this time.

Malitia stepped away from the imprisoned god and began to chant the words required to break the spell. At first nothing happened, but one at a time the runes on the ground began to glow violet. In a matter of seconds they were all lit and pulsing with energy. The light in the cavern grew brighter and brighter until it was almost blinding. A crack broke across Porosis’ chest.

Chapter 7

Half sleep is perhaps, the best time of day. When you just lie in bed, and become aware that you are no longer dreaming, but don’t feel completely awake yet. Your brain can still create images so vivid that you think you are still in a dream. You know that if you dare to open your eyes then the spell will be over, and full consciousness will descend upon you.

I laid in the bed, not wanting to get up, but knowing that I should. I could not really recall what I had been dreaming about previously, but images of people began to dance before me. I saw Apollo handing me a golden apple, but as soon as I took it, the apple turned to dust in my hand. Empress smiled down at me with a whip that she cracked in the air. Celestia and Luna sat at a poker table, playing each other for a stuffed animal.

Then they all came together at the table, and began to play chess. I wasn’t exactly certain how you could play chess with four different people, but dreams never really need to make sense. Three different levels of the board appeared above the first, and all four began to play in three-dimensional space.

Empress was the first to fall, as Celestia easily captured her king. She raged and tried to flip the table, but was unable to budge it. In a flash of green fire she disappeared from the room, leaving the three behind to continue their game.

Celestia made a careless mistake and was taken down by her own sister. She looked betrayed, and a tear fell from her eye. She bowed her head and was also gone as fire consumed her.

The only two left were Apollo and Luna, and they seemed to be equally matched. Each move was countered, and neither could take a piece from the other. Eventually Apollo gained the upper hand, and began to march against Luna. One by one her pieces fell to the dark man, and he gently placed them on the table.

He set them aside in neat rows with tender care. Every time he would conquer a new piece he would scoop it up carefully and set it in its place. He did not look happy to be winning, in fact each piece he took seemed to bring him despair. Finally he had positioned Luna in checkmate, and she balked at the board. It seemed that she had no idea how she could possibly lose, but she had.

Then Apollo stretched out his hand, and knocked over his own king. Luna saw that he had conceded the game to her tried to ask why, but no words came from her mouth. He sat back in his chair, and smiled at her as the room began to grow darker. The shadows jumped from the walls and swarmed all over him, but he did not struggle against them. He continued to smile as he was dragged away into oblivion leaving the princess of the night all by herself at the table. That was when I decided to wake up.

I opened my eyes and looked around the room, knowing that this time I would find nobody waiting for me. For once I was completely alone upon awakening. I had only been in Equestria for a few days, but already it felt as though I had no privacy. Back home I had nothing but alone time.

I pulled the comforter off myself, and noticed that the cuts and bruises that had been on my arms had disappeared. In fact, I could not recall a time that I had ever felt so good. It felt like pure energy was coursing through my veins, and I could leap into the air and fly if I wanted to. For all I knew I could.

I realized that someone had come in while I was sleeping and tucked me in, since I had been too exhausted to do it myself. A mixture of concern and shyness rose in my gut, but I suppressed it. It was probably one of the maids that worked in the castle, and I had no reason to feel either.

I slid out of the bed, and looked around the room. There was a tray of apples resting on the table in the center of the room. It was then that I noticed exactly how hungry I was, and I crossed the room so I could devour them as quickly as possible. As far as apples went, they had to be the greatest apples that had ever been grown.

Back home whenever I bit into one of the juicy fruits I would be delighted by the sugary taste, but it would eventually leave a nasty aftertaste. These however, weren’t any more sugary than the ones on earth, but made me feel better when I took a bite. Maybe there was some sort of addictive substance in them. I didn’t really care, since I had as many as I could possibly eat.

The apples went down with ease, and left me feeling satisfied. I stood from the chair that I was seated in, and tried to think of something to do. I had explored many of the halls in the castle so there was no shortage of ideas. I could go and play some tennis in the gardens. I could go look at the art gallery or check out the library again.

I looked again at my shirt that was ripped in several places. My favorite hoodie was completely ruined, and I would need to find a new one. It started to dawn on me that with my clothing utterly destroyed, I would have nothing to wear. Rarity had said that she was making me a suit. I wondered if I could ask her to make me something more casual.

I didn’t exactly want to take advantage of the very generous mare, but I didn’t see many other options. Here I was stuck, on an alien planet with no way to acquire new clothing, other than asking the only fashion pony that I knew.

Either way I needed to pay her a visit, and pick up the suit that she had generously offered to make me. I opened the door, and stepped out into the hallway where two guards were standing outside my door. As I exited they looked up at me for a long while, before turning back to staring straight forwards. I honestly could not imagine a job that would be more boring than standing in place, and doing nothing all day.

They probably only stood there for a few hours at a time, but it was hard to put myself in their shoes since my attention span is so short. My own ability to focus was incredibly underdeveloped, and I could only take up any given task for a few minutes before becoming distracted.

I walked once again through the magnificently decorated hallways of the castle. Every wall was white, and lacked any sort of blemish. How many ponies were needed to keep the walls in such a pristine order? The castle itself was huge, and there wasn’t a speck of dirt to be found anywhere. Maybe, there was some magic that was being used to keep anything from getting dirty. More likely, the cleaning staff was just incredibly dedicated.

Everypony that I had seen in the castle so far seemed to be incredibly dedicated to their jobs. The guards were at all times stoic and reserved, and the servants had all been well mannered and respectful. The librarian that I had met was kind and helpful as well. I hadn’t met any of the cooking staff, but I am sure that they too would be completely professional.

It was likely, a huge honor to be allowed to work in the castle for the royal sisters themselves. I could hardly imagine, the kind of scrutiny that each pony that worked in the castle must be under. Back home, those that guarded the king were always being investigated. I wondered if it was the same for the ponies that I had seen guarding the princesses.

I quickly arrived at Rarity’s room, and noticed that there was a lack of guards standing outside. I guess me being a strange creature from a different world, is what had warranted them to be waiting outside my door. I knocked at the door, and heard movement from the other side. A moment later a white unicorn was looking up at me as the door opened.

“Well it is about time you got here.” Rarity turned away and walked into the room. I took the hint and followed her inside; she seemed very put off that I was a day late.

“You know that I worked very hard on this suit, and was hoping that you would arrive yesterday to pick it up. I waited for you all yesterday, and you have the gall to show up today like nothing happened.” She rounded on me causing me to back up a bit. I wasn’t sure, but I had the sneaking suspicion that she wasn’t just mad about me being late.

Rarity continued glaring at me for a moment, before she sighed, and continued into the room. “I’m sorry I don’t mean to be rude. It’s not you that I am mad at,” knew it. “It is Sweetie Belle. She disappeared all last night, and never even told me where she was.” Now that she mentioned it, Rarity did look slightly less fabulous than usual. Her mane wasn’t as perfectly styled as it often was, and she had bags under her eyes. I didn’t think that she slept at all last night.

“Anyways, your suit is over here. I finished it on time as I had promised.” She led me over to a mannequin that was wearing the most finely tailored suit I had ever seen.

It was black, and had subtle lines running vertically down, which I have been told are very slimming. When I felt the fabric it was soft, almost like silk, I could tell that it would breath well. A “D” was embroidered in what appeared to be rubies on the jacket pocket. The slacks matched the lines running down the jacket perfectly, and looked to be made of the same soft material. Rarity had even gone through the trouble of making a dress shirt, which was a red that matched the rubies on the jacket perfectly. The tie was lavender, and folded perfectly into the jacket.

After I finished admiring the jacket, I noticed that the mannequin it was on was distinctly not a pony. At some point, it seemed that Rarity had gone through the trouble of making a humanoid mannequin. Was there anything that she couldn’t do?

“Well go ahead and try it on.” She prodded me, and I walked up to the glorious suit. I carefully removed it from the mannequin, and held up the jacket. I turned back to Rarity and motioned for her to leave.

“Oh yes, where are my manners.” She walked to the door, and left the room. I removed my shirt and pants, and began to assemble the suit. I was glad that I would finally be out of my raggedy clothes.

When I had it on I was even more impressed by how well it fit. I have heard of clothing fitting like a glove, but this truly did. Rarity was an amazing seamstress, and if I could pay her for her work I would. I walked back to the door and knocked on it a few times to signal that she could enter.

She opened the door, and came back into the room. When she looked at me she stopped, and gasped, which caught me a little off guard.

“You look absolutely dashing in that suit.” I probably blushed a little at the complement. I wasn’t exactly used to being called dashing. “Oh yes.” She rushed over to the desk that was in the room, and began to dig through the drawers.

She retrieved a small case, and floated it behind her as she made her way back over to me. She held up the case in front of me, and opened it with her magic. Inside rested two golden cuff links that also had a capital D on them. She offered the cufflinks to me, and I hesitantly took them.

She saw my hesitation, and cut off any objection that I might have about accepting the gift. “Don’t worry about those, I had a nice stallion who owed me a favor procure them for me.” With an explanation that I was so willing to buy, I buttoned them cufflinks, and walked to the mirror to admire myself.

She was right I did look a lot better in the suit. I am not exactly a vain person, but I knew that I looked at least five times better than usual. Maybe the clothes do actually make the man. I turned back around to thank Rarity, but noticed that she was occupied looking at my raggedy clothes, which were lying on the floor.

“Darling what have you done to your clothes?” She levitated my shirt into the air, and looked at me through a large hole that was in the back. “Did you burn a hole through your shirt?”

____________________________________________________________________________

Malitia fell to the floor of the cave. He breathed heavily, and felt sweat fall from his brow to the cave floor. Apollo had not lied, a real god would not tire like he had, and certainly wouldn’t show it if they did. Hours had passed; he had lost count of exactly how many. There was no way to tell time in the dark cavern.

He looked up from where he laid on the cave floor to where the diamond that imprisoned Porosis had stood. He had succeeded, and the diamond prison had been destroyed. All that stood in the center of his spell was a winged zebra.

Porosis stood much taller than any zebra, and his wingspan was even larger than that of the black alicorn. One would have assumed that you could feel evil seep from him, which would have justified his continued imprisonment in the bowels of Canterlot. Malitia did not however; instead coldness was all he could sense when looking at the freed god.

Porosis stood perfectly still; he could not even be seen breathing. He looked like a sculpture, or the greatest statue that had ever been created. He represented order and stability at their height, and just like order, he was cruel.

With a move more skilled than any artist, and more graceful than the greatest dancer, he turned his head and looked down at the exhausted alicorn. His face was the absolute picture of stoicism, as he slowly walked to where Malitia laid.

He reached the alicorn, and continued to stare down at him. His eyes were completely blank. They lacked a pupil or iris; they were black and dead. With the most deliberate of motions he lifted a hoof above Malitia’s head.

Fear shot across the face of the black alicorn, and he struggled to move away. His legs kicked the air, but he was unable to move. He could not break his gaze from the dark figure that loomed over him. His black eyes kept him firmly rooted in place.

“Abomination.”

With a strike that shook the very foundation of the city, he brought his hoof down. He looked away from what he had done, and left the chamber.

___________________________________________________________________________

When I thought about it, the fact that ponies even had chairs to sit in baffled me. Would they not be just as comfortable standing? Maybe it had something to do with taking a load off after a long day. Still, that they had created chairs was something I could not comprehend.

I sat at a very long table in what I was told was the “Royal Dining Hall” while several ponies mingled around me. Apparently, I had been invited to the weekly dinner where all of the aristocrats gathered to speak with the princesses informally. Initially, the ponies had been very wary of me, and still seemed to be. They had lightened up though, and decided to go about their business as usual.

When I did decide to eavesdrop on some of the conversations I found that they were most often discussing just what I was, which didn’t surprise me in the least. Opinions ranged from a monster from the Everfree Forest to Celestia’s new pet. I honestly didn’t care what they thought I just wished that the food would get here already.

When I looked to the head of the table I saw that Celestia looked as bored as I felt. She rested her head on a hoof while some aristocrat talked her ear off. She would give him a small nod every now and then. She probably wouldn’t be as impolite as to shoo him away if he annoyed her too much. Because of her fine manners the stallion continued to talk to his hearts content.

Twilight wasn’t sitting at the table; instead she was talking with a white stallion in a guard uniform near the door. He was taller than most of the ponies that I had seen so far, and his mane was two different shades of blue. I wondered what their relationship was exactly.

Luna had not made her grand appearance yet, which was the reason that none of the food had been served. Apparently, it was considered rude to go and wake the Princess of the Night so that we might eat dinner. I had half a mind to go do exactly that. But, since I didn’t actually know where her room was, and since I had no way of asking, I continued to sit at the table bored and hungry.

Out of habit I started to rap my fingers on the tabletop. This dinner was held at nearly ten at night, and I hadn’t eaten since I woke up at around noon. I have gone much longer periods without eating, but those apples left me hungry after a few hours. Everyone else didn’t seem to mind as they continued to just talk to each other.

Most likely many had eaten before they came, which was an opportunity that I would have killed for. The kitchen staff had been so afraid when they saw me stroll into the cafeteria that they had run away. Because of this I was unable to have anything all day.

I was actually surprised that Luna had not yet joined us. Shouldn’t one of the princesses know at what time the dinner that was held in their honor was? Tardiness was my second greatest pet peeve, right behind having to repeat myself. Since there was no way I would have to repeat myself while in Equestria, tardiness had moved up the list.

Being late is just something that I cannot stand. I don’t really know when I started to hate it so much, but it has gotten so bad that if there is even a small chance that I might be late for something I just won't do it. There was no clock in the room, but gauging Celestia’s deteriorating patience I guessed that we had been waiting for her sister for about forty minutes.

I noticed that the room had fallen quite. A few ponies had yet to notice that the conversations had ceased, and continued talking to one another. I shook myself out of my blank stare, and saw that everyone was looking at me.

“Can you stop that?” I looked behind me to see that Twilight was motioning to my hand. Apparently, my fingers tapping against the table had been such an odd sight that it had caught everyone’s attention.

It occurred to me that ponies weren’t exactly used to having someone with hands around. Only boredom pushed me to take advantage of this fact. I began to pop each digit on my finger as loudly as I possibly could. The looks that I got from the ponies seated at the table were priceless.

Many of the mares looked absolutely horrified, whether it at my rudeness or they thought that I was hurting myself I am not sure. The stallions looked disgusted that the princess would even allow a beast like me to sit at the table. Celestia looked mildly annoyed, and Twilight’s annoyance was significantly more advance.

The mare next to me opened her mouth to say something, but at that moment the doors to the dining hall flew open, and in walked Luna. Everyone stood from their seats, and bowed before the princess, but I wasn’t in the mood. Hunger can do some terrible things to a man.

The stallion to my left noticed that I decided to not bow before the princess, and thought he would bring it up with me. “You there,” a great way to address someone. “Bow when your princess walks into the room.”

I quirked my eyebrow, and looked down at him. I had only bowed to them earlier out of courtesy. I wasn’t from this country, which meant that they were not my sovereigns, and I didn’t have to bow to them. Now this small pony was telling me to do something, and I was already slightly agitated. It is a good thing that Luna stepped in when she did.

“He does not need to bow to me, Golden. He is not a citizen of Equestria so I am not his princess.” The stallion whose name I now knew as Golden accepted Luna’s input, and dropped the matter. The princess then turned, and walked to her seat at the head of the table next to her sister’s.

I heard a bell ring, and several servers began to quickly file into the room carrying trays of appetizers. It seemed that they had also been waiting anxiously for Luna to arrive. A plate was set before each pony at the table and myself, and then the lids were removed. Before me sat what was very obviously grass. Sure the grass had been decorated, and done up to seem fancy, but it was still grass.

Everyone at the table began to delicately eat their appetizers. Most ponies at the table were able to use magic, and they lifted their utensils into the air with practiced ease. I was surprised that the earth ponies and pegasi were able to manipulate their forks so well with their hooves. I looked back down at my dismal plate of food, and picked up a leaf.

Normally I wouldn’t even try to eat a leaf or any kind of grasses, but I was really hungry. I put the leaf into my mouth, and was immediately overwhelmed with the taste. It is really hard to describe what an inedible plant tastes like, the only word I can think for it is that it tasted, green. The leaf tasted green, and so did everything else on the plate.

Everyone else seemed to finish their “salads” fairly quickly, and waited for the next course to be served. It took me a while, but eventually I noticed that all eyes were on me once again. I once again seemed to be breaking etiquette by not finishing the food that was placed before me.

I sat back in my seat, folded my arms, and turned my nose up at the plate in front of me. Sensing my distaste a waiter quickly came over and took the food away. Another bell rang out from a place unknown, and the next set of waiters rushed into the room carrying the next course.

The next plate was set in front of everyone, and I was really hoping that I would get something edible this time. When the lids were removed a very fancy looking sandwich greeted me. Sauces decorated the plate, and flowers were placed expertly to highlight the delectable meal.

I had never eaten a sandwich that was dressed up as this one was, but everyone else at the table had started to dig in. Judging by the grins that were on several of the patron’s faces I concluded that they were satisfied with how it tasted. I picked it up and took a generous bite since I was still very hungry.

The bread was amazing, probably some sort of sourdough. There was a sauce inside that managed to taste very sweet, but also slightly spicy at the same time. The bulk of the sandwich however, was an assortment of various flowers. I spat what was I my mouth into a napkin, as politely as I could.

I opened it to see that it was in fact stuffed with daisies, and what looked to be rose petals. I sighed, and scraped the flowers off the bread with a knife. I was left with some bread and some sauce. Greedily, I devoured the bread, trying to get as much sauce on each slice as I could.

My odd behavior once again did not go unnoticed, and I had drawn the eyes of many of the ponies at the table. I pushed the plate away from me, and a waiter came to collect it again. Most of the ponies looked at me like I was behaving like some uncivilized ape wearing a suit.

Twilight had her face in her hoof, and tried to hide from everyone’s sight, no doubt feeling ashamed that she was the one who brought me here. Celestia didn’t even bother to look up from her plate at me. Luna however, gave me a smile that told me she was mildly amused.

The last bell rang and once again the waiting staff shuffled in carrying the final course. A tray was put in front of everyone, and all the lids were removed. I looked down at the plate in front of me, and noted the arrangement of colorful flowers in front of me. I decided that I wasn’t even going to bother with this course, and instead pushed my seat back and stood to leave.

All eyes were on me as I walked to the doors and quickly left the room. As I closed the doors behind me I distinctly heard several conversations begin on how outrageous my behavior had been this evening. I really didn’t care what they thought. I was a man, and a man needs to eat. I remembered having seen an orange tree in the gardens, and quickly hurried off in that direction.

___________________________________________________________________________

The cavern was still now that Porosis had left. Water dripped from the stalactites on the ceiling. The water pooled around the dead body of Malitia who had been working for hours to free his murderer.

When he knew that it was safe to move Apollo stepped from the shadows where he was hidden. Before him lay the still body of Malitia. He sighed and kneeled next to the fallen alicorn.

“Sorry about this buddy.” Quickly, Apollo jabbed his hand into the chest of the dead alicorn.

He fished around for a short time, before finding what he was looking for. Slowly and carefully he pulled out a glowing white sphere of energy. He held it in front of his eyes, and studied it. The white ball pulsed in his hand as he gazed at it. With a flick of his wrist Apollo conjured a portal in front of him, and gently placed the ball inside.

The portal vanished carrying away the white ball with it. Apollo stepped away from the dead pony on the ground in front of him. He moved back to the shadows that he had entered the cavern from.

“I guess the days of peace have come to an end.” His words echoed off of the walls of the cave, but no one was around to hear them.

____________________________________________________________________________

The night air was nice. I sat on one of the benches in the gardens enjoying an orange. Like the apples that I had eaten earlier that day, the orange was better than any had been on Earth. It was probably because the oranges and apples here were naturally grown.

Back home, everything that we grow to eat has been genetically altered to grow quicker. I had heard my grandparents telling me how much better things tasted back in their day, and this orange was probably the best evidence I would ever get to support that claim. I finished the last slice of the orange, and tossed the peel onto the ground where I had piled all of the others.

I picked up another orange that I had resting on the bench next to me. I had only eaten fruits for the entire day, but they were the best fruits I had ever had. I would probably need to get some protein in my diet soon. I feared that the ponies might frown on me eating meat so I would have to figure something else out.

I began to peel the orange, and toss the peels into the pile on the ground next to me. I looked around the garden and admired the statues and trees that littered the landscape. An elderly stallion was raking up leaves near one of the trees while whistling a catchy tune. The stars in the sky were absolutely beautiful.

I heard hoofsteps behind me and saw Luna leaving the castle and heading over. I had never seen the princess of the night in her natural realm before, but I realized then that she shouldn’t stay cooped up inside. When she stepped out into the night air her mane began to flow with the breeze, and the moonlight lit up the stars that covered it. She looked far more regal walking through the gardens then she ever did standing in the stuffy throne room.

Luna continued walking to me and stopped when she saw the orange peels lying on the ground at my feet. “I see fruits are more to your liking than flowers are.” She couldn’t help, but smile as she made her way over.

I also smiled, and looked back up at the sky. I had read and been told that she was the one that raised and lowered the moon. I had also heard that she was responsible for arranging the stars in the sky. A small part of me was pained that I was unable to ask her about it.

“I imagine that you are trying to figure out if I can do what they say I can.” She stood beside me and also looked up at the heavens. “I don’t really raise and lower the moon.” Her admission made me turn to her hoping that she would continue.

“The moon wants to make its way across the sky at night. I just help it out a little.” She smiled again, and continued to look up at the sky. “The stars though, they are what capture my eye at night. There was once someone who helped me shape the heavens long ago, but I fear that they no longer exist.” It was the slightest of movements that I could notice, but suddenly her smile became sad.

She continued to stare at the night sky for a long while. I also looked back up at the stars. I don’t know how long we just sat there, but I didn’t really care at that moment. It was nice to just sit still and enjoy the beauty that this world had to offer for a change. I had never seen so many stars in the sky before.

I had grown up in the city, where between the heavy cloud cover and the constant light pollution you were lucky to see any stars at night. Looking up at the sky now, I knew that I would never be able to count how many stars I could see.

The ground suddenly shifted, and I fell right off of the bench on my back. Hitting my head against the concrete likely caused a concussion, and I tried to get up. Luna helped me get to my feet, and I noticed that she was visibly worried. Not just about my and my minor brain injuries, but she was likely troubled by whatever had caused that quake.

The ground shook again, and once again I almost fell. I was a little jealous of not having four legs to keep myself balanced right then. I looked back to the castle and saw that Celestia had made her way outside with an entourage of guards behind her. An explosion in the garden through me off my feet, and into the grass that ran along the sides of the path.

Out of the earth shot something moving faster than I could see. It climbed into the air about five hundred feet before coming to a dead stop. I looked to Luna who was no longer looking at me with concern, but was instead staring at the thing flying in the air. The fear I saw in her eyes told me all I needed to know about it.

Just as fast as it had flown into the air it came crashing back down. Since I was already on the ground when it collided I wasn’t once again thrown away, but several guards were not so lucky. It struck the ground not even fifty feet from where I was sitting, and sent a shock wave rolling through the garden. Several trees were uprooted by the blast, and thrown away from the center of the explosion.

When the dust finally began to clear I was able to faintly make out something standing where the object had come down. When no more dirt obscured my vision I could tell that it was some sort of winged zebra. I had been told about a winged zebra that lived in Equestria. I thought that his name was Porosis or something.

Celestia, moving as fast as the winged zebra has when he shot into the air, put herself between him and the guards that were sworn to protect her. Luna quickly hurried to her sister’s side also flaring her wings defensively.

“Porosis,” it seemed that I was right about the name, “how did you escape your prison?” Celestia demanded.

Slowly he turned his head and acknowledged her existence. “I was freed.” This guy was definitely an expert at dodging questions.

“What is your intention here?” Luna took an assertive step towards him.

He didn’t seem to be worried by either of the alicorns that were standing in front of him. He was definitely not worried about all of the guard that were slowly making their way to surround him. There was no chance in hell that he was worried about anything that I could do.

He first looked from Celestia to Luna. Then he turned his gaze towards the citizens that were starting to gather after hearing all of the commotion. Finally, he turned to look at me. “ A cleansing.”

Celestia was the first to attack. Without warning she shot a beam from her horn that was blinding to look at. Porosis didn’t even bother to look at her, the beam arced around him and crashed into a statue behind him completely vaporizing it. Celestia continued to rapidly fire beams of light at her enemy, and each of them arced away from him right before they would have collided.

Luna however seemed to be channeling power into her horn. A black orb began to form at its tip, and started to grow in size. It took me a moment to realize, but Luna had created a black hole. Anything smaller than a basketball was pulled from the ground, hurtled towards the black orb, and disappeared into it. I grabbed onto one of the legs of the bench to make sure that I wasn’t pulled into it as well.

Celestia kept Porosis pinned down with her rapidly fired beams of energy, as Luna flung the dark sphere at him. Unlike the beams of light the black hole did not move off course as it flew towards him. Lazily, Porosis lifted a hoof and stopped the orb before it reached him.

The black sphere began to shrink as it floated in the air, and as it did a blinding white light began to emanate from it. I shielded my eyes from the explosion that I knew was coming, and I heard the onlookers begin to run for safety. I hoped that they would make it away in time.

In a miniature super nova the black hole released a burst of gamma radiation that cooked the very air. I turned away and felt the heat roll over me, but it didn’t harm me. When I felt it was safe I looked back to where the three gods were battling, and saw that Celestia had erected a shield to protect everyone from the explosion.

“Get everypony out of here!” Celestia yelled back to the guards that remained standing outside the castle.They immediately moved into action, and began to shuffle the civilians away from the fighting.

Porosis looked at the guards and the ponies that had begun to flee the battle. Statues began to levitate into the air behind him, before they were thrown at the fleeing ponies. Celestia obliterated each as they flew through the air with a beam of light.

“Your compassion for these creatures makes you weak, Celestia.” He turned back to the royal sisters, and his eyes began to glow white.

Suddenly, twin beams shot from his eyes at the sisters. They snaked through the air in a way that should have been impossible, but nevertheless reached Celestia’s shield and collided with it. This time I did feel the force of the explosion as the shield was obliterated.

Celestia was thrown back, but Luna remained standing against him. Her horn lit up again, and I felt my body begin to get heavy. The branches on the trees around me began to sag and break. Porosis’ own wings fell to the ground, and he fought to keep his footing. Celestia, fighting against the force of Luna’s spell managed to get back up, and started to channel a spell of her own.

The air around him began to shimmer as Celestia’s spell began to take effect. I heard him cry out in pain as the heat began to burn him. After a moment, the oxygen in the air around him ignited, and Porosis was caught in a massive fireball. As quickly as it happened, the fire went out, and Luna stopped channeling her spell.

Luna fell to her knees, clearly exhausted from keeping up that spell for how long she had. Celestia also looked worn out from focusing so much magic into her attack. Porosis stood as still as he had when he first landed in the garden. He was singed all over, but otherwise looked completely unharmed.

“It seems that I will need some time to recover my full strength before I face you two.” Without saying anything further he shot into the air, and quickly flew away from the city.

Luna took to the air to follow him, but Celestia blocked her path. “We cannot defeat him.”

Luna closed her eyes, and slowly landed. She sat back and watched as Porosis vanished into the horizon. Celestia joined her, and watched as their enemy disappeared from sight. I had no idea what I had just seen happen, but I was glad that it was over.

“We will not have very long to prepare,” Luna said as she rose from the ground.

“We will be ready.” Together the two sisters headed back into the castle. Hesitantly, I got off the ground and followed them inside.

Author's Note

A/N: It took me a long time to get around to writing this chapter. Hopefully, in the future I won't get side tracked so easily. Thanks to everyone that is still reading.

Chapter 8

I quickly followed behind the two alicorn sisters as they marched through the castle. Guards were running back and forth in the hallways, like chickens with their heads cut off. They had no idea what had just gone on, and no idea what they should do right now. Celestia and Luna marched through the chaos, with the singular purpose of reaching whatever destination they were headed to.

It looked like the two had taken quite a beating during the fight that I had witnessed, Luna more than her sister. As I walked behind them though, I could swear that their wounds were healing at a miraculous rate. Before, Luna had been struggling just to stand, but now she hurried through the halls as if it were just another day.

We finally reached a very ornate white door that had two pegasus guards stationed outside. Unlike most of the guards that I had seen in the castle so far, these two wore white armor, and their manes were blue. At our approach the two guards looked up at Celestia and awaited her orders.

“I hope that you have escorted Twilight Sparkle to my chambers, Sure Step.” Celestia looked the guard on the right, which was a unicorn.

“Oh course Princess,” he said with a bow. “Will you need anything else from us?”

“Yes if you would kindly see to organizing the guards for relief effort. I am sure that the citizens of Canterlot will need some help, I don’t know how much destruction has been caused,” she said before turning to the other guard. “I will need you to send word to all of our units stationed throughout Equestria, Swift Wing. We need all of our strength gathered in Canterlot immediately.” Swift Wing flew off to relay the message, and Sure Step saluted before he also took his leave.

Celestia used her magic to open the doors, and walked into the room. Luna followed closely behind her, leaving me standing out in the hall not knowing what to do. Since I hadn’t been told to stay outside, I decided that I might as well follow them inside.

I thought that my guest room at the castle had been extravagant, but this one took the cake. It then cut up the cake and sold the slices at an outrageous price so that it would have enough money to buy three more cakes.

The room was half the size of the castle throne room, and much more decorated. The bed that sat in the very center of the room was gigantic, and was covered with an unprecedented amount of throw pillows. Almost every wall was painted with different scenes ranging from a fierce battle between ponies and wolves, to a smiling family enjoying a meal.

The furniture was also over the top, and varnished so well that they would put a mirror to shame. I didn’t get to see what the closet looked like, but I imagined that it would be roughly the size that the room was. If my sister’s closet was anything to go by that is.

Twilight had been sitting on the bed reading a book from one of the many bookcases when we arrived. As we entered she looked up from her book, and proceeded to run to Celestia. The two embraced for a moment before Twilight stepped back.

“What was that Princess? I know that it wasn’t just an ordinary earthquake or else you wouldn’t have sent me to be escorted to your room.” She really could figure things out quickly.

“It seems that somepony has broken free of their prison. Why can nopony just stay locked away where they belong?” The last part was probably not meant to be spoken aloud.

“Is Discord free again?” Twilight seemed to be really scared by that thought.

“No, I am afraid that this is much worse than Discord,” Celestia said looking away from her student.

“Don’t worry Princess. I will get the girls and together with the Elements of Harmony we will beat whoever it is,” Twilight tried to assure her mentor.

