Mister Crowley (Experimental)

Mr. Crowley

By: Die Philosophen

Pre-Story Note: I'm writing this strictly as an experiment, I'm in no way endorsing myself into this, and never plan to endorse myself. To be fully clear, I wrote this purely as a experiment to test peoples opinions through reading it, and their response to this work. In no way will I have some complex reason, or even for that manner, addition myself or my character self into some complex and Mary Sue-esque plotline. Enjoy.- Note: General work is fictionalized, though certain elements may or may not be fiction. -

Abnormality never comes to mind to my own opinion when it comes to a great vast of information, even if its socially unacceptable due to 'morality issues' or 'sensitive topics.' Thought I'd love to engage in long-term discussions over topics such as Science Fiction or Occultism, and take my time to research every drop of information I can reach with my fingers and the power of the Internet. I'm always engaged in reading, albeit slightly picky in my opinion when it comes to fiction, otherwise I'll read the book if it claws into my interest. Though with my situation, I'd much prefer to write little stories for publishing then to even step into sunlight. I'll read up on the Sun to understand how it ticks, not step into it.

Bluntly, I'm a shut-in, and always will be until the day I'd die or when the fridge is raided to the very depths of its tubs. If I dare to adventure outside, it's because I'm needed. Urgently. Otherwise you can find me hiding in my home behind a computer, expanding my knowledge or generally spending leisure time.

However, certain subjects can come to mind when I was ejected from my apartment just sometime ago over an unknown reason, this apartment in mind was a spare I used due to the compact size of the loft I utilize as a home. Mostly filled with my side-projects, such as a homemade supercomputer, or some collection I've been expanding on and displaying for myself. However, the landlord of the complex decided that if I didn't use it beyond living, it wasn't for me to begin with. So now I've been casted out into the streets with my packed up items in a push cart and began the journey to cramp my loft even further.

• -

Quietly cursing out the landlord in my mind, I slid my suitjacket off and firmly planted it between a pair of cardboard color-coded for my convenience. My almost rail-like body didn't hone the muscles, or ever will, to move the cart effectively, so I've utilized my entire body in the slow progress to my loft. Stopping only to 'take a breather' and continue, doing my best to ignore the people around me as they watched on, their gazes like hawks to me as they waited for me to slip up and become yet another unlucky victim for 'laugh at this guy' videos on YouTube. Nothing more to hate then people mocking you for being unlucky. But then again, it's the Internet, and the freedom to be a fuckwit is unparallel.

Slowly progressing over time, I fluently cursed in what little Serbian I've adopted from various sources. No one seemed to want to lend a hand to me, opting to just watch as I passed by slowly, though I could feel some group of teenagers nearby were mocking me over my style of clothing most likely. I enjoyed wearing my suits, they're more comfortable than wearing some groin-compressing denim jeans. Possibly they were laughing at my dyed hair, the snow white puffball styled akin to Jareth the Goblin King from Labyrinth. I didn't cut them, only the everyday chore I'd have on hand thanks to medical wonders of genetic disorders and destabilized testosterones. Besides, I enjoy how it looks, simply because I cannot care of how I'd look in public unless I was akin to some loon.

It dawned to me that the time I've been hauling this conqueror of my poor athleticism that it was nearly dusk, and soon enough I'd be enveloped in the glow of street lights and the wild roaming chavs. I couldn't just leave my items here, they'd be stolen before morning even comes, I'd have to stay awake throughout the entire night, no difficult task thankful to my night owl tendencies. Taking my seat on a bench, keeping a sharp eye on my items as sure enough the street light I sat near sparked to life, its circuit in full swing. Listening on, I could hear fellow night owls prowling through the night, and the distant sounds of the busy highway. Quiet as it may be, the town was enjoyable.

Though, what I didn't expect was a sudden sharp gust of wind, and something slamming down into the back of my head, sending me tumbling face first into my cart, followed by darkness..

• -

Twilight Sparkle was livid with irritation as her spell had once more backfired, not only did this spell backfire, it tore the literal spacetime, sucking in one of her favorite spellbook, Dimensional Theory & Multiverse Time Fabric and its application in Equestria, volume six. She was close enough to understanding how her mentor, Princess Celestia, so smoothly utilized the spacetime to reverse damage she caused the previous time they'd met, particularly relating to her friend Fluttershy and a large amount of her property being torn into a void. It took some application but Celestia reversed the damage and, in surprising turn of events, Celestia ordered Twilight in turn to study the subject further and revise her works.

