Order In Equestria

by Bowenross

Rating: teen
Tags: Princess Luna, Original Character, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Random, Adventure, Princess Celestia, Human, Main 6
Length: 70163

Tristan was ready for normalcy, he wasn't ready for this.

Tristan began his ordinary day thinking it would just be same old same old. What he didn't know was that he would be called to bring order to an unknown planet. What he knew was that he would finally be freed of a normal life.
Warning: Very Gary Stu like, my first fan-fic, and a general piece of dung

Published 2014-05-11 03:30:06 UTC
Last updated 2014-05-11 03:30:06 UTC

Beginnings

“Hey dude, let me see the homework from last night. I couldn’t get it done for the life of me.” My friend Nathan always asked if he could see my homework after a night of partying because he never got it done.

“No way, I already told you that I wouldn’t let you see my homework again no matter how much you begged or pleaded.” I always responded with the same line, knowing exactly what was going to come after I said it.

“Come on, Tristan, if I get a zero on this I’m gonna fail the class… fine if you don’t let me see the homework I’ll forcefully make you watch Cupcakes.” Nathan knew my weakness ever since he saw the video on YouTube; its images would always haunt me.

“God-dangit Nathan, you know how much I can’t even stand the thought of that video. Why would anyone want to watch that? Guh. Fine, I’ll let you see my homework as long as you don’t ever mention that horrible thing again.”

“You know you will fall for the same trick next year man.” Nathan always knew what would get me to give him my homework, even if the method was unorthodox.

I almost forgot, telling a life story usually requires the audience or reader in this case, to know the name of the person and their appearance. My name is Tristan Ordeus, yeah weird last name, and I’m a normal eleventh grader. I stand at five feet seven inches and weigh approximately one-hundred fifteen pounds. In other words, I’m skinny and non-muscular as fuck. I have brown hair that always seems to have curls, or be messy, or has a cowlick, and I have brown eyes.

Nathan was the type of person that was very socially active and physically active, if you know what I mean. He was the captain of the soccer team, so he was well known throughout the school and the town. He was also a major party animal. Any chance of going to a party, and he was on it like Pinkie Pie on a tangent.

I on the other hand am the type of guy always in the background getting things done. I don’t really stick out that much because I don’t do anything all that interesting and I wear clothes that accompany that. I’m not very social, causing me to have very few friends, so few in fact, that I can count them on one hand with only three of my fingers. I’m the normal geek type of person that gets good grades and doesn’t really think that much about it.

Right as soon as I give Nathan my homework to copy the bell rings to signal for the students to get to first block. Nathan thanks me and says that he has to run because he can’t be late to class again or he would have to go to Saturday school. I see a flash out of the corner of my eye, when I turn around there’s nothing there. I shrug it off and walk to my class. Little did I know that the flash was real, and that it was going to become a frequent event that day.

When I got to my English class, I got to my desk and sat down. I put my books under my desk because in my school they don’t allow students to carry around book bags or messenger bags because of “safety reasons”. As I got turned around in my desk to pay attention to the teacher the student in front of me threw a ball of paper at my face. I uncurled the ball and it said one word. Freak. I shot a glare at the student but he didn’t notice because he was talking to another student. While I was looking at him, the flash happened again. It was brighter this time and right in my field of view.

I had only two theories on this flash. One, it was real and something was going to happen. Two, I was going insane and it was signifying my mind ripping apart. I mostly believed the second theory. The class went on as any other class would, long and boring. The bell rang and I got up and walked to my next class. The flashes were becoming more frequent, and it was starting to freak me out. I didn’t want to lose my mind in the middle of class. I figured that I would have to go see a doctor or something after school. It would be my first time walking into a doctor’s office saying I thought I was going crazy *hah*.

When I got to my biology class, things got even weirder. Instead of our teacher standing in front of the classroom, there was a small horse. I blinked and the horse disappeared, replaced by the teacher. I was really starting to lose my mind, I thought.
By the end of the day, I had seen similar images over and over again, each time they lasted longer before disappearing. I walked over to my car and started it up. It was a piece of junk, but it was my piece of junk. I drove to my house, and as soon as I got into the driveway my engine blew.

“Come on! I just got you fixed a week ago. I need you to work!” I yelled. I often talk to my car because it helps me vent. My car may be a piece of junk, but it can take a serious verbal and physical assault. “Oh well, I’ll just have to ask dad if I can drive his car tomorrow.”

I walked into the house, closing and locking my door behind me. I walked into my room, threw down my bag and slumped down into my chair. Then, a flash happened again. Only, it was different this time. It stayed there and grew brighter by the second. I sat there, frozen to the seat. Only one thing went through my mind as I felt myself be pulled from the seat. ‘I’m gonna die.’

“Oh shit!” I yelled as I felt the world around me disappear, replaced by and endless void. This wasn’t your typical black void. No, it was completely white. I could make out a figure in the void and I moved towards it. As I got closer, I could tell it was a person and not a thing. I couldn’t tell gender though, the figure was completely blank faced and had a long white robe on.

“Um, hello” I slowly crept towards the figure, “do you know where I am?”

“This is the place between being and non-being, the place of peace and chaos, where everything is balanced.” The figure waved its hands around the empty space, and then it pointed at me. “I have brought you here to give you a choice. You may carry on with your everyday life, or you may choose another option I am presenting to you. I am giving you an option to help create a new world, and keep the balance in case it is upset. You will be able to do anything you can imagine, so you are only as powerful as your imagination. Which will you choose? Know this; I must give you three days to think this over. My superiors dictated that this waiting period is mandatory, so that the one we ask can make a sound decision.

“What happens if I don’t accept the second option?” I could already guess the answer, but I had to ask the question anyways.

“Your memories of this place will be erased from your mind. It will be like this place and I had never existed.” The figure explained to me. I figured the answer would have been longer, but have the same basic information in it. “You must go now, and think on your answer carefully. When you have your reply cut this bracelet and you will be brought back to this dimension.” The figure handed me a simple blue bracelet and sent me back in a flash of light.

Right before I left, I said “This is definitely interesting.”

Author's Note

I have the full story already posted on Fanfiction.net if you want to check it out there. It's already finished, under the same username, and has a sequel.

The Choice And Creation

I woke up in my bed, and I guessed it was all a dream…

*the door opens and ? walks in*

“Okay, don’t do this in your story you idiot. It makes you look like a dumbass!” ? yelled at me.

“Dude, get back in the story. I didn’t write you in so you could break the 4th wall and yell at me” I simply stated to one of my characters.

*Slap* “I don’t take back-talk from anybody, not even the writer!” He walked back into the story and I started typing again.
I glanced down at my clock and freaked out.

“Dude, holy crap! It’s past eight; I’m going to be late for school!” I rushed out the door and then I remembered that my truck had died on me. “Great, now I have to walk all the way to school.”

Three days passed with as much boredom and work as the past day had, and I found myself in the void again. The figure was there just like the last time, and was sitting there quietly.

“We are awaiting your decision. Whatever decision you have chosen, we will honor it.”

“I have two questions.” I told the figure. “What will happen to the people I know back in my world?”

“Their minds will be wiped of any memories of you and your accomplishments.”

“Okay, second question. Who, or what, are you?”

“I am the being of non-existence. Some call me Death, while others call me God. I go by many names, but you may call me… Tim.” The figure made a Monty Python reference, and I smiled at that.

“I have made my decision.” I stated. “I wish to go to this other world and do what I may to help it.”

“Okay, your decision has been heard. Remember, your power will be limited by only what you can think of. I will send you now but must tell you one thing. Do not let the inhabitants of the planet know that you are there to keep the balance intact. If they knew, it could destroy balance and, therefore, destroy the planet.” Tim said this in a completely serious tone of voice, so I knew that he was being serious. “I will now send you, but I may send you to the wrong time, so be ready for a long wait.”

“Wait what?” I thought that he was kidding. He wasn’t.

When I got to the new planet, all I could see was barren wasteland with the sun beating down on the ground. I walked around for days, but I found out the sun never set, so I had to make it set and bring out the moon so that I could actually make it night and day. I then thought of the timeframe of a year and decided I would count the time the same on this planet.

50 years later

“Okay this is boring as all get up. I need someone or something to talk to.” I got up from the rock I was sitting on and stretched. Sitting down for fifty years can make you really sore. After the third year of being on the planet, I made a clock that would count the years instead of hours and minutes. I figured I would rather do that than make marks on rocks for however long I was going to be doing nothing.

The first thought of a creature to make was a pony. I figured, since I like horses, I might as well make one to talk to. That worked for a few years, and then the pony wanted a mate so I made it one. They had a foal nine months later and left me, so I created another pony. The same cycle went on and on until I had wasted over thirty years and I decided I wouldn’t make ponies anymore.

My second thought was griffins. They were cool majestic creatures, but they were carnivores. I created many more animals years before I created the griffin so that the animals would have time to populate the planet. It had grown grass in the years that I was fooling around, allowing grazing animals and other beings to live easily. The planet had also depressed in some areas and filled up with water from underground sources, so I had to keep the weather under control.

The griffins went the same as the ponies. I figured that I would only make about two more species before I would stop trying. I decided to make dragons and beetles that fed off of emotions so that the carnivores would not wipe out the other animals on the planet. Needless to say, the other two species were also a failure. That left me with hundreds of years of wasted time, and almost nothing to show for it. I made a tree, don’t ask why it was a tree, that would keep the balance of the world for me while I slept.
“I’ll just go to sleep for a while, see if evolution is actually plausible on a completely different planet.” I walked over to a bed I had made and slept on it for a long time.

The Result

When I woke up I glanced at the clock I had made, and was completely stunned at what I saw. It said that 51,325 years had passed since I had arrived on the planet. Sometimes immortality was really amazing, but also boring as hell. That could explain why I was completely surrounded by trees and grass. The atmosphere was creepy, like someone, or something, was constantly watching me from the shadows.

“Well, I might as well see if evolution has occurred.” I stood up and cracked all the joints in my body; the resulting sound was like a bomb had gone off. I stood still and listened to see if anything had heard it. It looked like nothing had, so I started walking in a random direction to see if I could find anything. I came upon a stream and followed it, knowing that civilizations or living beings would normally be found near a water source. I was surprised to see a sort of cottage on top of a hill. I then saw something I never thought I would see in real life. Fluttershy was standing by the hut talking to Angel. I completely freaked out and ran back into the forest. I then realized that I had made Equestria what it was known to be in my world.

I also realized that I had walked into the Everfree Forest, and the thing looking at me was actually a timber wolf. I guessed that me going into Ponyville as a human would freak everypony out, so I turned myself into a pony as I was walking out of the forest. I turned into a brown stallion with a blue mane and tail. My mane was spiky and had a large group of white hair on one side of my head. My tail was wrapped up at the base so that it wasn’t dragging on the ground because of how long it was. I glanced at my flank and was surprised to see that I didn’t have a cutie mark.

“Well, now I know how it feels to be Applebloom and the rest of the CMC. Over fifty-thousand years on a planet and nothing to show my talent.” I said as I was walking towards the cottage in my new body. Most of the fanfics I had read said it was hard to walk around as a quadruped, but I found no trouble at all. It was as if this was just another form that I had all of my life. I walked up to the cottage, but Fluttershy wasn’t there anymore. I grew confused, but then I guessed that she had something to do.

I walked into Ponyville and waved to any passing pony who acknowledged me. I got confused when they would bow down to me. ‘Why, are they bowing down? It’s not like I’m royalty.’ I kept walking and got nervous when Pinkie Pie had not come to welcome me, because Pinkie always knew when a new pony was in town. I saw Twilight and Spike walking towards Sweet Apple Acres with Spike carrying a scroll. I knew that this was the first episode automatically. I had woken up just in time to get in on the episodes I knew.

I figured that, if I was here, I might as well become part of the story. I walked up to Twilight and asked if I could join her on her task at hand.

“Uh-huh.” She replied, still looking at a map she had encompassed in her magic.

“Great, now I can meet new ponies without getting weird looks.” I happily trotted beside Twilight and Spike towards the farm. I never really noticed until now how tall I was compared to other ponies. They were about half my size, maybe even smaller.

We walked past the gates and heard Applejack yell, so I knew she would come over to shake Twilight’s hoof. I decided to wander off into the apple orchard so as not to mess with the storyline. I saw Big Mac bucking some trees and walked over to him. When I was right behind him when he was resting, I lightly tapped him on the shoulder and said boo. He literally jumped five feet into the air.

“Applejack, I already told ya’ not to sneak up on me!” He turned around and saw me and immediately bowed. “I’m sorry, ya’ majesty, I thought ya’ were my sister.”

“Okay, why does everyone keep bowing to me? And don’t call me your majesty, I’m not royalty.” I was getting slightly annoyed by the constant bowing. Then I realized that I wasn’t a normal pony. It explained why I was so tall and the ponies kept bowing to me. I was an alicorn, probably because of my powers and what I represented in this world.

“Everyone? Don’t you mean everypony?” Big Mac asked while still bowing.

“You may rise, Big McIntosh. And yes, I meant everypony.” I probably would never get used to ponies bowing down to me, and I realized that I would have to use their terms when speaking aloud. The pony puns were going to become used in everyday conversation. “I meant it as a joke when I said what I said.”

“Okay your majesty. Wait… how did you know mah name?” Big Mac was getting skeptical, I did not need this.

“I know the name of everypony; it is part of being a ruler.” I came up with the explanation off the top of my head. I just hoped he didn’t have the ability to tell lies from truth like Applejack did.

“Well okay, if ya’ say so.” Big Mac told me. I really dodged a bullet there. “So, why are ya’ here, your majesty?”

“I have come to make sure my sisters’ student, Twilight Sparkle, does not cause any trouble for anypony here.” I explained as we walked through the orchard. We heard Applejack yell, and we started moving towards the barn. “I guess that’s our cue to get on over to eat?”

“Eeyup.”

We reached the barn quickly, and Applejack was quickly running off her families’ names as they stacked the table with food. Big Mac grabbed a cupcake and walked closer as soon as Applejack called his name. I grabbed a slice of cake and started munching on it. It was honestly the best cake I had ever tasted.

“Compliments to the baker of this awesome cake!” I shouted so that all of the gathered ponies could hear me. They all turned around and gasped when they saw me. They quickly bowed and started whispering to each other. “You may rise, my subjects. I do not wish for others to put themselves below me. I hope to be seen as if I was another one of you.”

Twilight was the first to rise from bowing, and she said something like not recognizing me from Canterlot. I walked over to where she was sitting and sat down next to her. She shied away from me like I was a stranger, which I technically was.

“Twilight, I do believe that these fine ponies would like us to join in their meal. What do you say to this?” I looked at Twilight and smiled. She shied even further away, looking like she wanted to flee. All the ponies around us said they wanted us to stay and Twilight gave up.

About two hours later Twilight, Spike, and I were walking towards town. Twilight was sporting a rather large midsection. Spike hadn’t really eaten much, so he looked normal. I had eaten much more than either of them, but I felt fine.

“I can’t believe how much I can eat and not get fat. This is wonderful. I’ll have to go to Sugarcube Corner later and see how much I can eat.” I was completely ecstatic to say the least.

As we got into town, Twilight asked Spike to look at the list to see what was next. Just then, a rainbow blur came speeding towards us. I grabbed Twilight just before Rainbow Dash hit her and Rainbow flew right over the mud puddle. Rainbow looped back because she was surprised at what she saw.

“Yo, Rainbow, I thought you were supposed to be clearing the clouds. The celebration is going to suck if there are still clouds in the sky.” I was trying to get her to brag, I didn’t care. All she had to do was talk about the Wonderbolts.

“Yeah yeah, I can do that in a jiffy. I just have to finish practicing.” Rainbow did this all while flying in front of us. I wondered if she ever stopped flying when she was doing everyday tasks.

“What are you practicing for?” Twilight asked Rainbow.

Rainbow looked at both Twilight and I and said “Wait a minute, who are you two?” I sighed and facehoofed. I should have just let Rainbow run into Twilight and left it at that.

“This is Twilight Sparkle, my sisters’ student and I am Ordeus. I’m keeping an eye on her to make sure that she doesn’t cause any trouble for the other ponies here. And this here is Spike, her assistant.” I pointed at Twilight and Spike when I explained who they were.

“Well, anyways. I’m training for the Wonderbolts.” Rainbow did a loop in the air and struck a pose while Twilight looked at the poster for the Wonderbolts.

“Rainbow Dash, I’m pretty sure that the Wonderbolts wouldn’t recruit a pony that couldn’t even keep the skies clear for one day.” I told her, in a matter of fact tone.

“Just watch, I’ll do it in ten. Seconds. Flat.” She zoomed off as soon as she said it to start busting the clouds. I timed her as she did it, and true to her word, she did it in ten seconds flat. I looked over to Twilight to see if she had a flabbergasted look on her face. She did. “You’re a laugh, Twilight Sparkle. We should hang out some time.” With that she flew off, probably to go nap.

“Let’s get going Twilight. We don’t want to get off of schedule here. The next stop is town hall where Rarity is decorating.” I had to pull Twilight about halfway there before she started walking on her own.

“Beautiful.” Spike stated as soon as we walked into the town hall

“Yes, the décor is coming along nicely.” Twilight looked around to better see the decorations already up.

“Not the décor. Her.” Spike looked at Rarity with hearts in his eyes. I guess that wasn’t something that only appeared on the TV screen.

While Twilight was preoccupied with trying to talk to Rarity, I messed her mane up with my magic. I did not want to have to find a way to get Rarity to notice Twilight. I walked quietly out of the town hall to see what else there was to do around Ponyville. I was surprised how nobody noticed that I was a blank flank yet. I looked into the window of the quill and sofa shop and was surprised at what I saw. My reflection showed my left eye as completely black and my right as completely white. Yin and Yang, I guess that’s understandable, seeing how I’m here to keep balance and order.

