Light's Shadow

by Jorofrarie

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
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
The Chapter that Fell From the Sky
Prologue
Chapter 4
Chapter 17
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Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Search Party

Somewhere in the Center

"Okay, so, what do you think of the plan. Give it to me straight."

Fire turned towards me.

"Honestly, I think it's a load of bull-shit. But knowing you, it'll be great."

Fire and I were standing in a small alley off the main street. The moon was out and shone brightly, lighting up the world as if it was day.

I looked around the alley and saw Water and Air sitting down chatting while Earth sat off to the side, thinking. Earth was always that way, never got involved in the conversation, instead preferring to listen and wait.

Air was obviously leading the conversation, chatting away furiously, gesturing wildly and sometimes floating in the air for no apparent reason. Water could only try to keep up. She looked over at me and, seeing me staring at her, gave a little smile and a wave. I blushed furiously and quickly averted my gaze. Water always had that effect on me. Her bright blue eyes twinkled so beautifully, her hair the deepest violet, lips like-

I broke off my train of thought to return to the task at hand. Fire had watched the whole exchange and was now looking at me with a little smirk on his face. I glared at him.

"What?"

"Well, are you going to tell her how you feel?"

I blushed and quickly shook my head.

"She would never like someone like me. She is so free and alive. I'm barely a ghost. I mean, look at me!"

I looked at my body. As usual it was shifting slightly, as if my whole form was underwater. No one could ignore the sheer strangeness.

Fire just shook his head sadly.

"You really think that she cares about what's on the outside? Dude, Water likes you, a lot, and it's blindingly obvious for everyone else."

I merely stared at him. I started to form a response but was interrupted by a little beeping noise emitting from my watch. Fire and I both glanced at each other and nodded. Now was the time to be serious.

I watched as Fire got up and walked over to the others, alerting them to the fact that it was time to start.

The five of us walked out of the alley and turned to face our objective. The recruiting centre. This was where ordinary people were converted to the armed, cold, ruthless force that was supposed to defend everyone. This was to be our first major target. It looked like a skyscraper crossed with a bunker, all made out of bulletproof glass. This was going to be difficult. It was sitting in the centre of a large, circular clear area, dedicated solely to this one building.

Before this, the five of us had only done little attacks on shops and hotels, spreading a little anarchy, nothing large. But this was to change everything. We stopped and, looking around, nodded to each other. We all knew what to do. It was simple, cause as much chaos as possible.

I immediately phased, turning into the form that was my nature. Moving quickly, my form, or lack of, flew into the building and tore up the doors, setting off a blaring alarm. The others followed me in.

Air summoned a contained tornado that destroyed the entrance and the front wall of the building. She looked like she was having fun, going mental as she bounced around furiously.

I continued on my way to the stairwell. I flew up to the very top floor of the building, breaking out of the stairwell and surprising all of the staff that were still there after the siren had sounded. Before they could react, I had flown past and barged into the areas that were restricted access. There my purpose became apparent as I destroyed everything that I could, or rather couldn't, get my non-existent hands on. These areas were full of safe-like computers, but they shattered like glass as I tore into them.

My objective complete, I turned into a whirlwind of death and faced the armed guards that had just arrived, spreading like an infection across all of the floors. I felt no regret as I tore them up, spattering blood across the pristine grey walls. These things could barely be classified as human anymore, so I saw them as rabid animals. The rest of the non-armed staff got the idea and ran away from me screaming. My work here was done.

I quickly flew down to the lobby which was by this time unrecognisable. Earth had torn up the foundations, exposing the four levels of basements, while Water had sent liquid into every crevice of the building. I phased back into my 'physical' form and grabbed the two.

I quickly rounded up Air as well (She was having a bit too much fun letting her tornadoes destroy the building) and got the three of us out of the building. I looked around, suddenly worried, for Fire, and noticed him just inside the building, running after us yelling something indistinguishable. The whole building suddenly burst into flames and started to collapse. There was a stream of people exiting the building through the fire escape. He sure did like drama.

Fire ran up beside us, panting. He motioned for us to go, but before I left, he grabbed my arm.

"Light." He panted.

"Yeah?"

"The conversion section is still there, we need to destroy it." He paused for breath and continued before I could interrupt. "It's in the lowest section of the basement, separated from the rest of the building. It's not destroyed. But we can't bring the others, it's too dangerous, I don't think they'd be able to survive."

This was bad news.

The conversion section was where most of the work happened. It was where the people 'recruited' where transformed into the monsters that I had fought too many times to count. It was going to be tough, and this place, even in the state it was in, would be a tough nut to crack. I slowly nodded my head. Fire and I were the two most destructive of the group. I stared into his eyes. He was serious about this addition to the mission.

We both turned towards the wreckage of the building and ran towards it. Fire ran ahead and vanished through a gap in the rubble. I phased again and followed him. Past the crack there was a small cavity, which lead to the almost intact bottom level of the basement. Fire was already down there somehow, and I saw him look behind for me before vanishing down a hatch in the floor.

I reached the hatch and jumped through to catch up with Fire. I stopped for a second. I was in a large cavern, beneath the lowest level in the building, with Fire already on the other side, about fifty metres away. He quickly disappeared around a corner on the other side of the large area. I flitted across the cavern to follow him.

There was another, even larger cavern. Fire was standing at the entrance staring ahead. I followed the line of his view and froze.

This was the conversion section. The walls of the cavern were lined with small pods, filled with a weird liquid. Computers filled almost any spare spaces, blinking in the near-darkness. Power failure.

Fire snapped out of his shock first and whacked me in the arm to get my attention. We didn't waste any time.

We both started to destroy it. Flames were shooting from Fire's whole body, lighting up everything around him, while I flitted around, whipping Light and Shadow across everything. In mere minutes, it was all over. We turned to leave, and I phased back into my human form. We glanced at each other, but quickly snapped around as we heard a faint tapping noise. Looking across the section, my blood froze.

All of the walls still had the pods, each fitted with weapons and equipment for instant use by any new recruit, and most were still intact. But one was open. Standing in the opening was a single man pointing a gun towards me. I knew that I was about to die. I wasn't in my Other form, and even Light had it's limits. I closed my eyes to face my fate.

The gun fired.

Fire jumped.

He took the bullet in his chest as his flight took him into the path of the bullet. Rage overtook me. The man died before he could even realised what was happening, slice clean in half by the Shadows. He had a surprised look on his face as the two parts slid apart, leaving a bloody stain on the wall behind him.

Quickly, I bent down to help Fire, but it was apparent that his wound was to grave. His chest was ripped apart, and I could almost see his insides. The bullet must have fragmented inside him judging by the damage. He opened his eyes and gasped for air. He started to talk, fighting against the flow of blood that threatened to drown him.

"Light, you have to get out of here." He could only manage a harsh whisper.

"I'm not leaving you Fire!"

"You have to, I'm dead anyway."

"Don't talk this way, you're going to be fine." By this time I could feel hot tears dripping down my face.

"Light, who are you trying to convince." He weakly chuckled at this, but it turned into a coughing fit. Then suddenly he was deadly serious, "You have to promise me something."

"Anything for you."

"Keep them safe." He stopped at this, trying to draw breath, and continued. "Now go. I'm gonna blow this place soon, and you have to be out of here."

"But Fire, I can-"

"GO." Fire roared at me, before dissolving into another coughing fit.

I took the hint and phased, moving as quickly as I could out of the building, moving up through the hatch, out of the rubble, and into the night air. I barely made it outside before it felt the beginnings of an enormous explosion, a violent suction, followed by the eerie silence, the calm before the storm. I dodged around the back of a building to protect myself from the impending blast. I collapsed, knowing what was going to happen next. Tears covered my face as I sobbed uncontrollably into my arms.

Fire

He coughed a little as his vision started to fade. He could hear the sound of conversion pods opening, the footsteps of the new recruits, the distinctive chick chick! of a gun being readied. Out of the corner of his eye he could see the massive number of recruits, framed by the flickering fire of burning hardware.

They had their guns pointed at him. Fire knew that his time was up, all he could do now was face the music.

"Goodbye guys."

He had one last thought.

"Goodbye Light."

The conversion section detonated with the force of an atomic bomb. It was concentrated in the basement, instantly vaporising everything, the subsequent shockwave blew apart the foundations of the building, leaving nothing but a black crater in its wake.

Fire was gone, all evidence erased.

Ponyville Library

Twilight Sparkle was frantic.

Something had appeared from her portal, and she was going to get the blame for it.

She was pacing the ground floor of her Library, frantically trying to think of a solution to the problem that she had created. Her mane was tangled and frizzed and she had dark bags under her eyes from a lack of sleep. Sitting on the stairs of the library, not at all worried, was a tired looking Spike. He was sitting back on the stairs, slowly cleaning his claws with the ease of someone who doesn't care at all for what is happening.

"Twi, I still don't see what the big problem is. I mean, We don't even know if something came out at all! There was only a flash, that's it." Spike reasoned. Badly.

Twilight turned on him with panic, and a little big of anger, in her eyes. Slowly walking towards Spike, she started to mutter something, but all that Spike could make out were some choice words that should probably not be mentioned around civilised people. She stopped just next to Spike and thrust her head towards his face, stopping mere inches from his. Another one of her hairs flew out of place in her mane with a distinctive TWANG!

She glared at him. "Spike, this is a very big problem. I have possibly just introduced a new, and possibly quite dangerous, thing to Equestria. After this, Celestia will never want to see me again, and will probably banish me!" She paused turning around and walking back to the centre of the Library. Upon reaching the centre she turned back to Spike. "Is this what you want to see happen to me?!"

"N-n-n-not at a-a-lll Twilight." He stammered. "I just think that you m-might be over-reacting a little bit... Remember last time this happened?"

Twilight turned a bright red and quickly turned away from spike, clearly embarrassed. Spike looked at her retreating form with a look of satisfaction on his face that he had evaded his timely demise, albeit barely.

"Well, what would you suggest I do" She mumbled as she turned back to face Spike.

"Hmmmmm..." He thought a little at this, but then snapped his claws and jumped up from his position on the steps. "I know, why not just get your friends to help you? You can do anything if you all work together."

Twilight looked doubtful at this, but decided to humour her little friend.

"Okay Spike, let's go and find the others, I'm sure that at least one of them will know what to do... Maybe..." She didn't sound very hopeful.

Spike ran over to the door, suddenly incredibly enthusiastic.

"Hey, Twi? Do you think that we could go and get Rarity first?" Spike practically yelled in his excited state.

Twilight turned to Spike, confusion in her eyes. "Why are you so enthusiastic all of a sudden Spike? This isn't like you."

"No reason, no reason whatsoever..." said Spike, silently thanking Celestia for letting Twilight be so oblivious.

Twilight glanced over at Spike doubtfully, but chose not to pursue the subject.

"Ooooookay then, let's go get the others," said Twilight as she walked towards the door.

Light

I was confused. Very, very confused.

This wasn't at all helped by the fact that I still felt the after effects of my electrocution and had recently suffered a massive concussion. I tried to remember the events prior and, after a moments thought, gleaned a few bare facts.

The last things that I had experienced were the pressure of a gun against my nose and the flash of light that would accompany my death. Or at least, would have accompanied my death. Obviously something had gone wrong in the process.

But I could have sworn that he felt the bullet against him, ripping through his head...

I tried to sit up from my position in a Light shaped hole in the ground. Luckily the ground was covered in leaf litter and I, due to his semi-solid state, had minimal injury on my part. I quickly phased and flitted out of my indent, reforming on the outside, ready to fight.

I then stopped as he realised that I had no idea where I was and what was happening. I wasn't in the Hub anymore.

Taking stock of the situation, I realised that I was in no immediate danger and relaxed from my stance. Looking around, there only seemed to be a few strange brown things growing from the ground with bits of green on them. I thought, and eventually came to the conclusion that I had absolutely no idea what the hell they were.

I made my way towards one to see what exactly it was, and found that it felt rough and strong, but still had no idea what the hell they were. Looking around, I saw that these, things, were the only things in any direction spreading as far as the eye could see.

"Well... This is... interesting..."

I looked back to the spot where I had woken up. The only distinguishing feature was the indent in the ground and a small tear in the canopy of... green things...

I slowly twirled around to look for the route through this mess of tangled brown and, on not seeing anything good, started to walk through the tangled labyrinth.

Twilight

The frantic unicorn knocked on the door to the boutique.

"Rarity, I know you're in there. I need your help! It's urgent!"

She stood back from the door and only had to wait a few seconds before it swung open with an unimaginable force. Physics was currently distracted at the time by a pink menace, so payed little attention to the events occurring around Twilight.

Rarity appeared in the doorway, hair in rollers, with an annoyed look on her face, and some green facial cream. Twilight quickly backed up, gulping. Spike, as usual, became unaware of anything but Rarity and so just stood there rooted to the spot with a dreamy look on his face.

"Twilight, darling, I simply must know what you are doing outside my house at this unholy hour of the morning and shouting to see me."

Twilight looked up to the sky, searching for the sun, and noticed it already high above the horizon. Her expression changed to one of confusion as she turned to her fashionista friend.

"Rarity, it's after lunch."

"And?"

Twilight sighed and decided not to argue.

"Anyway Rarity, last night I was experimenting on some, things, and I maaaaaay have just made a liiiiiittle portal and brought a strange and possibly dangerous creature into the Everfree forest..."

Rarity stood there with her mouth hanging open, eyes wide.

"Whaaaaaaa?!"

"Well, last night I was experime-"

"No darling, I heard what you said. What can I do to help, this sounds like it's very urgent." Rarity wrapped a hoof around Twilight and rushed her into the boutique, slamming the door behind her, leaving a very upset Spike outside. He swore under his breath and walked off to search for the rest of Twilight's friends, all the while mumbling about Rarity not paying him any attention.

Five minutes later, Twilight was seated inside the boutique, exposed to Rarity's enthusiasm.

"But Twilight, this is terrible! Why didn't you come to me immediately! I could have done something to help you!"

Twilight had just finished recounting her tale to Rarity, to be greeted with only silence and a stunned look. They sat in Rarity's kitchen, Rarity herself leaning over the table to make her point more clear to Twilight.

Rarity continued.

"And that's not the worst part!"

Twilight looked at Rarity over the kitchen table.

"How so?"

"Well, I mean, just look at your mane! It looks terrible! Split ends everywhere! I simply must do something to get th-"

"Rarity..."

"And your face, it will need a complete makeover. A full day at the sp-"

"RARITY!"

Rarity suddenly froze, part way through her rant.

"Oh, right..." She paused, looking slightly abashed, and forced a cough. "Well, I guess we could go and find the others, and then we could go and look for this thing." She stood up straight with a new found determination. "Let's go Twilight, we have to go and find our friends."

Rarity and Twilight both stood and walked down the stairs to the door. Twilight stood back while Rarity opened it. They both stepped outside of the boutique and stopped as they realised that three other ponies, and a very tired, very infatuated dragon, stood, and flew respectively, outside looking at them. The three ponies outside were Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie Pie. Applejack and Rainbow Dash both looked at the two ponies emerging from the boutique expectantly, while Pinkie bounced around chasing butterflies.

Spike just stared at Rarity.

Applejack was the first to break the silence that had fallen over the ponies.

"So, Twi. Why am Ah here? Spike just said that there was something urgent that we all had to see."

Twilight just stared at her hooves and silently promised to thank her assistant later for gathering her friends. Rarity nudged her, motioning for her to explain. Twilight took a deep breath.

"OkaysoIwasdoinganexperimentinmyLibrarywhenthethinghatIwascreatingwentwrongitwasaportalbythewayandthenitwent-"

"Whoa whoa whoa, slow down Sugarcube, just explain normally"

Twilight sighed, "Well, in short, I may have brought a creature from another world to the Everfree and now we have to go and find it."

Applejack stared, while Rainbow Dash only laughed, falling out of the air. The four other ponies just glared at Rainbow until she stopped. She chuckled awkwardly.

"Wow, Twi. How the hay did you manage that one?!" Rainbow paused to see the other's reactions. They weren't good.

"Come on Twilight, this can't be that bad. I mean, you've got me! Nothing can beat the one and only Rainbow Dash in a fight!" She took a dramatic pose in the air as if to emphasise her statement. She continued.

"And with the six of us, anything is possible. Am I right or am I right?"

She stopped, looking around her, as she realised what she had just said.

"Wait a second, where's Fluttershy? Wasn't she supposed to be here too?"

The five friends turned to face Spike, who had suddenly become very interested in a rock by his feet. He looked up with an embarrassed look on his face.

"Actually, I couldn't find Fluttershy. She wasn't in her house or anything."

Twilight looked towards her friends.

"Huh, well, where could Fluttershy be? Any ideas?"

Light

I wandered on, continuing through forest, tunelessly humming a song that I had come up with a few minutes earlier. I was happy. There were things around me that I hadn't seen since I was just a little boy, since before, well, before the world had changed. Before the Director entered my life. I had even remembered that the things that surrounded me were trees.

Although I never could recall exactly where I remembered them from...

The humming abruptly stopped as I heard something he didn't think I would ever hear again.

Birds. And something else similar to one.

I span around looking for the source of the noise, and started sprinting through the forest. I barely even noticed when I stepped out of the bush and onto a path. I definitely didn't notice the huge difference between a bird and a chicken. What I did notice however, was the hissing noise that accompanied the chicken.

I approached the spot where the noise was being emitted from. There was a bush there, slightly to one side of the track, and something was inside it. I was about to move closer when a chicken's head popped out of the undergrowth. I stood there, stunned. This thing was entirely unexpected. I was shocked.

"Holy crap! I found an animal!" This was something rare, you don't normally find wildlife in a city... I ran closer to the bush to see if I could touch the thing when I noticed something odd about the chicken.

Just below the neck, the body turned into scales.

Even with my limited experience with living creatures besides humans, I knew at the time that this wasn't natural.

I started to back away slowly as the Thing in the bush started to emerge. I tried to sneak away, but the Thing had noticed me. I could only stop and stare as the Thing slowly rotated it's head to face the intruder in it's territory. I felt shivers travel through my spine as I saw the eyes.

They were a pure, blood red.

I felt myself unable to look away from the thing. I was rooted to the spot by it's stare. Then I felt the change.

My feet were the first to get affected. I could see what was happening to them out of the corner of my eye. They were turning to stone. I started to panic. I was being turned into something that was completely solid. For a being that was barely in a physical form this was the most terrible thing that could ever happen.

I did what came naturally in a panic scenario. I started to phase.

My whole body started to shift, my trench coat fluttering around my feet. I flickered in and out of sight and slowly lost all form. The stone sloughed off of my legs, while the Beast continued trying to transfix me with it's stare. It was failing. The fear was evident in it's facial features.

I suddenly phased out of existence and flitted around the Beast, re-forming around the back with the lower half of his body still non-existent. Shadows flew out of me and smashed into the Beast, opening a million little gashes. I reached out and battered the thing's head, the shadows aiding me and throwing the Thing across the path until it hit a tree, knocking it unconscious.

I flitted across the path, barely visible at all, with little form, and was about to finish the Creature when I heard a noise. It was a small thing, and something that would unknowingly irreversibly change my life forever.

It was very quiet, and very nervous.

"Eep..."

Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Living Shadow

Fluttershy's Cottage
10 minutes prior

"Come out everypony, time for breakfast."

Fluttershy wandered out of her cottage with large bags of feed balanced precariously on her wings, making her way to the back side of her garden. The garden immediately became alive with animal life, all surging towards Fluttershy, only to stop just short of her.

"Here you go Weasels. And you Turtles. And yes, you too Eagles. Oh, and I could never forget you too Angel bunny." Fluttershy paused, and hesitantly looked around. "Angel? Where are you?"

A worried look passed over Fluttershy's face as she searched around the garden for Angel, who by this time would usually be banging her leg, impatient for his food. She tried to stay calm, but this kind of behaviour was completely out of place for Angel. The yellow pegasus abandoned all of the food for her animals and started rushing around the garden. Panic quickly set in as she realised that she still couldn't find her precious bunny.

"Angel! Angel where are you?"

The other animals noticed their carer panicking and started to slowly back away. Fluttershy continued to rush around the garden and, on not seeing Angel anywhere, took off flying around the house. By this time all of the other animals had taken off to their respective abodes.

Fluttershy became a whirlwind of panicked yellow pegasus in her search for Angel. The search so far had been in vain, so she started to search further and further from her little home, and closer to the Everfree. She barely even noticed it until she accidentally bumped into one of the trees. The shy pony looked around, suddenly aware of her surroundings, and prepared to set off again when she noticed something else, something out of place among the undergrowth.

A little statue of a small Bunny. Her Angel.

Fluttershy jumped away from the statue in shock and backed up against one of the trees, trying to get as far away as she could from the horrible stone. Fluttershy became a quivering ball of fur and feathers that became as small as it could against the backdrop of woodland.

But this was quickly replaced by a steely determination, completely out of place with the pony in question.

Nopony, and that meant nopony, ever hurt her Angel bunny. Not even the scary Everfree could keep him away from her.

Fluttershy mentally prepared herself. She knew what to do. After all, she had done this once before. She had to face the creature that had turned Angel into this... thing.

A Cockatrice. And a very naughty one at that.

This particular Cockatrice was the only one anywhere near Ponyville, and had already been dealt with by Fluttershy barely a few months ago, and had been told never to approach Ponyville, or attack any of the inhabitants, ever again. She knew that she had to confront the thing, and force it to turn Angle back into his living form. She already knew where the things lair was, just off the main path to Zecora's place. She set off quickly to find the Cockatrice.

The path was not hard to find, and even easier to run along. Fluttershy saw a clearing full of small blue flowers, and leapt over them, continuing on her way. Zecora's place was close. She came to a small clearing with a bend on the other side.

The furious pegasus knew that the Cockatrice's nest was just around the bend in the path, and so slowed a little so as to not give away her position to the naughty creature that dwelt within the undergrowth. She lowered herself a little closer to the ground and snuck to the side of the path, sticking her head through the bushes to see the Cockatrice's dwelling place. It was lying curled up in the middle of it's den. She was about to walk out to confront it when a noise came from the path. The Cockatrice stirred and started to slither to the path, ready to attack another creature. Fluttershy followed it, sticking to the bushes.

Some curious sounds came from outside, followed by the usual routine the Cockatrice used to attack. First it would pop it's head out to get a look, clucking like a chicken to disarm the potentially wary prey. Then it would slither out, turning to face the helpless creature that happened to be unlucky enough to face its stare. Fluttershy poked her head through the screen of shrubs to get a look, and hopefully intervene.

But she didn't stop the Cockatrice. Something was different.

Standing on the path was a strange animal the Fluttershy had never seen before. It only stood on two legs and it's mane stopped at what she thought was its head. The whole thing was completely white, even wearing a white coat reaching all the way down to it's hooves. The mane was the deepest black. The whole creature shimmered, as if it was underwater, and seemed to shift in and out of view. The clothes stirred around it's body as if there was a small breeze when there was none, rather like Celestia's mane and tail. This thing didn't seem natural.

The Cockatrice obviously didn't notice any of this.

It continued with its usual routine, popping its head out of the forest, making small clucking noise. The Thing in White heard this and turned to face the source, surprise crossing it's face, which quickly changed to happiness. It apparently had never seen a Cockatrice before. The Cockatrice turned to face its prey.

The moment it slithered out of the bush, the Thing in White instantly backing away as it realised that something was ahoof. It tried to turn away from the Cockatrice, but was transfixed but its stare. Fluttershy shuddered as she realised what was happening. She knew what the creature was going through, but in this case the Thing in White didn't have Fluttershy's unnatural stare for protection. The bottom of the Thing started to turn into stone.

But the stone didn't look normal. No, the stone looked like the Thing. It was pure white and shimmered ever so slightly. The Thing started to panic as it realised what was happening. Then it Changed. It started to become more transparent and lost its form, turning into something that shouldn't exist. The skin turned into a completely reflective white, while the mane somehow became even darker until it absorbed all light. Then both came together and the creature became Light.

The stone immediately fell off, and the Thing flitted around to the back of the Cockatrice faster than the eye could follow. A section of the Thing formed back into it's original form as it reached out for the Cockatrice. it didn't even touch the beast, and yet the Cockatrice fell over bleeding from a million cuts caused by the dark shards that had ripped into its flesh. As the Cockatrice righted itself, the Thing reached out again and sent the Cockatrice flying into a tree on the side of the path, knocking it unconscious in a pool of blood. The Thing reached over to finish the job that the Cockatrice had started.

Fluttershy shivered as she suddenly realised what the Thing was about to do.

"Eep."

The Thing span around. The blur of light and shadow that was It slowly condensed and turned back into a physical form. It cautiously started to approach the point where the noise had come from. Fluttershy became angry. Angry that this thing tried to kill this Cockatrice, no matter how naughty it had been, it didn't even matter that it had turned Angel to stone. She didn't like the death of any creature, and the thing in front of her had been very, very naughty.

Light

I span around, instantly alert once more for any danger. I slowly walked towards the point where the sound had come from, phasing back into my human form. I crossed the path and stopped in front of the bush that the noise had come from. It was quite apparent that the bush wasn't the thing that caused the noise, so I peered into the mass of tangled twigs and leaves. There was a small yellow form in the bush.

The yellow Thing jumped out of the bush with tremendous speed and forced me to jump out of the way. I turned to face the thing. Big mistake.

The moment my eyes met those of the things, my mind went blank in terror. The eyes were the cause of all of it. They were filled with a rage. There was so much rage that it seemed impossible that it could all be housed within this tiny animal. I collapsed from the sheer force of it all, they were everything angry and commanding that had ever existed in the world, and I was subjected to it the whole time.

The ground seemed very enthusiastic about everything and rushed to give me a hug, but I was happy to oblige.

Fluttershy

The moment the Thing fell to the ground, Fluttershy ran to its side to aid it. It seemed to be repeating the same phrase over and over again. She leant in closer to hear what it was uttering, and quickly jumped back as if she had been shocked when she realised that it was speaking in perfect Equestrian. Once more she leant down, although this time a bit slower, and listened. She could barely make out what it said.

"The eyes, the eyes, everywhere the eyes... The shade follows the light... They hurt you..." The phrase repeated over and over again, as if the Thing was speaking a mantra.

It was obvious the thing was hurt, and in more ways than just one, so she did the only thing that she could think to do.

She brought it to her house to recover.

Picking up a leg, Fluttershy started to shift the Thing in White along the path, only pausing to glare at the unconscious form of the Cockatrice. "I'll be talking with you later."

Deep within it's subconscious, the Cockatrice shivered in fear, nightmares filled with angry pegasi plagued its head.

Fluttershy continued to drag the limp Thing along the track back towards her cottage. On the way she started talking to herself.

"Hmmm, this is strange, I've never seen it around Ponyville before..." She momentarily stopped and glanced at the Thing on her back. It was currently flickering as it's form shifted. "Nope, definitely haven't seen this before." She silently thanked Celestia for this Thing being so light (See what I did there...) as she wandered back home.

10 Minutes Later

Fluttershy arrived at her cottage. She walked inside and placed him on her couch, rushing off to see what she could gather. She galloped back into the living room with a first-aid kit before realising that although it was unconscious and limp, it wasn't actually hurt in any tangible way, although it was still muttering under it's breath.

Fluttershy sat down to study the thing, her shyness momentarily overcome by her curiosity as she wondered what the hay this Thing was. The whole body just seemed... otherworldly. It was shimmering slightly, even the clothes.

She slowly walked over, stopping just short of the Thing. She reached out a hoof to touch the Thing, her hoof hovering just above its head. She hesitantly lowered the hoof and touched it. The skin gave a little under the pressure exerted by her hoof as she stroked its face. She moved down the form of the Thing and started to examine the clothes that it had on.

There seemed to be a little theme with the whole ensemble. The white coat streaked with dirt and blood, the white shoes scuffed and worn. She slowly undid the buckles on the coat and lifted it away from his body. She froze. The moment the cloak lost it's connection to the Thing it turned into a deep brown and stopped shimmering. Fluttershy dropped the item of clothing the moment it changed as if it was electrified. Taking a deep breath and steeling her nerves, she turned back to continue his examination.

Underneath the Thing was wearing completely white jeans and a matching shirt, both shimmering. Fluttershy reached to feel the fabric when she noticed the Thing's breathing pattern change.

It was waking up.

Light

Eyes.

The Eyes.

Eyes, Eyes so full of fury and terror at the same time. They brought back all of the memories that I had worked so hard to keep submerged. Strange phrases, spoken by awfully familiar and yet unfamiliar figures were talking, mentioning shade, and talking to him occasionally, things that I'd never seen before flashing in front of me. But that wasn't the bad part.

Because of the Eyes, I had to relive all of the terror, all of the anger, all of the hopelessness...

Then I woke up.

Snapping up into a sitting stance, I frantically scanned his surrounding trying to figure out what the hell was going on.

I was somehow in a small house. It had a very cosy feel, with sunlight falling in through the windows sending light everywhere. I liked that for obvious reasons. Turning away from the window, I examined the rest of the house. I was only on the ground floor, as was made apparent by the staircase on the other side of the room. I continued, noticing a kitchen in the background and a small table in front of him.

At least is was better than my place, but then again that wasn't a big achievement.

I then noticed the small yellow thing in front of me. It looked to be some kind of... horse? No, that wasn't possible. Horses had gone extinct decades ago. And yet, here this thing was, and it was obviously a horse. And for some weird reason it had wings.

"This just gets stranger and stranger," I mumbled, staring at the thing with wide eyes. The creature itself was trying to hide behind it's pink mane, as if this would shield it from any and all harm. It was staring resolutely at it's front... hooves?

"Well now... what the hell are you?" I said quietly, not expecting an answer.

A almost inaudible squeak emanated from it, and I thought I could hear words behind it, before the Creature trailed off, the sentence ending in a little squeak. I just sat there dumbstruck.

"You can you talk...?" Wow, totally not predictable...

"Yes. I mean, I didn't mean to startle you at all..."

My head started to ache with the cuteness that this Thing seemed to exude from every orifice. I decided to play along with what was going on.

"Soooooo... What are you exactly? Actually, where am I?" I asked.

"I'm Flutter..." She trailed off again. I leaned closer to hear what this Creature had to say and promptly fell off the couch. The Thing hurried to my side, worried for my well being. It was a nice change up from everyone trying to kill me.

"Oh my gosh, are you okay?" The thing asked. Then it realised that it was actually talking to me. Of course, that was obviously too much to ask for as it hid away under its long pink mane again.

"Yeah, I think so. What did you say your name was again?" I chose to ignore its shyness and talked normally.

"Ummm, Fluttershy..."

Strange name. "And what are you exactly?"

"I'm... a pony..." This Thing, Fluttershy, seemed to be growing more and more confident. I heaved myself back onto the couch with a groan. The strange 'pony' cautiously rose to its, or was it her, hooves.

She leaned over me and started examining me all over for injuries. I began to feel self conscious and backed up along the couch from the pony, I mean really, how often to you have a clingy pony-thing checking you out?. She stopped as she realised that I was feeling uncomfortable. Fluttershy began to blush slightly. She must have been surprised that she wasn't feeling nervous about me any more. I was only trying to act as non-threatening as possible.

She retreated to her position next to the table and sat on her haunches. "So..." She began, "What are you?"

I immediately moved to start speaking, but paused, not sure how much I should tell this 'Fluttershy'. For a moment I considered lying, but something about her made me trust her. I thought on the question a moment. I had never really bothered to think about what my real classification was, so I went with the first thing that came to mind.

"I'm Light."

Fluttershy seemed taken aback slightly by the abrupt answer. "What do you mean 'Light'?"

"Well, I'm definitely not a human in the conventional sense of the word, so..." I trailed off as I saw the horrified look that Fluttershy was giving me. "What?"

"Are you saying that you're a-a-a..." She paused and swallowed loudly. "Human?"

"Not in the conventional sense, no. But I do look a bit like one. Why, what's so bad about humans?"

Fluttershy looked at me with a frightened look on her face, "Humans only exist in stories and legends. They usually get used by parents telling their foals to behave or a human will come and eat them." She started to back away from me. "You won't eat me, will you?"

I looked at her, shocked. I can honestly say that that was the first time someone had asked me that question, "Of course not. I'm not a normal human, not in the conventional sense of the word." I hesitated, and decided that a white lie couldn't hurt, "And no, I don't eat other animals..."

"Apart from bacon..."

"What was that?"

"Nothing! Don't eat meat at all!" I tried not to look too nervous.

Fluttershy seemed to relax a bit at this answer.

"Se then, what exactly are you?"

"Well." I paused, looking down at my body and noticed for the first time that my trench coat was missing. "I'm a man without his clothes at the moment..." Wow, that came out worse than I'd expected...

The yellow pegasus took the hint and quickly trotted over and retrieved my coat from beside the couch. She offered it to me, curious. The moment it touched me it changed from it's brown colour back to it's original white, and even started to shimmer again. She ignored it. I have to say, she must have seen a lot of really strange nonsensical things for there to be no reaction...

Is that a pink hair on the seat next to me?

"Thanks Fluttershy, I never like to go anywhere without my coat." I paused again. "But to answer your question, I'm pretty much made of light," I gestured to his body as I spoke. And it was true, not even bragging or anything.

She froze, and I think that what I told her broke her just a little...

Then again, she wouldn't be the first to be a bit taken aback by what I say...

I noticed the stunned expression and sighed. This wasn't the first time this had happened to this extent either. Reaching over, I tapped her on the shoulder. "Hey, you alright there?" I asked.

The winged pony then surprised me by suddenly fainting. I leaned back with a sigh. I tended to have this kind of reaction when I told others who, and what, I was. I stood up from the couch and walked over to a window, relishing the feeling of sunshine washing over him. I was about to step away from the window when something caught my attention. A group of five other ponies were walking up the main path towards the cottage, with a small reptile creature in tow. The one leading the pack was a bright purple specimen with some large thing poking out of it's forehead. This one knocked on the door.

I looked over at the door. I wondered whether I should open it, but realised that they had just walked there with no signs of hostility and seemed to be in a hurry. I came to the conclusion that they knew Fluttershy in some way.

Of course, the idea that they might not be so welcoming to me didn't cross my mind at the time.

I walked over to the door, hand hovering above the handle, which caused a moment of confusion as to why ponies would have door handles in the first place. I made up his mind and opened the door.

"Can I help you?"

Chapter 3

I once was weak, but now I have a purpose. And I owe it all to Them.
-NightShade

Chapter 3

Apparent Apparitions

Fluttershy's Cottage

"I'm telling you girls, Fluttershy wasn't here last time I checked."

"We heard you the first three times Spike." All five ponies replied in unison. Twilight leaned forward to continue.

"Spike, we need to check everywhere. If there is a monster, which I'm pretty sure there isn't anyway, we'll need all six of us to fight it off. How would you like to get eaten just because you were too lazy to search Shy's house, huh?"

Spike's eyes went round. "Y-y-y-you don't th-think that the m-monster ate Fluttershy? Do you?"

The five ponies rolled their eyes and continued walking on the path to their yellow friend's house, leaving Spike behind to digest everything that had been said. Spike looked around, snapping out of his trance, and ran after the girls, yelling. "Hey, wait up! I don't want to get eeeeeeaaaaten!" He didn't even notice that his friends had reached Fluttershy's cottage and slammed into the back of Twilight.

She turned to him annoyed. Spike just sat there looking abashed. Twilight shook her head slightly. "Spike, there is no monster here to eat you." She knocked on the door. It swung open. Spike immediately turned tail and ran.

"M-m-m-m-moooooooonsteeeeer!"

Light

The purple lizard shaped thing dashed away, leaving a fine trail of dust in it's wake. The five other ponies just stood there, stunned by the appearance of this new and unfamiliar creature. They looked into the house trying to see their friend, but only saw an unconscious Fluttershy. One of the ponies, a white pony with a purple mane, simply collapsed where it stood. As she did this, the others snapped out of their trances and glared at me. Not the nicest thing to get from strangers, but whatever.

I just looked back at them calmly.

Eventually, disconcerted by the cool gaze they were getting in return, the ponies started to look a little uneasy. One of them, with a particularly strange colour scheme, hopped into the air and zoomed towards me yelling some sort of battle cry. I simply stepped out of the way as the cyan blur slammed into the wall on the far side of the room, collapsing into a dazed heap, instantly out of the fight. She obviously had no experience in battle, and it looked kinda funny too...

The three remaining ponies were galvanised into action.

A dull orange one wearing what appeared to be... a hat... ran head first at me, trying to head butt my leg. This one managed to me on my left shin, but I backed away. I tried to line up a clear shot at the aggressive orange pony, but found himself restrained as a bright pink pony latched itself around my leg. The orange one span around and prepared to charge again. It got close and kicked my in the stomach. Hard. I did the only thing that came to mind.

I changed form, flowing out of the pink one's grasp, and flitted around both of the attacking ponies, who were at this time speechless at what they had just witnessed. I rushed at them, smashing into them and knocking both ponies out. I got ready to deal the final blow to incapacitate both when I felt something restrain me. I glanced at his arm and noticed a faint purple glow surrounding my 'limb'. The glow prevented me from moving. I was more than a bit confused at the mystical-magical-purple thing, so I whirled around to see the source.

Still standing in the doorway was a lavender pony with some sort of bone appendage protruding from it's head. This thing was obviously the sort of the interference as it was wreathed in a purple glow. The pony in question was straining and sweating from the effort of keeping me restrained, eyes wide open to see what was happening, so it was obvious that she was the one stopping me. On noticing that I couldn't seem to move, she started to calm down a little. Big mistake.

I broke her force.

Twilight

The events transpired before she could so much as blink. In an instant, Applejack and Pinkie had both seemed to subdue this creature. Applejack reared up, spun around, and bucked it in the stomach with enough force to fell a tree. Oddly enough, it looked like it took this hit rather well. Twilight took this moment to study the creature, and noticed something strange. It seemed to shimmer in the light, not really solid at all. It started to flicker more and more, and then it broke free.

It's shape changed, and it flitted away, now only a blob of light and shadow spinning furiously around Twilight's two friends. It started to solidify a bit, and Twilight could see it draw back an appendage to smash the defenceless ponies.

Twilight acted, using her powerful magic to restrain the creature's limb and stop it from hurting her friends. It turned to face her.

The thing tried to move, and Twilight could feel the raw force of it pushing her magic to its limits. It seemed to have limitless amounts of power in its body. The only ponies she had ever seen with this amount of power were the princesses, and this thing was definitely not Luna or Celestia. Twilight broke into a sweat, legs shaking from the exertion. This thing was trying to smash through her magic, but she was the most powerful unicorn, and nopony, or thing, could beat her. Nopony. Especially when her friends were in danger.

Then the thing tried.

Instantly, her magic dissipated into the surrounding air with the noise of glass shattering, and she froze, stunned at what had just happened. Without even batting a non-existant eyelid, this thing had destroyed her magic. Twilight began to feel truly scared. No creature without magic should be this powerful, but then again, this wasn't an ordinary creature. It moved closer, seemingly about to attack her. As it approached, the cloud of light condensed and formed into the creature that it had been earlier. Twilight began to shiver, panic setting in, as she prepared for death. The creature was almost upon her.

Light

The purple pony was backed up against the doorframe, shivering at a frequency that seemed logically impossible. This poor thing was terrified. I decided that it would be best to not stick with the 'Evil Cloud of Light' look any longer, so I phased back into my human form. I walked closer to the pony, and knelt down beside her. Her eyes were shut tightly and she was on the verge of passing out from exhaustion.

I reached her eye level and gently tapped her on the shoulder. The lavender pony opened her eyes, saw me right next to her, and promptly collapsed.

Yeah, that's a really good way to show your appreciation...

Twilight

Oh dear Celestia, I'm going to die. Oh no oh no oh no oh no oh no-"

The thing tapped her on the shoulder. Twilight opened her eyes and saw the creature kneeling next to her. This was too much for Twilight, so she gladly accepted the wave of darkness that spread across her vision.

In her last moments of consciousness, Twilight's thoughts were quite simple.

'That's it, I'm going to die! Better think of something awesome to go out on...'

Muffins

'Dammit!'

Light

I stepped away from the unconscious pony and retreated to the relative calmness of the couch. I sighed as I looked around the room and saw the carnage that had happened in a few seconds. "Not this again." Yes, I had been in situations like this before, deal with it. And really, I couldn't sympathise with the unconscious ponies, they were the ones who attacked me.

I stepped over to the window again and basked in the few remaining rays of sunlight that foreshadowed night. I had a perfect view of the front path to the house and the forest in the distance.

The white pony was still lying outside on the garden path.

I was about to turn and head away from the window and deal with the calamity that was the inside of Fluttershy's cottage when I saw a small figure running up the path to the house. It was the small purple lizard from earlier that had fled from Light. And it had company.

Following the undersized reptile were two of the most elegant ponies that I had ever seen, although that wasn't much of a compliment as I had only actually seen six, but still, it's the thought that counts. One of them, a large white specimen, had a pure white coat, which I immediately loved, and a rainbow mane that streamed behind her as she ran. Curiously enough, the pony had both wings and the curious bone appendage that had been on the purple pony. There was a small picture of the sun on her flank.

Behind her was a slightly smaller, but no less impressive, pony. This pony however had an incredible dark violet coat and a deep blue mane. This one had a picture of the moon on her flank. The two ponies almost seemed to be complete opposites of each other. They both looked extremely formidable, and they were both galloping up the path with angry looks on their fac- muzzles...

Spike

Dear Princesess Celestia and Princess Luna

Please help, something urgent has happened. A monster was in Fluttershy's cottage and Fluttershy was inside unconscious.

As soon as you can, please come to Ponyville and defeat this monster. I think twilight said something about it trying to eat us. It could be extremely dangerous, Twilight and her friends are in danger. Please help!!!!!!

Twilight's number one Assistant, Spike

Spike was in the main room of the Ponyville Library with a quill and scroll in his hand. It was a deep black, the code for an absolute emergency, so he knew that they'd get it quickly.

He read over his letter again. It seemed to have enough please and helps written, so he quickly rolled it up and sent it off. The assistant barely had to wait a minute before two twin glows appeared in the centre of the Library, one blue and one white. These glows subsided to reveal the two Princesses. Celestia looked for Spike and addressed him.

"Spike, where are Twilight and the other Elements?" She asked concerned.

"They're over at Fluttershy's cottage, quickly I'll take you there!" Spike raced out the door to the Library with both Princesses in tow. Celestia had an angry look on her face, while Luna had a slightly more subdued expression.

In moments, they had reached the outskirts of Ponyville and set off in the direction of the Everfree, and towards Fluttershy's cottage. Spike admired the princesses in the failing light, and noticed that it had seemed to freeze in place in perpetual dusk. Celestia was too preoccupied to keep the Sun going on time.

The trio crested a small hill, and were greeted by the sight of Fluttershy's cottage on it's small island of serenity. As they drew closer, a small figure in front of the house became apparent. Rarity was lying in the dirt, out cold. Spike shot with a speed the Princesses could only hope to match, and that would have impressed even Rainbow Dash. He jumped down next to his crush and checked on her, the Princesses still catching up. Spike rose, a determined look in his eye, which Celestia quickly picked up on.

"Spike, I think that you should watch and not get involved."

Spike looked at the Princess as if she was crazy. "But I need to avenge Rarity! This monster thing knocked her out."

"Spike, if the monster could do this to her, then i think it could do this to you."

"But Celesti-"

Celestia shot Spike a look that brooked no argument. The undersized reptile, and hopeless romantic, sat down next to the prone form of Rarity, pouting. "Fine," he huffed.

Celestia and Luna exchanged a glance before walking closer to the doorway.

Both stopped as they withheld the carnage within.

Lying strewn across the floor of the cottage were the limp bodies of the Elements. Applejack and Pinky were hopelessly entangled, Fluttershy was lying peacefully next to the table in the corner of the room, while Twilight lay slumped against the wall. Rainbow couldn't be seen at first, but upon further examination could be seen lying in a crumpled heap against another wall.

The Princesses were shocked at the sight, and quickly dashed in to find the creature that had caused the commotion, all the while wondering what could possible overpower five of the Elements at once. It was apparent that rarity had collapsed outside without actually fighting. They almost missed the figure silhouetted against the even waining light pouring through the window.

Celestia shot a glance at Luna, which the darker Princess returned, understanding. Celestia cautiously approached the figure, while Luna kept to the shadows, flanking the creature. Celestia planned to have the element of surprise, but her hopes were dashed as the creature turned to face her. The Princess of the Day drew in a sharp breath as she beheld the sight before her. The shimmering white, with the purest of blacks and immaterial clothes.

It grinned.

This was too much for Celestia, who threw herself at the being who, after recovering from the sudden attack, seemed to flow away into the shadows. And right into Luna. The Princess of the Night instantly grabbed the creature in her magic and held it in her grasp. It fought her magic and she drew back slightly. This thing was strong, almost unimaginably so. The only things that had this kind of strength were her, her Sister, and Discord, who was currently... indisposed.

Then it flowed.

Light

I was getting tired of being attacked, so I decided to end the confrontation quickly.