However, something was off in her latest attempt. She heard faint whipping noises and a cry, but it wasn't a cry of laughter, she felt tear-inducing sharp cries of pain. Then she could faintly make out a figure passing through the portal and disappearing in seconds. The screams were at the forefront of her mind, she never felt such a stabbing pain in her entire life. She knew that the Princess should know of this immediately.

"Spike, take a letter." Her assistant, a violet and green drake, retrieved a quill and parchment and poised to copy ber letter.

"Dear Princess Celestia,

My latest attempts to understand the inner working of the dimensional theories has brought an urgent and sudden anomaly. I've successfully held a portal dimension stable for a record of three minutes, however, this mysterious anomaly has shown itself for no longer then six seconds.

The anomaly was a strange voice screaming in pain and terror, and the sounds of an object akin to a whip sounded out. This anomaly might have in possession one of the libraries rarest volumes on the Multiverse theory. I will look into this further if possible, and report any activity or foreign object that's breached our universe.

Your Faithful Student,

Twilight Sparkle"

- -

Julius woke with a painful start, his sweat sticking his dress shirt against his pale white skin. His vision blurring in and out before he was able to clear enough to see that his vision of the junction he once faced was gone. Replaced by a thick veil of summer heat, and lush woodland surrounded his body. Slowly lifting himself up, he barely made out a pulsating pain within his arm, and upon inspection of his arm responded with a slight confirmation of fear and his teeth gritting. From his elbow to the ball socket in his shoulder he could see a deep cut, bleeding profusely through the giant rip in his dress shirt.

Fluently cursing, Julius did he best to apply pressure to the wound with his hand, barely covering even a fourth of the wound as he looked desperately for his push cart, it had most of his medical supplies and his medicine. A few moments later he found the cart, albeit slightly damaged, but was overall in good condition.

Searching through, he found the box he color-coded for medicine and swiftly tore open the homemade tin box for gauze and disinfectant. Uncapping the disinfectant, Julius held down the trigger and swiftly went up and down along the cut, stinging similar to a hornet. Replacing the disinfectant to the tin box, he quickly took hold and rolled gauze around the wound, making sure that it was firmly tight, and held the gauze as hard as he possibly could.

It was only temporary, it would last for maybe a half hour, long enough to hopefully come across civilization.

The surrounding area was, as far as he could see was an apple orchard, this definitely wasn't correct from his geological knowledge, plus there was a significant lack of any sounds of animals, not even a bird. And the air had a significant lack of gasoline, or the everyday smell of his bustling town. Something was seriously off, and he needed to find a doctor, fast...

Staring around, he found a earth pathway, eroded from excessive use, just a short time away from his original position. Retrieving his push cart, which surprisingly moved onto the pathway with extreme ease, confusing Julius and sparking a comment, "That cannot be remotely right...the entire thing should weight a couple hundred pounds at best..." Starting on his way, Julius made sure he wasn't exerting himself, considering his wound was already staining the gauze.

- -

"Alrighty then, west field it is.." Applejack said to herself, the cart her family used to haul apples hitched to her back. Slowly trotting out, she already knew that her work for the day was just beginning. The western fields were their second-largest orchard compared to the southern fields. But what unnerved the apple farmer was that the western fields ran close to the Everfree Forest, and the fields were infrequently plagued with the various wildlife, and infrequently some other anomalous and strange creatures within the forest. They once planned to close off the fields after stranger creatures had come and gone through, some Applejack never wished to see again. But in contrast, the field had the richest soil in Ponyville, and it was where most of the apples they use for cider, and some of their most delicious apples.

Applejack scanned over the field once more, just to make sure they were clear, and began her way down the path. She would normally start at the inital trees, but instead she instead chose the trees closer to the edge. It was her choice, considering how close she was, she didn't want to risk encountering some Manticore wanting a snack while she was tired.