I kept walking around, but nothing really caught my eye as interesting. I figured that I had been walking around for an hour, judging on how far the sun had moved in the sky. Ponyville was pretty big, much bigger than the show made it out to be. I finally saw the place I wanted to go to most. Sugarcube Corner was right in front of me. I entered the shop, but then I remembered that I didn’t have any bits. Then I facehoofed again. I could materialize money whenever I needed it.

Mr. Cake was at the counter when I walked in, but he was turned around so that he couldn’t see me. I walked up to the counter and waited for him to turn around. As soon as I got to the counter, he got down on the floor to search through the cupboards close to the floor. I was still patiently waiting for him to finish, instead of interrupting him. I got an idea and put on my best posh pony attitude.
“I must say dearie, this fellow is taking much too long to serve us. We may have to think about going to that dreary café down the street. I must admit though, that place looks like it has the most horrid food choices.” I said this all while trying to not laugh. It was almost too much even for me.

“Sorry sir! I was just trying to find…” Mr. Cake turned around and froze when he saw me. This was the first time an alicorn had been in his shop. He immediately dropped to the floor again. “Forgive me, your majesty. I was wrapped in my thoughts and did not hear you enter.”

“You may rise, I wish to order some food. Also, I would appreciate it if you treated me like any other customer.” The bowing and apologies were getting old quickly. After Nightmare Moon was dealt with, I would address the entire town to make sure that they stopped calling me ‘your majesty’ and stopped bowing to me.

“Of course, what would you like to order?” Mr. Cake asked, bringing out a quill and paper to write down my order.

“I would like one of everything, please. And full servings, not a sample size.” Even after the large meal I had eaten at the farm, I was still hungry.

“Okay, that will be three-hundred bits.” Mr. Cake told me, looking surprised at such a large order. “Also, I need your name to write down on the order.”

“My name is spelled O-r-d-e-u-s, my fine sir. Pronounced Or-day-us.” I told Mr. Cake and he wrote that down as well.

I paid Mr. Cake and he told me it would be a few hours before everything was ready, seeing as he also had to get ready for the Summer Sun Celebration. I thanked him and told him to have it all delivered to the library when it was done. He ran into the kitchen yelling to Mrs. Cake that they had a big order to complete. I chuckled and walked out the door and started walking towards the library.

Thankfully I got there as soon as Twilight, Spike, and Fluttershy did. Twilight pushed Fluttershy and I out of the library when we tried to walk in. Fluttershy just ‘eeped’ when she realized who got pushed out there with her and ran away. I figured that since I had nothing better to do than wait, I would wait at the town hall for everybody else. So far everything was going well and I hadn’t messed up things too much.

When I got to the town hall it was about three a.m. because I had gotten lost again. I figured I really need to find a map so that I wouldn’t get lost anymore. Mayor Mare was already waiting in the town hall, and it was easy to see that I surprised her. Before she could bow down, I said, “Don’t bow down please, it is getting really annoying.”

“Well, if that is what you wish.” Mayor Mare said, confused. “Who are you? I don’t remember getting a notification that another alicorn would be here during the Summer Sun Celebration. I also don’t remember there being more than one alicorn, which is Celestia.” Mayor mare could be seen as nervous at the moment, but she could also be seen as suspicious of me.

“I am Celestias’ older brother, Ordeus. I have been… asleep for a long while. I have come to make sure that her student, Twilight Sparkle, does not bother the other ponies here. I have also come to see the preparations for myself. I heard that there would be a very exciting celebration this year.” I kept going with the story I had thought of earlier. If I ever forgot this, I would have a lot of explaining to do.

“Okay then. I will prepare a seat for you to wait in.” The mayor walked off to fetch a seat. I breathed out a breath I didn’t realize I had been holding in. She believed my story. She walked back in carrying a large, ornate seat. “Here you are. I hope that it suits your tastes.”

“It is a little, um, extravagant. But, it does suit my need of a seat to wait in. Thank you, Mayor Mare.” I thanked her while taking the seat off of her back and setting it down on the floor. I moved it over to a corner so that it would be harder to see me during the celebration.

A few hours passed and ponies started gathering in the hall. I could just make out the mane six from my point of view. The chorus of birds started up, and I sat back to watch the upcoming event. Soon the ponies gathered were panicking as Rarity said that Celestia wasn’t there. I could just make out the smoke of Nightmare Moon come in through the door and gather on the balcony. As the smoke coalesced into Nightmare Moon, all the ponies gasped. Nightmare soon left, followed soon after by Twilight being followed by the rest of the group.

I walked up to Mayor Mare thanked her for the courtesy she had shown me. I also told her that the information I had received was correct. I left after that and headed to the library. There was no way I was going to miss out on this.

The Elements and I

I quickly walked to the library so I wouldn't miss out on anything. I got to the door and entered right after Rainbow Dash had busted in. Pinkie found the book and they started to head towards the door. I revealed myself and they all gasped. Pinkie Pie just looked at me with a hurt look, like I had obviously avoided her so she wouldn't throw me a party. That hunch was obviously correct.

"I'm joining you girls on this little adventure. And I won't take no for an answer. There are some things in that forest that really dislike being interrupted by ponies." I told them as I blocked the door. They all shrugged and said I could come, all except for Twilight. She just looked at me with the most confused look on her face.

As we made our way to the forest, Pinkie asked me tons of questions about what I liked and such. She asked me what my favorite color was, what I did for fun, if I liked cake or cupcakes, what it was like being an alicorn, and so on. The last question was one that surprised me and the rest, but I had been ready to answer it.

"So, why do you not have a cutie mark mister?" Pinkie asked, bouncing along next to the group. The others just stared at Pinkie and then to my flank. They probably looked at Pinkie first because that wasn't the type of question you asked royalty.

"Well that's simple," I stated, "it is because I am the ruler of order and balance. If I had a cutie mark, it would create an unbalance and the world would explode. That, or I could just be paranoid and nothing would happen other than me getting an image on my flank." I smiled at their faces. They looked hilarious; everybody but Pinkie was gaping at me. "Well, we're here girls. The Everfree Forest awaits our entrance." I gestured to the trail leading in, and waited until the girls had finished arguing that they would go in with Twilight.

As we went into the forest, I could see the Nightmare Moon gas following us. I decided to keep quiet and just wait until we reached the cliff. I started stretching my wings, getting ready to fly when the cliff crumbled. As we got onto the cliff, Rainbow started trying to scare the others.

"…they never come out!" she put on the most menacing face she could. As soon as she said this the cliff crumbled and Fluttershy and I took to the air along with Rainbow. I helped carry the others down and decided to help catch Twilight along with Rainbow, telling Fluttershy to let me do it. We made our way further into the forest, and the gas kept going on ahead. I faintly heard the roar of the manticore and realized nobody else had heard it.

As we made our way into the clearing, everybody except me gasped. In front of us was the manticore, and dang did he look pissed. The cartoon never really did catch the mood the manticore gave off. The girls all tried to get through the manticore in their own way as Fluttershy just kept saying wait. Right before they all charged the manticore; I yelled as loud as I could using the royal voice.

"All ye wait! I do believe that the Fluttershy has something to speak of!" All of those in the clearing had covered their ears, even the manticore. I sat back down and pointed to Fluttershy giving her the go to see what she could do.

"Thank you, Ordeus. I was hoping that you all would listen to me… if you wanted to." She quietly went up to the manticore. As it growled, Fluttershy just stood there and waited to get the thorn out of its paw. As she did, the manticore roared and grabbed her. The girls gasped again, I just started to move on. I knew that they would be right behind me as soon as they saw Fluttershy wasn't in any danger.

We passed the next three problems with little difficulty, and we were standing at the entrance to the crumbling castle. I stayed outside as everyone else entered, they wouldn't be in there long at all. The others came out as Twilight was getting ready to try her whack at the elements. We saw Nightmare Moon take Twilight to the other wing of the castle and started rushing over to help her. As we started up the steps, the others started yelling to Twilight. We came in to see the broken elements lying on the floor. I looked into Twilight's eyes to see the spark.

As the scene progressed, I was starting to wonder what I would tell Celestia. I had been using the lie that I was her brother. If she denied this then it was all over. I decided to tell her a small amount of the truth, only enough so that she would know the consequences of my secret getting out. As the girls defeated Nightmare Moon, I moved their unconscious bodies into more comfortable positions. I saw that Rarity's tail had not grown back with the power of the elements, so I decided to help it grow back with magic. I walked over to Luna and sat next to her, waiting for Celestia to come into the room.

The sun started to peek over the horizon into the room as the girls started to wake up. They looked around and greeted each other.

"It's absolutely gorgeous, Rarity." Fluttershy complimented Rarity.

"I know, I'll never part with it again." Rarity hugged her tail close; thankful it had grown back so quickly.

"I wasn't talking about your tail. I was talking about you necklace. It matches your cutie mark." As Fluttershy said this, the others were also making comments on the others necklaces. I could see a large glow coming from the window and realized the Celestia was coming. As she entered the room the others bowed and Twilight ran up to her to nuzzle her. As she spoke to the others, I could tell she wanted to see her sister as well.

"…let us see if another can do the same. Princess Luna." Celestia turned around to see me sitting next to Luna; a surprised look quickly crossed her features. "We were meant to rule together little sister."

Luna hadn't even noticed me as she rushed over to her sister. Luna cried into Celestia as Celestia gave me a look that said 'I want to talk to you'. I just looked back and gave a look agreeing to her. As soon as the touchy feely moment was over, Pinkie jumped up and said that this called for a party. We were all in Ponyville in a flash; I looked over to Pinkie and just stared at her. She just broke physics as an earth pony even more than before.

As the party started to get into full swing; Celestia walked up to me levitating a piece of cake into her mouth. She chewed and swallowed; motioning for me to follow her to a quieter place. We both walked to the library and closed the door.

"So, I hear that you are my older brother. Also, that you are here to make sure my student did not get into any trouble. So, who are you really?" Celestia got straight to the point when talking. I liked this.

"I cannot tell you who or what I really am, but I may tell you why I am here and have been using the guise of your older brother. I am the one who created life on this planet and shaped it to what it is today. Who I am known as is Ordeus, the alicorn or order and balance. I have been asleep for the past fifty-thousand years or around that amount of time." I gave the truth, only somewhat shortened and leaving out details only I needed to know. "Oh look, the treats I ordered are here." I went over to the table and grabbed a cookie, munching on it as I awaited Celestia's reaction.

"I… don't believe you." She looked at me with an extreme look of distrust.

"Fine, don't believe me. But if I told you anymore; there is a chance that the world would explode or the universe would collapse in on itself." I stated flatly as I grabbed another cookie to munch on. "Oh, I think you should just tell Twilight to stay here and study friendship in Ponyville with the rest of her friends. She might feel bad if she just left them right after she became their friend. And, just to remind you, I'm over fifty-thousand years old. Now, let's get back to the party. The others might be wondering where we went to." I walked out, followed by Celestia.

We got back to the town square where the others were waiting. Celestia gave her assignment to Twilight and started to walk off to return to Canterlot. Right before she got out of earshot she said something to everybody able to hear her.

"I must tell you all that Ordeus here has volunteered to stay here and learn along with my student. Ordeus has been away for a while, so he is out of date with our customs. Treat him as if he were just another one of the normal townsfolk." With that, she walked into the carriage and flew off. The others kept in their group hug while I went to check out what was going on around town. I figured since I no longer had to talk to the town about treating me normally, I would go and find a job.

I also realized I would have to find a place to stay while I was in Ponyville. So I had my tasks set out, find a job and a place to stay. The library was ruled out because it had no extra room for me, so was Rainbow's home. I didn't know about Fluttershy's cottage, but I guessed that there wouldn't be much room there. I wouldn't intrude on Applejack's farm because I didn't want to have to wake up early or do farm work. I also didn't want to live in a fashionista's home. That left me with Sugarcube corner as a place for work, possibly even a place to stay.

I had only guessed that there would be enough room for me at Sugarcube corner. It turns out, I was right. They also said they could use some extra hooves in the kitchen to help out Pinkie. I gladly accepted the job and place to live. As I walked out, I could hear Mr. Cake murmuring about working with royalty and having said royalty sleep in his house. I chuckled and kept walking.

As I walked through the town I bumped into Lyra and Bon-Bon, Vinyl Scratch, and Derpy with 'Time Turner'. I pulled the last one away from prying eyes and pulled a pear out of hammerspace. He yelled and backed away from it. I gave him a smile and ate the pear.

"Hello there, Doctor. How has the day been for you? And where did you park the Tardis, we don't want anypony randomly finding it."

"Um… I left it sitting in some woods outside of Ponyville. How do you know who I am? Who are you? Why did you have to show me a pear to see how I would react if you knew who I was?" The Doctor pulled out the sonic screwdriver and started waving it around my face.

I grabbed the object and put it back into his pocket. "I had to make sure it was you and not just Time Turner. You know how there can be multiple versions of the same world. And you also know how easily the time space continuum can be damaged, so I recommend that you just do what you do best. I'll try to stay out of your mane. Only, come and get me if there are problems with daleks or weeping angels. See you later." I trotted off to Sugarcube Corner to get a well-deserved rest, leaving behind a quizzical Doctor.

The Ticket Master

The week after the Nightmare Moon incident, things were finally normal in Ponyville. Twilight was going to help Applejack with bucking apples and I was working in the shop with Pinkie. Things were pretty slow today at the shop compared to the past few days, so Pinkie was asking me more questions about myself as well as I could.

"So why do your eyes look like that. Is that magic you used on them or are they normally like that?" Pinkie was bouncing around me while asking me anything and everything.

"They are normally like this. They have been like this ever since I was born. I used to be teased about it, but it didn't really bother me. They are a part of who I am, and I learned to embrace it."

"Okay, so where were you for all those years? You know, why were you not here for a long time?" She had stopped bouncing because she had to take a batch of iced cupcakes out of the oven, which I had no idea how she did that.

"Well, I was mostly asleep. I can sleep for extremely long periods of time. I slept for around 50,000 years before I woke up. I was around for around 1,500 years before that." I was explaining while icing a cake I had just made. I could make a pretty decent cake when I wanted to.

"Wow. That is a really long time to sleep. That means you missed a bunch of birthday parties. I have to make up for them. Go out and have fun while I prepare the party." Pinkie pushed me out of the store into the street and closed the door behind her.

"Well then, that could have gone much better. I guess I'll find Rainbow and see how well I can fly with these wings while I'm at it." I flapped my wings and took off. I spotted Big Mac in a girdle walking down Stirrup Street. I knew where to find Rainbow immediately after seeing this. She was on the farm hoof wrestling Applejack, and this was going to be a long day.

I grabbed myself a cloud and got some cookies I had made earlier and set off to find a good place to watch all the drama that was going to happen. If I saw one of the mane six, I sent them to find Twilight. I told them that Twilight had something to speak to them about. After the others knew about the tickets, I got off of the cloud and glided to Twilight.

"Hello there, Twilight. Is something bothering you?" I asked her. She looked distraught, thinking about whom to give the ticket to.

"I don't really want to talk about it. I don't want you to get involved as well. That would make the decision harder to make." She nervously scuffed the ground with her hoof, looking for a reason to get away from me.

"Trust me, I don't want the ticket. I'm content in watching how the situation will resolve itself. I'm sure you will think of something. I must get going, there is supposed to be a storm today and I'd rather not get stuck out in the rain. I also am quite hungry, so I shall go somewhere to eat." I walked off to find a restaurant that would suit my needs. I happened to find the one that Twilight would be coming to, and decided that I would just wait for her to show up. I grabbed the menu and ordered the hayfries to tide me over until Twilight got here.

It didn't take all that long, as I could see Twilight sitting down at a table to order. As the waiter came in to get her food I asked him to ask if Twilight was going to eat in the rain. It was entertaining to watch the other ponies rush in while Twilight stayed outside and stayed dry because of Rainbow Dash. And then she got rained on because Rainbow had zipped the cloud closed. Twilight sighed and then got pulled by Rarity to the boutique.

"Well this leaves me some more time I guess. I should probably just walk around and see new ponies." I got up from my table after eating and left a large tip while I headed out the door. I went to the school to see if they were doing anything interesting, and as soon as I got to the gate an orange blur came past me. I looked at the filly riding the scooter and immediately recognized Scootaloo, with Sweetie Belle in tow. "Well I see they are completely late for class, this is going to be funny." I walked into the school house and realized it was totally smaller on the outside than it was on the inside.

I walked around, trying to find the classroom that Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle had entered but I couldn't seem to find it. That was when I heard Cheerilee giving a lecture to someone down the hall. I quickly trotted down to where she was and saw that she was talking to Scootaloo, giving her a lecture about bringing her scooter into the school.

"I don't want to hear any excuses, Scootaloo. Just because you were late does not mean you can ride into the school on your scooter. You could have seriously injured somepony." Mrs. Cheerilee kept going on like this for around three minutes before I didn't want to listen to her anymore. I stepped around the corner and gave both her and Scootaloo a smile.

"I'm sorry ma'am; I was talking to her and needed her to do something for me before she arrived here. A problem arose when I was running around doing some work and I asked for her help. When she realized that she was late for school, I granted her permission to ride her scooter here. I did not, however, say that she could ride it into the school. So if you need to punish someone, let it be me. I need to have a talk with Miss Scootaloo after this though.

"Well, I believe that you did not know that this was going to happen, so I forgive you and Scootaloo. Please make sure that you do not talk for too long to her, Mr. Ordeus, she still has class to attend." Mrs. Cheerilee walked back into her classroom after saying this, closing the door so that the class would not be disturbed.

"Well dang it, I don't want to be called Mr. Ordeus. That makes me sound like an old stallion, which technically I am, but still! Now Scootaloo, I do believe that a punishment is in order for riding your scooter into the school." I started walking toward her with a grin on my face.

"Please don't hurt my bottom too much; last time I got paddled, I couldn't sit down for a week." Scootaloo closed her eyes, waiting for me to grab her and give her a paddling.