“No Twilight, the Elements of Harmony will not save us this time. I am afraid that with Porosis’ release war may come to Equestria.” That was a revelation that I wasn’t exactly prepared for. I had been questioning how it seemed that Equestria had never had a war before, but now it was going to actually happen? Be careful what you wish for.

“First thing is first,” Celestia continued. “Luna will you take Twilight down to the caves beneath the castle to see just how he broke out of his prison?”

“Of course,” Luna turned to Twilight. “Come with me please, Twilight Sparkle.” With that the two proceeded out of the room closing the doors behind them. I was left alone in the room with Celestia.

Celestia stood facing away for me for what felt like a long time, but was probably nothing more than a few seconds. Faster than I could even imagine she rounded on me. Her eyes were a bright red, and her mane was on fire. I could not even begin to imagine a more terrifying sight.

“What do you know about this human?” she shrieked as she backed me up against a wall. I honestly did not know what she wanted me to say since I couldn’t say anything.

“Did you have something to do with this?” I shook my head as quickly as I possibly could. “You expect me to believe that you show up in my land, and then suddenly everypony starts breaking out of their prisons? Do I look stupid to you or something?” I was sure at that point that she was going to burn me alive.

Unable to physically back away from her anymore I sank to the floor where I could cower easier. It might have been a slightly unmanly thing for me to do, but I didn’t have much of a better option. Celestia towered over me, and continued to stare down at my quaking form.

She sighed, and then as suddenly as it started, she was no longer on fire. She turned away from me and walked over to her bed where she laid down. I slowly picked myself up off the floor, careful not to make any sudden movements.

“I know you probably didn’t have anything to do with this.” She sighed again, and rested her head against a pillow. “You must understand that I am responsible for the safety of everypony in Equestria. Now two very dangerous creatures have gotten out of their prisons in the space of a week.” I pulled a chair from one of the desks and took a seat in it.

“I don’t trust you.” Her gaze once again hardened. “You have come from somewhere I do not know, and all of this has happened since then. You are connected to this somehow, but it seems that you didn’t cause it intentionally. Until I can find something to do with you, you will remain in the castle where we can keep an eye on you. Do you understand?” I nodded.

“Very good. Now there are a couple of things I need to speak with you about.”

_____________________________________________________________________________

Luna and Twilight walked through the caverns beneath Canterlot. Twilight had been to the caves before, but this part of the underground she had never seen before. Luna appeared to know where she was going though, so Twilight was content just to follow her.

“Are we almost there Princess?” Twilight asked.

Luna turned back to face the young unicorn, her face accented by the blue light coming from her horn. “It is not far now, Twilight Sparkle.”

The two continued to walk through the dark tunnel. The path ahead showed them the way they needed to head, and it glowed wherever Luna’s light struck it. As they descended deeper into the mountain, pools of water formed at the bottom of the cave just off the side of the path.

“It seems that the water has started to get in,” Luna said, trying to make small talk.

“What exactly happened outside, Princess? I know that Princess Celestia said that somepony had broken out of a prison. Who is this Porosis? I have never heard or read about them anywhere.” Twilight wasn’t exceptionally good with small talk.

Luna sighed. “Porosis is somepony that was locked away deep within this mountain thousands of years ago. His power rivals even that of Discord, and he has no respect for life. He doesn’t see ponies as living beings, but merely as constructs created to do his bidding.”

“So then that earthquake before was…”

“Yes, that was him literally breaking through the earth to free himself. I don’t know how we will stop him this time.” Luna kept her gaze forwards.

“But you stopped him in that past right? That is why he ended up sealed away down here right?” Twilight asked, hope creeping into her voice.

“It was not me or Celestia who stopped him before. It was Discord that imprisoned him here. He was the only one that was ever able to stand up to him. He turned him into a diamond, no doubt he was trying to be ironic.” The path of light ended in front of them as Luna finished speaking. “It seems that we have arrived.”

Luna looked ahead into the massive space that the cavern opened into. In front of here she could see a figure lying on the ground motionless. She held up a wing to stop Twilight’s advance.

“Allow me to go first, Twilight. I need to make sure that the room is safe.” Without hearing Twilight’s protest Luna continued into the room.

As she approached she was able to tell that the creature lying dead on the floor in front of her was an alicorn. She had never encountered a black alicorn before. To her knowledge there were only a handful of alicorns that even existed, and she knew each of them. She continued to scan the rest of the room, but was unable to find anything else in the cavern.

Luna looked back to where Twilight was waiting patiently. “It is safe to come over, Twilight Sparkle, but I am not sure that you would want to.”

Without heading Luna’s warning Twilight made her way into the room. When she was close enough to see the corpse that rested at Luna’s hooves she stopped dead in her tracks. She continued to stare at the black alicorn for a long while before she cautiously began to approach again.

“Did he. Did he…” Twilight tried to ask, but couldn’t choke the words out.

“Kill him? Yes, it would seem that after being released Porosis repaid his savior handsomely.” Luna looked away from the body towards the magic runes that were still faintly glowing on the ground.

“Worry not about this unfortunate soul, Twilight Sparkle. I believe I was asked to bring you here so that you could figure out how somepony was able to release Porosis in the first place.” Luna caught Twilight attention, and motioned towards the runes on the ground.

Happy to be distracted, Twilight walked away from the body, and began to circle the faintly glowing runes. Using her magic Twilight would occasionally pick one of the purple inscriptions up off the ground and study it before placing it back. She continued to study the writing for some time, while Luna stood by silently watching.

“This is extremely complex, Princess,” Twilight finally said after several minutes. “I think that I only know what half of these runes even mean, and can only venture a guess as to the rest. Whoever put these here knew exactly what they were doing.” Twilight glared at the runes for a few more minutes before continuing.

“How could they have known that he was here?” Twilight addressed her question to Luna who simply shrugged in response.

“I do not know, Twilight Sparkle. Many things have changed since my banishment. That question would probably be best addressed to my sister.”

Twilight nodded and turned her attention once again to the magic that littered the ground. “We need to get rid of these quickly. So much magic being expelled in a single area will have very negative effects if the runes are allowed to linger.” Luna nodded in agreement, and as her horn began to glow, the magic writing began to float into the air. At once all of the runes slammed into the ground completely disappearing in a puff of smoke.

“I think that it is best we leave this place.” Luna turned, and began to walk back along the path they had entered through. Twilight found the dead alicorn on the ground drawing her gaze. With much effort she looked away and quickly hurried behind the princess, and exited the chamber.

____________________________________________________________________________

Luckily I was sitting in a chair when Celestia finished speaking. Had I not been I would have likely fainted or tried to run from the room again. Celestia had barred the entrance the last time I had tried to make my escape. So now I was trapped in the bedroom of an insanely powerful alicorn that wanted me to fight a war for her.

“Do you understand what I have said?” she asked, already knowing that I did. I nodded to humor her.

“Do you accept the terms?” At this however, I gave a very enthusiastic no.

“You will help fend off this threat that you have inadvertently caused, and in return I will not imprison you! How could you disagree with such a generous offer?” she shouted ay me. Normally I don’t think that Celestia would be so easily enraged, but we had been at this for well over an hour. With me unable to communicate with her adequately I think that her patience was wearing thin.

“Why wont you help us?” Her demeanor changed drastically. No longer was she an angry dictator; now she looked defeated. It looked as though she knew that this fight was already over, and she would lose.

It is not like I didn’t want to help. They seemed like the definite good guys in all of this. I had seen how Porosis looked first hand, and he had no hesitation in killing innocent bystanders. The problem was that I was also an innocent bystander in all of this. I hadn’t released the bad guy to wreck havoc on the land. I couldn’t even help if I wanted to.

I had no weapons to fight a god with. Everyone keeps telling me that I am a powerful human with godlike powers, but all I can do is play a little music. Honestly, I had no idea what I could do to help in the least.

There was a knocking at the doors, and Celestia unraveled the magic keeping them sealed. “Come in.,” she said to whomever was standing on the other side, and the doors quickly slid open. Twilight and Luna made their way back into the room.

“The situation is even more dire that we had first suspected,” Luna spoke as she walked into the room. After sensing the tension in the room however, she stopped and glared at me.

“It is alright, Luna. Please continue,” Celestia said to her sister as she sat up.

“Right.” Her gaze lingered on you a few more moments before she began again. “It seems that somepony has actually released Porosis from his bonds. A black alicorn that I have never seen before was found dead at the site. I suspect that he was the one to release Porosis.”

“Was this alicorn made or born?” Celestia’s question seemed odd to me, but then again I didn’t understand the context.

“I found no indication of the former,” Luna replied, being overly cryptic.

“Then I also have no idea of who this alicorn is. There has only been one black alicorn that I have ever come across, and I think we both know who that was.” More cryptic speech, maybe they didn’t want me to know what they were talking about.

“Yes, I think we both do.”

I looked away from the two sisters, and their coded conversation, to Twilight who was nodding along behind Luna. Apparently, she also knew exactly what they were talking about, or at least understood most of it. Which of course, left me as being the odd man out once again. I leaned back in my seat and crossed my arms behind my head, deciding not to care anymore.

Their conversation continued for a while, the two alicorns exchanging information in a way as to not let anyone know exactly what they were saying. It had been a very interesting week, that was for sure. I was sucked into a world that I couldn’t even begin to comprehend, and I have been placed in the middle of this huge conflict.

Not all parts of my time here had been bad though. Actually, the vast majority of the time that I had spent in Equestria was rather enjoyable. Sure being beaten up by a dragon lady had been a low point in this adventure, but lows are what make the highs so awesome. It looked like the future was very uncertain though, and soon a lot of bad things would be happening. I just hoped that I would be gone by the time that this whole war thing broke out.

“No the portal isn’t opening again. At least not the way that I want it to,” Twilight replied to the princess’ question, which pulled me from my ruminations. Were they talking about me now?

“What do you mean that it won’t open how you want it to?” Celestia asked, standing from the bed.

“Well whenever I try to open the portal once again I can manage to hold it open for a short time, but I can’t locate the right dimensional frequency. I kept trying all yesterday to get it to work the way it had when I first brought him here, but it just wont.” Twilight looked to me. “I am sorry, but I don’t think that I will be able to send you home.”

That was definitely not good. If I had to make a list of things that I didn’t want to hear today, coming in at number two would be Celestia asking me to fight a super powerful god that I had no chance against. At the top of the list would be Twilight telling me that I was stuck here with no way to get home.

“Do not worry. We will work hard and find a way to get you back to where you came from.” I cant be sure, but probably me burying my face in my hands and sulking, is what tipped Luna off to my dismay at the news that had just been handed to me.

Well there it was. I now had no way to get home, and was being asked to fight a war for the princess. I didn’t really see a whole lot of options in front of me at that point. On one hand, I could choose to opt out of any of the fighting and just hang out around the palace. In all honesty that didn’t seem like such a bad option to me. On the other hand, I could help out the princess, and see just how strong I actually was. Maybe if I helped enough they would work hard to find a way to get me back to Earth. It was really the only option that I had.

I lifted my face from my hands and noticed that Celestia and Luna had returned to their conversation. Twilight looked like something was really eating her, maybe the fact that she had stranded me here. Was I really supposed to help these three defeat a super powerful enemy? Well… I always said that I would try anything once.

____________________________________________________________________________

There was shouting throughout the room as the representatives of the tribes bickered. Usually they were able to keep their cool, and get along well enough to govern the nation, but with the news that the seers had passed to them the situation had quickly devolved. The session had begun calmly enough around mid afternoon, but as the sun set the fighting began.

The room itself was very large; made to host the twelve representatives and their entourages, who had all been sent out of the room as soon as the fighting had started. Two stone columns were erected behind each of the zebra representatives displaying the banners of their respective tribes. The magnificent circular stone table, that sat between them all, held a map of their territory. Sconces lined the walls illuminating the room in the soft glow of flame.

The nation was by no means unevolved or underdeveloped, and if they had wished it electric lights could have easily been integrated. They had chosen however, to keep the meeting room exactly how it was when the first time that the twelve tribes had come together to create their nation.

Lightning flashed outside as the storm hit its peak. What had started as a light drizzle in the afternoon had, much like the temperaments of the zebras in the room, quickly grown more furious.

Two zebras were currently being pulled off one another as their argument nearly came to blows. Seeing that the situation was about to take a turn for the worse, one of the younger representatives tried to bring order back to the meeting.

”This is enough!” he yelled over the arguments that still continued. “Can we not speak civilly?” His question went unheard as the zebras continued to bicker. He sighed, knowing that there was only a slim chance to regain control of the situation. “If we continue along this path then we will all surely die!” That had managed to get their attention.

“You dare threaten us young one?” an elderly zebra got out of his seat and turned towards who had spoken. The rest of the room fell quiet at this. “Xeroth, you have been a member of this committee for less than a year. I cannot believe that you have the gall to say something like that.”

“I am not threatening anyone, Zabro. If this information if to be believed then we must come together, not fall apart. If Porosis had truly risen…”

“There is no proof that such a thing has happened. Moreover there is no proof the he ever existed in the first place,” another elderly zebra quickly said cutting of Xeroth.

“Wrong! We have many records all through history of his existence. If he has risen then we are all surly doomed,” a rather portly zebra said quickly reigniting the arguments that had recently been stopped.

“Brothers! Brothers!” Xeroth yelled getting their attentions once again. “If this information is to be believed then we cannot do what we are doing now. If we decide that he does not exist, and choose to ignore this then we will be wholly unprepared if he does arrive. On the other hoof, if we spread word of what the seers have brought to us we will cause a mass panic. We must find a way to deal with this potential threat together.” Confident that he had gotten through to his fellow committee members he took his seat, and turned to address Zabro.

“Being the eldest among all of us here you must have dealt with threats before. I would seek your council on how we should precede forwards from here.”

The elderly stallion thought for a long time before he spoke. “If the tales are to be believed, the last time that Porosis reigned he sent all of zebra kind to war so that he could eliminate all life on the planet. If it is true that he has risen then we have no choice but to oppose him.”

“None can oppose me.” All heads in the room snapped to where the elder god stood watching the committee. It was unclear of how long he had been standing there, but now that they saw him no one was able to look away.

“I created you. I showed you how to build, and how to think. I taught you to speak and to read, but here you now sit discussing how you should stand against me using the very tools that I gave you. The very lives that I gave you.” His stare bored into each of the zebras at the table, as he looked them over. His face was stoic and his expression unmoving as he spoke.

“We bow to no god!” Zabro announced, moving in front of the god.

Porosis allowed an extreme amount of emotion to reach his face, he quirked an eyebrow. He gazed down at the zebra that thought he could defy him, and placed a hoof beneath his chin. The movement was so quick and fluid that Zabro didn’t even realize it had happened.

“You are very old for your kind. Perhaps, you think that this means you have gained some wisdom over the years, but allow me to rid you of this illusion. The entire span of your life, and that of your entire race is but the blink of an eye to me. I do not wish to tolerate your existence any longer.” It was so fast that no one even realized what happened until it was already over.

One moment the councilor had been standing before Porosis, and the next he was gone. A hole in the wall was left in the wake of Zabro, as he was thrown from the room. On the far side of the city a building began to collapse as an object tore through it. Porosis cast his gaze over the eleven committee members that remained in the room.

“You will bow to me.” It was not a demand or a question that left his lips, but a simple and undeniable fact.

One by one the members left their seats and kneeled before their god. Xeroth was the last one that remained standing. Eventually he too fell to his knees before the might of Porosis. What could a mere mortal hope to accomplish before such power?

____________________________________________________________________________

Days had passed as guards rallied to the capitol from all over the nation. At first their numbers seemed high, but as the days went on fewer and fewer came to Canterlot. Celestia, sat in her throne reading a recent report that had made its way to her from the frontier. Swift Wing, a faithful servant of hers, stood fidgeting in front of the Goddess of the Sun.

“Is this true, Swift Wing?” Celestia asked her guard as she looked up from the scroll in front of her.

“I am afraid that it is, Princess. Reports have been streaming in from our lookouts along the border. It seems that the zebras are mounting a force along the border. Likely preparing for an invasion.” Swift Wing replied.

Celestia sighed as she let the paper fall onto a stack of scrolls that rested beside her. All the news that had been coming in over the last few days had been distressing, but this was the first obvious sign that a war was coming; a war that Celestia would give anything to avoid.

“What are the reported numbers of the zebras along the border?” Celestia closed her eyes hoping that not many had already bowed to Porosis.

“Rough estimates put the number at ten thousand, but it is projected that the number will double within three days.” Swift Wing looked away from the princess, knowing what this information meant.

“How many of our own forces have we managed to gather in Canterlot?” Celestia opened her eyes once again to look at the guard in front of her.

Swift Wing looked to his hooves unable to meet his princess’ gaze. “We are barely five thousand strong, Princess.” He replied after a moment.

Celestia took in the information for a long while before she finally laid back fully into her seat. By the end of the week they would be outnumbered four to one. It was likely that Porosis had already subjugated the entire country, and was marching as many as possible into battle.

Her guards were far better trained than the enemy was likely to be, but they were not soldiers. Yes they had discipline, and that was very important for battle, but only a few among them had any real combat experience. It had been little over a thousand years since Equestria had seen a real war.

If all of this information was accurate then recruitment would need to begin immediately. With the zebras poised to attack already it was unlikely that there would be enough time to even train a strong fighting force before half of the country was gone.

Porosis wasn’t fighting to capture land or territory. He was fighting a war of extermination, and if he managed to take half of Equestria that meant he would take half of the population as well.

Celestia and Luna both knew that they were no match for him in combat. They had just barely survived their last confrontation with him, and he was in a weakened state at the time. The Elements of Harmony were also of no use to her in this upcoming confrontation. The more that Celestia took in the facts of the situation the more bleak it looked. A sound just outside of the doors pulled Celestia from her depressing musings.

“It seems that I have another guest, Swift Wing. That will be all for now. Thank you for bringing this to my attention.” The pegasus guard bowed, and then turned to make his exit.

As he walked back to the doors they opened, and admitted an anxious looking Twilight into the throne room. The guard gave her a slight bow as he passed, which Twilight was to distracted to return. The doors closed behind him as he exited, leaving Celestia and Twilight in the room alone.

“Princess, I just heard some awful rumors from one of the guards. Is it true that Zebrica is going to invade us?” Twilight looked up to her mentor, hoping her worries to be laid to rest.

Celestia considered telling Twilight a lie for a moment, but she knew that it wouldn’t do any good in the long run. “It would seem that is what will happen.”

“Why would they do that, Princess? Our relations with the zebras have been very good for a long time. Why would they just invade us out of nowhere like this?”

“Because… they have no choice.” Celestia allowed the words to hang in the air for a long while before she continued. “Porosis has seized control of the government, and is forcing them to fight his war. He is likely killing any that dare not go along with his plans.”

“But…” Twilight paused a moment, “why would he do this?” Twilight summoned more conviction. “Why would he do these things, Princess? I just don’t understand it.” Twilight hung her head.

Celestia got up from her throne and quickly walked over to her student. She embraced the young mare trying to somehow console her. Equestria and its citizens were just far too unprepared for what was to come. A thousand years of peace unfortunately had this effect on a country.

“It isn’t anything logical, Twilight.” Celestia pulled away from her student that she could look up at her. “He only has one purpose in life, and that is to bring order. He feels that all things in the world must be put in a certain place. He hates life because of how chaotic it is, and wants to end it all. He will restart an ancient war, and we are just his first targets.

“If he defeats us then he will probably go after the griffons next. After that he will move onto the dragons until one by one he has erased all sentient life from the planet. From there it will be a simple matter of destroying the zebras, and finishing off the plants and animals. In his mind the perfect world is a barren wasteland where nothing changes.

“That is why we are fighting against him. That is why we will have to fight against the zebras, even though they are not willing participants in any of this. That is why many innocents will die in the coming days. So that he can realize his dream of a perfect world.” Celestia spat out the last sentence with all the contempt she could muster.

“But he wont right, Princess? We will stop him,” Twilight asked, hopefully looking up to her mentor.

Celestia paused another moment, far longer than she should have. “Of course we will stop him, Twilight Sparkle. We will always stop him.” She gave her student another small hug before breaking the embrace and walking back to her throne.

She looked back to Twilight again after she had seated herself. Twilight was still young, far to young to be pulled into something as awful as war. Celestia had kept such a thing from happening for a very long time, but it looked like the cycle would begin again.

The last time such a thing had happened she had a lot more help. There were more people fighting the one that would claim himself king of this world that they had created. Porosis had lost in the end, but it was not at her hooves. Her number of allies was dwindling as of late. It was unlikely that the griffons would come to Equestria’s aide in this. The dragons were likewise not going to bother defending others. She was actually surprised that Empress had not crashed into her palace again, threatening to demolish it in retribution for allowing Porosis to escape.

The mare in front of her shuffled nervously as Celestia observed her. Yes, she was far too young for this. Even with Twilight being the most gifted unicorn that she had seen for several centuries, Celestia seriously doubted that she could turn her into a warrior in the time that they had.

Many innocents were going to die on both sides. The zebras were being forced to fight a war against their own will, and Equestria had to defend itself. There was only one pony in this entire thing that actually had malicious intent. Porosis had to be stopped at all cost.

Twilight bowed to the princess and turned to leave the room. Her motion caught Celestia’s eye, and she stopped her from leaving by standing once again.

“Twilight, I need you to contact your friends, and have them come to Canterlot right away.”

“Okay, but can I ask why, Princess?” Twilight asked turning back to face the white alicorn.

“I fear that we may need the Elements of Harmony in the near future,” Celestia answered looking away from Twilight.

“But I thought you said that the elements wouldn’t work on Porosis.” Twilight took a hesitant step towards the princess.”

“No,” Celestia said looking down to her student once again, “they will not.”

Chapter 9

Report to commander Hammer she told me. Oh I would report to commander Hammer. I would report so fast that it made her head spin. That of course, didn’t make much sense; being unable to actually rant aloud had caused my thoughts to deteriorate. Who knew how helpful venting actually was, probably psychiatrists.

I paced in my extravagant room in the palace trying to calm myself. If someone were to observe my random hand gestures as I walked back and forth they would no doubt question my sanity. I was actually still questioning my sanity; no sane person wouldn’t at this point. I thought that made sense at the time.

With an inaudible sigh I fell back into the bed, giving up my silent tirade about how the princess was bossing me around. I was a visiting dignitary, and I should be given a certain amount of respect. It’s true that I agreed I would try and help out the ponies in this upcoming confrontation, but I didn’t have to be happy about it.

Celestia didn’t trust me, she had said as much straight to my face. Her cold demeanor was starting to rub off on me, and now I was starting to get into a bad mood. I liked to think of myself as a likable guy, certainly I wasn’t the most popular, but I didn’t tend to make any enemies. Here Celestia was, judging me based on the actions of others, which was completely prejudice.

I took a deep breath and counted to ten. I wasn’t going to get anywhere when I was being so hot headed. I exhaled, and felt a good amount of my frustration leave me. I sat up in the bed, and once again looked around the room. I had looked at the magnificent drapes before, and admired the furniture, but something was definitely missing from the room.

It hadn’t occurred to me until just then, but there was no light coming into the room. The curtains were drawn, and none of the candles that littered the walls were lit. Despite the blackness I didn’t have any trouble seeing. I shrugged, and assumed that my eyes had adjusted to the darkness. I got up from the bed and walked to the window so I could pull back the curtains.

The cloths gave was with no effort, and the moonlight began to stream into the room. The stars twinkled in the sky alongside the full moon, which shone brilliantly in the darkness. I looked over Canterlot bellow, which was bathed in the soft white glow. The marble towers were highlighted by moonbeams and shown more brilliantly than they possibly could during the day.

The white moonlight clashed with the shadows of the buildings of the city below creating a perfect contrast of black and white. Through the black, small pockets of candlelight could be seen. I retrieved a chair from the table behind me, and pulled it over to the window so I could admire the view in comfort.

I was struck by the urge to play, and realized that I had not done so in a while. It seemed like when I discovered the ability to create music with my mind I could think of nothing else to do. Unfortunately, the world had distracted me and it had slipped my mind. I held my hands up in front of me when a strange thought occurred to me. Instead of playing the guitar as I normally did I adjusted my pose to that of a pianist and began to play the first thing that came to my mind.

As I played I continued to look out at the city below. The music perfectly complimented the way I was feeling at the moment, slightly sad at what had happened, but hopeful. I looked once again to the sky, and saw that the clouds were beginning to stir.

It is difficult to observe the clouds at night; they tended to just appear as the sky, but with no stars to fill the blackness. They moved quickly from behind the mountain and over the city. The clouds brought with them a slight drizzle that began to pour down on the city. The window I was looking through began to fog slightly as small water droplets formed on the glass.

The light drizzle became a full-blown downpour very quickly. The wind outside, which had previously been slightly pushing against the trees outside, started to bend back branches as the ferocity of the storm increased. The sky was completely obscured by the cloud cover above, and the rain began to hit its peak. In the distance I could hear the sound of thunder.

I continued to play, and watch the events outside of the castle unfold before me. I looked to the streets of Canterlot below, and saw the water rush through the city. The levels began to rise, and started to carry away small things in their currents. At first the small rivers could only move newspapers and small boxes that were left in the streets, but soon they were washing away entire carts.

The downpour had become torrential, and the city would soon be completely flooded. The animals outside in the gardens could be heard screeching as they searched desperately for shelter. With a storm hitting this fast I doubted that many would find a safe refuge.

Lightning struck down a mere ten feet from my window, and cast a brilliant display of pure white against my eyes. The suddenness of it all caused me to cry out in shock. I realized that it could not possibly have been myself that let out that cry, and immediately the music stopped. I looked behind me to the small lavender mare standing in the open entrance of my room.

Twilight Sparkle hesitantly stepped into my room, and I got up from my comfortable seat to meet her. She closed the door behind her, and just stood before me without saying a word. I of course couldn’t talk, so we just stood there in silence for a while.

“That was a very nice piece you were playing,” she said breaking the palpable tension in the room. “I came in because I heard you playing over in my room a few doors down.”

I pulled out another chair from the table in the middle of the room, and sat down facing her. There were many choice words that I wanted to have with the unicorn in front of me, but I really couldn’t initiate the conversation. I leaned back in the chair, and waited for her to continue.

“I really am sorry,” she said, looking down at the floor out of what I assumed to be shame.

I huffed and turned my nose up at the apology. When she had brought me here she had promised that she would be able to return me easily, so I had decided to go along with all of this. Now I find out a few hours ago that she actually had no way to send me back to my world. I was essentially stuck here for eternity, and it was all her fault.

Twilight looked up at me, and saw that I had quickly turned down her apology. “ I have been trying for over a day and a half to get the portal to work correctly. I just don’t understand. The first time that I had opened it the spell came so easily, and it worked on the first try. Every time since then either nothing happens, or it just collapses on me after a few seconds. For some reason the rift has become unstable, and I just have no idea of how to fix it.” Her explanation once again fell upon deaf ears.

I didn’t really understand anything that she was talking about, nor did I want to. She was someone that used magic all the time; in fact I had been told that it was her special talent. The way I saw it, she had no excuse for not being able to send me back to my own world. If she was so good at magic then there had to be something that she could do to remedy the situation.

“Can you please forgive me? I am trying all I can to fix this mistake,” she pleaded, once again looking at me expectantly.

I again shrugged of her attempts at reconciliation I didn’t think that I would ever be able to just shake hands, and get over something as life altering as this.

Twilight sighed and once again retuned her gaze to the floor below her. “I don’t really deserve to be forgiven for something like this. Maybe you will change your mind when I figure out a way to send you back home.” She turned away and began to walk towards the door. “Until then just know that I am very sorry for all of the trouble I have caused you.” Her horn lit up for a second, and then suddenly she was gone in a flash of purple.

I sighed again, and got up from my chair so that I could look out once again at the city. The storm had quieted down quite a bit, and a few stars could be seen in between the gaps in the clouds. The rain had returned to being just a light drizzle, and god beams of moonlight began to shine on Canterlot. The city had not suffered any damage by the abrupt storm earlier. When everyone got up in the morning the streets would look clean. Sometimes a good storm was needed to wash away all of the trash.

____________________________________________________________________________

Morning came as it always inevitably does, and the light of the sun managed to find its way into my room, and hit me in the eyes. Slightly irritated I rolled over in my bed, and tried to get comfortable again. Even though I was fully aware that I was just stalling, and trying to avoid the day I continued to lay there trying to get back to sleep.

I failed miserably, and after an hour I had no other choice, but to give up and get out of bed. I blindly threw my pillow across the room in aggravation, and heard it knock something over, which clanged to the ground. I sat up in bed, and looked to where I had thrown it to make sure that I hadn’t broken anything. I didn’t have any money to pay for any of the expensive looking things that were in the room.

Luckily, the pillow had only knocked a candle off of the table, and nothing had been broken. Sighing, I rolled over to the edge of the bed and climbed off it. All I had on was a tattered undershirt, and some boxers that had survived my brush with a raging dragon queen unscathed. I looked to the suit that I had neatly folded on the one dresser that was in the room, and decided that I might as well wear it.

I had just finished putting on the pants when someone knocked at my door. Deciding that I was at least somewhat decently dressed I walked away from the rest of the ensemble, and made my way to the door. I opened the heavy wooden door, and was greeted by a unicorn guard. He looked up at me, and I could tell that he frustrated with something.

“I was informed that you were supposed to have come down to the training fields at the crack of dawn this morning,” he said pushing past me and walking into the room. “I hope that you have a good reason for being late.” He turned once again to face me.

I remembered Celestia telling me something about going to meet one of her guards in the morning, but I didn’t remember her telling me to be there at the crack of dawn. Maybe I should pay better attention when people are talking to me. That might be one of the reasons that the princess didn’t like me very much. I looked back down to the unicorn that was standing in front of me, and gave him a shrug.

“What is that supposed to mean?” he asked, probably not knowing that I was unable to actually speak to him. I shrugged again, which seemed to frustrate him even more. “Do not simply shrug at me when I ask you something, Beast. I expect an answer from you when I address you.”

Normally, I would have been pretty pissed off by the way that this guy was talking to me, but since I was actually making him pissed off it didn’t get to me much. It was hard to force myself not to smile, but I somehow managed it, and gave him another shrug. Now I could actually see his eye twitch a little.

“You… insubordinate little.” He was cut off by someone clearing their throat outside, which caught both of our attentions.

Rarity was standing just outside in the hall sheepishly looking at what was going on in the room. Slowly, she began to walk inside the room and put herself between me and the very angry unicorn.

“Since it seems like you do not know then I would like to inform you. Our friend here cannot speak, so he is unable to answer your questions.” She huffed and set the bundle that I hadn’t noticed her carrying onto the table. “I fixed your clothes, and even made you something that is a little more sturdy. I had heard that you would be training or something so I made some clothes that would be able to take the stress of arduous work easily enough.” Having said her piece, and delivered her good, Rarity turned and walked out of the room.