I phased and, finding that this new enemy had an immeasurable strength compared to the Purple One, took an easier angle than that of trying to use sheer force, instead choosing to find the gaps in the deep purple energy surrounding me, and flowing through. I drew in the shadows to hide myself and became sheathed in darkness, the absence of light acting like a screen. Both of the new opponents looked around in confusion, the Dark One with a worried look on her face. The Lighter One looked like she was preparing something. It was almost funny how confused they looked, and I almost blew my newly found cover by giggling.

Yes, giggling. It's manly too!

Her... well, horn... lit up as bright as the sun and all of the shadows in the room were burned away. This included the shield hiding me, which became brighter as his surroundings changed, eventually dissolving. Both of the ponies turned their gazes to me. I only stared back. I thought they were going to stand there forever...

Right up until they attacked me.

They shot incredibly powerful energy bolts that resembled lightening out of their horns, all of them focused on me, which was a bit rude, even if I did manage to dodge them. They obviously weren't planning on a capture, which I soon realised after being hit by one lucky shot. I shot into the wall, stunned, quickly realising that not only did these bolts resemble lightening, they actually were. I was worried.

I didn't need to face off the two seemingly most powerful beings in the first moment of my arrival, so I took the safest option at hand.

I ditched the fight and ran, which is also a very manly and/or acceptable option. Shut up, it totally is.

My two opponents tried to stop me, but my mellifluous form slipped through any attempts to restrain me as I darted towards the door and flitted through, heading towards the forest nearby. My attackers attempted to pursue, but were quickly outpaced as I flew through the air. I landed and phased back to my human form as I entered the forest.

This was possibly the best option, especially for camouflage. The moment I entered I let the darkness spread across me, as if I was paper that had had a drop of ink spilled on it.

My hair started to change shade, becoming a pure white, glowing slightly, while the darkness flowed out of it and replaced the light in the rest of my body.

I basically inverted myself, and dimmed any light as much as I could. And then I entered the forest running, hoping that I wouldn't come of as being a wuss the next time I found those two big-ass ponies.

One again, I'm so manly.

Chapter 5

This particular chapter was a nightmare to re-edit, and even now it's a blemish, so if you notice any problems just leave a comment or something.
-Jorofrarie, 30/10

Never let them tell you that losing a friend doesn't hurt. It does, more than you could ever imagine...
-Light

Chapter 5

Major Pains

Everfree Forest

The Elements and the Princesses galloped as fast as they could through the forest towards the fight that was happening in the distance. Faint bursts of light could be seen shining through the trees, dimly illuminating the whole forest for the duration of each flash. Roars of pain and anger were echoing everywhere. The sounds became ever louder as the group came closer to their destination. And then, they were in a clearing.

The sight was shocking. An absolutely huge Ursa Major loomed over their heads in a fit of anger. All of the ponies ducked behind cover to avoid being seen and attacked, but there was no chance of that happening anyway. The Ursa was already distracted.

A blot of light and shadow was whirling around the Ursa's head at a ridiculous speed, dipping in towards the beast to attack and quickly darting out. It spun faster and faster, disorientating the lumbering bear. The blot gained speed, and started to look like a tornado of Shade. A ghostly sheen enveloped the Ursa's head, and small bolts of white and black lightening shot out, spearing the Ursa, and making it more angry. Then the bear had had enough. it reached down and plucked a sapling from the edge of the clearing and swatted at the blot, which the blot promptly smashed into. It started to fly towards the ground.

Right towards Luna.

It impacted with amazing force just in front of Luna, creating a small crater. Luna crept forward tentatively, not willing to approach the thing too quickly. The dust was only now starting to clear. Luna started to lean over an-

Light's head popped up over the lip of the crater. He looked around to see what was happening, and then he spotted Luna, and froze, dumbstruck.

Light

'Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck that is one massive bear!'

I swooped in to deliver another blow to the thing's face when a tree of all things appeared out of nowhere and introduced itself to my face, and not very politely. I fell towards the ground, changing back to my human form, but softened just before impact to lessen the force. Nonetheless, I created a decently large crater when I landed, and let's just say that it wasn't the least painful of impacts.

'Ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow oooooooooooow...'

This train of thought was the only thing going through My head for about 10 seconds, before I realised that I was still near the giant bear thing. I snapped up out of the indent in the ground and came face to face with-

My pursuer from earlier.

Somehow, this pony had found me. Not surprising considering the size of the blue bear attacking me. The pony looked startled... and slightly scared. But at the same time it was pretty stunning. it's hair was the deepe-

I shook his head and changed my train of thought as I started to blush, and averted my gaze. After I had recovered, slightly, I looked back to the pony and grinned maniacally, and lot a little insanely. I waved quickly.

The pony just looked confused, and I took this as my signal. I jumped out of the crater and, before I had even landed, phased into my light form and flew back to confront the giant bear, leaving a very stunned blue pony behind him.

And then I got back to the fight.

Luna

'What just happened?'

luna stood, rooted to the spot as she recalled what had happened just seconds earlier. This strange thing, Light, had popped its, his, head out of the crater, completely unfazed, and just waved. And then he had just turned into some weird blob and flown off.

Her sister walked up beside her.

"Luna, what just happened?"

"That's what I'm trying to figure out..." Luna replied, shaking her head.

"Did you get a good look at that thing?" Celestia, straight to the point.

"Well, he looked strange, but not like a monster. And he acted rather nicely..."

"Hmmm, Light... Wait, did you call it? A he?"

"Uhh, yeah? He did seen to look and act like a male. He even looked pretty cool..." Luna looked into the distance, not even thinking about the phrasing of her compliment. Celestia raised an eyebrow, but didn't comment, possibly the wise option.

This Light creature was incredible. Any ordinary animal would have absolutely no chance against an Ursa. Hell, even her personaly student had only just managed to calm one, not fight it, and that was a Minor. And yet this thing was taking on an Ursa single-hoofedly and was holding it's ground. It even looked like it was winning! But the two forces looked for the most part evenly matched.

And then Light lost his temper.

The blot stopped. The Ursa took advantage of this and swatted at it, but the giant bear's paw just passed through this creature. It stopped and looked at the blot curious. And then it looked at it's paw, and roared, furious. Where the bear's paw had touched Light, there was only a massive hole, smoke rising from the already cauterised wound. Then Light attacked.

The blot became razor sharp and darted in. Again, and again, and again. Each time, blood spurted from the Ursa, as Light swept in, slicing first it's wrists, then it ankles, and then everywhere else, dark flames writhing and clinging to Light's 'body' and searing the blue bear on contact. The Ursa keeled over, unable to stand from the massive blood loss and burning, and fainted.

Light

'That's it, I've had enough.'

'This stupid bloody bear is just a bloody nuisance and needs to be put out.'

I sharpened my body and covered myself in fiery shadows to heat the edges to a blistering temperature. I stopped flying and instead hovered motionless in mid air. The bear took this as a sign to attack.

Big mistake.

I saw the giant paw barrel towards me and pass straight through my body. Minus a chunk of blue 'flesh'. The Ursa didn't seem to be made of ordinary material, it had more of a insubstantial skin. Solid, but insubstantial. A bit more like my own body. But this didn't stop it from being sliced and burned. A small shower of blood flew past me as the wound closed itself almost instantly, cauterised from the contact with my dark flames.

I then flew to the wrists of the beast, slitting them, and then the ankles, cutting the tendons, and then to all of the other less important areas of the bear's body. Soon the bear became overwhelmed by the sheer number and seriousness of the wounds that were covering it's body. It slowly collapsed, a cloud of dust rising up, obscuring it from sight. From the edges of the dust cloud trickles of blood could be seen trickling away. I lowered myself inside the dust cloud and positioned myself next to the bear's head to deliver the killing blow.

I almost fell down immediately due to the fatigue that sprang up from my energy use, but I struggled on anyway, there was a job to finish.

My flames illuminating the inside of the dust cloud with a dark light. I reached down with his fiery hand to touch the bear's neck and kill it. Then the dust cloud parted.

Fluttershy

The canary yellow pegasus watched in fear as Light flew up and redoubled his attack on the Ursa. She cowered in fear as he suddenly grew impatient and felled the giant creature. She saw the dust cloud that arose after the Ursa touched down.

Then the dust started to swirl, some inner turbulence disturbing the still cloud. The dust parted for only a moment, revealing-

Fluttershy let out a small gasp and darted into the fray, not caring for self preservation. This Ursa was in danger. Her friends watched, stunned, as the shy pony neared the strange and dangerous creature that was about to kill the Ursa.

And then Fluttershy reached Light.

Light

I was about to kill the bear when the small yellow pegasus from earlier appeared next to me. I paused, my hand mere inches from the neck of the behemoth.The pony looked at me with pleading eyes, begging me not to kill the bear. I moved his hand slightly away, but close enough to be within reaching distance, and extinguished the flames around my body.I even went so far as to change back to my human form, floundering as my energy use became even more apparent.

I stood and waited for the pony to make a move, but she just stood there, nervously waiting for me to do something. I kneeled down next to Fluttershy and looked at her, my face asking the unspoken question.

Fluttershy swallowed, afraid of this flickering thing that looked more like part of the dust cloud than real.

"I want you to l-l-leave that U-ursa alone..." She trailed off quietly.

I looked behind him at the strange bear the was lying on the ground behind me. it looked to be as good as dead anyway, but I decided to humour this pony and leave it. I turned back to Fluttershy and nodded slightly. Fluttershy looked immensely relieved and visibly relaxed. And then another pony appeared. It was the white one from ealier. And it looked angry.

And slightly afraid.

I watched it as it made its way through the cloud. It halted in front of me and addressed me in an incredibly loud voice that threatened to damage my ear drums. How she managed it, I will never know.

"Foreign creature, you will surrender yourself into our custody and allow us to take you to Canterlot for examination. Do you accept?"

I shuddered. This brought back memories.

Somewhere in the Center

"Fire, you sure that this place is safe?"

"Light, stop worrying, I've been to this place heaps. No-one has ever found me here."

"Maybe they know this place and they think that more of us might be coming..."

"Light, just shut up already."

I raised my arms up beside my head in a sign of surrender, eliciting a small chuckle from Fire, "Woah, don't go for the sceptic..."

He shook his head, but there was smile there anyway.

Me and Fire were walking down a decrepit side street. It was completely empty, old banners and messages hanging from the buildings on either side. They stopped in front of a particularly run-down building. I looked questioningly at Fire, who just looked back at me and nodded. This was the place. The door was closed, but unlocked, and the pair of us made our way deeper into the bowels of the complex. We found a staircase, and walked to the third level, stopping at the landing.

The corridor was incredibly old and looked like it had been deserted for a very long time. The rug, which might have been red, was threadbare and the plaster was peeling. Doors were placed at irregular intervals along the length of the corridor. Our feet made small thudding noises on the old wooden floor. Fire stopped at the fifth door on the left. I was completely lost in a daydream and bumped into Fire, causing a small glare to be shot in my direction. Fire returned his attention to the door and reached above the sill at the top, his hand returning with a small key, which he inserted into the lock. A small clicking noise signalled his success.

The two of us walked over the threshold, and into a small room, about 10x10. There was a small stove and something resembling a kitchen, a small couch, and a window that overlooked a busy street, the other side of the building. A door to the left of the entrance led to a bathroom. Fire made his way over to the stove and lit it, "Well, welcome to your new home."

I looked around, dumbstruck. Fire just watched me, a small grin on his face as he saw the reaction his new friend had to his new home. I was about to say something when some small thudding noises echoed up from beneath the floor. I looked at the floor, and then at Fire. The thudding noises became louder, and clearer, until they could be distinguished as...

Footsteps. The sound of Peacekeepers.

Without saying a word, Fire and I sprinted towards the window and threw ourselves out, landing on the fire escape scaffolding that clung to the outside of the building. We heard as the door to the apartment burst open and the Peacekeepers ran in. We froze, trying desperately to not be heard as we climbed higher to the top of the building. It was five stories.

We only made it to the fourth before being discovered.

Fire reached the top of the ladder to the fourth level and turned to help Me up. I accepted the offered hand and pulled myself onto the fourth level. A small pigeon slept on the railing nearby. As I crept to the next ladder I passed by the bird without it waking. Fire didn't have the same luck. The heat radiating from Fire must have disturbed it. The pigeon woke up and became startled, noticing Fire. It flew away noisily. The dootsteps from downstairs stopped.

"They're out on the fire-escape! Quickly, cut them off!"

We sped up the next ladder, and the next, and found ourselves on the roof. Nowhere to go. Fire ran to the far side of the building looking for another way down. There was no way.

A small access door to the roof slammed open, revealing the Peacekeepers, weapons, armour, and all. "Halt!" Fire and Me froze, waiting to hear the proposal, if any, "You two criminals will surrender and be taken into custody, to be dealt with at a later time.

I looked at Fire, and he at me. We both knew what 'to be dealt with' would entail. We prepared to fight, knowing that we would probably lose...

I looked at the large white pony. There was no way that I would surrender and be taken into its, her, custody. I glared at her.

"Fuck you."

With that, I melted into the dust behind me, darkening as I inverted myself to my darker form, hair soaking up the light that flowed upwards from the rest of my body. I disappeared.

Celestia

"Do you accept?"

Celestia finished her proposal and waited for a reply. The creature in front of her pondered her statement and seemed lost in thought. As it thought, it became slightly angry, and shimmered more and more, until it looked like it was on the verge of breaking up. And then it looked at her.

"Fuck you."

Celestia's jaw dropped. No creature dared to oppose her. Even her own sister treated her with respect. And yet, this thing had just declined her offe- no, her order, and insulted her to boot. She picked her jaw up from the ground and prepared to capture it, but before she could move it just faded away into the dust cloud. It's edges faded until they looked like mist and it became darker, and darker, until Celestia couldn't see it anymore. It was gone. She turned to Fluttershy.

"Quickly now, get the others and tell them to surround the dust cloud. This thing can't have gone very far."

Fluttershy nodded meekly and galloped to her friends, relaying the message that Celestia had given her. In moments, a ring had been formed around the cloud. Celestia waited. And then she walked in.

Luna

The Princess of the Night watched from her position around the dust cloud as Celestia walked in, horn ablaze with light. Moments passed, which then turned to minutes, and still Celestia didn't return. Luna became worried for her sister. Then, just as she was about to walk in, bright flashes pulsed from within the cloud, and loud thunderclaps emanated, sounding as if they were underwater. Luna sprinted in to assist Celestia.

She ran towards the source of the commotion and stopped, shocked. Her Sister was fighting the creature. Celestia was firing fire, and lightening, and basically anything volatile, towards the creature, while the thing itself ducked and whirled and dodged every attack easily due to it's lightening speed and lack of form. Luna only once got a good look at it as it sped past her.

It had changed from earlier. The once pristine white had turned to the deepest black, darker even than her night sky. The speck of black the had sat near it's centre had become white instead. It had become a thing of darkness. And then it became a thing of darkness that was on fire, again. The thing became wreathed in black flames that seared the ground as it passed by. Celestia didn't even have time to move before it whipped past, knocking her sister to the ground. Only Celestia's innate resilience stopped her from becoming a pile of ash and bones as the dark fire licked her. Even so, Celestia's white coat browned and steamed slightly. The thing prepared to attack again.

Luna shrieked. And then the thing noticed her.

Well, what's gonna happen next! By the looks of things, chaos!

But I'll just give you a quick heads up. The next chapter may take a while due to some technical problems. And I just ho-

"HELLO!"

AHHH! Procrastination! Get out of my comment! This part is only for me! Piss off already!

"Awwwww... spoil sport. But I wanna stay for a while! Plz plz plz plz plz come on man!"

No. Absolutely not. This part is only for me. K? No other thin-

"Hey there mister Author person!"

Oh come on! Pinkie too! Hmphhhh. You know what? That's it. I give up. You can stay Cras', but Pinkie, you need to get back in the story. Right Now!

"Okie-Doki-Loki mister Author!"

"Is she gone now?"

I think so... Anyway, how long are you gonna be here Cras'?

"As long as need be..."

...

And how long is that?

"As long as it takes to piss off the readers..."

...

Well great, isn't this just fine and dandy... Well readers, have fun waiting while Cras makes my life total hell...

Chapter 6

My friends are all gone, but that is in the past now. I have unfinished business...
-Light

Chapter 6

Night Light

Twilight

'What the hay is going on in there?!'

Twilight watched in awe and fear as the dust cloud in front of her lit up time and time again, accompanied by the sound of muffled thunderclaps. The Elements were spread out around the dust cloud in a vigil to prevent this new creature from escaping unseen, but from the looks of things, there was little chance of this thing emerging at all.

FWOOSH!

The purple unicorn jumped as the loud sound reverberated around the clearing. A deathly silence fell upon the watchers, and nothing could be heard from within the dust. Twilight glanced around to her friends, who all looked equally confused. Twilight edged closer to the ominous cloud to attempt to see what was happening.

Then came the scream.

The sudden loud sound pierced the silence. It was full of pain and anguish, but also anger. As they heard this, the six friends darted into the dust cloud to investigate. There they found Luna.

Luna

Celestia lay on the ground near the Princess of the Night, smouldering slightly and covered in cuts and bruises. Her ethereal mane had become subdued and lay almost limp against the white alicorn. The cause of her sister's pain was standing about 10 hoofs away, seemingly calm and undisturbed.

The dark blob had reformed and the dark fire that had once covered it had been extinguished. It was near impossible to properly see the actual form of the creature, but the Princess could make out the rough silhouette of it as it stood there, flickering and unstable. Luna grew angry seeing this thing that had just attacked her sister so nonchalant. She attacked.

Luna ran at the thing at a speed that was near impossible, trying to get close enough to attack with her horn. She lowered her head to gore it and almost managed this feat. Almost. Just as she was about to impale this creature on her horn, it vanished. Luna stopped and observed her surroundings. As she did so, it reappeared behind her. It rushed at her, knocking the dark alicorn over, but before it could follow through she rolled over and righted herself.

It had changed again, back to it's shadow form. The flames had appeared around it. Luna could feel the heat waves emanating from it as it drifted over the grass, scorching the earth. And then, without warning, it slammed into Luna again and pinned her to the ground, burning her coat slightly on contact, causing Luna to scream in pain as she felt the fire licking at her body. It prepared to deliver the fatal blow.

And then it paused.

Light

'God Dammit! Why does every single fucking thing in this place have to try and attack me!'

That was the only thing that I could think as another pony tried to kill me. It had come running into the dust cloud and seen the white pony lying prone on the ground. I was getting a little pissed off at being attacked constantly by all of the furry bastards, But this one looked like it wanted to kill me. Something connected in my mind as a brief memory linked this furious pony with the one lying on the ground, especially since the two of them attacked me together.

'Ahhhhh, okay... Now I think I kinda understand...'

I didn't have time to finish this thought as the new arrival snapped out of its trance and charged at me, its horn pointed directly at my chest. I phased out almost instantly and flitted to the side, flanking the angry pony. It looked around, curious as to where I'd had suddenly disappeared to. I decided to help her answer this and so flew at my attacked from behind, barrelling into it and knocking it over, but before I could follow this up it rolled over and stood up, ready for me.

I had to admit, she did have some fighting skills. Still, wouldn't stop me from trying to kill her.

I coated my form with flames made of darkness (Which would have made Physics cry out in anger) and rushed at my attacker again...

Somewhere in the Slipstream Nexus...

Physics looked up from the hand he had been dealt by Fate and scowled across the table at the other players. Irony looked particularly smug, while Surprise looked like she wanted to kill herself. Order looked away from the novel he was reading just long enough to look at his hand, grunt disappointedly, and return to the story he was reading. Fate, who was 'sitting' to Physics' right, leaned over and nudged him.

"Hey, P... You know how we said that we couldn't cheat?"

"Ummm, yeah."

"Well, I think that I dealt myself possibly the most shit hand ever..."

Irony let out a small chuckle and leaned across the table. "Hey Fate..."

"What."

"Remember how you asked me what the definition of my name was, and I said-"

Physics lost interest in the discussion and looked back around the table to see who would bid first. Surprise looked at Irony's cards, which were clearly visible as he leaned across the table, and sat back. "All in..." Order had seen Surprise cheat and glared at her.

Physics chuckled to himself, but then stopped. His irises widened and he started shivering. The other exchanged worried looks with each other as Physics fell off his chair and started to have a breakdown.

Fate shook his head dejectedly and sighed. "He never has been the same since Pinkie..."

The other players all nodded. Irony got up and walked out of the room, Surprise taking the opportunity to sneak a look at Physics' cards. "Awwww crap, does that mean the game is over?"

Fate nodded, and Surprise slammed her fist into the table, "Fuck! I finally got a good hand."

Irony could be heard laughing hysterically from outside.

Light

I pinned the strange blue pony to the ground. From somewhere hysterical laughter could be heard, but I chose to ignore this. I stretched part of my form back to deliver the finishing blow. But then I stopped. The pony beneath me was quivering in fear, but this wasn’t what stopped me. No. I stopped because of what this pony resembled.

This pony looked like Water. And there was no way that I would finish off an animal that was so broken, shivering as she was. Especially since she looked the way she did...

I leaped off of her, completely stunned. This pony seemed to be as confused as I was as she watched me from her position on the ground. I reformed in a small spiral, extinguishing the flames on me in the process, and walked towards her to investigate.

I neared the pony and looked at her. Her hair was an incredibly deep violet while her coat was almost black. The exact same colours as Water’s hair and eyes. I hastily looked away after I realized that I was staring at her. I stood, dumbstruck. The pony became nervous as I looked at her intensely. This was too weird...

Luna

Luna rose unsteadily to her hooves under the harsh gaze of the strange creature. It was just standing there, watching her, not making any move to attack. It lifted one of its limbs and seemed to be about to do something. It cleared its throat as if about to speak. “Umm-“

The thing was interrupted by a small groan coming from Celestia, who was at this moment lucid and in pain. Luna ran to her Sister’s side to help. Light just stood still, watching. Luna returned her attention to Celestia. “Tia, are you okay?” She whispered, shaking her sister, “Please Tia, please be okay. You need to be okay!”

Celestia opened an eye and coughed weakly.

“Luna, you need to get the Elements… This Light creature needs to be stopp-“ Celestia froze as she saw Light standing near her, not moving, only observing. The Princess of the Sun struggled to her hoofs to face their adversary. He appeared lost in thought.

Light

I watched as the blue pony, Luna, rushed to the aid of her sister. She looked so much like Water. She even acted the same as my companion…

I sat on the couch of Fire’s old apartment. Earth was looking out the window in silence, while Air stood in the bathroom crying. Water was hugging Air, trying to comfort her.

It had only been two days since the death of Fire, and the grief still hung on all of our minds, dampening our moods. After the fight I had regrouped with the others and brought them here to tell them the news. This was what we had been doing since.

Earth, as usual, was the first one to recover from the apathy that had fallen over the group. He walked over to me slowly and put a hand on my shoulder, “Light, we need to move on. We need to do something, anything!”

I gave a non-committal grunt and shrugged him off.

He shook his head, “Seriously, I really mean it. We need to get over this. Do you think that this is what Fire would have wanted?”

I looked around the room, and then back to Earth. I sighed. “I guess... I don't even know any more... I’ll go talk to the others.”

Earth gave a small nod and walked back to the window while I gathered myself and retreated into the bathroom.

Inside, Air was sitting on the side of the toilet, sniffing and trying to hold back tears, while Water leaned against the sink, a blank look on her face. They both turned to face me as I walked in. I motioned for both of them, and with great effort they lazily wandered in my direction. As they reached me, I put one hand on each of their shoulders. Air flinched at the contact.

I sighed again. “Guys, I was just talking to Earth...” I paused again, struggling to continue, "And, and he said that we should try and do... something, just to move one..." I raised a hand, "I may not entirely agree with him, but he's right..."

"He wouldn't want us to act like this..."

Air looked at me in despair. Water still had that blank look on her face.

I continued, “I know that he meant a lot to us, hell, I've known him for most of my life... But we can't spend all of our time like this. We have to keep making progress."

Air couldn’t hold out any longer and burst into tears, leaving shining trails down her cheeks. Water turned and gave her a small hug, murmuring in her ear. I stood there awkwardly, I had never gotten the hand of this touchy feely stuff…

I gave one last look at Water, “Join Me and Earth when you two are done here.” Water gave me a small nod.

I walked back out to the living room and joined Earth by the window. I don’t even remember how long we stood there, side by side, just looking out the window as the civilians on the street went about their day, completely oblivious to the darker side of the world that they lived in. There was some sort of stamping noise growing louder, but neither of us paid any attention to it.

Eventually, after what felt like hours, I spoke. “I just can’t believe that he’s gone.”

Seconds passed, which then turned to minutes. “Yep.”

I looked at Earth. My stoic friend always knew the right answer…

“So, what now?”

“It’s up to you now Light, you’re the planner.”

At this moment, Air and Water made their way over to join us by the window. Air’s eyes were red and puffed. Water was hugging her friend in an attempt to cheer her up. Although I had been the closest to Fire due to Me and Him being the first to join forces, Air was the one that he had forged the real relationship with.

I on the other hand, I had my eyes set on one person in particular. Water. Kinda funny that I travel with Fire and fall in love with the opposite.

As I turned back to face the window, hysterical laughter could be heard faintly as if it was traveling over a great distance to reach me.

Just I wondered what to do next, it became apparent that there was some sort of commotion occurring on the street level. The pedestrians had stopped to watch some sort of procession on the street. A phalanx of Peacekeepers was proceeding along the road, the only sounds being their heavy footsteps impacting on the hard tarmac surface beneath their feet. As the phalanx passed on, an open topped car trundled along, easily keeping pace. All of us in our tiny apartment gasped as we saw who was being escorted in this car.

The Warden.

The Warden was undisputedly one of the most evil men to have ever set foot upon the earth. He was the co-ruler and was second in command only to the Operator. He could do literally anything he wanted to.

He was also in charge of all military and Peacekeeper activities.

I exchanged a look with the others. All of them looked furious, except for Earth who never showed any expression at all. Air’s hair was starting to blow in an invisible wind, Water’s skin started to turn slightly blue while her hair drifted as though she was underwater. Earth just stood as still as before, but I could tell that he was incredibly angry, I knew what to look for with him. I tapped his shoulder to gain his attention, noticing that my hand had become a violently flickering mess, small wisps of darkness radiating from it. I was angry, and ready for something to happen.

He looked at me.

“Well Earth, I know something that we can do…”

Earth smiled subtly. I stepped away from the window, almost to the kitchen, before running back at the group and flinging myself out of the apartment. The others just shook their heads in exasperation before following me.

We landed in the midst of the bystanders, and went straight to work. Air brought out her trademark tornadoes and caused havoc among the civilians, while Water broke the Mains pipes, causing huge eruptions of liquid everywhere. Earth had torn up the pavement and road around the soldiers, slamming them into the sky as the road surface flung them upwards. I went straight for the Warden.

I phased and flew directly at him as he tried to figure out just what was happening around him. As I drew closer, he noticed me and sent his two bodyguards that were in the car with him to intercept. I flew past them almost faster than the eye could see, whipping two shadows downwards over both of the attackers. I looked back around at the bodyguards. They had surprised looks on their faces. The looks stayed there even as they split into halves and fell to the group, blood erupting from their corpses.

I looked back at the Warden.

He was pointing a small cannon at me. This was a bit unrealistic but somehow he managed it with ease, his heavy muscles heaving with the strain.

I barely had time to register this new appearance before he fired it, a cloud of smoke shooting from the barrel, along with something else. I flew to the side, narrowly missing the somehow flaming projectile that had been fired from the cannon. Even so I still felt the heat radiating from it. I flitted over to the evil Commander of the Military. He had a look of pure, unadulterated terror in his eyes, as if I was going to do the most terrible things imaginable to him.

I really didn’t like to let people down.

I started with his fingers, my rage burning brightly as I remembered all of the atrocities that the Warden, no, this thing had done. I sliced off his hands next, leaving only bloodied stumps in their places. I then went for the feet, removing them slowly and painfully. He was screaming in pain, begging for mercy. Begging for the thing that he hadn’t given the rest of my family. I phased to my human form, and kicked him out of the car. I jumped out and watched as he struggled pathetically to crawl away, leaving a trail of blood where his arms and feet touched the ground.

I leaned over him and slammed his head repeatedly into the road until he was barely recognizable. Then, and only then, did I slit his throat. I gave my left hand a razor sharp edge of darkness and, while holding up with my right hand, slowly drew it across his neck. I watched as his lifeblood spurted out of the wound, perfectly in tune with his heartbeat. Slowly, ever so slowly, the bleeding slowed as his heart stopped.

It started to rain.

I threw the worthless corpse into the gutter and watched as the rainwater carried along until it fell through a grate and into the storm water system, never to be seen again, just another piece of debris to be cleansed from the streets.

I breathed in slowly as the red haze that had been covering my vision faded away and my breathing returned to normal. I turned to check on the others.

And then my blood froze.

Water and Earth were crouched over the unmistakable figure of Air. I sprinted towards the trio and span Earth around, “What the fuck happened?!”

“Air got shot,” Earth retorted bluntly.

I looked over at my friend. She lay on the ground, a small trickle of blood slipping out of her mouth. I looked for the projectile and noticed something. It looked at hell of a lot like…

A miniature cannonball.

The Warden's gun, the piece of equipment that had been pointed at me earlier, had missed its mark. But it had hit something else in the process. The projectile had lost most of its energy through the flight, but it had still packed a punch when it hit Air, possible breaking her ribs, maybe compacting something vital...

Water was running liquid along Air’s body in an attempt to soothe the pain. She was whispering to her friend.

“Please Air, please be okay. You have to be okay…”

“Please Tia, please be okay. You have to be okay!”

I froze and looked at the blue pony. She had said the exact words said by Water so long ago. I let out a small whimper as a tear that I didn’t even know existed fell from my face, making a loud noise as it impacted the dirt below. The white pony next to the blue one stood up. And she looked angry.

At this moment, shouting could be heard from around me. I watched as six more ponies emerged from the cloud and took up positions near the white and blue pony.

One of the six was Fluttershy.

As I watched her, her expression turned from one of fear and sympathy, to one of confusion, to one of anger as she saw what I had done to the white pony. Obviously a VIP (Fits perfectly…).

The odds were way out of my favor, being me against eight pissed off ponies, two of which evidently had a lot of power at their disposal. I prepared to make a break for it, but found that I couldn’t move. I was stuck. I watched in horror as the six newcomers rose into the air and, in a flash of light, suddenly had strange jewelry appear on them. Five of the ponies, Fluttershy included, wore strange necklaces, while the one at the front of the formation wore a small tiara.

I could feel the raw power from where I was standing. Whatever was about to happen, it wasn’t going to be good.

Twilight

The purple unicorn ran through the dust, calling for her mentor and Princess Luna. Her friends galloped alongside. As one they emerged into a small area void of any dust. As one, they noticed the strange creature. As one, they saw the injured Princess and Luna. And as one, they called upon their respective Elements. They Elements rose into the air as their jewelry appeared in their rightful places. They all knew what they must do. They reached the summit of their ascent and stopped. Twilight opened her eyes, revealing only whiteness.

Five beams of light shot from her friends towards the tiara resting on her head. As the light reached the tiara, it joined and arched upwards in a rainbow.

Right towards the creature.

The creature itself couldn’t move due to the effects of the Elements, which prevented the subject of their power from escaping. It could only stand there and wait for it’s impending doom.

The rainbow hit the creature right in the chest. An explosion occurred, along with a blinding flash as the raw magic of the Elements impacted. The Elements were thrown to the ground, their jewelry vanishing, their job done. Twilight was the first to rise, shortly followed by the others. She rushed over to assist her injured mentor who was at this point leaning heavily on Luna. Upon reaching the Princess, she stopped unsure of what to say in the situation. Luckily, Celestia spoke first.

“My faithful student, I am so proud of what you have done here today. Without you and your friends, I would have surely been defeated by this creature.” She coughed slightly and winced but kept her composure.

The other looked at their hooves, embarrassed at the compliment. Applejack spoke.

“Awww shucks Princess, we were jus’ doin’ our duty…”

The other nodded, but the Princess just shook her head. “Nonetheless, you have all achieved a great feat of courage here,” She smiled at the Elements, "And I am grateful for the six of you, and the bonds you hold."

She looked around confused for a moment before speaking again.

“Wait, where is your friend, Pinkie Pie?”

Applejack just sighed. “Princess, don’t bother questioning Pinkie. It’s for the best…”

Celestia shook her head slowly and motioned for the group to move. Luna set off, followed by a slightly limping Celestia and the Elements. They approached the crater as one, stopping at the rim. Twilight’s horn glowed slightly and the dust parted.

Inside the smoking crater lay a statue of Light.

Ohhhh, this doesn't look good! What will happen to Light now? Will Physics ever recover from Pinkie Pie? These questi-

"Hellooooooo again! Did ya miss me?"

...

"..."

Honestly?

"Yep"

No Cras, I did not miss you. I'm very happy that you left on 'vacation' long enough for me to finish this chapter...

"Hey, I had to leave. That Pinkie scares me..."

Well, you did say that you didn't want a party...

"Well, yeah. But I-"

"PROCRASTINATION!"

...

Dude you should run. Like, right now.

"Point taken."

Goooodbya Cras!

Oh, he's gone...

"Good, I don't like that guy! He's a big meanie!"

Yeah, he is to- HEY! Pinkie get back in the story!

"But I just wanna-"

PINKIE!

"Fine fine..."

Phew. Anyway readers, Cras appears to have suddenly opted for another... 'vacation'... So I might be able to write the story properly.

God have mercy on his soul if Pinkie finds him...

Chapter 7

...

I need to settle some people's consciences here, so I'll say it...

Physics, I am very sorry for putting you through all this. Kay? Good. That should shut everyone up...

The corruption of Night is everywhere. It if changed me, it can change anyone. Nothing is safe...
-Luna

Chapter 6

Unexpected Appearances

Canterlot Gardens: 2 Months Later

Celestia sighed to herself on her morning walk through the gardens of the Palace. The early morning sunlight shimmering on her coat, mist sparkling in the air. The soft sound of the grass under-hoof easing her troubled mind. She walked in this manner for about 5 minutes before coming to a sudden stop. The reason for the stop became apparent as the growing sunlight burned the mist away.

The Statue of Discord stood in it's usual place, with it's usual expression of utter horror and surprise plain for all to see. Celestia sighed again. She had been to this place many times. Every morning, before her sun had truly risen, and before the madness of Equestrian Politics could take place, she would walk through the gardens, allowing herself to relax in the tranquility. This would always come to a stop when she saw her old friend.

The Statue was positioned in such a way, that almost no matter which route one took through the gardens, they would eventually come face to face with this monstrosity. It was for this reason that there were so few visitors, as most ponies found the Statue unnerving. It's eyes seemed to follow the visitors that wandered near. It was always dismissed as a trick played by the mind, but it wold still have the lasting impression on the visitors.

Celestia knew better.

She stood before the Statue, gazing up at it's frozen face, ever in the last expression that Discord had been in before his punishment. The only part of the face that didn't seem to be made of solid stone were the eyes. Most ponies couldn't see the truth due to the nature of the enchantment, stopping all interaction and causing almost all ponies to believe that he was just a statue, or if they did they would pass it off as something else. The eyes were alive.

The Princess of the Sun sat, bathing in the warmth that her sun brought to the land, and felt her spirits rise. They quickly fell again as she remembered who she was sitting in front of. Discord, one of her oldest and dearest friends, who had been there along with her Sister as they began their reign, who had kept her smiling through the toughest of times.

Who had been corrupted by the NightMare. Or rather, NightDraconequus. The most evil spirit and Embodiment of Evil. It took the form and inherent name from its victims. It had taken Discord, and changed him. By the time Celestia found out, it was already too late for the Spirit of Chaos, and she was forced to imprison him for all eternity. It had only been harder after she had to do it again recently. Celestia could feel the beginnings of tears in her eyes, and quickly blinked them away.

She stayed to watch the Statue for a few minutes. She walked away, but not before turning around and getting one last glance at the Statue of her once-friend.

Celestia continued her walk through the Gardens. By this point, the mist had vanished completely as her sun gently caressed the still waking Equestria. On the other edge of the horizon, Luna's moon could be seen dipping down for its rest.

As she walked, Celestia admired the Garden. The flowers were in full bloom, infusing the air with their soft scents. The wind whistled softly through the tree tops causing the leaves to rustle as their hosts swayed gently. The Princess noticed these briefly, before returning to her daily commute, greeting the rest of the Statues.

She passed the Griffin Warlord, one of the greatest enemies to even have risen against her land. She passed the Zebra Herbalist, prosecuted for poisoning and maiming countless victims. She passed the Pony, her straight mane and cold emotionless eyes gazing with barely contained hatred at the Gardens. From the texture of the stone it was obvious that the mare had been covered in blood before her punishment. Celestia shuddered as she remembered what this particular Statue had done. The Princess hurried along quickly, not wanting to be around the Statue any more.

She passed in a similar fashion all of the rest of the statues as they became more and more recent, until she came to the newest addition.

The Statue of Light.

The Statue had only been in the Gardens for a measly 2 months, barely a blink of the eye compared to some of the other statues. The newest addition before Light had been the Donkey, added to the Gardens about 460 years ago. But even after taking the age factor out of the equation, Light's Statue was strange, and not least because it was the one Statue where the exact species couldn't be identified.

When a Statue was first created to encase the being within, it would glow and adjust to fit whatever it housed. This process would usually last about a week. Now, 2 months in, Light's Statue was still in this process.

The Statue was constantly emitting a faint glow that barely radiated, giving it a ghostly look at night. If one looked closely enough enough, they would notice that the edges of the Statue wavered ever so slightly, while the extremities actually looked almost transparent. On top of this, the surface of Celestia leaned in closer to the Statue to look at it and, sure enough, it was still moving and shimmering. She tried to listen in, but all she heard was a slight undercurrent of thought and was unable to distinguish anything. She never could distinguish anything.

Celestia backed away from the Statue, worried. No Statue had ever stayed in the 'fitting' stage as long as this one had, and so far it had shown no sign of stopping.

The Princess shook her head and turned from the Statue. Will, I'll just wait for it to sort itself out. Nothing can get out of the Statue... apart from that time with Discord. She giggled slightly and kept walking.

Better go and get ready for the Summer Sun Celebration tomorrow.

Light

Wow, this is really boring...

I mean, just wow. This had got to be the most mind-numbing thing that I have ever done.

I'm still a bit unsure of how this all happened. All I know is, I can't move, then I'm in some massive crater, and then I somehow appear in these massive Gardens. And the weirdest part is, I'm bloody stone. HOW CAN I BE STONE AND STILL BE ALIVE?!

Crap, I think the others might have heard me. The Donkey is a little bit too close to comfort, it creeps me out. She reall- OH CRAP SHE HEARD ME!

Don't make eye contact don't make eye contact...

Phew, she's looked away. I really have to keep my voice down... or what's left of it. That Donkey can be really scary at times. I can remember the first time that I heard her. Well, I say heard, but all that I can ever hear are whispers. Lots and lots of whispers.

What I found out is that all of the Statues in the Garden are sentient. And that they all have their own opinions. If you listen hard enough, and if they shout loud enough, you can sometimes just make out what they say. But then again, why would I want to talk to them if all they ever talk about is how pissed off they are. And they are just a little bit insane. And I'm really glad that I'm near the end... I'm not sure if I would be able to cope being near that blood covered pony, I can hear her slightly from where I am. At the other end of the Row of Statues!

I hoped I never have to find out what she did...

Oh hey! Sunrise! That means that the Princess will be comin' round soon! I'm still annoyed at that whole turned to stone and all thing, but she is nice enough to visit every morning.

Oooh, there she is! I practically squeed in joy, unable to contain my excitement for just this little bit of company. Well, when I say contain I really...

Anyway...

The Princess stopped in front of my Statue, a look of suspicion crossing her face as she leaned in closer. I watched, curious, as she started to analyse me, seemingly surprised as she took in my look, even though I was always like this. I think that the same effect that I have on my clothes transferred to my Statue, and I am barely solid anyway, so even as a freakin' Statue I still have a little bit of malleability. But only a bit.

That had to be the most frustrating part. Me, a being of Light, as a Statue. My whole life was based on me not being solid... So this really was the worst punishment that I could ever have dished out to me. I could only-

Awwww, she's leaving.

I watched as the Princess shook her head and walked away, leaving me all to my thoughts. I 'settled' back and prepared for the long slog, waiting for my next visit from the Princess. God I still don't know exactly when I moved into a nursing home.

I sighed inside my prison, softly enough so that I wouldn't alert the Donkey, and resigned myself for another boring day. Well, might as well count to 5 million again.

23 Hours later

10 million, 5 hundred thousand and 4. 10 million, 5 thousand and 5. 10 million, 5 thousand and 6. 10 million, 5 th-

HEY, WAIT! I already went past 5 million... Aw screw it, nothing better to do...

10 million, 5 thousand and 7. 10 million, 5 tho-

Ohhhhh! The Princess is back! YAAAAAAY! Wait a second, it isn't even sunset yet.

I watched as the Princess walked quickly down the row, only pausing slightly as she passed each Statue. She hesitated again at mine, a look of worry and surprise on her face as she noticed my darker night-time form, but she moved on within seconds. I became curious. She always payed attention to every Statue, and never went past mine so quickly.

Today's different.

My eyes followed her as she followed the path in darkness, the sound of her hoof-steps fading away gradually before she vanished in a small white flash. I still had no idea what was going on.

I sighed. Again. And got ready for another long count, literally. I had barely gotten to 5000 before I felt something change. The Sunrise had started. But something felt different.

The sun started its usual ascent as it poked its head out above the mountain tops, but for some reason or other, it just felt off. But at the same time it felt incredibly nice and warmed me. It looked the largest that I had ever seen it before, radiating energ-

Wait, warmed me?

My eyes flicked down to my left wrist, the point where the sensation was coming from. Due to the pose that I was trapped in with my left hand above my head in a Matrix look, the sun was only touching my hand. Only the radiated light touched the rest of my body, not direct contact. As I continued to watch, even though I didn't really have a choice, I noticed that my hand started to change. What had once been shimmering stone started to pale and return to a fleshy look.

The sun continued its ascent, and as more of the sun became exposed, more of my body became free. At this point I was able to actually move my left hand and was beginning to get more movement in my whole arm as my living tomb slowly dissolved in the sunlight. This process continued for about 2 minutes before the last parts of my body, my feet, became free.

And ten I fell over. I was unused to having to actually use my muscles after so long that the moment the resistance in my legs disappeared, I toppled to the ground with a thud. Luckily there wasn't a soul in sight, apart from the Statues. I listened carefully and could just make out them snickering at me. But I didn't care, I was free! I let out a small shout of joy and jumped in the air, kicking my heels together.

And that was precisely when the alarm went off...

Celestia

The Princess had just finished raising the sun for the longest and brightest day of the year. She looked out of the window of the Canterlot Ballroom, the place where the Grand Galloping Gala was held. It had a spectacular view of the Sunrise, and Celestia didn't want to miss it. The crowd of silent watchers started talking again as the Princess signalled for the celebration to start. Well, the kind of 'celebration' that Canterlot ponies had.

The Princess was on the verge of complete boredom when she noticed her prized student walking over towards her, crossing the large ballroom and braving the Sea o' Boring-Canterlotians. Celestia turned to face her. "Well, if it isn't my faithful student, how have you been?

"Oh Iv'e been great Princess, but the girls were wondering about something..."

Celestia smiled, a faint idea of what the question might be forming in her mind. "Oh? And what might that question be? Actually, where are the girls?"

"They weren't able to come. They had some prior engagements and couldn't make space or a trip to Canterlot." Twilight looked sad for a moment before perking up. "Any, we all wanted to know, what happened to Light?"

"He is currently in the Statue Section of the Garden under constant surveillance by my patrols. There is no need to worry Twilight, he won't be able to harm anypony. Now, let us cast such matters from our mind and enjoy this, the brightest and longest day of the year."

The Purple Library let out a small sigh of relief, before realising exactly what her Mentor had just said. Her expression turned to one of horror. Her head snapped up and the Princess saw that her irises had shrunk to pin-pricks. Celestia became worried. "What is wrong my student?"

"Ummm. P-p-princess?"

"Yes?"

"Remember how D-discord broke out of his Statue w-w-when there was Chaos around?"

"Yes?"

"And how if a Statue of a Spirit is around their particular element they can sometimes break out of their Statue?"

"Yes?"

"I just remembered how Fluttershy told us about what Light was..."

Celestia stood, confused, and cast her mind back to the particular event. She reached the right memory and gasped as she recalled what Fluttershy had said about Light and what he was. She turned back to her student, her gaze suddenly filled with worry.

"Twilight? We must leave now to check on the Statues. We must be ready for whatever happens."

It was at that moment that a siren could be heard.