I reached down and gave her a noogie. "Don't worry kid, I aint gonna give you a paddling. You're too cool for that. I just have to remind you to make sure not to do what you did again, and make sure you don't almost run somepony over if they are coming to the school. Now, get to class. I don't want a teacher coming to lecture me on why I shouldn't hold a young kid in the hall for a long time while class is going on."

"Thanks Mr. Ordeus, sir. You're pretty cool yourself. Not as cool as Rainbow Dash, but still awesome in your own way." She started to walk towards her next class, leaving me standing in the hallway. I had a nagging feeling in the back of my head telling me I was forgetting something. Then I remembered what it was.

"Don't call me Mr.; just Ordeus is fine!" I shouted to her retreating form. She gave a wave of acknowledgement and entered her classroom. I sighed and knocked on the door of Mrs. Cheerilee's class. She opened the door and was surprised to see that I was still here.

"Well hello again, Mr. Ordeus. What are you still doing in the school?" She asked me while blocking the doorway so that the students couldn't see me.

"I just wish to observe the class. I find scholastics interesting in this day. And, please don't call me 'Mr. Ordeus', just Ordeus is fine with me." I craned my neck to look into the class to see a small amount of colts and fillies in desks, trying to look around Cheerilee to see who she was talking to.

"Well of course you may come in to observe the class Mr.…. I mean Ordeus. We were just about to start a lesson on the history of Equestria, I am sure that you would be able to add interesting information to the lesson as well." She allowed me to enter the room and then pointed me over to a large chair in the corner of the room. I sat down and 'remembered' the events that had happened while I had slept. I could see Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon whispering to each other and snickering and pointing at me. I could also easily make out Applebloom, who was only one of the ponies that wasn't surprised to see me in the classroom because she was focused on the lesson that was going on.

I looked at Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon and pointed at them. "You two should really pay attention to the lesson instead of staring at my flank. What if you have a pop quiz on the subject and all you can remember is my flank? That would be pretty embarrassing."

This comment elicited a few laughs from the rest of the class and made the two fillies in question blush furiously and look back towards the front of the class. Mrs. Cheerilee looked shocked that I would bring up something like that in the middle of class. I just looked at her, giving her a wide smile and a motion of my hoof telling her to continue teaching. She complied and went on with the lesson; all the while the classmates were sniggering and looking at me with newfound respect.

"Yes, before we were so rudely interrupted by Ordeus, I was talking about the importance of the Elements of Harmony in Equestrias history . The princesses found them while they were looking for something to help them in their quest to harmonize Equestria, because the rule of a creature had de-harmonized the entire land. We will get to that lesson later. The princesses used the power of the elements to banish the ruler and restore peace to the land."

"Actually, they were looking specifically for the elements. Star Swirl the Bearded had told them that the elements could be found somewhere in Equestria. That was before he went completely bonkers off his rocker and started raving on how cutie marks were a power source for a machine he was making. He died shortly after that…" As I was about to finish that sentence the bell rang, and it was time for school to get out. I sighed and got up, exiting the classroom with the rest of the kids. Mrs. Cheerilee told me not to come in for her class again because I was a distraction.

As I walked outside, I saw a large amount of ponies chasing after Twilight. I jumped in the path of the crowd, but they just kept moving and completely trampled me. I got back up slowly, thinking that the tickets to the gala were not worth what the others thought they were. Applebloom walked up to me with worry in her eyes.

"You all right mister?" She looked over me to see if I had been hurt seriously. Her eyes landed on my flank and she gasped. "Ah didn't know there was a blank flank alicorn!"

"Of course there is, I thought you would have heard of me when I first showed up in town. Heck, even Celestia talked about me to the rest of the town. And even if you didn't hear that, Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon were obviously making comments about me being blank flanked. By the way, don't let them get you down about being blank flanked. It just means you're unique and that you have the possibility of doing anything you put your mind to. It also helps that an alicorn is a blank flank, so there should be less negative thoughts about us." I told her as we were walking towards the gate. When we reached the gate she turned towards me.

"Thanks for tha words mister. Ah'l remember what ya said." She started trotting off towards Sweet Apple Acres with a more positive outlook on being a blank flank.

"And please call me Ordeus, I hate being called mister. It makes me feel my age." I told her as I walked away from the school. I passed Octavia and Vinyl Scratch; both were being tailed by Pinkie. She was asking if they would play for a party she was planning. She then saw me and bolted away, obviously trying to keep the details of my party a surprise. I had honestly forgotten that she had planned to throw a party for me in the first place.

"Yo, DJ-Pon3, what's up?" I walked over to Vinyl, giving her a hoof bump. "It would be awesome if you could be the DJ at the party Pinkie is planning. I'm pretty sure that you and I have the some of the same tastes in music. And Octavia, it would be lovely if you could also attend the party and play some music."

"Of course dude, I wouldn't miss a Pinkie Pie party for a weeks' worth of sleep. I just gotta get my station set up in town hall and I'll rattle your bones with the bass." Vinyl started banging her head, imagining what type of tracks she would play at the party. "We'll get Neon Lights as well, 'cause it wouldn't be much of a party without him."

"I do not see why I would need to bring my instrument if Vinyl is playing at this party. If I tried to play, she would just drown me out with her 'wubs'." Octavia looked at her roommate disapprovingly.

"Don't worry; I'll make sure that it is quiet enough for you to play your pieces. I also love to listen to classical. Maybe you two could do a collaboration and work together to make better music." I thanked them and walked off. I went to the library to see how the ticket affair was going. I walked in as soon as Twilight was on the ground covering her head. I sighed and walked over to her, covering her with my wing.

"Girls I am pretty sure that she is feeling a large amount of pressure on who to choose. You do realize that she was right in saying if she chose one of you to go with her, the rest of you would be disappointed." Twilight was starting to get up, so I lifted my wing to let her up. The rest of the girls apologized, and they all got into a group hug. Spike just stood there with a disgusted look on his face. "Spike, you'll realize one day that that is exactly what you'll want from them."

"No way would I want that. I'll just go back to sleep." Spike started to wobble up the stairs, but I pulled him back down with my magic. "Hey! What was that for?"

"Twilight is about to have you send a letter to Celestia. I just thought I would save you the time and effort of having to come back down the stairs." I turned towards Twilight and hoofed her a piece of parchment and a quill.

"Thank you Ordeus, and how did you know I was going to send a letter?" Twilight took the items with her magic and started to write down her message.

"Let's just say it was a hunch." I shrugged my shoulders, and she just gave me a smile.

"If all of my friends can't come to the gala, then I won't go either." She floated the tickets into the rolled up parchment. "Go ahead and send it Spike."

Spike sent the letter and started back up the stairs again. I once again pulled him back. He gave me an angry look. I just looked back at him with a look of indifference. The girls had another group hug and Spike fake gagged again, right before going into a state of actually gagging.

"Well, if it isn't just like a boy to not be able to handle the girly things…" Applejack moved over to Spike and ducked just in time to avoid his fire. "Whoa nelley!"

Twilight picked up the scroll and unwound it, letting the six tickets show off the side of the scroll. "Well why didn't you say so, here are six tickets for you and your friends." The girls started to jump around the room in glee. They moved towards the door because they said they would treat Twilight to a meal. Spike held the door open for them and handed them the tickets as they went out. He looked disappointed when the last ticket left his claws.

"Don't worry Spike; I'm sure that you will get one as well." I gave him a smile and started to walk out the door as soon as he belched up another scroll. He started giggling as he raced outside, handing me a ticket as he passed me. I looked towards the letter he had left on the floor.

"Here is a ticket for you Spike. I also ask that you deliver this extra ticket to Ordeus so that he may join us at the gala. I have some things to talk to him about. Princess Celestia."

"Well, this should be and interesting life here. I'll just sleep for now until the party starts." I walked into Sugarcube Corner and climbed the stairs to my room. I got into the bed and was asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow.

I dreamt of a vast plain and rolling hills covered in green grasses, underneath a vast moon. I wondered why I dreamt of this place instead of something I remembered from back home. Then I heard something approach me from behind. I turned around and saw the princess of the night, Princess Luna. This must be her creation of a dreamscape.

"We know you are not one of our kind, being. Pray tell us, what exactly are you. Why have you come to our peaceful planet, with your knowledge of war and death?" She walked around me as she spoke. She stopped in front of me and sat down, waiting for an answer.

"If you must know, make sure that nopony else knows this. You must tell not even your sister of the truth, for it could be catastrophic. I am a being that is known as a human, but I was given the task of keeping order in this new world I was brought to. I made the planet as it is today, creating life and shaping the land. I created the basics, but evolution has brought its own changes." I explained all to her, not leaving a single detail out. When I had finished she asked me more questions.

"So if this is not what your original form is, then what is it? And if you created everything and were supposed to keep order, how was Discord created?" She had gotten into my face at this point. I sighed and pushed her out of the way.

"In response to the second question, I have no idea how Discord came to be. It happened while I was asleep, so there are multiple possibilities on how he came into existence. I can easily answer the first question, I can just show you." I backed away and changed into my normal form, with a few added details. I appeared with Daedric armor and a shield attached to my back. I also realized that my hair had grown down to my waist, so I pulled it into a pony tail and put it into my armor. Luna looked shocked at what I looked like, as I stood at her height but looked much more intimidating.

"So this is what you normally look like? What is this on you; it makes you look like you bathed in blood." She backed up from me further, trying to keep her breathing steady.

"Well that is somewhat true." I pulled of my helm and un-tucked my hair, letting it flow in the breeze. "The armor I am wearing was made from ebony and the heart of a daedra. I wear it for protection from enemies as well as the weather. It is like a shell for me. But it covers my true self; I only wish for peace and that shows in my face when I remove my helm. So if you see an armored 'person' walking around, that's me trying to get somewhere quickly." I emphasized the word person so that she would understand that was how I referred to myself. "I can also do anything I can imagine, as I said before. So I might just turn into a normal looking pegasus."

"So you're telling us that you mean no harm? How do we know we can trust you?" She got up into my face again, looking slightly less intimidated because I didn't have my helmet on.

"I already told you everything about me and my task. I trust you to keep it secret, so therefore you should be able to trust me. And I do not mean you or any of your subjects harm. I am simply here as an observer, only meant to step in when the dwellers of this planet can do nothing against a threat the will disturb the order. Also, without chaos and discord, the overabundance of harmony would destabilize the world and cause it to crumble. I probably sensed this and created Discord, not in an attempt to destroy the world, but as a means of stabilizing the balance."

"We will believe you then. If you try to do anything we deem dangerous to our people, we shall squash you into the ground." She turned around and started to leave the dream realm she had created.

"I would love to see you try." I spoke quietly so she wouldn't hear me. She left and I woke up surrounded by a very large group of ponies, all of them wearing party hats.

"Surprise!" Pinkie yelled in my ear. I smiled and got out of the bed, ready to enjoy an awesome party.

Applebuck Season

The party lasted for three whole days, going as long as Pinkie Pie was awake. And she didn't sleep for three days! Even though I really didn't need to sleep, my body was still accustomed to sleeping every night. I stayed awake through all the celebration, eating all I could and playing all the games I wanted to. I used my powers to cheat on only a smidgeon of the games. During hide and seek, I turned myself invisible and watched as ponies would walk right in front of my face looking for me.

As the festivities wrapped up because Pinkie Pie had finally fallen asleep, I was getting prepared for anything that might come up in the next few days. I knew that the pace was going at about the same speed as canon seemed to go. I had noticed how the words the others had said changed from what they normally said. That could mean that the episodes could be out of order as well. I was placing instruments around town when I heard a rumbling off in the distance. I could see a large cloud on the horizon coming towards Ponyville.

"Well, it seems that the timeline is still intact. I'll go and congratulate AJ on her saving the town and then I'll help prepare the town for the celebration." I started to trot over to the place where the others were, but then I remembered that I still had wings. I extended my wings and took to the sky, arriving much sooner than I would have if I was walking.

"Congratulations AJ, I believe that a celebration is in order to thank you for saving the town." I could only think of saying it this way, I was starting to sound like Luna.

"Hey, that's what I was about to say!" Pinkie Pie popped up right behind me, surprising the heck out of me. I thought that she would be asleep for the rest of the day.

"Well, I didn't see you here so I figured that you would want me to say it for you. Also, don't come up behind unsuspecting people, it may scare them." I realized my mistake right after I had finished my sentence.

"Well, I figured you would have seen me when you flew over here. It would have been easy to see me cause I was standing in the middle of the road, silly." Pinkie hopped around to my front. "And what do you mean by 'people'?"

"Yes, what do you mean by 'people'?" Twilight came up to me, holding a quill and some parchment.

"I meant nothing of it; I don't even know why I said it. I meant to say ponies but that came out instead." I gave a blank look to make sure that they couldn't tell that I was lying. They looked skeptical at first, but then they probably decided that it really was just a slip of the tongue. I mentally released the breath I had been holding. If I had let it slip this early on, then it could have been a disaster.

"Well, we should get started in prepping the town for the celebration. It should take a week or so to make sure everything is ready for a super duper awesome celebration. Just remember that you still have to help me bake cupcakes next week for Ponyville. They're going to be delicious with you helping me bake them." Pinkie was telling AJ. Then she turned to me. "No offense Ordeus."

"None taken, I know I can't make baked goods as well as AJ or you or the Cakes. I just do my best." I walked off as the others were telling Applejack what they still expected her to do the following week. I felt that I should have asked her if she needed help bucking apples, but I know she would have said no because it would damage her pride to accept the offer. I decided I would just wait a week for everything to happen and then I would talk to her, and if she still wouldn't accept I would talk to Granny Smith. I knew that Applejack was terrified of Granny Smith when she was in a bad mood.

~0~0~0~

The last few days had gone by fairly quickly. The tasks of putting up most of the decorations had taken up large amounts of my free time. I helped fix anything Derpy had broken when trying to help Rainbow Dash. The day where Applejack was supposed to receive her award had come. Twilight had gone up on stage, only to be interrupted every time she was about to speak. I laughed softly each time she was interrupted because it was entertaining to see her be frustrated.

Applejack finally came up through the crowd to receive her award, and Pinkie joined in on her 'wooing' at the trophy. I started to think about the next things I would do. I would avoid any and all muffins made today, stay off the streets by flying to avoid bunnies, and avoid a launched Rainbow Dash. Sounded really easy when I thought about it, I don't see why others hadn't thought of it sooner. Then I remembered that no one knew that these things were going to happen.

I laughed at my foolishness and started to see what else I could do to pass the time and avoid the craziness that was going to happen today. I decided that I could just go to the library to see what they had to read there. I headed off in the general direction of the library and Twilight joined me when I was halfway there. She was obviously worried about the state Applejack was in.

"Do you think we should try to help Applejack, Ordeus?" She asked me, looking up to my face for a response.

"I think that you should try to do it yourself and ask your friends for help. I try not to get involved in the matters of other people just in case I might mess something up. So I stay out of others business unless it could cause an unbalance in the world." We had just reached the library and twilight looked at me with a disapproving look.

"You obviously have learned nothing about friendship in the time you have stayed here with us. Heck, even I learned more in the time I've spent with my friends. Thank you for keeping me company in the time it took to get to my home. Now, I must get to studying. I wish to not be disturbed, so good day to you." With that she slammed the door in my face and locked her door.

With my previous plan dashed, I started thinking of other things I could do while I waited for the day to end and Twilight to send her letter. I could see what the others were up to, but that would probably interfere with the schedule of the day. I could also go see what Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle were up to, today was a break day to celebrate Applejack saving the town. So I headed off to the Carousel Boutique to see if Sweetie Belle was there first, before trying to find where Scootaloo was.

As I walked to the door, I could hear Rarity yelling at someone in the store. I guessed that it was Sweetie because I could see smoke coming out of the kitchen window. I walked in and the bell rang above my head. Rarity had gone silent as soon as she had heard the bell go off. She walked into the main room of the boutique and sighed as she saw me, realizing I wasn't an overly important customer that required all of her attention.

"Well, hello there Darling. How are you today? Do you need something?" She walked across the room to stand in front of me and she started to scuff at the floor with her hoof.

"I am doing well today, thank you for asking. I do need something that requires your skillset. I figured that since I am going to the Gala, I am going to need a suit that would help me fit in with the rest of the guests there." I walked over to a small display of suits she had set up in the store and I looked for a suit that would look good on me and that was reasonably priced.

"I would be glad to make a custom suit for you, I don't think that any of the suits I currently have would fit you or match with your unique colors. I will need to get your measurements and a date that you would like the suit to be finished by." She got out measuring tape and started to measure me. She wrote down all the measurements on a sheet of paper and set everything back where it was before she started.

"Thank you for the offer Rarity. I would like it to have all of my colors on it as well as some designs. I don't really have a day that it needs to be finished by; it just needs to be finished before the Gala comes along. It should also be finished in time for changes to be made. I will pay in advance for it as well; I don't want to have to worry about payment later." As I finished talking, I could hear a thunderous clanging in the kitchen. I walked over to the door that led into the kitchen and opened it to find that the kitchen had been completely covered in pots and pans that had recently been in the cabinets or in the sink. I could just see a bit of Sweetie's tail under a smaller pile of pots in the corner of the room. I levitated the pots off of Sweetie Belle and levitated her over to the door of the room. I then proceeded to clean up the kitchen, placing all the pots and pans where they were supposed to go and repairing the table and chairs.

Rarity had come up behind me halfway through the process and hugged me. I silently acknowledged her hug and finished up the task at hoof. Sweetie Belle was ecstatic to say the least, she didn't have to clean up the huge mess she had created and her sister wouldn't yell at her again because I was here. I smiled at Sweetie Belle and picked her up and set her on my back. Rarity was flabbergasted to say the least.

"Why are you letting my sister on your back, Ordeus? I would think someone of your standing and age would act more… mature." She lifted Sweetie off of me with her magic and set her back down onto the floor.

"Well, I love playing along with the younger ones. It makes me feel younger, and there is usually less drama involved. So, Sweetie, are you going to be meeting up with Scootaloo today to do something?" I looked to Sweetie Belle to see what she would say.