However, on her way, the gamboge pony stopped as she noticed something out of place. The ground was stained, but it was fresh, plus it wasn't scheduled to rain for another week. Closer inspection, Applejack reeled when the smell of copper pentrated her nostrils, the familiar smell from when she was young, the stains were large amounts of blood. Unhitching herself, Applejack quickly began searching the area swiftly, the amount of blood meant a pony nearby got a real nasty cut, and uncontrollably bleeding. Her search wasn't in vain as she found the source, but what was shocking was that the source wasn't a pony, it was another creature entirely.

She could see the creature was leaning against a tree, dressed in what she guessed was some sort of fancy suit, looking as if he worked hard enough. His mane was stranger, snow white with tints of blood, and was looking ghostly pale. Thinking quick, Applejack checked the creature over and found the source, his arm had a bandage wrapping around his arm. Unknown creature or not, she wasn't about to let some defenseless, or she hoped was, creature die because she was too afraid it'd hurt her. Lifting the creature up, Applejack found that he was about as light as she could figure, though he was stilll as heavy as carrying a whole cart of apples back to the barn.

"Big Mac!" Applejack shouted out, the creature limply hanging from her back as she found her elder brother barreling from nearby, questioning her with a shocked expression at the creature. "No time for chit-chat, we need to get this critter to the hospital, quick!" Taking care not to cause anymore harm, Macintosh allowed her to slide the creature onto his back, and with a shout, the two quickly made their way to the hospital ahead.

Upon arrival to the hospital, Applejack abruptly stopped and shouted, "Make sure it's gonna be fine, Big Mac, I need ta tell Twi!" And with her best ability, Applejack used her dwindling energy to gallop onto the library.

- Several Days Later -

Monotonous beeping filled Julius' ears, and the faint sounds of speech filled his confused mind with questions as he could make out faintly, "..was critical....possible coma....blood loss." It was familiar, most likely some form of English, but there was a faint dialect, a foreign dialect. When his mind cleared, and his vision returned slowly, a high-pitched voice spoke up, "Look, Mr. Crow is waking up!" Soon enough, his vision was flooded with strange colorful creatures watching as another pony moved the others away and spoke clearly, though the dialect was erratic, "Mr. Crowley...can you hear us, Mr. Crowley?" Julius barely nodded his head as the doctor closely inspected him. This wasn't a human at all, Julius thought immediately, it wasn't human...

Clearer his vision came, the more obvious it became he wasn't dealing with humans at all. They were instead horse-like creatures, and immediately noted they weren't as large as he was himself. He wanted to be scared, but he just...didn't feel any kind of negative reaction, just felt peace. "Slowly, Mr. Crowley, can you speak?" Opening his mouth slowly, Julius only let out a quiet and strained groan, the doctor frowned and turned to one of the other ponies and faintly spoke "...water..." before returning to Julius and spoke slowly, "Mr. Crowley, I need you to stay awake, try to stay awake." Nodding his head slowly, Julius attempted to focus, but his efforts were pointless when he realized that his muscles were weaker than him at the direct moment. All he could do was hold his mouth agape and let out faint grunts as what he suspected were nurses returned with a pitcher.

"Keep his mouth open." The doctor said, Julius clearly seeing that these creatures didn't have any fingers at all, instead they were instead hooves, and very elastic. However, his thoughts were overridden when he felt a flood of water clear through his parched esophagus and let out a stronger cough before they stopped. The doctor smiled at him and said loud enough for him to hear, "Mr. Crowley, you've been unconscious for atleast a week. Let your body adjust..." Julius could only nod and watch as the doctor checked him over, "You suffered acute blood loss, thankfully Mr. Macintosh brought you here in the nick of time. Peculiar case, we've never dealt with whatever you are." The words struck Julius, and confirmed a theory he had, he wasn't even in a human universe...

The doctor rambled on, Julius staring off into the space as he realized that for once wasn't near humans, a feat he could hopefully approve of in due time. Soon he could feel his body return to a limited state, his vision returning well enough for him to see sharper detail. Slowly dawning to him that these creatures were familiar, their distinct features reminding him of something, but his mind wouldn't focus enough for him to remember. He made a mental note to hopefully remember what it was. Submitting to lying there, Julius could only hope his recovery process was swifter than normal. However, this question was answered well enough, "You'll make a full recovery, thankfully. Not to mention the help that Ms. Sparkle had done, and her potions to replenish your blood were spectacular. Oh, I almost forgot, you have a visitor."