Celestia and Twilight ran to the door and sprinted through the passageways to the outside. They emerged, Twilight panting heavily while the Princess looked out into the distance towards the Garden. There was the sound of the Royal Guards mobilising to neutralise the threat, the marching and stomping clearly audible. The Princess teleported herself and her Student there immediately without waiting for assistance.

They re-appeared in the centre of the Garden, near the Statue of Discord. He seemed to wink at them menacingly as they stormed by towards where Light's statue should have been. They broke into a gallop, Twilight barely matching the Princesses pace as they neared the Statue of Light.

Or at least, where it used to be.

Where the Statue had once been was now an empty pedestal with small darker patches where the Statue had been sitting for 2 months. The sounds of the Guards grew ever louder as they searched frantically for the escaped prisoner, the tranquility of the Garden shattered by the events taking place. The Princess and the Library searched in an ever increasing pattern, the Princess flying overhead while Twilight searched from the ground.

They regrouped after about a minute, at which point the guards arrived. There were about fifty of them, all fully armoured and ready for a fight. The Captain of the Guard approached Celestia in his shining golden armour and saluted. "Princess, any sign of the escapee?"

"No Captain Black Thorn. Split up and search the rest of the Garden, and make sure to sent some ponies to check on the Maze."

He saluted again. "Of course Princess." Black Thorn barked a few quick indistinguishable orders at his Guards and they quickly split up into three groups and took off, the Captain leading one group to the maze while the other two went in opposite directions to search the rest of the Gardens.

The Princess led her Student to the shade of a tree, next to a large group of bushes, obscuring them from the light almost completely. She sighed. "Twilight, I hope that you can forgive me for letting the beast that you and the Elements captured escape."

"Princess, of course I forgive you! This was never your fault!"

"I at least should have seen this coming!" She sighed again.

Unseen by the Princess and Twilight, a small patch of Darkness detached itself from the main clump of a particularly dark section of shade and drifted closer to the duo. Completely silent, the darkness dissolved and slid away.

Celestia stood and helped Twilight to rise. "Well, are you ready to search again for this Light creature?"

A small rustle cold be heard from behind them, but they ignored it. Right up until they heard the voice.

"Right behind you."

Ohhhh, snap! And yes, obvious quote is obvious... (*cough cough* Morfonious *Cough*)!

Anyway, I got really bored and some small sense of responsibility said, 'Hey, you should really make another chapter!' while the other part of me just said, 'Awwww fuck it, nobody cares anyway... and all you end up doing is pissing the characters off' So I went for the middle point.

I made a chapter, and left Physics out of it, so I think he's happy for the moment. (Don't tell him but i think he's a bit of a wuss...)

"HEY THERE! Long time no see! I haven't seen you in ages Auth' man! How you goin'?"

...Speak o' the Devil...

"What do you mean?"

Nothing Physics, nothing...

"Hey, I think that you were saying stuff about me again, weren't you?!"

Of course not... hehehe...

"Oh that's it, now I know you di-"

Anyway, you mind getting out of my comment, this is just meant for me...

"Hell no! Imma go piss you off as best I can now!"

Oh god, please no...

":3"

...

"..."

How did you even say that?

"..."

Fine I'll make this easy on you. If you don't leave in the next five seconds I'll get Pink-

"FINE I'M LEAVING NOW!"

...

Wow, that mare really knows how to cause permanent scarring on immortals...

Anyway, hope you enjoy the chapter!

PS. If you can guess who The Pony Statue's descendant is, you get a free internet point and a golden star to go on your head!

But that's not all! If you order now, within the next five mi-

Whoa, down Billy, down! Anyway, Arrivederci!

Chapter 8

It's a futile pursuit, trying to hold up the image of an untarnished god-like being. It only takes the smallest of breezes to tear it down...
-Celestia

Chapter 7

Annoyed Appearances

How he escaped I will never know. But he did, and that is all that matters...
-Celestia

Luna

The Princess of the Night lowered herself into her bed, with a groan, prepared for her daily sleep having just lowered the moon. She decided not to join the ponies partying during the festivities of the Summer Sun Celebration. Luna could never catch the fever that swept through the land during that one day as it had nothing to do with her element and her favorite being, the Moon.

She grumbled to herself quietly as her attempts to sleep were thwarted time and time again by the sounds of the Celebration. Even the upper crust of Canterlot could find their wild sides during that time. The noises from below suddenly stopped as the sun started to rise above the horizon, sending crimson streaks darting over the mountain tops to the awe of the ponies watching. Luna took this opportunity to finally slip into unconsciousness. Her vision receded and her muscles relaxed. A sense of tranquility settle-

The courtyard’s siren wailed in emergency. The harsh sound reverberated throughout the castle walls and into Luna's bedchamber. The startled Princess flew out of her bed and collapsed into a pile on the floor with all the dignity of a falling whale...

The flower arrangement next to Luna's bed muttered darkly to itself, but nopony heard.

Luna tried to recover before somepony could see her in her current state and rose, huffing indigently. She was prepared to send whatever pony had sounded the alarm to the moon. She shook her head violently, trying to expel the old thoughts, and her sudden craving for bananas, before trotting towards the balcony.

Below, ponies were milling wildly, confused by the change of pace that had overcome the celebration. The quiet conversation had turned to panic. No matter what the status, no matter what occupation, sirens were hard to misinterpret.

And this one was pretty loud.

As could only be expected, wild shouts and accusations were shot across the crowd in the calamity.

"What's goin' on eh?!" One pony would shout.

"I demand to know the cause of this disruption!" Another would shout over another.

"-so then I told him, well yes, I did get fleas from my dog, but they would be gone so-" For that particular moment the conversations died down and a deathly quiet settled upon the masses as they stared at the pony in question. This silence stayed until the siren returned for round two.

As Luna watched, ponies from the Royal Guard sprinted into the courtyard where the majority of the ponies were gathered in an attempt to control the crowd. Her Sister could be seen sprinting towards the Garden with her faithful student hurriedly in tow. Luna decided to fly down in order to investigate for herself.

Within seconds, she had flown down from her balcony and into the midst of the guards. The highest ranked guard hesitantly approached while the rest did their best to contain the milling populace. He bowed down but rose quickly when Luna impatiently motioned to him. He stood panting for a moment, trying to regain his breath before speaking. "You…. your Majesty." He started panting again at a slower rate and finally slowed his heartbeat to a normal speed. "One of the Statues! It's missing!"

The statement seemed to flow through the Princess' brain like treacle, waiting to be realized. Luna stood in shock. The statues were the most durable and most impenetrable form of containment in the whole of Equestria. There was only one entity that had escaped from one before, and that was Discord, an embodiment of one of the Pure Elements. They were the strongest and most everlasting beings in the whole of existence, different from the Elements of Harmony due to them being creatures incorporated purely of the element they represent, only in a physical form, Celestia being the Sun and Luna herself, the Moon.

Luna shuddered as she recalled the memories that led to Discord's corruption. Contrary to common belief, the type of Pure Element in question didn't affect the being. Discord wasn't naturally cruel.

The Shadow however, was an entirely different matter. It was Darkness, in the sense of thoughts and emotions. It had changed Discord. It wasn't any easier facing him the second time either. Luna was lucky, only a thousand years with The Shadow and a cleansing from the Elements of Harmony. Discord had something closer to fifteen thousand, give or take a couple hundred or years...

Luna blinked as she returned to the task at hand. The guard who had been talking was looking at her with worry in his eyes as his princess drifted into thought. She nodded in acknowledgement briefly, before turning and rocketing into the sky in the direction of the Garden, leaving a very confused Royal Guard to deal with a panicking mob.

She flew overhead, searching frantically for her Sister and her student. She had come to the conclusion that it was Discord who had escaped. Again. No other creature should be capable of breaking out.

Unless...

A scream echoed from the ground, alerting Luna instantly. She tucked her wings in and fell into a dive bomb, trying to reach the ground as quickly as possible. The screaming stopped.

Luna redoubled her speed, furiously trying to streamline her body so as to help the victim below her. She fell into the center of the Gardens, causing a layer of dust to fly from the ground as she did so. The Statues were standing in their usual places, their eyes watching her. Leering at her. Daring her to do something that she would regret. The Night Alicorn tore away, desperate to check on the Statue of Dis-

She halted instantly, shocked. The Statue of Discord stood in its usual place. The place where it had stood for millennia, undisturbed but for a single incident the previous year. It yet stood with a horrified expression on its face, complete all but for the eyes. The eyes weren't horrified. No, the eyes were furious. The hatred burned inside and shook Luna to her core as she maintained contact with them. She turned, unable to continue gazing into their murky depths.

Luna looked down the row of Statues and started running, the Statues on her right, towards the end. There was a small gap in the row where a path ran between leading to the nearby maze, but apart from that, the row was an unfaltering line straight through the Gardens. As she ran across the path, a few Royal Guards sprinted past towards the maze, completely oblivious to the screaming, or perhaps thinking that it was just another distressed civilian. The Princess watched them run into the maze and become quickly lost from sight.

She turned and continued her tense run past the Statues. Each and every one of them watched as she passed, evidently happy for the commotion injecting a little bit of interest into their utterly boring existence. She reached the Donkey’s statue and drew a sharp breath, shocked at what she saw. Or rather, what she didn't.

The scream came once again, followed by the muffled sound of a giant explosion and a flash of light. She turned and ran towards the source. Luna galloped across the Garden, trampling the beds of flowers carelessly, intent on getting to the source of the noise. A few guards noticed her and signaled for their colleagues to join them as they ran after the Princess. She approached one of the corners of the Garden, the maze preventing a line of sight, and peered around tentatively. She gasped...

Light

Wow, this has to be the most fun in what, 2 months...

...

Though counting isn’t much of a benchmark really...

I tried my hardest not to burst out laughing at the faces of the two ponies in front of me. The purple one looked to be on the verge of outright fainting, while the Princess had only widened her eyes a little bit. Both of them were speechless.

I stood silent, content to watch patiently for the ponies to recover. The Princess managed that feat first and narrowed her eyes angrily. The purple one just screamed.

Sweet mother of walnut flying dishwasher that thing is loud! Like, come on, that pony could be a bloody weapon just by itself!

I clapped my hands over my ears to block out the incredible scream that seemed to be coming from the purple pony. The edges of my body flickered more than usual in the face of the onslaught, my trench coat being blown backwards. Luckily, the scream only lasted for a few seconds before the pony shut her mouth, a look of pure shock on her face. I smirked, which seemed to infuriate the Princess. She stepped forward and looked like she was about to say something.

I decided to help it, or rather her, so I punched her in the face. Hard.

She leaped back a good 10 metres, stunned at what I had just done, a small trickle of blood flowing from her muzzle. The purple one screamed again, less loudly, too shocked by what I had just done to put any real effort into it.

HAHAHAHA! Take that, I just punched the Princess... Good thing I know who she is or that would be a lot less satisfying. Thaaaaankyou insecure ponies that talk to Statues...

A small growl came from Princess. She motioned for the purple pony to back away. I watched, curious. A deep golden glow started to form at the tip of the Princesses horn, accompanied by a deep rumbling. The dirt at her feet swirled in a slight breeze. The glow formed into a ball. It grew larger and larger, tendrils flashing angrily from the outside of it. Sweat beaded the Princesses face as she poured more and more energy into her attack. This was obviously powerful. And I knew just the way to turn it into a joke.

I tried my hand at making something that I had only done once before.

An illusion. I never used these that much due to the concentration it took to get all of the detail right, and because in my sabotage mission the plan was less stealth and more 'go in a break everything'...

They were very good for pranks however...

I prepared the illusion to look identical to me in every way and, just as I released the form into the world I threw up a Shadow Cloak around myself, shielding myself from the Princesses eyes. The only evidence of the switch was the momentary lapse as I switched places. I looked down at myself to make sure it worked and sure enough my body was completely invisible except for the occasional random burst of light or shadow that escaped from my form, but these emissions were too small to give away my location unless I was being studied intently at close range.

I stepped away from my illusion, barely containing my laughter as I watched the Princess focus her power on me.

The wrong me.

I stole a quick glance at the purple pony. She was staring at the illusion intently, a look of suspicion on her face. I frowned, knowing that she had noticed something. My head jerked around as I realized that the illusion hadn't moved since the switch, a good 10 seconds or so. I focused and the illusion raised an arm to wave at first the pony, and then at me, winking as it did so. I allowed myself another grin as her expression changed to nervousness again, scared at my calmness in the face of the Princess. Over rather, my illusion's calmness.

There was a faint popping noise. I looked over at the Princess. The ball of energy had become the size as a small dog and was rapidly expanding. Then, all of a sudden, it imploded on itself, sucking in the air and dust around it. It shrunk to the size of a pinprick, before shooting towards the illusion...

Celestia

The heat from the energy ball was started to singe the edges of her coat as it hovered at the end of her horn. Celestia injected one final bit of energy and started the detonation sequence. The ball imploded, dragging her fur towards it slightly, tugging at her tiara and mane. She grunted from the effort before launching the ball towards Light at a furious speed. Celestia watched intently, waiting for him to make his move. He didn't even move. Just before the destructive energy reached him, Light winked and gave an elaborate bow.

Celestia's eyes widened, thinking that he must have somehow sabotaged her attack. She waited as the ball got closer, closer, closer...

BOOM

The explosion rocked the ground sending the trees swaying. The smoke cleared, revealing a small, concentrated patch of dirt that wasn't there. The only thing that remained was a spherical crater large enough to fit the Princess herself in it. She cautiously approached the rim and saw-

Nothing. The crater was completely void of Light.

Celestia let out a breath she didn't even know that she had been holding before. She sat down and closed her eyes, saddened by the loss of life tha-

The noise of slow clapping interrupted her thought process. The Princess jerked around to see where the noise was coming from. There was nothing there. She continued to search for the source. Her sharp eyes scanned the vicinity, looking for anything. There was nothing. Suddenly, a small patch of shadow appeared for only an instant before vanishing. A few seconds later, a bright tendril drifted through the air for a moment, before vanishing as well. More and more tendrils of light and darkness started to appear. A distortion rippled briefly, and started to dissolve into a mess of tendrils that dispersed and retreated as Light stepped from the air, completely unscathed and grinning his head off, rivaling the expression of that pink pony from the mess two months ago. The tendrils swam around lazily before changing their paths and flying into Light, assimilating into his form.

He was completely unfazed by what had just occurred. His clothes, along with his hair, were pristine and flapping in an invisible breeze. His body momentarily flared and shifted as he accepted the tendrils before he settled down to a more stable form. Everything about him said that he hadn't even been in a fight at all. He looked different from their last encounter; the body had become white again while the hair was pitch black, absorbing any and all light, like he had been the first time he had fought them.

His grin widened. "Now it's my turn..."

Celestia's jaw dropped...

Slipstream Nexus

"Fuck! I fold..."

"Heh, pussy! Knew you couldn't play with the real men!"

"Shut up! I can too! Just sto-"

"Will the both of you just shut up!"

Altercation and Annoyance both looked away from their argument towards Order. He was peering over the edge of his novel, frustration clearly evident on his features. The smoky haze of the Poker Room made it hard to make out most of him, but his eyes penetrated the smog like a stallion would pen-

"Hey!"

What, I was just making an observation!

"Seriously dude, that kinda stuff is not cool. There could be young-uns' reading..."

Fine, whatever...

-his eyes pierced the smog like a sword through a terror-

"Stop it! That one was just as bad!"

Ahhhh! Just let me write something alright!

"Just stop the rude stuff or I'll get Mod in here..."

Fine fine!

-but his eyes shone through smog like a car's headlights through fog... That okay?

"Much better."

"Ummm, Order? Who are you talking to?"

Order gave an evil smile that sent shivers up Altercation's spine.

"Never you mind... Now the two of you, shut up and stop arguing!"

Annoyance poked a finger at Altercation. "He started it."

Altercation glared at his 'friend'. "Did not!"

"Did too!"

"Did not!"

"Did to-"

Everyone in the room stopped as hysterical laughter echoed around. They looked towards the source. In the corner of the room, Surprise had collapsed and was writhing on the floor as the uncontrollable paroxysms swept her body. Her voice could be heard between the laughing. "Hahahaha! Did you see that?! He just appeared there! She didn't even see that coming!" She took another deep breath. "She though he was dead! Hahahahahahahahaha!!!! And then she was all like whoosh! What? Ahhhh! He's aliiiiiiive?! ARGHHHH!"

The sound of footsteps alerted the trio to the arrival. Physics barged through the door to find the commotion. The others just pointed at Surprise. Physics only looked for a moment before his eyes widened and he collapsed in a heap on the floor, sobbing uncontrollably at the familiar site of physics bending madness. Order just shook his head and mumbled something, while Altercation just looked at Annoyance.

"Yeah, Surprise does remind me of her a bit too..."

Annoyance nodded in agreement and looked at Physics. He grinned wickedly and took the opportunity while Physics was distracted.

Order looked up a few seconds later to find that Annoyance sitting on the roof hurling cards at Altercation, who was watching a machine that created energy out of nothing. Order groaned and returned to his book again. "Damn kids..."

Light

As I approached the stunned Princess, I was blocked. The purple pony had jumped in front of the larger pony, supposedly to offer some sort of protection. "Leave Celestia alone!"

Her speech lost what little effect it had when her voice broke. I leveled my gaze at her, and within seconds she was quaking in her boots... hooves... whatever...

I walked closer to the Princess. The purple pony stepped away from the Princess to reach me in the middle. Her horn started to glow a deep purple as she charged some sort of energy. She lowered her horn and released the energy at me. It was obviously meant to be both invisible and unavoidable. I could see the 'invisible' energy as it flew towards me. I looked past it and noticed that the pony had a smug look of her face. It annoyed me.

I looked back at the incoming projectile. I could see the warped light around it, giving away its location; there was even a faint buzzing noise. I waited for the right time to make my move...

I leaned to the left. The ball of energy passed me without getting close. Looking back to the pony, I could see that she didn't know what had happened. My smile widened even further. Behind me, I could hear a buzzing noise getting louder. I snuck a quick glance over my shoulder and saw the ball turning around to follow me. Tricky bugger, it's a homing projectile. A thought struck me and I turned to walk closer to the pony. The buzzing noise kept getting louder, and louder, and louder...

With no warning, I phased in a small whirlwind and broke off to the side. The pony didn't know what was happening, but that didn't matter. The ball couldn't change course quickly enough.

As the energy hit the pony, she collapsed in a heap, screaming. It didn't take a genius to know that she was in a lot of pain. I phased back into my human form and stepped over her writhing body. She didn't even notice me pass by her. Small delay, this is just getting fun... The Princess was still where I had left her, but looked to be recovering. She looked tired, possibly from the huge amount of energy she had shot at 'me' moments earlier. I walked over leisurely and stopped next to her. I reached down and grabbed her neck with my left hand, using it to pull her up to a standing position, and then to a hanging position.

I pulled her ear next to my mouth and whispered in it. "You know, I don't even know why I'm here, do you?" She didn't answer. "I didn't think so. I don't like being imprisoned, It really isn't much fun, and you've just wasted 2 months of my time. Can I tell you something?" I pulled her even closer. She started whimpering, on the verge of tears. I spoke quietly, my voice dripping with venom. "I don't, like having, my time, wasted!" On the last word I drew back my right hand and prepared to deliver the final blow. My fist started on its path to the Princess. I almost hit her. Almost.

As my fist neared its destination, I heard the sound of running hooves. I looked to the around and saw myself surrounded by about 100 ponies, all wearing armor. I dropped the Princess roughly and stepped back, preparing to fight these newcomers. As my temper flared up, I started to flicker more and more, like a picture on a TV with bad reception. My clothes and hair flowed more violently too. The guards shuffled nervously at the sight of me, suddenly unsure.

I phased, spinning in a vortex of light and shadow. I could see honest fear in the eyes of the ponies now. I shot towards the nearest one...

Ahhhhh, now the defecation hits the oscilation...

That really is my favourite part.

"Dude, that's just... messed up!"

Oh come on, it's not that bad! I mean, it is about to happen... Right?

"..."

...

"Fuck you."

Hey! What happened to 'No, don't say that because there might be immature people/things/other reading?!

"..."

For a guy that reads a lot of books, you really are...

Shit, forgot where I was going with that one... How about this, Order, shut up and get back to the game before Annoyance takes a peek at what you're reading...

...

Okay, he's gone.

Aaaaanyway, this chapter was really fun to write, and to have it bounced back to me within a couple of hours by Meeester was great, so stay tuned for the next installment!

Or don't... I mean, if you want to... If it's alright with you that is...

Chapter 9

I am the Avatar of the Sun in this world, and you will not harm my subjects!
-Celestia, confrontation with NightShade

Chapter 9

Inconsiderate Incentives

Rarity

"-and so then I said, Order, what the hay are you on?! Why don't you drop the book and give me a smile? But then he didn't say anything so I gave him a cupcake and left."

The four mares sitting at around the table with the hyperactive pink pony stopped their conversations just long enough to catch the last part. Applejack shook her head and mumbled something to herself. The others looked at her as if she was insane. Pinkie just stared back with a massive grin plastered, neigh, cemented on he-

"That wasn't a very good pun you know..."

"Uhhh, Pinkie? Who are you talkin' to?"

Pinkie whipped her head around to face Dash, her mane whiplashing around to knock a muffin off the table, rolling around in the dirt.

On an unrelated note, a small grey pegasus nearby fainted.

"Who, me?"

"Pinkie, are you feeling alright?"

"Pinkie? You mean me? Or maybe I might have a secret sister called Pinkie Pie too! OHMYGOSHIMIGHTHAVEASECRETSISTERCALLEDPINKIEANDSHEMIGHTBEAROUNDHERESOMEWHERE! OHWOWNOWINEEDYOUALLTOHELPMEFINDHER!

Fluttershy leapt down underneath the table, startled by Pinkie’s wave of babble, with a speed that would have made a pegasus proud. A filly pegasus. That had yet to learn to fly. The wind was whipped through the trees, sending Pinkie's mane into a whirlwind of activity, giving her an almost menacing, insane look.

Well, more insane that is.

Rarity sighed and returned to her daisy sandwich, trying to focus on the less panic inducing side of the day. Celestia's Sun shone brightly down over Ponyville, giving everything a bright new look. The colors stood out more so than usual, which was saying something. The small parasol overhead, courtesy of the cafe where they were eating, gave the group some modicum of protection from the heat, while giving them an unrestricted view of the small town.

Rarity turned back to the group to see Applejack trying to calm Pinkie down while Rainbow coaxed Fluttershy out from under the table. Pinkie was slightly less crazy by this point and was only babbling to herself quietly.

The farmer pony faced Rarity. "I haven't seen her this bad since that thing with the- Oh, what did she call it? -Troll? I think it was that."

Rarity nodded in agreement. "She does go on about her imagination and things that we can't see. Although, I didn't think that her imagination was that inconsiderate. Or so rude. But she still made quite a scene about that. I'm just glad that I haven't done anything like that."

AJ smirked. "Well, as I recall, there was that thing a while back with Tom..."

Rarity gave a small dangerous laugh, her eyes narrowing to slits while her mouth transformed into a half smile half snarl. "Oh my dear Applejack," She paused, "If you ever mention that again there will be consequences." She changed back to her normal self suddenly. "Now, let us return to our pleasant meal, shall we?"

Applejack sat back, unsettled by the sudden mood swing, and let out a nervous chuckle while her eyes darted from side to side. Sweat looked to be dripping from her brow. She looked to say something when she was interrupted by a small pink freight train that slammed into her at full force.

Pinkie hopped off of her orange friend and pointed at the other girls. Fluttershy, who had just resurfaced from her happy place, gave a small squeak and retreated back to her shelter. Rainbow Dash gave a small glare before chasing her down. Pinkie continued unaware.

"Girls! We need to go to Canterlot right now! There's a really bid doozy about to happen there and Twilight needs our help!"

Rarity looked at Applejack, but the farmer had no idea what her friend was talking about. "Pinkie, iffin' ya don' mind me askin', what exactly is gonna happen? And why would Twi need our help? She's got the Princesses there, remember?"

Pinkie shook her head violently, the sound of rattling machinery somehow coming from her. "No, we need to go there RIGHT NOW! She reeeeeeeeeally needs our help."

"Pinkie, did you just listen to Applejack? She said that our dear friend will be perfectly safe. And I will absolutely not risk my beautiful mane getting ruined by a wild goose chase. Especially if it involves running through-" She gave a small shudder. "-dirt." Rarity spat the word from her mouth like a rotten apple. "anyway, I'm sure that Twilight is perfectly safe and is having a great time down there. Why can't we just enjoy an amazing Summer Sun Festival day without worrying about threats against Equestria for once. I mean, what could possibly go wrong?"

Pinkie gasped, her body expanding to a completely irrational size, eyes bulging. "RARITY! How could you say that! Nopony ever says that! Do you know what this means?!"

Pinkie started to talk again, but stopped, eyes focusing somewhere behind Rarity's right shoulder, towards the distant city of Canterlot. The sound of a siren could be heard faintly, drifting on the wind as it lazily made its way down to the small town below. All of the ponies near the cafe stopped and looked towards the city, wondering what could have caused the commotion.

As they continued to watch a small orange haze faded into existence around the city, the lights of the city. The mares wondered why this happened before realizing that it wasn't the haze getting brighter, the sun was getting duller. The huge burning orb had dulled in the sky, causing the land to go darker to the point of twilight. And then all of a sudden the sun popped back to normal. The five friends looked at each other, confused.

Applejack hazarded an opinion. "Well, Ah think that that's th-"

The pressure suddenly dropped in their ears as the air started rushing past them towards the city. The trees, the grass, practically anything that wasn’t fastened down or stiff as a board leaned towards the distant city on the mountain. The rushing noise stopped, and an eerie silence settled down, nothing daring to move in the calm, waiting for something to happen...

???

"Physics, shouldn't you be watching?"

"..."

"Physics..."

"Mphhhhh."

Force sighed gently, before leaning over the small floating bed and capsizing it. A dull thud echoed around the dingy room, filled with incense and candles, a haze in the air. A small groaning sound came from the other side of the bed, a simple wooden thing that somehow levitated for no particular reason. But then again, thinking about to whom it belonged too...

Force sighed again and walked around to the other side of the bed to look at the pathetic heap that was Physics. He was huddled up on the floor in a ball, wrapped in a towel with an icepack on his head. "Come on, get up ya' big pussy."

"Go away."

"No."

"..."

"Please?"

"P, just get the hell up, you really need to get back to work. We really need you. There are some things that can't be sorted out by the rest of us."

"Like what?"

"Like what's happening right now."

Physics lifted his head up from the floor slightly. "What? What's happening?"

"Just come and see for yourself."

Physics resigned himself to his fate and lifted himself up from the floor with great reluctance. Force walked over to another side of the room and tapped on the wall. A large screen popped open. She picked up a small device from a table nearby. "Which one is Equestria again P?"

Physics blanched at the mention of Equestria and broke out into a fit of shivering. "This has nothing to do with her, does it?"

"..."

"DOES IT?"

"...A little..."

Physics looked as if he was going to refuse Force's request, but then thought better of it, knowing what the consequences would be. He sighed again and rubbed his tired eyes. "Number 45."

"Thanks..."

"Whatever."

Force looked at the small device in her hand and pressed something on it. Physics walked over and stood beside his friend to see what would happen. The blank screen in front of her flickered into life, showing a view of Equestria, specifically Ponyville. The entire town looked as if a giant had come overboard with hair gel and slicked the entire place down. Physics instinctively knew what the actual cause was, and he knew what had to happen next. There had to be whiplash. A lot of it. Possibly enough to destroy the town, if not a vast majority of Equestria if the state of this one area was to go by. He cracked his knuckles and looked at the world in front of him, ready to deliver destruction as was his duty. He stretched one hand out towards the screen and-

-froze, his pupils shrinking to the size of a pinhead. He turned and bolted away, leaving only a small dust cloud in his wake. Force scanned the room and saw a small lump huddled next to the bed, happy to have been reunited with the group. She looked back at the screen, curious to see what the cause of this sudden behavioral shift was. She only needed to look for a few seconds before she saw the cause.

"Hmmm, knew she had something to do with this." She looked back at her friend. "He really needs to sort out his priorities..."

Rarity

Nothing happened.

The wind gradually flowed back towards Ponyville, the trees losing their tension. The air and atmosphere itself losing its tension. Everything relaxed. Rarity looked at the quivering ball of pink fur that was her friend. "Really now Pinkie, I think that was a bit uncalled for. Nothing bad happened."

Pinkie stared at her friend, her deep cerulean eyes wide with worry. "But Rarity, that wasn't the doozy! Well, at least I think it wasn't the doozy. It would have been pretty cool anyways though cause did you see that?! I mean, I've seen some pretty cool things but that takes the cake..."

She paused before taking a ridiculously deep breath. "There's cake?! OHMYGOSHIFTHERE'SCAKEINEEDSOMEBECAUSEIJUSTLOVECAKESOMUCH! Maybe I should get some for Gummy... I know! I'll make some cake for all of us! How does th-"

Pinkie stopped. Her rear right hoof shot up into the air while her left eye started doing donuts around her socket. She jumped over onto her back and started giggling hysterically. Then, just as suddenly as it had started, the 'seizure' stopped. She got up silently and turned to look back up at the city. "Oh oh, this is bad..."

Before Rarity could say anything, a huge shockwave blasted from the distant city accompanied by a wave of bass that would have made Vinyl die from exposure to awesome...ness... It knocked the girls over instantly from sheer force, before snatching anything that wasn't secured firmly away. The whole town was shocked. Applejack recovered first and sat up dazed, before running over to her friends to check on them. Rarity was pulled up from the ground by a shocked Fluttershy. She looked up at the city and gasped.

A huge dome of glowing orange and navy light surrounded the city. As they continued to watch, the dome darkened and brighten at the same time, to the confusion of the watchers. An impossibly bright streak shot up from the ground and slammed into the dome, causing it to pulse brightly and return to its previous state. The streak bounced off, but quickly shot back, brightening as it did so, shattering the dome instantly into a thousand motes of glowing light. The streak moved further into the air before stopping, spinning and looping, a lightning bolt rotating in place. It remained like this for a few seconds before shooting away from the city on an erratic course.

Rarity's eyes widened as she realized that it was heading directly for them.

The streak covered the distance from Canterlot in barely any time at all. It became more unstable and looked like it was about to dissipate by the time it reached the outskirts. The darkness contained inside rolled and churned as the streak darted wildly. The streak was lost from sight for a moment as it breached the roofline and disappeared between the houses.

And then it impacted.

Luna

Light looked pissed. And the guards in front of him looked frightened. Very frightened. He leaped towards the unfortunate soul that happened to be at the front of the pack. Luna had trouble deciphering what exactly happened next. To an observer, Light looked to be teleporting between the guards, knocking each and every one of them completely senseless while not gaining a single injury in return. Every time a guard approached, he would flicker out of sight for a moment, and in a display of unnatural speed, he would reappear next to the guard and beat him into submission.

And he was just playing with them.

A few of the guards were more clever and sent ponies to alert the Armory. About half a minute later, the ponies had come running back, burdened with bows and hoof-mounted swords. Any guard that wasn't currently involved in the fight equipped one and proceeded to attack. Luna watched as a pony with a spear of all things managed a glancing attack on Light’s leg. Light instantly flipped around the pony responsible and beat him down. Then he saw the archers...

Light

Oh come on! Archers?! This is getting a little bit unfair...

Then again, I could have some fun...

IT'S FRIENDLY FIRE TIME!

Light stopped for a moment to analyze his predicament, before coming up with the perfect solution. He faded out of the visible spectrum amidst a spider web of light tendrils. Creeping slowly so as to not disturb his cloak, he approached the Princess nearby, cackling to himself gleefully all the while. When he was close enough, he put his plan into action.

He bent the light around him to mirror that of the dark Princess, while changing the Princess to look like him, to an extent. Once he had done this he removed his cloak quietly, before shouting out in a falsetto voice... Not so quietly.

All of the guards looked around for the source of the noise.

"Guards, quickly! He is here! Attack before he can escape!"

The guards turned desperately, before spotting the source. Princess Luna, with the creature nearby. The creature looked stunned and confused while Luna looked at it with an expression of anger on her face.

Meanwhile I looked at Luna with the biggest grin I could manage. I winked at her once and her eyes widened as she took in what I looked like. I coughed quietly so that the nearby guards wouldn't hear and pointed a hand, now a hoof at this point, at Luna. She looked at me confused then looked at herself. Her expression turned to one of shock.

Wow, I don't look that bad... do I?

By this time, the guards had overcome their confusion and drew their weapons at Luna, thinking that she was me. I just relaxed and watched the show. The remaining infantry sprinted towards her, retribution for their fallen colleagues their one goal. I giggled a bit and watched. And then Celestia had to interrupt.

The Sun Princess shot a concentrated beam at me, knocking me backwards and causing me to lose my focus and drop the illusion. Every single pony stopped. Again. The infantry about to attack the Princess looked especially dumbfounded by the turn of events.

Dammit! She must have seen me tampering with the illusions...

Well this sucks.

I staggered to my feet, smoking slightly after taking a blow that probably could've vaporized a normal person. Celestia had risen unsteadily to her feet... hooves... I dunno. And she looked pretty ticked off at me. She barked out an order at the guards and they backed away cautiously. I didn't manage to catch what she said, but the look of fear and apprehension that was plastered over every guard's face made me pretty worried. The Princess' horn started to glow again, and for a moment I considered just doing my illusion/cloak combo again, but scrapped the idea, knowing that she wouldn't fall for it again.

The horn glowed brighter and brighter, before letting out a massive focused concussion wave that only went directly at me, knocking me senseless to the ground, the impact stealing my breath away. The wave continued on its path, destroying and disrupting anything in its path before streaking out of the city and into the distance, expanding on it journey into a dome of force.

I moaned and rolled over onto my stomach and barely made it to my feet. Both of the Princess' horns were glowing. I was confused momentarily as to what they were doing, but noticed a huge glowing dome above my head, easily encompassing the Gardens.

Hmmmm, what is this for...

My question was answered a moment later as I looked around and noticed that the Princesses and the guards had both managed to be outside the shield. Which then proceeded to heat up. I froze in shock, realizing that they were going to cook me to death. In an instant, I phased and shot towards the top of the dome, hoping to break free. Noone... Nopony... Ah fuck it I can't be fucked anymore!

Slipstream Nexus

Order stopped reading for a moment as he felt something disturb him slightly. The other in the room didn't seem to notice. Annoyance and Surprise were too busy playing Twister while Fate watched, a knowing look in his eye. Order sighed and placed the novel on the table gently. The others immediately looked up in shock, knowing that Order never, ever, stopped reading except for absolute emergencies.

Order took no notice of the sudden attention and proceeded to reach his arm forward, looking for something. Seemingly finding it, he reached forward even further until his arm disappeared from the elbow down. He pulled his arm away, and a section of shirt collar materialized. Order leaned towards the collar.

"Hey, what did I say about bad language." He whispered menacingly.

"Ummm, that it's bad?"

"Yes. I did." Order's voice was practically dead from the amount of venom that was contained in it. "Now, keep going with the chapter, and no. More. Language."

"Y-y-yes O-order."

Order's expression softened slightly. "Good, now let us not have this talk again. Ever. Understood?"

"A-absolutely!"

"Good, good. Now get back to work." As he said this, he let go of the collar, letting it slip out of existence again. He settled back to read his book, but noticed the looks he was getting from the onlookers. "What?"

Fate shook his head. "Nothing, nothing."

At this moment Annoyance took the opportunity to kick Surprises' leg out from under her, causing her to fall over. The game descended into a brawl in an instant.

Order sighed.

"He really needs to come up with new material..."

Luna

The Princess of the Night watched as Light came to his sudden realization of his impending destruction. She watched, unfazed, as he changed into his Other form and took off towards the top of the dome, knowing that he wouldn't be able to break through.

She became a lot more worried however when he hit the barrier.

As he impacted, the dome flashed brightly before settling down to its normal state. Luna's expression turned to one of worry as she felt the impact. Light had been on the verge of smashing through a barrier created by the power of the two most powerful beings alive. A wave of mental fatigue hit as the impact swept through her.

She watched as Light bounced around inside his prison, and watched as he shot towards the same point of impact again, to a much different effect.

Light had focused his entire impact into an area about the size of a bowling ball. He shattered the dome into a rain of brightly colored fragments that fell towards the gathered ponies. The shards dissolved within moments of losing their form. The guards looked shocked. Celestia looked shocked. Everypony looked shocked. This thing had broken an unbreakable barrier. Even Discord would've had a hard time escaping.

Luna became extremely worried as she thought about the implications of a being that possibly had more power than Discord. That was extremely pissed off at both of the Princesses. That was on the loose, heading right. Towards. Ponyville.

The Princess saw Light sweep over the edge of the city in an erratic bolt of light. It sped down at a tremendous rate, shrinking into the distance. It then proceeded to smash into the outskirts of possibly the most protected, and most vulnerable, place in all of Equestria

Luna looked at her hooves.

"Aww, ponyfeathers..."

Understatement of the century right there...

Anyway, hope you all enjoyed the new chapter, and again, slow update is made of fail so...

...

Right, anyway.

Stay tuned!

And remember, its number 45 for Equestria...

Chapter 10

WOOOO! 10th Chapter (What, it says right there...)

Okay, I know it isn't the real 10th chapter, but Pinkie would be proud for celebrating anyway. I just know it. If you've made it this far, congratulations, have an internet muffin, you deserve it.
Now, read on! There's much in store for you!

I have seen my fair share of bloodshed, but it is only for the good of all, and I weep for those lost...
-Celestia

Chapter 10

Confrontations and Collapses

Light

Fuzzy fuzzy fuzzy…

This really needs to stop happening…

I mean, I didn’t drink that much, did I?

Oh, wait…

Shit

My eyes shot open as I realized the implications of what had just happened. It all went something along the lines of punch a deity, piss off another deity, scare a whole bunch of random ponies shitless and proceed to demolish a section of a town.

Smooth…

I lost any optimism I had had to begin with as my eyes took in the picture of a wall of dirt. I was lying in a fairly deep crater, smoke rising gently as the whole ensemble cooled off. Small tendrils had reached out from my body while I was unconscious, making me more vapor-like, so I quickly pulled them in and returned to a semi-solid state. As I pulled in some of the high rising streamers, I heard a few gasps and some murmuring.

I groaned as I figured out that this meant company.

And something told me that my appearance wouldn’t be very welcome considering what I had just done…

I tried to rise to my feet, and promptly tripped over the hem of my coat, getting a face full of dirt. I got up, again, and made my way up to the curved edge of the crater. The crater itself was more diagonal than anything, possibly due to my angle of impact. I couldn’t remember much from the flight, but what I did see was that I had landed in a small town.

It seemed oddly familiar…

Well fuck.

I sighed and started my ascent up the side of the mound. It was deeper then I had first thought, about the height of a house, and the steep sides made climbing difficult. For a moment I considered just Phasing and drifting out over the top, but in my current state I probably would have just drifted back to the bottom and settled down to rest.

That’s the problem with that form, it makes anything comfortable…

I snapped out of my small daydream with a start and saw that I was actually nearing the top of the hole. I reached my hands over the edge and pulled my weight up with great difficulty, letting out a small grunt of exhaustion.

And then, all too soon, I was on the top, the heat waves shimmering and making my already distorted form even worse. The sun beat down harshly, and if I could go by that it meant that the Princess was pissed. I could feel the light emanating from it, tugging at my hair and clothes and flicking them about.

I waited for a moment, admiring the sky, before lowering my gaze slightly. It wasn’t the thing that I had been looking forward to the most…

Applejack

“Oh. My. Gosh. Did you guys see that?! It was all like whoosh! Smack! Boom!”

The hyperactive blue pony let out a small squeal. “That. Was. AWESOME! I wonder what could have done that! It must be pretty cool! Well, I mean, not as cool as me of course, but still pretty cool… Hey, does anypony know ex-“

“Whoa whoa whoa, slo’ down there sugarcube, we jus’ need ta go have a good look at wha did that. I’ mighta hurt somepony for all we know!” Applejack wiped her hoof on the ground to remove any trace that it had just been planted firmly in Rainbow’s mouth and pointed it at their partially ruined surroundings, damaged by the shockwave moments earlier. Rainbow Dash glared at her friend for a moment before her expression softened.

“Meh, I guess you’re right. Come on girls!” Without waiting for a response the cyan Pegasus had darted into the air and was over the rooftops in seconds, heading straight for the source of the commotion. Applejack sighed.

“Well, ya’ll ready ta go look for Rainbow?”

Rartiy huffed. “If we must, although I must say dear I do loath to get even a bit of dirt on my beautiful coat, and Rainbow looks like she is heading for quite a lot of it. But I suppose I can find it in my heart to forgive her for that…” She trailed off as she noticed AJ staring at her. “That means yes.”

“Alrighty then… Fluttershy?”

“Um, only if Rainbow really needs me…”

“Ok then, An’ Pinks? You comin’?” She looked around the area briefly. “Pinkie? Piiiiinkie? Where are ya girl?” She sighed. “Well, I think I’ve got an idea where she went. So now we need to go get Rainbow and Pinkie…”

She looked around at the three other ponies, one of which was cowering under the table. “Let’s go get ‘em then…”

Rainbow Dash

The excited Pegasus let out another small squeal as she alighted on the ground next to her pink friend, not even questioning how she had gotten there first. In front of both of them was a medium sized crater with smoke rising lazily from it. A crowd had gathered around it already. Whispers and rumors circulated like wildfire, all of which were speculations on what could have caused this.

And then abruptly they all stopped with a collective gasp. A small black tendril of some unidentifiable material had risen over the top and looked to just be hovering there. The tip lashed slowly at the air while the lower end extended somewhere below to be lost from sight. And then the tendril simply retreated back into the hole as quickly and unexpectedly as it had arrived.

The whispering started again; this time with a more noticeable tinge of fear and apprehension added to the mix. The crowd backed away slightly as a sound rose over the lip of the crater. The crunching of dirt underhoof, but somehow different.

A faint white sheen lit up the edge ever so faintly, distorted slightly as it was by the lines of heat rising from the mouth of the crater. The white sheen grew brighter as whatever it was attached to came closer. A strange appendage reached over the lip and grasped it, using the grip to haul itself up. Rainbow’s expression turned to one of fear, and then anger, as she saw what emerged.

The tension was thick enough to cut with a brick…

To her right, Pinkie was preparing to fight, a dog-like growl emanating from her small form. Rainbow pawed the ground, leaving a small indent, before charging…

Light

Wow, this really brings back memories…

I sidestepped the clumsy charge and allowed the Pegasus to rush past me. This was all bringing back memories of my first encounter in Equestria, in fact…

No way, it is her! Ha, what are the chances of meeting that same pony again!

I managed a small chuckle before having the air squeezed out of me. The blue pony had already recovered from her initial attack and had wheeled around to have another go, hitting me solidly in the stomach. The pony pushed me over, and tackled me into a submissive position. Or at least submissive for a pony. For me it only involved bending my knee a bit. It must have been meant to break a pony’s joint, but whatever.

I Phased and slid out from under her, rematerializing back on my feet next to her. The pony, unused to fighting a thing that wasn’t even solid, backed away, fear evident behind her cocky features. I looked around quickly. The spectators were watching with open mouths, shocked by the sudden violence. A voice came out of nowhere.

“Everypony, stop this thing! It is a danger and must be brought to justice! It probably just wandered out of the Everfree anyway!”

The pony in question was standing to my left, so I spun and looked at him. It was an incredibly large ice white pony, with a scar running across his left eye. He had a symbol of a claw on his flank.

I really need to find out what those mean…

I resolved to ask later, so turned back to face the blue pony. Apparently the white one didn’t like that.

“Hey, you! Look at me when I talk to you! Even if you can’t talk, then listen! If you don’t leave right know then me and my squad will have to take you out!”

I ignored the statement and continued to glare at the pony. She seemed to have recognized me from my last… visit… Unfortunately none of the others did. They probably hadn’t even been told about the attack at all.

The angry white one shouted again. “If you do not respond in any way, my group will take that as a sign of defiance!” I ignored him again. “Very well.”

The blue one started to say something.

“Ummm, Tracker? I really think that you should leave this guy alone…”

The white pony shifted his glare from me to the blue pony. “Rainbow, I can’t do that. And besides, this guy will be easy. I once took out a manticore single hoofedly, and this guy is tiny in comparison.”

“No, I mean th-“

“Rainbow, I told you, we’ve got this.”

As he said this, four other equally large ponies gathered around him. One was a unicorn, two were pegasi, while the last was neither, the same as this ‘Tracker’ pony…

I sighed and turned to face them directly, fully aware of what they were about to attempt. “Guys, you really don’t want to start a fight that you can’t finish…”

Tracker looked taken aback for a second before recovering. “Silence beast, you don’t know who you are dealing with here. We’ve taken out fully-grown hydras, packs of timber wolves, manticores, and even a frost dragon. You have no chance!”

I smiled, and this seemed to unnerve the self-proclaimed monster hunters.

“Well, then. I should be able to deal with you all easily then…” I cracked my neck, and then my knuckles, loudly. “Let’s have some fun with this.”