"Well, we were thinking about going to get free samples of the muffins that Applejack and Pinkie Pie were going to make today and then see the awesome tricks Rainbow was going to do. Want to join us?" She looked up at me with the biggest puppy dog eyes that I had ever seen.

I looked at her and shook my head. I had immunity to any and all puppy dog eyes tried on me. I put her on my back again and let her slide down to the floor, using my tail as a slide. I then rewrapped the base of my tail.

"No, I am afraid that won't be possible for me today. I have some other things to attend to. But, I will drop you off where you are going to meet Scootaloo, if that is okay with your sister. Is that okay with you Rarity?" Sweetie Belle and I both sat down and gave Rarity puppy dog eyes. She couldn't handle it, and she gave in within the first three seconds.

"You may bring her to her meeting place, Darling. Just do remember to be careful. I would hate for her to be injured." She looked worried that I may harm Sweetie Belle somehow.

"Don't worry, Rarity. I'll be really careful to not let her get injured. Now, hop onto my back Lady Belle, to the meeting place WE RIDE!" With that, Sweetie jumped on to my back. I whinnied and galloped out the door. I would have given a thousand bits to have the look on Rarity's face framed. I leapt into the air and spread my wings, ascending as I went further from the boutique. "So, where are you and Scootaloo supposed to meet up at?" When there was no answer, I turned my head around to see Sweetie Belle covering her eyes and shaking in fear. "There is no need to be afraid, I won't drop you. Even if you fell, I could easily put you right on my back again. Now, where are you and Scootaloo supposed to meet at?"

"We are supposed to meet at the school house. She should already be there waiting on me. And please don't fly when you're letting others sit on you, it is really scary." She looked straight into my eyes, not wanting to look down as we quickly descended towards the school house.

"I'll remember that for the next time. We have arrived at your destination. You may now disembark from the craft. Please pick up any luggage that may be left behind, and have a nice day." I lowered myself to the ground and lowered my wings like ramps so that Sweetie Belle could easily get off of me without injuring herself.

Scootaloo was already sitting at one of the benches near the playground. When she came over to us, she and I hoof bumped and I gave her a noogie. She laughed and went over to Sweetie.

"So, I see you have met our school day savior. Are you two ready for an awesome day of free treats and awesome stunts?!" She looked excitedly towards the both of us, holding both her hooves up for hoof bumps.

"Sorry, I can't join in the festivities of today. I have work to do around town. I was just dropping off Sweetie Belle to meet you here." I gave them both a wave goodbye and walked off towards town hall to see if there was a job board. I also was thinking about getting a plot of land so that I could build my own place to live. I could walk around in my house in my normal form without worrying about the panic it would cause if I walked around town like that.

I walked into town hall first to procure a deed for land. The secretary of Mayor Mare let me in the office to see her boss when I came up to the door. She looked like she was expected to do a perfect job when I was there. No doubt she was trying to make a good impression. I sat down in a chair in front of the desk the mayor was sitting behind, and she was turned around so she didn't know who came in.

"Please sit down in one of the chairs and I'll get right to you. I am somewhat busy right now." As she was rummaging in the drawer she was next to, she bumped her head.

"It's fine; take as much time as you want. I am in no hurry." I grabbed a magazine that was lying around and looked at the front page. Ugh, it was a fashion magazine.

As I had spoken, Mayor Mare had banged her head again as she turned around to see me sitting in one of the small chairs. She gasped and ran back to her desk chair, pushing it towards me. I shook my head and put the magazine down; I wasn't going to take her chair so that I could sit comfortably. She got the message and sat in her chair behind her desk, wringing her fore hooves nervously.

"So, Ordeus, what brings you here today? I hope that the town is welcoming you and that you feel comfortable here." She started to move all the documents off of her desk so that it didn't look cluttered. The only problem was she didn't correctly place them in the drawer she had opened. I tsked and used my magic to properly organize the papers.

"Well mayor mare, I am feeling largely welcomed in the town. As for what brings me here today, I require a plot of land to build a home upon so that I may get out of the Cake's manes and become a permanent resident of Ponyville." As I finished cleaning up the drawer, as well as the rest of the room, Mayor Mare had pulled out some papers from the filing cabinet she had been going through before. She laid them out in front of me on the desk.

"We have a few plots of land that are currently being unused right now, if you would like to purchase one. Just look though these to see which would most likely suit your needs. I would recommend the one that just opened up beside the town hall. I would allow somepony like you to easily get somewhere in town quickly." She looked at the papers and pushed one towards me. I looked at it, and automatically thought no. It was a small plot of land, and it was in a place where many ponies could watch me. I shook my head and she sighed and put the paper back into the cabinet.

"I would like to purchase someplace that is not in a crowded area, if that is possible. And it would be great if it was a large area. I have some bits that are just sitting in my pocket, and they are not going to be spent otherwise." I had started to look through the papers as I explained what type of place I would like to buy. There were a few that caught my eye. Mayor Mare had pushed three others my way. Some of them were on the outskirts of town and were pretty large. I narrowed it down to two though. One was next to both the farm and the Everfree Forest, sitting just in between them, and it was very large. The other was smaller but more secluded, as it was a small distance from Fluttershy's house. I decided on this one because it was closer to where I came out of the forest and it was where less ponies would see me if I wanted to change form.

"Well, now that you have picked it out, I need you to sign out the forms and get started on your payments. You can start with a thousand bit payment for 10 years or a five hundred bit payment for twenty two years." She handed me the forms and was looked for the bag where I could place my first payment. I was finishing filling out my forms when she finally found the bag. She was surprised at how quickly I finished filling out the forms, but she quickly passed the bag over to me.

"Oh, I completely forgot. I won't be making regular payments. I'll just pay it all off right now." I pulled out my coin purse and paid her fifteen thousand bits. "Keep the extra and fix this place up a little. Thank you for your time and I shall now be leaving."

As I left town hall, I could hear the mayor yelling her thanks at me. I just smirked and kept walking. I walked for a few more minutes before I realized that I could just fly to my destination and it would be much quicker. I flapped my wings and took off towards the land I had just bought. It was about twenty five acres of just grass and a few trees. I could see Fluttershy's house in the distance and could see that she was getting ready to count the bunnies with Applejack. I quickly beat a hasty retreat towards town to 'buy materials' for making my house. I wouldn't really make one when I could just imagine one out of thin air.

"Welcome there, how can we help you at Wood Chops Lumber?" A brown earth stallion asked me as I entered the warehouse that stored the lumber I would 'purchase'. I could only assume that he was Wood Chop from the cutie mark he sported, a large oak tree with an axe stuck in the side of it.

"Yes, I would like to make a purchase of lumber to make my house." I leaned in close to him to whisper. "I don't really need to buy materials, but I figured it would be strange if it didn't look like I did. So I am going to make a small donation of a thousand bits and you can put me down as having had bought the necessary amounts of lumber to build a small home." I slapped the thousand bits on the counter he stood behind and waited for him to react.

His eyes had widened and he stood there stammering. He pulled out a small piece of paper and wrote my name down on it as well as the amount it would have taken to purchase the lumber. I had let them make a profit of over five hundred bits in the payment I had made. "Thank you for your patronage sir, we hope to do business with you again."

When I had left, it looked as though the stampede of bunnies had already passed through the town. I saw Twilight start towards the farm, and I decided to follow her. I caught up with her as she made it to the gate, and she just gave me a glare.

"Where have you been all day? You should have been here to help with what Applejack was doing."

"Well, I was buying a deed to a plot of land so that I could set up residence instead of just staying at Sugar Cube Corner. I was also buying the materials I needed to make a house." I gave her a smile and continued to walk to where Applejack was bucking trees. Twilight just looked at me and gave an exasperated sigh.

When we had convinced Applejack to let us all help her buck the rest of the apples, everything went smoothly from then on. We finished up and she sent her letter to Celestia, and soon after it was too late for everyone to stick around. As we left the farm, Twilight pulled me to the side to confront me about my behavior.

"You could have even acted like you cared for her wellbeing at least, not just go on your merry way doing what you did today."

"As you may recall, I wasn't exactly tasked with being friends with everypony in town. I was only tasked to become accustomed to the ways here and learn the ways of friendship. I was not told to become anyponies friend, and I shall make friends with who I wish to be friends with." I walked away from an angry unicorn that didn't see things my way. I honestly didn't care, and it didn't really matter in the long run. We would talk things out later after she had calmed down, and we would become friends.

I flew back towards my plot of land and set up my house. It looked like any normal house in Ponyville, but it was much smaller on the outside than it was on the inside. It had all the furniture I needed as well as the appliances I needed. It also looked like a normal mansion on the inside, staircases led to the second floor right in the foyer and there were red rugs and carpets placed on the floor. I headed towards the library/study and looked in. There were hundreds of bookshelves placed around a desk at the center of the room that had a small lamp sitting next to it. Pleased with the way I had set up my house, I headed to the room next door that was my bedroom.

As I opened the door, I shifted forms so that I could stretch and yawn without being in my pony form anymore. It got the job done, but it could be tiring being that way all the time. I placed my armor on a rack next to a few other racks in my room that held other sets of different armor. My armor was nothing special, just a chest plate and plate legs that were gold with a trimming of caramel brown. I went into my bathroom and took a long bath in the large marble bathtub, sighing contently as the warm water loosened up my muscles. As I got out of the bath, I dried myself off and got on some sleep pants I pulled from a set of mahogany drawers I had in my room. I climbed into my large, curtained bed and hoped that I could stay like this for a while as I drifted off to sleep.

Winter Wrap Up

I woke up slightly groggy and very sore. I looked over to the clock I had placed on my nightstand and completely lost my cool. I had slept for a few months; it was already time for spring to start up. I had slept all the way through six episodes and hadn't even realized it. I quickly jumped out of bed and changed into my armor. Before I reached my door I realized that I had not switched into my pony form, and I quickly did that before I rushed outside. As I did so, I slipped on some ice that had formed outside on my doorstep and I did a face plant into the snow.

Thankful for the soft landing, I kissed the snow. Then I remembered I had somewhere to be and I rushed towards town hall. When I reached the center of town, everypony had already started to gather around town hall to get ready for winter wrap up. They pointed at me and started whispering, I couldn't really hear what they were saying though. Before I had time to listen in on their conversations, a pink blur knocked me off my hooves and into the snow.

I slowly got up and shook off the snow that clung to me, but I couldn't dislodge the pink ball that had attached itself to me. I then realized it was Pinkie, and I gave her a hug. She got off of me with tears in her eyes and I could tell she was happy to see me after such a long time.

"So, Pinkie, what's happening? Why is everypony standing around town hall?" I grew puzzled; this is not what my voice was supposed to sound like. It was then I realized that everypony was staring at Pinkie and I.

"Who are you; I don't remember Celestia telling me she had another sister." Twilight had come up behind me and was examining me.

"Um, I don't know what you mean about sister. It's me, Ordeus. How can you not tell it's me? For one, I'm not a mare and two I've only been gone for about six months." I stated the obvious, how could they not know it was me?

"Ordeus, I thought he was lost somewhere in the Everfree. I saw him go in about six months back and never come out." Fluttershy had quietly told the group.

"Well, I don't remember going into the forest. That may be how I changed into a mare. That, or somepony got poison joke into my house. I think it's most likely the second scenario. And that means there are only three ponies that could have done it. And since one pony already knew who I was, I know it was her that did it." I glared at Pinkie and she just gave a large smile along with a small eep. "I trust that what you saw will not be disclosed until I give the permission for you to do so?"

"Okie dokie lokie! Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye!" She performed the action in swift practiced movements.

The ponies did not really seem what to make of what had just gone down, but the mayor was getting ready to make her speech to Ponyville. I bade farewell to the group around me and headed off to the Everfree Forest to go to Zecora's. I would have to get a natural cure for poison joke since I couldn't just shift forms or change my gender without an explanation on how it happened, and I didn't want to have to explain either case.

I easily found the path that lead to Zecora's, and it didn't take very long to reach her hut. Not much happened on the way to her hut. I just passed a small patch of poison joke, which I went through because I had already been affected by the stuff and it wouldn't get any worse. I also passed a cockatrice, and it didn't even bother trying to mess with me. So, needless to say, it was a boring trip. I knocked on the door and it was soon answered by the zebra I was looking for.

"Do my eyes deceive me, or is this royalty?" She bowed and ushered me inside. She closed the door after I had entered and rushed to get some tea.

"Zecora, there is no need to make me feel comfortable. I just need to get the cure for poison joke; Pinkie put some on me while I was asleep." I walked around her hut looking at the masks and potion ingredients she had, and it was surprising to see how many things she actually had. There was a whole room filled with ingredients and potions, all of them ready to be used.

"Lucky for you, I have already finished a brew. You will not have to bathe long, but make sure the dosage is strong." She handed me a large bottle with the cure to poison joke inside.

"Thank you for the cure, Zecora. And make sure Pinkie stays away from poison joke from now on. We don't need any more ponies needing to be cured." I took the bottle with me to the door, and before I left she called out to me.

"I will be sure, to have much more of the cure!" She just grinned and went back inside, closing the door behind her. Figures, if ponies needed the cure, they would pay her for the cure. I smiled at the thought of a line of ponies in the Everfree, waiting outside her door to buy a cure. I headed towards my house after I left the forest, it was a place where I could take a bath without any others seeing me the way I was. I was surprised how much warmer it was inside the forest compared to the surrounding area.

I carefully stepped over the icy patch on my doorstep and opened my door. I made my way to the bathroom that was on the first floor because I didn't want to climb the stairs in pony form. I didn't want to change into my human form either, because that would be awkward. I don't know how I didn't realize that I had changed genders when I was putting on my armor this morning. I filled the bath with water and poured in a large amount of the cure. I climbed in and let my body relax, letting the cure work its magic.

When I climbed out, I was a stallion again. It was a great feeling too. I changed forms so that I could climb the stairs; I was heading towards the study. I opened the door, and low and behold Pinkie was there, reading a book on how to bake very large cakes. I walked over to the chair behind the desk and sat down.

"So Pinkie, aren't you supposed to be cutting the ice right now? Or are you slacking off just to read a book?" I steepled my fingers, looking at Pinkie through the hole I had made in between my hands.

"Oh silly, I don't have to be there for a few more hours. Your trip didn't really take that long at all. And this book is great! Look at this quadruple layered chocolate fudge cake with strawberries and whipped cream on it. We have to make this at the bakery sometime!" She pressed the book into my face, pointing at a large picture of the cake in question. While it did look delicious, it was huge. It would tower over me even.

I pushed Pinkie down into the chair in front of me. "Pinkie, only you and Luna know what I really look like, even underneath this armor. I have to know that you won't tell anypony about this."

"Well of course I won't. I already made a Pinkie Promise, and I would never go back on that for fear of losing a friend forevvvvver." She had a menacing look when saying forever.

I laughed and patted her head gently; if I patted her to hard I could injure her. "That's good to hear Pinkie. Now, let us get back outside and get winter wrapped up, I don't want to wear any clothes made for cold weather." We left the study and I transformed on the way back downstairs as we headed for the door. I held the door open so that Pinkie could go outside ahead of me. "After you, milady."

"What a gentlecolt, let me reward you for your kindness." As she headed out the door, she landed a peck on my cheek and then giggled.

I couldn't really tell what I looked like, but I was pretty sure that my cheeks looked like they were on fire. I closed and locked the door behind me. I didn't want anypony else getting into my house without permission. Pinkie headed off to the lake she was stationed at and I went to Sweet Apple Acres. It looked like Twilight hadn't been here yet, so I decided that it would actually be a perfect place to help. I walked up to Applejack and nudged her. She turned around and gave a huge smile while pulling down the brim of her hat.

"Howdy there, Ordeus; I see that ya got your problem fixed. It was a might strange sight, you being a mare." She yelled at the ponies clearing up the snow to keep up the good work.

"Well, I can say it felt very strange being a mare. I have come to help with clearing the fields of snow. And, before you deny my help, I insist on helping. Since I have not been around for a while, I feel the need to help in Ponyville." I walked over to a plough and attached myself to it. It was surprisingly easy to pull through the snow, and it felt as if I didn't even have anything holding me down.

I speeded past all the others pulling ploughs, collecting tons of snow in a single line. All the others gaped at me, even Applejack. Then they doubled their efforts, trying their hardest to not look foolish or weak in front of Applejack and I. I was making my fourth pass when Applejack came over to me and detached the plough.

"Hold on there, fella. You've done enough work for three ponies already. You deserve a bit of a break; even if you don't feel like you need one." She glanced at me and gave me a wink. "Besides, Ah jus made some hot coco and Ah need somepony to share it with." Under her breath, I could just hear her say, "And Ah like the look of them muscles when he works. He's much stronger than Big Mac."

I was thinking about politely declining, but then I spotted Twilight making her way towards us. I didn't really feel comfortable around Applejack by myself anymore; I didn't want to deal with love just yet. I waved at Twilight, and Applejack turned to see who I was waving to. She had a sour look for a second before she gave her friend a smile.

"Hello there Applejack and Ordeus. I am glad to see that you got your problem sorted out. I just wonder how much poison joke Pinkie used to change your gender." Twilight turned to Applejack. "Anyways, do you think I could try to help you? I'll try my very best."

"Ah don't know, Twalight. This would be some tough work for a unicorn of your size and build." Applejack was eyeing up Twilight and comparing her to the ones working out in the field. I could make out the undertone in her voice; she was trying to get rid of Twilight.

"I think that you should give her a chance, Applejack. It seems like she is a hard worker." Applejack considered the options and decided to let her try to help. I walked over to Twilight and helped her get the plough moving. "Thanks for bailing me out of that situation, Twi," I whispered in her ear. "As she got further into the fields I yelled good luck to her. I walked back over to Applejack and my own plough, and I re-hitched myself to it and started to move out into the fields.