Ignoring the guard that was standing in the middle of my room I made my way to the package that the fashionista had dropped off. I undid the cloth that was holding it together, and pulled the garments out. Rarity had fixed up my clothes very well. In fact I couldn’t even tell that they had been damaged in the first place.

In addition, she had made me another set pants that seemed to be made of a sturdier denim, and had made another shirt. It was plain and white, but had a “D” on the left breast. I smiled, I liked to receive gifts, but I was unfortunately unable to give her anything in return.

“I like your marefriend,” the guard remarked. He seemed to have calmed down significantly, and his comment made me quirk and eyebrow. He turned to me, and gave a quick bow. “My name is Head Captain Hammer, in charge of all training of the elite Canterlot Guard.”

Deciding that I might as well be nice since he was putting so much effort forwards, I gave him a polite bow as well. Satisfied, he continued to speak, “I have been told that I would have an unusual trainee starting today, and when he didn’t show up I decided to come looking for him. I’m sure that you have a good excuse for being late, but right now I don’t really care.” He began to exit the room, and looked back at me. “Are you coming or not?”

I held up the pants that I had just received, and pointed to them. He sighed, and turned away from me. “Hurry up then. When you are nice and ready I will be waiting for you outside.” His horn glowed, and the door to the room slammed shut.

Smiling I took off the dress pants I was currently wearing, and proceeded to put on the new ones that I had received. They fit as smoothly as the others that Rarity had made for me did, but were more loose so that I wouldn’t lose any mobility. I also put on the shirt, and walked over to the wall where I had tossed my shoes. A couple of seconds later I was fully dressed, and ready to get this training thing over with.

I opened the door, and like he had said Captain Hammer was waiting for me outside. I took the time to look him over since I hadn’t bothered to do so before. He had a white coat like most of the other guards in the castle. The only real difference was his white and red mane that stuck through his helmet. Now that I thought about it all the other guards that I had seen had the same blue mane. I wondered it there was some rank that they had to achieve before they could show their natural colors.

Noticing that I had opened the door Hammer turned to me and motioned for me to follow. We walked down the halls at a comfortable pace. Well I walked at a comfortable pace while he seemed to be moving quickly towards one of the exits. We took a couple of turns, and I found myself in a part of the castle that I hadn’t seen yet. Like the rest of the halls, this one had paintings that lined it, and a few busts here and there, but each of the paintings depicted some sort of battle. It was hard for me to imagine ponies actually fighting.

We emerged from the hallway into a sort of field where several dummies had been set up. I saw some guards swinging at them with various different weapons, while others fought each other in the pins that were scattered around the training grounds. Drill instructors were shouting orders to some of the less experienced guards, and forcing them to run laps around the place.

There wasn’t any grass left on the ground, as all of it had been stamped to death a long time ago. The field was a complete box, which was blocked off on three sides by the castle, and the last side by the mountain that Canterlot was attached to. It didn’t seem like very many guards could possibly be trained here at a time.

“Come this way,” Hammer ordered and began to walk to one of the sparring pits that littered the place. I obediently followed him, and watched as some of the guards stopped and glared at me.

Hammer opened the gate that led into the pit and motioned for me to follow. He quickly made his way over to a weapons rack that stood along the fence. I followed him over to the rack and awaited instruction.

“Have you ever used a weapon before?” he asked, and I gave him a nod. He looked back at the rack and asked, “Have you ever used one of these weapons before?”

I looked over the rack, and saw an assortment of medieval weaponry. To be honest I had never actually seen a flail, but there one sat in front of me. Swords, axes, hammers, a few daggers, and even a bow were laid out before me, but nothing that I actually knew how to use. I looked back at him and shook my head.

He sighed, and somehow pinched the bridge of his nose. “Okay then I guess we will have to start with the basics. Pick something out, and just go stand over there,” he said motioning to the other side of the pin.

Deciding that being ironic was the best way to make a new friend I picked up the biggest hammer that was resting on the rack. It was about five feet long, and the head on the end had to weigh thirty pounds. Struggling, I hefted the massive thing over my shoulder and stumbled back to where he had pointed.

Captain Hammer, to my surprise, pulled a basic sword from the rack with his magic, and walked to the opposite side of the pin. I looked around the dirt-riddled arena, and noticed that a small number of the guards had stopped what they were doing, and had come over to watch. I returned my attention to Hammer and noticed that he was glaring at me again.

“Since you don’t really have any training what we are going to do today will be quite simple. I will come at you with this sword, and I want you to block me.” He began to slowly approach me.

I shifted the weight of the hammer between my two hands so that I could hold it in front of me. The head put a lot of strain on my right arm, but I managed to keep it aloft long enough for him to reach me. He swung the sword down in an overhead strike; he was probably holding back quite a bit since it wasn’t difficult at all to lift the hammer up to block the strike with the handle.

Next he came at me from my left side, and I shifted the weight between my hands so that I could block that as well. As the two weapons connected sparks momentarily flashed. He came at me from the left again, and I blocked the strike once again with little effort.

He stepped back for a moment and addressed me again. “Are you sure that you haven’t trained on that weapon before?” Once again I answered him with a shake of my head.

He stepped forwards once again, much faster this time, and slashed the sword at me. I was barely able to block the swing, and had to jump back in order to pull the hammer up in time. My back leg hit the wooden railing of the small arena, and I stumbled for a moment, almost dropping my weapon as I did so. Hammer didn’t wait for me to regain my footing however, and rounded on me almost immediately.

He swung the sword down at me like he had done before. I caught it easily this time, and even managed to push it back a little. My opponent smiled a little before he pulled his sword back again, and moved to stab me. I jumped to the side to avoid being impaled on his sword. The hammerhead fell out of my hand, and hit the ground with a dull thud. I scrambled to pick it back up as Hammer turned to me once again.

“You can attack me if you want,” he said as he lunged towards me again.

He came at me from my left again, and without picking the hammer up of the ground I moved behind my weapon to block his blow once again. I heaved the hammer as hard as I could, and managed to pick the head up off the ground, and swung it in an arc. I brought the hammer back down where the Captain was standing, causing him to jump out of the way. The hammer struck the hardened ground causing it to crack, and I noticed that it had also left a sizable indent as I pulled it back into the air.

The Captain flicked the blade in front of me to the left, and I quickly maneuvered to block. He pulled the sword back before the two weapons could meet, and struck at me from my right. I wasn’t able to move the hammer into the path of the sword in time, and he landed a small knick on my arm as I jumped out of the way.

He smirked a little, and without losing a beat once again lunged at me with the sword. I allowed the head of the hammer to drop so I could easily swing the handle in an arc to block his stab. With the sword knocked aside for a moment I pulled the hammer off the ground, and tried to land a blow on the captain.

Once again he jumped out of the way just as the strike would have hit him. My efforts were rewarded with another indention in the ground where my hammer struck down. Swinging around this massive weapon was beginning to weigh on me, and I could feel the muscles in my arms starting to grow stiff. I refused to give up however, and pulled the hammer from the dirt once again.

“Starting to tire already?” he laughed as he began to circle me. I matched his steps as we glared at each other; I also noticed that more of the guards had come over to watch our little match.

This time I didn’t wait for him to make the first move, and I ran at him trying to close the distance. My sudden aggressiveness seemed to catch him off guard, and he pulled his sword back to him to block my impending attack. I swung down with my hammer with all the strength I had, and he caught the blow squarely on his sword.

Under the strength of my strike I saw his magic flash for a moment. I continued to push down on him with the hammer, and forced him to a knee. I continued to push down on him with the hammer hoping that I could crush his defense, and end this. Quicker than I had seen him move all day, Captain Hammer stepped out of the way of my strike and pulled back his sword. The head of my hammer slammed into the ground sending a large amount of dirt flying from the area where it landed.

Before I could react that captain had already brought the sword to my throat where I could feel it cut a thin line into my flesh. I was sweating profusely, since this was probably the hardest workout I had had in a while. When I looked up from his blade to the captain’s face I was surprised to see him grinning at me wildly.

“That was very well fought. If you are telling the truth about not having any training before this I would hate to meet you on the battlefield once you have mastered that weapon.” He withdrew his sword, and levitated it back to the rack where he had retrieved it from. “I think that was enough of a workout for this morning. I have a lot to attend to so why don’t you take a break, and then start working against some of the dummies.”

He opened the gate, and casually made his way out. That guards that were milling around also left the sidelines and began to resume their training routines. Not bothering to pick it up I dragged the hammer back to the rack so that I could place it back where it belonged. As I lifted the massive thing up I caught sight of some numbers written on the bottom of the hammer’s head. I looked closer and found that the numbers “100.00” were engraved into the bottom of it. That had to be some kind of mistake.

____________________________________________________________________________

Twilight was busy in her personal study that was always kept for her in the castle. Princess Celestia had given her the room when she was just starting out as her personal student so that Twilight would always have somewhere to come, and practice magic undisturbed.

Books were strewn about that dark room, which was only lit with candlelight since it didn’t have any windows. The room actually didn’t have any doors either, and the only two that knew how to get inside were Twilight and the princess herself. Twilight kept most of the more complicated magic books in this room to make sure that they never fell into dangerous hooves. None of them, however, were of any use to her at the moment.

Twilight screamed in frustration as yet another attempt to create a stable portal failed her. She levitated to her five different books, and started to read from them all. Two she tossed away immediately for being completely useless. The other three she considered from a moment before they were set aside as well.

Exhausted, she sat down on the ground. The stone walls surrounding her caught the shadows that were cast off the bookshelves and tables creating an ominous atmosphere; just like any proper mage’s study should have. Before her sat an intricate set of runes that Twilight thought would help with stabilizing the spell, but had also proved to be no help in the end.

“This is just insane,” Twilight said as she started to talk to herself. “I don’t understand how it worked in the first place. Dimensional transportation is merely theoretical at best, but I was able to some how pull a being here from who knows where.”

She got up from where she was sitting on the floor, and began to pace. “It is more than just the portal isn’t it? I haven’t had any luck establishing a connection to the destination point either. How come it was so easy the first time?” Twilight once again yelled in frustration, as she sank back down to the ground and covered her head with her hooves.

“It doesn’t make any sense. It really just does not make any sense. A portal like this takes to much magic to maintain so how come I could do it the first time,” Twilight sighed.

She had tried and failed to create a stable portal for the last three hours, and was beginning to feel completely drained. For days, since she had met with the princess after Porosis’ release, she had tried to find a way to fix the problem she had caused. The more she tried though, the more the portals seemed to grow unstable until she was unable to hold one open for even a couple of seconds.

She figured that it was just magical fatigue that was weighing on her, and decided that she needed to take a break. In a flash of purple light Twilight teleported out of the room, and into the hall that was on the other side of the wall. The guards that were in the hall weren’t disturbed as she made her sudden appearance, since they were used to seeing the young unicorn teleport around the castle at will.

Twilight began to walk down the hall back to her room so that she could get some rest. A few whispers could be heard as she passed some shut doors, but one word in particular managed to catch her attention. Twilight stopped in her tracks, and turned to the door that the conversation was taking place behind. As quietly as she could she snuck over to the door, and put an ear up to it so that she could eavesdrop.

“Are you serious?” one voice said.

“Hey, I’m just telling you what I heard. One of the captains was saying that the zebras are mounting an invasion force at the border. They could attack us any day now, and we have no way to stop them,” replied the other voice.

“There is no way. Even if those stripes tried to do anything we have the princesses. There is no way that they could get one hoof into our borders.”

“We have the princesses, but didn’t you hear. Their long dead zebra god has been resurrected and is the one leading them. I even heard that he killed the zebra’s whole high council, and took over their government. I don’t know how much of this is true, but it definitely doesn’t look good. Do you know how many could die if the seriously attack us?” Twilight couldn’t listen to anymore, and quickly pulled away from the door.

She heard the ponies on the other side of the door start to shuffle, and in a panic teleported back to her room in the castle. As she landed, Twilight began to hyperventilate. She just couldn’t believe that the zebras would actually do something like that. She had told everypony back in Ponyville that the zebras weren’t evil, and were just like anypony else. Had she been wrong? Did the zebras really want to start a war with Equestria?

No! She wouldn’t believe something that she just heard somepony else say. She was a pony that believed in facts and science, and unless there was some proof to these claims she would not believe one word of it. Twilight managed to calm herself down, and walked over to her bed.

Sighing, she pulled back the covers and hopped up onto the soft mattress; hoping that she could fall asleep easily. Sleep did not come quickly however, and Twilight tossed and turned in her soft, plush bed for hours before she started to drift off. The last words that ran through her mind, as she started to sink into sleep, was what she was going to say to the princess when she asked about this war tomorrow.

Chapter 10

The morning air was cold enough to chill any normal pony that would be sitting in the gardens this at that early hour. Celestia, however, was not a normal pony, and the crisp morning air hardly affected her at all. She gazed out from where she sat over the beautiful Canterlot gardens.

From atop the small hill that she was seated upon she could look out across the entirety of the gardens. Like Canterlot itself, the magnificent spectacle of nature that spread out before her was entirely ponymade, and by extension, Celestia had practically built the entire city herself.

A large portion of the landscape below was reserved for the animals that lived in the small eden. They were wilder than most of the creatures that could be found in Equestria, and Celestia had made sure that they stayed that way. It was a small tribute to a friend that she had lost a long time ago.

Whenever she had any free time, Celestia, could often be found wandering the small forest amongst the animals. Generation after generation had grown up knowing the kind white alicorn, and she was one of the only ponies that they did not shy away in fear from. Herself and the old caretaker of the grounds, that was.

Past the trees she could see that the hedge maze had grown back in full. It had taken many months of work, but the talented ponies that looked after that whole section of the castle had managed recreate it perfectly. It had been completely desolated when Discord had escaped his imprisonment all those months ago.

It was not the first time that the maze had been destroyed. Over the years everything from tornados to over zealous pupils of hers had managed to wreck the maze quite thoroughly. Every time some disaster did come along though, she made sure that it was put back exactly how it had been before.

She and Luna used to have a maze exactly like it in the old capital. In those early years when Equestria was first getting on its feet Luna had really enjoyed just wandering about the maze. She would lose herself in it on purpose so that she could puzzle her way out. Every time she would stumble out of the maze she would add some new layer to it so that next time it was harder.

Celestia would shake her head at her younger sister, and ask why she would lose herself on purpose. Luna would laugh and tell her that she was just trying to think something through, and getting lost was the only way to find her way out. It was rebuilt to be exactly how it had been the last time that Luna came shambling out of it. She wasn’t laughing that time though.

Celestia sighed, and looked to the skyline. The night was coming to an end, and soon she would need to raise the sun. The grass under her was still damp with dew, and clung to her fur. The last bit of the moon was sinking below the horizon indicating the time to her.

She looked once more across the gardens, to the area that she was dreading to gaze upon. The statues decorated the landscape in tiny little clumps. To the common observer they were probably thought of a beautiful, and most of them were. Some of the very finest sculptors ever to come out of ponykind had crafted the statues below.

A few of them however, were made in a much more unpleasant fashion. She knew that she had to go there today, but she certainly didn’t want to. Gazing in the direction of her destination, she felt real fear start to well up in her. Very few things in the world actually scared the goddess, but those few things that did were nothing to be trifled with.

She could see him from where she was seated, nearly a mile away. He stood there frozen, with a look of pure horror eternally etched on his face. How could it have possibly come to this? What she was going to do was completely insane.

She tore her gaze away from the statue, and back to the horizon. The moon had now vanished from the sky, indicating that its reign over the heavens was at a close for now. Celestia reached out, feeling for an old friend that loomed just out of sight. It didn’t take long, hardly a second, before she felt the warmth reach out to her.

As kindly as she could, she persuaded the lazy titan to start its trip across the sky. Slowly, as if just waking up from a dream, the sun began to climb higher into the sky. It broke over the horizon, bathing the world in its beautiful radiance, as it bent to the will of the princess and began its trek.

Celestia looked to where the morning was beginning, and felt a small amount of pride well up in her. Luna was far more talented at decorating the heavens that she was, but she still loved to look at her sunrises. She felt the power of the day beginning fill her up, and for those few moments that she controlled the will of a star itself, she felt as if she could do anything.

Deciding that it was too late to try and put off the chore any longer, Celestia rose to her hooves and took off. She pushed up from the ground with one mighty stroke of her wings, and was soon sailing through the air. The air was still cold, but the sun was beginning to warm the world around her.

She spent most of her time nowadays in the castle going over matters of state. It had been some time since she had just been out for a flight just for the sake of flying. Celestia’s faint smile turned to a grimace as she realized that even now she couldn’t enjoy this small freedom. She couldn’t relish the feeling of the wind rustling through her mane or the way it felt to exert herself, even a little, because her mind was focused on what was about to transpire.

As was typical, the flight didn’t take very long, and she was soon landing in the statue garden. She set down at the foot of the petrified draconequus. He was looking away from her, but she could feel his mind reaching out and probing.

Even trapped in this form Discord was still very dangerous. The Elements had managed to make his body unable to move, but his mind kept its unnatural ability to search where his eyes could not. An ability that had no doubt been acquired from another of their immortal brethren.

The absolute horror that he displayed brought a small smirk to the face of the alicorn. It immediately disappeared, and Celestia’s expression returned to that of warm stoicism. Before her stood one of the greatest enemies that she had ever had, but unfortunately, he wasn’t the only one.

The decision had been made the day prior, but there was still time to reconsider. All she really had to do was turn around and head back to the castle, and nopony would be the wiser. She could chalk all of this up to momentary hysteria brought on by the stress of the situation.

The corner of her lips dropped ever so slightly. The time that she could pass anything off as her being simply overwhelmed by the situation had past eons ago. She had seen crisis many times over the centuries, and it had hardened her. It was not a simple emotion that had driven her to this point, and she knew that her judgment was just as unclouded as ever.

This was the best thing that she could do for her subjects, or the entire world for that matter. Something had to be done, and before her stood the only rational option that she could contemplate. Regaining her resolve, Celestia’s horn sparked to life, and she began.

____________________________________________________________________________

“Ah don’t reckon that we will need that, Pinkie,” Applejack informed her bouncy pink friend, as the chariot came to a stop atop the platform.

Pinkie Pie frowned from behind her surprisingly compact cannon. “But AJ if we don’t use the party cannon it will take forever to decorate.”

“That’s kinda mah point Pinkie. Ah don’t see the reason that we need to have a party. From what Twilight’s letter said this is a very serious situation.” Applejack hopped out of the chariot, and reached back to help Fluttershy out.

“That’s exactly why we need a party. Everypony is going to be all serious and stuff so we need a way to get them to smile. What better way of doing that than having a big party!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed as she pushed the cannon out of the chariot, where it landed on the stone floor with a large clang.

“I don’t know about you guys,” Rainbow Dash said from where she was sprawled out on the canopy of the sky carriage, “but this feels like one of those things that we all get called together for to go fight some new bad guy. I don’t think we will be sticking around long enough to even have a party.” Rainbow lazily rolled off the side the chariot and landed with a large amount of athletic grace.

“We have to… fight?” Fluttershy squeaked from where she was hiding behind Applejack. Applejack immediately turned around to console her easily startled friend.

“Don’t you worry none, sugarcube. Ah’m sure that everything will work out like it always does.” AJ prodded the frightened pegasus to stand so that she could walk with the rest of her friends to where the guards were trying to usher them.

“Yea, Fluttershy, don’t worry. Whatever it is we can just put on the elements and zap it with the rainbow. That usually fixes everything,” Rainbow Dash added as she took to the air, and stretched her wings.

“Can we have a party after that?” Pinkie asked nopony in particular.

“Sure, Pinkie. After whatever is going on you can throw a party.” Rainbow glided over to the door the guards were patiently waiting for them at. Her friends followed closely behind.

Just like every other time that they had been summoned to the castle, the guards were stationed every couple of meters. One in particular was waiting at the entrance of the castle for the mares. His armor was an immaculate white, and hit electric blue mane fell over his neck in long streaks. Unlike the rest of the stallions stationed outside the castle, this one seemed to be in a hurry, and tapped his hoof against the tile as he anxiously waited for them to arrive.

The pegasus guard turned away from them once they were close enough, and quickly proceeded to walk down the corridor. Applejack gave her cyan friend a confused look, to which the chromatic pegasus shrugged and followed quickly behind their escort. The other three mares decided to do the same.

In silence the group hurried along the hallways to their destination. It didn’t take long for them to figure out that they were being led to the throne room. Rainbow Dash wanted to ask what the trouble was, but the air around the ponies was so filled with tension that she was afraid to cut it.

In short order, the five ponies arrived at the throne room, and the pegasus turned to address the mares for the first time. “Princess Celestia has summoned you to the throne room to address some matter of grave importance. If you would kindly excuse me ladies I have someplace that I desperately need to be.”

Without another word the guard turned and rocketed down the hall. His speed was enough to make Ponyville’s number one speedster a little jealous. A little confused, Applejack slowly pushed open the door to the throne room, uncertain what they would find on the other side.

Much to their relief the two ponies that waited for them on the other side of the doors were Rarity and Twilight. Pinkie bounced into the room, and quickly made her way to the two unicorns and pulled them into a big hug. A little caught off guard, the two mares quickly returned the embrace.

“Oh my gosh it feels like its been forever since I’ve seen you guys. I know that it’s only been a couple of days, but still we should do something to celebrate being reunited. I made sure to bring my new and improved version of the party cannon just in case we needed something to celebrate.” Pinkie Pie released her friends and bounced back a few steps to allow the others access to Twilight and Rarity.

“It is good to see you too Pinkie, but I don’t think that we will be celebrating anything anytime soon.” Twilight looked away from her friends.

“What do ya mean, Twi. Why did the princess ask us to come to Canterlot anyway?” Applejack asked, voicing the concerns of the whole group.

“I am not actually sure why she wanted everypony to come to Canterlot.”

“Well then why do you look so down, sugarcube?” Applejack made her way over to the other mare. “What is the matter, Twi?”

“Well… I don’t know if I should say. We aren’t supposed to talk about it,” Twilight continued to look away, unwilling to meet the gaze’s of her friends.

“Not supposed to talk about what?” Rainbow Dash sailed away from the wall mirror that she was making faces in to join the conversation.

“She doesn’t want to tell you about the war,” Rarity answered.

All eyes in the room immediately shot to the white unicorn that was being unnaturally blunt. Twilight seemed more shocked than any of them. Rarity wasn’t supposed to know about it either. Only a select few outside of the actual guard knew that the zebras were preparing to mount an assault on Equestria.

“War?” Fluttershy squeaked.

“Wait. How do you even know about it, Rarity?”

“It is hard not to know about it, Twilight. All of the guards are flocking to the capital, and they are such amazing gossips. Really, everypony in the castle has already heard about this invasion that is supposed to be happening soon.”

“Hold on a second both of you. What is this about an invasion, and why are we not supposed to know about it?” Applejack turned once again to Twilight.

“Well it seems that there is no point in hiding it now,” Twilight glared at her unicorn friend, but Rarity was completely unfazed. “It all started when some ancient evil was released from a prison beneath Canterlot. He fought off both princesses and escaped, but not before he wrecked the city. He flew back to his home country of Zebrica, and completely took over the government. Now he is forcing the zebras to gather an army, and the princess thinks that he is planning to invade Equestria,” Twilight was a little out of breath from the confession by the time that she finished.

“He is forcing ponies to fight when they don’t want to? That isn’t very nice of him,” Pinkie Pie was very good at stating the obvious.

“So the princess called us here so that we can zap this guy with the rainbow. See, I told you guys that’s what was up.” Rainbow Dash would have patted herself on the back if the situation weren’t so grave.

“No, that’s the thing. When I asked Princess Celestia about using the Elements on him she said that they wouldn’t work,” Twilight replied.

“Well then why did she want us all to meet up here?” Applejack asked.

“I don’t know. I keep trying to figure out why she would want us all to come to Canterlot, but I just can’t figure it out.”

“Then allow me to enlighten you.”

_____________________________________________________________________________

The wall cracked slightly as the punching bag slammed into it. I knew that it was very odd for a cushioned object to actually cause damage to a brick wall, but I couldn’t get over the fact that I had knocked it off the chain in the first place.

After I had sparred some more with Captain Hammer it came to my attention that I was way stronger than I should be. There is no human alive that should be able to swing a hammer with a hundred pound head. I truly didn’t understand why the ponies even had such an instrument lying around.

The next time that I had sparred with the Captain I had chosen a much lighter weapon. The sword that I had used was too short for me, but I had been able to work miracles with it. Never before in my life had I felt more in control of my body. I had almost been able to match the good Captain blow for blow, and he had been doing this sort of thing his whole life. I was far too good for a novice, and I was determined to find out why.

Knowing that I was stronger and faster than I ever had been before, all of the pieces started to fit together. Empress, had smacked me around pretty hard, but I had come out of the ordeal relatively unscathed. I had managed to swing around a massive hammer, and had managed to match the speed of an expert swordsman. Maybe all of the things that Apollo had told me weren’t as insane as they had sounded.

Standing over the fallen form of the punching bag as its insides spilled across the floor I truly started to realize the implications of this. No wonder Celestia had wanted me to fight for her in this upcoming battle. I was able to do all of these things without even thinking about them.

As far as exercise went, I really didn’t go out of my way to get it in. It’s true that during High School I had played some sports at the request of my parents, but after a few years I had dropped out. I really didn’t see the need to participate in many team sports. If I thought about it, I was not by any stretch of the imagination a fit human being.

Being here had somehow super charged me beyond simply being able to conjure magic music from nowhere. If I worked at it, and dedicated myself to becoming a true fighter like the Princess wanted would there even be a limit to what I could do? The possibilities scared me.

Before I knew about any of this things were strange enough. I was in some other dimension on an alien world in the middle of an ancient feud. Did I really have to discover that I had also been dramatically altered by the trip between worlds? It was hard to stop myself from spinning into a cycle of self-pity, but I somehow managed it.

Sighing, I bent down and picked up the punching bag. Now that I was actually aware of my strength lifting the seventy-pound bag was like nothing. I tossed it over my back, and walked back to the storage locker I had gotten it from. I heard the beans from the bag spilling out across the floor with every step that I took.

The training room was completely empty. It seemed that the guards that normally used the facility were at some important meeting today about the current state of affairs along the border. I had picked up a lot of what was going on from some of the newer recruits who couldn’t help but talk about it. I swear those guys are even chattier than high school girls.

Not feeling the need to be gentle with broken equipment I tossed the bag into the closet, and picked up another one. I dragged the punching bag back along the hardwood floor until I was once again in front of the chain that was used to hold it up. I quickly strung the bag up, and began my assault on it.

At first I had been excited to test out just how much damage I could dish out, but it became obvious very quickly that if I tried as hard as I could the bag wouldn’t hold up long. For whatever reason that information only excited me more, and I had eventually broken it off the chain and sent it careening into the wall behind it.

This time however, I was being much more gentle with my strikes. I gave the bag simple jabs to try and see just how fast I could throw a punch. I pulled a considerable amount of power out of each punch, not wanting a repeat of what had happened a few minutes prior.

The more I tried at it the more improvement I was able to see. At first the punches were flying as fast as I had expected them to. Of course they were faster than anything that I had ever expected myself to be able to do, but they weren’t crazy fast. Over time I noticed that they started to gain speed drastically.

I was tossing punches out left and right so fast that it was kind of hard for me to actually see them clearly. The bag started to rock unsteadily on the chain as the speed of my blows continued to steadily increase. I somehow managed to get a hold of myself, and stopped the onslaught.

The chain suspending the bag creaked at it started to slow. I hadn’t realized it, but I was panting now, and I had to bend over to catch my breath. Maybe the news of everything that was happening was finally catching up with me. Maybe, this is where my brain finally gives out, and I just snap.

I calmed myself and stood back up. The bag was barely teetering in front of me, but it was also calling out to me. I felt all of the frustration at my situation begin to well up inside of me. The pure unfairness of it all began to come to the surface of my mind, and it dredged with it a rage that I hadn’t felt for a very long time.

I wound my fist back as hard as I could and took out all of the frustration that had been festering in my mind out on the poor defenseless punching bag. The link to the chain held strong, but the wooden beam holding the chain in place didn’t. The wood snapped, and the punching bag sailed hard into the brick wall just like its brother had.

The bag exploded as it hit the wall, and caused a shower of beans to scatter across the room. The wooden beam fell in two pieces to the ground, and the building shook ominously for a moment before settling. I quickly turned away from the pointless destruction that I had caused, and quickly made my way to the exit. I didn’t want to think about what I was capable of doing anymore.

____________________________________________________________________________

Though she had never done the ritual before it came to her just as easily as most magics did. A white haze sped out from the horn of Celestia, and began to circle the imprisoned trickster. The mist swirled rapidly around him, and began to close in.

Celestia channeled more power into the spell, and felt herself begin to weaken. The Element’s hold over the draconequus was powerful, but the princess spent long enough with them to know how they worked. The mist collapsed in on the statue and found the weak points that she knew were there.

The statue began to radiate with energy as the mist seeped through the stone. The hard part was over, and all she had to do was release the spell and Discord would be free once again. Celestia hesitated; she was still frightened to venture down this path.

She once again steeled her resolve, and began to draw upon the power of the sun that now hung overhead. Its warmth and strength was always able to give the alicorn a tremendous boon when she needed, and she called upon every shred of magic that it was willing to lend.

The energy coalesced into her, and she could feel the flow of mana around her shift towards her. Celestia made a dam within her mind to hold the magic back until she needed it to perform the task at hand. It built in her mind like water trying to overrun a floodgate, but she held fast.

She allowed the power to build within her until she could bear it no longer. She let power flow from her, and a massive beam of light was loosed from her horn. It made contact with the statue, and completely obscured it.

A cracking could be heard from within the blinding light that was now encompassing the frozen god. A few seconds passed before an explosion rocked the small section of the gardens throwing dust and debris several feet. Celestia stood unmoving where she had been as the dust around the now freed Discord began to settle.

The dust cleared and revealed the draconequus sitting on the ground stretching. “You cannot imagine what standing in the same position for a such a long time does to the body.” With a loud pop Discord’s leg came off in his hand. “Oops looks like I overdid it a little.” With a flick of his thumb he popped the hoof of his now disembodied leg, and poured chocolate milk out of it into his mouth.

“I see that you don’t waste any time when it comes to chaos,” Celestia remarked dryly.

“Who has time to waste time with something as important as chaos, Celestia my dear?” Discord slapped the hoof back onto his leg, and reattached it.

“I trust that you know why I let you out of your confinement.”