“Didn’t you just listen?! You can’t win this fight! We’ve fought beasts mightier than you and won!”

I chuckled. “Oh yes, you’ve beaten massive guys, but not worse than me.” I gave them an insane grin. “Now, who wants to party?”

Tracker

“-wants to party?”

The things insane grin sent shivers down the experienced fighter’s spine. This creature was showing absolutely no fear, even when severely injured, as it must have been. Nothing could come out of a fall like that unscathed. But this thing looked fine.

To his left, the unicorn of the group, Charge, was preparing a spell to subdue the creature. As it neared completion, Tracker could hear small grunts of exertion from his companion. When he looked, Charge had beads of sweat rolling down his forehead. He leaned over. “What’s wrong?” He hissed in Charge’s ear.

“I can’t. Seem. To get. A lock on him. The field around. Him is. Severely distorted. Warped.” The sentence could only barely be heard as the unicorn struggled for breath, before sliding sideways to the ground, exhausted from trying to subdue the monster.

The thing in front of them looked bored.

“You know, it is rude to keep a dangerous monster waiting. And I thought that hunters were supposed to be proper gentlemen…” The thing made a small ‘tsk’ noise coupled with a wag of its appendage in disapproval. Flare lost his temper. The crimson red pegasus to Tracker’s immediate right leapt off the ground and flew towards the monster like an arrow loosed from a bow.

He flew straight towards the thing.

He flew straight into the thing.

He flew straight out of the thing?

All of the gathered ponies gave small gasps of relief as they saw the terrifying being dissipate and flicker out of existence. The force of but a single pegasus had been enough to destroy it, it seemed. A few cheers hesitantly emerged from the crowd of onlookers.

They quickly died down when they heard the laughter. It echoed from everywhere and nowhere at once, rolling around, bouncing off the surroundings and being amplified. Then the voice spoke.

“Oh bravo, I didn’t think that one of you would be that brash. You know, if I had wanted to cause you any real harm you would most certainly be dead right now.”

As the voice spoke, a small distortion popped into existence next to Flare. It pulsed, and the resulting shockwave smashed into Flare in a maelstrom of bass, sending him tumbling unconscious onto the ground. The distortion bent around itself and opened up to reveal the creature, which stepped out from behind it as though it was a curtain.

The thing clapped its hands slowly.

“As I said, good effort. I’d give maybe an eight, but then deduct for the lack of caution and any self-preservation, so maybe, I don’t know, a six? How does that sound? Hmmm?”

No response.

“Oh fine, have it your way, seven it is.”

Tracker found his voice, with great difficulty, and spoke to the creature.

“This is your last chance. Surrender now and we will not attack.”

The creature laughed at the statement. “Oh come on dude, you’ve already attacked me, and I think you know that I’m not gonna surrender… Oh, and you might want this guy back, it’ll make the fight more interesting.”

The creature waved an arm, and a tendril of what appeared to be solid shadow reached out, plucked Flare up, and deposited him softly next to his squad. Charge staggered over to his stunned friend and touched his horn to Flare’s head. A small burst of magic later and the Pegasus was awake, albeit sore.

The group of five turned to the creature as one. They ran at it.

It laughed.

Light

This is becoming one really weird day…

I struggled to stop myself from laughing out loud. The ‘monster hunters’ were complete idiots. They were doing the usual ‘walk in, give too many warnings, blada blada bla’ routine. Still, at least they gave warnings, more than what could be said about the Peacekeepers back home. Regardless, the fighting was getting old quickly, especially for the first day of movement for months.

But still, I loved how amateurish these hunters are. It would be fun to… ‘teach’ them…

For a moment it occurred to me that I might have gone slightly insane from boredom, and this was backed up by the fact that I was having fun screwing with all of these ponies, but hey, the opportunity was too good to pass up.

Eventually, the moron that had run at me was woken up by the unicorn, and they all faced me. It was time for things to heat up. Finally.

They all looked so silly when they attacked. I couldn’t help it anymore. I laughed. The first one, a light green pegasus, leapt at me, but wasn’t able to land a proper hit on my body, confused by the blurred edges and flowing nature of it. A single roundhouse to the head later and he was down. A yellow pony tried to go low, but I jumped over and tripped him up with a tendril, incapacitating him.

Two down, three to go.

The red pegasus seemed to have learnt his lesson, and was waiting to attack instead of blindly rushing in. He was just hovering in midair, and I wondered what he was doing. Then the unicorn tried to attack. The two of them must have agreed to attack together. The unicorn tried to fire his energy at me, but I Phased and dodged each one in a flurry of bright light. I rushed him and slammed into him. Hard. As a joke I made some small stars appear over his head and start circling slowly.

The pegasus took the opportunity to sneak behind me, but I twirled around and opened my mouth. That was something that I only ever did when I really wanted to scare. He got a great look at something that looked like it had been dredged up from the bowels of hell itself.

Needless to say it didn’t look very nice, but at least it only looked like that in the form I was in.

The red pegasus stumbled back as fast as he could and sprinted off into the crowd, leaving only a small trail of dust as a memory.

Four down, one left…

Tracker

Tracker watched, worried, as his team was dispatched by the creature. It had a general air of contempt as it took out his companions as if they were no more than flies to be swatted away.

And the worst part was that they were some of the best hunters in the business.

He watched as his deputy ran off into the crowd screaming his head off. Luckily Tracker himself didn’t get a good look at the gaping, fiery maw.

And then it turned to him.

There was no sign of a battle but for the three unconscious bodies lying nearby. The ground was barely scuffed, and the swirling vortex resolved into the more familiar shape of the creature. It was Tracker’s turn.

He bent down to attack, knowing that it would most likely be futile, and pawed the ground. The creature stood there inspecting its claw thing at the end of its arm. Tracker started to charge…

An angry Goddess of the Sun dropped down onto the ground in front of him.

The onlookers gasped as they saw their Princess appear, and then ran the risk of outright fainting when her Sister appeared alongside. Both looked tired and sore. And both looked pissed.

All of the ponies in the area immediately either dropped into a hasty bow, or sneakily backed away to safety.

The thing just sighed.

Light

Oh god, this again.

Why can’t they just accept the fact that I’m out of that bloody statue?!

It really would make things so much easier…

I stared at the Princesses. They looked extremely tired and angry. Celestia didn’t even waste any time before trying to kill me. Mere seconds after she was joined by her sister, a violent inferno burst into existence at the tip of her horn, blasting away any shadows in the area. I could feel the heat waves radiating from it. Somehow, there was absolutely no smoke rising from the top as she launched it at me.

I dived to the side and rolled, letting the ball dissipate the moment it passed me by as I slid back to my feet with an annoyed look on my face. All of the bystanders screamed in terror and fled from the fight. I gave a snort. “Honestly?! You don’t even have the decency to at least make some sort of promise or anything? Jeez, call yourself a hero why don’t you…”

I swaggered towards the duo in an attempt to annoy them further. That probably wasn’t the best choice, but hey, I’d been in a statue for two months…

Celestia and Luna eyed me warily as I approached. I stopped when I was within easy reaching distance.

The clearing was silent.

I broke it to them bluntly. “What do you want?”

Celestia looked surprised that I chose to speak, but the look quickly changed to one of distrust and open hostility. “We’ve come to put you back in your prison.”

I shook my head. “Not gonna happen.”

Her eyes narrowed. “We will not stop until you are detained.”

“So be it.”

I scooped up a shadow from a nearby alley and slammed it into the side of Celestia, knocking her to my left and into a building. She collapsed into the dirt.

Luna glared at me.

As she did so, I felt guilt spreading throughout my body. I was unsure why, and confused why this single pony had that effect on me. I looked away to break the evil eye contact of death and to check on Celestia.

But when I looked, she was already up. And ready to strike.

The same ball of flames from before had gathered around her horn, but it was different, having an angry red tinge to it that flared wildly.

She released the energy, and it flew towards me. I tried to roll, but something prevented me. Luna had used her horn to erect a makeshift barrier around me of a deep violet light. It was too powerful to break through without some sort of run up, so I Phased to try and pass through it. Or at least, I tried to.

Before I could Phase, I was hit by the ball of searing plasma. I was sucked into the middle and held in position by some invisible force. For a moment, nothing happened.

And then I started to burn.

Unimaginable pain flowed through my body. I felt my bones melt and my flesh char. A strange smell entered my nostrils, and I gave a small start as I realized it was the smell of me burning. The firestorm tore me apart, and the strong turbulence flung every particle in different directions as my world faded to black and the fire consumed me…

Celestia

Celestia watched in satisfaction as a small fragment of her Sun was flung off the end of her horn towards Light. Her Sister had expected this, and done beautifully, using her magic to stall the dangerous escapee just long enough for her power to hit him.

The ball stopped once it had touched Light and sucked him into the very center. For a moment Celestia became worried, as she saw no effect. And then all at once, the fire started to alter Light.

The strange flowing form started to drip, while smoke rose from the top of the previously clean spell.

Then the scream came.

Celestia’s expression turned to one of comprehension, and then horror, and then agony. The sound was completely unearthly, as if it should never have existed. Without even turning, she knew that her Sister, and possibly every pony in Ponyville, was hearing the same noise. The haunting sound echoed through the streets, tumbling through open windows until it filled every cavity, every hole, every empty space. It was the sound of something being destroyed that shouldn’t.

And then it stopped.

Celestia’s world lit it as she opened her tightly shut eyes, not even remembering having closed them. A moistness was on her face as the tears rolled down her cheeks and fell to the ground. She looked at the ball in front of her. There was only a dense ball of light and darkness, and as she watched even that disappeared, swirling tighter and tighter until it exploded in a shockwave, spreading fragments everywhere. The consequent impact threw anything not secured into the air. Celestia was almost blown over by the force of it.

When she looked again, the fiery ball was gone, and there was nothing remaining of Light except for fragments that could be seen flitting into the distance, weaving in patterns comprehensible to none.

Light was gone…

Unseen by all, the fragments flew in a gentle arc before making a beeline, as if drawn by a magnet.

Straight towards the Everfree Forest. And Fluttershy’s cottage.

Unknown Location

In the silent room, a small beeping noise came from a dark bank of computers. The sole occupant of the room looked away from the only other active display in the room to check on the alert. A flicker of doubt passed across his face, hidden by the shadows thrown around the room by the sole source of light, illuminating the bare minimum.

He reached out and picked up a phone.

“Sir? This is the Watchman. I’ve just received an alert.”

An inaudible string of babble passed through the handset.

“Well, it was a high energy release warning.”

More noise.

“Yes sir, I checked that it wasn’t them, the rest are dead and the last one went missing not too long ago. I don’t think they will be heard from again. After all, they were just anarchists. But this appears to be from somewhere else. It also has a strange energy signal.”

The phone was dead. A single word slid down the line, filled with untold malice.

“Well sir, I’ve never seen this type of energy before, but the closest thing that I can relate it to it, well, light… I’m still not sure how that is even possible. But I got a lock on it and should be able to track it.”

In the room, a small hidden door slid open with a faint hissing noise. The Watchman looked up from the phone in his hand towards the new arrival. “Oh, sir! I didn’t realize that you would be arriving so quickly! Do you need to have a look at the alert?”

The new arrival nodded. The Watchman led the hidden figure over to the bank of computers. Moments later, the unfortunate Watchman’s brains were spread out over the walls for all to see. The cloaked figure stayed silent, smoke rising from the gun in its hand. It leaned over the bank and looked at the screen. A few seconds later it straightened back up, knowing that it could finally finish its plans. It looked at the body lying crumpled on the floor with distain.

The Director never left witnesses…

Shit just got real...

OW! Fuck!

Jesus, stop fucking hitting m-

OH GOD DAMMI-

...

Just stop.

"Not until you wash your mouth out with soap..."

Really?

"...Yeah..."

...

Fuck.

OW!

Okay, anyway...

Hope you enjoyed the new chapter, more should be coming soon. And as a response to the 'cliffhanger'...

Trollface.jpg

Chapter 11

Smart people challenge me, but only an idiot tries to follow through with it...
-NightShade

Chapter 11

Surprising Introductions

Light

Pain.

Pain everywhere.

Pain was my whole world, my whole existence. The only thing that I was capable of sensing was pain. I couldn’t see, couldn’t taste, touch, hear…

But I could still feel.

My body felt as though it had been shoved in a blender, before being sat behind a jet engine, and then used on a cheese grater. I was then sprinkled over the countryside like seeds on the wind.

Basically, it didn’t feel good.

Then, suddenly, my world compacted, and all of my parts came together and rejoined in one spot. I promptly fell to the ground in agony. The ground held up its end of the bargain and proceeded to smack me upside the head, knocking me unconscious…

The Center

Fire and I crept stealthily through the shadows. Night had fallen over the city, and I had happily greeted it, letting it envelop me and chase away the light from my body, forcing it to retreat to its nightly haven in my hair.

That didn’t sound weird at all…

My body had mirrored the darkness that had fallen. The shadows in my hair had infected my body and flowed down from my head similar to a heavy fog falling to the ground, the light shuffling until it had stacked itself on top, in the smaller position. Fire had watched me, curious as always, as it had happened. For me it was natural, letting the daily cycle happen as it had my entire life. My clothes had changed as well, transforming into a deep, pure black.

In the darkness, I was near invisible.

Fire led the way while I brought up the rear, as we snuck through a twisting maze of alleys and passageways which unfortunately was the only moderately safe route through the city. Fire had set the fingertips of his right hand alight; I allowed my hair to let out enough ambient light to make the shadows dance wildly and shimmer around me. We had travelled this way for about a week now, doing regular patrols around the apartment to raid and generally cause havoc.

We stopped briefly at the end of an alley. It intersected a major road and, even at this time of night, there was still some activity. Fire extinguished his fingertips, and I temporary dampened my light, causing my body to appear pitch black; I was emitting nothing while absorbing all. We waited a few moments for another car to pass before dashing across the road as quickly as we could, trying to avoid any unnecessary contact.

We hurled ourselves into an alley on the other side of the road, barely avoiding the headlights of another car as it sped by in a cloud of smoke. I released the dampening effect, and a small light flared into existence, illuminating Fire’s face. He flashed me a small grin before turning and making his way down the passageway. I followed.

His hand lit up, and the currents of heat perfectly matched his flaming hair. I smirked as I took in his slightly charred clothes.

After the fight with the Peacekeepers above his apartment, we decided it was time to move on. Fire had disposed of the bodies by incinerating them and letting them drift off in the incoming breeze. We had gone downstairs, grabbed our measly belongings, which for me were only the clothes on my back, and left.

For the next couple of nights we had slept on the streets, keeping regular watches for any threats. The Authorities must have known about the attack, and had sent out patrols to search for us. More than once we had been forced to run for our lives from the heavily armored, and armed, attackers.

And then we had found our new home. It was a small place in an abandoned complex four stories up. The entrance had been boarded up, but Fire had shown his pyromaniac side by setting fire to the blockage, and only a quick intervention by me had stopped him from accidentally setting fire to the street.

Inside, the place was a dilapidated mess. The tile floor had been shattered and broken, while the walls were covered in moss, giving everything a strange green look. We had gone to the stairs and gone to the only floor that wasn’t full of holes that let you look into the lobby.

The fourth.

We had broken down one of the doors and set up our ‘base of operations’ in the apartment within. The place had only a single window which actually overlooked a few building and, behind them, a major road. It allowed us to perform small surveys and foraging expeditions in the city. It was going to be perfect.

Of course, Fire didn’t exactly agr-

I was jolted out of my small daydream as I bumped into Fire. He had stopped and was listening with his head cocked to one side, straining to hear something. I wondered what he was trying to hear…

Footsteps. Running.

There was someone, or something, running through the alley system near us. As I kept listening, the sound of more footsteps, heavier than the first, entered my ears. It sounded almost like…

Someone being chased.

I grabbed Fire’s shoulder and he gave a small start, surprised. He turned, and I nodded.

We both started running. The time for stealth was over.

Fire abruptly covered himself in flames as he ran down the alley, sending the shadows cowering in the flickering firelight. His whole body was wreathed in hellfire, an angry red color. Fire himself was almost lost from sight within the inferno, camouflaged by his natural coloring and dirty clothes. I myself made almost no excess light whatsoever as I ran down after him.

We reached the end of the alley and rounded the corner…

And froze, shocked.

Inside the alley, right in the center, was a small figure, about my age, being beaten by the ruthless Peacekeepers surrounding it. Fire recovered first and darted forward, eager to save the incapacitated person, not thinking the situation through properly. His brightly lit body ran down the length of the alley and-

Was shocked by taser held by a waiting Peacekeeper, ready for the attack. Five more, primed for action, jumped out of the shadows and fell upon my injured companion. The electricity ran its course through his body and immobilized him, leaving him helpless against the attack. They were ready for him.

It was an ambush. And the figure in the middle of the alley was the bait.

I quickly shrank back into the shadows and snuck around the Peacekeepers, keeping to the left side of the passage, trying not to be seen. There were at least fifteen in all, and those weren’t good numbers.

I accidentally hit a can lying on the ground with my right shoe, making a small sound. A few of the attackers near Fire looked up. They conversed for a moment, before one broke away from the group, heading directly towards me. I had no other option but to watch as he got closer. I had made up my mind.

The moment the Peacekeeper was within range, I jumped out of the shadows and charged into him, taking him across the alley entirely and to the other side, where we both collapsed in the shadows. He drew in a breath to sound the alarm, but before he could manage it I drew in the shadows around him, panicking, tightening the bonds, constricting him, until I heard a loud-

CRACK!

The sound of the Peacekeepers spine snapping resounded around the small confines of the buildings surrounding me. As one, every Peacekeeper stopped what they were doing and looked towards the source. A few stepped away from the person in the alley that Fire and I had come to save. I drew in a sharp breath.

Lying there, beaten half to death, was a small girl, about my age. She was almost completely blue, from her hair, to the slight bluish tinge of her skin.

I looked away and found Fire. He was lying there, covered in guttering flames, one of his eyes swollen shut, a pleading look on his face. He was mouthing something. I watched for a moment, confused, before I realized what he was trying to say.

He wanted me to save myself.

It was at that moment that I snapped. I let my anger at the Peacekeepers, the injustice at it all. The bubble inside myself from their atrocities had grown enough. It felt as though I could just let it out into the world.

And then I did.

My whole body practically exploded with darkness, the shadows shooting out from the corners like arrows and wrapped around four of the evil attackers. I Phased instantly and flew out to meet the remaining Peacekeepers that I hadn’t already grabbed.

To them, I must have looked like Death itself.

I felt a cold, calculating rage settle over my senses, feeling no remorse as I flew through the measly resistance. I was only a dark shape, almost invisible, as I dealt out death to the people… No, these things that had been ready to kill me not seconds ago did not deserve such a title. I felt a sort of sick joy as I slit one’s throat, hearing the gargled screams as he choked on his own blood.

No one there stood a chance.

I was a force of nature; an evil, brutal force that had been let loose on the things that were meant to protect. My anger reached a whole new level, and as quickly as the first Peacekeeper’s spine broke, I had finished it. I let out an immense wave of pure darkness, light speckled in ever so slightly to mimic the night sky; it slammed into the few Peacekeepers still standing. It passed around Fire and the small girl, weaving around them and continuing to destroy the Peacekeepers.

And then it was over.

I Phased back into my human form, letting the shadows return to their rightful places in the corners and hidden places. I scanned the alley, searching for any living Peacekeepers. There were absolutely none. I had killed them all.

For a moment I was in shock. I had never killed a single person before. At least, never in that manner. I scared myself; I worried about what I would become and for those around me.

Those around me.

Those around m-

Fire!

I whirled around and ran to my friend. He was watching me with wide eyes as I ran towards me. I reached down to grab him, but he shied away from my touch. And then it hit me.

Fire was scared of me.

I withdrew my hand as if I had been struck. That simple gesture from my friend had hurt more than anything I had ever felt before. I hung my head and let it fall into my hands, eyes closed, tears threatening. And then I felt a hand on my shoulder.

Fire was standing there, an understanding smile on his face. He patted my shoulder once, before withdrawing the contact and forcing me to look at him. He leaned over to talk.

“Light, it’s alright.”

I shook my head. “No! It’s sure as hell not alright! I fucking killed those guys! What next huh?! I could kill anyone now.” The tears came through with their threat and made an unexpected appearance. “What might I become…”

Fire simply smiled. “Light, you are one of the most non-violent people that I have ever had the fortune of meeting. Hell, do the things that you’re saying right now sound like the kinds of things a killer would be saying?”

I went to answer, but Fire cut me off.

“Listen, Light. Get the hell outta’ the gutter. These guys were bastards. They would’ve killed you and not thought twice about it. They are brainwashed monsters, and they sure as hell won’t be missed. You are nothing like them, as long as you don’t take joy in unnecessary violence and the suffering of others. They are rude, crude, and won’t hesitate to dish out the pain…” He pointed over my shoulder. “Case and point…”

I turned to follow where he was pointing to and found myself looking at the girl. She was struggling to get to her feet, burdened by the injuries that she had just received. I didn’t think twice before rushing to her aid. She took my hand gratefully, but froze for a moment when she felt, and saw, what I was like.

She rose to her full height, slightly shorter than me, and took in my form. Surprisingly, she took the whole ‘weird dark shadowy shifty things’ pretty well, not even batting an eye when a small shadow-tendril drifted off to one side. I bled out the excess darkness, and gave myself a dark look. Dark in the sense of ‘wow, this alley is pretty dark’ and not ‘barely visible silhouette’ dark.

We both stood there for a few moments. I gazed into her eyes and quickly became lost in the deep blue, sucked in. I barely noticed as she fell into the bright white orbs that were my eyes.

Fire, who was watching, gave a small cough. I broke eye contact quickly and held out an hand. She grasped it after a moment of hesitation. I smiled. “Name’s Light.”

She smiled back.

“I’m Water.”

I slid back into consciousness with a phrase that Fire had said once echoing through my ears.

“You are nothing like them, as long as you don’t take joy in unnecessary violence and the suffering of others…”

I gave a small shiver. “What have I done…?”

I groaned and opened my eyes. I was on a small path in a quiet meadow. I could hear a faint scuffling sound from nearby. Not thinking about it, I tried to stand up. Instantly, the blood rushed to my head. I fell first to my knees, and then did a perfect face plant. I heard a loud gasp, and the sound of something running towards me.

I raised my head to try and get a look at whatever was coming, trying to gauge whether it would be hostile or not.

The last thing that I saw before I passed out was a set of yellow hooves…

Here we go again…

Fluttershy

The timid yellow mare ran down the path to her house, pink mane streaming along in her wake. She had run from Ponyville the moment the fighting had started, terrified to be anywhere near the behemoths when they clashed. The fight had sent shockwaves resounding through the air, shaking the trees and sending flocks of birds, frightened and confused, into the air.

She cast a fearful look back over her shoulder towards the small town, before slamming on the brakes in shock. An incredibly bright light was shining over the rooftops. As she watched, the light fluctuated before flashing.

Then the scream.

Fluttershy fell into a small ball, hooves covering her ears in a desperate attempt to shut out the whine. It was the most terrible, indescribable noise she had ever heard. Every animal in the area started going crazy. A family of ducks ran past and into a small rabbit warren. The rabbits let them in instantly, themselves trying to get away from the noise. Just as the animal lover wondered if it was ever going to stop-

It stopped.

She tentatively removed one of her hooves from her ear. The blissful silence settled over the countryside. The wildlife emerged quietly, not sure if the terrible noise had stopped forever. Fluttershy cautiously lifted her head up and, after not seeing anything about to cause her harm, slowly trotted to her hut. She cast a final look at Ponyville before continuing.

She didn’t see the shards flying through the air towards her.

Fluttershy was nearing a bend in the path when she heard a faint whistling noise. The sound grew louder, as if getting closer. Her head shot up, eyes wide, ears alert. The yellow Pegasus turned her head, desperately searching for the source. A nearby bush looked particularly inviting, so without a moment’s hesitation she leapt in. The only thing giving away her location was a pair of sea-green eyes peering out of the depths.

The whistling noise grew louder. And louder. And louder. Fluttershy was on the verge of running away when she saw what was causing it. Strange shards of pitch black and pure white were flying through the air. There seemed to be millions of the tiny motes.

As she watched they stopped their forward motion and circled around a single spot, before shooting away in a perfect circle. The shards shot into the distance, until Fluttershy thought they wouldn’t be coming back…

And then they came back.

Every single one of the tiny motes of light, and lack of it, shot back towards the single point, to hit at exactly the same time. Strange disturbances sent soft tremors through the air, and the light itself around the collision warped in a sphere.

Fluttershy ducked her head as far as she could into the bush, until it was almost touching the ground. She listened intently, trying to get even the tiniest speck of sound from the thing.

*Thud*

The impact resounded around the open space, finding its way into the bush the small pony was hiding in. She nervously poked an eye out to check on what was there. She wondered for a moment why she couldn’t see anything, before she opened her eyes.

She then drew in a sharp breath and ducked out of sight.

Lying there in a small cloud of dust, was Light.

Fluttershy started to hyperventilate, terrified to be anywhere near the dangerous creature. She considered trying to make a break for it, but shot that idea down as she realized that he would get to her before she could get anywhere. She strained to hear any sound of his approach…

Nothing.

There was absolutely no noise coming from the impact zone. Fluttershy quietly stuck her head out to have a peek. Light was lying unconscious on his back in the middle of the path. And he was injured.

The caretaker’s instincts took over immediately, memories of treating Light once before were rushing into her head. She gathered up whatever courage she could dredge up before boldly taking a step out of the bush.

Well, I say boldly… You know what I’m trying to say…

Fluttershy crept down the path towards Light. As she neared him, she could see just how badly injured he must have been. The once pristine clothes were ragged and slightly blackened. Oddly enough, no colors showed up on the ethereal fabric whatsoever. His body was flickering madly, sections breaking off and reforming in an effort to retain some sense of form. His clothes and mane were fluttering weakly where they had once moved wildly in the invisible and undetectable breeze.

Fluttershy made up her mind. She would nurse him back to health. Hay, maybe he might even be grateful and be friends with her. He was nice enough last time anyway…

Light stirred.

Fluttershy took a step back as he rose shakily to his feet, swaying as he did so, before keeling over and landing neatly on his face. She gasped and sprinted towards him, covering the last of the distance just in time for Light to pass out. She stood, unsure for a moment, before deciding.

She would need to get him to her house.

Transition to Fluttershy’s

Convenience walked into the hazy room, a disturbed look on his face. He cast his gaze around the small room, before it settled on the table where three beings were playing what appeared to be ‘Go Fish’. He walked over.

Order looked up briefly from his book to look at the new arrival. He was sitting in his usual spot, not having moved, even after finishing the last novel he was reading. Surprise and Force were having a heated argument over whether or not Surprise had asked for 10’s or 7’s. Convenience ignored this and went straight for his friend. Order sighed and put away his book, knowing that Convenience would only be there for a good reason.

It was.

“Order! So glad that I found you!”

Order grunted. “It would appear so…”

Convenience looked at the cards on the table. “I wouldn’t be interrupting something, would I?”

Surprise and Force were still having their argument. “It would appear not…”

“Good. Anyway, where’s something important that I need to discuss.”

“Shoot.”

“Well, I think that Author used a transition…”

Order’s eyes shot open, startled. “We wouldn’t dare…”

“I think he did.”

Order groaned and shoved his hand forwards. It disappeared into thin air. He felt around for a moment before finding what he was looking for. He suddenly jerked forward. A cry of pain came out of nowhere, and Order withdrew his hand, the end appearing again.

“You’re right, he did… But I’m afraid we’re too late,” Order shuddered, “He saved it…”

Fluttershy

The yellow pony finished lifting Light across the room, and shoved him onto her couch. She was preparing to fetch her medical supplies when the creature on her couch groaned and rolled over, facing her.

Light opened his eyes…

Well, didn't see that coming...

Well, when I say that, I mean...

Well, I am the author so...

Well-

"Argh, dude! Stop saying well!"

...

"Auth..."

Fine, jeez, I'll stop!

"Good. And I'm still not happy about you using that transition either."

Bite me, I was lazy.

"..."

I'll get Pinkieee...

...

That always does the trick. Those guys must be terrified of her or something.

Well... I mean, Okay, now that Convenience is off my back, hope you liked the new update and slightly quicker time as well.

Star date 213-

...

Stupid crossovers, messing with my head...

Anyyyway, adios!

Chapter 12

Memories are always there, even when nothing else is...
-NightShade

Chapter 12

Resurfacing Memories

Light

The nightmares swirled through the darkness, torturing me with the memories of my life. All of the bad times returning to me in an instant.

That's the one good thing about being a statue, you never need to sleep. Never need to dream.

Never need to remember.

It seemed that all of the time without sleep had built up, and almost every nightmare that I had ever had resurfaced that night while I viewed from the sidelines, unable to help or intervene. I watched everything, from violent beatings, to the brutality, to the death of all of Fire, and later Air, Earth and Wat-

No, I can't go down that road. It's too painful, even now, in a different world being hunted.

I was only too glad to feel the fog of sleep start to retreat from my view and I embraced the clearness. Anything to beat back the memories.

I opened my eyes and looked around...

Well this seems familiar...

I closed my eyes tightly, before reopening them and scanning my surroundings. For a moment it crossed my mind that I might have gone back in time, everything looked almost exactly the same as when I had first arrived in Equestria. I was lying on a small couch in the middle of a small room. A small table was in front of me, with a small pegasus frozen next to it, eyes wi-

Wait a second...

I snapped my eyes back to the yellow pony in front of me. It was the same pony that had taken care of me the last time I had been here. And that went so well…

I tried to get up and move, but a wave of fatigue and pain washed across me, and I collapsed back into the couch with a groan. For a moment I mimicked a broken computer monitor as I partially phased in and out, a bad signal in a tv, but that too passed as I settled slightly. If the pain and the way that I was flickering was anything to go by, I was pretty beaten up. I was bruised and battered, and the damage coupled with the lack of energy had weakened my nature. My clothes were only moving weakly, and the segregation between my Dark and Light sides had broken down a little, moving my total color to a more uniform grey, with only a small difference between the two tones.

My whole body was still threatening to break up, and the excruciating pain was coming back in force. I gritted my teeth and lay there for what felt like hours, but it must have only been a few minutes.

I was on the verge of passing out from the pain when I felt a soft touch on my shoulder, pressing down on my injuries. It was incredibly light, and I barely felt it at all, even with my whole body in its state of sensitivity. I opened my eyes again to see what it was...

Fluttershy

The timid yellow pegasus shrunk in fear as Light opened his eyes and looked around. For a moment he tried to rise, before pain clouded over his eyes and he fell back onto her couch. It became obvious to Fluttershy that he was in terrible pain. Her instinct for caring overshadowed her fear.

Only by a little...

She rose to her hooves and slipped slowly towards Light, watching carefully for any sign of hostility. He was writhing slightly on the couch as bits of his form swirled around in a weird invisible turbulence. Even his color had changed as the tones drifted lazily across his body. She reached out a hoof to touch him, trying to soothe him in some way. The moment she touched his shoulder, the movement stopped and he turned to look at her, opening his eyes.

Fluttershy retreated immediately, fear flooding her system. She knew what Light had been capable of before, and knew that even in his severely weakened state, he would easily be capable of harming, and possibly killing, her. She lay there quivering on the floor awaiting Light’s attack. That seemed like the only thing that he had wanted to do the last time they had encountered him. He was going to attack her any second now...

Any second now... (See? Red! No wait, wrong scene...)

Nothing happened.

A soft sigh echoed quietly around the enclosed space. Fluttershy opened her eyes and looked to the source, curious as to what had made the noise.

She took in a sharp breath when she saw Light. He was still lying on the couch, not having moved. But that wasn't what caught her attention.

He was crying. His eyes had a far-away look to them and glistened with small tears. As she watched, he rested his head in his hands and started to shake his head, muttering under his breath. He let out another sigh and actually started to sob quietly into his hands.

Fluttershy was thunderstruck. To her, Light was a dangerous, unstoppable, unfeeling creature. It had attacked her friends without a moment's hesitation before moving to the princesses. Even after being trapped for 2 months, the first thing that he had done after becoming free was attack the princesses, escape Canterlot, and then cause a massive commotion around Ponyville.

He was supposed to be evil. He was supposed to be bad.

He was supposed to be a monster.

But he was not meant to be crying on her couch.

Fluttershy stood rock still for a full minute, shocked at what was happening. Light seemed to be honestly sad, not even aware that she was watching him. The animal lover cautiously crept closer, and closer, and closer, until she was standing right next to him. The strange white, no, grey creature was sniffling under his breath. She hesitated, her hoof hovering over his head, before she touched him...

Light

Oh god, what have I become.

Am I really that scary? Am I really that bad that a pony can't even look at me without cowering in a corner?

We made a promise that we wouldn't harm innocents. I broke that promise.

I broke the promise.

I let them down...

My head fell into my hands, while I felt something trickle down my face. It took me a moment to realize that I was crying. I tried to fight it, but whenever I closed my eyes I would see my friends in front of me.

"Light, what have you done?"

"Air! What are you doing here?! I haven't seen you guys for se long."

I moved towards Air, but she just shook her head, turned away and walked away and walked off into the darkness.

Next was Earth. He walked up to me, gave me a disapproving glare, and retreated. I tried to speak but he raised a hand behind his back to cut me off.

I started to cry. Seeing those two hurt more than words could describe. But nothing could prepare me for the hurt that came next.

Water appeared.

She looked me right in the eyes. "I don't even know what to say to this. You've done what we all promised not to do. You hurt those that we swore to protect. I can't speak to someone that would commit such travesties. Goodbye Light." She too vanished into the darkness, leaving her soft-spoken message to haunt me.

My breath caught in my throat. I didn't think that it could be any worse.

It did.

Fire arrived.

His was the simplest, the shortest, and the most hurtful of all. He just looked at me and said four quick words. They cut through all of the layers of caked on emotional detachment, straight to my core. He was my oldest and closest friend, and no-one, absolutely no-one, knew me as well as he did. Those words shook me and threatened to send me off the edge.

"You've let me down."

Then he was gone.

I floated through the dark void that was my mind, lost in the spiraling world of depression. The loss of my only friends, and then their denouncement of me, was too much. All I could feel was sadness, blackness. Happiness was a concept suddenly lost to me; hope became an illusion, the silver lining dull and rusted.

I'm not sure how long I stayed in the darkness of my soul, falling deeper into sadness, but it felt like forever. Time lost all meaning in its hell, having absolutely no hold whatsoever on me. And then I felt a small pressure on my head.

I didn't move, not caring about anything, not even checking to see if it was dangerous. Death would have been a welcome relief then. I might have then had a chance of escaping my past.

But something, or rather somepony, was trying to save me. The pressure turned into a stroking motion, accompanied by a soothing humming. The humming progressed to a quiet singing, almost a lullaby. It almost sounded like Air...

That thought redoubled my crying, and I lost all restraint, turning into a lump of crying and whimpering. Whatever was stroking my hair stopped, and for some reason this made me more sad, something that I hadn't thought possible. Suddenly the pressure returned in the form of a hug. Something had wrapped itself around me and was hugging me, murmuring sweet nothings into my ear.

I finally took the effort to open my eyes, and the sight brought the tiniest, tiniest of smiles to my face.

It was the little, scared pegasus. And she was hugging me. When she saw that I was looking at her, she stopped her stoking, but then smiled and started again. I would like to say that I held out in the face of sheer adorableness, and kindness, and that I restrained myself in my depression.

I would like to say that.

What actually happened is that the moment I saw the smile, I gave in and wrapped my arms around her, hugging her and sobbing into the incredibly soft pink mane. I felt her tense up under my touch (Not that way, jeez...), before relaxing and returning the hug.

I'm not sure how long we stayed like that, but it must have been at least 10 minutes. But all good things must come to an end, and I untangled my arms from around her and wiped my face, removing all of the tears, and looked her in the face. She still had that smile on her face. That amazing smile that had rescued me from the very brink of darkness and depression.

But the memories were still there, lurking in the shadows, the corners of my mind, ready to pounce at in an instant and take over. At least for the meantime they had been beaten back, forced to retreat.

I sighed as I leaned back into the folds of the couch. The yellow pony looked almost sad to have lost contact, and had a forlorn expression on her face. I smiled sadly. "Thank you."

The pony gave a start when I spoke. "Uhhh, you're welcome." I had to struggle to hear the words she spoke. She was incredibly quiet. "It's alright, I don't like seeing anypony sad. But would you like to tell me why you were crying? I mean, if that's alright with you..."

I gave a small chuckle. This pony really was the pony that I had first met when I arrived here. What was her name? Fluttershy? Yes, that was it...

I reached out and stroked her mane. "It doesn't matter. Just old memories is all. Nothing for you to worry about." I paused. "But if you don't mind me asking, where are we again?'

She smiled. "Well, you're in my house, and I was going to help you with your injuries. If you would like that mean."

I nodded. "Aha. And what happened to make me get here. Last thing I remember I was practically destroyed, and then alive, and then unconscious..."

She suddenly looked really nervous. "Well..."

Fluttershy

The conversation with Light was actually going quite smoothly. He didn't seem hostile, or dangerous, or even panicked. He was just, calm. It was just like Fluttershy had remembered the first time she had met him. Back then he had just sat there and talked. Well, at least until she fainted... Then it became a bit of a blur with her friends and the princesses...

But right now he was just sitting there, a sad smile on his face, dried tears reflective slightly. He had sat there, hugging her, for about 10 minutes, just crying into her mane.

And then he asked her what had happened.

A wave of fear swept across her. The yellow pegasus was unsure of how to approach such a... touchy subject. But she didn't think that he would appreciate a lie, so she just went out with it. "Ummm, well... About that..."

His smile dropped, replaced by a look of concern. "What happened." It was less of a question and more of a statement, laced with traces of concern.

"Uhhh, you kinda exploded in a way... And then you just collided and appeared in front of me, so I'm not sure what happened exactly. And then you fainted, so..." She trailed off with a muffled squee. Light's heart struggled between the sheer cuteness of the pegasus and how dire his situation had been.

Fluttershy crept back, waiting for a response, thinking that Light would get angry, or at the very least annoyed. Oddly enough, he just sat there, a thoughtful look and tug at the corner of his mouth the only thing giving away emotion. He chuckled. "Oh yeah, now it's coming back to me. Good old Tia, always jumping to the violent alternative. But then again, I guess that I may have started it in a way."

Fluttershy peeked at him curiously. "What do you mean? And also, weren't you a statue?" She let out a frightened squeal as she realized that that might have been a bit insensitive. However, Light didn't seem to mind, so she continued. "How exactly did you even get free?"

Light stroked his chin thoughtfully. "Well..."

Somewhere completely different...

The tension in the room was reaching breaking point. All eyes were on one person. That person had their hand outstretched, closing in on an incredibly important wooden block. To the group, the outcome of this daring venture was valuable beyond belief. The hand retrieved the block, and with a yell of triumph the holder placed it on the table. Fate was successful. Physics was annoyed.

"Now remind me, why the hell you thought that it was a good idea to play Jenga?!"

"Actually, the proper question here would be how Annoyance convinced us to play..."

Fate gave a small chuckle. "Yeah, that would be a better question. But at least you would have an advantage over the rest of us Physics..."

"Not that much."

"Well, considering who you are."

Physics made what could be considered a trollface, and returned his attention to the game. Force was taking her turn, removing one of the middle pieces, and successfully placed the stolen wooden block on the table in front of her. Annoyance was next, purposely making loud noises while thinking, before slowly, slowly, slowly placing his hand on a block and taking it out. The moment it was out and the tower was stable, he slammed it down in front of him, almost knocking down the tower and started flaunting his momentary victory.

"AWWWWW YEEEEAAAH! Suck it bitchaz! HAHA! Annoyance rules, you all... droolz!"

Fate facepalmed, a resounding SLAP! travelling around the room. Physics sighed and leaned forward, ready for his turn. He reached forward to remove a block...

"AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH! DAMMIT! HE'S GONE AND USED ANOTHER ONE!"

The shout tore through the entire structure, making everyone jump. Fate laughed. "Was, it just me or did that sound like Order..." He looked at the table and gave a groan. "Physics! What did we agree about doing that!"

Physics was grinning sheepishly at Fate, his hand holding a small wooden block. The tower next to him had a section supported by only one block, located at the corner, completely breaking the rules of gravity and the laws of physics. But then again, considering who had done it...

He squeezed a nervous laugh out of his mouth. "Oh come on, you know that I would never cheat... hehe..."

Fate glared at him. "Well, then, why don't you just put gravity back in place then."

Physics, knowing he was caught, just sighed. Without further ado, the tower received its prompt and fell over in a clatter of wood. Physics sighed again. "Shit..."

The door burst down. Order leaped into the room and punched Physics in the face, eliciting a loud yelp. "What the hell Order?!"

"Physics, it's bad enough having the Author use transitions. I do not. Need. You. SWEARING!" He jumped through the roof and disappeared. Annoyance burst out laughing, but stopped instantly when Fate gave him a look that could freeze hell.

Physics sat up from where he had collapsed on the ground unnoticed, holding his nose. "Well that made absolutely no sense whatsoever..."

Force just sat still. "Does that mean that the game's over?"

Light

"And that's basically what happened..."

Fluttershy sat there, her stillness not betraying her racing mind. It crossed my mind that I probably shouldn't have been so illicit about me attacking the princesses, but it was too late to take that back now. She started to back away, and I tried to get up to follow her, forgetting my injuries. I collapsed onto the floor, groaning from the pain. I felt a familiar pressure growing inside me. I looked at my hands, and froze, panic setting in. I whipped my head towards Fluttershy. She was nervously standing there, not sure what to make of the new development. She started to creep towards me, but I raised my hand and motioned for her to get out, gritting my teeth against the pain flowing through my body.

"No, don't get any closer. I need you to get out. Now!"

I had barely finished the sentence before she fled from the room, pink mane streaming behind me. I gave a relieved sigh, which turned to a moan of pain. I would never want her, or anyone, to be around me when I Reset.

I glanced at my hands again to check. Sure enough, cracks were forming on the surface of them. From between the cracks, streams of light were shining out, interspaced with shadows. The room darkened, with an amazing light-show dancing across the ceiling, caused by the cracks.

I felt the cracks growing, the pressure inside me getting worse, trying to force its way out. I knew it would be soon.

Actually, it's surprising that I held out this long after Celestia's attack. Must not have had enough time to recuperate the first time I Reset then. An interruption or something.

The pressure built to a climax accompanied by a beautiful keening noise. It calmed me, feeling like a warm welcome home. And then the pressure released from inside, tearing me apart. But it wasn't painful. No, it felt great.

I would just need to take a little time-out...

Celestia

The Princess of the Sun ran around madly, trying desperately to remedy the damage that Light had caused, especially after the strange shockwave that had spread through Ponyville after his destruction. She calmed down immensely after checking on all of the ponies that had been near the fight, especially Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash, two of the Elements. They didn't seem hurt, only confused and disorientated by the strange events. Rainbow was only now returning to the waking world, a full 2 hours after the event, while Pinkie stayed happily and uncharacteristically unconscious.

She ran across the scorched clearing towards them. "My little ponies! Are the both of you okay?!"

The blue pony, Rainbow Dash, shook off her confusion and looked at the new arrival, snapping to a hasty and bow. "Princess Celestia! It's so good to see you! But there's no need to worry, that thing would have never stood a chance against me! I would have just been like whack! smack! ban-" She stopped and blushed furiously, realizing that she was in the presence of royalty, and the pony that had destroyed the threat. "Ummm, sorry about that... hehe... Anyway, I'm just glad that we got him before he could do any serious damage..."

In the distance, Fate gave a sadistic laugh at the pony taunting him...

A terrible keening noise ripped through the air. Every single pony that heard it froze, knowing what it meant. Celestia's eyes went wide in horror and whipped around to look for the source. She shot through the buildings, only pausing to look behind her. Rainbow was following. She considered sending the pegasus back, but allowed her to follow anyway, not wanting to waste any time arguing.

The duo reached the outskirts. Rainbow got there first, having jumped into the air and flown, while Celestia just ran at almost the same speed. They both stopped, horror on their features, as they saw the source across the empty meadows between the town and the small cottage in the distance.

Fluttershy's cottage.

The area around it was fluctuating, going from dark, to light, to dark, every few seconds. The noise was coming from that direction. The pair went to move, but before they could, the cottage exploded. Rainbow was blown backwards, while Celestia only just managed to stay up. Oddly enough the cottage, which was located in the center, was mostly untouched, only swaying slightly before returning to normal.

A huge wave of darkness and light swept on the wake of the shockwave, breaking into innumerable shards until flitting away. The shards broke into different flocks, each sweeping around on their own different flight paths, before turning and meeting in a small point. The clump flew around and shot towards the cottage, splitting up and slipping through any gaps in the woodwork.

The whole display was over in a few seconds, peace returning to the landscape again.

The Princess stood, shocked, while the pegasus staggered to her hooves. Celestia sprinted towards the cottage, desperate to reach it before Light could do too much damage...