"Hold on, where do ya think you're goin mister?" Applejack ran in front of me and tried to push me back into my previous position. "You've already done enough work."

It was then the smell hit me, and I realized why she was acting the way she was. It was that time of month for her and her pheromones were actually pretty strong. I hadn't noticed them because of my true form, but I could just make them out now that she was right in front of me. That was why she was just overseeing the work the others were doing, she didn't want to affect the stallions working in the fields.

"Nnope, I gotta clean up more snow." Just then, Twilight ran into the hill, covering the recently cleaned fields in more snow. "See? Now please excuse me while I clean up the snow that just rolled onto the fields." I pushed Applejack out of the way before I headed to work again.

A few hours later, all we needed was the pegasi to clear the clouds for the sun to shine on the seeds that we recently planted. Applejack got me and we headed into town to go to town hall. We met up with Fluttershy on the way there, and we had a conversation on how the jobs were going so far. When we got to town hall, Rainbow Dash was already waiting there. I let the girls argue, I didn't want to get between two girls, or mares, fighting. Twilight came up with a list of responsibilities and everyone got started working on their new jobs.

I was helping the nest production line. It was simple work, weave the fibers into a bowl shape and hoof the product to the next pony to put a bow on it. I was working with Rarity, so we didn't really talk much. At the end of the day, everything was finished and Mayor Mare said that spring had finally come on time. We all said our goodbyes and I walked to the mattress store. I figured that I needed to stop sleeping on beds I made since that seems how I got into the coma state.

After I purchased the mattress that I wanted, I carried it back home. I unlocked the door and stepped inside, only to hit something as I crossed my threshold. I turned on the lights to see two ponies in my house, and one of them didn't really seem happy with me. One was a dark blue alicorn and the other was a certain pink party pony.

"Ok, how do you ponies continue to get into my house? I even locked the door this time and I made it so you can't teleport in here." I threw the mattress to the bottom of the stairs. "I even made a spell that would tell me if someone came through the door."

"We came in through the back door of course, you Silly Willy." Pinkie was bouncing in place beside Luna, which made me wonder if Pinkie had a serious bone in her body. But then I remembered when Pinkie had turned serious, and I decided that she was better the way she was. Luna reached out with her wing and made Pinkie standstill, which seemed to be a feat on its own, like trying to keep her quiet.

"Yes, we have come to see you on the subject that both We and Pinkie know of!" Luna yelled in her Royal Canterlot Voice.

I cringed. "Okay, while you both head up to my study so we can talk about the circumstances, I'll put this mattress up. And Luna, please lower your voice to that of an inside volume while you are inside. You may have grown accustomed to speaking like that, but things have changed in the thousand years you have been gone. Even Celestia abandoned that way of speaking about seven hundred years ago."

"Our… my speech instructor teaches of the same things. Are you working with her?" She looked at me skeptically.

"No, I am not working with your speech instructor. I only woke up again today after being asleep for about six months. Now, while you go up to the study I shall move this item to my room. I will be with you shortly." I picked up the mattress I had bought and started for my room.

When I got there, I put the mattress down and reverted to my original form. I placed the armor I had on onto an empty rack and changed into something more comfortable and casual. I wore some cargo pants, black and grey of course, with a blank dark blue t-shirt. I put on some boots I found in my closet and headed for the room next to mine where the two were waiting.

When I entered, Pinkie bounced up to me and pulled me over to my desk. I rolled my eyes and just let her drag me. She pushed me into my chair and hopped over to one of the chairs set up in front of my desk. Luna was sitting in the other, and she looked uncomfortable sitting in it the way she was. She was sitting in it like a human would sit, or like how Lyra would sit. I chuckled and got her a large cushion to sit on instead. She gave her thanks and sat laid down on it.

"The sooner I learn what you two are here to talk about, the sooner I can see what I can do to fix it. So, what seems to be troubling you two?" I placed my hands palm down on the desk and waited for one of them to speak up.

Luna spoke first after waiting a few seconds to see if Pinkie wanted to speak before her. "Yes, I have a question. Why did you divulge this information with me and not miss Pie here?"

"Well, you see Luna, Pinkie doesn't even know what I really am or what I'm doing here. She only knows what I really look like. I was going to pull her aside today and tell her, but it seems as if she was seeking answers from me so she came to me instead of me having to get her. I will fill her in on the details as soon as she asks her question." Pinkie took that comment as her cue to start speaking.

She started out asking slowly and then sped up as she continued talking. "Is this the actual reason you don't have a cutie mark, or is it because you actually keep the balance? I haven't really seen anything like you, so are you not from this planet or dimension or something? Did Tim bring you here or did you end up here on your own accord?" She had thousands of more questions, I could tell. I put my hand over her mouth to keep her from asking anymore.

"So how do you know Tim, Pinkie?" I wondered if that was how she could do what she did on a regular basis, you know, breaking the fourth wall and such.

"I met him when I was just a filly after I got my cutie mark. That's how I can do all the stuff I do now. And before I came here I was playing poker with Deadpool and a few others." She looked really perky, so I guessed that she had won.

"Okay then, if you have any questions, you can just ask him because that would be way simpler than having I explain it to you. Just tell him I sent you to see him." Pinkie nodded and pulled a zipper from a pocket, and she stuck it in the air and pulled down. A portal opened as she did this, and she bade us goodbye as she entered the portal. It zipped closed as she entered, and the zipper disappeared with a pop.

Luna just looked at the spot Pinkie had just disappeared from with a look of shock on her face. I pulled her back to the conversation we were having by tapping my finger loudly on the desk. She turned towards me and gave me a weird look as well.

"Do you find this kind of thing normal? She just disappeared in front of us and you act as if nothing happened."

"Yes, I find this kind of thing normal. But it is only normal for a few people or ponies I know of, me being one of them since I could do that anytime I want to. And now you have me to yourself, so ask all the questions that you want to." I leaned back in the chair, using my hands as a cradle for my head.

"I only have one other question that I need answered. When will you tell my sister about what you really are and what you're doing here? I doubt that she likes being in the dark about anything that involves her subjects or the nation."

"All in due time, Luna. I will tell everypony the full truth when I deem it necessary and or safe to tell them. Until then, I shall keep quiet and to myself. Now, I have a question for you." I leaned forward and let her sit there and wait for my question.

After a few seconds she spoke. "What is it that you wanted to ask? I do not have all night; I still have to get back to my work. Even though I have just come here, I am sure that the paperwork is piling up on my desk and the night court is requiring my presence."

"Do you and Celestia still keep that mirror in the throne room or is it somewhere else right now?"

She shrugged and moved a little on the cushion. "I do not know; if the mirror is still in the throne room I have not seen it recently. You could ask Tia when you next see her. Why do you want to know where the mirror is?"

"I feel like I need some coffee, and Equestria doesn't have any that I know of." I rubbed my eyes. "I don't really need it but I have been craving a large, freshly brewed cup lately."

"I do not even know what coffee is, but do you even know what the other side of the mirror is like? How do you know that the other side of the mirror holds this coffee you speak of?"

"You could just call it a hunch, but in reality it is because I have already seen what is on the other side of the portal. It is a dimension that is similar to my original home dimension. I know they have coffee and a few other things that Equestria does not have. Now that I have no more questions for you, and I believe you have no more questions for me, you may leave. I have some exploration to do. I made the house and it has many doors that I have not seen where they lead to." I got up from my chair and led Luna over to the door. "After you, princess"

"I thank you for the time you have spent answering my questions, but I ask that you do not spend much time before telling the rest of the country what your real form and purpose is." With that she went downstairs and out the front door.

I decided to pick the left wing first, second floor because I was already up here. I carried with me a stack of signs and a marker so that I could label the doors for later. The first door I opened led me to a large pool filled with alligators and crocodiles, where Gummy was playing along with the others. I closed the door and wrote 'Alligator/Crocodile Room' on the sign and stuck it above the door. The next door I opened led into a large room that looked strangely like the inside of the TARDIS. It turns out, that is exactly where it led to.

The doctor walked in and yelped upon seeing me coming in from a door that had not been there before. He quickly got up and walked over to me, eyeing me suspiciously.

"Who are you and how did you get in here. Are you a Time Lord that I don't know?"

"Nah, I'm Ordeus, I'm just in my actual form. I was just looking around my house to see where my doors led to and I opened this one I am currently looking through to find that it leads here. I shall now leave and I expect that you will keep quiet about this as well. Goodbye." With that, I closed the door and wrote 'TARDIS' on a sign and stuck that above the door. I went and checked all the other doors on this hall, which took just a few moments considering what was inside of them.

The last door in the hall looked different from the rest. It was completely white and looked like it had been sculpted from marble. I just shrugged and opened the door, expecting to see nothing of interest. Oh, how mistaken I was.

The Other Side of the Mirror

Celestia was the first thing I saw when I stepped through the doorway, but thankfully she hadn't seen me. The door I had opened led straight into the throne room of Canterlot Castle and it was positioned behind the throne. The one part I wasn't lucky about was that the guard ponies on either side of the throne room door had seen me and they shouted out for me to stop where I was. I was too shocked with what was happening to even move. Stupid door!

Celestia heard the guards shout at me and turned around to see who they were shouting at. She stared, flabbergasted, at the sight before her. There was a slightly hairless ape standing right behind her throne and it had gotten there without her even noticing. She quickly moved in front of me and pulled me into the throne room, away from the door that led into my home that closed as soon as I had left the frame behind.

"What or who are you and how did you get into my throne room?" She stood me in front of her throne as she went to sit down. She sat in her throne and waited for an answer.

"Your majesty, what if the creature doesn't speak our language or if it can't even speak at all?" One of the guard ponies asked, rubbing his hooves nervously on the red carpet that led up to the throne.

"You may go back to your posts, Storm Front and Dawns Rays, I am sure I can handle this creature on my own. And if it does not speak our language, I can just read its thoughts and memories if need be." With that comment, I put a barrier in my mind to block her out. I did not need a ruler of a country or world getting into my head and seeing all I had seen on the future development of said world.

"I can speak your language and I am pretty sure that you could not handle me alone or with another, young Tia." I snapped my fingers and changed places with her, me sitting on the throne and her standing before it. "By the way, has Lu-Lu come back? I would be surprised if I got here before she did."

She just sat there and stared. When she finally recovered enough to speak, she asked incredulously, "How did you do that? Only Discord could do that, and he is still trapped in stone in the gardens. Also, no, Luna has not come back yet from her trip to Ponyville. Why did you call me Tia and her Lu-Lu? And why, of all things, did you call me young?"

I stared at her through a half lidded gaze, making it look like I was tired. "I am an all-powerful being sent here by Tim; I can do anything I want. I called you Tia and her Lu-Lu because those are shorter than saying your actual names. And to me, everypony on this planet is young compared to me." I thought I would change it up somewhat so that the guards would not know what I was saying. I started to use the language of the dragons, assuming that Celestia would know how to speak it because she had dragons within her borders. "Dreh hi mindok fos zu'u saag ges nu, kulaas do krein?" (Do you know what I am saying right now, princess of the sun?)

She looked surprised, I would have been surprised if a creature I had no knowledge about started to talk in a known language to very few creatures other than dragons. "Vir dreh hi mindok daar deinok? Fos los hi? Tinvaak vahzen!" (How do you know this language? What are you? Speak the truth!)

I glanced over to the guards who were giving us strange looks. I waved my hand in a dismissive gesture towards them but they didn't seem to get the gist of what I was trying to tell them. I turned towards Celestia again, to ask her a question. "Fund hi qiid hin deiniik wah lif? Zu'u naram laagus mii daar deinok." (Would you ask your guards to leave? I grow tired of using this language.)

Celestia turned to the guards that were just standing there, waiting to see what would happen between Celestia and me. "Storm Front and Dawns Rays, will you go and wait in the hall. He asked that we speak in private rather than having an audience."

Storm Front spoke up, "But your majesty, what if this creature intends to harm you as soon as we leave? There would be nopony here to defend you!"

"Believe me, Storm Front; I have no intention of harming your princess. I just hope to have a conversation that is not listened in on by others. Also, if you see Luna coming in the castle, please send her here. She will help me explain things to her sister." I sat back in the throne. "Now, if you two will leave us, I will start explaining myself to Celestia."

They both looked at me and then to their princess. She nodded to them and they both left their posts by the door. Dawns Rays had thrown me a glance saying 'If you harm her, I will hurt you'. I just looked at him and gave him a smile, making sure not to show my teeth. I did not need ponies seeing my teeth right now, I needed their trust. As the guards left, I could feel Luna enter the castle, and she made her way towards the throne room as soon as she had entered.

"Well it seems that we do not have to wait long for Luna at all. She just made it back." I got up and made my way towards the throne room's doors. Celestia just looked at me like I was crazy. I opened the doors right as Luna had made her way to standing right in front of them. "Come on in, Lu-Lu, I need your help explaining things to your sister. And please hurry, we don't need any more ponies knowing that I am here. That reminds me, Storm Front and Dawns Rays make sure that this information is not spread to others within the castle or the city. We don't need panic or this becoming public."

The two guards just gave me a look and shrugged. They gave me a salute signifying that they wouldn't tell anypony about what had happened and what was happening. I gave them another smile as I let Luna in and closed the door. We walked up to the thrones, which Celestia was sitting in the one I previously occupied. Luna went to sit in her throne and I just conjured a simple, but comfortable, chair to sit in.

"Now this can be a somewhat long tale, so make yourself comfortable. I will try to tell you everything I can and Luna will fill in any of the blanks that I may have forgotten." As Luna and I told Celestia about myself, she had very few questions. She mostly just sat there and absorbed the knowledge we were giving her. When we had finished, I made three cups of hot chocolate and gave Luna and Celestia theirs. "So, that is how I got here and such. I also wish to know where that mirror is so that I can get myself some coffee."

Luna, who had told Celestia about my armor in the retelling of my story, piped in with her own two bits. "He may look intimidating, but when you get to know him he really is just a big softie."

"Luna, there is no need to say that. You may embarrass Ordeus here. And for the mirror, it is still here in the throne room. I will allow you to use it as long as you tell me how a former student of mine, Sunset Shimmer, is doing." With that she got off her throne and went around behind it. A golden glow enveloped her horn and a small panel came down, revealing a mirror hidden below her throne.

"Um, question. How do you think your former student could come back if you hid the mirror in a cramped space like that?" I looked into the space; it was only wide and deep enough to fit the mirror and nothing else.

Celestia looked embarrassed; she obviously hadn't thought about that when she had the mirror hidden away. She then had a revelation, how would I get through to the other side of the mirror? It was closed for another two years. I would have to wait that long for it to open again. "There is a problem with the mirror; you can't get in through it right now. It has another two years before it opens again."

"That's no problem at all. I can make it activate whenever I want to. So now that I know where it is and that you know who and what I am, I shall have to bid you adieu. To the other side I go!" I jumped into the mirror and vanished before Celestia or Luna could say anything.

AN: I couldn't end the chapter here, so I decided to just keep going.

The swirling vortex around me reminded me of something; I just couldn't put my finger on it. And as soon as the ride had started, it had ended. I came out of the other side of the portal; just beneath the statue of the horse. It was night when I had exited the portal, and it was rather chilly. Some leaves covered the ground; it was probably sometime around September here. The worlds had different time spans, so it was only natural that the seasons in one did not coincide with the other.

I looked at my watch; it was one-o-clock in the morning. I looked around to see if anyone was around and gave a sigh of relief when I saw no one. I saw that a window of the school was opened, so I decided that I would spend the night in the school. I climbed in and saw a whole load of lockers. It wasn't a hall, so it must be a locker room. I slid down one of the lockers and closed my eyes, letting sleep overtake me.

~0~0~

When I woke up, light was streaming through the window and a few birds were chirping outside. Just as I was about to exit the locker room through the door I could hear a group of girls coming towards the door. I panicked and ran towards the locker I slept against. Luckily for me, I had kept my slender frame. I fit inside the locker and closed the door as soon as the door to the room had opened. I really hoped that this locker wasn't about to be used.

Lady luck, pun intended, was definitely not on my side.

A girl with poofy pink hair hopped towards the locker I was hiding in and started to try to open it. I quickly wrote on a sticky note 'Closed for maintenance' and I stuck it through one of the slats and stuck it to the locker. The girl, I assumed it was Pinkie Pie, looked at the note and shrugged. She moved over to one of the other girls and asked if she could use her locker as well because hers was under maintenance. The girl just laughed and agreed to let her use her locker.

There was a bullet dodged, but very narrowly. If it hadn't have been Pinkie's locker, the person would have just ignored it. I waited for the girls to exit, and then I made my hasty escape from the locker room. As I entered the halls, students around me whispered that they hadn't known there was a new teacher. It felt weird being in a high school again, but it felt even weirder that students were mistaking me for a teacher. I kept walking until I found the principal's office. I knocked and heard a "Please enter." I entered and saw that both Luna and Celestia were sitting in the office, going over what they were going to say in the morning announcements.

"Hello there sir, what is it you would like to talk about?" Celestia rested her hands on her desk and arched an eyebrow.

"I would like to work here, if that is alright with you. I am in need of some cash and I believe that I could be a good teacher." I pulled out some certificates, stating that I was a licensed teacher in the musical arts.

Both Luna and Celestia looked surprised, I didn't look like a person that specialized in the music that was printed on the papers I handed them. I was still in the clothes I had worn when taking to Luna, Celestia, and Pinkie. "Well, it seems that everything is in order. It also fits what we need, a new music teacher. The previous one we had retired a few weeks ago and the students have been wondering when we would get a new one. Now, Mr. Ordeus, when can you start working?"

"I can start work immediately. I just need a map of the school so that I know where I am going and I need a list of the students that I will be teaching." I was surprised that they were already hiring me. In my world, it would take months for a new teacher to be hired at a school.

"Well that's perfect then. Here is a map and here is the list. The days are broken up into four blocks, each about an hour and forty minutes long, all except the lunch block. The thing is, you have a class during the lunch period, so your lunch time is lunch C which is the third lunch period. Now, please go to your class and we will make an announcement that we have a new teacher."