“Always straight to the point with you, Celestia. You never take the time to stop and smell the flowers.” Discord’s face darkened. “Of course I know why you saw fit to let me out of that infernal prison. I cannot say that I fault you for doing so, it was really your only course of action.”

“Then you will help us with this matter?” Celestia asked hesitantly.

Discord’s face regained its joyful arrogance as he gave his answer. “No.”

“What,” Celestia was admittedly shocked by his response; “You have more cause to hate him than anyone else.”

“Yes I do. I will not be helping you and your little tribe of ponies in taking out Porosis once and for all. I will do it myself, and then I will come back for you and your little kingdom. Do not think that I have forgotten what you have done to me on two different occasions.”

“Then your highest priority is Porosis?” Celestia asked.

“Oh yes, Mister Order and Stability himself; the very antithesis of life embodied in an all-powerful being. You know me, Celestia I love life. It is so deliciously chaotic, even if YOU try to rein it in and control it. Some of the things that you and your ponies do to each other I could never think up. So to answer your question, yes. The number one priority is that arrogant bat-zebra,” Discord said as he floated into the air and began to circle Celestia.

“You will then come for Equestria of course.”

“But of course, my dear. I am nothing if not honest with my intentions.” Discord crossed a claw over his heart to show his sincerity.

“Then we will be ready for you when you return.” Celestia wanted to make sure that he heard the threat in her voice.

“No, Celestia. I fear you will not be ready for what is to come next.” With a wink the draconequus disappeared from sight.

Celestia let out a sigh as she looked to the spot that the trickster had vanished from. On the ground lay an orange smoothie with a swivel straw. Celestia picked up the cold beverage with her magic and examined it closely. After she was satisfied she took a hesitant sip, and found it to be delicious. She began her slow trek back to the castle as she lazily sipped the smoothie. There was really no point in wasting something so delicious.

____________________________________________________________________________

“Wait! You let out Discord? Why would you do something like that princess?” Surprisingly, it was Twilight who was raising her voice to the monarch.

“I did it because in the entirety of history only one person has ever defeated Porosis, and it was Discord. I did it because I would rather not waste countless pony and zebra lives on a pointless war when we had a way to get to the root of the problem. I did it, my dear student, because it was the only logical thing to do with all of the information at my disposal.” Despite the volume at which Twilight had addressed her, Celestia kept her voice low and smooth.

“So then you wanted everypony to gather here to stop Discord, not Porosis.” Twilight had finally put the puzzle together.

“That is correct, Twilight. We have beaten him back with the Elements of Harmony two times before and we can do it again. On top of that we know that he will be immediately coming back to Canterlot once her defeats Porosis once and for all. We have the advantage of knowing exactly when, where, and how to strike at him and that is all we need,” Celestia explained.

“Ah don’t know princess. This still sounds awfully risky to me. What if Discord takes the elements like he did last time and we can’t get them back.” Applejack raised a very good point.

“You do not have to worry about that, Applejack. After the last time that Discord escaped and secured the elements out from underneath us I have refortified the vault in which they are housed. There is a barrier in place that is powered by the Elements of Harmony themselves. The magic of the elements directly repulses Discord so there is no way he would be able to get at them.” With no need for further explanation Celestia turned from the ponies gathered before her to the vault on the far side of the room.

Slowly, Celestia made her way to the large golden doors, which the Elements of Harmony laid behind. Like she did every time she opened the doors, she inserted her horn into the small hole that comprised the lock. With an audible click the doors cracked open slightly, and Celestia opened them fully with her magic.

Floating inside the chamber was a chest suspended in an orb of rainbow colored magic. The orb hummed with power as it kept the chest solidly in place. Celestia’s horn began to glow again as she started to undo the magic that surrounded the chest.

“I want each of you to keep your respective element on you at all times. The power of the elements will keep anypony from taking them from you, and as long as you six stay together you will be safe. I don’t know how long it will be until Discord returns here once again, so I would like each of you to stay in the castle under guard for the time being.”

The magic around the chest pulsed for a second before dissipating. A loud rush of wind blew out from the chest as the power of the elements receded, and Celestia caught the now falling chest in the soft glow of her magic. She levitated it in the air beside her as she made her way back to where the girls were standing behind her.

She opened the chest, and was relieved to see the familiar glint of the Elements of Harmony greet her. Celestia let out a sigh that she did not know that she had been holding in as she levitated the Element of Laughter out of the box.

She quickly began to pass out each of the elements to their owners. Naturally, the Element of Laughter found its way to the always-bubbly Pinkie Pie. The Element of Loyalty was the next to be pulled from the box, and was swiftly given to the stalwart Rainbow Dash.

It was Generosity that was pulled out of the chest not long after, and the unicorn Rarity wore it with pride. Kindness was passed to the pegasus who, though easily frightened would, always meet any obstacle head on if her friends depended on her. Celestia levitated the Element of Honesty to Applejack, a pony that was never afraid to give the honest truth to anypony, no matter how much it might hurt.

Celestia looked into the now empty box as if expecting something to still be inside of it. The alicorn princess did a double take when she saw that the box contained only five of the six elements of harmony.

“What’s wrong princess?” Twilight asked, seeing the distress on her mentor’s face.

“The Element of Magic… it’s gone.” Upon hearing Celestia’s words the six mares in the room gasped.

“But I thought you said that Discord couldn’t possibly get to the elements.” Rainbow Dash swooped over so that she could get a look inside the chest.

“He couldn’t. He can’t!” Celestia punctuated her anger with a stamp of her hooves.

“If Discord couldn’t have taken the element then who did?” Twilight thought aloud. “Could Porosis have taken the element earlier when he escaped the city?”

“I suppose it is possible.” Celestia mulled over the possibility. “We did immediately leave to my chamber after the fight with Porosis. That would have given him the opportunity to take the element.” Celestia’s head fell. “It doesn’t really matter. Without the elements we will have no way of stopping Discord when he returns. It seems that I have only compounded our problems with my rash actions today.”

“Don’t worry princess I’m sure that we will think of something,” Pinkie Pie said, trying to rally the group.

“Yea, last time we didn’t have any of the elements when we started to try and take down Discord. This time we have five which is way better than last time,” Rainbow Dash chimed in.

“Ah’m sure that there is some way to get out of this here mess.” Applejack stepped forward to throw in her two cents.

“I have little doubt that we will overcome this obstacle,” Rarity said as she stepped forward to join the group.

“Yes, I agree. We will get through this no matter what,” the unusually vocal Fluttershy added.

“I have an idea.” At the sound of the distinctly male voice all heads in the room turned to where Twilight had just been standing in time to see the cloud of black smoke dissipating. When the cloud finally cleared Twilight was nowhere to be seen.

Chapter 11

The first thing that she noticed was the smell of salt that hung pungently in the air. Twilight shifted where she was laying on the ground, and felt the sand beneath her hooves give a little. She tried to get up, but her body refused her attempts and she collapsed into the earth.

Her ear flicked as she heard the waves crash into the shore, and immediately her mind began to race, trying to figure out where she was. The last thing that she remembered was talking with her friends in Celestia’s throne room, and then suddenly everything had gone black. Twilight hesitantly opened an eye, but was immediately blinded by the sun that was beating down upon her.

The unicorn held a hoof up to shield her eyes, and found that her strength was starting to return to her. Slowly, Twilight lowered her hoof, and allowed her retinas to adjust to the bright sunlight. After the world stopped being one big white blur she began to pick out the shapes of her surroundings.

Behind her lay the ocean, where the surf was continuously beating upon the shore. All she could see either to her right or left was more beach; it seemed to stretch on forever. She saw large rocks scattered along the shore, and some of them even seemed to be carved statues. If they were statues the wear that they exhibited meant that they had to be several thousand years old.

In front of her, what she had assumed to be a large rock at first, the shape of a living being began to come into focus. Twilight once again held a hoof up to shade her eyes from the sun, so that she could make out what was standing in front of her better. Much to her dismay, Twilight recognized the figure immediately.

“Well it seems like you finally woke up, Twilight,” Apollo said as he smiled down at the small pony.

“What the hay is going on?” Twilight asked as she struggled to her to her hooves, but this time succeeded. “Where are we?”

“On a beach. What have you never been to the ocean before?” he answered, still not losing his smile.

“I know we are on the beach!” Twilight yelled back at him; she really did take after her mentor at times. “I mean where in Equestria are we? And why do I feel so tired?”

“Oh, I’m afraid that we aren’t in Equestria anymore my little pony. As for your second question… I really don’t know. You told me before that you had the capacity to teleport so I am just as surprised as you that the trip actually knocked you out.” The elder god shrugged, and sat down in the sand.

“If we aren’t in Equestria anymore then where are we?”

“It is interesting. Perhaps both our methods for instantaneous travel are fundamentally different. Tell me do you not pierce the veil when you move from one location to another?” the man in black asked, completely ignoring Twilight’s question.

“Pierce the veil? That is not only irresponsible but incredibly dangerous.”

“I guess I don’t really understand how you teleport then.” Apollo put his hands behind his head and laid down in the sand.

“It’s pretty simple. You first break down the body into pure energy, and it is sent to the target location and then reconstructed. But you never answered my first question. Where exactly are we.”

Apollo pondered this for a moment. “Well that is not really teleporting then is it? That is basically killing yourself, and then cloning yourself somewhere else with the energy you got from the beginning of the spell. Does that make you Twilight version 143 or something then?”

Twilight balked at his candid remark. “No! Now answer the question! Where are we?” Twilight stomped a hoof into the sand to emphasize her frustration, but the soft cushioning of the dirt below her took out most of the drama that the motion conveyed.

“I cannot answer that question, Twilight,” he said from where he rested on the beach.

“What? Why not?” Twilight decided that it would be best to sit as she talked to the man.

“I cannot tell you where we are, because I do not really know. Consider this place to be where none can see, and none can enter.” He motioned to the beach around them.

“Well then if you don’t know where we are, and we cant have come here. Then how did we get here?” Twilight rubbed a hoof against her temple. None of this was making any sense at all.

“I brought us here, because it was the place that I wasn’t able to see.” He sat up, and smiled at the unicorn causing her to cry out in frustration.

“Then why did you bring us here?”

“There is a very good reason for that,” Apollo said as her once again got to his feet and began to brush the sand off of his black duster.

“And what would that be?” Twilight asked in a deadpanned voice.

“You will see,” he replied as he turned, and began to walk further inland.

Twilight once again looked left and right, but all that she could see was the endless beach. Since she had no idea where in the world she was, she gritted her teeth, and began to run after him.

“So you want me to follow you somewhere I assume,” she said once she caught up to him.

“Very astute as always, Twilight,” he replied.

“So then we are obviously going somewhere. Why didn’t you just take us to our destination instead of the beach then?”

“You are very inquisitive aren’t you,” Apollo remarked with a laugh. “If I had just brought us to that end of the road then we would have missed out on the journey, and that is the most important part.”

“Whatever.” Twilight rolled her eyes and the illogical being, which only elicited another laugh from him. Silently, she trudged along side him into the dessert that sprawled out before them.

___________________________________________________________________________

The room was dark, or at least the light was low enough to give a foreboding feeling to all who dared to enter the chamber. Torches hung along the columns that flanked both sides of the walkways leading right to the throne. No shadows were cast by the flickering lights that filled the throne room; shadows would throw off the symmetry.

A long crimson carpet ran directly down the middle of the room, clashing with the grey masonry of the walls. The carpet was precisely cut to measure the exact distance between the door and the throne that sat at its end; no single thread of the fabric was out of place.

At the end of the walkway a magnificent throne of marble rested. Flags of the great zebra tribes stuck out behind the chair in a perfect fan of colors, they were treated to never waver no matter how strong the wind that blew through the chamber was. Seated on the throne, with a crown made of a perfectly black metal, Porosis meditated on his coming plans.

The god of the zebras looked to be an unmoving statue. If one were to approach him they would not see his ear flick at any sound, and would not be able to tell if he was even breathing. Despite his stillness, Porosis’ mind raced as he reviewed his strategies, looking for any sign of a miscalculation. Of course, he never found any.

The throne room hardly ever had any visitors. The guards outside the room were to remain as stoically unmoving as the god that sat inside. If he caught even the glimpse of a movement besides addressing somepony who wished to enter, Porosis would immediately expel the guard from the castle, and in many cases, from this world altogether.

It was on an evening like any other in the castle that a being of unfathomable power leapt into existence in front of the ruler of Zebrica. Porosis felt his presence as soon as he appeared in the room with him, but waited for the visitor to make the first move. He would not be goaded into showing his hand early.

“Why hello there. It has been a while hasn’t it?” Discord asked the winged zebra before him. Slowly, Porosis opened his eyes and looked up at the draconequus that was floating in front of him.

“Discord, this is unexpected.”

“I did forget how much of a shut in you are. I was just taking a stroll around the world when I realized that I hadn’t talked to you in quite a while. So how is the whole taking over the world and destroying all life thing going?” Discord slowly floated to the ground where he rested his head on a paw while staring at his opponent.

“Preparations are nearly complete. What I would like to know however is how you managed to escape that prison you had been locked in.” Porosis simply stated.

“Escape? Nononono, I did not escape. Celestia saw it fit to unlock my little cell door so that I could deal with you. It seems my measures last time didn’t stick so well.” Discord frowned.

“You of all beings should know that no prison is truly eternal.”

“It would seem so. I am saddened that you saw fit to kill my friend when he let you out. Though, I would have had to punish him for freeing you in the first place.” Discord shrugged as he rose back to his feet.

“That abomination? Such a creature is not meant to exist in this world.”

“Oh, Sisy, you just are one big hypocrite aren’t you. You hate all living things for being chaotic, but you yourself are a living thing and therefore chaotic. Does all of this stem from some self hatred that you feel the need to project onto others?” Discord lifted his glasses off as he asked the question. Upon seeing no reaction he wrote a few notes on the notepad he was holding. “Interesting…”

“This has grown dull. What is your purpose here?” Porosis asked as he began to rise from his throne.

“Didn’t I already tell you? You really should pay more attention when someone is talking to you. I am here to end you once and for all.” Discord tossed his glasses and notepad aside where they splattered into paint on the stone walls of the room.

“So you are helping the ponies in this crisis? That doesn’t seem like you.” Porosis took a step forwards.

“No, I am not helping them. This is personal, and as such I would like to keep other factions out of it.” Discord stared down at his approaching opponent.

“Oh yes. You still hold some petty grudge against me after I rid the world of that weakling. What was her name? Terra?” A red ball of energy struck Porosis in the chest sending his body crashing back through his throne and into the wall behind it.

He climbed back to his hooves, and stared at the opponent who had just struck him. Discord’s chest was heaving, not from the amount of power that he had just put out, but from the rage that was coursing through his body. His eyes were completely glazed over with crimson energy, accenting the grimace that was on his face.

Porosis moved forwards from where he was standing at supersonic speeds. He knew from his many battles with the draconequus that Discord would need a few seconds to regain himself after unleashing that particular attack. Without stopping, Porosis rocketed through his opponent sending him sailing across the throne room, and crashing through the wall that led into the hallway.

The wall crumbled, and the debris below started to shift as Discord pulled himself out of the ruble. He didn’t have a chance to collect himself however, as Porosis struck him against, still traveling at incredible speed. The hoof struck Discord’s chin and sent him flying down the hallway where he crashed through the exterior wall.

Discord broke through the barrier, and felt his body floating in the air. He was falling through the air off the edge of the cliff that the castle sat upon. Wasting no time, Porosis flew through the hole that Discord had left behind him, and slammed down on the draconequus.

Discord was sent sailing down to the water below where he collided hard with the surface. Porosis’ eyes began to glow white, and a bream shot down to the water where Discord had crashed. The beam connected with the water below, and a massive fireball erupted. The fire spread out for several hundred feet before dissipating.

Porosis looked down at the place his attack had detonated, and saw steam raising from where the water had been vaporized. He was unable to see even a small sign of Discord however. Porosis spun around as the sound of clapping reached his ears.

“That was pretty impressive, Sisy. Now the gloves are off.” Discord’s hands flashed for a second and were soon wrapped in boxer’s gloves. At the sound of a bell ringing he launched forwards at the flying zebra that was waiting for him.

___________________________________________________________________________

Oh whistling, it is really an excellent way to relieve some stress. I was glad to find, since whistling doesn’t actually use the vocal cords, that my ability to produce a small melody was unimpeded by my affliction. The halls of the Canterlot castle did have excellent acoustics, or at least I think they did. I was never a musician so I am not particularly knowledgeable about such things.

I walked through the hallways as I lazily made my way to the throne room. The Elements of Harmony were supposed to be arriving today, and Celestia had wanted me to greet them for some reason. Sure, the mares were friendly, but I didn’t really know them too well so I wasn’t certain why Celestia wanted me there.

Maybe she wanted me to protect them or something. My newfound strength would probably be able to match any pony that I could find. Though in the face of an alicorn goddess I would certainly be no match. I suppose, that me being called to protect them had no basis then.

Shrugging, I continued to lazily meander through the castle, all the while keeping up my cheery tune. I had been down in the dumps a little while ago, but whistling, or even quietly singing to myself had always lifted my spirits in the past. Like all the other times I had ever walked through the halls, I marveled at the amazing artwork displayed. I wondered if any of the ponies ever had the urge to steal anything. Surely, this would be an art thief’s paradise.

I finally arrived at the entrance to the throne room where two guards waited outside. The cast their eyes at me a second before one of them nodded at me, which I took as permission to enter. I set both hands against the tall wooden doors and pushed them open, where they loudly proceeded to groan. I casually continued to walk into the room, but immediately the tension in the air hit me.

Fluttershy seemed to be weeping softly on the ground, and Rarity and Pinkie Pie were trying to console the distraught mare. Applejack was standing on Rainbow Dash’s tail, stopping her from soaring into the air for some unknown reason. I distinctly noticed the lack of a certain lavender unicorn, and the only one that seemed to notice my entrance into the room was Celestia; she was staring daggers at me from where she stood over Fluttershy.

Without slowing down, or even dropping my merry tune, I did a complete one-eighty and walked back to the entrance at the fastest pace I dared. I yellow glow surrounded the doors causing them to slam shut; a wooden plank ever fell across the doors, sealing them shut. I would have sworn loudly given the chance. Seeing that my escape had been stopped before it could have even began, I sighed, and turned around to face the ponies that were all now looking at me.

“Excuse me for being so rude, but I would rather you not leave us at the moment,” Celestia said as she began to approach me.

I had to admit, I was slightly interested in what was going on, so I quirked an eyebrow to ask what exactly the situation was.

Celestia gave me a knowing look before she started to explain. “It seems that Twilight has been taken away from us.”

“You mean someone ponynapped her!” Rainbow Dash almost screamed as she pulled away from Applejack. “Why are we just sitting around here when whoever did this is getting away!” Okay, now she was screaming.

“Didn’t you hear the princess, Dash. She said flying around blindly wouldn’t help at all,” the farm pony explained to her distraught friend.

“Well, I can’t just sit around here and do nothing.” Rainbow crossed her hooves and slowly sank back to the floor.

“I understand your concern, Rainbow Dash, but Twilight could literally be anywhere in the world right now. There would be absolutely no good running off without knowing where to look first,” Celestia explained.

“So you mean we aren’t even going to look for her?” Rainbow Dash asked in an exasperated tone.

“I never said anything like that.” Princess Celestia’s horn lit up once again, and a scroll appeared before her. She wrote a quick note on the scroll before she burned it; I watched as the ashes began to swirl in the wind, and were carried out an open window. “There, I have sent word to the mage’s guild and others to begin scrying for Twilight Sparkle’s location. Once we have found out where she is we will launch a full rescue party.”

I thought that I had caught up by then. Apparently, some mysterious character had swooped in out of nowhere and taken Twilight with them. Also, she could be literally anywhere in the world by now. I scowled as I realized exactly whom it was that had probably taken her. Sure, Apollo had told me a sob story about how he was all alone in the world, but that guy could really be a dick.

I looked around, and saw that Fluttershy had calmed down somewhat, but was clinging to Rarity like a life preserver. Pinkie Pie was now off talking to Applejack in hushed tones, it looked like she had decided to straighten her hair for no apparent reason. Rainbow Dash had apparently caught onto the princess’ feelings, and was now also glaring at me.

I began to nervously back away from the two angry mares. I already knew that Celestia had taken up the habit of lashing out at me whenever something went horribly wrong recently, and I was afraid that Rainbow Dash might also think that it was liberating to do so. Right when I had backed all the way into the large wooden doors I heard a small thud on the other side. Momentarily distracted, I put my ear up to the door and thought I heard the sound of someone cursing on the other side.

Without warning the doors burst open, and sent me sprawling to the side. I hit my head on the wall, but probably did more damage to the stone than it did to me. I pulled myself to a sitting position, and watched as a certain blue alicorn marched into the room looking very angry.

“Why hath thee locked the doors to thine chamber, sister?” She was so loud I was afraid that one of my eardrums might burst.

“It was in an attempt to stop the human from fleeing. Now please, Luna, calm down,” Celestia replied trying to console her younger sister.

“Calm down! How can we calm down when one of our loyal subjects hath been stolen from under our watch. Are thee saying that the human had something to do with this?” Luna turned and glared at me with eyes almost as frightening as Celestia’s, almost.

“I am sure that he had nothing to do with it. I simply wanted him to stay put for a moment while we try to sort all of this out.” Celestia kept her calm demeanor as she spoke.

“Very well,” after she took a few deep breaths she started to speak again. “Explain to us exactly what happened here.”

“It all began when I called the Elements of Harmony here. I told them that we would need the elements soon, and that they should be prepared,” Celestia began.

“I thought that we would be unable to use the elements against Porosis?”

“We do not need them for him. We need them for Discord.”

“Why would we need to use the elements against Discord when he is…” Luna stopped for a moment, “Sister, please tell me that you didn’t.”

“I had to. It was the only way to resolve this matter without bloodshed,” Celestia replied quickly, desperately wanting to defend herself.

“Are you mad?” Luna bellowed in the incredibly loud tone of voice.

“Wait Luna, there is more.”

“More!”

“Yes, when I went to retrieve the elements I found that one of them was missing, The Element of Magic. I don’t know how this is possible since there was absolutely no way that Discord could have gotten to them this time. Everything looked hopeless, and that is when Twilight vanished. I believe that the culprit is none other than our old friend Apollo,” Celestia summated.

Luna looked taken aback at learning just who had taken Twilight. “Why would he do such a thing?”

“I don’t know, but if I had to guess…”

The rest of their conversation I wasn’t able to hear as I stealthily made my way out of the room, and down the hall. I was slightly satisfied with myself for guessing the identity of Twilight’s kidnapper, but I just couldn’t stay in that room any longer. The whole situation was way too much drama for me, and who knows what would happen if Celestia decided that everything was my fault again burned me alive on the spot. Just the thought of it was enough to make my skin crawl.

_____________________________________________________________________________

A dark shape shot out of the gaping hole in the side of the cliff. Dust trailed it for a moment before it was peeled off revealing a very angry Porosis. Discord hovered in the air watching his enemy approach at breakneck speeds. He reached behind him an conjured an oversized baseball bat, which he then proceeded to tap against his foot as Porosis continued to speed towards him.

At the last moment Discord swung the bat behind him, readying himself. With a powerful swing, an explosion engulfed the two, and blasted rocks off of the cliffside that was nearly a mile away. The smoke cleared and two figures were once again revealed to be flying in place nearly a hundred yards away from each other. Porosis was staring down his opponent while Discord was mourning his broken baseball bat.

“What’d you have to go and do that for, Sisy?” Discord asked, tossing away the broken bit of wood.

Porosis’ mask of stoicism cracked for the briefest of instances as his annoyance bubbled to the surface. His eyes began to glow once again as he shot two beams from them. The white beams arced across the expanse, taking sharp awkward angles as they quickly made their way to Discord. The draconequus held up his hand, and a mirror appeared before him. Defying all laws of physics, the two beams merely deflected off of the mirror and shot back at Porosis.

The zebra lazily moved out of the way as the beams shot past him, where they collided with the cliff behind them, and created a massive crater. Parts of the castle began to crumble and fall from the clifface, and many zebras could be heard screaming as they also fell to their dooms in the waters below.

Discord dispelled the mirror as he chuckled softly to himself. Annoyance once again flashed across Porosis’ face as he started to draw power to his eyes again. Instead of two beams, a single streak of black energy arced at Discord when he let loose the spell. Discord put his hands to his head in a look of pure terror as the beam drew closer. The beam continued to soar through the air at its target, but when it reached him it simply passed straight through.

“Got ya.”

Porosis felt an intense pain in his back as Discord grabbed one of his wings, and began to pull on it as hard as he could. The two fumbled through the air as they fell towards the water. Porosis tried desperately to hit his enemy who was standing on his back, and trying to rip off one of his wings.

The air shimmered for a moment as Discord razed a hand above him, and Porosis eyes grew wide as he saw Discord conjure a chainsaw. Discord pulled a hockey mask over his face with his hand before he grabbed the chainsaw, and revved its engine. Doing the most insane laugh he could, Discord swung the saw down at Porosis’ back where it ripped straight through his wing like it was butter.

Discord kicked off of Porosis as hard as he could, sending the one winged zebra rocketing into the water below. He then waved his hand again, and a rocket launcher appeared in front of him. Taking the oversized gun in one hand he proceeded to stuff the chainsaw down the tube, and aimed it down at the water as he waited for Porosis to emerge.

He only had to wait a few seconds before Porosis came screaming out of the water. Discord fired the weapon, but it went wide, and Porosis quickly closed the space between them. With a fierce jab he caught Discord in the face, and sent him sailing upwards. As his enemy was still dazed he sped up once again, and caught him mid air where he slammed down on the draconequus, knocking the breath out of him.

Porosis grabbed onto Discord, and continued to beat on him as the two sped back down to earth. After he was satisfied Porosis leaped off of Discord and slammed into him one last time. Discord was sent flying across the air at the ground that was spread out below them.

He landed like a meteor, and the resulting shockwave uprooted several trees that were in the area. Porosis wasn’t far behind as he landed on the ground just outside of the crater. Discord’s hand appeared over the lip of the hole, and he slowly pulled himself out. He stood at the edge of the crater and stared at his opponent.

Porosis had grown back his other wing, but now both of them had elongated and shed all over their skin and muscle tissue. His head had now grown two long and dangerously sharp horns: one black and the other white. His hooves were alight with an azure fire that slowly spread across the ground below him.

“Nice to see that you finally got serious,” Discord said with a smirk as he conjured a ball of lightning in his hand.

___________________________________________________________________________

“Can we… stop… for a minute?” Twilight panted as she walked beside the dark man.

Apollo stopped a moment and looked down at her. “I suppose so.”

Exhausted, Twilight collapsed on the ground, not really caring how hot the sand was. Apollo turned and looked the small unicorn over. She was sweating profusely, and her hair was completely out of sorts. He looked up to the sky to see the sun beating down on them from the same spot that it had been all day.

Apollo reached into his coat and pulled out a flask, which he then tossed into the sand next to Twilight. “Here, drink this.”

She eyed it suspiciously before picking it up with her magic and unscrewing the top. She took a hesitant sip, and upon finding that it was water, began to drink from the flask greedily. Apollo smiled and fell into the sand beside the unicorn. Twilight sighed happily as she slated her thirst, and then offered the drink to her companion.

“Keep it,” he said holding up a hand.

“Aren’t you thirsty?”

“Nah. When I crafted this body I had the dessert in mind. Neither the heat of the sun nor the chill of the night affect me. Just one of the many great perks of being immortal.” He smirked at Twilight.

“Well that’s lucky.” Twilight rolled her eyes as she screwed the top back on the flask.

“Luck has nothing to do with it.” He rolled onto his back and stared up at the sky. “Don’t you think that the sky is so beautiful this time of day? No clouds to break up the endless blue expanse, and the sun shining down from its never moving position above us as a beacon.”

“I noticed that. We have spent hours walking, but the sun hasn’t moved even once. How is that even possible? Celestia moves the sun across the sky everyday.”

“There are many mysteries in this world that can’t simply be explained. You can’t think of this place as following the same rules as the rest of the world.”

“What is that supposed to mean?” Twilight asked expectantly.

“You really do ask a lot of questions. Was that something that Celestia taught you to do?”

“Well you just answered my question with a question,” she said, shooting him a glare.

“Well answer mine and I will answer yours.” Apollo chuckled as he sat up to look at the mare.

“I asked you first.”

“Fair enough. You can’t think of this place like the rest of the world because it isn’t part of it. It may exist on the same planet, and within the same plane, but the rules do not apply here. Or better to say, they rules were never enforced on this particular place. When the rest of the world was undergoing transformation into something habitable this place got overlooked,” he explained, knowing full well that it would only spark many more questions. “Now its your turn. When did you start to get so inquisitive?”

Twilight’s mind was still racing from all of the information that was just freely handed to her. She put a hoof to her chin, and thought for a moment.

“I don’t really know. I guess it was still when I was a filly, and I had just started learning about magic. Ever since I started to research into the mystical arts I immediately knew how much I loved to learn. I began to question everything so that I could learn more about the world around me. I don’t think that it was Princess Celestia that taught me to question everything, but she definitely encouraged it,” she smiled as she thought back on the fond memories.

“So what was studying under Celestia like?” Apollo asked.

“I already answered your question, its your turn to answer another,” Twilight pointed out.

“You got to ask the first question in the first round so I get to start this one off.”

“So what is this some kind of game then?”

“Yes! That was your question for this round so now answer mine,” Apollo commanded triumphantly. “What was it like studying under Celestia?”

Twilight glared at him again but he merely ignored it. “Being Princess Celestia’s personal pupil was the greatest thing that I could have ever asked for. There are many ponies whose special talents are magic, but she choose me out of all of them to learn from her personally.

“I know that the princess has had a few students in the past, and all of them went on to be great mages that advanced our knowledge of magic beyond what we could have possibly hoped to achieve without them. With that kind of goal already set before me, being her student was… is kind of a stressful position, but it also gives me drive to better myself. I don’t think that I would trade it for anything in the world.”

“Very well said. I am sure that she would be happy to hear you say those things herself.”

“Do you really think so?” Twilight asked, feeling slightly vulnerable.

“Another simple question. You aren’t very good at this game,” Apollo laughed and caused Twilight to pout. “To answer you, yes. I have known Celestia for as long as anyone possibly could. I’m sure I don’t know her as well as her sister, and probably not as well as yourself, but I am sure that hearing such sincere words from a student of hers would make her very happy.”

“Thank you,” Twilight said looking up once again at the man seated beside her.

“For what?” Apollo caught himself too late, and silently swore under his breath.