Fluttershy

The yellow pegasus jumped out of the room and flew up the staircase. Light had seemed almost scared, and she didn't want to make him angry, so she had escaped the room as soon as possible. She settled to the ground and tried to calm down. She wondered what would make Light want her out of the room. Maybe he ju-

The terrible noise drifted into her ears, and she collapsed onto the ground, hooves over her ears, trying to block out the noise. It was the same noise that had come from the town before she had seen him on the road...

Her eyes widened as she realized what this meant, and went to go to the stairs.

But then the shockwave came.

It was very soft, but forceful enough to make her stumble and fall to the ground. A strange flock of colored shards flew through her house, before escaping and flying away. Moments later, they returned and went to her living room.

Towards Light.

Fluttershy darted down the stairs to check on Light, scared for him and what the shards might have done. She reached the living room and froze, looking to where Light should have been.

The key word there was should.

Where Light was lying on the couch was a shifting, floating cloud of pure light, which was darting through another cloud of darkness. The two intermingled and slipped together, until they were mashed into a single shape. The cloud floated to the ground and alighted next to her table. It slowly changed until it resembled the shape of a human.

The shape of Light.

It turned towards her, and she took a breath. The thing was scary. It was composed of a strange assortment of shades. Patches of bright light would drift around, lighting up everything, while patches of darkness would chase after, giving the impression of a cut-out from the universe, a blank space. All of these patches were engaged in a beautiful ballet, shifting across the form. No features could be made out. It was just made out of these shades, nothing more. Fluttershy gave a terrified squeak and hid behind her mane, unsure what this new creature would do to her.

And then it spoke.

"Hello Fluttershy."

LOLOLOLOLOL

I'm bored, soooooo...

Yeah, not much to say.

...

Yeah...

Again, sorry for the late, late, late update.

ENJOY!

Chapter 13

First impressions are always important, and the best are the ones where they suspect nothing...
-NightShade

Chapter 13

Way-layed Wanderers

Light

"Hello Fluttershy."

The small form of the pegasus peeked around the corner, barely visible and mostly hidden by the flickering lights that jumped crazily around the room. My 'Reset' had worked, and almost perfectly too. There was only a momentary struggle to get back in balance before I had settled my form again. But honestly, I was just glad that I hadn't blown down the whole house and killed my new friends in the process, but I had instead managed to actually focus the concussion wave further away, reducing the strain on the house and shooting it everywhere else.

Although it probably destroyed absolutely everything outside, the town included...

But that can be dealt with later. In the meantime, I've got a frightened pony to deal with.

I walked across the room slowly, so as to not frighten her any more than I already had, and knelt down, reaching out a hand in an attempt to display friendship. It probably wasn't helped by the whole 'glowing outline evil looking devil ra-ra-ra nom' thing, but that would clear up in a few seconds anyway.

But I don't think it'll make that much of a difference, because at the moment I think that this pegasus might just collapse from fright, and of course I'll get the blame again.

Just like always.

Yeah, I am getting kinda annoyed at these stupid ponies walking in when I'm in a compromising position, and the last time that happened I had to deal with a stupid fucking imprisonment in stone. I mean, who the hell puts someone in stone?! That's just fucked...

I shook my head slightly to jump out of my thoughts and looked back to Fluttershy. She had buried her face in her mane and was quivering on the floor, a small whimpering noise coming from her general direction.

The sight of it practically tore my heart out. I was sick of everything being scared of me just because of what I am and what I can do. They never seem to realise that I have had a harder life than any of them would ever realise. I've seen death and destruction, every sort of malady and disease. And the only other people that ever understood me are dead, all dead.

I stopped my train of thought again before I got too depressed. I always had to stop myself from thinking about... them. I don't think that I've ever gotten over losing them.

But anyway, this was about Fluttershy, not me.

This strange creature, no, pony had shown me the first signs of compassion that I had seen in a very, very long time. And I just had to repay her.

I reached down, trying to stroke her in an attempt to give some sort of relaxation. In the back of my mind a small voice was talking to me, just like always, but I shut it out. I couldn't let either of those voices convince me, had to stay in tune. They'd been around for as long as I could remember, but listening to them never worked out. Never did.

That in mind, I squashed them down and continued reaching for the cowering mare, my hand almost touching her...

And then the door opened.

Now, when I say opened, I mean it really opened. It flew to the other side of the room and crashed against the wall with a massive BANG! I barely had time to react before I was hit by a massive ball of energy that clammed into me, crushing me against the wall. I could feel the tiniest traces of heat touching me, and in that state it meant that whatever it was must have been incredibly hot.

The only thing that stopped me from being killed instantly was my current state of existence, but even that wouldn't last very long. I had to do something.

I had just started to push back against the force when I heard a tiny voice:

"Stop!"

Instantly the force relented against me, and I fell to the floor gasping slightly. The sound of hooves clopping against the wooden floor was drifting in through my hazy mind. It took me a moment to realise what was happening, but that was already too late as I felt the force press down on my back, keeping me pinned to the floor.

There was a murmuring going on, and I didn't like where it was going. The conversation seemed pretty one sided from the snippets that I could hear.

"-Dangerous creature............. Should still be imprisoned...."

"But-"

"Fluttershy........Can't stop it"

{Come on, get those stupid creatures...}

"But-"

"No......Need to stop him..........Could end...."

"Agree.......Call Twilight to........ Harmony....."

[Yes, get them! Think of all the things that they've done to you]

"I think...... Right now....."

{While you still can. Kill them all...}

My face blanched. The conversation had been all but blocked from my ears by the two voices. The voices that had been around since I was trapped in that stone prison.

I guess that was another thing that I hated about it, the stone prison I mean. I had to hear those two voices in my head. The whole time.

And they were getting worse...

Celestia

The 'Eternal' Princess was desperate.

The blast had shocked her, and the fact that it was of such a magnitude, and that it emanated from the Element of Kindness' house, only furthered her fear of something bad happening.

Loyalty followed on her heels, trying to constantly brush past. She only succeeded in the last 100m leading up to Fluttershy's cottage, a testament to the Princess' speed. But then, before Celestia could offer a warning, she burst in...

The view was one that would have been at home in a horror movie. Rainbow was sitting on her rear, her wings frozen where she had stopped in shock at the scene before her: the slowly reaching menace, scary in every respect, the shivering, innocent victim, and the seemingly tranquil surroundings. But the moment of shock was gone the moment Celestia blasted him off of his hooves, or whatever those things were.

The attack she had used on him was a literal wave of sun, concentrated to burn anything and everything in its way. This particular one had been focused to form a sort of barrier around Light, trapping him and preventing him from escaping.

And yet he didn't die.

Celestia was about to lose control and hurl him away, possibly off the face of Equuis, when a small voice stopped her.

Fluttershy.

The timid pegasus was sitting up and had raised a hoof in a futile attempt to stop the Princess of the Day from further harming this, abomination. But what else could be expected from the element of Kindness.

"Stop!"

The squeaky call was barely even heard over the roaring sound, but even that was loud enough for Celestia to hear. She dropped Light off the wall and instead pinned him against the ground so as to reduce the chance of any escape. Rainbow Dash was shaken out of her stunned state by the call and immediately jumped up into the air facing the trapped menace, ready to react to anything.

Celestia turned to Fluttershy, "My dear little pony, this matter is out of our hooves. This threat must be dealt with now!"

The yellow pegasus shook under the Princess' unrelenting gaze, but held firm. "No Princess, he's just misunderstood... We-"

"No Fluttershy, I know that you show Kindness to everything, but this is a dangerous creature and must be dealt with. I will attempt to send him away, or kill him. Whatever comes first," She said that with such venom that Fluttershy had no hard time in believing that she would do such a thing, "I don't even know how he got out of stone, he should still be imprisoned."

"But-"

Rainbow cut in this time, "Fluttershy! How can you defend this thing?! He tried to kill all of us!"

"It was only self-de-"

"No! We need to stop him before he can do any more damage than he already has! You two stay here; I'm gonna go get the rest of the Elements! He could end Equestria as we know it!"

Celestia nodded, "I agree. You should fly to Twilight to contact the rest of the Elements. Her magic could speed up the process tenfold. She should be back from Canterlot by now, so find her first." Before she could even finish the sentence Rainbow was gone, leaving only a small cloud in her wake, leaving only Celestia and Fluttershy.

And Light.

But the yellow pegasus was struggling to say something, "P-princess, stop it."

Celestia was taken aback, was this really the same timid pony that would practically faint at the sight of her own shadow? Celestia mumbled to herself quietly, "That's it, he must have infiltrated her mind in some way..."

Fluttershy continued, "You need to stop attacking Light right now..." She trailed off with a barely audible squeak at the end.

Celestia looked sadly at Fluttershy, and gently shook her head, her horn shining a bright gold as it kept the barrier attacking Light going. "I'm afraid that I can't do that Fluttershy. This creature is dangerous and has attacked all of us numerable times"

"No Prin-"

She was interrupted by a bright purple flash shooting through the window and landing in the middle of the room. Another flash, and five mares appeared in the middle of the room, piled on top of each other, groaning in discomfort as they struggled to untangle themselves.

The Princess waited patiently for a few moments until they were ready. Rainbow looked angry, Twilight concerned, while Rarity, Applejack and Pinkie all looked a little confused as to why they had suddenly been pulled out of their efforts to fill in a mysterious crater in the middle of Ponyville.

Twilight leaped to the Princess' side, "What did you want Princess?" she asked hurriedly, "Is there some-"

She trailed off as her eyes rested on the barrier of pure sun that was cocooning the shining entity on the floor. The rest of the Elements were looking too, confusion on their faces for only a few moments before shocked realisation dawned across their features.

Twilight didn't hesitate before she called out. "Girls, get in position! We've got to stop Light before he can hurt anyone like he did last time!"

The group of friends immediately gathered themselves and jumped together to form a small huddle. Celestia nodded once before removing the shield to let the Elements get to work without obstruction. Her magic would only get in the way, and they all needed this blast to be as powerful as possible to get rid of any chance of escape, or a lesser punishment.

She waited.

And waited.

No blast?

The Princess of the Day turned to look at the Elements, wondering why they hadn't worked. The jewellery, tied to each pony's life force? Check. Formation? Check. Threat? Check.

Fluttershy?

No, she was still sitting out of everyone's line of sight, to the left of the massive group, staring at Light who was, at this moment, on the floor.

With no sun-shield keeping him down.

And no Elements attacking him.

Was it just her, or was he starting to look a bit unstable in his composition...?

Light

They were loud, oh so very loud, but at the same time as soft as the the best velvet, worming their ways into my ears. The two voices of terror were speaking, whispering so, so softly into my ears, urging me to do acts of evil. That time in stone, alone but for these voices, had given them a large hold over me in almost no time at all. There was only so much I could do to fight them, especially while under the barrage of their hissing, malevolent voices.

And my resolve was weakening.

[Come on... Those stupid beasts won't even realise until it's too late...]

{Do you think they have feelings? They don't. We should remember that...}

'No, the yellow one showed me kindness!'

[But that of the others?]

{They attack us...}

[Hurt us...]

{They rely on instinct alone, only wanting to destroy those that are more pure than them...}

[And what are we but the most pure of beings...]

{And that scares them...}

[So they attack us...]

{And we should fight back against the inferior creatures...}

'No... no... They're more than that. Celestia visited me every day. They're not animals.

[But that's exactly what they are, animals. They can't do anything but annoy you...]

'But... there's more than that... They have education... They're smart...

[They need to be taught the right lessons...]

{They need to be taught respect. They need to be taught laws...}

'They need to be taught to fear me...'

{Ooh, exactly what I was going to say...}

[I agree, you should show them the true ways of the world...]

'{[Maybe in death, they would all become one and realise their mistakes]}'

'I think I see what We are thinking.'

The pressure on our back lessened, before dissipating entirely, leaving us free to move. This made us slightly curious, but we shrugged that off as inconsequential in the long run of things. We knew what We had to do, and these, 'ponies', played a key role in it.

We were going to teach.

But it was going to be a very special kind of teaching, and they were going to be the advanced class.

Talking with Myself had given us a new insight, and the beasts needed to be taught respect.

We let a slight giggle escape from our mouth, a high pitched thing that drifted through the air like treacle, mixing together to freeze the blood of anything around. It was a favourite of ours, and it was reserved for special occasions where We were one.

The animals were nervous now, I could feel it. An undercurrent of shivers, making the hair stand up on the back of the neck, raising the hackles.

This was going to be fun.

Ooooh, there was the fear that We had so eagerly awaited. Delicious, sweet and tender. We wanted more. And We were going to get it.

The room suddenly became much darker as our body slammed down to one end of the spectrum to become a solid black, our eyes matching the scheme to make my darker than the night, a creature of the darkness. We rose to our feet, trench coat fluttering slightly. The iridescence that had surrounded our body earlier had faded away, leaving a corona of darkness around us. We started to walk towards them, chuckling slightly.

Abruptly, the multicoloured one tried to charge us. We simply raised a hand and let her run at us. This wouldn't normally have been a problem were it not for the long claws, fashioned from pure shadow, which had formed along our hand.

As it so happened, We did have claws, and the pony got a nice taste of them. It tried to dodge at the last moment, and almost succeeded. Almost.

It did avoid the worst of the blow, but it still clipped us, tearing a long, deep gash in its side.

The fight was interrupted as the tone theme changed. We slammed the slider down the other end, turning a startlingly bright white. Ordinarily, this wouldn't have looked that scary. Pure white is associated with good for some reason, and everything about us was white. Well, except for all the blood that covered my talons.

The big white pony looked ready to kill, while the others looked shocked and stunned, but mostly scared.

And We loved it.

The white one walked towards us...

"STOP!"

The cry came from that yellow one, the one that liked the animals. We tried to think of what We knew of he-

'Fluttershy.'

Yes, that was her name. And she dared to interrupt us. The large white one had stopped and was looking at her strangely, and a little scared too. We decided that the yellow one must be the first to die, so We stepped towards her.

She didn't even move a little, simply lying there cowering on the ground, shivering in a little ball of fur. Even as We stepped within reach, able to kill, she stayed still. The other beasts were ready to jump, even though they knew in their tiny little brains that it would be futile, but the small timid mare stayed there, shivering.

We raised a blood stained claw, our tone scheme changing every few seconds from white, to black, to white, at a moment's notice. Wisps trailing behind our appendage like smoke. We lazily held our arm in the air, enjoying the feeling of power that it gave us.

We waited.

And waited.

Silence...

And then we brought the claw down.

THUNK!

The terrible sound reverberated through the air like the undertaker's call. The feeling of broken wood beneath our claws satisfaction to us, filling us with glee at what we had just accomplished. Blood was oozing down our claw, and the splinters were scratching lightly. I looked at Fluttersh-

I looked at Fluttersh-

Why was she still alive?!

We had brought our deadly talon down with the greatest precision; there was no chance that We could miss! We would miss only if We wanted to!

'I did want you to.'

We don't know how that happened!

'Fluttershy helped us.'

{[This pony thing had escaped our judgment somehow, and we had no idea how this had happened!]}

'She deserved to live.'

[We should have killed her, not have her still alive!]

{We don't know why this happened!}

[These ponies must die!]

{They must serve punishment!}

[Face judgment in the harsh light of our body!]

'Go away!'

[What do we mean?!]

{We are one! There is no dispute!}

'No...'

'{[Yes]}'

'No...'

'No.'

'No!'

'I can't let this happen again! Not after what happened last time. I will not attack innocents!'

'Never again...'

'Get. Out. Of. My. HEAD!'

{[We may fight all we like, but don't worry, we'll always be watching...]}

{Don't think that we ever go away}

[For we are you now...]

{[And you are us...]}

I came back to my senses in time to rip my hand away from the floor, claws already vanished without my permission for them to exist. The crying ball of Fluttershy quivering at my feet as I unsteadily rose to my feet.

I looked around slowly for a moment, my hair and clothes drifting softly, the Darkness and Light that composed me back in their rightful positions and balanced enough for me to be stable...

For now.

The ponies were looking at me, some in anger, some in shock.

All in fear.

I maintained eye contact long enough to say two words.

"I'm sorry."

The floor decided then would be a good time to become business acquaintances and gave me a big hug.

?????

A blood red portal appeared over the serene landscape. The wildlife was disturbed only for a moment before resuming its normal routine. The gateway existed long enough to deposit one thing.

A man.

Grassland and barren landscape as far as the eye could see. The odd tree dotted the landscape, interspersing the land with just enough shade to survive the scorching midday sun. The object in question had just risen above the horizon, giving enough light to see by.

The observer standing on a plateau was doing just that, observing. He watched as strange creatures wandered in the distance.

They were strange things. Striped, from what he could see, with talismans and strange markings on their bodies. They would walk between their huts, usually with items and bottles filled with strange substances. And they would be perfect to slaughter.

Would they pose a threat? No.

Would they slow him down? No.

Did he need to destroy and/or enslave them to get to his goal? No.

Would it make things easier? Again, no.

But would he do it anyway?

Yes.

He had conquered one world already, bar one individual, and it was time to move on. This world looked perfect for the taking. And there was nothing that anyone could do to stop him.

He knew who he wanted to get to, but before that, he knew there were some opportunities for some fun.

The village down would be the start of it, and it was almost time to set off.

The Director moved to take his first steps towards the village, but then stopped. If he was going to take over this world with minimal resistance, then there were a few choice 'people' that he would have to take care of before he started on any of the natives...

Short and sweet.

Here's the new chapter. This is where things are going to start to get a lot more dark, whereas the first, 13-ish chapters have been a lot more lighthearted.

There will be two endings as a heads-up. A dark, and a Grimdark, so you have been warned as neither ending will have a 'happy' ending as you would have it.

You have been warned.

And please, no hating on the Dark tag.

A knocking at the door? The Author stood up for a moment, stretching, before walking towards the the door to his cramped door.

The knocking again? He sighed, still-

Wait, this came from the other door. The one used by...

Oh no...

Order must have picked up on the swearing thing from earlier. He was in trouble, lots of trouble.

The Author turned and walked towards the other door, but was interrupted when it blew open.

Yes, the door blew open. With Force. Literally.

The desecrated body of Force shot through the now open door, blood splatters going everywhere around the room. There were numerous cuts covering her body, and she was obviously dead.

And then he walked in. The one from the story. It was him.

Oddly enough, he wasn't even touched by any of the blood that had gone everywhere, positively covering the Author. He crossed the room in two short strides and grabbed the Author by the collar of his shirt.

The eyes bore into the Author's head like drills. He knew he was going to die. There was no escaping this man.

After all, the Author had created him.

But then Order appeared.

The force of nature barrelled through the door. He too was covered in blood, and his hair was ruffled. That never, ever, happened to Order. He drove into the attacker and forced him to let go of the Author. Order immediately put him in a choke hold and gave the Author a serious look and a single command.

"Run."

The Author didn't hesitate. He got out of there as fast as he could, jumping into the door to Order's world. Just before the door closed he heard a sickening Crunch!

He knew Order was dead, and he felt like he should have fought, but there was nothing that he could have done.

No one fights the Director and wins. No one.

And he knew this the best.

Because after all, the Author created him.

Chapter 14

Quick note, I will sometimes use non-pony expression. Don't worry, this is just because they get the message across better than inserting hoof- and pony-based prefixes into absolutely everything.
Also, I have more than one story now, and they're not crap! Head over to my user page if you're interested.

Luna and I have lived for a very long time, and we both are extremely powerful, but that does not make us immortal...
-Celestia

Chapter 14

Merry Meetings...

Celestia

Things could have gone better from that confrontation.

Then again, by the looks of it things could have gone a lot worse in the long run. Luckily they had managed to 'subdue' the hostile force with only one injury and, while that was relatively severe, it was easy to heal.

Sometimes it does help to be an alicorn.

The ragtag group was nervously shuffling in the room, hesitant to be the first to approach for fear of waking him. The one casualty from the earlier fight had been hastily patched up and was now pacing along one corner of the slightly cramped room, wincing on every second step. Her cyan blue coat was still stained a deep dirty red, and it would stay that way for a while by the looks of things.

The other six mares were coping from the stress in their own ways.

Twilight? Naming the periodic table of magical elementals.

Rarity? Categorising every single dress in her shop from memory.

Applejack? Calculating the proposed income for her cider.

Fluttershy? Crying. A lot.

Pinkie? Thinking of the best way to cheer everyone up.

Rainbow? Wondering why she hadn't stopped him.

Celestia?

Well, Celestia was different.

You don't live for very long without seeing some bloody times, and Celestia had been alive for a long, long time. She had been around all those eons ago to know, and later fight Discord. She had been there when the Republic formed, and she had brought the crushing blow down on her own sister's head, crumbling the resistance and watching as she fell from glory. She had waited all those long years, biding her time, ruling the land as best as she could, waiting for her rebellious sister to return, ready to fight at the slightest sign of hostility.

She had been there for all of the battles.

She had killed more than she could count.

But it never got any easier.

She had only ever fought in the best interest of her subject. What was a Princess without anyone to help? With that in mind, Celestia had always made a point of never fighting from hostility, only ever in defence. Equestria had lived in unparalleled harmony and peace for centuries, and this was mostly due to these views.

Past the borders however, there was still the occasional skirmish, but they were mainly due to misunderstandings, and a death in one of these was extremely rare, and when there was one the offender was punished. Even when there was fighting, it was minor.

This, thing however. It had tried to murder the element of Loyalty in cold blood, not even hesitating to think about the consequences that this would have in the long run. There was no doubt in its eyes. It had wanted her dead, and only that last minute correction had saved the speedy pegasus mare from a hasty death. This thing was a killer, and didn't care for what would come afterwards.

This led The Princess to two final conclusions of why he would do this.

One, he must be extremely dim witted to not see the repercussions of his actions, or two, he must have killed so many before, and be so powerful, that he truly did not fear any of these ponies that surrounded him even now, his fate held in their hooves while he remained unconscious.

She hated to think of what would happen if it turned out that it was the latter option, but she could only let her eyes widen in apprehension as everything pointed towards that. Because after all of that, Light did not seem stupid.

And that could only leave one option...

And if that was the case, it meant that he could probably take over the whole of Equestria, in a similar fashion to Discord. Except this time he wouldn't just sit there making silly remarks and pranking with ineffectual materials.

No, Light would destroy everything.

Twilight

There was nothing more aggravating to the purple librarian than a disorganised day, and this one had been the worst so far. In the span of about eight hours, she had gone from excitedly preparing the Summer Sun Celebration, to fighting a powerful enemy, to Ponyville, and then to Fluttershy's, to fight the exact same enemy as before.

There was no way that she could have known that he was here either. Yes, she knew that he had escaped his prison, but the combined power of the two Princesses was surely enough to weaken him severely, and even though Luna had stayed behind to oversee repairs and organisation, Celestia by herself was still enough to take down practically any creature, no matter who, or what, they were.

She hadn't even been very worried on the way home either. The train was an isolated haven, cut off from the rest of the world, and even if Celestia had had any trouble, she would have received some sort of notification and just gathered the elements again.

So naturally, being summoned to Fluttershy's cottage of all places, along with the rest of her friends, was quite a surprise.

But even so, Twilight was confident in their friendship. After all, they had defeated him before without too much trouble, and he hadn't even tried to sabotage their bonds like Discord had either. So really, what was there to worry about?

For one, Rainbow Dash.

Now, due to the peace that had reigned over Equestria for so long, an injury was a very rare occurrence, and it was always, always on accident. No pony would even harm another with malicious intent, and murder probably wasn't even in the dictionary anymore.

But then Rainbow had flown at him.

This action should have stopped before it even began. Light looked almost completely different to what he had before. There was almost something demonic about him compared to the last time they had confronted him. He looked like he had dragged himself out of the deepest sections of Tartarus and past Cerberus. And honestly? She wouldn't be too surprised if he actually had. He looked like he could for sure. And the speed that she had seen him move with was ridiculous. It was clear that the intent of his attack hadn't been to injure and incapacitate; it had been to kill.

A general rule of thumb here was: if it can single-handedly take out a fully-grown Ursa Major, then it probably wasn't a good idea to buck with it. Ursa Majors are a lot, lot bigger than your average pony.

And if one of the largest creatures on the planet didn't stand a chance, then what did one pony?

But try telling that to Rainbow Dash. She wouldn't stop trying to defend her friends even if it killed her.

And that is exactly what Twilight feared would happen...

Fluttershy

'Ohh, what did I do to anger him...?'

Those were the only thoughts on the worried mare's mind at the moment. Curiously enough, out of all of her friends she was the least affected by the sight of blood (excluding Celestia), calmly bandaging the cyan speedster as the others slowly overcame their shock.

It was mostly due to the way she dealt with the animals that came to see her in her daily life. Death was a natural thing in nature, and not every sick creature that came to her survived. And then of course there were the carnivores. They would need to kill to survive, which in itself seemed like a bit of a paradox.

But it was necessary.

And that was precisely why Fluttershy was worried about Light.

An animal will only attack fiercely in desperation when it is cornered. And really, Light was about as cornered as he could get, having both the being that controlled the Sun and the elements of Harmony breathing down his neck. Although there was something different about him when he had attacked Rainbow, and it wasn't just the colour scheme.

No, something inside of him had changed.

When she looked into those eyes, during his final moments of consciousness, she had seen something else, like a parasite attaching itself to a host. And she had seen a lot of parasites.

When she had looked into those eyes, she had seen a culmination of all of the bad memories that Light had ever seen being forced to the forefront of his mind. He was remembering everything. All of the unfair moments, the hopelessness. It was like the real him was being suppressed. And when she looked into those eyes, it had made her scared.

It had brought out all of her bad memories too. And they scared her.

It was like looking into a nightmare.

And yet, she couldn't bring herself to blame him. Then again, she could never blame anyone, and that was probably why she was the element of Kindness, but that didn't change anything.

Light was the victim of circumstance.

He had proven to her when he first met her that he was capable of being a caring and loving pony-thing, and even the fight afterwards wouldn't change that.

But her friends had ignored her when she tried to convince them that he was innocent, putting it all down to stress and anger, but she knew what had happened.

And then he was here, and he hadn't even tried to attack her when she met him again. What kind of 'killer' would have an emotional breakdown and take comfort in the presence of one of the ponies that had helped to seal him away in the first place?

It didn't matter that he had attacked them, they had attacked first.

It didn't matter that he had resisted, they hadn't listened to him.

It didn't even matter that much when he had turned on her after attacking Rainbow; he had stopped himself and gotten rid of that dark presence lurking behind his eyes. He knew the importance of friendship, and he seemed to truly care about her.

No, she couldn't bring herself to hate him, even if he did fight.

After all, when it really came down to it, he was just a cornered animal...

But try telling that to her friends. They looked at him, and all they saw was a violent murderer. That was understandable, considering the first time that they had seen him had been when he was standing over her unconscious form, but that didn't mean that they shouldn't even give him a chance.

She would just have to stand up for him in the hopes of having them get over their differences. But that all depended on the impression Light would make when he woke up.

Fluttershy just hoped that he wouldn't still be angry...

Light

The darkness of my unconscious mind seemed to be getting a bit too familiar for comfort. This was probably the third time I had been knocked out by some means since my arrival here in Equestria, and frankly I hadn't spent much time out of my stone prison, so I had spent about a third of my free time lying around.

Now, in the last couple of times I had been... indisposed, I had been in relatively safe places. This time however the last things I had seen were the ponies that had put me in the stone prison in the first bloody place.

Needless to say it wasn't a very welcome idea.

For all I knew I was going to wake up back in stone, flowery decorations and a moustache drawn on my face.

But that wasn't the real problem, that wouldn't be that bad.

The real problem would be that if I were placed back in stone, then there would only be me, and the voices. Somehow I doubt that Celestia would visit, although she didn't look like she tended to hold grudges.

But even if she stayed with me for hours on end, the constant barrage of ideas and opinions from those two voices, constantly telling me to attack, would drive me insane. I barely made it out of the stone with my sanity intact the last time. And that had ended with me having a breakdown a few moments later, after attacking what seemed to be half of the population of Equestria in the span of about a minute.

But I digress, the voices are the real matter at the moment, aren't they...

To be honest, I'm not exactly sure when they started. All I know is that one day I was listening in to the thoughts of some of the others situated around the garden when I heard a few others. That didn't worry me at first, as I had no choice but to dimly hear the thoughts of the statues placed near me, but I did become worried when I realised that I couldn't just filter these new ones out.

They were much louder than the others, and a lot more forceful. Also unlike the others they seemed to be directly targeting me, and only me. When I was in the garden, I couldn't directly talk to another, I would only catch the odd bit of chatter, and I can only assume that was the case for them too.

But these particular voices would talk to me. They would try to convince me to see the world their way.

And I almost did too.

I think that the only thing that stopped me from going over the edge before I was released as the Princess. Even the small amount of conversation she would bring with her was enough to block out the voices for a little bit, and I enjoyed the times when she would arrive at my statue.

Still, she liked to jump to conclusions. In fact, all of the inhabitants of this land seemed to do that a lot.

Except for Fluttershy.

I have no doubt in my mind that if it weren't for her, I would be dead. She had nursed me back to health and had given me a shoulder to lean on when I had my manly breakdown. Hell, she'd even given me a place to rest for a while. She is the one

Those friends of hers don't realise how lucky they are to have her and to have had her around when they took over.

If it weren't for that yellow mare, they'd all be dead.

I hope I wake up soon, I can still hear them...

Rainbow Dash

'Why hadn't I stopped him?!'

The prismatic mare was worried. She had failed her friends. They had been in danger, and when it had counted the most she had failed to defend them. And now she had the injury to prove it.

Rainbow reached one end of the room and turned around, not even stopping in her pacing. The stifled a groan as the pain in her side made her flinch.

She was supposed to be infallible. She was Rainbow Dash! She was the best flyer in Equestria. Nothing could get away from her.

But somehow he had. When she attacked him, he hadn't even tried to avoid her. And those claws had come from nowhere at all. That was just cheating. How did he even do that?!

The cyan athlete altered from her course slightly to walk by the main attraction in the room.

The unconscious body of Light was lying in the centre, completely alone amongst the furniture. None of the others mares in the room had gone near it, instead preferring to go to their own corners to think about whatever eggheads thought about.

But Rainbow was way too cool for that.

She wouldn't be caught dead sitting in a spot, moping around and thinking about her feelings. She let out a small shudder at that thought.

Rainbow increased her deviation and moved closer to the still form. There was no movement from him, so really there was no need to worry either. And yet, the others still avoided him. In fact, the closest of her friends was Fluttershy, who was occasionally sneaking a glance at him.

Rainbow shook her head. They were all too scared of him to do anything. And it was incredibly surprising for her that they hadn't locked him away yet, or even just used the elements of Harmony. But then again, it was probably due to Fluttershy.

But Rainbow knew the truth, it was all Light's fault that all of this happened. She walked over slowly towards him, stopping just short of tripping over the body. He was still unmoving, out cold. The speedster looked at him with something approaching contempt. This was the thing that had injured not just her friends, but the Princess of the whole of Equestria as well.

She knelt down to look closer at him. His face was screwed up in an expression of pain. Rainbow screwed her eyes up in suspicion. He could just be trying to trick her, but she wouldn't fall for it. He could try and make himself seen as tortured as he wanted, but Rainbow knew the truth. He really wanted to attack all of them.

But she wouldn't fall for it.

She leaned down further and scrutinised his face as closely as she could without touching him.

His warm breath was pushing her hair back slightly with every exhale, and his eyes were flickering underneath their lids, as if trying to escape their positions.

He was the source of all of their problems. If it wasn't for him then she wouldn't be injured, and the Princess wouldn't be here to help them defeat him.

She drew back a hoof to strike at him, holding it momentarily in the air behind her. She prepared to bring it down on him, but stopped, her breath catching in her throat. She let out a small gasp. The others in the room all turned, wondering what the noise signaled.

But Rainbow didn't notice, her attention was held by one thing.

Light.

His eyes were open. And he did not look amused.

Light

Have you ever had that feeling you get where you wake up and just instantly know that it's not going to be a good day?

Yeah, that was the vibe that I was getting then.

I woke up to the 'welcoming' view of that violent, blue pegasus standing over me, one of her hooves poised to slam into my face. Something about her didn't exactly scream 'hey, give me a hug'.

And her slamming said hoof into my head a second later didn't help my outlook.

The others let out a collective gasp, and Rainbow's eyes widened slightly. I just shifted slightly and drifted out from underneath her, forming again slightly to the right of her. I took a small step towards her and she jumped backwards, getting ready to attack me if necessary.

Celestia had taken a notice of the tension, and her horn started glowing in response. A small glowing barrier formed between the two competitors. The others in the room were starting to get nervous. Tensions were getting to a breaking poi-

"STOP IT!"

Shock filled the room. No-one had expected this.

Fluttershy was standing between the two would-be fighters, her eyes alight with righteous rage. The silence was broken only by the loud panting. She turned to her blue friends, who shrunk down under her furious gaze.

"What exactly do you think you are doing missy? Huh?!" The chattering of her teeth could be easily heard around the whole room. She attempted to answer, but was cut off. "I don't even want to know. But this is going to stop! RIGHT! NOW! UNDERSTAND!"

Hasty nods and murmurs of agreement were the only response, which oddly enough came from all of the ponies, even the Princess.

Then she turned on me.

Her eyes were terrifying. A sheer commanding force had jumped behind them and had aimed all of its gun right at me. If it weren't for the things that I had seen, I probably would have been quaking in my shoes.

But she wasn't done yet.

"And don't think that I've forgotten you mister! I don't want any more fighting! And that means no violence from you! GOT IT!" That was more of a statement than a question. I could do nothing but nod.

She turned on all of us. "Now we are going to talk this out! PEACEFULLY! OKAY!" We nodded. The moment we did she seemed to shrink down in size and calm down. Fluttershy sat down quietly on the floor and hid behind her pink mane.

"I mean, you don't have to. It's just a suggestion.Just think about it."

This mare was crazy.

What had I gotten myself into...

?????

The conquest had gone perfectly. Or as near as didn't matter. The only one to escape had been the Author, and if any of the others were alive then they had been so badly injured that even if they did try to stop him it wouldn't matter.

All in all, he was happy.

The Zebra village was destroyed. Small huts were burning, and bodies lay on the ground, covered in blood. Some captives were huddled together, crying into each other's arms. They weren't even tied up, and yet none of them had tried to escape yet.

Their hope had been destroyed.

The village was only very small, and it was a tight knit community. Every citizen knew one another, and they would help whenever they could.

And the captives had watched as everyone died. As they were brutally murdered, with absolutely no mercy.

A footstep was the only warning the captives had before he arrived. A silhouette, framed from behind by the sun, leaving only a shadow as reference. Dust hung around him, and the disgusting stench of rotting corpses filled the air, making a few of the young children dry-retch. Nothing came out, already used up when watching the attack.

It approached, incredibly slowly. One Zebra made a mad dash to escape, running in the opposite direction. A flicker, the silhouette disappearing for only a moment, and the only thing left was a corpse, a clean cut running along it's neck where blood oozed out lazily.

It was over in less than a second.

It was at that moment that the captives knew, with absolutely no doubt in their minds that they were all going to die.

Chapter 15

All I want to do here is thank those dedicated few who have stuck with since the beginning of my writing, and who motivated me to keep this story going.

The weather had been ruined, the day torn apart. The sky itself seemed to weep openly at the loss of life.

A terrible canvas of blood and bone was strewn across the dirt. Huts, decimated and wrecked, lay nearby, some still smoking slightly in the near-darkness.

This place looked like it could have sustained much life and happiness, but all that was around was death and sadness.

But there were footsteps. They were crunching slowly on the dirt and… other things…

Snap. Snap. Crack. Thud. Thud. Thud.

The buzzing of flies could also be heard, the distinct noise easily audible above the sound of the faint rain.

The footsteps stopped for a moment, next to one of the desecrated huts. A rustling noise, and a piece of scorched parchment was lifted from the rubble. The silhouette of the man holding the parchment seemed to observe it, until it dropped the parchment and let it drift over to the corpses and bones that littered the ground. As if settled it was dyed a sickening red as the still-wet blood was soaked up into the material.

Every zebra had been killed, regardless of age or status. They had all been killed, every one of them.

There was nothing left for Him in the village, so the only move that would benefit Him would be to move on. And he knew where to go now, thanks to the map that he had found only moments ago.

He knew exactly where he was, and exactly how to find a densely populated area, and how to then find where Light was hiding.

It was only a matter of time.

Soon the whole world would look like the zebra village.

The sound of the bones snapping underfoot only made the Director’s spirits lift higher as he made his was towards the nearest town, the clouds weeping overhead, sending a warning to all life.

Keep away.

I am forever proud of my student, Twilight, but she must realise that it was not her fault.
All of the questions in the world could not have lead to us suspecting this...
-Celestia

Chapter 15

Completely Insane Researchers

Wow.

I mean, just wow.

That’s all that I could say about it.

I think I’d actually broken a world record.

No, really, I’m serious. What for you ask?

Most awkward silence among ponies.

Yep.

And was it awkward or what. If there were some sort of scale of awkward from 1 to 10 then this would easily be a 50, that’s just how awkward it was. And of course no one wanted to break the silence, because that’s exactly what you don’t do in these situations.

So there we were, sitting in that room. Fluttershy had just finished her rage session, and I was sitting there, not a little unnerved by the sudden and copious amounts of AAAAAAARRRGGGHHHH!!

Yes, that is a real thing. Deal with it.

I was just shocked from that; I didn’t know that she had it in her. She had to be the most shy person, pony, whatever, that I had ever met. So for her to suddenly just change moods and go on the warpath… It was just a lot off-putting…

And now we enter the time of the uncomfortable silence…

I’m not sure how long we’ve all just been sitting here, but it has been too damned long, and that’s all I know. Ever since Fluttershy had settled down and waited we had just sat there, no one speaking, or moving, or being interesting…

Huh, it was actually pretty boring… And I know a lot about boring. I mean really, does the phrase ‘trapped in a statue’ mean anything to you?’

So anyway, here we are, nothing happening… Twiddle the thumbs… Don’t make eye contact… Find sudden interest in shoes… pot plants… anything…

I think that was the point where everyone had had enough. An unspoken agreement that what we were doing was boring as hell rang through the air. I could almost swear that I heard the noise of Rainbow’s patience snapping. It didn’t sound nice.

Now, there are a few ways that someone can break an uncomfortable silence. They can:

Quietly speak up and try to get your attention,
Clear their throat, tap you, something a little bit more obvious, but still kind. Or they can,
Start by shouting and trying to punch you in the face.
And I’ll make this even more fun by letting you guess which option the irritable blue winged rat chose, but you only have one try.

In hindsight, attacking the dangerous and unstable creature that is sitting quietly in the living room could be considered a slightly stupid, idiotic, insane, completely bonkers, off the end of the fruit loop, missing a gasket idea.

So really it was just an idea that Rainbow would come up with. Maybe she thought that she could catch me by surprise. All I know is that a hoof to the nose, while it may not completely break, is still painful as hell.

Not that I found it painful or anything… yeah, I’m just that manly… Tears? Nah, they’re just reflexes… Yeah…

A collective gasp echoed around the room, all directed towards the blue menace. She, of course, remained oblivious to it and just kept looking at me, fire burning in her eyes. I don’t think that she even wanted me to be injured or anything by that; it was more revenge than anything.

And then she turned around, walked off, and sat down on the other side of the room. Simple as that.

The fact that she hadn’t noticed any of her friends, or the frickin’ god-pony thing that was staring at her was either a testament to how out of it she was, or to how dark the room was getting. Night was fast approaching, and not a single pony had had the smart idea to, oh I dunno, light a bloody candle or something.

Darkness it was then.

A few seconds was all it took for Rainbow to suddenly notice the attention she was getting. Now, while she may be an attention whore and must absolutely adore a crowd, this kind of attention is usually unwanted. Sure enough, Rainbow blushed and fake coughed into her hoof trying to hide her face. Everyone still looked at her.

Rainbow Dash shrugged, “What? I’ve been wanting to do that for ages,” she said slowly and nervously. Still no response. “Aww whatever, I wanted to do that, get over it.”

The ponies that were staring at the cyan pegasus all shifted their gaze towards me. I just shrugged, “She does kinda have a point there…”

Rainbow just pointed a hoof at me and nodded, “See? He’s okay with it! It’s fine… Really!”

Applejack chipped in, rising from her sitting spot on the floor, “Rainbow, it really don’t matter, you jus’ don’t whack strangers in the face, no matter how messed up they are, or how much they deserve it. No offense…”

I just nodded at her, it seemed to be the right response. Applejack took that as an acceptance and turned away to sit back in her spot again.

Of course, none of the other ponies had moved at all as this was going on. I mean, really, what was their problem?

I mean, yeah, the whole evil dark insane schizophrenic monster that kills people thing wouldn’t have helped, but they could just get over it. But no, they all looked at me as though I was about to turn Undercover Peacekeeper on their as or something.

I looked around the room. Nothing much to see really. There were the ponies of course, but they weren’t much to look at, and they weren’t doing anything anyway. Celestia was deep in thought, Luna was glancing at me when she thought I wasn’t watching, stuff like that.

Wait, glancing at me? Yep, sure enough, Luna was occasionally sneaking a quick look every time I looked away. What was she thinking?

I kept looking. Rainbow was looking at the hoof that she had used to punch me reverently. Did it really mean that much to her?

Loooooser…

Twilight was talking to herself. I think that mare has some slight mental issues…

Pinkie was pulling assorted baked goods from nowhere and using them as sad-food. How she wasn’t the size- and shape- of an extra-large beach ball I will never know. There wasn’t even a gap between different pastries; they would all go in without pause.

Fluttershy was staring at me meaningfully, as if trying to get a point across to me. How sh-

Wait…

…

…Dammit! Oh no, I am not starting this conversation off! I am not good at starting conversations! For the first few weeks of knowing Air she thought that I was gay! How much worse can you even get at conversations!

She kept looking at me, those crazy eyes getting wider and more ridiculous. There was only so much that I could take until I would inevitably crumble under the pressure of it all…

No! I must stay strong! These ponies are like sharks! They can small your weakness! They use their cute powers to make you do things! But I will be strong! For the sake of all non-pony life forms!

NYYYYAAAAAAAAAAA!

“Sooo… How’s the weather?”

FUCK!

I think that I may have broken the ponies. They were all looking at me like I had just gone insane, even Fluttershy, the one that had started the whole evil staring contest in the first place.

What? I said that I wasn’t good at staring conversations… Okay, let’s give it another try…

*Ahem* “I mean…” This wasn’t working…

“You know what? Fuck it. I don’t even care. Someone just say something already! I can’t take the bloody tension anymore!”

I stopped my tiny rant puffing for breath slightly. The ponies looked completely taken aback, but I thought that I could see a tiny glint of understanding, and appreciation, in more than a few of them.

But none of them moved.

Well, I tried. I shot a quick look at Fluttershy before falling backwards with a dull THUD! The ground was more than glad to welcome me in my time of need.

I heard a faint tapping, the sound of hooves against the wooden floor, hesitantly getting louder. I could only see the roof from my awesomely relaxing ground-hugging position, so obviously I couldn’t see who was approaching me. Might have been a good thing too.

The tapping stopped, and I could hear the talking of the pony that was standing next to me quietly. But who was she talking to? I couldn’t hear anyone else talking?

Oh, wait… I think I may have a faint idea of who this is…

“H-hello? I’m T-twilight Sparkle…”

Called it.

I sat up suddenly, almost making the purple menace fall back from fright. Definitely not the most stable pony.

She continued, “And I’m wondering…” I think I know where this is going, “If I can ask you some questions…” TEN POINTS!

I sighed and turned my gaze on the unicorn. Her face was nervous and her eyes were shifting every few seconds. Even her stance showed just her nervous she was. Trust me, I’ve dealt with this stuff before, I know the signs.

I kept my eyes on her for about a minute, not looking away. She only got more and more nervous, and I swear that at one point some of her hairs stuck up in crazy strands.

Screw unstable, this pony is insane…

But I just know that I’m going to have to answer some of these questions, one way or another…

Here we go…

“Go ahead then, I’ve got nothing better to do.”

That grin that she gave me could have frozen over the heart of the director himself, that’s how fucked up it was…

Twilight

Some ponies can handle stress. Very well. To them it’s just a point of their lifestyle. For example, a royal guard stationed in one of the dirtier places of Equestria would have a much more stressful lifestyle than, say, a gardener…

Or maybe a librarian?

Okay, being in a statue may not be all bad. I did have a chance to hear everything that Celestia said as she walked by and talked to us ‘prisoners’. Fun fact, she does actually talk to herself. But mostly she talked to the statues. Oddly enough, for a princess that knows all of the statues are alive she does give away a lot of personal information.

*Cough cough* stalker *cough cough*

Anyway, this is Twilight we’re talking about here, so ignore me…

She was nervous, incredibly so. Sitting in the corner, a small, creepy smile on her face. Now that she knew that he wouldn’t attack her instantly she had to get some information from him.