"Okay, to the new room that shall be called mine! Away!" I walked out of the room, leaving behind the two 'rulers' of the school giggling. I noticed that there were three pictures of Sunset Shimmer on the wall, and I realized that the portal put me in a much different time than when I had entered it. As I navigated the halls, I greeted the students that passed me. They greeted me with smiles on their faces; I could grow used to the happy atmosphere of the school. I walked up to the door to my new room and opened it slowly. I noticed there was a chalkboard, but there was no eraser sitting on the place where it was supposed to be. I grinned; this trick was not going to get me.

I opened the door all the way, caught the eraser that was supposed to fall on me, and kicked the bucket I was supposed to trip in into the closet all the way across the room. The students all had looks of disbelief plastered on their faces. I chuckled and set the eraser where it was supposed to go. I grabbed the chalk and started to write my name on the board while I looked at the list of students I had first block. I automatically saw who had tried to prank me, Rainbow Dash. I was surprised that she would actually take a music class. Even as a human, she hadn't seemed like the type of person that would be interested in music.

"So, it is my pleasure to say that I am now teaching here. Therefore, to keep my image as a good teacher, I will probably punish the person, or people, who tried to prank me. It is definitely not a smart idea to try to prank a teacher, I learned that from experience." I glanced around the room and watched as some students nervously averted their gaze from mine, trying to make it look like they weren't the one who had tried to pull the prank. Rainbow was much less obvious about her attempts to get out of punishment. She grabbed a history book and started to pretend to read out of it. She was definitely about to read a history book just for the fun of it, that's what eggheads do.

As I looked at the list to take roll, the announcements came on. "Good morning, students, and happy Tuesday. It is our pleasure to announce that we have a new teacher in our school, filling the spot of Mr. Staccato who retired a while ago. Please welcome Mr. Ordeus into the Canterlot Wondercolts family. Please remember that all dues for the Fall Formal are due by Friday this week. Voting will begin on the day the dance is and will end an hour before the dance starts, and that is in one week. And since we didn't have school yesterday, I will congratulate the Canterlot Wondercolts on their win in the soccer game that was Friday. That is all for this morning, have a great day."

"So you really are here to stay?" A student asked, leaning forward in anticipation.

'Yes, I am here to stay. And now I am going to start roll, so please quiet down. I will point at those who tried to pull the prank as I call names." As I went through the names, I called up the ones that had tried to prank me. When I called up Rainbow Dash, she grudgingly got up and stalked to the front of the class.

"I don't see how he knew it was me," she whispered to Golden Harvest, who was standing next to her in line.

"I knew because I was once like you guys and girls. That's why I'm letting you off with a warning and a minor punishment. Don't try to do it again. And for the punishment… clean one instrument properly after school. You may sit down now." I moved behind the desk in the front of the room. "I hope that this will be an interesting class, and I plan on making it as fun as possible. I started in band in the sixth grade, and I have been involved in the musical arts all my life since then. I can play almost every instrument, and I listen to all genres of music."

"So you're telling us that you listen to classical but you also listen to something completely different, like dubstep?" One of the pranksters, one with electric blue hair, asked.

"Of course that's what I'm saying. I like to be diverse in my teachings of music, which is why I listen to many different types. Who in this room knows how to play an actual instrument?" Some hands went up in response. "Good, that makes my job much easier. I want to know something about all of you, so let's go around the room and tell me one thing about yourself."

I listened to every student tell me something that they liked to do, which they had some pretty interesting things to say. When it was Rainbow Dash's turn, she jumped on her desk and shouted, "I'm awesome!" She sat down after that and we all moved on with the activity. After the last student had said something about themselves, I went back to my desk and sat in the chair.

"Okay, now that we're done with that who can tell me what kind of music you guys were studying before I got here?"

"We were studying country," Rainbow explained. "We had it for about two weeks."

"That is a really long time spent on country music. What did you learn about it in that time you spent studying it?"

"Well if you play it backwards you get your dog, your wife, your tractor, and your house back." She grinned, probably egging me on to disagree with her.

"It seems that Miss Dash here has the gist of it. So let's move on to… what do you all want to do?" I looked at them, expecting them all to shout out their ideas all at once. When none of them said anything I shook my head and sighed. "If you don't tell me what you want to learn about, we are going to have to learn about classical."

"Dubstep!" Vinyl Scratch yelled out.

Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon started to giggle and point at Vinyl because she had spoken so loudly. Students were whispering to each other, thinking that Vinyl would get in trouble because she hadn't raised her hand before she spoke up. She started to slide down in her seat, obviously embarrassed.

"Heck yeah! Great answer there Miss Scratch. Any preferences for a song or two today?"

"Yeah, I have a few…"

"Then come on up here and use my computer to look them up. Make sure they are clean though. I don't need Celestia or Luna to come in here and were listening to something that should not be listened to in a school classroom."

We listened to a few songs until I glanced down at my watch and realized that the bell would ring in fifteen minutes. I got up from the seat I had taken at the back of the room and made my way to the front. I nudged Vinyl out of my seat and pointed her towards her desk as I sat down behind mine. I stopped the song that was playing and addressed the class. "Okay, the next fifteen minutes will be your time until the bell rings. Tomorrow we will let someone else come up and find some music for the class to listen to. If we have time, which we probably will, we will also start to make some music. Those who I assigned punishment, forget about it. I'll let it slide this time. You may talk quietly amongst yourselves at this time."

The rest of class, for the students, was spent quietly talking about what they were going to do the rest of the day and what music they were going to show the class tomorrow. I spent the rest of the time looking at the schedule for the day. My third block, the one that lunch was in, had the advanced music students. In that class, there were a few names that caught my attention automatically. Mic, Flash, Kenobi, Gryphon, Forest, and Final Verse. It seems that some music producers from my world had their own alternate beings in this dimension. There was also Flash, who was a person I recognized because of his role in the movie.

The bell rang, releasing me from my quiet musings about what to do for that third block class. The students filed out and Rainbow came up to my desk. "Thanks for getting rid of that punishment, Mr. Ordeus. I have soccer practice after school and I need to be there."

"Don't mention it. And don't call me 'Mr. Ordeus' that was my father. Just call me Ordeus, I like to be on the same level as my students most of the time. You should probably get out of here before you're late for your next class."

Rainbow thanked me again and pushed past the students who were making their way into the room, most of which had annoyed looks on their faces because they were being pushed. I smiled at them and they smiled right one back. I could get used to being a teacher, especially if the students here were so nice. I asked the students to just sit down wherever they wanted to because I didn't care about assigned seats as long as they didn't talk too loudly to one another.

As the students filed in, I noticed that there were three I could tell who they were right away. Pinkie was in this class, as were Applejack and Big Mac. Applejack and Big Mac sat in one corner of the room while Pinkie sat in the complete opposite corner. Pinkie was bouncing in her seat, planning on throwing a huge party for the new teacher. I walked over to her and whispered to her, "Hey, Pinkie, maybe it's not that great to be bouncing in your seat if you're in the front of the row. It disturbs those who are sitting behind you. And please don't speak about any 'hunches' you may have about me." She just looked at me, settling down in her seat and making a motion of sealing her lips and throwing away the key. I gave her an appreciative nod.

This was definitely going to be an interesting few days before Twilight got here.

An Interesting Day

"Today I'm just going to learn something about you guys and we'll listen to some new music. As I have already told first block, I listen to many different genres of music. I started band in sixth grade and I have been involved in the musical arts my entire life. After I take roll, we will go around the room and tell me about you." I took roll, and the activity went the same way as it had gone in the class before.

When I got around to Pinkie, who was the last person, she jumped onto her desk just like Rainbow Dash. She pulled a party hat and a noise maker out of her hair and proceeded to yell, "I love to throw super terrific parties for the whole school!" I gave her a smile and told her to sit down, politely of course.

"I was informed by first block that you listened to country for two weeks, so we will be changing the genre of music we listen to today." I pointed to my computer. "Who wants to come up and find some songs for us to listen to?"

Applejack raised her hand. I motioned for her to come on up, but she just shook her head and raised her hand again. I realized that she wanted to ask a question.

"What is it, Miss Apple?"

"Ah' heard from a student that ya' insulted country music. What did ya' do that for?"

"I personally do not like country music, but I personally did not insult it. It was Miss Dash that did so. I am pretty sure that you have a different taste in music than I do, so you may insult a type of music that I like. I have nothing against people living the country lifestyle or anything; I just don't like the music that country artists produce."

"Ah' respect that ya' told me what ya' honestly thought. Ah'l keep what you said in mind for when you play music that you like." She settled back in her seat, obviously pleased I had spoken truthfully.

"Now that I have answered Miss Apple's question, is there anyone who would like to come pick out some songs?" I scanned the room, and one hand shot up much faster than anyone else's. I should have known she would be the one to volunteer. "Yes Miss Pie, you may come up."

She bounced out of her desk and over to min while I made my way to my seat in the back of the classroom and I got to it as soon as she started the first song. She was fast. I realized that I had forgotten to tell this class what genre we were listening to, but it appeared that Pinkie already knew. Either it was a hunch or she had heard from a student in first block what music we were listening to. The second option was way more plausible, but Pinkie had the most accurate of hunches.

Pinkie played songs that I liked just as much than the ones Vinyl had played. It seemed that, when thinking about music, those two were almost on the same wavelength. There were two idiots in the front of the class shooting spitballs at one another. I got Pinkie's attention and told her to stop the music for a second.

"Okay you two, you should probably stop before Clank misses Ratchet and ends up hitting Vice-Principal Luna as she walks into the classroom. Then I wouldn't be able to get you out of punishment." The two stopped and I told Pinkie to start up the music again.

When there were sixteen minutes left of class, I motioned for Pinkie to stop the music and return to her desk. When the class quieted down I told them what I told first block, that the next fifteen minutes were theirs if they kept it at a whisper. They started whispering to those sitting next to them as I made my way back to my desk. When I sat down, I saw that Clank and Ratchet had started to shoot spitballs again. I just sighed and shook my head; those two were going to learn a lesson the hard way.

When there were three minutes left in class, the two idiots were still going at it with the spitballs. Who did they think was going to have to clean their mess up!? Just then, there was a knock at the door and Luna walked in, which made everyone's attention move to the door. Clank and Ratchet were no exceptions. Clank launched a spitball, which completely missed Ratchet, which hit Luna dead center of her forehead.

Luna glared at the two boys and pulled them out of class towards her office. I just gave them an 'I told you so' look as they passed my desk, and I went back to my planning. Every student was quiet until one asked, "Can you see into the future?"

"Nah," I said and looked at Pinkie, "it was just a hunch. Gather your things; you only have thirty seconds before the bell rings." Thirty seconds later, the bell rang and the students began to file out the door. A couple of students gave me high-fives as they went out the door. I heard some of them calling me the best teacher they had so far. I smiled; this is exactly what I wanted to hear. Pinkie came up to me and gave me a large, air constricting hug.

"Thanks for the awesome class, Mr. Ordeus. And I got a hunch that you know more than you're letting on."

"Heh, I kind of do. And please don't call me 'Mr. Ordeus', just Ordeus is fine."

"Okey-dokey-lokie then, Ordeus. You can call me Pinkie instead of 'Miss Pie' because all my friends call me Pinkie."

"I'll try to remember that, Pinkie. Now, head on to your next class before you're late for your next class." I wrote her a quick note for her next teacher. "The halls can be really bad sometimes. I've been late a few times because I couldn't get through the halls quick enough."

She thanked me and hopped out the door. I went to the board and wrote down, 'Don't call me Mr. Ordeus, it makes me feel old. Just call me Ordeus. A request from your teacher.' Luckily, the next class was smaller and some came in three minutes after the first bell had rung. We went through roll quickly, and the activity went as quickly as roll call. They all had something to say involving music.

"Since this is Advanced Music, I'll just let this be somewhat of a free block for you guys. What you do has to be something involving music. If you need to borrow an instrument, be my guest." Some students pulled out their laptops and others came to pick up instruments. Flash walked up to my desk and stood there while I used my computer.

"Uh, sir, may I go get my guitar from my car?"

"Sure, just let me ask you something and I'll write you a note." I looked up from my computer to look him in the face. "Do you know why Vinyl Scratch is not in this class?"

"It was a scheduling error. She was supposed to be in this class, but she signed up late and the computer put her in math this block instead of first block."

"Thanks for the info Bra… uh, Flash. Here's a note so you can get your guitar. Just get back in here within ten minutes."

"Sure thing, sir." He grabbed the note and ran out into the hall towards the office.

I yelled after him, "And call me Ordeus!" I walked back to my desk and looked at my computer, pulling up the teacher list. "I'm going to have to get Vinyl into this class," I said behind the hand covering my mouth. "I'm going to have to convince her math teacher and counselor to let her switch classes. Eh… I'll leave that for after school." I pulled up YouTube and looked to see if they had any of the music from my world here to see if I could play the music from my world and it be new here. I saw that none of the music from my world had even a parody in this world or anything so I could play music and it be like it was original.

The music that the students were making was awesome. I could tell that they really liked having this time to make music instead of having to wait until they got home to make music. I figured that, at the end of class, I would tell them tomorrow they would start a project of creating a song and then presenting it to the rest of the class, the students taking the roll of audience members/reviewers. I would then give them a grade on how the students thought about their music. Maybe I could even add a reward for the winner; stir up some friendly competition.

The bell rang for C lunch and the students made their way to the lunch room. I followed them because it was much easier than having to look at the map the entire way there. Some of them gave me strange looks. It seemed that teachers didn't normally eat in the lunch room. I was the only one in there as we entered the room, and I saw the other two of the main six that weren't in my class. Every one of the main six, except for Twilight of course, had the same lunch period. I walked in line and got the soy burger and a bowl of fruit. (By the way, never get the soy burgers that are greenish. Get the ones that at least look like they are made with real meat. I mean, YUCK!) I looked around the lunchroom to find a seat. There was an almost empty table, only Fluttershy was sitting there. I walked over and tapped her on the shoulder.

"Do you mind if I sit here? All the other tables seem full."

She hid behind her hair and slightly nodded. I sat down and started eating my food. It was pretty loud in the lunchroom, so I didn't hear when a student came up behind me and called my name. I finally registered their presence when they did a fake cough in my ear. I swiveled around and was face to face with the biggest bitch in the school, which looked like she was in a suck up mood. I groaned inwardly, since I was a teacher here it was a given that Sunset Shimmer was going to suck up to me.

"Hello there sir. How would you like to sit at my table over there? It seems that nothing much is going on over here." She pointed over at her table, which has two empty seats.

"No thank you, Miss Shimmer. I am content with sitting in silence."

She just pouted and moved back over to her table, pulling a kid (that I assumed occupied the seat before she kicked her out of it) back over to her table. I just turned back around and finished off my food. I really hated the school food, but I couldn't just create food and bring it into the lunchroom. I would need to buy some food to make it look natural. I felt a tugging on my sleeve, and I turned to see Fluttershy doing the pulling.

"T-thank y-you for not l-leaving me h-here alone," she thanked me in her quiet voice.

"No problem Miss Shy. Just between you and me, I don't like it when students suck up to me. It annoys me greatly." She laughed quietly at this and we conversed for the rest of the lunch break. When the bell rang, I thanked her for the conversation and I made my way back to the classroom. When I made it inside, all the students were already there and working on their music. I decided to tell them about the project at that time.

"Okay guys, I have a project for you. You each will create a piece of music and your peers will give you a grade based on what they thought of your work. There will be a reward, given by me, for the best musical piece. It will be a golden record, engraved with whomevers name that wins it. I hope that this will be a friendly competition and that you won't downplay another's music just so you will win. I will give the students that do that a failing grade, no matter what the other students thought about your music.

You may work in groups if you wish. I hope that everybody in your group will pull their own weight. You may ask for my help if you need someone to play an instrument, but you need to write the music for me to play. This will be applicable if you need me because you couldn't get that last person you needed. Let's start this now 'cause you only have a week to get this thing done. Have fun and work hard."

The students who wanted to group with others quickly ran to those they wanted to work with. Nobody needed me so I just watched as they worked on their music. They knew that they would be judged by their fellow students as well as me, so they made music that would appeal to their audience. I planned for next week, being able to let the entire student body listen to the music these kids made.

The bell rang and the students picked up their stuff and left. Flash asked if he could keep his guitar in my room until after school and I assured him it would be perfectly fine if he did. He left and I locked the door after I exited the room. I didn't have a class fourth block, so I figured I would go to the counselor about changing Vinyl's schedule now rather than later.

I made my way to the counselor's office, which was right next to the principal's office. The councilor, Paper Pusher, was sitting at her desk. She looked up as I came in and she gave me a smile. "How may I help you, Mr. Ordeus?"

"I'd like to transfer a student from my first block to my third block." I sat down and looked around the small room.

"Let me guess, it's Vinyl Scratch you'd like to transfer?" She was looking through her papers, picking out a blue sheet from the mound she had on one side.

"Yes, what steps do I have to take to get her into my third block and reschedule her math class?"

"You're lucky; we almost have her schedule worked out. We should be able to finalize it today and she'll change classes Thursday. Is there anything else you needed?"

I was honestly surprised. I didn't have to do anything and it was almost done already. "Uh, no, that was all I needed. Thank you for telling me this." I got up out of the chair and walked out of the room and closed the door. I could use the extra time I had to put together the track that Twilight would need next week. I unlocked the door, turned on the light, and got to work on the computer.

I had finished and put the track on an MP3 player before school was let out. Flash came and got his guitar and I grabbed a small amp from the equipment room, I was going to use it to get some money for coffee. On my way off the school property, I saw Fluttershy standing at the statue. She was trying to pass out flyers for the local animal shelter, but no one was interested.

"Hey Fluttershy, I thought that you did this on Wednesday."

She hid behind her hair. "I thought that I would try to start after school on Tuesdays because the other students usually pass by this spot more often after school. And how did you know I usually hand these out on Wednesday's?"