Twilight smiled. “Thanks for being nice. When I first met you I didn’t really know what to think. Something about you kind of reminded me of Discord.” She nearly stopped as a serious look covered his face for a moment. “When you took me away from me friends and brought me here I thought that you might have some kind of evil plan or something. But now, I think that you genuinely want to help us out.”

“Believe it or not, Twilight, I too have a stake in this world. I helped create it after all. I would hate to see it ripped apart by war or some great inevitable terror. Everything that I do is to make sure that this world continues to spin on and prosper. I promised as much to someone a long time ago.” Apollo looked back to the sky.

Twilight looked him over while he was distracted by his own memories. Though his body still appeared to be young, his eyes were those of a soul that had seen too much in his time on the earth. He, like all of us, always kept up a mask while around others. He tried to appear carefree and aloof to the things around him, but Twilight had a feeling that he cared a lot more than he let on. She was about to ask him about it when he abruptly stood up, and turned to face her.

“I think that has been long enough of a rest, don’t you?”

“I guess so. You still haven’t told me where we are going though,” Twilight said as she also stood up.

“Would that be your last question for our little game?” he smiled down at the unicorn.

“Yes, where exactly are we going?”

Apollo laughed for a moment before he turned and began to walk once again on the invisible path ahead of them. “We are headed to the source, Twilight my dear. Do hurry, we have a long way to go yet.”

_____________________________________________________________________________

“This is just like old times isn’t it?” the now transformed Porosis asked the draconequus standing across from him.

“Oh yes. It does bring back memories. Correct me if I’m wrong, but didn’t I beat you the last time we fought like this?” The lightning in Discord’s hand arced to the ground, scorching the grass that was at his feet.

“I have grown far more powerful since then. This time you shall not triumph.”

“Hate to break your bubble, Sisy, but you aren’t the only one who has picked up some new tricks.” Discord raised his hand, but instead of hurling the lightning at Porosis he shot it into the cloud cover above him.

The lightning connected with the clouds, and the world around the two began to darken. Roiling clouds began to materialize in the sky above, and soon obscured the pleasant blue of the afternoon with a dark threatening grey. Discord laughed as he leaped into the air extending his hands to the heavens once again.

Massive bolts of electricity shot down from the now swirling cloud cover, and were channeled into Discord. He gathered his power for a moment before turning at staring down at Porosis who watched from the ground unamused.

“Try this one on for size!” Discord screamed as he loosed the massive bolt of lightning at Porosis. Electricity arced off of the bolt and sliced into the trees that surrounded the clearing, either felling the great oaks or setting them on fire. The main portion of the blast was undisturbed however and struck true.

A blinding white explosion expanded out from where the lightning collided with Porosis. Discord didn’t need to avert his gaze though, as his eyes were concealed behind a very stylish pair of sunglasses. The white plasma swirled in a sphere around its victim for a few seconds before it collapsed in on itself, causing a second explosion, this time far more powerful.

The shockwave tore boulders out of the ground, and snapped the trees that sat on the edge of the clearing like twigs. The trees that had been set ablaze by the lightning crashed into the denser parts of the forest, and soon small fires starting to spring up.

In the center of the blast Porosis stood, still looking up at Discord as though nothing had happened. Wisps of smoke trailed off his body, but no visible marks marred his perfect features. He flexed his wings, scattering the air around him, which smelled of ozone, and took off into the air.

He soared across the sky, his hooves leaving a small trail of blue fire behind him, as he approached his opponent. “Is that all you have!” he screamed, “I would have thought that you would do something impressive!”

Discord moved aside, barely in time to avoid being plowed into by Porosis. The winged zebra turned mid-air and shot two beams back at Discord as he continued to fly upwards. The black beams shot down at Discord, but once again sailed straight through him.

Porosis turned in time to see a large boulder sailing down at him. Without time to dodge, he grit his teeth and continued to accelerate at the rock. He smashed through the boulder, sending shards of it scattering everywhere, but he came out of the other side of the rock another lightning bolt sailed down at him.

The sudden impact sent him spiraling, but he quickly righted himself and looked around for Discord. He turned his gaze back to the ground where Discord was watching the events unfold from relative safety. Porosis scowled and rocketed back down to the ground, instantly breaking the sound barrier in the process.

He landed where Discord had just been standing a moment before, and turned to see the draconequus backing away from him. “You want to see me being serious? Well then I shall show you.”

Porosis’ horns began to light up with their respective colors, and the world around him started to darken to black. Discord found that he could no longer lift into the air, and he soon lost sight of his opponent as the world around him became dark. The darkness expanded outwards until it was nearly enveloping the entire forest that they were fighting in.

“Are you afraid?” a voice called out through the black.

“Not really,” Discord replied honestly.

“Well you should be.” Something smashed into Discord’s face sending him sailing through the air, and into what he assumed to be trees.

Several cracks echoed through the air as Discord broke through the tree line. Eventually, his momentum ran out and he skidded along the ground before coming to a halt. Shakily, he pulled himself to his feet and wiped away a thin trail of blood that had started to make its way from his mouth.

Discord put out his lion’s paw and concentrated for a moment. After a few seconds his paw began to glow, and a white orb began to form in front of him. Discord tossed the spell into that air, but was blindsided once again by something striking him in the jaw.

He didn’t go sailing quite as far through the air as he had last time since a large stone stopped him flat. Discord felt himself slam into the boulder, and crack it, but when he opened his eyes he smiled at the sight of the white ball of energy ascending into the sky. The ball began to expand rapidly before finally exploding outward in a violent display of light.

Discord held up a hand to shield his eyes at the last second, but Porosis, who had also been watching the display, wasn’t so lucky. The sudden flash of light blinded him, and he found himself reeling for a moment as he tried to regain his bearings. Porosis blinked the afterimage out of his eyes, but when he turned to face his opponent he was struck in the chest by a ball of red lightning.

He grunted as he was knocked off his hooves by the sudden force of the blast. He felt the energy arc through him for a moment before dissipating into the earth below. With the attack over he took his time getting back to his hooves, and turned once again to face Discord.

“That was a nice trick,” he said in his usual emotionless voice.

Discord’s chest was heaving as he leaned back against the rock. He wiggled his tongue around in his mouth for a moment before frowning. He turned to the ground and spat out one of his molars before turning back to Porosis.

“I am the god of chaos after all.” Discord stretched out his hand and summoned an axe into reality. It was only slightly bigger than an average hatchet, but its head was made out of ice.

With incredible speed the god of chaos lunged at Porosis while brandishing his new frozen axe. Porosis however, didn’t even bother to get out of the way as Discord came at him. Discord swung down with all his might as he got in range of Porosis.

The axe head gleamed with firelight as it descended on the helpless god. It connected with his neck, but to the surprise of the wielder, the axe head shattered. Ice fragments flew through the air as Discord tried to reel himself back out of his strike.

Porosis leaped forward, showing his incredible speed, and attempted to strike Discord’s face with a flaming hoof, only to find that he went right through the illusion. Growling, Porosis turned around in time to see Discord holding a swirling ball of blue energy between his hands.

“HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!” Discord thrust his hands forward, and the ball he was holding exploded into a beam of blinding blue-white energy. Porosis didn’t have time to get out of the way as the beam struck him head on.

The attack didn’t stop at Porosis however, and continued to weave a trail of destruction for nearly a mile behind its target. Trees disintegrated as the energy washed over them, and the heat of the attack pulled in a torrent of air, blowing away everything in the surrounding area.

The dust that was kicked up by the blast began to dissipate as the sound of heavy beating wings came from inside the cloud. The air was forced outward, and the dust was carried along with it, until the shady visage of Porosis was once again in full view. Black smoke was rising off his fur, but once again no marks marred his pristine coat.

“Well… damn.” Discord pulled himself back into a standing position; the blue light that was emanating from his hands began to fade.

“Did you think that something like that could actually effect me?”

“I hoped,” Discord replied as red sparks once again started to dance across his palms.

“You, out of anyone, should know that nothing can mar me or change the state of my body,” Porosis said coolly as he took another step forward. The air was beginning to fill up with smoke as the forest fire started to hit its climax.

“Now that is not entirely true, and we both know it. After all I did turn you into a diamond,” Discord said with a smirk.

“Yes, chaotic magic seems to excite in breaking the rules. No matter. I have been free longer, and my power shall crush your twisted magics.” Porosis took another step forward.

“If you say so, Sisy, but I wouldn’t be so sure.” Discord shrugged as he took a step back.

“Would you stop calling me that,” Porosis replied coolly.

“Oh but, Sisy. Haven’t I always called you this since we just started our little song and dance? It wouldn’t make much sense to stop using your pet name now. Of course, I don’t usually like to make sense, but seeing as how it affects you I think I can make an exception this one time.” Discord jumped backwards into the air and began to lazily float.

“It matters not. You will still perish here.” Discord only smiled wider at his words.

Porosis’ horns began to light up once again, and all of the fire in the surrounding woods began to pool together. The flames rushed off of every branch on every tree towards the center of the clearing that the two were standing in. They rushed to Porosis who had his front right hoof stretched out in front of him.

This fire began to collect and the color of the flames that danced along his outstretched hoof began to change from blue to red. For miles the fire was pooled to the elder god who waited patiently for his power to come to him. After merely thirty seconds the entirety of the surrounding woods was, once again, no longer burning.

The fire danced along Porosis’ outstretched hoof, and its demonic gleam was reflected in his eyes. Discord also watched as the fire came to him, and suddenly his eyes widened in horror. He had seen this attack before.

“Are you ready to die, Discord?” Porosis lunged forwards at the speed of sound, aiming for the draconequus who was floating in front of him.

Just before the two were to collide Discord smirked, and Porosis sailed straight through the afterimage of the illusion. He turned, hurriedly trying to find his opponent while he still held his enormous power in his hoof. He spotted Discord in the sky above him gawking, and with a single stroke of his powerful wings, he was soaring through the air up at him.

Porosis closed the gap between the two in an instant, and once again tried to strike his foe. Again, he sailed through the illusion, and had to stop himself before he flew too far away. This was beginning to get tedious.

He spun around once again, but this time was unable to find Discord. A small ball of electricity struck him in the back of the head, and Porosis turned his gaze upwards to see Discord laughing at him. He was actually laughing in the face of such awe-inspiring power.

Porosis shot up at Discord who was flying just below the cloud cover, but before he could reach him Discord shot up into the clouds above. Still not wishing to waste the extreme amount of power that he had gathered, Porosis followed Discord into the swirling tempest.

When he entered the clouds he immediately lost sight of the god of chaos. Lightning flashed all around him, but the torrential amounts of water did nothing to affect the flame that he still held. Water evaporated from his hoof as soon as it touched, and the steam that was surrounding him was a dead giveaway for his position.

A ball of lightning struck him in the back of the head once again, causing him to turn around. Discord was flying in the storm behind him, not thirty feet away, still laughing his head off. Porosis scowled at the simple trickery that was getting the best of him, and shot off like a rocket at Discord.

Discord didn’t cease his laughing as Porosis drew near, and once again passed through his illusion. Porosis growled in frustration as he missed his target once again, and began to frantically search for him.

Another ball of lightning struck him from behind, only this time it was in the flank. Porosis turned in time to see Discord ducking back into the cloud cover around them. Porosis charged the location that he had last seen him, but as he got there another small lightning ball hit him in the side.

He turned right and saw Discord’s tail slipping into a cloud. Porosis once again growled in frustration at the display, and sailed through the tempest at his foe that decided it was a good time to play hide and seek. He smashed the cloud that Discord had disappeared into to tiny bits, but the draconequus was nowhere to be found.

Another ball of red energy, this one slightly bigger, struck him in the back of the head, but this time Porosis didn’t bother to turn around. With an incredible cry of rage he poured out half the energy that he was still carrying in his front hoof into the storm. Immediately all of the clouds evaporated into steam, and began to fly even higher into the sky.

Now Porosis frantically turned, and scanned every piece of the sky that he could for Discord. He finally zeroed in on him, still laughing and pointing at Porosis, a couple thousand yards away. Porosis let loose a feral growl as he pushed his wings to their maximum and rocketed at Discord.

Discord kept up his pointing and laughing until a moment just before Porosis was to make contact, and he suddenly disappeared. Tricked once again, Porosis’ face had lost all of its previous stoicism. His lips were now pulled back into a scowl of unimaginable rage.

The sound of laughter once again made its way to his ears, and Porosis cast his eyes down to the ground where the sound was emanating from. Discord lay on the ground, in the clearing that they had been previously, laughing himself to tears. Porosis once again screamed in rage, and pushed against the air with his wings far faster than any of his pervious attempts.

The sound barrier shattered before him not once, but twice as he flew downward with all of his rage empowering him. As he came closer, Discord once again didn’t cease in his incessant laughter, only furthering Porosis’ fury. Porosis crashed into the ground, and the resulting explosion blew apart everything surrounding the two. The whole while Discord’s laughter still filled the air.

Porosis cleared the dust around him, and the air that filled the crater he was now standing in, and he began to scan the skies for any sign of his enemy. He stopped as a wrenching feeling invaded his chest, Porosis was not accustomed to pain, but this feeling was unlike any he had felt before.

He cast his eyes back down to the bottom of the crater where a small amount of dust still obscured the ground. Out of the dirt that filled the air one thing could be seen however, a griffin’s talon that had been plunged deep into Porosis’ chest.

The dust around the two completely settled, revealing to Porosis his undoing. Below him, Discord laid on his back staring into Porosis’ eyes with a smile on his face. His other arm had been completely obliterated by the attack that he hadn’t dodged this time. White lightning started to crawl along Discord’s body as he continued to hold Porosis’ gaze.

“I win.” Discord poured out every bit of power that he still had, and sent it straight into Porosis’ chest.

Without his invulnerable aura surrounding him, the lightning arched straight through Discord, and into the heart of the god. The power that was poured into him swelled, and when it reached its climax, it exploded out of his back.

Porosis was blown back out of the crater as the blast tore through him. He flopped limply onto the ground above before skidding to a halt. His black blood trailed behind him as he came to a rest ten feet away from the lip of the hole. Slowly, Discord pulled himself out of the crater so that he could view his enemies last seconds on this earth.

Discord reached the edge of the crater, and limped as best he could, until he was standing over the still live body of Porosis. Porosis looked up at his murderer with dull eyes as he continued to struggle to pull in air to his burned out lunges.

“You… tricked… me,” he managed to say through his quaking lips.

“I’m the god of chaos… tricking people is what I do,” Discord replied as he stared down. A small smile quickly found his its way to his lips.

“So I… guess... you finally got your revenge… after all.” The blood that had littered the ground began to peel away into smoke, and disappear into the air.

“I guess I did.” Discord watched as the light faded from the zebra god’s eyes. He continued to breath for several moments, but eventually his heaving chest stopped moving, and he laid completely still.

Porosis’ blood, which had stained the ground, had now completely disappeared into smoke, and now his body was beginning to do the same. Porosis’ skin burned away into the air, and his muscle and bones quickly followed. After a minute or two nothing was left of the elder god, but the smoke that was now dissipating into the air. All of his power flowed out into the world around them, and began to return to the cycle of the world, which it had been drawn from.

Exhausted Discord fell back into a sitting position and watched as the smoke rose into the air. It spread out the higher it went, until there was nothing left of it but that faint traces of energy that were now spreading out. The sky was still clear for miles around, and the sun began to peek out from behind the clouds on the edge of the unnatural clearing above.

“I did it, Terra. I finally did it.”

____________________________________________________________________________

Twilight pulled herself up the last step, and threw her body to the ground. She rolled onto her back and continued to pant. Her coat was completely dampened with sweat, and more of it continued to leak out of her forehead.

“This is just too much. When are we going to get there?” she asked desperately as she looked up at the sun, which had still not moved during the entire time that they had been traveling. Twilight found herself, much to her surprise, actually cursing the damn celestial orb that beat down on her.

“What do you mean? We are here.” Apollo said from where he stood beside her at the top of the steps.

Twilight quickly turned her head to look up at the man who was standing to her left. His eyes were locked on something that was lying just behind her. Using the last of her strength, Twilight once again pulled herself to her hooves, and stared off in the direction that he was looking.

In front of them sat a spring. It would have looked like any other small body of water, except that it was enclosed by a stone barrier with strange symbols etched into it. Twilight, now invigorated by the new discovery, limped to the edge of the water and gazed down into it.

“So this is that Source thing you were talking about?” Twilight asked as she gazed into the clear pool below.

“That’s right,” Apollo answered from right next to her, startling the unicorn.

“So why did you bring me here then?” She asked as she gazed up at him once again.

Apollo brought his hand to his chin in what seemed to be thought, as he pondered the best way to answer the question. “Well… I brought you here so that you could save the world I suppose.” He smiled down at the unicorn again.

“Okay, how exactly is this going to help save the world?” Twilight motioned to the pool of water below.

“Quite simple really. It will make you a god, and then you will save the world.”

“What!” Twilight shrieked as she backed away from Apollo.

“Well it’s like I said. You take a nice relaxing dip in the pool, and gain the power of a god. It is really great trust me. You get to have all of this power at your fingertips, and you get a body that never ages or feels the effects of time. You can live forever, and watch the world around you change into whatever the future has in store.” Apollo finished by motioning to the dessert around him.

“Who knows? A couple of thousand years from now this entire place could be sprawling farmland, or maybe and underwater kingdom. I highly doubt either of those, but the point is that you could be here to see it all.”

“But… I don’t want any of that.” Apollo’s face fell as her answer reached his ears.

“What?” he asked, not quite understanding the sudden change of events.

“I don’t want to live forever, and I never have. I have seen what eternity can do to ponies, and most of the time it doesn’t end well. The only times that I have ever seen an immortal truly content is when I see the princesses together, and even then it is only rarely.

“I want to live my life as a pony even if such a life is short. I know that this is an amazing opportunity that you are offering me, but I just can’t take you up on it. If you say that this pool can actually turn a normal pony into an immortal like yourself then I want to study it in depth, but I am afraid that I cannot use it. Thank you for the offer, but I am going to have to decline.” Twilight finished her speech as she backed away from the pool.

Apollo’s mind was racing as he heard her come to the end of her answer. He had known that this could be a possibility, but he had honestly not expected it. Twilight was supposed to be a scholar, and didn’t scholars always want more power? Malitia had certainly proved that true.

“I am sorry, but there are dire consequences to you refusing,” Apollo said after a while.

“What do you mean?” Twilight asked hesitantly.

“I brought you here so that we could stop Discord. If you don’t go through with this then it is likely that he will conquer Equestria in short order. You already know that the princesses cannot stop him without the elements, and the element of magic is missing. You ponies have no weapon to stop Discord. This is the last hope for your kind.”

“Well then we will find the last element, and beat Discord with the elements of harmony again.”

“Did you not hear me? You don’t have the last element, and think that Porosis is the one that probably took it. Now that he is dead you have no way of asking him where he put it?” Apollo argued back.

“Wait… Porosis is dead? How? When?” Twilight shot onto a completely different train of thought altogether.

“Discord finally managed to kill him just moments ago. When you were still climbing the stairs,” Apollo answered, pointing back to said stairs.

“Then we won't be able to…”

“Exactly what I said. You wont be able to get any element from him now that he is gone. Discord will have free reign, and you have to do this now in order to stop him. He was greatly wounded in the battle, and there is only a small window of opportunity before he has regained his power.”

“But… why me?” Twilight pleaded. “There are plenty of powerful unicorns out there why don’t you get one of them to do this. Why does it have to be me?”

“Because you are the Element of Magic’s bearer, Twilight. There is nopony else out there that could do this. Only you. The Source is the place where all magic in the world comes from, and it will react to you personally. You are the only one that could do this,” Apollo replied, still trying to coax the frightened unicorn into following his plan.

“But I can’t. This is just too much.” Twilight continued to back away from him.

“This is about more than just Equestria, Twilight! What about the human that you stranded in this world through your ignorance and arrogance?”

“What… what about him?” Twilight looked up to him once again.

“I know that you have had difficulty stabilizing a portal to send him home with. You simply lack the power to do so, but if you were to do this then you would have all the power that you need to open a portal. Not only would you be able to fix a wrong that you committed, but you could also protect the world from that maniac Discord. You may not want to do this Twilight, but you have to. There is no one else.” Apollo laid his answer down on her with absolute authority, leaving no room to question him.

Twilight still appeared to be glazed over with fear. She stared wide-eyed at the man in front of her that was telling her she really had no choice in the matter. She looked to the pool of water to her right that suddenly appeared much more menacing. Slowly, she approached the edge of the water once again too look into the depths below.

The pool seemed to stretch down for eternity. Though the water was crystal clear, Twilight could not see a bottom. Eventually the darkness claimed everything below in the swirling depths of the water. Twilight closed her eyes and sighed, having made up her mind.

“Okay I’ll do it, but…” Twilight was unable to finish her statement as a sharp pain cut through her. She looked down and gawked at the metal blade that was sticking out of her chest.

With all of the energy that she still had, she turned her head and looked up at Apollo who was standing over her. The man stared down at her with the same smile that would often grace his lips, but his eyes were alight with a radiance that oozed deception. She tried to speak, but no words escaped her lips.

Twilight’s legs began to go numb, and she found that she could no longer support her weight. She began to fall back, over the edge of the stone, into the water below. Her body slowly slid off of the sword that Apollo was holding as she fell into the clear water below.

Apollo pulled his sword up, and flung off any blood that would be loosely clinging to it. He cleaned the blade on his duster before he sheathed it at his side. He reached into his jacket pocket, and pulled out a golden tiara with a six pointed star on top. Smiling, he casually tossed the Element of Magic into the pool below.

Apollo then pulled a knife from his jacket pocket and held both hands over the water. Not even bothering to wince, Apollo cut open his palm, and let his blood fall into the pool below.

“All right. Now lets see what happens.”

Chapter 12

The world swirled in its endless cycle. It was created and then destroyed over and over again, countless revolutions of the cycle took place until everything just melted into one. In the skies overhead clouds raced by, some large and carrying copious amounts of water, others were small wisps that clung to each other, hoping one day that they too could become a cumulous.

The earth broke open and poured forth its molten blood, which destroyed the ground as it swept across the skin of the planet. The land would dry, and life would once again begin to crawl back upon it to start anew. Eventually, the planet would once again be cut, and the events would transpire once more.

A man pounded his hands desperately against a metal door as all life began to leave him. In his fear and desperation his hands were broken, but still he continued to beat the door. On the other side a small girl hugged herself while she cried and begged for forgiveness.

Canterlot stood pristine on the mountainside, a beacon of light that shone throughout the world. The city would collapse in upon itself once corruption managed to take root, only to be rebuilt once more when the cancer was cut out.

Monsters appeared and were vanquished by heroes that came to answer the call of need. They would pass into legend and inspire the next generation to be stand against the turmoil that they were fated to face. The first legend lost forever as the sands of time continued to cruelly flow.

The sand turned to grass, and the grass to forest. Creatures scurried through the trees eating each other and growing larger, just to perish at the hands of yet a larger creature than themselves. The oceans swept across the trees, corrupting and choking out all life that had called the forest their home. Now at the bottom of the sea a new kind of dessert came into being, before it would one day also be replaced.

The world changed and yet it stayed the same. The endless cycle kept moving forwards, and in doing so would repeat the past with near certainty. The night would turn to day, and the day would once again become the night. Evil would triumph over good just so that good could one day reclaim what it had lost. Life would be born into the world so that it could die, and in doing so give purpose to all that lived.

The earth was made and unmade before the eyes of Twilight Sparkle as the last bits of consciousness left her. She was being emptied out, but felt the power of the tempest that she was floating in fill her up. She couldn’t tell what had changed, but she knew that things were different. She was the same person, but because of that she couldn’t possibly be.

She felt at one with everything, and noticed the absence of unity between all. It was all connected, but the connection went unnoticed by all but her. They were either unable or unwilling to see it, but because they lacked such clarity they were able to achieve a small amount of happiness. She felt all of their pain and sorrow pass through her for one terrible instant, and the weight of it all threatened to destroy her.

She saw all planes leap into the forefront. Great storms of emotion swirled around the creatures of the land and spirit, threatening to invade the realms of their minds and tear them asunder. Magic helped to bulwark the walls of thought and reason, but far too often the flooding could not be stopped.

Some could remedy this themselves, and were able to bilge the excess. Others turned to those whose bonds they shared, and would eventually be able to recover. Others still drowned in despair and fury; one day they too became parts of the storms that raged across the vast expanse of creation waiting for fate to finally deal them their merciful finality.

The Source, for now she truly knew what that meant, filled her with the emotions of creation itself, and pulled away from her all ignorance she might have once had. The veil she had never felt was lifted from her eyes, and she was struck blind by the terrible light that filled her vision. It shined so brilliant in the blackness that no matter which way she looked it beared down upon her.

She watched as the span of the universe passed before her eyes until she could finally stand it no longer. With a cry that mirrored the very song that first spun order into the chaos of the universe, Twilight broke free of it all and fell into the loving embrace of unconsciousness.

_____________________________________________________________________________

He stood on the banks of the pool that stretched out hundreds of feet before him. The water, if that was even what it was, was just as calm as it had always been. Nothing in this world could disturb the peace that The Source maintained. At least he really hoped nothing could.

It had been nearly three hours since Twilight had slipped into the waters, and sunk into the depths of the pool. Three hours was a long time to wait when their enemy was gathering his strength. Discord was seriously injured for now, but with enough time he would be at full strength again.

Apollo tapped his foot impatiently as he waited for the transformation to finish. The air billowed around him, and changed direction to the north. The soft wind began to pick up speed, and with it carry sand across the desert dunes.

A ripple broke the surface of the water a hundred feet away from the man that stood upon the shore. His eyes immediately darted to its epicenter as something began to slowly rise out of the water below. The purple form of a pony silently broke the surface of the water, but refused to stop.

The water continued to expel the unconscious unicorn until it completely rested atop the calm surface of the pool. Without any further movement or indication, the calm face of the water could not be told apart from a perfect sheet of glass, and Twilight was lying on top of it. Hesitantly, Apollo stuck his foot over the lip of the pool and lowered it until it touched the surface.

The water beneath him was solid, and wasting no more time, he quickly strode across the surface to where Twilight continued to slumber. He made it to her in short order, and bent down to inspect the mare. She looked very much like she had when she first entered the pool, the only visible difference being the six-pointed star that was imprinted on her forehead, just below her horn.

Satisfied that his experiment had been a success, Apollo reached down and tried to rouse the pony. It took a moment, but eventually Twilight began to return to the realm of the living. Groggily, she opened one eye and scanned her surrounding. When her vision fell on the man that was standing over her, her eyes shot open and she scrambled away as fast as she could. Much faster than any mortal should have been able to.

“What did you do?” Twilight asked, pointing at Apollo who was gazing at her with his unfaltering smile.

“Exactly what I said I would,” he replied innocently.

“You didn’t say you were going to do anything!”

“Exactly!”

Twilight cried out in frustration. This only caused the man to laugh lightly to himself before he took a step towards the distraught mare. Seeing this, Twilight continued to back away until he eventually stopped.

“Stay away from me!” she screamed.

“Aw, Twilight, I thought we were becoming friends.” He actually managed to sound slightly hurt.

“You stabbed me!”

“You’re welcome.” His reply shocked the unicorn into silence. She managed to do an excellent impression of a fish.

Apollo sighed and brought a few fingers to the bridge of his nose. “Okay, this is how it works. Being reborn in this way causes the body to change, and since a new body is that which emerges from the process, a new name must be taken. However, since you were dead as you entered the pool a new life was created within the already existing body, and as such you can keep your former name. I was only thinking of what you would want.”

Twilight continued to stare at him incredulously for a moment before she regained the ability to speak. “Why didn’t you just tell me that in the first place!”

“Would you have gone along with it if I had?”

“Of course not!” her glare was growing angrier.

“Well there you go. The pool doesn’t work without consent so it was better that I didn’t tell you.” Twilight was about to reply, but he held up a hand to stop her. “As much as I would love to debate this with you for an eternity, which would be possible by the way, we are on a schedule. Now take up your name and power so that you can go and defeat Discord.”

“Wha… what do you mean take up my name?”

“I thought Celestia explained this to you already. You now are to name yourself, and by doing so will accept all of your power, and the responsibility that goes with it. You may choose to keep your old name if you wish.” Apollo pointed a long gloved finger at the mare in front of him. “So, what is your name?”

“My name is Twilight Sparkle like it ha…” She was unable to finish her sentence as a massive weight came crashing into her mind like a torrent of water. She almost fell onto the surface of the pool again as she lost her balance momentarily, but she managed to catch herself. She held her eyes closed for many moments while she collected herself.

She had always been able to sense her own pool of mana swirling inside of her, but this new ball of power in the back of her mind was like a caged beast. It wanted to be used, for either creation or destruction it didn’t matter. The power wanted to be released in a beautiful display that would shock the dead and cause the gods themselves to weep. It took all of her willpower to restrain herself. Luckily, Twilight had been battling against her desires to perform fantastic feats of magic all of her life.

She opened her eyes again to look at the world around her; everything shined with an unnatural clarity that it hadn’t before. If she tried, she was able to count the specks of dust that floated through the air a mile away. She wondered if this was what everything looked like to Celestia.

Her sight had gained an unnatural edge, but it seemed that her other senses had heightened only slightly. Her hearing had increased drastically, but was still not as good as a canine’s. She continued to scan her surroundings to see what else was different, but stopped when she noticed a light emanating from beneath her.

Twilight looked down into the pool that she was standing on top of and gasped at the beauty she saw. It no longer looked to be a clear well of water that calmly rested beneath her. Twilight saw the most powerful magic in the world swirl beneath her in a magnificent tapestry that was impossible to replicate. The spiraling vortex of color was truly majestic, but the deeper that the water went the darker the colors began to become. Near the bottom they faded entirely to black, and became menacing tendrils beckoning her to join them.

Twilight tore her gaze away from the pool before it could affect her too deeply. She looked once more to the man that stood in front of her; what she saw shocked her. Apollo looked much like he had before, only now magnificent wings of black smoke billowed in the air behind him. The tips of his fingers glowed an eerily green color, as if they were talons made of pure energy. On his forehead several runes of the same color stood out against his pale skin.

“What’s the matter, Twilight? Do I have something on my face?” Apollo asked, as he brought a hand up to his cheek, attempting to wipe off an imaginary blemish.

“No, it’s just… wow. Is that what you really look like?” She managed to finally blink, and began to rub her eyes to clear them.

“Hmm? Do you mean my true form? Can you see it?” Now his interest was peaked.

“The big smoke wings? Yea I can see those.” She motioned to the wispy appendages behind him.

“Now that certainly is interesting. Brace yourself when you take a look in a mirror,” he said with a light chuckle.