The only problem would be how exactly she would go about that…

THUD!

Huh? What was that?

Twilight turned to look at the source of the noise. It almost looked as though somepony had gotten a big white pancake and smooshed it on the floor. His coat was spread out everywhere, still rippling slightly, and it gave a general… flat look to him.

And there was no one else near him, and no one was making a move to talk to him…

Perfect.

The grin only hitched itself wider over her features as the thought rooted itself in her head. Twilight put first one hoof, then the other, in front of her and crept tentatively across the room. Her friends were watching her, but they knew better than to disturb the librarian when she was in that… particular mood… Twilight herself looked almost like a cat stalking its prey, her body low to the ground, her hooves touching the floor ever so softly.

And then she was in front of him, and there was nothing left to do but get his attention. Her motivation started to drain away as she stood there, debating what to do… Her mouth felt like it wanted to speak but her brain was saying otherwise. It was probably the only thing that stopped her from saying something at that very moment.

“H-hello? I’m T-twilight Sparkle…”

That traitor.

Light sat up without warning, and it was all that Twilight could do to not start screaming like crazy. Her nerves were already on edge, and he wasn’t doing anything to settle them. Even her friends seemed a bit taken aback at his movement, all of them watching tensely. Oddly enough only Luna seemed to be relaxed…

Why wouldn’t he stop looking at her? Light’s eyes never went from Twilight the whole time that she was standing there… What would his response be? Please let it be please let it be please let it be-

“Go ahead then, I’ve got nothing better to do.”

Twilight’s whole mind shut down completely, but rebooted a moment later in interrogation mode. She had just been given free reign to interro- I mean, talk to a brand new species that had never been properly documented in the whole of Equestrian history.

She, Twilight Sparkle, would push the boundaries of science.

A distinct snapping sound could be heard as Twilight’s grin stepped up another notch. Her head whipped around to face Light, the manic beaming directly into his mind.

Twilight’s friends were looking at her worriedly, they knew what the outcome of this would be, and they knew that nothing good could come from it…

Celestia facehoofed.

Unseen to Twilight, Luna started silently laughing in the corner at Light’s expression.

This was going to be an… interesting conversation.

Chapter 16

It was all my fault! If only I had of listened to what they were all saying, I might have had a chance to predict the outcome.
Life is an equation, with the right figures it can all be predicted...
-Twilight

Chapter 16

Academics Anonymous

I’m not sure how I got out of the conversation in the end. Well actually, let me rephrase that…

I’m not sure how I got out of that conversation without my brain melting completely. And that might sound weird considering how I’m technically not solid in the first place, but it’s true.

The Sparkle pony has a gift, and that is to make people’s heads explode in a shower of glory and blood. Even that little thing on her ass shows it. I mean really, what kind of pony would get a mark of an explosion on their ass unless they were the kind of pony that got a kind of sick satisfaction from murdering brain cells.

And this was genocide, not even kidding here. She my not have even asked any questions, but just looking at her was enough. She exuded insanity…

Okay, let me set the scene here.

*Ahem* So basically we’ve got Shy, Dash, Applejack, Pinkie, Rarity, Celestia, Luna…

…Aaaaaand Sparkle. With questions. She’s got about 2’600 more than anybody else~

Whatever.

So anyway, one day Sparkle decides that all of my brain cells (those sons of bitches) are going down, so she launches a question at me.

Now there is one thing that I want everybody listening to know just quickly, and it is very important.

Sparkle is scariest pony.

No, I’m not kidding! Have you ever been in a room with an overzealous academic nutjob before?! I couldn’t get this feeling out of my head that she would not at all hesitate to rip me apart if she though that vivisection would get her better results than plain answers.

So anyway, like I was saying, all nine of us were just sitting there in that cramped little room, getting incredibly uncomfortable etc etc. Creepy faces coming from creepy researchers will do that to you. Celestia wasn’t even making a move to stop her for some reason. I managed to sneak a glance at the stupid Princess and the only thing I got back was an apologetic face.

Is the Princess… scared?

…

Well, I’m screwed.

It was obvious that I was getting no help from that pony…

I tried sneaking a glance at her sister, who was at this point on the verge of asphyxiation from laughter for some reason while I had a miniature panic attack.

I continued looking around the room. The rest of the pony's friends were suddenly finding their hooves, and the floor, very interesting, so interesting in fact that they wouldn’t look at me.

Well, except for Fluttershy…

She just mouthed, “I’m sorry,” at me…

Yeah, real helpful, I know.

I had no choice. Twilight was still looking at me with a thousand-yard stare or something; it was unnerving to say the least. That grin didn’t make anything any better, and I could hear some strange snapping noises as her sanity broke apart into a million tiny shards.

Goodbye cruel world

“Okay Twilight, let’s just get this torture session over with already.”

Celestia made a small pitying noise from her spot and gave me a look. You know the one I’m talking about. The one where someone looks at you as if you’re about to die.

Really. Soon.

I was starting to get some second thoughts about my decision…

Twilight

Oh boy oh boy oh boy oh boy oh boy!!!!!!!!!!!

I can’t believe that I actually get to ask him some questions!

Maybe I could try and sneak a vivisection in as well…

Meh, that sounds like the kind of thing that I could save for later! Hmmmm, maybe if he decides to not answer some of my questions…

A sharp twanging noise shot through the air as another of Twilight’s hairs shot out from her mane crazily, her left eye finding something in the roof interesting and sliding out of focus for a couple of seconds…

“Now…” Twilight gave Light a murderous look, “Tell. Me. Everything.”

Light just looked at her as if she was about to try and rape him at any second, which, considering the circumstances, she wouldn’t mind doing. Only the violation part mind you, she only wanted to see how his species reproduced, not if that could then work with pony DNA.

Although…

No! That was a tangent for another time…

Okay, think about this…

Do I have a checklist? I need a checklist. I should’ve brought a checklist! Okay, checklist:
• Write checklist of things that I need to have on checklist for today
• Checklist on questions necessary for Light
• Subset questions for light ordering from most important to least important
• Re-organize questions in order of things that you would find in a home
• Buy fresh salmon for Owlicious

Ten seconds had passed in the real world, but Twilight was too focused on her thoughts to notice the passage of time outside of her ‘checklist bubble’. The other ponies in the room were getting impatient.

Rainbow had had enough waiting for today, and possibly for the rest of her life. She got up from her spot on the floor and hobbled forward, fighting to try not to show pain to anyone. She glared at Light.

He glared back.

In the far distance a stray bird flew into a window, but nobody cared.

Rainbow opened her mouth…

But was unable to voice her question as Pinkie Pie suddenly appeared from the lampshade behind Light and started talking at a million miles a second.

Rainbow ignored this and looked at Light seriously-

But was interrupted again as Twilight leapt from her sitting position and shot in front of Light until her face was pressed up against his. Rainbow just gave up and walked away.

Twilight was ready for her… ‘interview’.

“Okay! Light! But is that your real name?” Light opened his mouth to answer, “No! That doesn’t matter! Hmmmmm, don’t mess this up! I’ve got it! First question!”

She lowered her voice to a harsh whisper, “What are you?”

Light let out a breath that he didn’t know he’d been holding. “That’s it? Well, not that hard to answer…” He rubbed his chin in thought, “I guess you could kinda call me a human…”

Twilight let out a massive gasp as he said this, as if she had suddenly realized the answer to life, the universe, everything. She must have come to some massive conclusion. Maybe she knew exactly what a human was and how they acted! Did she know a-

“I don’t get it, what’s a human?”

Or maybe not…

Light

“Well, to put it simply… I’m a human? Except that I’m not really…”

“What do you mean, ‘not really’?!”

I gave her one of those looks that basically says ‘are you fucking kidding me’. You know the one…

“Twilight, honey, darling, light of my life, I said not really for a good reason, you’ve gotta let me finish… (Horror movie reference lieka baws)

Twilight looked sheepish. “Okay, like I was saying, you could call me human, but I’m not really one at the end of the day. Normal humans aren’t… you know… shiny and whooshy and, well, like me…”

At this moment Celestia stepped in. “Twilight, Light, I hate to take the spotlight away from you two, but I think that I may be able to explain things just a little better here…”

She turned to address the whole room, “In fact, I think it would be best if everypony was listening to what I have to say now.” That got the attention of everyone in the room immediately. Something about semi-immortal sun-god pony gets attention pretty easily…

I have no idea why though….

She continued, “Get comfortable, this explanation may take a little while.”

Pinkie took out a bucket of popcorn from nowhere. Nowhere was quite annoyed that its popcorn was stolen, but no one cared. For the popcorn I mean, no one didn’t like nowhere due to some falling out…

But that’s a story for another time…

Celestia sighed. “Everypony ready?” A chorus of agreement came from all assembled, except for me, “*sigh* and Light?” I gave a hum of contentment.

Celestia turned to the group of six, “Now, you know full well that the six of you are very important to Equestria, and that together you form the Elements of Harmony, correct?”

“You know it Princess!”

“Yes, I mean, if that’s what you all think…”

“Boy howdy, do we all kno’ it!”

“I must agree with Applejack on this one.”

“Yepperooners! We’re totally the best besties in the whole of the world!”

“Yes, but Princess, how does this relate to Light?”

I’ll give you three guesses as to who said that last one, and the first two don’t count…

“Patience Twilight Sparkle, all will be revealed in time.” This answer seemed to satisfy the insane pony, and she settled back to listen.

“Now, as I was saying, you six embody the Elements of Harmony, and while that is no small feat, and while you are also the first and only six that have ever had that privilege, you are not true Elements.” Celestia closed her eyes at the end of this and leaned back as if expecting a barrage of noise, and sure enough the six started saying various things about… stuff, you know.

What? I can’t expect to remember everything now, can I?

No, screw you, I can’t. Shut up I can still hear you.

Anyway:

“Ponies, cease you idle chatter, my sister wishes to be heard.”

All talk stopped immediately as Luna made herself properly known for the first time in the whole conversation.

“Thank you, dear sister.”

“Appreciated, now, continue with your story, I feel that I know where you ill go with this, and it is indeed important.” With that Luna faded into the background, as if she had never been there at all. Oddly enough though, she came from out of nowhere and sat besides me, to the left of Celestia and out of the way.

I was just glad that she wasn’t looking at me, or she might have noticed the irrational grin that was forcing its way onto my features, she really did remind me of her…

“Now, I hear your comments, but please, don’t argue. While you may be the Elements of Harmony, that is different to being a true Element. For instance, how much exactly do you know of Discord’s true nature?”

Twilight answered this, “Well, isn’t he the god of Chaos of something along those lines?” She looked hopeful, and it almost brought a tear to my eyes. Almost.

I was still mourning over those brain cells that I’d lost in the battle for my sanity. Just looking at her was enough.

Celestia shook her head, a thoughtful look on her face. “That is possibly the closest to the truth you could go without actually being right, but Discord is not actually a god.”

She looked at the six seriously. “In the universe we have elements, and then we have Elements, capitol E. The real difference is easy to see.” (Ha, rhymes)

She started pacing back and forth, gesturing as she talked. “We all know the four elements, fire, earth, air and water,” I gave a little start as she mentioned the last one, “But those aren’t the true Elements, they are just the four that we tend to associate the name with.”

“Now, Discord was never a god, he was a true Element, a slight difference. A normal element exists, it is a by-product of the conditions that we already have, not the cause. A true Element only exists because of a being.”

“Discord,” Twilight whispered.

“Exactly.”

“But that means-“

“Yes, Chaos in its base form existed only because Discord did.”

Twilight’s eyes narrowed. “Then why didn’t you ju-“

‘What, get rid off him? Kill him?”

“Well, not that far, and not in as many words, bu-“

“Twilight, we cannot just get rid of an Element, even if it is like Discord. And some people are not truly bad, just… mislead.”

“Twilight, we all deserve a second chance, even Discord.”

Her voice had dropped to a hoarse whisper by the end of this, “It was never even his fault that he’s like this now…”

“But that is something for another time! Now, as I was saying, Discord is a good example of a true Element. Now do you see why I say that you are not true elements my little ponies? The Elements of Harmony have existed long before you did, and will continue to exist long after you have departed, but Chaos never existed without Discord, and as long as he exists it will stay.”

“Now, the biggest thing here is that a true Element cannot be killed,” Celestia have a pointed look at Twilight as she said this, “They live in a different way to other beings. They have an equivalence to death, and that is for them to simply fade away.”

Twilight perked up, “Fade away? How?”

Celestia’s look turned to something approaching melancholy, “When an Element is forgotten, when they no longer have a reason to exist, that is when they fade away…”

“That is the real reason that Discord is only imprisoned, there is enough Chaos happening in Equestria, even without his influence, to keep him tethered to existence.”

Twilight gave a nod of understanding, while the rest of her friends had by this point become more than a bit confused. “Twilight, would you mind elaborating on what the Princess has just said, I’m afraid that it was a bit… convoluted…” Rarity chipped into the conversation.

“Well, as far as the Princess has said, we’re only The Bearers of the Elements, we don’t cause them to exist, but somepony like Discord exists because of Chaos, and Chaos only exists because of him,” She looked at her mentor, “Close enough?”

Celestia nodded, “Yes, that’s basically what I was trying to say.”

Twilight nodded, but a though occurred to her, “So what does that make you Princess? You’ve lived longer than anypony can remember…”

Celestia’s face turned grim. “Yes Twilight, you are correct. Both Luna and I are true Elements. I represent Warmth and Comfort, while Luna represents Revitalization and Rest, as you could probably have guessed by now…”

“And, before you ask, I will not tell you exactly how old we are, for even we cannot truly remember, but as long as the day and the night have existed, so have we, the two have been entangled.”

Rainbow looked impressed. I looked at Luna beside me, and she gave me a sad look back. I must have been hard for someone to live as long as her, having to deal with the deaths of all of those that were close to her…

“Even the Nightmare, the creature that you had to deal with not too long ago, is a true Element, and is not truly dead, merely banished far away, to a place that not even we know. It was the Element of Corruption, and had no solid body, that was why it made my dear sister its host.”

She gave a sad glance at Luna, before dropping her head to look at the ground. “We were lucky that we had you six to rid her of the Corruption, or she would have been lost forever.”

“Discord however…”

Deathly silence, broken only by the quietest of noises as a single tear rolled from the end of Celestia’s muzzle and hit the wooden floor.

Luna sighed and stood, walking over to wrap a wing around her sister and bring her into an embrace.

Rainbow rolled her eyes, completely oblivious to the emotions running high through the room, “But how the hay does this even relate to Light?!”

Her friends gave her murderous looks, and Rainbow quickly shrunk down…

Applejack sighed, “She does have a point though…”

Rainbow looked peeved, but as before, no one cared.

Luna sighed and looked at the group, “Well, it’s not that hard to guess the conclusion here, Discord’s an Element, the Nightmare’s and Element, Celestia and I are Elements…”

She turned slightly, “Light’s an Element…”

Whatever brain cells hadn’t been completely fried by my close encounter with the insane shriveled up into a state of non-existence.

There was only one thing that I could say in a situation like this…

“Bullshit.”

Chapter 18

It appeared curious as to why I was here. Understandable, but unnecessary. But I will let it pass just this one time.

I was patient, so I let it hover there over the surface of the black star, content to let it coil itself into ever-complicating tangles as it puzzled over my appearance. It didn’t even seem to recognize me, that much was apparent.

It would have been a lot more scared if it had.

But alas, the fear was lacking in this altercation, although that mattered not, I could be a very good teacher.

I started to examine my fingernails, and this action had an immediate effect on the entity as it started to writhe even more in agitation. It had obviously remembered the action as being somewhat… disrespectful. That was the exact idea I was trying to convey anyway, so it might have been good that it caught on.

This particular entity needs to remember who gives the orders here.

It spread out, as if to look intimidating in my eyes – a foolish move – and began to slowly approach me, drifting through the dark starry void that surrounded us. I looked away from my fingernail as it came closer, not even bothering to lower my hand from its position near my face.

A pair of eyes appeared in the dark mist, slitted reptilian eyes of the deepest green, the colour of pestilence, gazing at me with malice, demanding to know what I was doing. A maw of jagged teeth appeared next, emerging from the mist, saliva dripping from it as if it was anticipating eating me.

If that were the case then it would be sorely mistaken.

The being spoke, “Foolish creature, what reason would you have to call me from my slumber?” It spoke with an odd hissing accent, and the breath on the idiotic creature could fell a cow from a hundred paces away. A drop of saliva flew from the maw of the snake-lookalike and found a resting place on my suit. I flicked it away with a quick wrist movement from my already raised hand.

My mind was completely certain at that moment that it didn’t remember me, for if it had it would never have spoken to me like that. That was the only thing that saved it from immediate extermination.

I let out a heavy sigh and returned to inspecting my fingernail. “That’s funny, to the average bystander it would seem that your slumber was less of a slumber and more of a, let’s say…” I gave it a quick glance before looking back at my finger, “Banishment?”

That was the final straw for its patience as it started growling, softly, but slowly rising in volume. I could hear the sound of its teeth grinding together in anger. Its eyes narrowed as it began to speak again, “I will not ask of how you know of my fate, but to approach me in my domain, and to anger me in my place of rest, to even touch my star…”

It looked me right in the eye, “For that you must die.”

Just as I thought, it hadn’t gotten any smarter over the millennia since I’d seen it last. Still, it had at least improved on its sense of drama a little. And at least now I get a chance to show it who’s in charge around here.

The cloud shot out two tendrils of gas in an attempt to touch me, and they wrapped around my arms, I let it try and pull me apart, the key word being tried. In mere seconds it realized that it was getting nowhere and tried instead to simply encompass my in its maw. The face in the cloud got closer, can closer, and the mouth opened wider, and wider, until all that I could see was the shining white teeth, wet with anticipation.

The mouth was about to close on me, and I could practically sense the satisfaction that it would get from swallowing me whole, assimilating me into its being.

But that would never happen. I spoke but a single word.

“No.”

But the word wasn’t the important thing. As I spoke it I imparted a fragment of my will into it, forcing power through the sound. The teeth immediately stopped their approach and the face recoiled as if struck. But I didn’t relent.

“You think that I am but a simple being, one that could be treated as you will.”

As I spoke the face continued to back away, and the tendrils that surrounded my burst apart in a white flash.

I think this was the moment when it finally recognized me. mainly due to its sudden desire to escape as quickly as possible.

But that option was cut off in an instant. I spoke a quick word, and a moment later it was bound by the chains of power that had encircled it. I turned it around in its binding to face me, and the look it was giving me was one of pure helplessness and terror.

I gave it a cold grin, and it shuddered, “Hello there old friend…”

I think I even saw a tear at one point sneak its way onto its face. It continued to shrink in its binding until it only showed me an image of one of the disgusting creatures that inhabited the land that it had tried to overtake. Pitiful really.

I raised an eyebrow, “No answer? My my, you would me with your actions.” I tightened its prison and was rewarded by a quick shriek of pain, “Now, I don’t care for small talk, so I’ll only say this once, and I want a good answer.”

I leaned closer, my head almost touching its as we both hung suspended in the starry void, a manic grin on my face. It shivered.

“I have a business proposal for you Corruption, and I would be honored if you accepted it.”

I try to help, but sometimes, things take on a mind of their own, and in the end the show must go one. For I am but an instrument showing a window into their life…
-Author

Chapter 18

Facing Facts

Light

It’s surprising really just how quickly someone’s expectations of life can be torn apart. It’s like there’s some giant force that can change the entire direction that you might be travelling in with the drop of a coin, a cosmic influence if you will.

Mine was nothing like that. Mine was just realizing the truth that I’d overlooked and forgotten my whole life.

That my world wasn’t real, that everything I had based my actions off of until this point had been influenced by that thing, the thing that had taken away my identity and left me as a broken shell on a tiny planet in some unknown galaxy in some unknown universe, if Luna’s explanation was anything to go by.

To be honest, it was a bit far fetched, but worse than that was the realization that it was all true.

Somehow, that bastard had gotten inside of my head at some point and erased everything. And by that I mean everything. Sure, there would have been some basic subconscious things that he couldn’t have gotten rid of, but if I had forgotten them I’d probably have been dead, and again according to Luna that’s a near impossibility.

I’m not sure just how long I spent bent down, having keeled over onto my hands and knees at some point during my introspective rant, but it sure as hell felt like a while, and it probably was. I’d tried as hard as I could to remember something, anything that would lead to a conclusion that wasn’t relating to him, but I could only remember those four words.

”Time to forget, brother.”

After that there was only a flash of light, and after that…

Nothing.

And then there was me finding Fire, finding the rest of the gang, everything up until this point. But there was nothing earlier. It was as if I’d just appeared on Earth, clothes and all, ready to meet up with the other four and start fighting. I even had some hazy impressions that I’d had a family of sorts. It was like my brain hadn’t been able to cope with there being nothing to use as a reference at all and had just given control to my subconscious.

Which was probably a good thing. Somehow, my subconscious hadn’t been erased completely, and faint ideas had bled into my new life and sort of, generated my backstory. Even the instinct to fight the Director had been programmed into me, hardwired into my ‘young’ brain.

Or at least, that’s how I like to think of it. It was, in all likelihood, a lot more complicated than that, but I don’t care.

All I know is that the Director, that backstabbing dickhead, had known me for a long time, and that he’d erased my memory.

He’d practically destroyed me.

Every attempt to think back to before what I like to call the Incident was rewarded by blankness, and a headache from straining like hell. Everything after that I can remember just fine, even the moment when I just appeared on Earth in the middle of nowhere.

And it made me angry. To know that my original life had been hidden from me the whole time, that I’d probably been completely different to how I am now, and that it had all been taken away in one fell swoop.

And then it made me sad, to think of who I might have left behind, the ones who might have known me at some point during my extended life.

And so I stayed there, crouched in a small huddle in the middle of the floor in that tiny cottage, content to just think, and strain to remember. I can faintly recall having heard Celestia issue a command to the rest of the ponies, and hearing them file out into an adjacent room a few seconds later. Then hearing a pair of hoofsteps approach until they were right next to me.

I felt a small pressure on my back as a hoof was placed ever so gently upon it. I lifted my head and looked up to see both Celestia and Luna gazing at me with eyes full of compassion and sadness. In all fairness they’d lived for a long time, and had probably dealt with things much worse than what I was going through.

But it made me feel good anyway to know that they cared, even if it was just a little.

I sniffed quietly and wiped away a tear that I didn’t even know was there. A smile crept onto my face as I tried to look even a bit composed, but they saw right through it.

I bet a lot of people wonder what it’s like to get hugged by two semi-goddesses at the same time, and ponies at that, but I’ll just tell you this.

It feels good, really good.

There’s something strange about touching something living, especially if you know that what you’re touching cares for you in some way. It gives you some irrational idea of happiness, and even if you know that something bad is about to happen, you just don’t care.

At that moment, that was exactly how I felt. I just sat there, content to float on the current of happiness that were going through me as I sat there being glomped by two worried princesses.

But all good things must come to an end, and this was a case of that. I stood shakily and finally managed to put on a convincing smile for my company. It seemed to cheer them up a little too.

Luna took a small step closer to me, “I take it that you managed to remember something.”

Close, but no cigar. “If you could call it remembering, I just hit a wall, but I know enough.”

“And what have you realized?” Celestia asked.

I sighed, “Luna was right. She was right about everything. About being an Element. She was just right.” I took a quick glance at my clothes, almost as if to reaffirm my newly-realised – or should it be newly-remembered – status as a True Element.

Luna rested a hoof on my shoulder, leaning up slightly to reach me, “I can’t imaging how this must feel for you…”

“To be honest, it’s not that bad…” I sighed again, “It’s just the fact that everything up until this point in my life has been a lie. I didn’t even have a family or anything, I just thought I did.” A terrible thought occurred to me.

Does that mean that I lied to my friends the whole time? That they never really knew about me? And to think that everything about their life I remembered…

I snapped back to attention as I realized that I was drifting away from the conversation at hand. The two princesses were looking at me with concern, “What’s troubling you so much Light?” Luna asked. Celestia gave her an incredulous look, making the night Princess blush, “I mean, apart from the whole… you know…”

There was an awkward silence as Luna shuffled, her face a crimson beacon in the small environment. “Well…” I started, but then something occurred to me, “I haven’t told you about my world have I yet?” They shook my head, “Well, I think that may help to explain some things to you, but you might want to bring the others back, I don’t much feel like repeating myself.

“Okay, so I’m going to explain some things, but I don’t want any interruptions, got it?” I gave a pointed look at Twilight, and she immediately looked at the ground, her cheeks burning. The others in the group nodded, Fluttershy looking sheepish.

Actually, Fluttershy kinda always looks sheepish, so lets just say, for convenience, that she’s always looking sheepish around me, I can be a little scary at times, believe me, I know.

“Right, now, where to begin…”

“The first thing to know is that where I came from things were a lot different to here. Possibly the most obvious difference is that there wasn’t magic, at all, nada, gonski, nothing. The closest thing that we had to it was probably me, and a few friends that I had, I’ll talk about them later.

So in this world, there was no magic, but we had technology that could easily make up for it any day, so advanced that you could get from one side of the world to the other in the space of a day. Not that you’d want to of course, it all looked the same.

The second major difference is that while we had a strong ruler, a bit like Celestia and Luna here,” Twilight gave me an annoyed look for not including their titles, “He might’ve been a little too strong. He literally controlled everything. The whole world was pretty much identical. I mean, sure there were areas where development just wasn’t easy, or practical fro that matter, but everything else was controlled by his.

His name was the Director.

Everyone following so far?”

Twilight looked like she was about to ask a question – go figure – but that would take too much time, “So anyway…

I fought against the Director, and I wasn’t the only one. There were a few other groups that tried to make a stand, but they were all wiped out. I’d had a band of five…”

I stared into space for a second, but caught myself quickly, “Anyway, I lived in this uniform shithole of a planet, and almost my whole life was spent fighting. All of the law enforcement was corrupt, controlled by Him, and they would alter normal people to make them ideal candidates for the… conversion process…”

There was a round of shudders that swept the room as I said that, and all of the ponies looked too disturbed by what I said.

“Now, Luna, you asked what I was thinking about…

You see, there were some bright spot in my life, four to be exact. Their names were Fire, Earth, Wind,

and Water.

These four were the only ones that I could trust. We’d all had a tough time at the hands of the Director, and we all wanted to fight. The most important part being that we actually could.”

I slowed down and gave a deep sigh. Rainbow looked like she was about to ask something. “So what happened to those fo-“

Applejack punched her in the shoulder and made a pointed look at me just to make it obvious. Rainbow looked more than a little embarrassed.

I smiled weakly, “No, it’s alright Applejack. To answer your question Rainbow, they’re gone now. They all died.” This was a bit of a shock, and the whole room was quiet, “Yeah, I know, believe me I know…

So yeah, I lived in the armpit of the universe, and I fought all the time. And if you’re wondering how I got here Twilight, yes, I can see the question written on your notepad, don’t bother hiding it now, yeah, I don’t know how I got here, I was about to get killed by the Director and then…”

I trailed off with my hands in the air in a questioning gesture, and Twilight looked extremely suspicious all of a sudden, but I decided to leave that for later.

I turned to Luna, “The biggest problem is that I can’t remember anything before I was on Earth fighting the Director, except for hovering in some random void place and hearing someone telling me to forget.” I decided to leave out the whole ‘I’m your brother thing’, no need to complicate things…

Luna gave me a look, you know the one, “Well, I could take a glimpse inside your mind to see if I can find anything before that…”

Sweat beads sprang onto my face, but there was no alternative, she had to look, “Okay then, but only look for before, cool?”

She gave me a strange look, but agreed to my conditions. Moments later, her horn was glowing and she had her eyes closed in concentration.

I waited…

…

GASP

“What was it?!”

Luna was panting hard, and she had a startled expression. I leaned forward, eagerly awaitin-

“Nothing! There was absolutely nothing there!”

I was shocked, completely shocked. I rolled onto the backs of my heels, “What do you mean nothing?!”

“What we- I mean, I are trying to say is that there’s no memories at all! There’s nothing there before your time on Earth!”

I was grasping as straws here, “Is there anything you can do?”

She looked like she was about to say something, but Celestia placed a hoof on her shoulder to quiet her. Luna looked curious, but comprehension dawned on her face, “You don’t mean…”

Celestia nodded, “Yes sister, I do…”

I was more than a little confused, “What? What are you talking about?”

Luna turned towards me, “Light, there is one possibility for you to get your memories back, but it may not work, and the pony that we need to talk to may not want to help…”

“I’ll do it! Whatever it is, I’ll do it!”

“You must first realize that he might not agree to help, and he can be more than a bit temperamental at times. And if he gets angry at you…”

“My comment still stands.”

Luna nodded, “Very well. If you wish to know what we will do,”

She looked at me, directly in the eyes, “We need to have a talk with Time.”

Far, far away, a small person on the comments page suddenly leapt a metre into the air, “I knew he’d bring Time into the fic! Fucking called it!”

Chapter 19

Corruption was invaluable.

Not many people seem to realize the importance of getting to the heart of something, changing it irreversibly for the worse, or better, take your pick.

I’ve seen might kingdoms fall; empires crumble in the face of it. They work on their defenses to make them impenetrable, completely invulnerable to outside influence.

But the biggest threat can sometimes come from within.

That was one of the things that I over thought in my own conquest. I’d completely sedated the populace with a bland mindset, effectively killing their resistance to any cause.

But of course he had to appear. He’d always been around to be a thorn in my side, but that time had gone on long enough.

That was why I recruited It again.

It had served me long ago, at one point being my most trusted troop, always ready to fight, to attack. But not from the front line, no, never from there. It was always behind the defenses, moving invisibly to sabotage even the most sturdy of defenses. I can’t even begin to count just how many attacks have finished that much quicker due to its work.

But that time had long passed. It had gotten the idea that It was stronger than me at one point. A foolish notion, but an annoying one at that.

So It had rebelled, trying to somehow break through and destroy me, or at the very least remove me from power.

Of course, that hadn’t worked, and It still came out the worse for wear in the end. I sometimes wonder if there was some other way to go about my… negotiations with It, but what’s done is done, and what I did to It never went away.

I made It fear me.

I made It fear me like no other, the one being in existence that could completely and utterly remove it from any form of life and sentience.

Fear is a powerful motivator. A city being controlled by fear might rebel, but if the idea is spread about right then it is quiet, subdued, no attempts being made at all to get any semblance of freedom.

Fear managed to break It, and It didn’t ever dare try to attack me ever again, one exception of course, but that was a mistake, unavoidable, It didn't even recognise me.

But this control over It came at a price. Loyalty. It was always unsure of what it was doing, never acting the way It once had, without question. It could not be trusted to carry out my orders, and it was only a matter of time before It could take it no longer and betrayed me, quietly and without warning, the way It always liked to do things.

And It had escaped me, that much was sure, but never again. It had surprised me in a time of triumph, and it’s my fault as well. I hadn’t properly understood the psyche of that murderous, treacherous leech. But I do now.

This time It wouldn’t get the chance to escape my sight, not after all that I’ve gone through. To make my conquest completely successful, I would need to have all of the help I could get, and this included It.

Corruption would never be free again, and after I was done with her, I’d kill It; I can’t be having any loose ends lying around.

But in the meantime, I have a use for corruption.

There was a reason why I hadn’t continued on to his location after the destruction of the striped animals, and that was that he had too much protection. I’d never get in there cleanly to finish off the job. There were precautions to be taken, plans to be formed.

I hadn’t even sensed their presence at first, but it’s impossible to ignore something like them for very long, especially when they are of such a high caliber.

But they are castles, with defenses. And although they are incredibly strong, border-lining impenetrable, they can still be worn, and chipped, and torn apart at the seams.

And that was precisely what I planned to do.

Light wouldn’t be safe for long, and I’d get to him sooner or later. Apparently Corruption sensed him too and had some fun with him. It will be punished of course.

Only I get to touch him. But the others I’ve left to it.

It can get in there unnoticed, and that’s what I’m relying on It to do. It’ll get to them and rot the defense to its core.

And if It tries to turn on me, even in the slightest…

I’ll destroy it.

I’d always found the night my ally. It was one of the only things that stopped me from being found in the city. It was my friend…
-Light

Chapter 19

Not so Silent Night

There wasn’t much to do in general. Nothing to read, well, nothing that I could understand at least. Turns out that I’m not the best at translating alien languages.

Go figure.

So I was bored.

…

Yep, that’s my mind. There wasn’t even any fun to be had by baiting the others that were in the room. I’d gone outside a while ago to just sit on the grass. I still wasn’t sure where the ideas for the names of the objects had come from originally, before my stoning, it was like a half remembered dream.

But I tried not to dwell on that for too long, too confusing in general. So I just lay there on the grass, trying to ignore the fact that I was no longer under attack in any way…

…

That came out weirder than I thought didn’t it? Was my life really that messed up that, in the one moment of true peace that I’ve had for as long as I can remember comes along I have nothing to do?

Am I just a fighter?

I sighed and shifted a bit on the grass. I could hear the animals in the distance being corralled back towards Fluttershy’s cottage. They’d been scared off earlier when I’d reset/exploded, and apparently animals don’t like explosion going off right near where they’re staying.

News to me.

But that didn’t matter anyway, they were being retrieved now, so it was okay. And it gave me a chance to escape the house for a while.

Celestia had been taken out of the equation too. I don’t know how, but she’d forgotten completely about the town nearby, so the whole time that I’d been talking they were still panicking and wondering just what the hell had happened to their Princess, so they were probably a bit relieved to find the answer to it all. She’d taken Twilight Sparkle with her to assess the damage. I’d been told that she was a demon with a checklist.

Actually, I kinda feel sorry for the town now…

And get this, the place was called Ponyville. Ponyville?! I mean, really, how dull must the founders have been to name a place like that?!

Of course I couldn’t just say that to the group. Again. I found out the hard way that Applejack’s grandmother had been one of the ponies that built the place about one hundred years ago. The biggest question being just how old was Applejack’s grandmother anyway?

Applejack had already wandered off somewhere, I didn’t really pay much attention to where she was going. I’d heard that she was a farmer, so I assumed that she’d wandered off to check on that orchard that I saw off in the distance during my… unscheduled crash landing in the middle of the conveniently placed crater in the town.

I don’t even want to know where Rarity went to, it most likely was fashion related, that being the only thing that she ever freakin’ talked about to me. I mean, really, she hadn’t stop talking about my clothes since she first saw them!

The talking wasn’t as good as her trying to take my clothes off thoug-

WAIT WAIT NO! WRONG SENTENCE! I meant that it wasn’t as bad! Shut up! I totally did!

…You recorded that didn’t you…?

I’m on a roll with awkward phrasing today aren’t I?

Anyway, I discovered that ponies apparently have absolutely no problem with trying to get others naked, especially considering that they pretty much never wear clothes…

Come to think of it, I’ve only seen the Princesses and the guards wearing anything at all…

Oh God! I’m living in a nudist town aren’t I! I’m pretty sure that the ponies in the city were wearing clothes!

I do seem to be attracting all of the weirdos don’t I?

So Rarity was off somewhere, presumably plotting another way for her to attack me with no warning and try to steal my clothes.

Like I said, weirdos.

Talking about weirdos, notice the awesome link in the topic there, Rainbow Dash had gotten all emo and upset about earlier when Luna and Celestia had torn her apart in front of her friends. Not that I felt that bad about any of that, she’d pretty much lost any possible respect that she might have had when she started yelling for no reason when I was getting a hug…

…What? It was a nice hug…

So she’d gone flying somewhere, I honestly could not be bothered to go and look for her at all, it just wasn’t interesting.

So I just decided to say ‘screw the ponies, Imma lie here’. And that is what I did.

I am a man of my word after all…

I gave a relaxed sigh and closed my eyes, content to just… relax, for the first time that I could remember. The moon was high and bright overhead, a perfect crescent hanging in the sky. It had just the right amount of luminance to illuminate the surroundings, but not be too bright for nighttime.

And the air here was amazing to say the least. I’d spent all of my time in a place where you couldn’t take a few breaths without taking in about a litre of tar and more than a bit of poison, that was how disgusting the place was. So it was a pleasant surprise that when I lay back I didn’t immediately start choking on my own tongue in an attempt to kill myself faster than the air could.

I was actually glad that it was night at the time. Luna had given her massively dramatic speech thing, but we hadn’t had a chance to act on it at all yet.

To be truthful, I was glad. I didn’t want to do anything else that night, apart from just lie down and maybe even sleep.

…Actually, the last time I properly slept was back in the city. The only other times that I haven’t been conscious were when I was knocked out without warning, and the times apart from that were when I was made out of bloody stone, so you can give me a bit of slack here.

Celestia had disappeared a few hours ago, back when it was only a little dark. It was full night now, and I expected her to return before long. That I wasn’t too worried about. Her student however…

No, don’t talk to me about her, she is a menace!

But until the Portable Purple Aneurism got back I’d have a little time to myself, just to try and relax, maybe even try to come to terms with just what the fuck has been happening in my life, because it’s obviously that it hasn’t been boring so far…

Yep, just me, peaceful night, about to sleep…

Just me, all alone, with the night sky…

Soft grass, nice sky, creepy Luna, tre-

…

I sighed, realizing that I really couldn’t get a single moment of quiet alone time. It was obviously too much to ask for. Luna remained blissfully unaware that she was creeping me the fuck out, so she had a happy look on her face.

It occurred to me, just then, what it might look like to anyone watching. Moonlit night, me lying relaxed on the grass, Luna standing right over my head looking down onto my face, romantically gazing into my eyes, ask-

Well, where did that one come from…

I rolled my eyes, sighing heavily, “Luna, would you kindly explain why the hell you’re standing over my like that when it’s obvious that I’m trying to relax, and maybe get some sleep?”

“Well, I thought that you might like to talk about… what’s happening?” She looked a bit too hopeful, but that look quickly turned to slight sadness, “And we would also like to ask you a personal question…”

I sat up slightly, curious as to what she was talking about. I waved my hand to prompt her a little further.

She looked confused by the gesture for a second before getting the gist and continuing, “Every time you looked at me back in there you looked like you were sad about something…”

She hesitated for a second before speaking sadly, “I thought that you might have something against me for some reason…” Her head was looking at the grass at her hooves.

“Why would you think that I was annoyed at you or something?” I asked.

She sighed, reminiscing, “Light, I think there’s some things that you need to know about my past…”

Rainbow Dash

She was hidden, completely and utterly hidden. There was no chance that they would ever find her in her present hiding spot.

In the tree nearby.

Meh, it was the best place she could find in the quickest time. And besides, only a bit of her tail was poking out.

Rainbow shuffled to get into a more comfortable position, adjusting her Daring Doo pith helm a little and increasing the zoom on the binoculars so that she could get a better view.

She could see everything that he was doing, which really wasn’t much. But she couldn’t take her eyes off of him, she knew that he was plotting something, it was only a matter of time before something set him off, and he attacked, and did… evil stuff…

What? That was a real thing!

Wait, what? Luna? Why’s she there too? And why didn’t she go with Celestia as well?

Was there a reason why she was talking to Light, all alone in the darkness, with nopony around to see them apart from her?

Oh, oh no, that’s terrible…

Rainbow came to the shocking conclusion that Luna was working with Light, it was obvious by the way that she seemed so relaxed around him as they sat there, talking, plotting their plans. Rainbow didn’t normally like to be a suspicious pony, and she really, really was trying to be nice to Luna, but she had to remember that no too long ago she had been trapped on the moon because of trying to overthrow Celestia…

And now she had been taken into Light’s evil plans as well. There was apparently no escaping this evil fiend. Only she, Rainbow Dash, would have a chance of protecting Equestria.

With that she was gone, a slight rustling noise and a few scattered leaves the only thing left behind as she vanished into the night, rushing to find Rarity, Fluttershy, anypony!

They needed to be told about this interaction between the newcomer and the returner.

Light

“Hold on to your horses there, you said that you were imprisoned… for one thousand years?!”

Luna looked at me, unimpressed at the pun, before lowering her eyes and slowly nodding her head, a small sigh escaping her lips. “Yes, all that I’ve said is true, I was taken over the Nightmare and made to do horrible things…

It was almost like watching one of those talking pictures that the ponies have nowadays, I could see it, and I felt like I was doing what I wanted to do, but in all truth it was the Nightmare that was forcing me to do those things. I only realized the fault that I was at after I was freed by the Elements of Harmony.”

“The same po-“

She nodded, “Yes, the ponies that you were just talking to…”

I was still curious about something though, “What was this… Nightmare doing to you to make you think the way you were thinking?”

She looked a bit taken aback, “You know, nopony has ever asked me that… It was like nothing I’ve ever experienced…” She visibly shuddered, “I could hear these two other voices, constantly talking to me to try and persuade me to commit the atrocities that I did… The worst part being that whenever they did talk I completely believed them…”

“Are you feeling alright Light”

Luna was watching me, slightly alarmed by the way that I’d frozen up after hearing her description. I tried to loosen up a little, “Uhhh, hmmm? Oh, nothing, nothing. I was just a bit… stunned, yeah, stunned by what you went through…” Please let her buy it, please let her buy it, please l-“

“That is very kind of you Light, very thoughtful.”

That was close, anything to stop her from realizing the similarities between her case and mine. By the looks of her face she believed me, and we both lapsed into a comfortable silence.

Luna cast another glance my way, “So why might I even be finding you out here on this night? Any reason?”

I shook my head, “No, just trying to relax a little, don’t get to do that very often.” Awkward chuckle moment.

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, ”I just thought that I might be able to find a little peace and quiet here, when it’s night. It was the only time that I was really comfortable, you know, fighting and all…” I decided that it was probably a good time to stop speaking, before I really put my foot right into my big mouth.

I closed my eyes and lay back, which is probably the reason why I didn’t see Luna quietly blushing next to me. I could hear her lay down besides me as I did, our breathing slowing to a crawl as we started to drift closer and closer to sleep.

But there was one thing I hadn’t asked her yet.

“Luna, what’s this Time guy like? Nice, or is he just a total asshat?”

She chuckled, “He can be a bit moody, but he’s usually easy to get along with. I’ve known him since before my banishment, so he’s a good friend. I think you’ll like him…”

“Thanks Luna.”

That being said, I just let the soft breeze carry me out of the waking world, happy to let whatever was going to happen the next day happen the next day…

I did get one last image before I drifted off though, of Celestia going to the stores in Ponyville…

Chapter 20

She hated it. All of it. In the beginning, all she’d wanted was to have a carefree existence without trouble, or burden, or any of the shit that she had to deal with now.

Well, to late to go back. She had a task to accomplish, and he would not be happy if she screwed it up. It may be something that she would rather not be doing, it may seem the better alternative to hide under a rock like she did the last time around, anything may seem better.

Really? Anything would be better, even capture. But she knew that in the end that wouldn’t work out well, that in the end he would end up finding her, and putting an end to her existence in all forms.

So she obeyed, and responded to his commands, and went about them like some mindless animal, ready to do whatever he bid her.

But did she feel happy about it? Did she enjoy the tasks? No.

Did she use to enjoy them, once upon a time?

Yes, oh yes, more than anything else in the world. She probably had a crush on him at some point. Not a real crush, more the one that a student might get towards a role model, or a mentor of some sorts. And he had been her mentor.

She met him when she was still quite naïve, only recently starting to learn about the real world. He had already been around for quite a long time and so knew a lot more about everything than she did.

That kind of knowledge does something to a girl. When you wake up, innocent and bushy-eyed, raring to go in a new environment, to immediately find a being that is infinitely more powerful than you, almost to the extent of omnipotence…

It influences you…

I didn’t know any better. I thought that what he was doing was the right way to go about things, that there was no other way.

He was like a father to me.

He was the one that taught me what I was, and how to use my nature to my advantage against others. I soon became his most trusted advisor, and fighter, and everything. I was so close to him.

But he was like a flame. Get too close and you’ll get burned. But in this case he was more like a nuclear inferno; get too close and you’re likely to get incinerated in an instant, so quickly that you’ll have time to actually watch your ashes float away on the wind.

She’d been on the receiving end of that, and it scarred her irreversibly. All of a sudden she started seeing the downsides to his actions, the millions of lives ruined by his work, the families torn apart, the worlds burned. And she couldn’t ignore it either. Some part of her had always quietly known, but had pushed the knowledge down so as for it to not be taken seriously.

But after he turned on her, if only for an instant, she was no longer capable of overlooking everything. She would watch from the frontlines, sometimes carrying out his orders, but her heart wasn’t in it like it had used to be. Sure, she would still do the sabotages, and the infiltrations, all of that, but she didn’t want to do it. But that didn’t work, she couldn’t rebel. If she had tried to she would have been obliterated. But not just that, he would have absolutely torn her apart, scattering pieces of her everywhere, and there would be nothing she could do to stop him.

The executions were the worst. He would make her watch, make her get so close that she could almost taste the fear and horror that was radiating from the victims. They thought that they were in for the most terrible experience of their life.

But it wasn’t. It was even worse. His executions made planetary genocides look like tea parties. He would torture the victims, both physically and mentally, until they were begging for their death.