"You could call it a hunch. But I'll take one and see what I can do." I pulled out a sheet from the stack and I wished her a good day as I walked towards my destination. When I was about a block away, I ducked into an alley and pulled out a custom guitar from hammerspace. It was a double neck guitar that had bass for its second neck. There were blue and white flames painted on the body and black thorns going up both necks. There were many buttons on it, for the parts of the songs I played so none of the music was left out. The case was black with a dark blue stripe wrapping around.

I walked out of the alley with both my guitar and the borrowed amp as I continued towards my destination, Sugarcube Corner. I entered and walked up to the counter and asked if I could use a power outlet next to the door. Mr. Cake told me it was ok and I plugged in the amp and sat outside, close to the door. I took the guitar out of its case, plugged it into the amp, and played a few chords to make sure it was in tune for the song I was going to play. I set the case down in front of me and played a song I learned when I could play the guitar at more than a beginner's level. (Look up Canon Rock, almost any version will do as long as it is on guitar.)

As I played, a few people gathered around me to listen to me play. When I finished, a few dropped some money into the case and went into Sugarcube Corner. I was inadvertently advertising for the store. I chatted with a few people that recognized me from my class.

"Hey Mr. Ordeus, what are you doing here?"

"Hey, don't call me Mr., it makes me feel old! Just call me Ordeus, Mister Root. The reason why I am here is because I want to share my music with the people passing by, and to be honest, I'm kinda low on money right now. I also seem to be benefitting business for Sugarcube Corner, bringing in customers with my music."

"Good luck to you then, dude. I'm going in to get a shake, you want something?"

"Nah, I'll get something when I'm done out here. I still have a few songs that I wanna play before I call it a day."

With that, the students went in the store and I sat there thinking about what I wanted to play next. I saw Rainbow Dash walking towards the store and I knew what song to play. I re-tuned my guitar and started the song by pressing the button and then I began to play as well. I could actually sing pretty well, despite what I looked like. (Loyalty by AcoustiMandoBrony)

Many more people stood in front of me to listen to what I played. Rainbow just stood there with a look on her face, like she realized that this music was linked to her in some way. She put some money in my case and kept on walking, feeling that she would really like to hear that song again. The same thing happened with Rarity and Fluttershy. I saw them and played the music that was linked with them. (Generosity and Kindness, both by AcoustiMandoBrony) It frustrated me that none of them were around as another one of the group came by. I could probably strengthen their friendship before Twilight got here if they stayed in the same place for a period of time with one another.

I played a few other songs that I really wanted to play and I took the money out of my case and placed my guitar in it. "I'm sorry people, but I have to take a break for today. I'll be back here tomorrow though." They groaned and walked off, some of them going inside to buy something. I walked in and unplugged the amp, and then I went up to the counter and asked if I could get a coffee.

"Sure thing, and since you brought in so many customers, you get one on the house." Mr. Cake handed me a cup of freshly brewed coffee, black. Just the way I liked it.

"Here's some money then, I'm paying forward for some people that come after me. Thanks for the coffee." With that, I turned around and bumped into someone. I almost spilled my coffee when I bumped into the person, and I looked down to see who it was. Turns out, Pinkie still worked here in this dimension.

"Hey Ordeus! I heard the music you played, and it was super-duper-riffic! Can you write a song for me to?"

"Sure, I'll get to work on it. Have a good day pinkie." I walked around her and exited the shop. It was turning dark, so I figured I would go back to the school and sleep in the locker room again. If I slept in late again, I could probably use the same trick I used before. I could also fix up the lockers in the room; some were rusting and falling apart. I also still had to put the amp back in the storage room.

I made my way back to the school, but I stopped when I saw Sunset Shimmer standing next to the portal. She looked around and placed her hand on the surface. Her hand went slightly in, but she could not go any further than her wrist. She gave an annoyed grunt and walked off. I came out of my hiding spot and moved towards the open window. I slipped in just as the janitor had left. I walked over to Pinkies locker and lay up against it, letting sleep overtake me again.

The next week went by quickly; the only slow days were during the weekend. The project in third block was a success. Every student in the school had gathered in the gym to listen to the music that had been created by their fellow students. Gryphon had won the reward as well as the highest grade, but everyone else had made good grades as well. No one had made below a ninety five. Flash and his group had been offered a place in the cafeteria to play their music during their lunch period. They took the offer and I supplied them with some equipment that they needed.

All too soon, it was Wednesday.

About three-fourths of the way through second block, I heard a muffled scream outside. I could only assume that it was Twilight, I could identify her scream even through the thick glass of the window. The class was quietly talking, but it seemed that I was the only person that had heard the scream. I walked over to the window and saw Twilight, on all fours with Spike on her back, move past the window I was looking out of.

She stood up when she saw how she was supposed to walk when another student passed by, and then she wobbled up to the stairs. She waved her head, and smacked right into the front door. And that door was supposed to push inwards! How had she not opened it by running into it? Spike opened the door for her and they walked in.

I excused myself from the classroom and went to the nearest restroom. I made somewhat of a copy of myself, one that would disappear when I willed it to. I sent it back to the classroom with instructions to carry on as if it was really me. It left, and I waited.

I waited the few minutes for the bell to ring, and I slipped into the throng of students. I made my way down the hallway towards the main entrance. I saw Bra… gah dang, Flash help Twilight up and I decided to start following her. When she started to sing A Strange New World, I could faintly hear the music playing in the background. It seemed as if I somewhat broke the fourth wall, because I could hear the music that wasn't really playing in the school.

After Twilight had confronted Sunset, and then ran off to Celestia's office, I grabbed Fluttershy as she rushed by my hiding spot.

"What are you doing this late out of class, Fluttershy? Is there something I should know about?" I gave her a glare, but she could tell I didn't really mean it.

"Um… uh… no, there's nothing wrong or anything." She tried to slip past me, but I blocked her escape route again.

"Fluttershy, if you're getting picked on, go tell a teacher." I whispered in her ear, "And I don't mind that you brought Snowflake, Angel, and Tweets here, but make sure they don't get out of your backpack again. Here's a note so that you aren't marked late or tardy by your next teacher." I handed her the note and let her go to her next class.

I came up to Celestia's office right as Twilight exited. I got there late because I wasn't really in any hurry. I figured it would be somewhat disastrous if someone saw me, so I turned myself invisible. A teacher that's in his classroom but is also in the hall is kind of strange. When Twilight got somewhat ushered into the lunchroom by the other students, I followed and stood in a corner so that nobody would bump into me. There was a close call with Derpy, but she missed me by a few inches.

When she went to the gym, I slid in behind her before the door closed. I decided to get a better vantage point, so I made it so that if I put my foot on the wall, the wall would act as my source of gravity. I could effectively walk on walls and ceilings with no difficulty.

I sat on one of the beams, watching the scene below. Pinkie inflated a balloon, with helium straight from her lungs. She made no sense in whatever world she was in. The balloon almost smacked into my face, but I pushed it out of the way.

"Whoa! Did you see that? That balloon moved on its own! Maybe there's a ghost!" Pinkie pulled something out of her hair that looked somewhat like divining rods.

"Pinkie, ya' do know there aint no such things as ghosts." Applejack stared at pinkie, scratching her head under her hat.

"Maybe… but I have a feeling, and it's a hunchy feeling." She put the rods back in her hair and went on with what she was doing.

Crap. I almost blew my cover. Note to self: When invisible, refrain from moving visible objects. Thankfully, Applejack had pulled Pinkies attention away from me. Twilight rushed out of the gym after she had spoken to Applejack. I dropped down from my vantage point and disturbed some confetti and streamers on the floor. I could feel Pinkie's eyes following the path I made through the mess as I followed Twilight. I followed six inches after her, but there were still streamers and confetti pieces that made their way onto my path.

Sunset confronted Twilight in the hall and all that happened, yada yada yada. When the school closed, I quickly made my way to the second floor of the library. I replaced the books that acted as a headrest with a pillow. I also put a bigger blanket over the books. I placed a note on the pillow that said, "You're being watched over. O"

I climbed up a book shelf and laid there. I figured I would just sleep here tonight so I wouldn't have to worry about finding Twilight in the morning. It also wasn't like I was required to sleep in the locker room, and I'm surprised I even forgot about the library until now. Twilight and Spike walked down the aisle of shelves and Twilight saw her makeshift bed.

"Spike, this is perfect! Where did you get the pillow and the blanket?" She went over to the bed and moved the blanket, lying down on her new bed.

"That's the thing though; I didn't get a pillow or a blanket." Spike looked confused, as much as a dog can look confused.

"Oh look, there's a note. It says 'You're being watched over. O' I wonder who it could be from."

I mentally sighed. Who else knew her and had interacted with her that had an O for the first initial? I decided I had heard enough, so I went to sleep. I would have to follow Twilight tomorrow, and I wanted to get this over with as quickly as possible.

~0~0~

When I woke up, Twilight and Spike were still asleep. I climbed down from my perch and stretched to get the soreness out of my muscles. Sleeping on top of a bookshelf is not good for your back, believe it or not. I heard Twilight and Spike start to get up, so I made my way to the room Rarity was going to pull the duo into.

The door was locked, so I unlocked it and walked in. I also made sure nobody saw what was happening. A few seconds after I had entered, Rarity made her appearance. I went to the other side of the room and unlocked the other door so the others could get in when the time came. Rarity spotted Twilight and quickly pulled her into the room.

After she had eyed her measurements, she pulled the green dress over her. I never figured out how Twilight's backpack was on the outside of the dress when it should have been covered by the dress. The others walked in and the dialogue flowed normally from there.

I followed Twilight around the school, waiting for the day to end. Everything she did was extremely boring. She just looked around the school some more and she read books in the library. And she didn't pick up the books after she finished them! When she and Spike weren't looking I picked up a few books from the stack she had made of finished books and re-shelved them in their original places. I also re-shelved the books Spike had used to make the bed and replaced it with an actual mattress. Spike was right about nobody coming up here, so I didn't have to worry about anybody finding the bed.

The final bell rang, and Twilight made her way to the soccer field to meet up with her friends. After I cleaned up the rest of the books she had left lying around, I made my way to the soccer field. I made it there as soon as Rainbow had kicked the ball for the first goal. I stayed awhile to watch as Twilight got her tail handed to her. After some time, I realized that my copy would be playing at Sugarcube Corner where the girls would later go to.

I blinked over there, another form of teleportation, right into an alley next to the shop. Luckily, my copy had just finished a song, so I willed him to disappear as I took his place seamlessly. "Sorry guys, that's all for today. I won't be here tomorrow, I got stuff to do." I hurriedly packed my things and unplugged the amp. I declined the offered coffee, paid forward for a few customers, and rushed out of the shop.

I made the amp 'appear' in the equipment room, and I shoved the guitar and its case into hammerspace. I would probably find it again in my house somewhere. I heard Pinkie say she would pay for Twilight's shake. I quickly turned myself invisible, and slipped out of the alley. I almost bumped into Pinkie, who was in the rear of the group.

"Hmm… Mr. Ghost, are you following Twilight?" She spoke in a quiet voice with her hand covering her mouth, towards where I was following them.

I couldn't resist the urge to mess with her, so I said in a gravelly voice, "No, I simply feel the urge to get a coffee."

She squealed and ran to catch up with the group, which was entering the shop. "Guy! The ghost said it wants some coffee!"

"Pinkie, as Ah said before, there aint such things as ghosts." Applejack rolled her eyes and entered the shop. Pinkie followed after her, but she held the door open for a few seconds. I assumed that she did it for me, so I went in and she closed the door.

"Thank you." I said in the gravelly voice.

"You're welcome Mr. Ghost." She skipped up to the counter and said that she would pay for Twilight and that she wanted some coffee.

"You don't have to pay, someone paid for a few people before he left." Mr. Cake said as he made the coffee. "What do you want in your coffee, Pinkie?"

"How do you want your coffee, Mr. Ghost?" She probably looked ridiculous; it seemed to everybody that she was just talking to the air next to her.

"Black, no sugar or cream please."

She picked up the coffee and went to a table where the others were waiting. I took a seat before anyone else sat down so I wouldn't touch anybody. I took sips of the coffee when the others weren't looking. When Twilight sat down, she put her backpack down next to where I was sitting. I took the MP3 and stuck a note to it, "This item will help later on. You will see. Also, how does Twilight not realize who I am? O" I tossed the player in the bag and heard a muffled 'ow'.

By the time Rarity had screamed that she got it, I had finished the coffee. I wrote a thank you note for Pinkie and stuck it to the cup. When I left, I heard a loud gasp from Pinkie. She shoved the cup with the note on it in Applejack's face and told her ghosts were real.

I went back to the school, and made my way to the library. I made my way to the second floor and climbed up the bookshelf I had slept on the day before. I decided to just go to sleep right then so I wouldn't have to wait for Twilight.

~0~0~

I woke up and glanced down at the bed. Twilight was still asleep, and Spike was curled up at the foot of the bed. I couldn't tell if he was asleep or not. I quietly made my way down, but I stopped when I heard Spike growl.

"I know you're there. Just come out now and there won't be any trouble." He was talking quietly, so as not to wake Twilight.

I softly chuckled. "You know Spike; dogs in this world can't talk." I turned around and became visible. "Do you know who I am?"

"No I don't know you, but I can guess you're this O person."

"Come on Spike, you know me. It's me, Ordeus." I spread my arms wide. "I would appreciate if this did not get to Twilight. I wouldn't want the surprise to be spoiled."

He growled at me again. "You threw me into the portal! I was still going to follow Twilight, but I didn't want to be thrown!"

"Complain to the other me when you get back. I've been here for more than a week. I, my current self, still haven't thrown you. I'll let Pinkie borrow some speakers second block for that MP3 player. See ya later; I have to get ready for today.

I left the library and a very confused Spike. First block seemed to go by quickly, as did second block. I called Pinkie to my desk and gave her the speakers along with a wink. She just gave me a wink and sat back down with the speakers. Third block rolled around, and we went to lunch.

It seemed that the song was better than it originally was. I watched as the kids became really involved. I also looked at the door and saw Sunset looking through the glass, as well as Snips and Snails doing their goofy dance.

After lunch, right before the bell rang for the students to go to fourth block; I pulled Flash to the side. "Okay Flash, to clear her of accusations, go to the place where literary works are stored and search the waste." I gave him a hint without directly telling him what to do.

"Okay, if you say so."

The bell rang and he exited the classroom. Since I didn't have the next block, I decided to just go to Luna's office. I locked my door behind me and made my way there slowly. When I got there, I knocked and just walked in without waiting for an answer. Luna and Twilight just looked at me.

"Carry on, Luna; I'm just here to observe how punishments are carried out in this school." I pulled up a chair and sat in the corner.

Just after I sat down, Flash walked in and showed Luna the photos. Luna let Twilight off the hook, and Twilight ran to hug Flash. He saw me and gave me a smile and a thumb up. I just nodded and smiled back. I made my way to the clothes store where the girls were already waiting for Twilight.

I turned invisible about two blocks away and entered as Twilight did. I walked onto the ceiling, sat down, and started to sing softly while I waited for Twilight to exit the changing booth. I even made sure Pinkie didn't hear me. Twilight exited the booth and told the others about herself, well Pinkie did, and Spike boasted about being a ferocious, fire-breathing dragon. I dropped down behind them and said, "If you still don't believe her, take my word for it that she is telling the truth."

Twilight and Spike spun around, looking for the source of the voice. Pinkie just jumped up and said, "Mr. Ghost!" I just chuckled and became visible. The girls, sans Twilight and Pinkie, stepped back in shock.

"Pinkie, how many times have I asked students to not call me 'Mr.' because it makes me feel old? Even though I may be over fifty thousand years old, I don't like to be reminded of it."

"Who are you?" Twilight looked as if she was trying to remember if she had seen me somewhere.

"I'm Ordeus, the shaper of Equestria. You know me, as I am the only known male alicorn in Equestria."

"That's impossible; Equestria was shaped over fifty million years ago!"

"Well dang, either my clock broke or I read it incorrectly. All I know is that when I got to Equestria it was basically entirely desert and it was never night. But I can assure you, I was there since the beginning. I even brought life to the planet. You can ask Celestia when you get back, or the other me, because I obviously forgot to tell you."

"So you're telling us," Rarity butted in to our conversation, "that Twilight is a pony princess, Spike is a dragon, and you are a being that created a world?"

"Basically, yes. I didn't really create the planet itself, I just helped it along in the shaping process and brought in the animals and most of the plants. And these said animals evolved and became sentient after time. I simply thought it took less time than it actually did."

Twilight pushed in, "And if we don't get my crown back tonight, Equestria will lose an important tool for its defense. Snips and Snails ruined Pinkie's decorations, but I'm sure we can all re-decorate in time for the dance to happen tonight. And I'm sure we could use your help, Ordeus."

"Sure, I'll help in any way possible. As long as I don't have to sing in the inevitable song."

"But I thought you liked music and singing." Pinkie chimed in.

"Of course I like music, but I'll let you girls do the singing. I'll just stay back and in the shadows basically. As you have seen, I can still use magic. So I'll disguise myself as a student so I can help."

We talked for a short while and then agreed on what each of us was going to do. When we got back to the school, they all commented on the bad conditions of the decorations. We got started, me in the guise of a student. As time went on, more and more students pitched in on helping us clean up and re-decorate. We all finished the decorating and Celestia told everyone that the dance was back on for tonight.

I bade the girls farewell for the moment and went back to my classroom. I switched back into my original form and donned a tuxedo. I didn't really want to wear a tux, but I was forced to because I was a teacher. I waited in my room for the rest of the time while I waited for the dance to start. When the time came around, I made my way to the gym.

To say it was normal for me was an understatement. It was super boring normal for me. I stood against a wall whilst everyone else danced and had fun. Celestia made her way onto the stage and everyone quieted down. What made me ticked off was she wasn't wearing a dress or anything fancy. If I was required to wear something fancy, she should at least do the same. She announced that the Fall Formal princess was Twilight, who went up to the stage to receive her crown.