“What is that supposed to mean?”

“Don’t worry about it.” He waved off the question. “Now we have work to do, or more precisely you have work to do. You no doubt have noticed that your power has increased exponentially, and if my theory is correct then you should be a match for Discord. At least in his current state anyways.”

“I don’t know about that. I can feel an enormous power inside of me now, but Discord is nearly omnipotent. How am I supposed to beat that?”

“How should I know? I am just the big picture guy; you are supposed to worry about the details. Now,” he pointed at Twilight again “can you sense where Discord is?”

Twilight was momentarily confused by the question, but tried anyway. Her magical senses had increased an insane amount, but she was still unable to feel any other presence other than Apollo that stood a mere ten feet in front of her.

Twilight sighed, “No I can’t sense him.”

“Perhaps you should try a tracking spell?” he suggested with a shrug.

Before Twilight could even reply the spell already made its way to the forefront of her mind, and was cast. She felt her mind’s eye soar across the world to a beaten field, where she saw Discord reclined in a chair sipping a glass of tea. “Yes, I can see him now. That is amazing I have never been able to pull off such an advanced tracking spell before.”

“Do you think you can teleport all the way there?”

“Mayb…” The rest of her reply was unheard as she disappeared in a flash of purple. Apollo stood there for a moment, before he saw her reappear hundreds of miles away. A smile graced his lips at her expression of disbelief.

“Very interesting indeed.”

_____________________________________________________________________________

My disdain was evident on my face for all around to see. There was no way that I could possibly hope to hide my foul mood from anyone in the room. Equestria was a nice place sure, but it was distinctly lacking in things that are essential to human life. One such thing would be meat.

The dining hall was lined with guards that ate their minimalist meals without a word. They would walk in and pick up a tray before getting in line to receive their salads. They all received the same salad without a word of protest, and would take it to an open seat where they ate it quickly. I watched in awe as the lunchroom functioned without a word spoken.

Did these ponies not care for variety? We were in a castle; surely they would serve something other than just a plain salad. Of course, I had received the same thing as everybody else. The plain pile of leaves sat in front of me menacingly, daring me to taste it. God I hate salad.

I have been here for more than a week, and had no meat in all of that time. I felt like any moment I would go into withdrawal, and start seizing on the floor. Fortunately, ponies liked fruit or else I would have starved a long time ago.

Fantastical visions of cheeseburgers and steaks filled my vision, and I felt my mouth begin to water. I stretched my hand towards the juicy burger just to have it pass through the phantom representation. I sighed and stared back down at the bowl of weeds. God I hate salad.

I picked up a fork, and stabbed the foul creation. A satisfying crunch emanated through the cafeteria as the leaf was pierced. Slowly, begrudgingly, I lifted the piece of lettuce before my eyes to examine it. The food workers were kind enough to put some sort of dressing on the salad, but I had never seen this kind before.

It smelled sweet, which struck me as odd. From my experience most dressings were supposed to be tangy, or something along those lines. Hesitantly, I inched the piece of salad towards my lips, and with a courageous gesture took a bite. I chewed for a moment as all of the tastes melded together and delivered their intended effects to my taste buds.

I had to admit that it was probably the best salad that I had ever had. The dressing was actually very sweet, which overpowered the earthy flavor of the lettuce leaf. The small tomato that I had also impaled with my fork was extremely juicy, probably the freshest one of those I’ve had in a long time. I still hated it.

There was just something fundamentally wrong about eating leafs. Humans are omnivores and are the highest thing on the food chain. We shouldn’t have to eat leafs and grass when we can have anything in the world to eat that we want. I would kill for a steak now.

A thought struck me for a moment, but quickly left me. It was true that I could probably find some wooded area where there were deer or some other game and hunt them. The ponies would probably see such a thing as barbaric though and resent me for it. I really didn’t want to earn their scorn since there was no telling how long I was going to be here.

“Well there you are.” I nearly choked as someone spoke behind me. My fist pounded on the table as I tried to swallow the vile plant that was attempting to end my life. It knew how much I despised it.

“Are you okay?” I gasped for air after finally clearing my esophagus. I looked behind me, and glared daggers at the mare that had startled me.

Luna stood in the middle of the dining hall smiling down at me. I noticed that several of the nearby guards had stopped what they were doing, and were bowing before her. I stabbed my fork into my salad and turned in my seat so that I was facing her. I motioned for her to continue with whatever had brought her here.

“Yes well, Tia wanted you to come back to the throne room with the others,” she explained. I rolled my eyes; I really had no desire to stay in a confined space with the alicorn ruler who had told me herself that she didn’t like me.

Luna must have sensed my reluctance. “Can we talk about this someplace else?” She turned away before I could give my silent answer, and began to walk away. Left with the choice between eating a salad and having a one sided conversation with a god, there was little competition. I jumped from my seat and began to follow the blue alicorn out of the hall at my own sedate pace.

Following around Luna had its perks. For one, none of the guards could be bothered to give me odd glances as we passed by since their heads were to the floor. That had to be really bad behavior for a guard. What if an assassin attacked as they were giving their bow of reverence? I know if I had guards I wouldn’t want them to distract themselves with trivial things like bowing.

Another positive was that Luna’s strides were much longer than an average pony so I didn’t need to slow down any to match her speed. We passed through many halls before coming to a large set of doors that I remembered. A blue glow surrounded the doors before they swung open. I would probably never get used to that magic stuff.

After the doors opened we found ourselves once again in the Canterlot gardens. Everything looked very different during the daytime than it had at night. I hadn’t been back to the gardens since that night when Porosis escaped and pretty much wrecked the place. Everything seemed to be back exactly it had been the last time I had seen it.

The trees were immaculately pruned, and swayed slightly in the light breeze. The flowers we walked by each gave off their own unique fragrance, most of which I had never smelled before. The concrete path that ran through the entirety of the garden had been completely mended in the last couple of days, and showed no sign of the destruction it had seen not a week prior.

We calmly made our way over to the bench that we had been sitting on the last time we were in the gardens. Luna took a seat, and turned back to look at me; no doubt waiting for me to seat myself next to her. I took the opportunity to walk over to an orange tree, and pick one of the juicy fruits from it. Even the produce looked exactly like it had last time.

I began to peel the orange as I walked back to the bench and sat down. I wasn’t reduced to scavenging fruit anymore since the ponies seemed to have figured out what my diet consisted of, but the orange was still the best thing I had eaten in this world by far. I took a nice juicy bite of the fruit, and savored the flavor that rushed over my tongue. Once I was done relishing in its juicy goodness I turned to Luna and motioned for her to begin speaking.

“Oh yes, I wanted to speak with you about something didn’t I?” Had she already forgotten what she wanted to talk about? “Yes, I remember. I wanted to talk to you about this animosity that seems to be growing between you and my sister.”

This distinctly felt like it was going to be more of a lecture than an actual conversation. Not that I could carry out an actual conversation, but sometimes it is nice to be heard. Not that I can be heard but… whatever.

“I have noticed that you and Celestia do not seem to be getting along? Has something occurred which I have no knowledge of?” That question caught me off guard.

I could somehow try to communicate to her that her sister had locked me in her room and nearly scared me to death, but if I did even manage to get that across to her what would that mean for me? That would undoubtedly just dig me an even deeper hole than I was already in with the alicorn princess. I don’t think that she would like me bad mouthing her behind her back very much.

I sighed and took another bite from my orange. I continued to think it over as I chewed and eventually decided that the best idea would be to keep quiet about it. I looked back to Luna and shook my head to indicate a no.

“Then I do wonder as to the reason.” She was probably talking more to herself than me. Her eyes refocused on me again, “Do you know why this rift is between the two of you?” At this I couldn’t bring myself to lie again so I nodded to her question.

Luna sighed and looked pensively into the trees for a moment before speaking again. “I fear my sister has an ingrained fear of the unknown, and you are very much an unknown. She had ruled this kingdom for a thousand years alone during my banishment, and I think that she is only trying to look after everypony’s safety. You understand this, yes?” She looked back to me and took note of my nod.

“Though… I feel that there is something more to it than that.” She shook her head to clear away whatever ridiculous thought was occupying her mind. “It matters little. We must still join the others in the throne room.”

I gave the loudest sigh I could manage, which to my surprise was quite audible. I was torn between scowling at the situation, or smiling at my own personal triumph. In the end I settled on a scowl, which Luna took note of and also mimicked my frown.

“I hate to say it, but you will be coming whether you like it or not. Do not make me get the leash.” She turned away, and once again began to walk into the castle. It took me a moment to recover from what she had said, but in the end I decided not to risk the great amount of shame that a leash promised, and followed her inside.

_____________________________________________________________________________

A flash of purple pulled Discord’s gaze away from his mostly empty glass of tea, and to the pony that was standing in front of him. He recognized the mare immediately, and began to look around for the rest of her entourage. After a few seconds of searching he came to the realization that she had decided to show up alone.

“Twilight Sparkle, it really has been too long hasn’t it?” He crumpled the now empty glass like an aluminum can and threw it into a recycling bin, which was conveniently placed behind him.

Twilight took a moment to study the draconequus. Apollo had been right in his assessment of Discord after the battle she quickly came to realize. His lion arm was completely missing along with a good amount of his shoulder. Twilight could make out the red phantom of an arm that marked where the missing one had been, but it seemed the ghostly appendage was of no use to Discord at the moment. She didn’t know how she knew, but he was almost completely out of energy at the moment.

“You should just surrender now, Discord. There is no reason to drag this out any longer.”

“Oh ho ho, what is this? Does little ole Twilight think she can play in the big leagues?” Discord’s amused smile didn’t fade as he stood from his seat, and made it disappear with a snap of his fingers.

He towered over the unicorn in front of him still wearing his wicked smile. He was about to attempt his basic form of hypnotism that had almost been the element’s undoing in the past, but stopped as he noticed something. She didn’t seem afraid of him in the least. In fact, she didn’t even seem to regard him as a threat at all.

Discord’s eyes traced over Twilight, and eventually settled on the six-pointed star that was now engraved on her forehead. He squinted for a moment before he suddenly broke into rapturous guffaw. “So that is his plan,” Discord bent over and held his stomach with his one remaining arm. “Good show. I have to give my credit to the maestro this time.” he began to slap the air with his talon, which gave rise to a thunderous applause.

“Are you done?” Twilight had to refrain from rolling her eyes at the idiotic sight before her.

“No, Twilight, we are just beginning. Do not think that I will just go down without a fight.” Discord leaped back as red electricity began to crackle from his fingertips.

“I had wished to avoid fighting.” Twilight’s horn started to glow, and her eyes turned white as she began to channel her magic.

Discord shot forth an arcing beam of lightning that flew at the unicorn at the speed of light. A millisecond before it reached the mare however, it detonated on an invisible shield that stood between the two. The shield pulsed a thick purple for a second as the electricity bled into it before it returned to normal. When the moment field became transparent once again Discord realized that Twilight was no longer standing behind it.

A massive force struck him in the side of the face and sent him spilling across the ground. He rolled a few times before he was struck in the gut from the opposite side, causing his tumbling to come to an end. Another impact smashed him into the ground, sending a spiderweb of cracks through the hard dirt that had been cleared of vegetation during the previous battle.

He tried to make it back to his feet but another wave of force smashed him once again to the ground. The hits began to increase rapidly until they were coming dozens of times a second. The impacts weren’t enough to seriously injure him, but they were enough to keep him immobilized, and in a great deal of pain.

As suddenly as they had began, the waves of concussive force ceased, and Discord shakily pulled himself to his feet. His bloodied face turned up to see Twilight Sparkle standing a few feet away horn still aglow. On her face rested a smirk that would have drove the draconequus insane if he wasn’t already. His face fell into a deep frown as he started to charge energy once again.

He was unable to actually see Twilight’s attention shift to his hand as his magic once again began to funnel into it. She could see so much more now than she ever thought was possible. What he was doing was as plain as day, and she wondered briefly if he knew how much he was advertising his intentions.

Red energy washed over his remaining arm, and into the palm of his hand as he continued to gather his power. What was but a few seconds seemed like minutes to the godling unicorn. She studied his intended spell intently and came up with several ideas for what he was trying to accomplish. Her own mind brought forth several counters for each of his possible intentions, and she put into place anything that she might need. All of this took place within the span of time it took Discord to blink.

Thinking that he would catch her off guard, Discord channeled the power he had collected into the ground where it snaked through the dirt towards his opponent. Once again the attack was nullified as it split in two, three feet before reaching its target and was bent around her. It continued to travel through the dirt until it reached a boulder on the outskirts of the clearing that it blew to pieces.

Twilight began to calmly walk forwards towards him as she dropped her magnetic field. Discord took a hesitant step backwards, and found his foot connecting with something very sticky. He looked down, and found the ground below him had turned to glue and he ineffectually tried to pull his foot loose.

He looked back to Twilight and growled at her, which only caused her smirk to become more pronounced. A blow of telekinetic force whipped his face to the right where it was promptly greeted by another blow. Constant impacts beat against him as his head whipped back and forth, and Twilight continued to advance on him slowly. Her smirk quickly transformed into a full smile as she witnessed the god before her being humbled.

She finally stood a few feet from him, and the blows came to an end. No longer supported by the waves of force pummeling him, Discord fell forward and caught himself with his talon before he could hit the ground. He tried to pull his hand free, but it had also been caught in the glue beneath him. He tried to channel magic into the ground below, but the strange substance just absorbed his weakened energy as it came to him.

He looked up once again to Twilight that stood before him with a manic grin plastered on her face. She raised a hoof, which quickly became emblazoned with a dark violet energy before smashing it into Discord’s face. His already bruised face took the hit, and he even lost a tooth as the strike struck him squarely in the jaw. Twilight laughed as she saw him almost buckle under the weight of her hoof impacting him.

It took a few seconds, but eventually he was able to bring his gaze back up to meet hers. Twilight reared back her hoof again and hit him in the face with much more force this time. He was unable to stop himself from hitting the ground with a mighty crack. Twilight was undeterred by the sound of his jaw breaking, and continued to rain down blows on the back of his skull as her laughter continued.

She continued for several minutes before she had to stop momentarily to catch her breath. She pulled her hoof back to see Discord’s head deeply imbedded into the earth below him. The red substance splattering against the rock beside his skull pulled her out of her manic glee, and into the dark reality of what she had done.

Her eyes ceased their glowing as her pupils dilated to pinpricks. She was struck hard with the memory of seeing an unknown alicorn lying on the cold stone floor of the cavern with his head completely crushed. Luna leaned over him, examining the corpse as Twilight stood back trying to hold down her lunch.

“Am I becoming like that monster?” the words left her mouth before she could stop them, and the realization of what she had done really hit her. She had nearly killed somepony while laughing her head off about it. It felt good to have that kind of power over somepony else, and she had reveled in it. In fact, it had been pure ecstasy, and Twilight knew that something within her had changed deeply.

Shaking her head, she began to backpedal as fast as she could from his unconscious form. She couldn’t allow herself to be like the monsters drunk on power that she had defeated before. She wouldn’t!

She had defeated Discord like it had been child’s play, but now she had to do something. She searched for the answer to the current situation, and it eluded her for several minutes. Twilight continued to stare at the draconequus until finally inspiration struck her. Something in the back of her mind, behind the giant wall she had erected between her mind and the massive well of power she now held called out to her, and she answered. Her eyes began to glow white once again as she charged the spell.

____________________________________________________________________________

I was leaning against one of the many support beams in the room while strumming lazily on my invisible guitar. I didn’t really have any music in mind, and just played out small tunes that would come to me. Much to my dismay, my phone had finally run out of battery, and I had no way of listening to my music any longer.

The instrument I held in my hands would change from acoustic to electric to acoustic again. It was actually a little bit disorienting to hear the soft melodies I strummed out changing so often. The ponies in the room didn’t pay me any mind as they continued their conversation.

“Are you sure about this?” Celestia asked the small brown unicorn that had skittered into the room less than three minutes ago.

“Yes your highness.” The poor guy couldn’t even bring himself to meet her eyes. I honestly couldn’t blame him. “We don’t know how she got all the way to Zebrica in such a short time, but that is what our scryers are telling us.”

“It is not a matter of how, but one of where. Have you pinpointed her exact location?” Celestia’s wings flared as she continued to talk to the stallion in front of her. I could tell that she was ready to take off as soon as she knew exactly where Twilight was.

“Not exactly. It will take more time to have her exact location. I apologize your majesty.” He bowed his head as Celestia continued to stare down at him.

“How long?”

“At least thirty minutes more.” He flinched as he expected some outburst from the princess, but it didn’t come. Hesitantly, he looked back up at her stoic figure.

“Please continue to lend assistance to the mages, Vision. Inform me as soon as an exact location can be determined.” With another bow the stallion hastily began to back out of the chamber. The doors, which had been reattached to the walls, closed quietly behind him.

“I want a chariot readied for at least eight ponies by the time that Vision is done locating my student,” she informed a nearby guardsman who saluted and flew out a nearby window to complete his task.

The princess turned back to the other six mares that were quietly talking amongst themselves. I also took my attention off of the white alicorn and turned it to the other ponies in the room. It was odd, but it seemed I could hear their conversation clearly from all the way across the large room.

“So wait, let me get this straight,” Rainbow Dash said, halting whatever Luna had been currently saying. “Some bad guy broke out of prison, and started to gather an army so that he could wage war on Equestria. So Princess Celestia let out another bad guy to fight that one since they had some super old grudge match going on. Then some third, but not so bad guy, came and foalnapped Twilight to do something that none of us know.”

Luna seemed to think for a moment before nodding. “Yes that essentially sums it up.”

Rainbow groaned as she started to rub a hoof against her temple. “This whole thing is just way too confusing for me to follow.”

“You forgot about that other other other bad guy that broke out of prison also, Dashie,” Pinkie Pie reminded the group.

“Oh yes,” Luna smacked her hooves together, “I had almost forgotten about that.”

Rainbow groaned much more audibly before she laid down on the ground and buried her face in her hooves. “Anything else that I should know.”

Pinkie Pie stuck her tongue out for a moment as her face scrunched up in concentration. “Nothing I can think of,” she said after a moment.

Rarity looked up from her spot next to the sleeping Fluttershy. “So are we really just going to wait here? I feel we should be scouring some ancient tomes or something trying to find a way out of this mess.”

“Ah don’t think that is in the cards, Rare. The Princess said that we have to wait for those unicorn ponies to find Twilight so that’s what we are gonna do.” Out of all of the ponies in the group Applejack seemed to be taking the current situation with the most grace.

“The mages have said that she is in Zebrica,” Celestia said as she walked to the group. “We will be leaving as soon as they have narrowed down her location.”

“I do not think that you should be fearing too much, Celestia. You know as well that I that no harm will come to Twilight.” Luna stood from her seat and approached her sister.

“You are far too trusting of him. You always have been.” It seemed that Celestia would not even dare speak his vile name.

“He is not a monster, sister. I know that you two have your differences, but I believe that this situation will resolve itself soon.”

“It is so nice to hear someone stand up for me,” a voice spoke right next to me.

All eyes in the room, including mine, turned to the man in black that was reclined against the same column I was. I almost jumped out of my seat, but I thought better of it. I simply rolled my eyes and continued to play my broken melodies.

“What have you done with Twilight!” Celestia raged as she thundered towards him.

“I only did what had to be done.” He stood and held his hands before him submissively. “Don’t go killing the messenger.” Celestia’s face had started to turn a bright shade of crimson and I was afraid she would burst into flame if he said anything else.

“Very well then.” Luna nudged past her sister and put herself between the two. “What exactly did you do with Twilight then. We will decide if it was necessary or not after we have been informed.”

“I made her like us,” Apollo leaned against the column and began to study his nails like they were the most interesting things in the room.

“What exactly is that supposed to mean.” Celestia spat from where she stood behind her sister.

“Oh you know, Tia, immortal and all-powerful. Well maybe not all-powerful, but pretty damn strong.” He grinned as he refused to even look up at her disbelieving stare.

“How is that even possible? The Well won't work correctly on a nonhuman.” Luna was the one who chimed in this time.

“There are many things that you don’t know, Luna.” Now he did shoot a glare back at Celestia, but still he kept his small smile.

“Now what is that supposed to mean?” Now Luna seemed to be the one getting frustrated.

“Oh you kn…” Apollo stopped talking and stared at a spot behind the two alicorns. The three of us quickly followed his gaze across the room to where the necklace Applejack was wearing began to glow white. A moment later each of the necklaces the five mares were wearing began to glow as the looked at each other anxiously.

The mares began to lift into the air for a moment, which would have scared the shit out of me, but they seemed to know exactly what was going on. After a few moments of glowing in the air the necklaces suddenly stopped shining white light, and the mares slowly floated back to the ground. Everyone else seemed too entranced by the odd magic that seemed to be going on to notice that Apollo’s smile deepened into a scowl for a second before he wiped it away from his face.

The five Ponyvillians seemed to be completely unconscious once they reached the ground, except for Fluttershy of course, who hadn’t woken up during the whole ordeal. I looked around the room to see if anything had changed due to the weird events that had just transpired, but everything in the room seemed to be exactly how it had been before. My attention was pulled back to the man that was still standing beside me as he spoke to the two alicorns in the room.

“You two need to come with me.” With a wave of his hand some strange portal opened between him and Luna, and he quickly vanished into it. Luna looked at her sister for a moment before shrugging and following him. Celestia rolled her eyes as she sighed before she also followed into the portal. A second later the strange thing had disappeared, leaving me the only conscious person in the room.

I looked around a moment and studied the five mares that were passed out on the floor. The guards would be coming back any moment now, and I would probably have one hell of a time trying to explain what had happened. I closed my eyes and put my head back against the stone pillar I was seated against, and began to play the saddest music I could think of. Just another day in Equestria.

___________________________________________________________________________

Apollo stepped out of the tear in space and onto the harsh ground that crunched beneath his boots. He looked around and studied the scene for a moment before he strode to the middle of the clearing where Twilight was staring at a stone sculpture in front of her. He barely registered Luna and Celestia stepping out of the portal behind him.

It didn’t take long before he was standing beside the distraught mare gazing at the petrified form of Discord. The image brought forth some unpleasant memories, but he quickly pushed them to the back of his mind as he tried to figure out how to proceed. He shrugged and looked down at the mare he stood next to.

“You need to finish this, Twilight.” Though he was being incredibly vague, both of them knew exactly what he was referring to. The two sisters quickly made it over to them, and had to take a moment to understand exactly what they were looking at. Twilight looked up to her mentor, barely holding back tears as she did so.

A cold wind blew through the clearing and around the four that stood in silence. The air smelled of ozone and burnt wood, but none of them could be bothered to care at the moment. The situation at hand was far too tense.

“Twilight,” he began again, “you have to finish what you started here.”

A single tear rolled down the unicorn’s cheek as she continued to look to Celestia for the answer. Celestia however, was not going to tell the mare what to do. She didn’t have the right to. “I don’t think I can,” Twilight finally said after a few minutes.

“You are the only one that can, Twilight. It has to be you to finally end all of this.” Apollo stooped to a knee so that he could look at her directly.

“We don’t have to do anything. He is trapped in stone again and can’t hurt anypony.” Twilight looked once again to the stone form of Discord, he was in the same pose that he had always been, one that showed pure horror displayed on his face.

“He will just get out once again someday. When he does there might not be anyone around to stop him. You can end this here and now once and for all.” He stood and backed away from her. There wasn’t really anything else he could say to persuade her at this point.

Twilight looked to the faces of her princesses once again, and tried to find the answer. Celestia’s face was just as stoic as it always was, but she was able to catch a hint of sadness in Luna’s. She looked to Apollo who stood a few feet away glaring at Discord.

“I… can’t.” She dropped her gaze to the ground.

“Dammit, Twilight this is not a game!” Apollo’s mood shifted drastically as he exploded at her. “You have to kill him or else who knows what could happen!”

Celestia finally stopped standing on the sidelines as she moved between Apollo and her beloved student. “That is quite enough. You have heard her answer, and I will not have you bullying her into settling your own personal vendettas.” The two glared at each other for what felt like minutes, but was probably only a few seconds. Eventually, Apollo was the one that broke the staring match.

His anger was evident on his face as he walked to the statue and put his hand on its surface. He moved his hand back and forth over the cold stone before he finally let out a long sigh. “Fair enough.”

Before anything more could be said, he and the statue of Discord disappeared into a cloud of black smoke, which was quickly blown away by the wind. The three mares stared for a long while at where he had been standing just a moment before. The entirety of the situation finally settled on them, and Celestia looked down once again to her student.

“Let’s go home.”

Chapter 13

The quick tapping boomed through the ancient halls of the castle that now lay in ruins. The stone structures that had once stood tall and proud were now old and falling to pieces with no one to care for them. The only one that did choose to reside in the ancient palace had long ago stopped caring about the state of his manor.

Dust and other small pieces of sediment fell from the roofs of the building as the tapping continued to beat against the support of the structure in an unending and never changing tempo. One beam, no longer able to support itself after centuries of neglect, crumbled and brought down an entire section of the castle ruins with it, but the tapping still did not cease. More structures continued to show their strain and groaned in protest, but the source of the beat cared little for their misgivings.

Deep within the ruins, on a throne that had been forgotten by all those except the most ancient sat Apollo tapping his foot against the cold marble below him in annoyance. He had been alone in his castle for so long he had almost forgotten what it was like to have an audience before him, but his inability to forget was the problem here. No matter how hard he tried or the various ways he struggled that day long ago played over and over in his memories. It taunted him to do what he knew he would, but the fear of the act kept him rooted to his throne.

Fear was not something that the immortals experienced very often, and fear of the self was usually completely discarded after a century or two. Apollo knew himself very well, he knew exactly what kind of man he was, but in the circumstances he now found himself in that particular man could not last long. The type of man that he knew himself to be would do something very foolish very soon, and then everything would come to an end.

He continued to beat his foot against the floor of his chamber completely unaware of the strain that the building he resided in was undergoing. The course had been set, and he knew that nothing he did would ever change what was going to happen next. There was no free will that could intervene and stop him; nothing could save the god from himself.

Finally, unable to resist the urge any longer he bolted upright from his throne of stone. The back of the throne was blown apart and scattered in pieces against the wall that lined the back of the room as Apollo tore through it with a mighty fist. He breathed heavy for perhaps the first time in millennia as his anger left him.

He stood straight once more and fixed his clothing. After making sure that his long jacket was free of wrinkles and that his long black hair fell over his shoulders in just the way he liked he set off to a seldom used door that protruded from the back of the room. His boots clanked against the old marble tiling as he crossed the throne room, and reached the large oaken door.

Unlike the rest of the castle, the door looked like it could have been crafted just the day before. It bore no blemishes along its surface, and the ravages of time had left the entrance completely untouched. Apollo placed a single hand on the surface of the door, and instantly it sprang to life.

Runes ran out in all directions across its surface with Apollo’s hand as the epicenter. They spiraled outwards and began beating in time with the heart of the owner a deep green color. The locks and wards on the door fell away, and it slowly swung inwards allowing access to the secrets that lay beyond. Apollo looked into the looming darkness of the staircase the descended into the lower levels of the ruins.

He proceeded forwards with only a moments hesitation into the depths of his castle. The stairs continued for a long time, but he did not grow tired or weary as he descended the several hundred levels into the earth. The air began to grow warmer and thick with poisonous gasses that would harm a lesser being, yet he continued forwards without pause.

After some time the stairs let out into an antechamber that would look at home near the gates of Tartarus. A long stone bridge extended out before Apollo for what seemed like miles suspended over a lake of bottomless magma. The heat inside the room threatened to combust any material that was not magically warded and pillars of lava would often spring from the lake and drape themselves over the bridge. The lava would harden on contact, and be made into more of the igneous stone that made up the bridge itself, forever keeping it strong and sturdy.

He proceeded down the walkway without even sparing a thought for the small specks of lava that littered his coat, but left it unmarred. He didn’t even slow as a column of the molten rock rocketed up towards him and covered him. It fell away from Apollo leaving no trace that it had ever touched him except for the streams of steam that rose from him. Nothing would stop him from completing his task, and he hated that there wasn’t anything he could do to stop it either.

The pathway started to crumble behind him after every step he took as its enchantments were tossed away by the god who had constructed the platform. This massive chamber would serve its purpose soon enough, and he would no longer have any need for it. Every step he took sent more stone crashing into the pool of magma below, but he kept his steady and purposeful speed as he approached the archway at the end of the bridge.

As he stepped through the archway that held another set of stairs leading downwards the bridge behind him finished collapsing, and fell away into oblivion. The passageway was not dark this time however, and was illuminated by several sconces lined across the walls as Apollo made his short descent into the final chamber.

The room was circular and only supported by five pillars that stood steady despite being submerged in the lava lake below. The platform that he now stood on was bare, save for one thing that stared back at him from the middle of the room, Discord. The Draconequus still imprisoned in stone stared straight into the eyes of the man in black as he slowly approached. Several chains held the statue in place as the platform shuddered with explosions going on beneath the surface of the magma pool.

The two stared at each other for a long moment before Apollo suddenly decided to break the silence. “It has been a long time,” he said, looking almost his age.

The statue didn’t respond for a long while, and Apollo kept staring at it waiting. Finally a voice rang through the air and though it was strained to get through the enchantment that held its owner captive it could be made out clearly. “Yes, it has.”

“I suppose you know why I have decided to come here.” It wasn’t so much a question as it was a statement of fact.

“You of all people should know exactly how observant I can be,” Discord replied coyly.

“I know exactly what you are! You are a traitor and a murderer!” Apollo snarled.

“Careful there old friend, your mask is slipping.”

Apollo struck the statue, but didn’t do anything except vent some of his rage. The two waited there for a long moment as the man in black collected himself once more, and tried to calm his anger. After a while he stood tall and glared at the statue once more.

“You can still get under my skin.” He took a calming breath before continuing. “This is the end for you.”

“You say that now, but can you really go through with it?” The walls of the cavern shook drawing Discord’s attention for the first time.

“Oh so you see what is happening around you then don’t you? I imagine that it would be difficult since you are imprisoned in stone.” It was Apollo’s turn to taunt. “Whether or not it is by my hand your end is here.”

“It doesn’t matter if you bury me in this cavern. The consequences of your little pact will still affect you,” Discord sneered.

“I know.” Resigned to what was about to transpire Apollo threw open his coat and unsheathed his sword.

“You would really cut me down? Does vengeance mean that much to you?” Discords voice quivered as he spoke.

“Yes it does.” Apollo held his sword in front of him and the blade began to shudder. Black smoke pulled away from his coat and began to wrap itself around the blade, encasing it in a thick black aura. The blade began to hum as it finished its transformation, slicing the air and causing the temperature of the room to drop slightly as Apollo held it out before him.