But he wouldn’t provide that. He would find the ones that the person held dear, and he would make them watch as he slaughtered them, slowly slicing their throats open, inch by inch, letting the crimson metal ooze out, the acrid smell of iron filling the air.

And then he would start on the victim, tearing off limbs slowly and painfully, savouring every last moment of it. The fingers were his favourite; apparently the small joints could be separated one by one, providing the most excruciating pain.

And he wouldn’t stop, not until every last bit; every last drop of resistance was drained from his victim. And he knew how to break them easily, knowing the limits of their pain to stop them from passing out and missing some of his treatment. If they still wanted death then he’d either torture them or string them up somewhere to rot slowly, negating their will, leaving them powerless.

I found it the most disgusting thing in existence, but of course I couldn’t say that, not with him there. I had to feign a smile and act enthusiastic for him, or else he’d get suspicious. But on the inside I was crying, rolling around, practically trying to burn my eyes to stop myself from seeing anything else.

But I kept that on the inside, and I stopped the suspicion, and eventually I had my chance to escape.

He never expected it of course, the best escapes are always like that, sudden and by surprise, and I think that’s the only reason that I escaped unscathed. If he had known what I’d do then I would’ve been destroyed in an instant.

So I bided my time, waiting for the perfect moment to vanish into the blue, completely forsaking his values and disappearing. I travelled to every corner of existence to evade him, thinking that he’d follow me forever in an attempt to get retribution.

But eventually I stopped, and waited, ready to see what would happen. But my expectations of him were sorely mistaken. He hadn’t even bothered to chase me that far, he was probably waiting for me to break down and prostrate myself at his feet.

But I never went back, I decided that I would never go to his ways again. I was going to help, to make others’ lives better, not worse.

I was going to make their wishes come true…

And that is exactly why I spent over a millennia of my later life banished.

He’s been around since the beginning, and he’ll probably be around long after we’re gone…
-Celestia

Chapter 20

A Quick Checkup

I woke up to an image that will forever scar me and keep me up at night. I’ve seen horrors and deaths and destruction, to the point where an ordinary person would break down and stop functioning. But it wasn’t any of those things. It was something a lot more mundane.

It was Pinkie’s hair.

Think about it, you fell asleep outside, and wake up to the face of the most hyperactive insane looking piece of pink fluff that you’ve ever seen.

It’s a little creepy.

I wonder if the birds and animals were bothered much by the incredibly loud scream that pierced the air in the early hours of the morning…

Pinkie didn’t let up however, and continued staring at me with an incredibly large grin on her face. I don’t think that she even noticed that I was awake at all, probably passed it off as a human thing. But if screaming loudly for no apparent reason seems normal for me…

Wow, I just realized that I am a weird person. Yeah, shut up, I meant personality wise smartass. Be quiet and sit down, you were so good for the first part of the tale…

I took a moment to gather myself before I pushed Pinkie off me, making her fall onto the ground. She didn’t even land hard, just going a barrel roll/cartwheel and landing on her hooves. I started to try and say something before I realized that she wasn’t even in front of me.

It took me another few seconds to realize that she was on my head…

I bet the birds were getting pretty disturbed by now.

Pinkie just looked at me with those huge cerulean eyes for a moment, “Come on sleepy pants, you’ve gotta get up! Are you even awake?!”

I sighed, “No Pinkie, I’m still asleep.”

“Oki Doki Loki!” She paused for a moment, then gasped, “I DIDN’T KNOW THAT YOU SLEEP TALKED!!!!”

I rolled my eyes and decided not to question the pony, some things in life are better that way.

Then again, some things in life help to keep your brain from having a meltdown, so I think I made the right decision.

I looked around. The sun was already hanging high in the sky, about a quarter of the way up from the horizon. The animals were already about, mostly congregating on Fluttershy’s cottage, however a few were in the field around me, even less actually daring to go anywhere near me.

But I immediately noticed something strange, Luna was gone. I could see the indent on the grass where she had lain, but there was no pony there, she had vanished. I sighed, some things can’t be helped. I kinda wish that she had stayed instead of going away somewhere else.

I started walking towards the cottage, hoping to see what the hell was happening that day, and maybe get something to eat. Pinkie was still on my head, occasionally saying a small string of completely random words for no apparent reason. I officially had a pink furry hat. Fun.

It was a really peaceful thing, just walking through the field towards the house, and I almost wished that it could last forever. I hesitated just outside the threshold, more than a bit unwilling to sacrifice the last bit of freedom and peace that I knew I’d get for the day.

And that’s exactly when the door burst open and Twilight shot out.

I could almost imagine her frothing at the mouth as she raced towards me, and at one point there probably was a bit of froth that flecked off the side onto the grass. She only stopped her mad charge when she was at my feet, “Where the hay have you been Light?!”

I held up my hands to respond, but Pinkie beat me to it, “Sorry Twilight, he can’t speak right now, he’s just sleepwalking. Well, he can speak, but I think it’s only sleeptalking. Isn’t that just weird?! I mean, really, sleeptalking and sleepwalking? That-“

I promptly ignored her completely in the slight chance that my head exploded, “Riiiight. In the land of the relatively sane, I’ve been sleepy in the field…” I waved my hands in the general direction and shrugged, “So, yeah. Is that a problem or anything? Oh, and where’s Luna?”

Twilight seemed to calm down a bit as I said this, “You were in the field the whole time?”

“…Yeah?”

She visibly relaxed even further, “Oh, aahhhhh, okay then. Nothing. And Luna was seen going to bed a second ago, she usually sleeps during the day.” She started walking back into the cottage, “Come on, we’ve got a long day ahead of us.”

Joy in solid form, that’s what this Twilight pony is. I followed her in and immediately froze as all six other ponies looked at me. It seemed that all of Twilight’s friends and Celestia had turned out for the occasion, which really made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside…

“-ia actually weighs 1.989E30 kg! Way more than a family sedan! And that’s how Equestria was made…”

Aaaaaand, there goes the happy feelings… I’m just feeling annoyed that I’ve gotta keep getting up to do this crap, even after I should logically be dead and/or insane.

Well, you’ve got to make the best of it.

Celestia stepped towards me, “Light, good, you’re up. We can’t delay much longer if we want to see him in a good mood, the customers usually annoy him a little.”

She turned to leave the house, but I just shook my head, “Nuh-uh,” This seemed to shock her, as she turned towards me with uncertainty, “I need food, and I’m not going anywhere until I get some.”

Celestia cracked a small smile, “I’m sure that Fluttershy would be able to help you out there Light.” She nodded towards the timid pegasus, who lifted a small hoof.

I smiled, “That would be very much appreciated.”

Applejack

“-really mean it! I don’t trust him in the least! He’s going to turn on us and attack at any moment, I just know it! He. Is. Not. A. good. Pony!”

“Ahhh, Rainbow? In case you hadn’ noticed, Light ain’t no pony in the first place.” Applejack gave her cyan friend a perfunctory glance from head to hoof, “Are you sure tha’ yur feeling completely fine?”

Rainbow let out a small growl, “APPLEJACK!” Twilight and Rarity shushed her, Pinkie not even caring about the loud noises, “Applejack!” She said again in a strained whisper, “I’m telling you, I don’t trust this guy at all. I feel that, I don’t know, that he’s just going to turn on us at a moment’s notice.” She looked at the floor, “I know that it sounds silly, but I just don’t feel right around him, it’s like there’s a small voice in my head telling me that I shouldn’t be around him, and sometimes it tells me that I should actually hurt him…”

Applejack was stunned, she had known Rainbow as her friend for so long, and she thought that she knew what she was like, and Rainbow was never xenophobic. If anything, she was the most accepting, well, behind Pinkie. She had had a griffin as her friend for Celestia’s sake! There was no reason for her to be acting like this now.

But she was the element of Honesty, and she knew when someone was making things up, to an extent of course. Ponies liked to make the conclusion that just because she was the element she could tell exactly when somepony was lying, but it wasn’t like that, it was more like she had a better sense of telling someone’s face, seeing their tics, and their reactions.

She had known Rainbow for so long that when she lied Applejack could tell. When Rainbow told a lie about sleeping on the job for example, her left eyelid would twitch twice, but if it was a lie about eating some of her apples it would be a slight rustle of the feathers.

But Rainbow was being completely truthful here. She actually felt this way about Light, and that was worrying. For her to feel this way, then chances were that she might have a point.

Contrary to common belief, Rainbow wasn’t stupid, not by a long shot. She had a façade of complete ignorance, an uncaring feel that penetrated anything. She was the athlete, not the ‘egghead’.

But in reality she was practically a genius. If she had had the proper schooling then she might have almost approached Twilight, almost. But even thought she had spent her childhood in a flight camp, she was still smarter than most. She just hid it… very well…

And if Rainbow thought something was wrong, then that was bad.

Applejack would have to pay heed, Rainbow had their wellbeing in mind. She was the Element of Loyalty after all.

Was there something going on with Light? Was he going to turn on them? Betray them?

Was he… evil?

Light

Well, that was… interesting. There was more than a bit of a clash in interest between Fluttershy and I for obvious reasons. It seems that ponies don’t eat meat.

Yeah, I know right?

So I was forced to eat some amalgamation of fruits and things, which surprisingly wasn’t that bad, so all in all I still came out on top, food in my stomach. That’s a good outcome any day.

And now I was being lead down the main streets of Ponyville by Celestia. She’d insisted that the others shouldn’t come, and had said that Luna was too busy sleeping. Apparently after I’d fallen asleep she’d stayed awake to monitor the night. I wish she had told me, and I might have stayed awake too to keep her company.

The others were missing because this Time guy didn’t like visitors. Bit of a recluse according to the Princess, but some people are just like that, so I can’t say much. I was like that, couldn’t really told to a pedestrian now could I?

And so they weren’t here. I personally could understand if Pinkie and Rainbow stayed out, and maybe Twilight, and Rarity might be annoying, and Fluttershy could frustrate him with her shyness, and Applejack can be a bit strong willed…

But that still leaves… Oh wait…

Well, I’m on my own then, apart from present company. It was immediately obvious the moment I stepped into Ponyville that it wasn’t going to be a fun walk. Although Celestia had talked to the townsfolk, their fear was still there, shining in their eyes, and I’d had practice at noticing these aspects. But at least they didn’t run and scream like I expected them to, so that was a small bonus, but that was mainly because of the Princess being in their presence, so they spent most of their time prostrated.

And so I had to walk the entire way through Ponyville with the eyes of the populace bearing into my back, which wasn’t a pleasant experience, especially considering I usually performed stealth style silent stalker stuff, so I was a bit out of my territory. I tried waving at a few ponies, but there were only ever two reactions, fear, or hatred for the destruction.

…Except for one weird pony that just stared at my hands as thought she’d seen a pile of cash. Coincidentally I suddenly got the picture of an instrument in my mind…

..I have no idea how thought…

Eventually Celestia turned a corner, navigating us away from the main streets and onto a smaller, more narrow route. I had to fight down the sudden urge to shiver as memories resurfaced a little.

It was darker in the backstreet, not much mind you, but enough to be noticeable. Celestia slowed as she moved deeper into the heart of Ponyville. I hadn’t realized that it was that big, but there seemed to be a whole network of roads and backstreets hidden amongst the houses.

I was just starting to wonder just how long the journey would take when we slowed. I looked at Celestia, who was looking up at something. I followed her gaze and saw a sign that looked distinctly like an hourglass with sand in it, a mechanical pocket watch half open was drawn beside that, the cogs clearly showing.

It was the place. Celestia looked back at me and nodded, I just blinked slowly, one eye, then the other, for no reason. Celestia rolled her eyes and turned back to the door, sauntering over to it. It was almost invisible in the brickwork of the building, especially with the sides of the tiny street being no more than four bodylengths wide. But it was there nonetheless.

She knocked on it, and the sound seemed to hang for longer than it should have. Celestia quickly jumped back to avoid the door as it slammed into the ground in front of her.

I swear, who makes their door like a bloody drawbridge? It just went straight where she was standing!

But Celestia was unfazed, and lazily wandered over the now flat door as it lay on the ground. I hurried over the threshold to avoid being left outside as the chains embedded in the sides of the door pulled it back up flush with the wall.

Inside it was as dark as the alley, if not darker. Small torches in brackets were hanging every few paces, providing a musty illumination. Celestia walked along the corridor and reached an atrium of sorts. There was desk going completely from left to right in the room, obviously a counter, but it doubled as a way to prevent a visitor from moving any further into the building without permission. It looked like it was meant for business as small brochures were scattered across the surface.

I almost started to read one before a scuffling noise caught my attention. Celestia was watching the tabletop intensely, and the noise was getting louder.

And then in a shower of watch parts and metal plating, a stallion popped up from behind the wooded counter.

He was a dark chocolate brown, his mane slightly browner. There was that same image on his flank as was on the sign outside, minus the disassembled watch. He looked a bit annoyed at being disturbed, but that was about it. He nodded to Celestia, not even bothering to acknowledge her properly, before turning to me. He didn’t even seem disturbed by the fact that I was a human at all.

And then he spoke.

“Greetings there, you can call me the Doctor. How may I be of service…”

Anyone who gets the drawbridge door reference gets an internet cookie. Hint, it's from a book series.

Chapter 21

Hey, if you read that thing where I said I couldn't update, good news everyone! I scrounged up and old mac, so I can write! (not much else though...)
So please, keep reading! I'm back!
Oh, and I just released ANOTHER story, so go check that out some time...

Think of her less as a sports car, and more like a truck. Yes, I do know what those are you idiot...
-The Doctor

Chapter 21

Clockwork Framework

It was easily apparent that he was a little... eccentric. It was just one of those things that you can’t get wrong. The inside of his shop just screamed ‘guy with way too much fucking time’.

And no, that wasn’t a pun.

It only took a few seconds of conversing with Celestia to convince him to let me behind the counter, which he did so reluctantly anyway. He seemed to have an innate distrust for anything that wasn’t... him.

The moment he opened up the side of the bench I could see just why he had a shop that was so out of the way, so free of any disturbances of any kind. With a hobby like his there was only one reason.

The inside was covered. And by that I mean that there was barely a single spot that didn’t have some sort of mechanical contraption clinging to it. From the walls, to the ceilings, and even to most of the floor, there was an abundance of crap.

There was every single type of small knick-knack that you could ever want, little animals that would plod along, clocks, spinning things, clocks, moving and throwing things...

...More clocks...

Now call me cynical, but I was beginning to find a trend of sorts in there.

Behind the counter lay the ‘depths’ of the shop, hovel, thing. The brown stallion was leading Celestia and I through the small area behind his workplace and into a narrow corridor. I managed to have hard enough time avoiding just the assorted clocks that sat everywhere, so I managed to hit every single one of the low lying door frames.

All six of them.

The walk was silent, not a single noise being made. Probably the most exciting part was when all of the clocks went off at the same time as it neared the hour, I didn’t bother checking which one. The weirdest part was that a lot of the clocks were out of sync, only slightly, but enough that you could tell the difference.

For a guy that was supposed to be the Element of Time, you’d think that he’d put a little more effort into keeping his clocks aligned. It was incredibly annoying to hear one clock go off, and then hear the whole building go off in some demented domino effect. At one point there was a clock that went off a good half minute after the rest.

Eventually the self-named ‘Doctor’ stopped in a small room off to the side of the corridor. It was quite a large room, everything about it screaming that it had once belonged to royalty, or at least someone very wealthy. The roof was almost five heads above me, even at my height, and beautiful chandeliers hung from them, small glass trails spiralling in arcs, the light bouncing around the room.

And this room seemed to be the only one that was completely clean. That was to say that there wasn't a single clock in the whole area, not one mechanical contraption anywhere to be seen.

Well, except for the really big one that was sitting right in the middle. Right in the middle of the room was a sort of hole spanning 2 metres across. Emerging from the hole was an enormous clock, a large brass behemoth of a thing, all gleaming metal and dials. I could almost imagine it in one of those old train stations.

And I would have gotten a better look too, if I hadn’t suddenly been strapped down by the chains that sprung from the metalwork of the floor, completely securing me in place. They fastened around my ankles and wrists, and even went so far as to lift me from the floor, suspending me in the air, slightly leaning back.

Celestia let out a gasp of surprise, but she was still standing, untouched by anything that for any reason decided to jump out of the freakin’ walls to rape her.

I made a grunt of annoyance, “Hey, what the hell? T-” I was cut off as a heavy hoof made contact with my head, sending stars shooting through my vision.

The Doctor appeared in my line of sight, “Don’t, just don’t talk, I’ve had enough of your kind messing around with innocents.” He made a gesture, “I don’t know what you’ve done to earn Celestia’s trust, but that gives you no reason to do anything!” He was practically screaming, “Do you hear me?!”

Scratch that, he was screaming at me. For a small-ish guy, he could make a lot of noise. I was almost getting blown backwards by the wind coming from his muzzle. I had absolutely no idea what I’d done to make him so angry at me, but he didn’t seem to realise that.

I tried struggling, but nothing that I did could move the shackles attached to me. They were incredibly solid, nothing I did could even scratch them. Even the cables that suspended me were too tough, almost being the width of my wrist.

The Doctor let out a small smirk of triumph, “Don’t worry, I’ll be sure to make this as quick as possible...” His grin widened even further, “We don’t want to see the likes of you in this particular planet...”

My blood ran cold. The look that he was giving me was enough to freeze hell. It was one of pure justified malice. It was the look of someone that had seen far, far too much death and destruction.

It was the look of someone who wouldn’t hesitate to kill me at a moment’s notice. I didn’t care if I was supposed to be near unkillable, I still felt as though the Doctor wouldn’t have to try very hard to completely erase any trace of my existence from all history.

The Doctor started backing up towards a console standing near the foot of the giant clock, but he was stopped by Celestia. “Doctor! What is the meaning of this!”

The sheer force of her voice shook me. It wasn’t a question, it was a statement. But the Doctor didn’t even seem to care at all. He turned to face her, “Celestia, don’t tell me that you’ve grown soft...” His smirk grew wider before vanishing entirely, “No, I can see it in your eyes...”

“You actually believe that he’s innocent?” The brown pony let out a laugh of disbelief, “You have absolutely no idea of what his kind have done to anything they come across!”

Celestia stepped forward, “That matters not Doctor! He is not guilty of anything! Release him at once!”

His smirk returned in force, “Really Celestia? Release him? Hmmmm, I don’t think that’s an option at the moment, what about you?”

Celestia glared at him, but something inside of her wouldn’t stand for it.

Her horn charged up, brighter and brighter and brighter...

And then fizzled out in an instant as more shackles shot from the floor, one of them wrapping around the Alicorn’s enlarged horn, gripping relentlessly. The metal seemingly nullified any magic. It raised the most important question...

Just how strong was the Doctor?

But he wasn’t done there. The stallion leisurely waltzed across to the console and slammed a hoof into one of the levers. Celestia started travelling towards him, her hooves almost dragging against the floor as the cables stretched and elongated to meet the required distance.

He muttered something inaudible to her.

And then he slapped her in the face.

It was at that particular moment that any possible good feelings towards the stallion vanished completely.

Celestia

It was confusing for her really to see him act this way. He’d known her ever since she was just a small filly, new to existence in general, looking for guidance. He’d always treated her with the utmost of respect, she was in all essence his own daughter.

Then why was he acting so harsh now?

No, that wasn’t it, he wasn’t actually angry, that couldn’t be it. She could see the small tics that came with a forced lie. A very good one, but still forced. It just wasn’t in his nature to be a compulsive liar. Sure he could be obnoxious and a real pain, but he was still kind at heart.

There, the small tap of a hoof. And there as well, the flick of an ear as he said something strange.

For a normal pony these things wouldn’t mean a thing. Hell, even for Celestia it was hard, and she’d known him for literally all of her life.

And then he started walking towards the World Clock, and she picked up on something very small, almost imperceptible.

He winked at her, and his eyes flicked for a moment towards the bound figure of Light.

It was at that moment that she knew precisely what to do...

“Doctor, what is the meaning of this!”

“Celestia, don’t tell me that you’ve gone soft... No, I can see it in your eyes...” Where he’d gotten so good at his acting she would never know, “You actually believe that he’s innocent? You have no idea what his kind have done to anything they come across!”

His kind? Now that was interesting. “That matters not Doctor! He is not guilty of anything! Release him at once!”

“Hmmmm, I don’t think that’s an option at the moment, what about you?” He winked again, just subtly, but she got the message. Her horn started to charge slowly, putting as much effort into the show as the actual spell.

And then the shackles shot from the floor and secured them on her. They lifted her up, but not painfully. If anything they were incredibly gentle. But she knew her que.

Celestia let her spell die, let it fizzle out on the metal that held her. She let herself be dragged across the floor towards the Clock until she was right next to her old friends.

He leaned closer to her, “Thank you for playing along ‘Tia, you did perfectly. But we’re not done yet...”

And that was when he brought his hoof towards her face. Except that it didn’t hit her, it hit the cable that was resting on her horn. But Light wouldn’t know this, he could only see the back of her head.

It was the perfect ruse.

Maybe too perfect, he fell for it.

The chains securing him burst apart in a writhing explosion of shades, the pieces of metal going everywhere. There was only a split second to be had before the whirling maelstrom hurtled towards the Doctor, in some horrendous act of retribution.

But that was all the time it took.

The Doctor leant back slightly and smacked a hoof against the side of the World Clock, and everything froze.

Light

I had no idea what had happened. One moment I was about to kill the bastard, the next I was suspended in mid-air, unable to move at all.

And then he started to walk towards me, unaffected by the sudden stop i-

Ohhh, that son of a bitch, he stopped time. The giant clock behind him was still, the hands unmoving on the face of it. The sound that had been made as he hit it reverberated around the enclosed space, never fading away, never disappearing.

He stopped in front of me, still smiling slightly, but in a sad sort of way, “Very good, you did better than I’d ever expected,” He hesitated, “Especially considering your... heritage.” His voice sounded odd, as if it was travelling through a large tube to get to me.

His gaze snapped back to my ‘face’, “Now, I’ll expect you to act civilised when I bring you back, so please don’t try to attack me again, I don’t like it very much.” I of course couldn’t do anything, but I tried to nod anyway. I thought that there was no other thing to do, so I might as well listen to him.

The Doctor slowly retreated to the clock and slammed his hoof into it again, and then it resumed. The sound faded away, the hands started to move, and I fell in a pile on the floor, my hands smarting as they slammed the metal flooring.

I gasped, but I felt a cool touch on my shoulder. Celestia helped me to my feet and smiled at me, “I trust that you’re feeling better now?” There was a bit of a warning in the sentence, as if she was trying to tell me to not try to attack the Doctor.

I wouldn’t...

…For now...

Talking about him, the Doctor himself was checking on the clock, almost whispering encouragement to it. He completely ignored all presence in the room until he was finished with... whatever it was...

And then he turned back to me and walked over to join the Princess. He gave her a nod, “Thanks again for playing along. Oh, and sorry for the delay, I had to check on her. She’s not meant for quick stops like that...” He cast a worried glance back at the clock.

“No matter, I can wait, and I’m just glad that I know you so well,” Celestia said.

I just stared at them, mouth agape. “Wait, so you, and him, and the-”

“Yep,” They chorused in unison.

“But- but- h-me-yo-GGGAAAAAAAA!” I just let out a scream of annoyance, “So that was a trick?”

The Doctor nodded, “Oh yes, I had to see if you were truly kind, and whether you would protect others.”

“...But why?”

His expression darkened, “Not everyone that has been in this chamber has had pure intentions...” He gestured towards the clock, “Especially with her...”

“...You know that’s just a clock right?”

The Doctor looked as if I’d just hit his mother, “Just a clock?! My dear friend, that is not a normal clock!” He struck a pose, “That, is the World Clock!”

I levelled my gaze again, “What?”

He sighed, “It’s the clock that regulates all time in this particular universe.”

“...Please tell me why the hell you, the time guy, needs a big ass clock to help him?!”

He let out another sigh, Celestia just looked amused at his predicament, “Well, it places far less of a strain on me than personally monitoring all universes at once!” He blushed a bit, “Also, it lets me actually go into the universes, which I normally wouldn’t be able to do...”

He raised a hoof to his chin and gestured towards the doorway, “Those other clocks out there? They’re miniature versions of the others, the World Clocks in other universes, not real ones of course, the ones here only link to the others, they let me monitor the times...”

“So you’re saying that that clock there,” I waved my hand in the general direction of the World Clock, “Controls the time in this universe?”

“Yep.”

I shook my head, “Then why is it just lying there?! Couldn’t someone else just come in and change something?!”

His face took on something approximating anger, “Believe me, if anything tried to even glance at her without my permission...” I got the faint impression that I wouldn’t want to get between him and his clock.

And then his face sprang into a perky expression, “But let’s get out of the dumps, this is about you!”

He leaned in close to my face.

“Now, where do we begin...?”

Chapter 22

The true nature of the Elements of Harmony is still unknown, and to an extent there are some things that we never will understand. But what we can say however is that the effects they have on every pony - including the bearers - raises the question:
Do we control them? Or are we merely the foci?
-Excerpt from 'The Elements of Harmony: A Revised Reference Guide'

Chapter 22

Convoluted Convulsions

“Don’t touch that.”

Slam.

“Put it down gently. Gently. Right now. That means don’t bang it.”

Slam.

“I’m trying! How do you even get past all this stuff in the first place without breaking it?!”

Crash.

“With ease. Now, would you kindly place that back where you found it. Yes, that’s it. Slowly. Almost there. A few mor-”

Bang.

“...Are you actually doing this on purpose? Seriously? I’m not even joking when I ask you this. That thing you just broke was over two thousand years old. And I made it.”

“You’re an idiot.”

Celestia’s warning of the Doctor was quickly coming into effect as I stumbled around the crowded interior. I may not be the clumsiest of people, almost the opposite, but there was a limit to how well I could navigate through a maze. I could’ve just switched form and become a bit more fluid, but I still wasn’t sure how much the Doctor knew, even after his displays.

And besides, I probably still would’ve smashed more than a few absolutely priceless artifacts.

Come to think of it, I had no idea how the two ponies made it through the minefield. And that was when I remembered that I was talking about two near-immortals that could alter reality.

It may not seem like it, but realisations like that tend to put you just a little bit on edge. Can’t imagine why though...

Slam.

“My bad...”

“Damn right it’s your bad! How did you even hit that one?! It was in the middle of a clear spot in the first place!”

I nervously rubbed the back of my head, “A gust of wind?”

He eyed me levelly, “We’re in the middle of a building. In an alley. There wasn’t a gust of wind.”

“...Magic?”

The silence that followed would have made space seem like the noisiest place in the universe. Not even an understatement. “Light, just because almost everything here is caused by magic, doesn’t mean that you can blame that on it.”

A hoof shot out towards the pile of shattered brass and clockwork components, “That my dear idiot, is an accident that was caused by you.”

Celestia tried to stifle the giggle that sprung up from nowhere. The Doctor shot her a glance, “And I suppose that you think this is funny, yes?”

Her face instantly became deadly serious, “No, it’s not funny at all,” I let out a sigh of relief, knowing that I at least had one pony that wasn’t going at m-

“It’s hilarious!”

The Eternal Princess, Custodian of the Day my ass. She was practically rolling around on the floor. The Doctor watched her, unamused.

I had no idea what was happening.

Eventually though, Celestia stopped her writhing and mimed wiping a tear from her eye - it might have actually been real, who knows - and focused on the Doctor, who by this point was looking like he was ready to...

...You know, I don’t know what he looked ready to do, or what he would do anyhow, but hey, he looked ready to do something, and I doubt that it would have been healthy. Or sanitary. Or nice in any way whatsoever.

“And how, may I ask, is this funny in any way Celestia? Hmmmm?”

She waved a hoof in his direction, “What happened to being old and wise and unflappable? Doctor Doctor Doctor, you’ve let yourself go.”

“Well, I’m old. Old people are allowed to do these things. Get over it. And don’t think that I forgot about you mister, you’ve got a lo-”

“...What are you doing?”

“...I’m invisible?”

“That’s not going to work on me you know, I’ve had more experience at detecting these sorts of things than even you have. Now, back away from the machines and sit somewhere, I really don’t care where, just don’t break anything this time,” He paused for a second, grimacing, “Please.”

I let out a sigh and dropped the veil that I’d quietly raised to block myself from the stallion’s sight. Hazardously, I maneuvered through the mess of stuff to a small clear space.

And I only knocked over a few more, so everyone’s happy.

I was still curious as to how the two ponies would sit down anyway. Even if the room we were in was less crowded than the others, it was still almost full to bursting, small contraptions everywhere. Celestia managed to sneak through a gap and settle in a clear patch, the last one in the room...

Nowhere for the Doctor to sit...

And then he shrugged and threw bunch of small items over his shoulder - how did he grab them anyway? - and sat down, barely making a movement as they impacted heavily on the other side of the room. I pointed at the Doctor, and at Celestia, “What?! Why are you allowed to do that! Celestia, see? He threw them. He threw them. And he went crazy at me?!”

The Doctor ‘coughed’, “I’m allowed to do that because I made them. And besides, I make the rules, and I say that you can’t break anything. Isn’t that right ‘Tia?”

“Mmmhmm, yep.”

I looked between the two of them, struggling to find something to say, “Bwa, wha, whaaaaa? That’s stupid. You’re stupid.” Perfect picture of pouting, even had the arms going.

I’m so mature, it amazes me sometimes.

The Doctor raised a hoof, “Shut up. That’s not why I’ve brought you here to my office,” Celestia sniggered, “You’re here so that I can find out...” He turned to Celestia, “Actually, you never did tell me why you came here.”

She raised an eyebrow, just a little, “Well, Light here needs something, a task performed on him, and I thought that you might be able to help in some way.”

“...And what might he need?”

“Actually, I think it might serve better if Light himself tells you. It can get a little... convoluted, and not even I know the full details of it.”

They both turned towards be, the Doctor speaking, “Well, I’m not sure what to think here, you’ve popped up in my house and want something from me. I wouldn’t normally care,”

I held my breath, “Buuut, I think that the fact that Celestia herself is vouching for you could say something in itself.”

“And I never, ever turn down someone that needs my help.” His aura of seriousness relaxed slightly, but not much, more in the way that a supreme leader is giving you a chance, and that you’d better not screw up.

Come to think of it, that’s probably what was actually happening, so all in all that feeling was logical.

“So,” he said, “Weave me a tale,” A small smirk crept onto his features, “Let me hear your story...”

“And then I’ll see what I can do...”

Rainbow Dash

The whirling miasma of shades flew towards her, shards breaking away from the whole to attack her, split her skin, slice her tendons, drain her lifeblood.

She could see her friends, the only things that really mattered to her, lying on the cold dark ground. Some had their innards spilled, other with heads cleanly removed. The one that stood out most prominently was Fluttershy, both of her forehooves cleanly separated from her body. Her stomach was ripped open, and something pink and slimy could be seen emerging slightly.

And as her death approached, time slowed. She was eerily aware of the beads of sweat that soaked her face, one falling with a soft dripping noise. The sound of her breath permeated her head, filling her ears to the point that it became overbearing.

The dark floor was cold underhoof, an unrelenting force that clinked as her hoof made its ever-so-slow impact. There was almost no light, the darkness preventing her from seeing anymore than a few metres in any direction. She was in the darkness.

And the bodies of her friends had vanished, leaving her all alone in the flat chasm. A sense of foreboding took over her. Where was everypony? She was meant to be the Element of Loyalty, and who could she be loyal to if there was noone around?

Crimson eyes, snake like in appearance, burst into existence close to her, opening lazily in the darkness. They were a deep crimson with shards of green interwoven into the matrix. The eyes swept around her slowly, and were joined moments after by a matching set of teeth, stained red with blood.

And the eyes, or what might have been a face, circled closer and closer, drawing towards her. She tried to flee, but found that her hooves had become rooted to the ground in her fear.

And then the whispers started. They were quiet at first, almost imperceptible, right on the edge of her hearing. But they got louder until she could easily hear them.

But she wished she couldn’t. They were the voices of her friends, the same friends that she’d seen on the ground only moments ago, before they’d vanished. They talked to her, questioned her, attacked her.

Everything but comfort her.

If it had only been the whispers then Rainbow might have managed to block them out over time, but they weren’t the only things in the dark void. There was a voice, unplaceable and untraceable. There was no real trait to it, but it seemed female, only slightly. It actually sounded reptilian to an extent, as if the speaker wasn’t even a pony, but was instead something more...

...Strange.

It spoke to her, changing pitch as it modulated, almost male at some points, “Why are you here young one...” It wasn’t even a question, more of a lead on to something else, “Are you lost? Did something happen? Why are you scared?” The mouth opened wider in a grin.

Rainbow tried to speak, and managed, but only just, “I-I’m not sure where I am...” She tried to smile weakly, or do anything that would show that she wasn’t scared, but failed miserably.

The grin only seemed to grow wider, “Are you scared? Did you have company? Friends? Did something happen to them?”

Images of her friend’s crippled bodies filled her mind, “I-I think s-so, I’m not certain...”

“Then what happened to them? Hmmm?”

“I don-n’t kn-know...” A tear fell from her muzzle.

The face came right up to her side, its eyes bearing into her, forcing her to gaze into them. They housed an unimaginable amount of emotions and feelings, all of them bad.

It was close enough to breath on her, and yet she still could not see a body of any sort, “I think I know what befell them...”

And then it swallowed her, and she was falling, falling, falling deeper, deeper inside the now-existing body of the beast.

And there was something at the bottom, a shape of some sort, bright and dark and featureless all at the same time. And the shape was waiting for her at the bottom, its jaws splitting in a hideous grin.

And as she fell towards her doom she knew that it was what killed her friends, the thing that had betrayed their trust, the thing that only she knew about, or could do anything to stop.

And then she entered the shifting, swirling jaws of the betrayer, the trickster, and the world went dark.

And then the world went white again as her surrounding lit up in a sudden blaze. Instinctively a hoof shot upwards to defend herself from the jaws of the beast and collided with something solid, something heavy, something orange.

And then Applejack gave a shout of alarm and went tumbling backwards, tripping over her own hooves as the unexpected force of Rainbow’s blow sent her head over hooves.

Rarity’s head shot up from the corner of her vision, “Rainbow! What was the reason for that? You just hit the poor dear!”

Rainbow barely heard this, shooting to her hooves and backing away into the corner of the room, shaking violently. “S-stay a-awa-y from m-me! I kn-know wh-what’s happening! I cou-couldn’t save you!” And then she collapsed, moistness on her face.

Her friends exchanged worried looks, even Applejack who was trying to stand and ignore the pain in her muzzle. And then four of them looked at one, and that one blanched as she realised what they were insinuating.

“Okay,” Fluttershy squeaked, “I’ll help.”

She tentatively crept towards her cyan friend, edging a hoof to touch her mane. The blue pegasus flinched slightly, but relaxed a little as Fluttershy made faint cooing noises and stroked her mane. Rainbow, without warning, leaped at Fluttershy and enveloped her in a hug and cried into her mane.

Fluttershy looked a little unsure, but passed it off like a pro, “Shhh Dashie, everything’s alright now...” This didn’t stop the speedster from crying, but it sure helped. The four other friends walked over and joined in a group hug, separating only after at least ten minutes.

Rainbow wiped a tear from her face with a hoof, cracking a small, weak smile, “Thanks guys, I needed that...”

Twilight raised a hoof, and Rainbow, somewhat unsurely, pointed at her. Twilight nodded and let her hoof fall, “Rainbow, we were all wondering...”

She paused, “I’ll just say it bluntly, what were you dreaming about?”

Applejack stepped forwards, “Yeah Sug’rcube, we let you sleep fer a few minets and sudd’nly your scar’d outta yer mind! What happ’ned?!”

Rainbow shivered, “I don’t really want to talk about it, it’s still scary... and painful...”

She lifted her head towards the group, “I’m still not even sure what happened, but it seemed so surreal...”

“Let’s just say that it was a nightmare, and leave it at that.”

I'm going to quickly put this in here, so pay attention. I'm going to be doing a Q n' A session/thing/stakeout/barbecue, so here's the deal:

In the comment section (That thing below) put in your questions about the story, or about me, or about the meaning of life, the universe, and everything. I'll be answering them WITH EXTREME PREJUDICE! Just kidding, but really, if you have any questions submit them below.

NOTICE: If I choose to not answer the question, it'll be because I don't want to reveal something, most likely due to spoilers. If that happens I'll send you a PM, so keep that in mind.

TL;DR - Write question below, I answer at some point. Kapeesh?

The Chapter that Fell From the Sky

"999"

"GTFO"

"John Madden John Madden John Madden John Madden John Madden John Madden John Madden John Madden John Madden John Madden John Madden John Madden"

"AHHHHHHHHHHH"

"Snake"

"Snake?"

"SNAAAAAAAAAKE!"

"Football"

"Question mark Exclamation Point Question mark Exclamation Point Question mark Exclamation Point Question mark Exclamation Point Question mark Exclamation Point Question mark Exclamation Point"

"Double-U Double-U Double-U Double-U Double-U Double-U"

"Dude, stop playing Moonbase Alpha, please?"

"Awww, only 'cause you asked."

*Click click, click click*

"JOHN MADDEN!"

That's Right, It's That Time For...

Question Time!

"Okay, everyone gathered 'round?"

"Here."

"Yep."

"Aha."

"REALLY?!"

"Who cares. Do we have to do this right now? There's much better stuff to be done..."

"Can I go back to my game of Twister yet?"

"Good, then we can get start-"

Whoa whoa whoa there lard-ass, what's the dealio here?"

"What do you mean?"

"I think what's Procrastination is so quaintly trying to say here is that to all of the guys reading this... we're dead."

"...And?"

"...We're dead? Isn't that enough? We're not in existence anymore, or at least not in our current form, or else everything would be destroyed..."

"WHO CARES?! Isn't it obvious Physics?! It's non-canon! Therefore none of this has any correlation to what's actually happening at the moment!!!!!!! I mean really, Author here would never let me get away with that many exclamation marks normally!"

"She's right you know, so just shut up, it's not canon. See?" And with that the Author picked Pinkie out of nowhere and placed her on his lap. Physics abruptly had a heart attack, but as was mentioned earlier it wasn't canon, so nothing bad happened.

"Can we just stop wasting time here? I want to get back to my novel. It's really starting to pick up now."

"Indeed, but I know what happens in the end. I always know in the end."

"Yeah yeah, we get it fate, now just tell us so that I can spoil it for mister no-swears here, I'm getting pissed off at him. What the hell does he even read anyway?!"

"...You know, I never asked him that Annoyance, thanks."

"Piss off."

"Order, what are you reading? I really want to know."

"...That is unimportant."

"But-"

"UNIMPORTANT! FIRST QUESTION!"

QUESTION 1 & 2 (Because I'm awesome):

"So, this one's for Fate, Surprise and Procrastination. You guys ready? Okay, good."

Where's 006spykiller's sandwich?
...And why the hell does Light break everything if he's made out of... well... you know...

"Procrastination?"

"Dude, you'll get your sandwich when you fucking earn it bitch!"

"PROCRASTINATION! YOU TAKE THAT BACK RIGHT NOW!

"What he actually meant that 006' can get his sandwich whenever he wants, he's a very nice pony. Aren't you 006?"

"He will get his sandwich in time, like all things, this will happen eventually. Of that there can be no doubt."

"Okay, the second part?"

"...What'ya mean? There isn't much to understand. He's Light, but he's a person. It's as simple as that. Besides. I'm too lazy to make up an actual explanation right now."

"He is not immortal, and his form is physical. He must deal with that. Now please excuse me while I attach these sunglasses to my viewing ports, I've heard that it reinforces image.

"Meh, it's funny, that's all I care."

"Very well put Surprise, very well indeed...

QUESTION 3

When the F*ck is Corruption gonna betray the Director! MEMJNIRWUNBVRJWNV!

"Actually, I think I'm gonna answer this one by myself.

"I don't want to get into details too much here, but the future plot is gonna get more than a bit convoluted, and if you look back at the VEEEERY first chapter you might notice something different, namely the fact that the whole story might go on a bit longer than expected, and will be expanding. A lot.

"So whatever you're expecting, you might not want to get to reassured in it, things will change without warning, and some ideas that you feel will become reality in the end won't, so don't get comfortable with assumptions. Seriously."

QUESTION 4

NO!

"This is all I have to say on the subject."

QUESTION 5!

What is the average airspeed of an unladen swallow? EITHER AFRICAN OR EUROPEAN!

"Physics, I think that you can deal with this one, you seem to be the one most familiar with this area of expertise."

"Okay, let's DOOOOO EEEET!

"When you look at it this way, it's not that complicated. It seems that the average wingspan is about 27-35 cm, and there are a few other things too, so there's your answer.

"...Is that what you were looking for?"

"..."

"...Dude, that's pretty rad..."

"...That's just not meant to be right..."

"...Yeah, I'm just going to go in... this direction... Away from you..."

"What? One has to know these things when you're a king, you know?"

QUESTION 6! (Thankyou The Special Pegasus, you actually did a clever question!)

'Will there be some development or reminiscing of 'Light x Water' at some point? I find myself rather curious.'

"Now, I'll be taking over this one again.

"This is an interesting question. I don't want to go out-right and give some stuff away to begin with, but there will be romance, not necessarily in that way, but it will be there somewhere, and Water/Her Ideas will be represented, so to answer your question literally, there will be a reminiscing of Light x Water, so rest assured that it will be out there somewhere.

"However, this once again falls into the category of 'This story is getting massive, so don't expect too much.'

"I hope that answers your question."

"...Faggot. Can I just go play Twister again now?"

Question 7!

The question that was too long, so I'll just say that EverfreeSparkle asked it!

"Order and Physics, I'm handing this to you here."

"Well, this is a difficult one. While Light may be created from his namesake, and is a Pure Element, that does not mean that he is not a Being in any way. He is still alive, and can therefore feel pain, and loss the same way that any of us can. He still has nerve endings, but maybe in a different way to mortals such as yourself. Think of him like you would a jellyfish.'

"HA! Light's a jellyfish!"

"...Yes, quite. Anyway, like a jellyfish you may wonder how they work, and while not every person may know, it still exists, and it can still die, do you see where I'm coming from here?"

"And besides, nothing can exist forever with absolutely no consequences, nothing. Even me, one of the guys who usually enforces that, knows that I have to play it careful to stay alive. While I may not have to be as careful as any normal being, and while I may be near indestructible, I'm not immortal, and I'm bound by certain rules, just a little more loosely than most people."

"And there you have it, hope that answered your question."

"Oh, and to answer another of your questions, at their base forms they are all genderless, only being entities of pure energy and creation itself, but the thoughts that they have forms who they are as thinking beings, therefore defining who they are and how they look. Light just happens to think of himself in such a way that he is male, and the thoughts from there define him. See? It's more based on the experiences they've had and the thoughts they have than anything else."

Question 8!

TownCrier, it's your time to feel the spotlight! His question:

'Will Rainbow Dash ever get her head out of her ***?'

"Annoyance, this is up your alley here."

"Hmmm, okay. To answer your question:

No. That's all.

"*sigh* Okay, just ignore him. The real answer will be revealed in the next few chapters coming in, and I dropped a none-too-subtle hint in the latest chapter, so have a look over that again to see what I'm trying to say..."

Question 9!

'Will Light ever stop trying to avoid being killed? Even for a moment longer than 2 chapters?'

"Fate? Can you answer this strangely phrased question?"

"Not likely. I sense that he's going to have a very rough time ahead of him. Also, why in the hell would he stop trying to avoid being killed? Do you want him to lie down and die or something? Either way, I hope that he doesn't, but even I can't see the answers to questions like that. They are much too... fuzzy.

"I'm sorry if I can't be of more help..."

Question 10!

This one is for the very kind xXSilverLiningXx

Here's the full thing he wrote, and I think he's incredibly kind:

Two questions:
First of all, how the h*** did this disappear from my favorites list? It was one if the first fimfics I ever read! I love it, and I'm sorry it took me so long to tell you that. Honestly don't know what happened.
Lastly, would you mind taking a look at my story? We seem to have very similar (and in some cases non-standard) views of (t)he characters, and it would make me very happy. Feel free to say no though. I understand how hectic it can get to read something serious AND try to not merge it with your own views in-story.
Again, thanks/sorry.

"Now, I know that this may not come off as a full question, but I feel that this guys is awesome, and while I haven't had a full look at his fics yet, they look very promising, so anyone who's interested, head over to his page and check out his two fics, they desperately need TEH LUV!

"Please people, give you admiration to this wonderful pony, he's one of the few that you find on the internet that is kind and gives you nice words (Hopefully meaning them :| ).

"This is how I feel about this guy at the moment:

"Now, that's all for the moment. Thanks for the questions, and for the continued support. It makes this so worthwhile to know that you guys are having just about as much fun as I am."

SEE YOU LATER!

"BYE!"

"Farewell, for the moment."

"Good, now I can go back to reading. buzz off."

"Yeah yeah, I don't care, bugger off already!"

"Meh, I'll say bye later or something, I'm just gonna sleep...