As soon as his 'visitor' came, Julius was to put it without a doubt one of the most regal, or stupid, looking 'horse' in his existence. With a feminine look, it wasn't hard for Julius to know this might be royalty he's dealing with, by the look of her aesthetic apparel. With a mixture of cerulean, turquoise, cobalt blue, and heliotrope mane, Julius deducted this was most likely a 'unique horse.' Considering a horn adorned her head, along with what he suspected were wings.

"Mr. Crowley." Her regal voice confirmed this was royalty, Julius only able to respond with a groan, the royalty only raising an eyebrow to him before her horn glowed faintly, and Julius felt as if his mind was being probed, his thoughts being watched, and the familiar buzzing noise of something behind him going haywire.

'You can speak to me me now, Mr. Crowley.' Her regal voice spoke into his mind, Julius widening his eyes in shock as he realized that the 'horse' was speaking in his mind. 'Atleast I can deduct that you're not of this world. Now, may we start with introductions?'

Julius focused his eyes on the Princess and thought to her, 'May I atleast know your name first, ma'am?'

The regal 'horse' smiled towards him and and spoke, 'Manners, even in the face of the unknown, quite a feat. My name is Princess Celestia, Fifteenth Ruler of Equestria. Now may I ask of yours?'

Unnaturally relaxing, Julius took note he wasn't even remotely stuttering, or for that manner he was comfortable around the unknown, something was off...'Julius Gordon Crowley, last head of the Crowley bloodline.' He didn't have a will to speak, somehow it was already showing that he wasn't at even remote free will at this point.

'Last of a family...well then, now let me ask you now, where were you from?' Julius gave the Princess a wary stare, but felt unable to resist speaking.

'....Reino de Espana...' He felt a shock of success as he stopped himself, or atleast blocked the Princess from knowing his homeland...

'An exotic place, I presume? Very well then, Mr. Crowley, I must say you're in good hands, just relax yourself and respond to my questions. I'll guarantee you won't be harmed in any way...' Finding no way out, Julius accepted it...

• -

Julius divulged too much already, and he knew it. The Princess had some way just uncovered most of his history, and learned too much of what he'd consider acceptable for anything to know about him. His homeland, family, personal history, and even about things he never wished to remember, it felt like a violation. 'So now...tell me about these blocks...' Damn...no way out at this rate, he must relive it...

As soon as he divulged, the Princess' eyes shrank and a look of horror crossed her face as Julius' heart rate began to rise quickly as he heard every last thing. From the sounds of cursing, cries for acceptance, tears of bitter rage, and the sounds of glass raking into a body, and a crack of a whip. The Princess continued staring in shock as Julius' voice cracked heavily as he let out a prolonged scream and grasped his head involuntarily. Celestia only watched in horror as each moment replayed before she broke the link. Julius crashed back into his bed and watched in horror, feeling a racking sob and his tear ducts beginning to throb in sharp pain. "W-What....." Celestia was able to gasp out. She never felt such powerful emotions in a very long time, and even then, it stung her to see this. It was like the wars from hundreds of years previously, and the effects its had on ponies.

   Knowing only one thing to do quickly, Celestia flared her magic and struck Julius hard, sending the human back into his mind, and in the meantime doing her best to block out the memories. Hopefully it'd reverse, it was atleast a quick second thing. Her own curiosity, and her tactics go to her mind, even then she knew very well that she went against what she even established. It was a disgrace to herself, a hypocrite no less. But, she couldn't help but feel sorry for apparently what he calls himself a 'human.' What she had just learned would most likely haunt her for a long time. But to ensure this wouldn't affect him hopefully, Celestia modified his memories shortly after, atleast locking away her conversation with the man, but hadn't dared to seal away the ones she's seen herself, daring not to know what would've happened.

    Stumbling into the hallway, she was swarmed by the royal guards as a team of response medics swarmed past and into the room. "My lady, are you hurt?" A guard asked as Celestia held back a sudden sob and barely nodded in response as she slowly made her way down the hallway with the guards surrounding her. This man wasn't even remotely a pony, never had he even met a pony, but he's watched her subjects, like some sort of tale but visually. But even then, she couldn't remove her thoughts from what that man was suffering, his mind was nearly shattered by her, and all that he'd been through nearly escaped to haunt him once more. She was a fool, this time she wasn't able to apologize. She never had done such a thing since the incident with her younger sister so long ago.