“You were once my best friend, and this is what has happened to us. You have to know that this is all your fault.” Apollo’s eyes left his blade, and he stared long and hard at the statue that was soon to be his victim.

“Think what you will, but my actions were completely justified. Am I not supposed to defend myself?”

“You killed her you bastard! Now die!” Apollo didn’t wait for Discord’s response as he sliced straight through him. The sword made a clean cut, as if there had never been a stone structure impeding it. He didn’t wait for the statue to hit the ground as he brought the blade back through it again and again. He sliced the stone over and over venting all of his hatred on the being that was already dead.

The cavern shuddered as the enchantments holding it together ended with the life of its prisoner. One of the columns supporting the platform collapsed almost spilling the platform itself into the lava below. The pieces of the being that used to be Discord began to slide off of the angled surface and into the magma below as Apollo stumbled back to the entrance of the chamber. He made it to the archway before his sword was discarded and he fell to his knees with his hand across his heart.

The crumbling of the cavern was forgotten as violent coughs struck the man in black, and he tried to get a hold of himself. The stalactites that could no longer hold tight to the ceiling crashed around him as he pulled his hand away to see the blood that had escaped his mouth. Slowly, he reached down to his discarded sword and picked it up smiling a little as he did. Slowly, he walked out of the room as the cavern continued to crumble.

____________________________________________________________________________

I was in my room when Twilight arrived. I sat against the wall lazily playing anything that came to mind to alleviate my boredom. She didn’t bother knocking like she usually did before she entered, which I found slightly odd but it didn’t really bother me. She strolled into the room like she owned it looking directly at me the entire time.

There was something different about her, but I couldn’t put my finger on it. There was a confidence in her eyes that I hadn’t seen in her before. She seemed so sure of herself that it was almost threatening to look at her, but I had long ago stopped thinking of these ponies as defenseless. The look she was giving me told me immediately that she wanted to talk, but since I was unable to she began.

“I have a way to send you home.” As soon as the words left her lips my music cut off in a classic screech of a vinyl record. “We will be performing the spell later today so be ready when we call for you.” Without further ado she turned and left the room like nothing had happened.

I continued to sit against the wall completely stunned by what had just happened. I had almost resigned myself to forever living in this world, and suddenly Twilight walks into my room and tell me that she is going to send me home. One emotion overrode all other, happiness. I was absolutely ecstatic, and I would have been screaming in victory were I able.

I jumped from my spot on the ground and began packing everything I had accumulated during my small vacation in this world. I mostly just had clothes that I would be taking so after setting aside my suit and putting it on I went about wrapping everything else up in a bundle. There wasn’t really anything else left for me to pack so I grabbed my bundle and strode out of my room to find the mess hall. I was going to try and get at least one decent meal before I dared venture across another dimensional divide.

____________________________________________________________________________

Apollo stood over the computer console having completed his task. The screen told him of his success in the small green text that stood out on the glass “Operation Complete”. He took a step back and glanced around at the desert that surrounded him on three sides and the magnificent slab of stone that the console was buried in. The wastes were a place that he and he alone could find, but their secrets were not even fully revealed to the god who saw all.

He plunged his fist into the terminal and ripped out the various wires that kept the machine running for the past countless millennia. He tossed the wires into the sand at his feet before plunging his hand once more into the broken screen to retrieve more of its insides. It had to be completely destroyed so that there was no way to undo his work.

Having thoroughly torn the computer apart he took a weary step backwards towards the dunes that surrounded him. One hand rested in the pocket of his jacket while the other rested on his heart as if trying to slow its tempo through pure will. After a few calming breaths he did succeed in gaining control over his body once again as he started to walk away from the stone monument. He would have to make it all the way back to shore before he could travel away from the wastes.

He hesitated a moment and turned back to the tall slab of stone that lay motionless behind him. There was really nothing remarkable about the massive object other than how perfectly marbled it was. It was one single large slab of stone forty feet tall and a hundred feet wide with a broken terminal sticking from its side next to a metal door.

The door had always been there for as long as the stone, and no one knew exactly how long that was. Around the edge of the door were red dotted lines that displayed a primal warning to anyone that looked upon its surface. Though he knew just how futile it was, Apollo conjured a small ball of flame with his free hand and threw it at the door.

The fireball was rather impressive by anyone’s standards, but as it approached the door it began to wither and die. It had completely dissolved into nothingness by the time it struck the metal entrance to a place unknown. The man in black sighed before turning back to his trek across the dunes of the forgotten world. The time when those doors would open was fast approaching.

____________________________________________________________________________

Once again the mess hall thoroughly disappointed me, but I was at least used to being continually let down by this point. I had sucked it up and ate the salad, which still tasted terrible but at least I wasn’t hungry. The ponies had finally stopped viewing me with suspicion everywhere I went, or at least most of the guards had.

There was a tour group wandering the halls today and as I passed them I heard more than one rude comment. Mostly there were surprised that such a beastly creature would be wandering around the castle in a suit. Was it really so surprising that I wanted to look my best on my final day here? I had made sure to groom myself to the best of my abilities, and even I had to admit that I looked damn good.

Unfortunately, the mare that had fainted as I walked by their small group had not shared my opinion, which almost brought me back down to a depressed state. I shrugged it off and continued to walk along the halls to where Twilight had said that they would be conducting my return back to my own world.

I had honestly expected to find myself in the throne room once again since for some reason it seemed that everything that went down in the castle happened there. The room I was directed to however was much smaller by comparison and located in one of the lesser-used wings of the palace. It was a shame that I was going to be leaving just when I had started to figure out the layout of this place.

As I approached the door I distinctly heard music playing on the other side of the door, which brought me to an immediate halt. It wasn’t the type of music that I usually listened to; no it was the music that you would find playing at a seven year-old's birthday party. Part of me wanted to flee as soon as possible while another part wanted to throw the doors wide and make a grand entrance. Being torn on what to do, I quietly made my way to the door and opened it just an inch to take a look inside.

Through the small crack in the door I was able to make out a couple of ponies that I knew milling around talking with each other. Rainbow Dash was over near a punch bowl shootin' the breeze with Luna of all ponies, and seemed to be discussing the strange dance moves that Celestia and her student were displaying. Applejack and Rarity seemed to be in a heated but friendly debate over something that I wasn’t able to guess at, and Fluttershy was hanging out in the corner being her usual meek self. The distinct feeling that I was missing something hit me only a second before the wall of pink did.

The door flew open, and I was tackled to the ground by the pink ball of energy I had met on my first day in this world. She grinned happily like nothing was amiss from her position on my chest, and was talking at me a mile a minute. I of course do mean talking at me since talking with me was actually impossible to do at the moment, but this did not deter the puffy pink pony in the least; nor did it stop her from bouncing on my chest like I was a trampoline as she broke the world speed talking record.

It didn’t actually hurt to be used like a child’s mattress, but it did find it rather frustrating so I reached up and caught the mare as she was coming back down on me and set her to the side so that I could stand up. Being man handled didn’t seem to dampen her mood, and she continued to speak as I stood from the ground and straightened my clothes. My hair had come apart from where it had all rested nicely just a moment before and it took me a few seconds to reorganize it into something somewhat presentable.

I noticed that the music had stopped and everyone was now looking at Pinkie Pie and I who had still not stopped to take a breath. These creatures really did have no respect for what should be scientifically possible… well baring Twilight, but she had broken her fair share of physics just by bringing me here in the first place. It had only just occurred to me then that I should try listening to what Pinkie Pie was actually saying to me so I turned my attention back to her for a moment.

“but then Gummy was all like ‘I don’t want to miss one of your parties’ so I told him that he could come, but he would have to make it here by today. He is so silly sometimes; he should know by now that alligators can’t ride the train by themselves so there was no way he would make it here. It is too bad that you didn’t get to meet him before you left so I brought some pictures of everypony that you didn’t get to meet.” At this she pulled out a very large photo album and began to show me pictures of several random ponies.

“This here is Cheerilee, and this pony here is Thunderlane. Lyra is over here with Bon Bon, and this is Scootaloo. Oh and here are all of our critter friends. This is Gummy, Tank, Opalescence…” I had returned to tuning her out at that point. Sure she had no dishonest or sinister intentions, but I feared for my mental health if I kept paying too much attention. Not wanting to hurt her feelings I motioned for her to follow me as I headed into the room and nodded periodically along with whatever she said like any man knows how to.

I made my way over to the punch table and grabbed myself a drink as pictures bombarded me, but I tried to remain as calm and nice as possible. After all, I wasn’t going to be here for too much longer so I might as well enjoy everything while I can. To my never-ending delight there were actually several pastries laid out on the table that I dug into greedily. The cupcakes were glorious and the several different types of cake that ranged from chocolate to banana nut were all incredibly moist and delectable. I may have ruined the dignified look I was going for as I dug into the food without restraint.

“You should probably slow down before you choke,” the blue pegasus to my left informed me between a fit of laughter. I stopped immediately, which happened to be a terrible idea since the large glob of cake and frosting in my throat stopped along with me. That all too familiar feeling of choking hit me and I was scrambling for my drink to wash it down. Thankfully the punch did the trick and I was able to breath once again moments later.

With a sigh I leaned back against the table and brought my breath back under my control. The party, which is what I guessed was going on at the moment, had started back up again and the ponies were having what I could assume to be the time of their lives. Twilight’s dancing looked almost reminiscent of a seizure and Celestia’s was no better. Their legs would kick out erratically and they danced with their eyes closed making the entire display actually somewhat dangerous to be near.

Luna’s face was red with the fit of giggles that she was attempting to hold back, but failed miserably to. Rainbow Dash was far less subtle and was rolling around on the ground in laughter, but this didn’t disturb the two mares in the middle of the dance floor in the least. Pinkie Pie joined the two in their strange dancing ritual and soon there were three mares kicking about randomly in the middle of the room.

I noticed a banner above my head decorated in words that I couldn’t read so I nudged Luna to get her attention and pointed up to it. It took her a second, but she got what I was getting at and leaned over to read it to me. “It says ‘Going away party for mister alien whose name we still don’t know.’”

I caught myself smiling as she finished reading the inscription, and there was no doubt in my mind of who had written that banner. I bit into another cupcake as I continued to lean back against the snack table, and looked around that the assembled ponies. I hadn’t really been here too long, but I could say that I had made a few friends while I was here. Twilight and Rarity definitely fell into that group and I hoped that Luna did as well. The rest seemed to be friendly acquaintances that I could have gotten to know better during my stay, and I honestly had no idea where Celestia should be placed. Perhaps she was a nice frenemy? All in all I couldn’t help but feel a little bit sad about my inevitable departure, but I was very ready to get back home. Now if only nothing else would go wrong in the short span that I had left here I would be golden.

_____________________________________________________________________________

The party had wound down after some time, and all of the ponies were gathered in the back of the room watching Twilight who was preparing to open a portal once again so that the human could be sent back home, except for Celestia who stood at her side. The man in question was in the back of the room conversing in the only way he could with a certain lunar princess who he seemed to have grown close with over his short stay. The music had been silenced and a space cleared near one of the walls away from the festivities for the spell to be performed.

“Are you sure that you can do this, Twilight? It is fine if you cannot I am sure that we would be able to find some other way of getting him back home eventually,” she said to her pupil.

“Of course I can do it Princess, I am still not entirely sure of how this new power that I have been given works, but I know that I definitely have enough magic to pull this off,” she replied as she continued to concentrate on the wall where the portal would be made.

“Yes Tia, you really should have more faith in the mare.” As if no gathering or important event could happen without him, Apollo appeared between the two without warning. Neither even spared him a glance or acknowledged his rude entrance, having long grown bored with his casual waltzing wherever he liked.

“As long as you are sure,” Celestia said in resignation before she turned her attention to the man standing next to her. “Why are you here anyways? Haven’t you done enough already?”

“Believe it or not I do feel awful about some of the things that I have done whether they were needed or not. I came here to lend my special brand of assistance to this little endeavor to make sure that it goes off without a hitch,” he replied curtly.

“I don’t need your help,” Twilight sneered and took a step away.

“Not with opening a portal you most certainly don’t. I can tell that you have easily enough juice to do that. The reason I came was to help you direct where the portal connected to since you may not be nearly as experienced in navigating the channels of the multiverse as myself.” He rubbed his knuckles against his chest in an attempt to play off his boastfulness.

“It is a simple matter of getting the frequency right and the portal will be connected to his realm. It is exactly the same way that it was done the first time,” Twilight replied with a roll of her eyes.

“Oh yes that would give you the right realm for sure. I also assume that you know how to make the portal open exactly where it did before and not in lets say an active volcano, or two hundred feet above the ground, or twenty feet below the ground, or in space.”

Twilight stared back at him for several seconds unable to come up with a reason why she could make sure that none of those things happened. “No I don’t know how to keep that from happening actually,” she said as her head bowed in defeat.

“Buck up my young unicorn friend, that is why I have come to stop something disastrous from happening. I am actually specifically skilled in this area of expertise and can direct a portal to wherever I so choose. Between the two of us I am sure that nothing can possibly go wrong here.” He smiled back down at her and laid a reassuring hand on her shoulder.

Twilight looked back up at him for several seconds before joining him in smiling. “Thank you for coming to help, Apollo.” Celestia stood near her pupil giving the man in black a very disapproving stare, but was unable to actually raise anything against him. In all her dealings with him he had been at least truthful, and she didn’t have any reason to doubt him now.

“I think that it is about time that we get this underway don’t you think,” Apollo said, motioning for Twilight to begin. She nodded and began to gather energy in her horn that would be used for the spell to come.

That sealed part of her mind where she felt her newfound power lie was opened once again as she accessed the seemingly endless well of energy and directed it outwards. A black sphere appeared against the wall and began to grow ominously as several more black spheres orbited it.

It continued to grow for some time until it was nearly as big as a doorway before the orbiting spheres all coalesced onto its surface. The smaller balls of energy pulled at the large sphere elongating it into a solid circular wall that swirled with the energy that lie just on the other side.

“Okay now just hand over control of the portal, and I will get to directing it,” Apollo said as he stepped over to where Twilight was and motioned for her to do as he asked. She hesitated a moment, but eventually relented and handed him control of the spell. The change was immediate and the black portal, which held a tinge of purple at its border instantly lit with green flame around it.

“What was that?” Twilight asked as her portal took an unnatural change.

“It is just my own brand of magic taking a hold of the spell. It will take me some time to completely trace the previous path that this spell took and establish the link. I would suggest that you take this time to say goodbye to your friend over there,” he said motioning to the group with his chin since both his hands were taken up by holding onto the spell before him, alight with a green fire that match the color that surrounded the portal.

Twilight looked between Apollo and her friends for a moment before deciding to take him up on his advice and say her goodbyes. She walked over to the group that had been watching the two and made her way over to the mute human that she had come to know over that last couple of days.

“So I guess this is it,” she said to him with a shrug. He arched an eyebrow at her and shrugged as well.

Twilight sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. She had come to expect frustrations from this human, but right now she had important things to say. “I know we didn’t always get along, but I have come to see you as a true friend. I am sorry that I brought you into this mess in the first place, and nearly trapped you here with no way to return home. My thirst for knowledge got ahead of me, and I cast that spell without really thinking. Can you ever forgive me for doing something so stupid?” she asked with tears in her eyes.

He continued to look down at her for several more moment before he smiled and did something no one truly expected of him. He bent down and gave the purple mare a hug. Twilight was momentarily stunned by his actions but quickly returned the gesture in earnest. The two embraced for a moment before the sound of something incredibly loud tearing behind Twilight brought her back to reality.

The lighting in the room had taken on an eerily green tone, and immediately she looked to its source. Apollo stood before the portal, which was now looking upon a swirling mass of green energy with his hands spread wide in triumph and the energy the portal was giving off blowing back his hair. Twilight could sense that he had done something wrong, and the spell had been altered far beyond its original intended purpose.

She jumped away from where she had been and raced towards Apollo who was definitely not doing what he said he would. She was stopped short as she ran face first into a shield that protected the god from her, and brought her to a slightly painful stop. She prodded the shield with a hoof and was met with a zap of electricity warning her away before she started to fire some weak magical bolts at it in hopes of bringing it down. Her magical attacks did nothing as the shield simply ate them, causing them to disappear entirely.

“What are you doing?” Twilight shouted through the rising wind the swept through the room.

He didn’t look back at her, instead keeping his attention focused on the portal in front of him. “I am sorry about this Twilight, I truly am.” Were his only words as the light coming from the portal began to brighten rapidly. Soon the light was too much for anyone to stand and they had to shield their eyes to keep from being blinded. As the light finished its crescendo it suddenly ceased. Twilight chanced a look at what was going on in front of her to only be met by a massive explosion-taking place on the other side of the room.

The explosion rocked the very foundations of the castle, but everyone was protected by the shield and unharmed as the entirety of the other side of the room was blown away. Dust shrouded the air as the shield continued to hold and left the room beyond it completely obscured.

“Is everypony okay?” Twilight called back to her friends that still stood behind her. Some of them had been rattled by the blast, but were picking themselves up off the ground not looking any worse for wear.

“Ah’ think we’re alright, Twi. What was that all about?” Applejack asked as she helped Rarity up. Pinkie Pie was bemoaning the fate of her pastries while Celestia and Luna looked at the barrier that bisected the room like it was a serpent about to strike. Fluttershy was fussing over their human friend that was collapsed against the back wall seemingly unconscious.

“I have no idea,” Twilight replied honestly. “I think he did something to…” she was cut off as the shield that had separated the room fell, allowing the dust to billow out of its small space and clear the air. The air coming from that portion of the room was hot and laden with unused magic that Twilight could practically taste in the air. After a few moments a figure began to take shape through the rapidly dispersing dirt in the air. No not one figure, but two.

Apollo stood where the portal had just been smiling down at the silver haired woman he was holding in his arms. She was just a slight bit shorter than he was, and looked to only be half conscious as she stood almost collapsed against his chest. No one in the room dared move a muscle as they tried to process what was going on in front of them.

“Impossible,” Celestia said in a whisper, but was still heard by all around since everything was so deadly quiet. The hoofsteps of guards could be heard outside the door as they raced through the castle to where everything was happening.

Apollo never losing his smile reached into his jacket pocket with his only free hand, and retrieved a small item that the small amount of dust that was still in the air obscured. He brought it out before him and leveled it at the group that was gathered on the other side of the half destroyed room allowing them to see what looked like a simple rock. Only Luna recognized it for what it really was as he opened his mouth, and with a smile that suddenly seemed far more sinister, he spoke a single word.

“Bang.”

Author's Note

And so ends the first act of The Day It Began. Sorry that it took so insanely long for me to finally get around to finishing this chapter, but i have been super sidetracked recently. What will the future have in store for our heroes only I know, but I think that everyone will like. Or at least I hope they will. The beginning of act two shouldn't take nearly as long to get around to as this chapter did, but only time will tell.

Chapter 14(Act 2)

The sun was blazing just in front of me, so close that the heat from it should have burned me away. No, that wasn’t the sun; it was just a mass of fire. The fire was everywhere, spreading all around me and turning to ashes everything it touched yet I somehow remained unscathed in the middle of it all. Sweat dripped from my every pore, the tattered clothing that remained to me sticking tightly to my skin as the world blazed around me. Through squinted eyes I looked on, the flames encroaching on me as I could do nothing but stand and wait.

“Soon,” they seemed to whisper, “it will all burn down. The smolders will burn anew and the sleepers will set the world aflame.”

“What?” I yelled back to the flames, a whistling was whipping around me as the flames neared. A wetness began to drip from my ears and I had to cover them with my hands as I fell to a knee. Despite it all the voice of the flames penetrated and continued to speak to me.

“One dies as another is risen and still it all turns and burns. One leads into the other and the next back into the first, only the flame persists.” The fire continued to near me, so close now I could reach out a hand and almost touch it.

“What do you want?” I screamed, though I couldn’t even hear my own words over the whistling that continued to grow louder and louder. A retch raked my body as I gasped for breath, sending my sprawling onto all fours. My left hand slipped, nearly causing me to fall into the fires, but I barely caught myself. It was covered in something wet and red, it shined when I held it up in the light of the fires, the two crimsons seeming to grow together and magnify each other.

“The past paves way to the present and the future falls back to the past. The watcher falls and the rise cometh. The past has ordained what is to come all from days long forgotten by all but one. The day that it began.” Then the flames finally reached me, and I burned.

___________________________________________________________________________

I woke up with a gasp and bolted straight up in whatever bed I had apparently found myself in. This proved to be a very bad idea when a piercing bolt lanced through my side and sent me sprawling back out on the mat. I laid there for a few moments, eyes darting around frantically in order to find some bearings but failing on every count.

A set of three candles flickered on a counter near a large, partially illuminated, wooden door that I didn’t recognize in the least. Other than that the room I apparently was in was completely black so I patted my hand out in the darkness to find myself lying on a mess of blanket on a stone floor. I delicately touched my side where the pain had hit me to find a bandage wrapped several times around my chest. That wasn’t the only bandage that was on me it seemed as I searched my body some more, in fact I was practically covered in them.

I racked my head to try and remember whatever had happened to land me in this sorry state but nothing really came to mind. What had I been doing? I remembered…there was a party. Yes, I was supposed to be at a party and I could kind of remember going to it but after that it just goes blank. Had I been hurt at whatever party this had been? I couldn’t really remember what the party had even been for.

Wait, that’s right I was supposed to be going home and the party was a goodbye party. Little pieces of what had happened started coming back to me little by little. Everyone was there and everything had been going fine all up until Apollo had gotten there. That’s right, I remembered suddenly, that guy was there and he had done something. My temples started to throb as I continued trying to recall what had happened, but I pushed on despite the pain. There had been something that went wrong with the portal and there was a girl, who had that girl been? I remembered him standing there with a girl in his arms and a devilish grin plastered on his face. Then he had pointed something at us and everything just suddenly went blank.

“What the hell had that thing been?” I muttered to myself. Between the aching of my head and my concentration at trying to recall everything that had happened it took me a few minutes to actually realize that I had spoken. After finding that my ability to speak had apparently been restored I just laid there in shock for what could probably have been half and hour.

“Did I…speak?” I asked myself. There mere fact that I could even ask the question seemed to be response enough and I was once again in shocked silence. It had been a while, to me what felt like an eternity, since I had last actually spoken to someone and now here I was able to talk again and with no one around. Grunting, I pushed myself up onto my elbow but the pain wasn’t nearly as bad this time as it had been.

The stone floor was cold, but that wasn’t anywhere near enough to get my spirits down as I shakily made my way to my feet. There was a burning in my left shoulder blade and my ribs were killing me, but I was able to stand and walk well enough to make it over to the door. The oaken door was incredibly heavy, even for me, but I hadn’t really expected to get too much of a break so as the pain once again flared in my side I wrenched it open enough so that I could make my way through.

As I stepped out into the hall a blast of cold air assailed my naked chest and nearly doubled me over. Now that I could actually feel the difference, the room I had just been in must have been like a sauna, or maybe even hotter. I couldn’t really dwell on the matter though since I needed to find one of the ponies that could tell me just what the hell had happened. Leaning against the wall, using my right shoulder since using my left would have been agonizing; I hobbled as best I could through the castle.

Every few steps I would notice some ruble here, broken tiles there, a fallen ceiling panel or three over there. I found myself wondering if how long I had been out for the castle to become so ruined, but it was hard enough just keeping my thoughts straight as it was. The pounding in my head returned just as I made the first corner and by the third I had a painful headache well underway. I soon came to realize that I had no idea where I was going as I had found the layout of the castle confusing enough even when I knew the starting point. I couldn’t really recall ever being in this part of the palace but between my burgeoning migraine and the destroyed landmarks all around me recalling anything specific was near impossible.

Luckily, I wasn’t walking for more than ten minutes before I came upon some guard clad in their identical golden armor. Upon seeing me the stallion froze in place and just stared with mouth agape. I stared back for a long while, wondering if I had ever met this pony but unable to tell since they all kind of looked alike, but eventually settled on just asking what was on my mind. “Where is everyone?”

The guard just continued to stare at me for a few more seconds before composing himself “What are you doing here, you are supposed to be locked away until the princess is ready to deal with you,” he said as he took a more aggressive stance. My back hurt, my ribs hurt, and my head hurt, so I wasn’t exactly in a forgiving mood but never the less I tried to be as kind and polite as I could.

“I just woke up, and came to find out just what the hell happened around here. Can you do your job and take me to your boss already?” We both continued to stand there for a few more moments before he finally snorted and turned.

“The princesses are in the war room, follow me if you want to see them but I can’t guarantee that they will be that happy to see you.” With that he started walking back down the hallway at a pace that didn’t allow me to use the wall for much of a crutch.

In the war room, I didn’t think that ponies even had such things. Something big must really have gone down after all. The pony before me looked like he would be right at home in a war room, but for some reason he had been out and walking around the castle. We passed a pile of large stones piled to one side of the wall where it had apparently caved in on itself. As we continued to progress I started seeing more and more guards out and about, doing whatever they were assigned to do, but that was all. I found it a little odd that there didn’t seem to be any service ponies or the usual tourist that I had seen a few times while wandering the halls, but then again it looked like the castle was in crisis mode so it made sense that the castle was closed to visitors.

I finally got my bearings when we passed the throne room doors, but seeing one of them propped up against the wall cemented in my mind that things were pretty bad. I knew that I wasn’t really one of these ponies and that I shouldn’t really throw my lot in with them, but for whatever reason they had been the ones to harbor me and what I have met of the rest of the world didn’t seem too friendly. If they were under attack then I might as well try and lend my help as best as I can, though with the condition I was currently in I didn’t think that there would really be much that I could do.

The guard that was escorting me came to an abrupt halt in front of some very sturdy looking metal doors. He gave a knock and after a few moments the pain in my head was doubled by the grinding hinges as the doors swung open. Now standing in front of us was an elderly looking mare that was dressed in purple armor, and the look on her face told me she wasn’t expecting any visitors.

“What is it?” she commanded of my escort, who immediately stepped back a few paces.

“I found the human walking around in the halls of the west wing,” he replied after he managed to gather a little courage and gestured up to me. “He asked to be brought to the princesses and I thought that they would want to see him as soon as possible.”

The mare looked up at me, then back to the stallion, then back to me. Eventually I suppose that she decided the same thing that the guard had since she gestured me inside with her head. As soon as I stepped over the threshold the doors slammed shut behind me, leaving the poor stallion outside. I rubbed my temples, feeling pretty sure that my ears were bleeding, and I looked up to see Celestia standing next to her sister over a very large map of what I could only assume to be the world with a cold look on her face.

The glare didn’t leave her eyes but they were soon directed to the map in front of the two princesses. Now that I actually had a chance to look around the room I found that it was nearly full of ponies, all looking over the map and muttering to each other. In the center of the room was a large circular table that a massive map was laid out upon with different kinds of pieces set upon it here and there. Those that got a seat at the table seemed to mostly be elderly ponies though there were a few younger ones scattered throughout. There were ponies running back and forth carrying papers and relaying messages between those seated, and at the head of all the chaos Celestia and Luna sat brooding over the map. Since I hadn’t been told to do anything I walked around the edge of the room and stood behind the two to look at what they were seeing.

The map was huge, so much should have been evident by the fact that it took up most of the room on its own, but when I was able to glimpse the little black dot with the word Canterlot scrawled next to it I realized just how massive the thing was. I had never been good with geography but if I had to guess I would say that this world was at least as large as Earth was, if not even more so. After studying the placement of all the pieces, the territories outlined, and the many notes that were scrawled on papers laid out before the diarchs I came to the conclusion that I had no idea what I was looking at.

“Have we finished gathering in Fillydelphia?” It was Luna that broke the silence after a few uncomfortable seconds.

The stallion three places over answered immediately, “All have been accounted for except the 515, which were set to leave Cloudsdale and arrive a few hours later though they haven’t showed up as of yet.”

“Send out two scouts after the unit and give them orders to meet up with you during the march. We need to push east as quickly as possible before we are cut off,” Celestia ordered, moving a few pieces from the city of Fillydelphia to the eastern border of the country. Across the border was what looked to be another country called Gryhponia.

“Of course princess,” the stallion bowed and relayed his orders to a younger pony behind him who scurried out of the room at once.

“Our resource lines near the southeastern border, have they been secured?” It was Luna who asked this question once more.

“For the large part princess, we have pushed the farmers to begin their harvest though many are resisting due to the earliness of the season. There have also been raids occurring but we have kept them at bay, they continually try and burn our crops. The losses are as follow, three acres of wheat, fifteen acres of oranges, ten acres of cotton, and seventy-nine acres of miscellaneous grains and vegetables,” a much younger stallion who was seated at the table answered.

Once again it was Celestia that gave the orders out, “Continue prioritizing collection and protection of the wheat and make sure that those fields are picked clean before our main forces can arrive. Ship what you can back to Canterlot and store the rest here in Oatenridge.” The princess once more moved some of the pieces on the map, though this time they left a glowing trail behind them to show the route they took.

This back and forth continued for a long while, Luna would ask something of the assembled ponies, they would reply, then Celestia would give orders about what to do. I just continued to stand there behind the princesses as they went about their business, not really feeling like I should butt in. It took nearly two hours before everything had been discussed and decided on, and by that time my legs had gone numb though my side was hurting a lot less. When everything was finally finished the princesses dismissed all of the assembled ponies and were brought what I assumed to be tea to drink, though it may very well have been some kind of alcohol, I know I would want some to deal with the apparent stress they were under. Celestia looked at me for the second time in the two hours I had been there and motioned for me to take a seat which I was more than happy to do.

“So, it seems you have recovered,” she said after sipping her tea for a moment.

“For the most part,” I replied causing her to do an actual spit take. Luna found her sister’s sputtering hysterical it would seem as she actually fell out of her chair laughing.

“You…you can speak.” The princess managed after she a few seconds of choking.

“Hey, I was just as surprised as you are.”

Luna managed to sit up in her seat once more and we started to have our first discussion. “Thank you for that, I think we needed a laugh after so much serious business.” And just like that they were both straight faced once more. “Now tell us of why you can speak now.”

I thought on it a long time, but I honestly had no idea why I could talk all of a sudden. I mean it had been really nice to actually be able to use my voice now but there were much more important matters at hand. “Forget about that,” I said, “what happened. Why did I wake up in some sealed room all the way across the castle. Why is this place falling to ruins and why are you ordering troops to be moved all around the country?”

The two shared a look, I really did not like that look. “Do you not remember?” Luna asked.

“Remember what?” My head was beginning to hurt again, and I rubbed my temples once more to try and alleviate the pain. “Like I said I just woke up and need to know what happened.”