...or go play LoL...

BYE! ALL OF YOU! I'LL SEE YOU ALL LATER!"

"BYYYYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"

Prologue

The amount of support that I've had for this story is still surprising, so if you're new to this, read on, there's much in store for you. And DO NOT be deterred by any errors in the first few chapters, those are being edited constantly to fix the numerous problems.
So in the meantime, read, like, fave, comment, anything would be nice. Updates are semi-regular, and are mostly determined by the availability and the predictability of my computer, so bear with me.

Also, I just released ANOTHER story called Entangled, it's a fun one, moderately serious, and planned to go to some major places (story wise). So go check it out sometime.

My real name isn't Light, it's just what they all call me, and after long enough it did become my name. We all picked the word that suited us the most.

When you're made of something different, and you shouldn't really exist, some people will go to any ends to kill you. They got my friends, but I didn't go down without a fight...

...Unfortunately that fight ended with me turning up in some candy-land lookalike and getting stoned...

...Literally...

Since then my life's been a giant waterslide down the shitter of the universe, and it doesn't look like it'll be letting up any time soon. Maybe it'll stop one day, maybe it won't, I don't really care either way.

But I digress, let me tell you a little story, but first you need to hear where it started...

)0-------------|-|--------------0(

Light's Shadow

Book 1 in the Creeping Darkness Trilogy

Prologue

A scream reached my ears as I ran through the burning streets of Capitol. Passing another drab building, I took a sharp left, towards the sound. A brief thought flitted through my mind, warning me of the dangers, but I ignored this voice. The other option was not acceptable.

I couldn't lose Air.

She was too valuable to our cause. She had to be saved. But it wasn't just that, she was a friend, one of the few I had. She had to be saved.

I could hear Earth's heavy footsteps behind me as he tried to keep up. It was futile however. It was in his nature to be slow, clumsy. He was the tank of our little group.

Water was already ahead, having used the sewer systems to her advantage. She had always liked surfing, and now this was the closest thing to it.

I could almost imagine what Fire would have been doing in this situation. Probably flitting alongside me, cracking some stupid puns to lighten the mood of the situation. I wish that he-

No, I can't allow myself to think about him. Too many bad memories.

The scream sounded again, louder than before.

I ran on, past the old supermarket. Everything in this place had been so much better before the all of this had happened. Nothing had ever been the same since.

I kept on running, approaching the place I knew that they had Air. As I rounded the last bend in the Old City, I saw my destination.

The citadel, rising high into the air, seemingly stabbing the underside of the sky. Banners with messages hung from the points all around this place, the Hub of all government operations. Fitting really that it was called the Hub. It coordinated all attacks and Peacekeeper movements around, well, anywhere.

It had to go.

I turned to look for Earth. He was just rounding the bend. I waited for him to catch up to me before calling out.

"Hey, you ready?" I yelled, not really expecting an answer from the stoic giant.

"Ready as I'll ever be." was the reply that rumbled out of his mouth.

"Good, now we just have to wait for Water, she should be here soon," I paused, "You okay to keep going? You kinda look a bit out of breath there..."

His only reaction was to give me the finger.

"Whatever you say..."

"Hrmphh"

I walked over to a nearby building and leant on it for support. Looking around my surroundings, I noticed one of the System's posters. It had some stupid message about conforming, and shit like that. Those were the kind of messages being blasted around the whole world by the Hub, and the driving force behind it. It disgusted me.

I felt the familiar signs of my rage towards the Capitol rising in by stomach. Earth noticed the look on my face and walked towards me with a worried look on his chiseled brown face.

"Light, calm down. You're starting look a bit obvious...."

I looked first at his concerned face, and then down at my hands. Sure enough, they were fading in and out of view. I knew that my whole body was doing the same, including my clothes. I concentrated and my hands quickly slipped back into view, but were still shifting through patches of light and dark, giving me the appearance of a walking shadow. I'd always had problems like that when I lost my temper.

"Hey, keep that under control. We might run into some people, might cause trouble."

Earth's voice slipped through my thoughts, and I quickly fixed my appearance, even going so far as to create a shadow to match my body as well. Nothing more suspicious than someone without a shadow. Earth looked like he was about to say more when a crash reverberated through the ground, shortly followed by a jet of water and... something else. A manhole cover shot through the air, and a large shape shortly after. I peered through the jet and, sure enough, Water landed in front of me.

Water, she was beautiful, but also temperamental and extremely dangerous...

"Yo, you boys ready?" She asked. Earth and I both looked at each other, wondering how she could be so carefree in a situation like this.

Without even waiting for an answer, she dashed towards the Hub.

BEEEP!

I followed Water across the clearing that surrounded the Hub, not even waiting for Earth. We stopped by the door.

"Water, you sure that the place is clear? No alarms?"

"Nope, all clear. Seems weird but, meh, I'm not one to complain."

"Not even any guards?"

"Nothing but Air and some other random captives."

This seemed strange, but before I could voice my opinion, Water slammed through the front doors along with Earth. I jumped through with just enough time to see the two of them on the other side of the foyer, running towards the basement section of the complex.

"Guys, wait up for a sec..." I yelled in vain, running over to the other side of the foyer and into the corridor. There were all sorts of messages on the wall.

I could see signs posted on the walls with pictures of all five of our faces; Earth, Water, Air, Fire and me, Light. There was a caption reading 'Most Wanted: Traitors to the System, kill on sight'. All of our faces were mugshots with our 'real' names on them. The names that we had had to assume to remain relatively undetected for our duration in the Center.

BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP!

I continued to follow my companions, to find that they had both disappeared around another corner of the corridor. No matter how fast I was, I could never catch them, only ever seeing them disappear around each corner in front of me.

I ran after them for a while, I'm not sure how long, before stopping. I had arrived at a five point junction. There were no clues to help me decide which one to pick. I looked into each corridor one by one, but they disappeared into darkness after the first five metres. The scream echoed louder, joined by the anguished cry of two others.

I picked the middle one at random at random and ran down it. The tunnel slowly became darker and darker until eventually became pitch black. I lit up my hand and continued running, but stopped when I heard the scream a third time. I was close.

BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE-

I arrived at the end of the tunnel, and my jaw hit the ground. In front of me was the most horrible sight that I could see at any point. I was in a dead end with a clear glass wall. Through the glass was a dark cavern with Air, Earth and Water. Only the latter was still alive, the others were strewn carelessly across the ground, blood covering them. I focused on Water.

She was on her knees with her hands tied behind her back, there were burns covering her body and her right ear was missing. Blood stains from the two others had coated themselves on her like some demented jacket.

There was a gun pressed to her head, held by a shadowy silhouette.

She noticed me in my chamber, unable to help.

"Light! It's all a trap! Run!"

The gunman pulled the trigger.

-EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP!

"AHHHHHH!"

I jolted out of my bed in a cold sweat sending shadows flitting into every corner of the room. I heard a smash as a cup that had been left on the floor was hit by one. Reaching over, I brought my hand down over my alarm clock, picked it up, and proceeded to throw it out the window of my apartment. I heard it hit the ground a few seconds later. At least the beeping stopped.

I collapsed back in bed, memories of my nightmare stopping me from returning to my sleep. I felt like crap, so I rolled out of bed and promptly collapsed on the ground. Every movement punctuated by flickering lights and shifting shadows.
My whole body was shifting in and out of the sight, my form half liquid.

I ran over to the bathroom, barely making it to the toilet before I keeled over and expelled... just about everything I had left. The acrid smell of my own puke along with the taste was more than enough to get my wide awake in an instant. But remember, coffee is better any day kids. Eventually, I'd relaxed a little and withdrew from my kneeling position, unsteadily lurching over to the mirror. All that I saw was a disheveled piece of black hair on a disheveled piece of face, the whole image shifting in whirls of light distortion. It took me a moment to realise that the vagrant was actually me.

I jumped back from the mirror to avoid the horrible sight that I had become. Walking back over, I slowed my breathing and made my whole complexion much more stable. I reached towards my face, smoothing my hair down and making myself at least at bit presentable for nobody in particular. Standing back, I admired my pathetic effort. I totally looked awesome, notice the sarcasm?

"Well Light, today's the day, time to make a difference."

Before I left I admired my choice in clothes. White, black, nothing else. Quite the fashionista. Wasn't like I had a choice though...

I walked back over to my bedroom/living room. There were four pictures hanging from the wall above my bed. They were pictures of Earth, Air, Water and Fire. I quickly turned away, just in case my memories made a cameo appearance. Walking towards my 'kitchen', which was only an gas stove and a bucket, I boiled some water and added that to some quick-make food. Sitting back to 'enjoy' my meal on my couch I looked around my sorry excuse for a home. A small bed in one corner of the room, the small stove, and the battered and beaten old couch that I was siting on. All of this in a 10x10 room with a doorway leading to my bathroom. But I wasn't sad. Either way this would be the last time that I saw this place.

Today was the day that I took out the Director.

The Director was basically the ruling force of the System. This being was an evil tyrant that seemed hell bent on the destruction of all things different, to create a world of sameness with no variation. He had mostly succeeded. Already he had eradicated most species and conformed everyone. Everyone but me.

He had to go.

I put on my trench coat. It was brown, but the moment it touched me, as always, it turned to a pure white. I walked around the room making sure that everything looked crap. Check.

"Okay, here we go." I looked over to the portraits of my friends. "Wish me luck."

I slowly walked over to the window of my apartment and de-constructed myself. To anyone watching from the outside, they would have seen a stream of shadows flit down into an alley, only to have a 19 year old with a blank expression on his face walk out. If they had looked closely enough, they would have noticed that his shadow was about a second out of synch, but no one looked, and no one noticed, they were like that.

I turned onto the main street, trying my hardest to blend in, which is quite hard when no one wears anything but grey suits all the time. A white trench coat stands out quite a bit, but at least it looked clean. I could see people running to the other side of the street just to stay away from me. The posters were working, they recognised me, and I was beginning to regret my direct approach. But it didn't matter, either way, this would be the last time that I left my home.

Possibly the last day to do anything. But I had accepted that, I was ready.

I broke into a run, knowing that it wouldn't make a difference, heading straight towards the Hub. This part of the city was empty of civilians, with only the occasional armed patrol. Immediately this brought the dream back to me. It was always the same dream. Running along the street, into the Hub, and the dead end. I picked up my pace and sprinted towards the Hub, not caring for the looks that I attracted.

?????

"Sir, should I activate the holding cell?"

The shadow standing near the computer nodded.

"Okay sir, I'll set that up now..."

Another nod, and turned to the Second in Command, searching the bank of screens in front of him for Light. He couldn't be seen. The Director motioned towards the screen, his intention clear.

"I'm sorry sir, I can't seem to find him on any of the monitors at the moment, but he must be here somewhere..."

The Director merely glared at his Second in Command.

A whimper slid out of his helper's mouth.

"Please sir! It's only temporary! He will turn up in a few moments!"

The Second in Command was never seen again.

The Director did not tolerate incompetence, in any form.

Light

I rounded a corner and saw the Hub. It was the exact spot that I had been in my dream, but this time Earth wasn't there to keep my temper in check.

He was the only thing that kept me from annihilating everything.

The moment I saw the Hub I lost all semblance of humanity, becoming a being with no shape. The thing that was me shone with a brightness that made it impossible to look at, but at the same time contained a darkness that emitted nothing at all, being merely an empty space in the fabric of reality.

In short, I became something that broke all of the laws of physics and told common sense to go shove it's head up it's own ass.

The being that was me flitted across the clearing that surrounded the Hub, and immediately blew down the wall. It rushed down the corridor in a form that looked more liquid than solid.

Destruction was all that was left in this creatures wake.

It reached the junction, and with barely any hesitation took the same corridor as in it's dreams. Upon reaching the dead end, it smashed the glass wall and burst into the room beyond. It was a massive cylindrical hollow, a narrow spire rising through the centre of it, a glass control room built into the top.

The thing only took a moment to take stock of the situation before it immediately went for the simplest solution, go in and destroy everything.

It flew up the outside of the tower to the bulge that was the top. There were windows, but it smashed down the wall anyway. It looked around the inside of the control tower and saw-

Nothing.

The control tower was empty.

The being shifted back into a form that was Light. I started to walk around the room. It looked like it had been recently used, but that all of the valuable equipment had been removed in a short amount of time. There were only banks of computers with lifeless screens facing towards the windows of the tower. There was also a pile of ash that resembled a person spread across the ground. Obviously someone that had pissed off the Director.

Something here was wrong.

I walked back over to the breach in the room and was about to jump down when a slow, drawn out chuckle echoed around the room. This alone sent shivers down my spine. It seemed to be coming from everywhere and nowhere at once. For the first time in my life I felt truly scared. I scanned the room and jumped about a metre in the air when I saw something that scared me more than anything. The Director stood there, slowly clapping his hands.

All that I could see of him was a dark silhouette, framed against the backdrop of the computer monitors. He didn't even move. Another chuckle dripped out of his mouth lazily, like honey dripping from a ledge .

I moved forward slightly. "You-you son of a bitch..." I whispered, menace in my voice. "You did all of this."

Still no movement from him.

"I'm gonna make you pay for what you did..."

Silence from the Director.

I only let out a loud yell as I leapt towards him, poised for a killing blow, but I felt something stop me. The air around me turned to something with the consistency of treacle, and I slowed down, unable to move.

Then the Director spoke.

"No."

The word was punctuated by the world exploding into a mess of electricity. I felt my mind scrambling, preventing any coherent thought. The electricity stopped, but the effects remained, stopping me from controlling my nature, leaving me powerless. I collapsed in a heap on the ground, unable to move, flickering in and out of reality. The sound of footsteps of drifted through the confusion that was my thought process. I tried to lift my head, but my paralysis prevented anything but my eyes from moving.

The Director approached me. I could barely make out anything on him, but his left hand was outstretched, and electricity danced along it. I could only watch, dreading what was going to come next.

He grabbed the collar of my trench coat and pulled me up from my huddled position on the floor.

I tried to get a good look at him, but all I could see was shadow.

Except for what was in his hand.

A gun.

I registered this for only a moment before it was pushed against my nose, hard.

I couldn't see much of the Director, but somehow I knew, I just knew that he was smiling.

The gun flashed.

Darkness.

Ponyville Library

A purple dragon baby stood on the balcony of the Ponyville Library alongside a purple unicorn. Both were staring towards the Everfree Forest, the only source of light being the bright moon that shone overhead, sending streams of luminescence shooting down through the partially cloudy sky. The dragon looked towards the unicorn and tapped her to gain her attention.

"Twilight, are you sure that this will work, I mean, it seems a bit weird..."

"Of course Spike, now be quiet for a moment. I need to concentrate."

The unicorn named Twilight closed her eyes, and a purple glow appeared around the horn on her head. Beads of sweat rolled off of her brow as the glow expanded first to twice the size of her horn, then her head, and then her whole body. The dragon Spike hastily retreated to the other side of the balcony, fear is his eyes. He had never seen his companion like this before.

"Uhhhh, Twi?"

No response.

"TWI!"

Twilight turned to face him, her eyes pure white. There was a large ball of pure energy on the tip of her horn.

"Spike, I've almost got it! It's about to ope-!"

As she said this, an explosion echoed around all of Ponyville, accompanied by a bright white flash, lighting up the world as if the Sun was overhead in place of the Moon. The energy ball on Twilight's head shot off and hovered above her head, forming a bright purple oval, lightning shooting from the edges.

Twilight, now returned to normal, span around to face Spike, who's eyes were as wide as dinner plates, jaw touching the floor. Her eyes shone with pride.

"Spike! I've done it! I think that the portal worked! We will have to write a letter to the Princes-"

There was a resounding crash. Twilight turned in time to see the portal destabilise and veer out from above her head, until it impacted a dark and evil place.

The Everfree Forest.

A blinding light shooting out of the portal. The flash formed a single point, which then turned into a form, which then proceeded towards the ground while the laws of physics laughed in revenge for earlier events. The world returned to it's normal dark state, but for the object falling to the ground. Twilight could do nothing but watch.

If you enjoy so far don't forget to leave a comment and like.

Chapter 4

They thought I was powerful, but even I didn't imagine the extent...
-Light

Chapter 4

Dangerous Pursuits

Celestia

"Bah, we let the thing get away! And we were so close too!"

Luna was muttering under her breath. The two Princesses were making their way back to Fluttershy's cottage from the edge of the Everfree, choosing not to chase the dangerous creature that had nearly beaten them any further. The sun had just dipped below the horizon as Celestia, and the bright moon shone brightly on Luna's coat, making her seem larger and more imposing.

Eventually Celestia had had enough of her Sister's rambling, which at this moment had something to do with socks.

"Luna!" Her Sister looked at her curiously. "Please stop talking to yourself! I don't need to know any more on these particular subjects." Luna blushed furiously and stopped dead in her tracks, mortified, while Celestia just left her behind and continued her journey.

Luna ran after Celestia. Together, the two ponies approached the house and stepped through the already open door to assess the carnage, closing the door after them.

Applejack and Pinkie had already woken and were trying to untangle themselves, while Rainbow Dash lay groaning on the couch with a large red lump on her head and an icepack resting on that. Spike had carried rarity and placed her on the couch next to Dash, while Twilight was in shock sitting against the wall shaking. Fluttershy was still out for the count, along with Rarity.

All of the ponies (Well, most of them) jumped at the sight of the Princesses and hurriedly made small movements that approximated bowing which, in the case of Applejack and Pinkie, didn't work out so well. A small dark blue glow surrounded Applejack and Pinkie, and the two were quickly separated and levitated softly to the ground.

Spike took no notice of any of this, having eyes only for Rarity.

Celestia stepped towards the 'casualties'. "My little ponies, are any of you badly hurt?" All of the ponies shook their heads, "Good, good..., Tell me, was that strange creature the cause of all this?" Celestia continued, motioning towards the rest of the room. The ponies all nodded. A flicker of dismay crossed Celestia's features, but vanished almost instantly, to be replaced with a calm and soothing look. "I know that all of you have been through much recently, but I have need of you once more. We must gather the Elements and pursue this thing as soon as possible."

As she said this Rainbow Dash leaped up from her place on the couch and snapped to a hasty attention in the air. "Aye aye Captai- I mean, Princess... Heh heh..." She let out a nervous chuckle and sat back down on the couch.

Applejack walked over to Dash and rescued the conversation. "What Rainbow was tryin' ta say here is tha', well, we will do anythin' to help Princess." She made a small bow, front hooves crossing. Pinkie bounced in front of Applejack.

"Yeppers miss Princess lady! Ima gonna get everypony to help and-" She let out an incredibly large gasp. "MAYBE WE CAN HAVE A LET'S GO FIND A DANGEROUS MONSTER PARTY AND WE CAN INVITE EVERYPONY AND THERE'S GONNA BA CAKE AN-" Pinkie let out small mumbling noises that couldn't be heard through the hoof that had just been placed in her mouth.

The owner of the hoof, Applejack, looked at Celestia evenly. "Just ignore her, she'll tire out eventually." She snuck a quick glance behind her at the ball of pink energy. "Hopefully..."

At this point, a large scream shot from the couch. Everypony turned to find... Rarity, who was at this point hysterical. Applejack ran over to comfort her and noticed Rainbow already hovering beside the fashionista.

"What the hay is haaaappening?!" Rarity promptly burst into tears. "There's dirt on my beautiful beautiful coat."

The others just rolled their eyes, waiting for their overreacting friend to stop. Eventually, when she realised that she wasn't getting any attention, Rarity stopped bawling and instead glared at her friends. She slithered off the couch and walked leisurely over to stand next to Twilight.

Fluttershy was still unconscious.

After recovering from Rarity's outburst, Twilight turned and, shaking her head slightly, faced the limp form of her yellow pegasus friend. A small violet glow surrounded both Twilight's horn and Fluttershy as the animal lover was levitated off the floor and placed down gently, fully awake and alert.

Celestia watched as Fluttershy looked around and noticed first her friends, and then the Princesses. She vanished in a small yellow blur behind the couch hiding from the new arrivals.

All of the ponies in the room sat down and waited for Fluttershy to poke her head out from behind the couch.

For forty minutes.

Eventually, Fluttershy appeared from behind the couch to a collective sigh of relief from the impatient audience.

A small noise could be heard from the direction of the animal lover. The other leaned forward expectantly. "I said, what are the Princesses doing here."

Rainbow flew directly at Fluttershy, stopping just short and making small circles around her friend's head. "They saved you after that evil monster thing attacked you and knocked you out! We tried to take it down and I was this close to getting the massive thing single-hoofedly, but it took me down in 1 vs 1 combat! I mean I was so awesome and all you should have seen me I was all li-" Dash stopped when she saw everypony else looking at her and coughed. She quickly hopped to the ground and walked to the back of the room.

A small dust ball bounced down the stairs, across the room, and out of the door, but nopony payed it any attention.

Fluttershy looked confused. "What monster?"

Applejack removed her hoof from Pinkie's mouth and walked over to Fluttershy, concern obvious on her features. "Shy, are you sure tha' you can remember everythin' that you did today?"

"Umm, yeah."

"Then tell us, what happened?"

Fluttershy thought momentarily. "Well, first I went to feed the animals like usual. And then I-" She gasped. "Oh dear! my poor angel bunny is still a statue! We need to go and find that naughty Cockatrice at once!" As she said this, a loud thumping could be heard from the door. Rainbow opened it and was flattened against the doorframe. An angry, and very hungry, bunny stood there stamping it's foot impatiently. Fluttershy blinked. "Well, I guess that's Angel taken care of... Anyway, I found Angel's statue, so I went to find the Cockatrice-"

As Fluttershy told her story, Angel threw a small tantrum, but stopped after getting no notice whatsoever and decided to instead destroy the kitchen.

"-and then I saw Light fighting the Cockatrice and he was about to kill it so I gave him the Stare and he fainted. So I took him back here and we had a small conversation and-"

Rainbow had had enough. "Shy, that is obviously something the monster made you believe. If it was so nice then how come it knocked you out and attacked all of us?"

"Well, I actually fainted when Light told me that he was made out of, well, light..." She trailed off and looked down at her hooves. The other ponies gaped. A small fly struggled to avoid the new dangers.

Twilight recovered first. "What do you mean, made out of light. That just isn't possible, is it Princess? Is it? Could it be a construct of some sort? No, it couldn't be... could it?"

Celestia snapped out of her reverie. "No, of course not. This is bound to be some new sort of threat. it might even be Discord himself trying to trick us. Nonetheless, we must all capture this new creature, and for that we will need the elements. One moment please." She furrowed her brow, horn glowing, and a small box appeared on the ground before the Princess. Applejack walked over and flipped the lid open, revealing the Elements of Harmony.

Fluttershy tried to say something. "Uhhh, girls? What are we going to do to Light if we find him?"

Rarity turned to console her friend. "Don't worry, this Light thing will be taken into custody and be analysed."

Twilight's ears perked up.

"OhmygoshIcouldanalyseandcatagorizeanewcreatureandIcouldwriteabookaboutitYESYESYESYES-" She caught herself, practically drooling. "I mean, that would be very good... heh. Well, off we go then." At this Twilight dashed out of the door, leaving a group of very confused ponies behind. Pinkie, who had been surprisingly silent throughout the whole exchange suddenly leaped up and flew upside-down out of the door in a cloud of pink dust. The others followed, Fluttershy hesitantly allowing herself to be shepherded out of the door.

Celestia followed last with Luna, and joined the others at the edge of the Everfree.

Twilight turned to face the group. "Okay everypony, let's go find Light!" Before she had even finished Rainbow Dash had flown in.

Light

I walked leisurely through the forest, my hair dimly illuminating my surroundings enough for me to see by. Small rustling sounds could be heard from all around and pairs of yellow eyes hung in the darkness, staring. At one point it even seemed as if a tree tried to grab me.

But still I walked deeper and deeper, getting more and more lost.

"Well crap, now I'm totally screwed..." I muttered to himself, tripping over another tree root.

At this moment, I stumbled onto a small game track, so having nothing better to do I followed it. It looked to have been made by some large thing, maybe a bear. A large cave could be seen in the distance, so I hurried towards it, thoughts of warmth and shelter urging me on.

A few minutes later, I reached the edge of the cave and stumbled inside, almost slamming my head into the wall. The cave made a sound that approximated a large breathing animal, but I somehow knew that this sound was only the result of pressure differences between the cave and the outside world, so I walked further inside.

Big mistake.

I settled down near the entrance and, after a cursory glance around, settled down and fell asleep.

I ran.

I ran as fast as he possibly could down the alley, away from my pursuers.

The sounds of Peacekeepers could be heard echoing down the alley, multiplied by the small confines.

These noises reached me, and I ran even harder, trying to escape them, but I had to stop. I had to rest. A high speed chase wasn't easy on small children. As I bent over to regain breath, the alley flickered wildly as light was sent everywhere as though there was a disco-ball in the middle of the small alley. I forced myself on, but struggled to run again as the sounds of the Peacekeepers became louder. But I pushed, and I ran again.

I even thought that I was getting away, but then I saw them.

Incredible large people in complete riot armour ran around the corner. From what I could make out, they had large cudgels in their hands, the standard Peacekeeper issue weapon, capable of delivering lethal amounts of electricity.

And the Peacekeepers weren't afraid to use them. Generously.

I ran faster and faster, the alley flickering as my form started to do the same. I started to feel a strange feeling, as if I were breaking up from the speed and losing my shape. But it felt good, so I ran ever faster. I started to phase for the first time, the back edge of my body dripping as though made of candlewax, clinging to the back of my body, thrown in that direction by the speed. My whole body followed suit soon after, breaking up like it had just hit a wall and flowing forward at tremendous speed. I flitted in an unimaginable, physics bending way, making the rocky relationship with said entity even harsher.

And then I collapsed, snapping back to a finite point in space.

Unused to dealing with a phased form, I had panicked and snapped back to my physical form, only to collapse into a quivering ball of flickering light with a small blob of darkness shimmering alongside.

Then the Peacekeepers arrived. They started to attack My with their cudgels, not showing any reluctance as they smashed me senseless. They had been trained and brainwashed, they never showed mercy. Ever.

I writhed in pain as the electricity made it's way through my system. And this was when they were told to retrieve, not even to kill. I prepared himself for death anyway, or something as good as death.

Then the Peacekeepers stopped.

One, who was straddling me and beating me with his club, was thrown to the side carelessly and incinerated, leaving only a small scorch mark on the wall of the alley. Another, who had moved to replace the first, was destroyed on the spot. Flames reached out like whips and disposed of all of the guards in similar fashions.

I braced myself on an elbow to get a look at my saviour. Slumped on the ground was a small boy, about my age, if not slightly older, who was wreathed in flames. As I watched, the flames were extinguished and the boy staggered to his feet, exhausted, and walked over to me, offering a hand, which I gladly accepted.

The two of us stood and assessed each other. The boy took in my shifting white and black body, while I saw the boy. His hair was a dull red and heat waves emanated from his body. His clothes were a patchwork assortment of rags, and all of it seemed slightly singed, while mine, which were in a similar condition of disrepair, were all a pure white and shimmered.

The boy reached out a hand.

"Name's Fire."

I awoke, covered in sweat and panting furiously. I unsteadily rose to my feet and shook my head, trying to dispel the memories of my childhood, and my best friend. I looked outside, but it was still dark, shortly after midnight. I let off a small burst and illuminated my surroundings. A small pool could be seen further in the cave.

It was a curious affair and by all rights shouldn't have existed in this dreary cave, but droplets of water were falling from the ceiling, so I could only assume that it was due to condensation. I knelt down next to the pool and took a sip.

And jumped up, disgusted.

I realised all too late that this wasn't a pool, it was a puddle of drool. And it tasted horrible. My turned his head up to get a look at the thing that created this puddle and immediately froze. Inside the cave, high above my own head, was a tremendous bear, sleeping peacefully. It was breathing heavily, making the noise that I had mistaken for the cave equalising.

I stepped back cautiously. I began to turn and walk away to-

I stepped right on the thing's tail. How I hadn't noticed this before I wasn't sure, but there it was. A short, plump, fluffy tail. And I just stepped on it.

The beast woke up.

Twilight

"So, Twi. How are we gurna find this thin' again? It's got the whole Everfree to hide in."

Applejack was nervous.

"Don't worry Applejack, We'll find this Light soon enough... A thing like him shouldn't be too hard to find."

The Elements and the Princesses had been walking (Or flying in Rainbow Dash's case) for about 3 hours, and the others were starting to lose faith. Rainbow confronted the Purple Librarian.

"Twilight, can we just give up already and go back to Ponyville? We're not going to find it."

Twilight looked evenly at the hovering pegasus. "Rainbow, just keep searching. I get this funny feeling that we've almost found him. We can't be too far away no-"

A flash of light lit up the forest, emanating from a large cave not too far away. All of the ponies galloped towards the cave and were almost at it when they heard an earth shattering roar. A familiar, yet different, shape came flitting out of the cave and flew around the entrance, flying around the head of something...

Applejack voiced what the group was thinking.

"Now how the hay did that thing manage to tick off an Ursa Major that quickly...?"

Chapter 17

What do we know of the sun? The biggest question is to think about where to start in the thinking.

There are many different opinions of it.

Some say that the sun consists of many different elements, forever combining and changing in a process of nuclear fusion, destroying and creating, the perfect balance, a beautiful cycle. The people that say this have never actually been there, they haven’t seen the center, and while they may be correct about the structure of it, that’s not what it is.

There are other perspectives.

One culture situated on a long forgotten, bleak, desolate planet thought that the sun was a being in a chariot that would fly across the sky each day, before diving into the underworld at night.

That’s not true either, but sadly that culture will never know, they disappeared long ago, as has every creature on that planet.

Another culture believed that being the sun god was more of a position, a role, as if there was one giant board that elected the current god. This was closer to the truth than this culture would ever realize, but they had neither the means nor the motive to investigate, they were happy in their blindness.

These are but a few of the thoughts that circulated around the many universes, every inhabitant trying to figure out exactly what the sun was.

But they didn’t realize the truth of it.

And they never realized their attraction either.

The inhabitants of the many universes would look at everything, and anything. A natural curiosity that was present in everything would drive these inhabitants to research, to investigate, to think. They would look at the world around them and demand to know why, and how everything worked.

This would work with everything. There is a reason that some creatures tried to get to the moon. It was because it was there. They had observed it, and made theories, and the next step was to go.

And go they did.

But there was always one place that they never could go to. Even though it was one of the first things that anyone saw, and one of the most constant things in life, and the longest lasting process in most universes.

The sun.

And in the end, all of those theories, and speculations, would come to nothing. They could never set foot on the surface of the sun. It was just too hostile, forever a candle out of reach. And, like a candle, while it would provide light, and lead the way, in the end you would just end up burned.

That was the reason why the cultures around the universe never knew of the truth behind it. Only a few beings knew of the nature of the sun, and they were rarely seen in the lower dimensions.

The sun was composed of elements being changed, but that wasn’t what it was.

It was linked to a being, but not a chariot.

It was a bit like a role, but not in that respect.

It was an idea, nothing more, nothing less. Ever since the idea of warmth and comfort existed in any universe, so did a sun. Every star existed purely for the purpose of symbolizing the idea, a representation if you will.

And all of them were linked to one being, just like every other true Element, this particular one being the ‘sister’ to the satellites that would sometimes find themselves around planets in need of guidance and help with culture.

And that was exactly why this one was different. This one, special star in the middle of an isolated patch of space. It was an oddity, something not seen regularly.

It was completely black.

No, that’s an understatement. This wasn’t simply a tone, the opposite of white; this was the absence of any light whatsoever. But it wasn’t a black hole.

It was just a black star.

I’d come a long way for this star; it was going to be a helpful force in my pursuit because if we take what we know about symbolism and ideas, then we can come to the reason why this star was special.

It had been corrupted.

To the normal eye, it would look like a black orb, dark flames licking at the edges, hungrily eating away at itself.

But not to me. I could see the veins that had spread through what had originally been a healthy and perfectly normal star, see them as they wormed throughout the body of the flaming ball, turning it from something that had once been an abomination, to something that had become beautiful in my eyes.

I hovered near the surface, untouched by the flames and the coldness of space. The sun wouldn’t touch me. It knew when a kindred soul was nearby.

And besides, it wouldn’t have survived my wrath.

But as it happened, this was a call of a relatively friendly nature, and to that extent, I did the most natural thing for getting something’s attention.

I knocked.

The sun, however, shuddered as if struck by something as dense as a planet, and I knew that the inhabitant had heard.

For you see, as I’ve already said, this sun wasn’t always black. It was like that for a reason.

It had been corrupted.

The surface of the sun slowed its writhing, and the flames parted for only an instant, allowing a creature through. It appeared as a dark mist, ooze that flowed lazily through the æther.

It was the reason for the corruption.

And it would be having a very… in depth chat with me…

I do work with it, yes, that much is true, but not by choice...
-'The Nightmare'

Chapter 17

True Nature

Light

Well, I’ve gotta hand it to the god-sister people whatevers…

They sure know how to pull off a good poker face.

So anyway, I’m sitting there, trying to get my head out of the massive pile o’ shit that it had recently been dunked in, which I suspect was placed there by a certain male animal. And it sure as hell wasn’t a pony.

It was a hell of a plot thickening, which in itself is a disgusting metaphor, especially in a place where the inhabitants are ponies…

Let’s watch shall we?

“Ha! I get it! You’re joking, right?”

I looked away from the dynamic duo, and instead focused my gaze on the six colourful little balls of fun that I oh so loved. Note the sarcasm, they were actually quite annoying, and would not stop talking!

Except for that Fluttershy, I liked her.

Sadly however, the six of them were seemingly drinking in the Princesses’ words like it was happy hour at… well, my old apartment, and believe me, for a group of five mutant-wannabees, we could down a lot of grog…

Usually at my expense…

But anyway, I’m getting off topic…

So the six of them are just staring at me, mouth open wide enough to possibly catch a fly if one happened to fly by. Rainbow looked like she was trying to act cool, but she was obviously taken off guard by the whole statement that Luna had said.

And why wouldn’t they be? They’d just been told that I, Light, was a true Element, something that caused a vital aspect of life to exist.

Like I said earlier, Bullshit. There’s no way that’s true.

But here I was, sitting in a land of colourful ponies, having just been released from a stone imprisonment and being incinerated by the literal sun.

…I’m starting to believe that not everyone goes through that chain of events…

“Oh come on! You don’t think that’s true, do you?!” Apparently the six of them did, as they just stared at me with wide eyes and stunned expressions. It turned to Luna, “Hey, you know that it wasn’t that nice to say that to them, I think that you just broke Twilight!” And it was true too! She wasn’t even trying to ask me a question or anything! In my books, Twilight not asking any questions leads to the conclusion that she needs a checkup.

At the mechanic.

Check her oil pressure?

But Luna was being mean, she just gave me a sad smile and slowly shook her head. I thought I almost saw a tear come to eyes, but that was just my mind playing tricks on me, right?

Right?

Right…

Wait, is Luna crying?

And she was too. Not much mind you, just a little bit, a slight moistness around the muzzle, but it was enough.

To this date I’m not sure if it was because she was a pony, or if it was because she reminded me of Water, or anything like that, but I stood up and walked over to her, knelt down.

And I hugged her.

She froze under my touch, her muscles coiling in hesitation, but a moment later she relaxed and fell into my embrace. I let my head fall onto her shoulder and just let her stay there. I could see Celestia standing there, and she was giving me another teary smile.

But this one was different, she was happy, and this hug looked to be making Luna slightly happy too, so I just closed my eyes and went with it.

But apparently my reputation just isn’t good enough yet, because a certain hotheaded rainbow pony with rat wings decided that it would be a good time for paranoia to poke his head in and say hello.

Come on, I’m practically giving the answer away!

Well you’re wrong, it was actually Rainbow Dash, I’m really not sure how you got Applejack as the answer there, she doesn’t even have wings…

Rainbow must have a gift at annoying people - maybe that mark should become an open mouth with words shooting out of it? – because she sure as hell gets to me quickly. Or maybe an isolated pony with a bunch of others staring at her, to symbolize that she has absolutely no tact whatsoever?

I’d assumed that the sight of a teary princess hugging a mysterious glowing figure that didn’t even have a shadow, surrounded by another princess that was okay with it, and all of your friends apparently not thinking that anything was amiss would deter you from making a fool out yourself.

But as they all say, assuming makes an ass out of uming…

You can kinda guess where this is going…

Rainbow Dash

What. The. BUCK?!

This is messed up, the princess should not at ALL be hugging IT! I mean, didn’t he just attack me a few seconds ago?! Nopony even remembers that I’m the one that was almost killed by him! No, screw that, I’ve got more fighting talent than him! He was just lucky! That’s it!

He’s obviously done something to them, they don’t know what they’re doing…

It’s time for Rainbow Dash to save the day...

The prismatic Priscilla let a small grin wash over her features, before hastily covering it again. After all, she couldn’t let Light know that he had been found out…

She waited until he closed his eyes for a few moments before hastily making her way behind her friends, making sure not to alert them at all to her presence. She knew that in their corrupted state they would not hesitate to attack her, and maybe even kill her…

Rainbow shuddered, but hardened her resolve and quietly took a few more steps around the outside of the group. Luckily Celestia was hidden from sight by the hugging pair.

It was perfect, Rainbow was poised to jump, ready to take down the threat and save the day, again at that. The princesses would probably give her a medal or something, just to recognize her efforts.

And they might even drop her name to the Wonderbolts and put in a good word!

That was it, the pegasus’ mind was made up. She stalked closer, still just out of the line of sight of her corrupted friends.

She was within range…

And then she screwed the whole situation up, but not in that way. To Rainbow Dash, it looked as if she had done the right thing and come out victorious, but really she had just made an ass out of herself.

But that didn’t deter Daring Dash, she knew that she had done the right thing and defeated the threat to Equestria in general! Her friends will be thanking her any minute now!

…

Why is everyone looking at her like that?

Light

Why is it that everything peaceful in my life has to come to a sudden and unexpected end?!

My hug with Luna was ruined by, you named it, RAINBOW DASH! And the worst part was that she didn’t even seem to realize that she had made a mistake in the first place.

From my position on my back I could see her puffing out her chest with pride, and she was pulling a pose of all things. A POSE?! Meanwhile, for the creatures that weren’t in the loony bin, there was a sudden case of the ‘What the Hell was Rainbow Dash Thinking’ syndrome.

Applejack was the first one to move, and there was only one thing I can say to describe it:

HOOF TO THE HEAD!

But I’m serious here, Applejack didn’t even hesitate to walk steadily over and give Rainbow a good ol’ fashioned hoof upside the head. Rainbow just fell to her side in confusion. “What the hell?! What was with the hit AJ?!”

Applejack just gave a stare that bore right through Rainbow’s head, and I could practically see the bloodstains on the floor beneath her as her brains invisibly exploded out of her head. “Rainbow! You jus’ tackled Light, an’ hit the Princess as well!”

“But-but-but she was under his influence!”

“No she wa- wait, what?!”

Rarity stepped forward, “Uhh, Rainbow my dear, are you sure that you feel… fine?”

“I’m perfect! It’s you guys that should be worried! You didn’t even do anything! He tricked Luna into hugging him!”

It was my turn. “Umm, what the fuck are you talking about?! How did I trick Luna into hugging me?! She was just sad and needed a hug!”

“Yeah, sure tough guy, you’re not fooling any of us, is he girls?” She halted for a second, “Is he girls?”

The rest of her friends were looking at her with mixed looks of concern and annoyance. “Rainbow, Light did nothing to influence us, nothing at all,” Twilight said.

“B-b-but he did! D-didn’t you see? Luna was in tears and he was doing his whole glowwy shifty thing again!”

I said, “Rainbow, I don’t know if you’ve noticed yet, but unless I purposely put effort into stopping that, I’m normally like this…”

“Don’t try and get away from this! You attacked me! You’re evil! Don’t you girls see! He’s been playing you like a, like a… like an instrument-y thing!” She was getting angry now, “It’s all his fault! He’s the reason that I’m hurt, and why Luna’s crying, an-“

I couldn’t stand for the crap any longer, “Rainbow! Don’t talk shit here!” I stood and walked towards her, “You fucking attacked me! And it wasn’t my fault that I wasn’t in a mood to take shit any more! You started the argument and the fight!”

Rainbow wasn’t to be deterred however, “But how do you explain why the Princess started crying then?! Huh?! And you did the whole evil darkness thing too! And you attacked heaps of guards and ponies too! You di-“

SLAM

HOLD THINE TOUNGE RAINBOW DASH!

Instantly a deathly silence fell over the room as all eyes turned to the source of the noise.

Luna.

She was standing there with a face that conveyed a universal message of ‘No Shit Tolerated’, and she did not look happy. Celestia was surprised, but quickly put up her façade of complete neutrality, but I could sense that she was still surprised.

Luna turned to Rainbow, “Light has done no such thing! He has been under constant threat from wildlings, and ponies such as us, throughout his entire time while being known to us!”

Rainbow winced as if hit by a physical blow, but Luna saw this and softened her tone slightly.

But only a little.

“Now I know that it is your duty to be loyal at all times, but that is no excuse to act like this.” Her expression turned downcast again, and she almost looked to be struggling to find the right words. “Now, you ask why I am see willingly open towards Light, correct?

Rainbow just nodded violently, for once choosing not to open her big mouth.

Luna sighed, “This would be best if you all listened, as I will only say this once.” This had all of the mares’, and Princess Celestia’s attention at once.

Luna sat. “Now, I have explained how a true Element’s form cannot be destroyed, correct? But there are other equally devastating things. The fading from existence is the least.”

Rarity leaned in, “Excuse me for interrupting Princess, but that sounds terrible!”

Luna nodded, “I know, sweet Generosity, but that is still a fairly low price. One of the harshest is watching the world go by… I have seen more ponies than I can put names to, and I have had to watch each and every one pass away.”

For a moment it looked as if she would lose her composure, and Celestia didn’t look too far away as well, “And while there may be many different Elements, there are also many different universes, so meeting a kindred soul is rare. I’m lucky enough to have Celestia, and that is all that I ask for.”

She looked at me for some reason, and touched me on the shoulder with her hoof. “And there is no doubt that Light here is an Element, although I cannot think what he might be the Element of. Regardless, he would have lived for an unimaginably long time.”

I looked at her suspiciously, “But if I’ve lived for so long, why don’t I remember anything?’

“I was hoping that you might be able to tell us that Light…”

“How?!”

Celestia joined her sister, “Light, tell us something, anything, from when you were just extremely young, before you could talk, when you weren’t as you were now.”

I scoffed at their request, “Ha! That’s it? It can do that!”

But it was harder than I thought. I tried to think of my parent’s faces, but only drew a blank. Memories of my childhood only resulted in more fuzzy, indistinct pictures. Panic welled up inside of me as I was still unable to think of anything.

But there was something! I could remember something from before I first met Fire! Ha! I did have a family!

Wait, why was I so tall? Was I just floating in a blank void? I was still glowing?! But it wasn’t like now, it was a bright golden light, as if I was coated in brilliant gold magma.

And there was something else, another being there with me, and it said one thing.

Oh no…

Oh fucking no…

This isn’t true! It can’t be true!

My earliest memory, the one from before I met Fire, was just me, a void, and the other being. And it said one thing, “Time to forget, brother.”

But that wasn’t what worried me, it was the voice that said it.

A voice that I had known, and hated, for as long as I could remember.

A voice that I despised like no other.

It was the hard, cruel, despicable voice of the Director.

The plot thickens...

Now that that's out of the way, a quick note. I won't be able to upload, write, or do practically anything for at least the next week, so please, hang out there dear readers.

So that once again, nothing for the next week, kapeesh? I probably won't even be online for that time either...

...Fucking hate camping...

Also, only 3 dislikes to 109 likes? Huh, must be doing something right then...

Thanks for 11,000 views!

I probably haven't said this before, but I love you guys. No really, I do!

Not too long ago, March I think :3, I was just a random guy who went 'Hey! I wanna write something!' This story is the first proper piece of writing I've actually done, and it had been a looooooooooooooong journey.

So I just wanted to thank those of you who decided that maybe this story wasn't that bad, and that it deserved a bit of attention and love. I especially wanted to thank you for not tearing me apart on the first chapter which, I can honestly say, was a piece of donkey sh*t!

...No offence Cranky...

Anyway, I'm still surprised as hell that I even got this far from randomly posting a story with no direction at all, just making it up for the first few chapters...

On an unrelated note Jayfeather is incredibly fussy.

I put this story up on the site because I was bored one day, but the fact that I've got even one person that appreciated the gesture motivates me to keep giving MOAR! The fact that you actually like this story makes me TINGLE WITH JOY! (If you get the reference, internet cookie, on me.)

And while the views and compliments make me feel great, when it comes down to it I just wanted to show how much I loved the briny community, and the ponies at its core. That is the real reason that I wanted to write, to put something back into the community from which I get hours of enjoyment and entertainment.

This is Jorofrarie, giving a big thank you to all of you readers who have taken time out of your day to check out my story.

Thank you.