    Steeling herself, Celestia spoke in a strained by authoritative voice, "Guards, ensure Mr...Crowley is seen as a top priority subject, he's both a value and a threat to not just the royalty, but to Equestria itself. Report when he's in a stable condition to move, and ensure the luggage he has is kept under security until then. Under no circumstances should ANYPONY even touch him, or his luggage." With a confirmatory shout, four guards dispersed as another four filled their positions as she slowly made way out of the hospital, now deep into her thoughts.

• -

"So yer tellin' me that big ol' thing that bled all over the southern fields is some kinda creature called a 'human'? You sure it ain't just another shapeshiftin' thingy from the Everfree?" Applejack stated to Twilight, the unicorn adamantly nodding in response.

"Shapeshifters don't bleed, Applejack, I'm quite sure of it. But what the book says here is that humans aren't even native to Equestria, they're supposed to be mythical creatures made up by Constellations in his book of old mares tales." Twilight injected back, gathering a confusion from the rest of the Mane Six.

"Wait a minute, you're saying humans are like the Sonic Rainboom, right?" Rainbow Dash questioned, Twilight giving a nod, "Then why in the name of Celestia is there even one here?"

Twilight looked down towards her book and shook her head, "I don't know Rainbow, but it has to do with something about my practice." Gaining the interest of the others, Rarity was the first to speak up before the others.

"What do you mean darling? Your practice?" She questioned, Twilight sighing before standing up and concentrating sharply, pointing her horn towards her book. The next few seconds shocked the others as what could be mustered as a black hole slowly expanded from the book, then disappeared.

"Dimensional rifting." Twilight stated simply, gaining a loud scream by Pinkie Pie and being tackled by the normally happy pony, however was replaced by a wild and scared frown.

"Twilight, are you mad?! You're doing something very dangerous!" The pink pony shouted, "You could cause the entire Multiverse to come crashing down if you keep messing with it!"

"Pinkie, what they hay are you talking about?!" Twilight confusedly asked, only to be picked up and shook violently by the pony again, eliciting attempts from her friends to calm down Pinkie, only to be rebutted by her.

"You could bring something dangerous Twilight! Stop trying to make portals!" She continued, her eyes wild with fear.

"Okay, okay..." Twilight assured her friend, who calmed well enough to have an instantaneous switch back to her happy attitude, as if nothing had happened. But for the others, they were both scared and incredibly confused.

"Anyway, we should visit the creature, see if he's awake!" She interjected, the others numbly nodding.

- -

Julius stared towards the ceiling, trying to understand his predicament. Just an hour ago he was waking up from a long sleep, seeing things that looked suspiciously like ponies, follows by nothing. 'Maybe I just dozed off for too long?' He thought, the plausibility that he was in a coma, and he was trapped within his mindscape...

This theory was stomped out as a rather overweight pony, with what he could suspect was lavender hair with white streaks, and a nurses cap entered with a smile and said in a 'comforting' voice, "Mr. Crowley you have another guest."

'Another guest?' He thought as the nurse moved to the side, six ponies slowly entered in pairs, all were faintly familiar to his memory. He slowly looked around, his eyes focusing as he felt the pressure of their gazes upon him. Though he couldn't help but feel there was a similar person, or in this case, pony, with a familiar demeanor of scared.

One of them spoke up, a light mulberry coated one, who struck his memory the hardest as he attempted to remember. "Sir, my name is Twilight Sparkle, Princess Celestia's apprentice." She had manners, he could denounce instantly, but she wasn't the only to speak up as another spoke up, with a rural drawl he could familiarize with.

"Ju-lee-us...What kinda name does that mean?" He tightened his hold on the sheets and looked at the pony, slowly forcing himself to speak up.

"I-It's...m-my bi-birth name..." He could manage to stutter our enough for the pony to slowly nod. Her demeanor slowly changed, he could sense, into a more friendlier manner. She tipped her hat in response to Julius.

"Sorry there, Mister Ju-lee-us..." She said quietly, gaining the same from her friends, though without hats, they others just simply bowed their heads. All of them were bowing minus the exception of one who hid behind the rainbow-maned one.