Celestia sighed which I knew immediately to take as a bad sign. “It seems that Apollo had set a trap for us. By tricking Twilight into opening such a powerful portal he was able to revive his long dead sister and escaped by destroying nearly half the castle. Luna was able to direct most of the blast upwards but since we were so close you were still injured majorly as well as each of the ponies at the celebration.” Celestia stood from her seat and began to pace about the room.

“Apollo managed to escape and we have no idea where to, soon after the gryphon's began to assault our country in force. He has been long revered in their culture and history so we believe that he is behind this also. You and all of those injured were taken to care and through some stroke of luck there were no fatalities though you have been asleep in a coma for over a month at this point. We have managed to push the gryphons from our territory for the most part, but they still raid us and we have information to make us believe that there is an even greater force moving through their lands toward us.” She stopped for a moment to look back at me with a glare, “And now we find that whatever spell he was using to stop you from speaking has been lifted.”

I immediately knew where she was going and held up my hands pleadingly “Woah now, we have been through this before right. I have nothing against you guys,”

Luna rose from her seat and walked towards me, “My sister does not mean to imply such nasty things. She...we are merely caught off guard by this new development in these stressful times.” I looked back to Celestia whose face has lifted to seem almost kind...weird.

“Yes, I do not think that you are behind any of these developments. If anything this is a good thing, now that you are awake again we can use you to scare our enemies into submission. Stories of the upheaval in the zebra lands have been spread the world around and if the gryphons were to learn that we had a human on our side then perhaps we can avoid any further bloodshed. With your help...I’m sorry I suppose we still don’t have something to call you do we? What is your real name, now that you can tell us?”

My head was killing me at this point, I didn’t really care so much that Celestia seemed to want to use me as a nuclear deterrent. I tried to recall what my name was, just so that I could leave and get some rest but the more I tried the more pain I got. It was like a metal spike was being driven right through my skull. “I...” I managed to choke out through the pain “I can’t remember...”

Chapter 4

The guards in the Canterlot didn't talk to me as we walked through the hallways. They kept a very stoic expression and never smiled. This for some reason made them come off as moody, and moody people are tiresome.

We made our way through the spectacularly decorated halls of the castle to some destination unknown to me. Supposedly we would be going to my allocated chambers. Twilight had left me with the guards when our meeting with the princesses had concluded. Apparently she had a permanent residence here in the castle.

I let my mind drift back to the meeting that had just taken place. Twilight had no idea what I was when I arrived, but apparently the princess knew exactly what a human was. Twilight had told me that she had read every book that was in her library five times. Now how is it that something like humans wouldn’t have even been mentioned once in any of those books?

This was a troubling question so I decided to ignore it for the time being. Celestia was an immortal god, who was I to question how she knew things. From the looks that she was giving me I am guessing that her previous interactions with my species was not pleasant. I would have to be on extra special behavior to make sure that I didn’t upset her.

We finally arrived at my designated room, and the guards motioned for me to enter. There was a beautiful painting depicting Celestia in golden armor eclipsing the sun. A warrior princess, I would definitely not want to upset her. I found it odd that all the guards in the castle and even the ones that had picked us up in the chariots were white. Was there some rule that if you were a white pony then you became a guard? That didn’t seem right because Rarity was definitely not a guard. Then of course was the fact that she was female and I had not come across a female guard yet.

Maybe there weren’t any female guards. That thought seemed to sync up with my observations so far, but at the same time it seemed off. From what I had seen so far females vastly outnumbered the males in Equestria, which would mean that there was a higher chance that any given guard would be female.

Equestria hadn’t seen war in over a thousand years. Was there really any need to for there to be guards? The protection of the princesses was obviously very important, but did it require ponies to be around them twenty-four seven? Guards were wherever the princesses needed them at any time of the day or night. That invoked a not so pleasant thought about why all the guards were male.

I pulled myself from my quickly souring thoughts and looked around the room I had been led into. It was in every way exactly what I had expected a room in a castle to look like. It was five times the size of my dorm room, and had lavish furniture everywhere. The bed alone was twice the size of a queen. It looked like absolute heaven, and I immediately jumped into it. I began to sink as the mattress adjusted itself to my weight.

Every single position that I turned on the bed I found to be more comfortable than the last. This must have been some kind of magnificent enchantment. When I left Equestria I was going to somehow smuggle this mattress out with me. I propped my head up against a pillow and looked at the rest of the room.

The closet at the far end of the room was open, and completely empty. I guess I couldn’t have expected them to magic up some clothes for me to wear. Though that would have been awesome. The tables and dressers were made of a dark wood that gleamed in the light of the chandelier. Wow, there was a chandelier in this room. Thank god I wasn’t paying for anything because I would never have been able to afford this place.

I laid back down on the bed and began to stretch. It felt so good to be relaxing on such an amazing surface. I may have let out a few manly groans as I felt my limbs pop from me stretching them out.

“Oh my.” My attention immediately turned to the pony standing in the doorway. Rarity was watching me with a shocked expression. How long had she been standing there?

“I was just stopping by to ask if you wanted me to take your measurements for the suit, but if you are busy I can come back later,” she said turning to leave.

I leapt out of the bed to stop her from leaving, but all I accomplished was scaring her. She backed into the door and looked at me fear showing on her face. I sighed and sat back against the bed, and she managed to get a hold of herself. I forgot that I was a huge hulking monster, and shouldn’t make sudden movements around small ponies.

Rarity looked slightly ashamed of being frightened by me and took a hesitant step forwards. “So would you like to get fitted for the suit?” she asked.

I nodded and tried to give her a reassuring smile, but my heart wasn’t in it. I don’t like to scare ladies. Doing so actually hurts my pride quite a bit. I slowly got up from the bed and followed her out of the room. She led me through the castle halls to where she had a studio already set up.

There was cloth strung about everywhere. String was even strung out everywhere. The room reminded me of how my own room looks. Everything was thrown about and out of any container, but you always knew exactly where everything was. Organized chaos was a great method for keeping everything straight.

Rarity walked over to a pony mannequin that had some black fabrics draped over it. The fabrics were enveloped in glowing magic and lifted into the air. They began to swirl around the center of the room that I was standing in, and Rarity turned to look me over. My hoody was pulled off me by her magic and a measuring tape began to work its way over me.

I hadn’t been measured for very many pieces of clothing, but the rate at which Rarity worked astounded me. There was a piece of paper floating besides her taking notes as the tape did its work. I felt like a doll being toyed with, not something that I am into. Every inseam was measured, and I barely had time to feel any embarrassment about it. At least she didn’t hold the tape with her mouth.

Then as suddenly as it had begun the tape flew back to one of the counters where it rested. The dark fabric began to cling to me, and fold around my body. Rarity scrutinized the black fabric and then moved it again. Her expression was incredibly focused, and I began to wonder how difficult it was to hold that many things in the air with telekinesis. If she was able to use that much magic and create at the same time then she must really be a mare able to focus intently on a task and accomplish it.

Then the fabrics floated away from me, and back to the mannequin that they had been resting on previously. Rarity smiled up at me “Well I think that will just about do it. This is going to be a simply marvelous suit. I will get it to you by the time that you wake up tomorrow,” she said as she ushered me out the door.

The door slammed behind me leaving me stuck out in the hall alone. That had certainly been a very interesting experience. I began to walk back to my room hoping that I would be able to get some sleep. That was when I realized that I had absolutely no idea where my room was located.

Maybe I should have paid more attention on the way here. I started to wander the halls aimlessly hoping that one of the doors would have the words “human” written on them. Of course none of them did. I somehow wound up in the library. As far as libraries go this one was the biggest that I had ever seen.

An elderly unicorn met me as I entered. He looked up at me with a friendly smile, which startled me. What could this pony have possibly seen to make me a not so frightening sight.

“Hello there I am Quick Wit the librarian here. What can I help you find today?” he asked.

I wasn’t able to actually read anything that was written down here in Equestria. Maybe it would be a good idea for me to learn a little bit about the language. How exactly was I going to ask the librarian to find me an English to Equestrian dictionary. I grabbed a piece of paper that was laying on the desk and a pen, and began to write on it.

The phrase “I would like a dictionary.” was probably too much to hope for him to understand. When I handed the paper to him and saw him gaze at it with zero understanding I knew that I had failed. Quick Wit studied the paper a little harder and then something dawned on him.

“I have seen these markings before. Wait here one moment,” the elderly stallion said as he turned from the desk, and made his way to the back of the library.

That was a huge shock. Was there actually something written in English here? Such a book might go a very long way towards helping me learn about my situation. It didn’t take long for Quick Wit to return pushing a large glass case. He placed in front of me and then looked inside. I did as well, and was surprised by the stone on the inside.

“David was here.” was cleanly carved into the stone. Judging from how old the rock seemed to be and how degraded the writing was the stone was absolutely ancient. This new piece of information just made me even more confused, and I walked away from the case. I decided that it was time for me to leave the library so I made my way out. I took one last look back and thought that I saw Pristine perusing the books.

I once again found myself aimlessly wandering the halls. Since I had nowhere to go I began to admire the paintings on the walls. Most of the art was very old and had been degraded by time. The colors had begun to dull with time, and cracks in the paint were beginning to form. As I kept walking I noticed that the paintings were becoming older and older as I went. That is when genius struck me. If the paintings were getting older and older as I walked this way then if I turned around I would find myself in the newer parts of the castle.

I turned around and began to quickly walk through the halls. The castle was huge, but eventually I arrived back at a painting showing Celestia in golden armor. I knew that I had once again located my room and quickly walked inside. The room was completely black, and I noticed that it was nighttime outside. I was thoroughly exhausted by the day that I had, and fell into bed.

I laid there a few moments, and tried to drift off to sleep. When my own breathing became quiet enough I began to hear a shallow breathing coming from somewhere inside the room. My eyes popped open and I quickly scanned the room. In the darkness near the table I was able to make out an unshapely figure, but the most disturbing thing were the figure’s amber eyes, which shone in the darkness. When it noticed that I was staring it got up from the table and began to walk towards me.

As it neared the bed I was able to make it out better. It was a man. A human had suddenly appeared in my room, and was walking towards me. I was hesitant since someone sneaking into your room at night wasn’t exactly friendly behavior where I come from. He stopped at the side of the bed and looked down at me, man this guy was tall.

“We need to talk,” he said as he placed his hand on my shoulder. Then the whole world went black.

__________________________________________________________________________

“Luna this is not right you must not do this,” Celestia pleaded with her sister.

Luna had seemed to grow overnight. Her mane swirled around her in a purple haze and her eyes glowed with rage. She had been growing more and more depressed over the past couple of years, but something had happened that completely broke her. She was now twisted, and the quiet sister Celestia had once cherished could no longer be seen within the monster.

“Oh Tia you are the last one that should tell me what I should and shouldn’t do,” she spat at Celestia.

“What are you talking about Luna? I do not understand,” Celestia said taking a step towards her sister. The dark alicorn backpedaled, not wishing to be anywhere near the goddess of the sun.

“Do not call me that. Luna was the name of a princess subjugated by her own sister. I will no longer be that weakling. My name is Nightmare Moon, and I shall take what is rightfully mine!” the black mare bellowed causing lightning to shoot down from the sky.

“What has caused this sister? Would you really take the day from your subjects?” Celestia asked hoping that she could somehow talk her sister down.

“Do you forget that it was you that first took from me sister? No lies or deceits were to be between us, but you were the one that broke that. You will reap what you have sowed, and I shall now take Equestria for myself,” Nightmare Moon ascended into the sky leaving Celestia behind.

Celestia realized what had caused her sister to change like this. It had been so long since she had thought about that day, and now it was coming back to haunt her. The mistake she made all those years ago had finally caught up with her and stolen what she valued most.

“Sister please, I beg you. Stop this, and come back to Canterlot with me,” Celestia begged. “You have held the moon in the sky for a full week's time. When will your wrath be quenched?”

“Never Celestia. You and I created this world, and now they ignore me. My own sister has betrayed me. There is nothing left here that I wish to see alive. The moon shall remain in the sky until all is as dead as my own heart,” Nightmare Moon said looking sad at the thought. That dark mare quickly recovered, and gave the Reagent of the Sun a wicked grin, “As dead as your heart.”

“I am sorry Luna at the time…” Celestia began.

“I do not care for your apologies. You have robbed me Celestia. You stole from me the thing I care for most, and now I shall take what you most cherish,” Nightmare Moon broke into a fit of insane laughter.

“You give me no choice then,” Celestia levitated six orbs from behind her, which began to shine with power.

“You would not dare,” the dark mare gawked at her sister. The orbs began to spin around the white alicorn.

“These were given to us to protect Equestria from evil. Now I must turn them on you. I am sorry Luna,” the orbs began to come together. They collided above Celestia into a single white light, and from the light shot a beam that held all the colors of the rainbow. The beam struck the black alicorn in the chest and she began to convulse as pain shot through her. Nightmare Moon was wrapped in the energies of the light, and began to scream.

A few moments later the screaming stopped. The dark alicorn was no longer there, and the earth was scorched where she had stood. The elements of harmony fell to the ground dead. There were only five now, and they had all turned to stone. A single tear rolled down Celestia’s cheek, and she looked up at the moon.

“Oh Tia I can’t believe it,” Luna cried into her big sister’s mane.

“I know Luna. It is absolutely awful,” Celestia stroked Luna’s mane trying to console her.

“Why would he do such a thing? I thought that he loved me,” Luna sobbed.

“I don’t know why Luna. I truly don’t. It will be okay sister. We still have each other, and I will never leave you,” The elder sibling rocked the younger back and forth as she continued to embrace her. Celestia had not seen Luna shed tears in a very long time. Most of the time Luna was far more composed than Celestia, and she envied that about her. Now with her heart broken to pieces Luna was little more that a foal in her sister’s hooves.

Luna continued to sob for hours, and Celestia just held her. Neither moved to break the embrace, and they allowed the moon to stay in the sky for much longer than it should have. It was the only time that they had not kept a strict schedule over the day and night, but neither truly cared.

/\/ /\/\ /\/

Celestia woke from her fitful dreams, and began to look around the room frantically. It had been a long time since she had been haunted in her sleep by nightmares, but like every ruler it happened from time to time. She sat up in her bed, and gazed out the window. It was nearly dawn, and the moon was beginning to set on the horizon. Tonight it was red as it made its way over the mountains.

Celestia climbed from her bed, and began to dawn her regal apparel. She would soon need to relieve her sister and raise the sun so that the day could begin. Her crown was the first thing that she put on, which was quickly followed by her golden necklace and the rest of her jewelry. One of the great things about being an alicorn was that she did not have to make up her hair in the morning. It flowed freely in an ethereal breeze as it always did.

She glanced at herself in the mirror to make sure that everything was in its right place. Confident that she looked as regal as ever she turned from the mirror and walked to the door. The door opened upon her approach and she walked into the hallway making her way to the tower where Luna would be waiting for her.

Outside her bedroom window a blue alicorn stood on the balcony contemplating what she had seen. Memories had begun to return to her ever since she found the book in the archives. She had wanted to make sure that they were real, and not some spell that the book had been enchanted with. Judging from Celestia’s dreams they were in fact her real memories that were beginning to resurface.

Luna’s mind was a torrent of feelings. She felt betrayal for what her sister had done, and shame for the way she had reacted. She felt that she should have justice, but at the same time knew that there would be little point. It was so far in the past that it mattered little anymore. She crushed most of the betrayal that she felt, but a small bit of it remained, festering in the back of her mind. She looked to the sky, and quickly began to fly around the palace. It would be bad if Celestia arrived at the tower to see that Luna was missing.

________________________________________________________________________

“Hello,” Twilight called as she stepped into the room Darky had been given to sleep in. He didn’t greet her as she arrived, but Twilight really hadn’t expected him to. Once inside she looked around the room for the creature she had now come to know as a human. He was nowhere to be seen.

“Are you hiding in here?” she asked the empty room, but was once again greeted by silence.

Twilight remembered Rarity saying something about making him a suit last night so she figured that he might be with her. She left the room closing the door behind her a little harder than she should have. She couldn’t understand why, but it seemed like everything that the human did was to purposefully spite her.

The guards quickly moved out of her way when they saw that she was in one of her notorious bad moods. Twilight was known around the castle to have very bad mood swings, and nopony wanted to impede the most powerful unicorn in Equestria.

Twilight stormed down the hall ready to give Darky a piece of her mind once she reached Rarity’s room. With a pulse of magic the doors to the room flew open startling the white mare that was inside. Rarity looked up from the clothes that she was stitching together at her friend.

“Twilight what is the matter?” she asked moving around the table.

“Is he here?” Twilight asked looking around.

“Is who here?” Rarity replied as she placed all of her instruments down and made her way over to Twilight.

“Darky. Is he here?” Twilight asked again.

“No dear I am sorry, but I haven’t seen him all day. I was just finishing up on his suit and I was going to deliver it to him in a moment. Are you saying that you don’t know where he is?” Rarity asked clearly worried.

Twilight let out a long steady breath as she calmed herself. She wondered why the idea of him being with Rarity bothered her so much. She looked to her friend who was watching her with worried eyes. Twilight collected herself since she did not want to place unneeded worry on Rarity.

“It’s okay Rarity. He just wasn’t in his room so I got a little worried. I am going to go look for him. You should finish that suit I am sure that he will be happy when you present it to him,” Twilight said changing the subject.

“Oh yes. I must say that this is one of my finer works to date. I know that I always say that, but this really is a masterpiece,” Rarity said turning back to her sewing.

Twilight slowly backed out of the room as the white mare began to talk about fabrics and stitches. Twilight always was a pony that wanted to learn, but sometimes Rarity could just go on forever about a subject. Ponies really should learn when others are not that interested in what they have to say she thought as she walked down the hall. She decided that she would check the cafeteria to see if he had decided to get an early breakfast.

She quickly made her way to the eatery, and looked at all the guards enjoying either their breakfast or their dinner. At this time of day the night guards were coming off duty and the morning guards were just starting their shift. The cafeteria was large and held several rows of tables. The actual dining hall was located in an adjacent room for the special occasions when the princesses would host guests.

Since Twilight didn’t see Darky in the main room she decided to check in the royal dining hall. A dozen chandeliers hung above the massive stone table in the center of the room. A thick red rug covered most of the floor, and light filtered through the stained glass windows. The room was made to impress foreign dignitaries, and was currently unoccupied.

Twilight sighed and took a seat at the table. She would need to think of the next likely place that Darky would have gone to since it didn’t seem that he was eating. A chef walked over to her and asked what she would like to eat. Twilight asked for a daisy sandwich and the chef quickly turned back to the kitchen to place the order. The doors opposite of Twilight creaked open, and Luna made her way into the dinning hall.

“Hello Twilight,” she said as she approached the table. “I did not think that anypony would be in here at this time. I can leave if I am disturbing your breakfast.”

“Don’t worry about it princess,” Twilight said waving off her concern. The dark alicorn pulled back a chair, and sat in it. Apparently chairs were a common thing in other countries, so they were used here in the royal dining hall. Twilight found them constraining, and didn’t much care for them. A simple cushion would do for her.

“I have actually been wishing to speak with you Twilight,” Luna said after she gave her order to the chef who once again scuttled back to the kitchens.

“What did you want to talk about princess?” Twilight asked intrigued that Luna would want to talk to her. Twilight had interacted with Luna on occasion but the princess of the night always seemed to want to keep her distance.

“I was wondering how exactly you managed to summon a human to this world,” she said looking to one of the stain glass windows.

“I read about a summoning spell in a book, and wanted to see if I could actually do it. The book said that creatures from different universes could even be pulled through the spell, and I was skeptical about that. Apparently, my skepticism was unfounded since it actually worked,” Twilight said recalling the other day.

“Did this book that you found tell you to summon a human or was that simply happenstance?” Luna asked still trying to mask her interest in the matter.

“It didn’t say anything about humans actually. It simply told me how to grab a sentient being from a specific world. If I recall correctly it gave me a way to pick that world exactly,” Twilight said as she tried to picture the specifics about what the book had actually said.

“Where did you get this book Twilight? I must admit that I have never heard of such a kind of book here in Equestria,” Luna said as her mask of disinterest began to fade.

“That is the funny thing princess. It was returned to the library with a stack of other books. Somepony must have not noticed that it was from the library and dumped it in the return box by mistake,” Twilight explained.

“Is that right,” Luna said as she pondered the implications of this.

“Can I ask you a question princess?” Twilight said as the chef returned with her sandwich.

“You can ask Twilight, but I am not certain if I can answer it or not,” Luna said trying to be as cryptic as possible, another one of Celestia’s lessons.

“You and Princess Celestia knew that he was a human, and you knew that he was here in Equestria before I told you. How did you know?” Twilight said.

Luna sighed, and thought of how exactly she should answer before continuing. “This is not the first time that a human has come to this world. I am sorry, but I am not the one you should ask this question to. If you truly wish to know then you should ask my sister. She is your mentor after all, not I,” Luna said as she watched the chef place her salad in front of her.

Twilight finished chewing the last of her sandwich, and then downed the rest of her water. “Thank you for your time princess. This has been a very nice talk, but I am looking for Darky and feel that I must find him,” Twilight said getting up from her chair. Luna gave her a nod, and then she turned and exited the room.

Twilight made her way out of the cafeteria, and back out into the halls of the palace. She had no idea where Darky might have gone since she really didn’t know that much about him. She searched everywhere that she could think of. He wasn’t in the gardens, or the library. Though the librarian Quick Wit did tell her that he had come in last night. Twilight sighed, and made her way back to his room hoping that he would be in there.

When she entered the room it was as empty as it had been when she had left. Twilight sighed and made her way over to the bed. It was much larger than any bed that a pony would need, but Darky was several times larger than a pony. Twilight wondered if it would have even been big enough for the human. Twilight got up on the bed, and laid down on a pillow thoroughly exhausted with the searching that she had done all morning. When she found him she would really have to make sure just how much trouble he had put her through.

When she rolled over she spotted a note lying on one of the pillows. It wasn’t long, and it was written in perfect Equestrian, which was the first indication that it hadn’t been Darky who had written it. Twilight read it over once, and then quickly got up from the bed and raced out into the hall. Princess Celestia had to see this note as soon as possible.

Twilight dashed through the halls, and the guards once again jumped out of her path. It didn’t take her long to reach the main hall where the princess was holding court. She was talking to an earth pony that had brought a bag of grain with him. Twilight charged into the room, but quickly stopped since she didn’t want to interrupt the princess. She knew how important it was that everything in the castle always seem like it was under complete control.

Once the princes had finished speaking with the farmer he picked up his bag of seed, and made his way out of the room. Twilight quickly walked up to the princess cutting in line in front of a blue unicorn that looked very put off by being usurped her position in line.

“Twilight it is good to see you. What brings you to court this morning,” Celestia asked from her throne as Twilight approached.

“This morning when I checked Darky’s room I found that he wasn’t there. I also found this note,” Twilight said as she levitated the note up for Celestia to read. She took the note in her magical grasp, and read it once over.

Dear Princess Celestia Reagent of the Sun and Monarch of Equestria Something Something Royal Something,

I have taken the human to that place where things happened. You know the one, where we spent that magical night all those years ago. Yea that place, I have so many fond memories of it. Anyways, I took the human and we are going to have a nice little chat. Don’t worry I will bring him back in due time, and I hope that he won't get a bad idea about you and your kingdom. Well whatever happens, happens. Later.

-A

XOXOXOXOXO

P.S. You should really find a shorter title. Writing out that whole thing is tiring. Get back to me when you figure some acronym out.

The paper unexpectedly caught fire and Celestia’s eye began to twitch. The guards quickly ushered all of the ponies that were waiting for an audience with their princess out of the room and closed the doors. Twilight hesitantly approached the white alicorn that seemed to be having a brain aneurism.

“Are you okay princess?” Twilight asked.

Celestia let the tension out of her in a long breath, and sat back in her throne. “I am fine Twilight it is just that he always seems to know exactly what to do to irritate me,” she said as she blew the dust that was previously the note away.

“Princess is it okay if I ask you a question?” Twilight asked not really wanting to push her luck.

“You can ask me anything Twilight. I hope you would know that by now,” Celestia answered smiling down at the lavender mare.

“You knew that Darky was a human. How exactly did you know that?” Twilight said taking a seat in front of her tutor.

Celestia sighed. She then motioned for the guards to leave the room, and noticed that they weren’t happy being dismissed so many times in one week. The room was silent for several minutes as Celestia and Twilight just looked at each other.

“Twilight you must understand that what I am about to tell you I have never told another living soul, and that you must never repeat it,” Celestia said to her student as she began to tell her of events that happened eons ago.

__________________________________________________________________________

I woke up in what I would call a daze. I have woken up feeling dizzy and out of place a lot recently so I was only half dazed as I laid on my back on the cold stone floor. The room I was in was completely dark except for the starlight shining in through the windows. Now that I was looking at the windows I noticed that the room was absolutely massive, easily the size of the throne room back in Canterlot.

I sat up and was glad that there was no pain lancing through my back. At least I hadn’t fallen through a roof this time. I looked around the room, and it was in fact a throne room. Though it was different from the one I had seen in the Canterlot castle. The windows were not made of stained glass, but instead a dark green shade of glass that filtered the light as it came into the room.

Leading to the throne a green rug stretched from the entrance that had unlit fire basins on either side of it. The throne itself was made of emeralds and shined in the green light that came in through the windows. On the throne sat a man completely cloaked in black, and he was staring at me. I was getting the feeling that this guy really liked green.

“Hello,” he whispered, but I heard him all the way on the other side of the room.

“Um, Hi,” I replied and then clasped my hands over my mouth. I was actually able to talk. I hadn’t been able to do that since I came to this world.

“My name is Apollo and you now stand in my throne room. The latter part you now doubt have guessed by now,” he said not moving from his throne.

“My name is…” I started.

“SILENCE!!!” all of the basins along the carpet erupted into green flame and a wall of fire shot up in front of Apollo. The room’s temperature remained steady despite the copious amounts of fire. “Do not speak your human name here. It is not safe,” he explained.

The fire died down a little but still flickered in their bowls. “How am I able to talk at all?” I asked. I was really interested in that, a lot more than the magic fire or the reason that I was abducted, again.

“You can speak freely in this room. It is a special room you see. However, when you leave here you will once again be unable to communicate with others. It is unfortunate, but those are the rules,” he explained as he got up from his throne. Apollo stepped through the fire like it was nothing and began to walk towards me. His eyes caught the green fire and flickered with light. They looked really sinister.

“How are you able to do all that magic and stuff?” I asked as he made his way to me.

“Because I have power. Were you expecting some other sort of answer?” he asked when I gave him a frown. I had been hoping that he would just show me a way to harness untold powers, but we can't always get what we want. “Now it is my turn for a question. What country do you hail from?”

“I am from Ravnica,” I answered. He didn’t seem to like the answer I gave him. Maybe he had something against Ravnicans.

“What year is it on your world?” he asked arching an eyebrow.

“2134 A.D,” I said simply. I guess these would be normal questions to ask any alien that was suddenly in your world. “Wait a second. Where are you from? I haven’t seen another human here yet, and Twilight didn’t seem to know what we were,” I said turning the conversation around.

“I am from here. Equestria is my home, and I am not human. I just… look like I am,” he replied.

“Why do you look like you are human if you aren’t?” I asked pointing a finger at him. That was a very bad move, and seemed to cause him to become aggravated. I jotted down a mental note not to aggravate beings that had magic power and have kidnapped me.

“Do you think that you have the right to demand answers from me!!!” the entire room shook, and the ceiling cracked as his voice boomed at me. I covered my ears and recoiled away from him. He was definitely able to be intimidating I had no question about that.

“Sorry.” I said after he calmed down.

“Just do not raise your voice to me again. I can always raise mine higher,” he said turning away from me. He walked back to his throne and plopped down in it once again. “The reason I appear to look human is because I choose to look as such. If I didn’t want to look like a human then I wouldn’t. It is simple as that.”

“If you wouldn’t mind telling me. Why did you bring me here?” I asked making sure that I didn’t agitate him again.

“Now that is the million dollar question,” he said smiling at me. “I wanted to talk with you. It has been eons since there has been a human in Equestria, and I wanted to get on the ground floor of dealing with you. You really have nothing to fear from me. I just wanted for us to talk to each other a little.”

“What do you want to talk about?” I asked.

“Mainly I want to talk about you. You say you are from the year 2134, which I find very interesting. The last time I met one of your kind they were from the year 1996, and that was several thousand years ago. Do you not find it interesting that thousands of years have passed here, and yet only 138 have passed in your world? That is assuming that you are from the same world as they were. So many questions come from such a simple piece of information,” he said as he pondered the implications.

“That sounds like way too much thinking, and I am not really one to do a lot of thinking. I will leave those questions to you,” I replied.

He smiled “Tell me about this country Ravnica. I have never heard of it so is it new in your world?”

“The Republic of Ravnica was established in the late twenty-first century after the fourth world war. It has pretty much been holding the world together on its own,” I answered trying to remember exactly what I had read in my history books.

“All very interesting things, but what I want to know most is about what you have experienced since coming here. Have you noticed anything that you can do here that you were unable to do in your world?” he asked.

“Why does everyone keep asking me that? When I met Celestia she asked me the same thing, and I showed her that I could magically play music. She gave me this look after I did it like she didn’t know what to think about it, and then when I was leaving she glared at me,” I said sighing.

“Everyone keeps asking you because it is very important. The powers of a human are something to be careful around,” he informed me.

“What do you mean? All I can do is play music. Why do you have to be so careful about that?” I asked clearly not understanding.

“That is a long story,” he said waving off my question.

“It looks like we have nothing but time here. I know I don’t really have anyplace else that I need to be,” I pressed.

“Very well if you wish to hear it then I will tell you,” he said and I swear that I saw his amber eyes begin to glow.

“Once upon a time in the magical land of Equestria…”

Complications

When I first began the project that is "The Day It Began" I honestly had no idea where this story would end up going. It took me...a very long while to get everything pieced together in my head and find out just how this explosion of exposition would all come to an end, and when I did finally get there I realized I had left out one of the most important parts, the middle. So there I sat, for months, completely blocked up and having no idea where I should be taking this story that I know will eventually once again hit the track that I had laid out and hopefully meet the expectations of anyone that cared to place any on it. I am still struggling with this story, and with all of my stories to be perfectly honest, but I just wanted to step up on my soapbox today and say that I am trying. I am once again, after a long break from all of my writing, rededicating myself to these fics, and "The Day It Began" is very high up there on the list of stories I need to get back to. So if there is anyone out there that would like to see this thing continued after so long of being left untouched I hope that you will get this message and let me know just how you feel.

Sincerely Trying,
Dyon