"I-I-I-It's Ju-Julius...Joo-lee-əs." He managed to speak out, feeling his comfort zone was stretching its limits at this rate before continuing, "W-W-What...a-are your na-n-names...?" The ponies looked up towards her before the mulberry spoke up, Twilight Sparkle.

Pointing her hoof to her side, she addressed the one with a rural drawl, an orange-coated and blonde-maned pony with no unique features from his view. "This is Applejack, she runs an apple orchard called Sweet Apple Acres." Applejack held her hoof out to Julius, the man reluctantly but politely responding with a firm handshake, eliciting a smile from the pony.

"Nice to meet you, Mister Julius." He simply nodded in response as Twilight pointed to her other side. One with a bluish-white coat, gradient purple-violet mane, and blue eyes.

"This is Rarity, Ponyville's pride in fashion design and clothing." Rarity simply bowed again and looked up towards him with a soft smile and spoke in what he could discern was akin to the British accent, akin to the Victorian Era. Her discernible feature was a pointed protrusion from her head, a horn. He could see that it was aswell in the same exact position as Twilight Sparkle's.

"It's a pleasure to meet you...Mister Crowley." She read his profile clipped to his bed, eliciting a small nod from Julius. "Not very vocal, are you?" Julius quickly shook his head and spoke up in a faint but discernible voice.

"N-N-No..." Rarity simply nodded and moved her hoof down towards the hidden pony and gave a nod to Twilight Sparkle. Twilight proceeded to slowly bring her out from hiding, and to Julius' surprise the pony locked gaze with him, and felt what he could only muster as mental scarring from a period before, just like him. Her most discernible feature was a pair of wings, much to Julius' amazement. Her coat was a light yellow, mane pale pink, and her eyes were teal.

"This is Fluttershy, sir. She's kind of similar to you by personality." The pegasus continued to look at Julius and spoke, in a soft and rather comforting voice.

"It's...n-nice t-t-t-to meet you...M-M-Mister Cr-Cr-Crowley..." She managed to speak out, Julius responding with a smile that he could muster up, the others watching in silence before Twilight continued onto the next pony. Pointing towards the rainbow-maned one, however his memory struck hard as he recalled this particular pony. She was a pegasus, known as Rainbow Dash, she was the weather manager to Ponyville. However, he refrained from speaking out as Rainbow Dash made a rather 'spectacular' introductory.

"My names Rainbow Dash, and speed is my thing!" She shouted and did a sudden backflip, flaring her wings to assist her in the process. "Ever need anything, just ask." She had an air of confidence, and what he could suspect was attempting to challenge him into something. He simply nodded in response, daring not to start such a thing, period. Rainbow Dash seemed to notice then, and subtly calmed down, finding herself struck with victory.

"And finally th-" Twilight had no time to speak as a blue of pink began to rapidly speak, breaching Julius' privacy sphere in every way possible.

"Hi, I'm Pinkie Pie!" Followed by her rapid speaking confusing Julius quickly, unable to comprehend the pony as her dialect aswell switched certain words, further confusing him until Twilight Sparkle caught his confusion and stopped the energetic pony.

"I-I-It's...n-n-nice t-to meet you, P-P-P-Pinkie P-Pie..." He stuttered out, the pink pony giving him a wide grin. Julius slowly lowered his guard, but kept it enough for himself to be comfortable as they slowly began to build up a conversation.

- -

Their conversation led on and on, Julius warming up to the ponies as his memories slowly recomposed itself. He soon recalled such vivid memories of them, and then it struck him just mid-conversation, it struck him hard. He wasn't dreaming when he felt a sudden and sharp pain in his nasal passage, and a slow stream of tears filling his vision. "S...." He managed out before grasping his nose and gritting his teeth.

"You alright, sugarcub-?" Applejack stopped mid-sentence and stared in shock, the others catching sight as Julius was literally beginning to tear up hard, and they could see a steady stream of blood flowing from his nasal passage. But what caught them was his tears weren't just tears, they could see blood again. Then it struck their hearts when Julius began sobbing, his teeth clenched tightly as the bedsheets were slowly stained in his blood.

"Q...Quick, get a doctor!" Fluttershy was the first out already, the others doing their best to comfort Julius as he managed out a few short words, "E-Every.....g-gone....ffff...."

The Mane Six were soon herded out as Nurse Sweetheart, along side two other nurses galloped in with Fluttershy. All they could hear was a long scream from Julius before everything slowly became silent. Then, the wards door were slammed open, the Mane Six pressing against the wall as the nurses carted Julius out on a stretcher, his chest and face covered in blood.

They remained speechless as they saw Julius fine one second, then just collapse and start bleeding uncontrollably. This human was an absolute enigma, and not even Pinkie had caused him to smile or even show any signs of happiness. Speaking of Pinkie, her normal happy demeanor was deflated, along side her pink hair. "Julius....isn't okay at all, girls..." When giving her a questioned look, Pinkie stared back as her own tears were held back.

"He's...He's very alone, and his mind is damaged. I can tell..." She stated, "He wasn't happy, not even my own attempts would help him. It's like his own happiness was torn away..." She shook her head before the Mane Six converged on her into a group hug.

"Pinkie, whatever is wrong with him, we can fix it. No matter what the costs are, nopony deserves to be this sad. Not even if we don't know them." Twilight spoke slowly, the others nodding together before Pinkie gave them a smile and nodded.

- -

"Princess, we have a report." One of her senior guards said, bowing lowly in front of her. The Princess stared down at him with the coldest gaze she could give and nodded to him.

"The human has slipped back into critical condition. The statement is that six mares had entered his ward against your orders, or a lack of enacting the order as the guards were missing during the time." Celestia's eyes steeled upon the senior guard as he continued, "The doctors state that these six may have caused a reaction within his body, associated with damaged tear ducts and a tear within his nasal passage that caused profuse bleeding." Her gaze deepened as she stood quietly and spoke in her most authoritative voice.

"The guards will be punished. And bring me the six that you spoke of, immediately. I will not have my own orders taken for granted. Charge the guards with insubordination." Rising from his bow, the guard quickly gathered a squadron consisting of pegasi, unicorn, and earth, then began the long march towards Ponyville.

- Ponyville Library -

Twilight passed through her books swiftly. She needed a book, a gift that she could give to the human. The book needed to be something simple enough for him to read, and it needed to show him a general overview of Equestria. No doubt he'd enter the phases of culture shock quickly, and she wanted to ensure it was minimal. However, in her deduction, Twilight knew the human wouldn't understand the written language, she needed some kind of translator spell.

"Spike, did you find it yet?" Twilight said from the corner of her mouth, stacking book after book together into a bag. Each held some of the most basic elementary books she could muster up, while a few more complex books she picked out. She wanted to test Julius' mental skills atleast, to get a better grip on where his educational stance was.

"Yeah yeah, Star Swirls Spell book, Fourth edition, volume thirteen. Page four hundred and sixty-nine, Vocational Translation Spell, Generation Four, Spell Mk. Fourteen." Spike stated dryly as he landed the book within the pile, Twilight giving him a smile as he returned back to his chores. However, Twilight's plans weren't about to go as she planned.

There was a rough knocking, Twilight opening it to find herself in the presence of two imposing Earth Pony guards, their entire bodies covered in the familiar metallic platemail. One of them spoke up almost instantly, "Miss Twilight Sparkle, by order Her Majesty, Princess Celestia, you're to be detained and brought before her in violation of the Protection of Foreign Creatures laws." Twilight had no choice in the manner as her hooves were shackled and marched out of the library, leaving Spike behind who attempted to reach her, only to be blocked by other guards.

- Epilogue -

The Mane Six were tried and found not guilty, however, Celestia didn't leave them scott free. The court found them all six guilty for breaching a royally-restricted ward, and their sentence was to 'care for Julius Crowley' by order of Celestia herself. Though it was obvious something was off with the Princess, she looked as if she was insomniac with hard bags under her eyes, and slurred her speech quite a bit. However, their concerns also stretched to the human, who was reported to be up and active, against the wishes of the doctor. Their concern was due to the fact the last they saw of him, Julius was nearly bleeding out his entire nostrils.

But to Celestia, this was much larger in scope, her tired eyes watching the Mane Six leave quietly, unshackled but escorted out. They didn't know what was to come, or what she knew. Her tired eyes focused down to her paperwork before resting her head on it and falling asleep almost instantly, entering the nightmares of her memories once more...