"Help," Spike yelled, and the entire mane six looked over to the gym doors where Snips and Snails were holding Spike. I was already making my way to the doors on the other side of the room, and I quietly slipped out unnoticed. I figured I would leave now before the whole demon Sunset thing went down.

I went to Celestia's office and left a note on the door saying, "I'll leave the other me here. He'll still teach, but he doesn't need food so you don't have to pay him." I went outside, and ran straight into Spike as he ran to the door. I grabbed the crown and tossed it to Sunset. "Twilight, remember that magic still works in this world. The friendship you have with these girls still produces that strong magic that you know of. I'll see you back in Equestria." I jumped into the portal backwards, saluting to them as I fell through the glass.

I passed through the tunnel with no problem. The problem occurred when I came out the other side of the portal. I fell flat on my back, right at the hooves of Celestia and Luna. Both of them had shocked looks on their faces, ones of disbelief.

"So, how long have I been gone?"

The Gala and Other Shenanigans

Celestia answered my question, "You've been gone for ten minutes."

I face palmed. "Well bollocks! I really hate when time and or dimensional travel does this kind of stuff. And so you know, before I forget to tell you, Sunset will do just fine. When the time comes, only Twilight can enter the mirror because the others would upset the balance of the other world. I'll see you two at the Gala in about three months. I'm gonna check something and then I'm going to sleep until the Gala." I got up off the floor and went to the throne room doors. I looked at the two guards that were posted there and said, "You two can go back in now. And I meant what I said about not telling anypony about this. Not even Shining Armor can know about this." The two guards saluted and walked back into the room.

I transformed into my alicorn form and made my way to the front doors of the castle, passing only a few servants on my way out. When I got outside, I blinked over to the clearing in the forest where my clock and bed were. I picked up my clock, but I noticed something stuck to the bottom of it. I turned it over and saw that there was licorice on the bottom. The licorice spelled out, "I fixed your clock for you, and it was off by about 49,956,000 years according to my rule. The only master of chaos, Discord."

There was a slight twitch of my eye. Of course it had been Discord that had messed up my clock. Now I had no idea exactly how long I had been on this planet because my clock had been tampered with. I destroyed the stuff in the clearing and walked back to my house because it was nearby, so I didn't have to blink. I don't know why I call it blinking when it's really just teleporting; I just find it more original. I only wanted to sleep to pass the time and I had decided that I would find out later where the doors led to.

I changed form as I entered through my front door. I didn't have to worry about ponies seeing my true form because they barely came out this far on a whim. When I got to my room, I just flopped down on to the bed. I didn't even bother with taking off my shoes or clothes; I didn't care if the tuxedo got wrinkled because I would probably never use it again. I probably wouldn't need to set up an alarm because Pinkie or Luna would most likely come to get me if I was late. I closed my eyes and willed myself to fall asleep.

I was rudely awakened by Pinkie because she was bouncing up and down on my bed. I was really hoping that it would have been Luna who would come and wake me up. "It's time to get up. The Gala is in just a few hours and Rarity said she still needs you to make sure your tuxedo fits you correctly and it's to your liking. She said it was really urgent that you get there NOW. This bed is also really fun to bounce on." She gasped and floated for about three second before she landed again. "Can you make me one of these beds!?"

"First of all, stop bouncing on me. I get the picture that I need to get up. Second, I get the feeling that many ponies would not like to be awakened this way. But sure I'll make one of these beds for you, but after the Gala." I got up and changed forms, heading for the front door while I was fixing my bed mane and preening my feathers. When I got outside, I just blinked over to Carousel Boutique. I didn't really bother with using my wings that much anymore.

Rarity screamed, dropping spools of thread and rolls of fabric that she was carrying with her magic, when I appeared right in front of her. She glared at me and I just smiled apologetically. "Darling, it would be nice if you used the front door like everypony else."

"I got the message from Pinkie that it was urgent that I get here as soon as possible. And I figured that I would skip past the time needed to wait at the door for you to get to it and open it."

"I'll forgive you this time because it is urgent. Enough with the dilly-dallying, you need to get your tuxedo on now. The others will be here in about an hour to get their dresses fixed if they need them to be fixed, so we need to work on your tuxedo before they arrive." She pushed a cover over to me with her magic. She draped the tuxedo over the cover after she had moved it over to me.

The tuxedo actually looked better than I had imagined it. It was a golden brown color, with lapis colored stitching that created patterns over the tuxedo. It also had a lapis colored bow-tie, which had a tiger's eye gem at the center. It fit like a glove, meaning it wasn't too loose but it also wasn't too tight. I stepped out from behind the cover and did a small spin. "It's perfect! I didn't even think it would be anything like this, because I was thinking about a simple tuxedo. I don't need anything changed because it fits perfectly."

"That is nice to hear darling. I have to get ready for the others, so just sit over there and wait." She pointed to a small couch that was sitting against the wall. I sat down and quickly fell asleep. When I woke up, the others were already in their dresses. I came to the realization that I fell asleep too easily, but that was probably an instinct to save time for me.

I got up and stretched my legs and wings. I walked over to the girls and gave them all a smile. "You girls look gorgeous. Rarity, you did a terrific job on these dresses." They all blushed, even Rainbow Dash blushed and she tried to hide it. Spike waddled into view, wearing his own custom made tuxedo. "Even Spike's tuxedo looks great. You outdid yourself on these clothes, Rarity."

"Well, thank you for your flattery dear. We should leave now so we can arrive on time. We wouldn't want to be late for our very first Gala!" We left Carousel Boutique and the girls entered the carriage. Spike climbed up onto the drives bench, and I relieved the stallions of their places pulling the cart and latched myself on.

"Spike, don't even think about touching those reigns." I turned my head around and gave him a glare. He gave a small chuckle and looked side to side nervously as he shook his head.

"I wasn't even thinking about it." He slowly put the reigns down instead of giving them a flick.

I started to pull the carriage towards Canterlot. It was quiet between Spike and I, but the girls sounded like they were having fun inside the carriage. As we passed into Canterlot, we got many strange looks. Spike leaned forward and whispered into my ear, "I don't think they understand why an alicorn is pulling a carriage instead of sitting in it."

"Well, they can learn to get over preconceived notions of royalty and get over it. I enjoy acting like myself and not like royalty. That and I honestly don't care what they think. We pulled up to the castle and the girls got out. "I'm gonna disappear for a while, I feel that this musical number in going to be more exciting when I play the music."

"What in the name of your beard are you talking about?"

"Oh, you'll see. And besides, it isn't really a beard; it's more of a goatee. I'll be in the ballroom for about an hour, but after that I'm going to Donut Joe's." I un-latched myself from the carriage and found a place when nopony could see me. I switched forms, still wearing my tuxedo which transformed with me. I now wore a human version of the tuxedo Rarity made for me. I pulled my guitar out of its pocket of hammerspace, and I made a mental note to look for the room in my house that it came from. Before the song started, I blinked to the tallest tower of the castle. I didn't need amps in this dimension because the music was already amplified. (At The Gala Rock! By Claire Anne Carr) I easily made the song twenty percent cooler.

When the song was finished, I returned the guitar and transformed into my other form. I flew into an open window of the ballroom, doing a knife turn to fit through because the window was not wide enough for my wingspan if I wanted to go in horizontally. The few Wonderbolts that were in there and some other ponies applauded my performance as I landed on an open spot on the floor. One of the pompous, upper-class ponies turned their nose up and huffed at my actions. "How uncouth for royalty."

"You'll understand that I don't act like royalty because it is extremely boring. I like to be exciting and unpredictable, so excuse me if I'm 'uncouth' as you say it." I turned towards Soarin', who was standing right next to me. "So how much does it cost to get into your guys shows?"

"For royalty, it's free. And have you tried these pies? They're amazing!" He stuffed a slice of pie into his mouth and started chewing with his mouth open, relishing in the flavor.

"I can't say I've had this exact batch, but I have had Applejack's pies before. And I understand that Rainbow Dash saved this one from hitting the floor." I snatched a slice while he chewed.

He swallowed the food that was in his mouth and grabbed the slice from me. "Yeah, Rainbow Dash is a pretty cool mare. She has some potential to become a Wonderbolt. It doesn't help her case if she just continues fanfillying around us.

"I do believe I warned her about doing exactly that. Oh well, I'll talk to you later I guess. I should probably converse with some of the other guests." I gave him a hoof bump and walked around for the rest of the time I was going to be there. I talked to Octavia when she had a break, and it really seemed that she was enjoying herself. Right after I had talked to Octavia, I had bumped into Vinyl. She definitely wasn't enjoying this event. "Don't worry Vinyl; this will get much better once Pinkie gets involved."

She gave me a skeptical look. "If you say so…" She walked off to talk to Octavia, who was still on break for a few more minutes.

"When I turned around, I almost bumped into somepony again. I was surprised when I looked down and saw Fancy Pants and Fleur De Lee. "I am terribly sorry for almost running into you. I find it somewhat hard to see directly in front of me unless I look at the ground." I realized that I had also grown taller than I was previously, no clue how that happened.

"Oh, it's fine old chap." My eye twitched. "I do say who made your fine ensemble?"

"The one who made it is a good friend of mine. She is trying to become a well-known name in fashion in Equestria. Have you heard of a mare named Rarity?" I could possibly help Rarity become known to Fancy Pants before she met him in a few months.

"You mean that mare that is walking around with Blueblood tonight?" I nodded my head. "I have heard that she makes exquisite dresses, but I heard nothing of clothing for stallions. I will try to remember her name. And I'll let it be known to you that you are welcome over to my home whenever you are in Canterlot." He leaned towards me and motioned for me to come closer. I bent my head down towards him and he whispered, "I have the urge to speak with somepony that is sophisticated, but not vain and suck up. I heard what you said when you came in and you match that roll perfectly."

"I know exactly what you're talking about." I straightened to my full height. "I'll see what I can do. And please, if you see Rarity, don't act like you have spoken to me about her. Just make it seem as if you haven't even heard of what she does." He bowed and walked off, Fleur following right behind. Pinkie had walked over to the musicians, so I took that as my cue to leave. As I walked out of the ballroom, I passed Blueblood and Rarity who were making their way to the ballroom. I gave Rarity a wink and kept walking towards the entrance to the castle.

I entered the main hall and slightly bumped into Celestia as I passed her. "This is about to become the best Gala ever, Tia. The group and I will be at Donut Joe's, and I'm sure the others wouldn't mind if you and Lulu came as well after things have settled down." As I made my way out, everypony that was still in line bowed to me as I passed them. I would ask Celestia if she could get everypony to treat me like one of them instead of treating me like royalty. Make a royal decree or something. Heh, the irony behind that thought.

When I got out of the castle gate, I discreetly made my way through the backstreets and alleyways towards the donut shop. I didn't meet with or run into any pony on the way there, my tactic of using the back ways working perfectly. The reasons why I didn't just blink into the shop were that I didn't want to startle the occupants, and there was a chance that I could accidentally blink into a table. I did not want to be fused with a table because of a simple mistake, even if it was for a short amount of time.

I walked into the shop when Spike was halfway done with another donut, his fifth by the looks of it. I walked up to the counter and slapped down ten bits on the top. "Yo, Donut Joe. I'd like a chocolate donut, with extra sprinkles."

"Sure, comin right up yer majesty." He grabbed a donut and practically poured the entire bag of sprinkles onto the donut. He hoofed it to me and took five bits off the counter.

"Thanks Joe and you don't have to treat me like royalty. As in you don't have to call me majesty. And keep the change, I certainly don't need it." I grabbed the donut with my magic and walked over to the table Spike was sitting at. "So Spike, how's your night been?"

"Eh, it's been pretty boring so far. I just left the park, like twenty minutes ago, and then I came here to eat some donuts." He ate the rest of his donut and asked Joe for another one, with more sprinkles than the last.

"Well, we won't have to wait long for the girls to get here. The last I saw before I left, things were about to get hectic at the castle." We sat there for a few minutes, eating our donuts as we waited for the girls to arrive. Spike finished his before I did mine, and he ordered another donut with still more sprinkles than the last one. If I didn't know better, I would have said that sprinkles acted on him like alcohol would on a man. The door opened as the girls walked in, chattering and trying to fix their dresses so they didn't look as bad.

"That was absolute mayhem, everything was a total disaster," exclaimed Twilight as she flopped her head down onto the table.

Celestia and Luna walked in right after the rest of the girls had sat down, but I was the only one who had noticed their presence until Celestia said, "That was the best Grand Galloping Gala we've had yet!"

"But it was a disaster,' Twilight said as she looked up at her mentor. "How could it have been the best one you've had?"

The royal sisters walked over to the table, Luna spoke next. "We have been hosts to the most snobbish we wished to have never encountered!" All of what she said was spoken using the Royal Canterlot Voice, and it echoed around the shop, making the glass vibrate.

"Whoa, Lulu, tone down the volume a bit. You aren't speaking to your subjects in a wide open area. You're talking to your friends in a small shop." I turned my attention towards the girls gathered at the table. "So, girls, do you realize that everything does not go always as planned and that you could have had a better time if you hung out with each other instead of going on your own ventures?" I glanced around the table, reading each of their faces as they looked at each other and thought of their answer.

They all stated in unison, "Of course!" They laughed and gathered in for a group hug, pulling Spike, Celestia, Luna, and I. We stayed in the donut shop for a few more hours, talking about past experiences and the events of the night. I skimmed over my past, leaving out the details that I didn't want to tell them yet.

When we finally left, it was past midnight. The girls, Spike and I took the train back to Ponyville, sleeping on the way back. When we had arrived at the train station, the girls said bye and started to head for their homes. I grabbed Pinkie towards me before she got too far and then I put a party hat on her head and a party favor in her mouth.

"You and I never really got to have the party we wanted. How bout we rock Ponyville to the break of dawn!?" I pulled her towards my body with my left front leg and waved my right leg in an ark. "Think about how awesome it would be.

She gasped and leaped out of my grasp, showering me with confetti. 'I'll get the balloons and snacks. You get the music and the games. Meet back in town square in ten minutes. Go!" With that, she sped off towards Sugarcube Corner. As she went, she knocked on every house door to tell everypony that there was going to be a party.

I rushed off towards Vinyl and Octavia's house to see if they were home. I came up to their door and pounded on it. "Yo, DJ and Tavi, you girls home? We're about to have a party and we need music!" The second floor window opened and Vinyl stuck her head out the window and looked down at me.

She shouted down to me, "Give me like five minutes and I'll be in town square with my booth set up. The Octaviapus is still sleeping, so she won't be there!" She slammed the window shut and moved away from it. I could hear crashing from inside her house as she moved her booth out of the room. I decided that I wouldn't just wait around for her to get out, so I started to make my way to my house to get some games. I would also check in the town hall to see if they had anything stored there because I didn't really have games that would be good for a large group of party goers.

When I got to my house I grabbed only a few of the games that I had. Two of them were Twister and the large sized Jenga where the blocks are as big a normal pony, it would be interesting to see a pony trying to play Twister. I put everything in a storage box and slipped that into a pocket of hammerspace. I made my way back to town square, knocking on the doors that Pinkie hadn't as she went to Sugarcube Corner. I made it back a few minutes late and Pinkie was waiting there for me, impatiently tapping her hoof against the floor of the hall.

Vinyl had gotten back before me as well, her booth set up and she was getting her speakers moved so that they could be most effective. I pulled out the storage box from where I put it and got the games set up, putting Twister near the center of everything. Pinkie hopped over to where I was standing and placed a party hat on my head, she was still wearing the one I had put on her head. "What' with the plastic mat? Is it some type of color game? I love color games! What are you supposed to do?"

"It's called Twister," I explained as I showed her the spinner, "Somepony spins this and whatever color it lands on is the color that you have to place the specified hoof upon." I looked down at the spinner and I almost freaked out. It still said left and right hand on it, so I quickly changed it to say front or back and left or right hoof. Pinkie looked at me strangely because I had probably looked scared when I almost freaked out.

"What's wrong? If something's wrong, we need to fix it now! Ponies are already coming!"

"Nah, I just fixed it." I whispered in her ear, "It still said hands, and I fixed it to say hoofs. It would seem strange if a pony was spinning it and said left hand green, because nopony has hands."

"Oh, I get why you looked scared then. You didn't want your secret to get out. So who's going to be doing the spinning of the arrow?"

"I don't know who'll spin the arrow. It all depends on who will volunteer to do it instead of play, unless they're a unicorn. Then they can play and spin it with their magic."

"Okie dokie lokie." With that she bounced off and greeted the first ponies that got over to the party.

There was a bar set up for apple cider and milk and such just across from town hall, so I decided to get something from over there while I waited for the party to really get started. I walked up to it and looked for the bartender, who didn't seem to be there. Just as I was about to give up, Pinkie popped up from behind the bar. She was cleaning a mug with a cloth.

"What can I get for you sir? A tall glass of cider or milk?" She set down the mug and moved over to the barrels that were set up.

I was surprised at how she appeared from behind the bar after I had checked that nopony was there but then I remembered that she was Pinkie. "Yeah, I'd like an extra-large mug of cider. Don't hold out on me as well, I want the extra strength stuff."

"If you say so sir, coming right up." She pulled out a mug that was about half the size of the barrel that held the cider. She pulled the tap and filled the mug to the brim with cider and slid it down towards me. The ponies that had arrived had gathered near me and they were chanting "chug", trying to get me to drink it all in one go. Needless to say, I did. About three-fourths of the way through, I started to feel really tipsy. When I had finished, I was totally flat out drunk. I didn't think that this world would have actual alcohol, especially if they didn't have coffee.

I raised up my empty glass to the ponies that had gathered around me to see me chug cider and yelled, "Let's *hic* get dis party started!" I ran over to the mat for Twister and started to play, others joining in as time went on. My vision started to get blurry and I blacked out, remembering nothing else that happened that night.

0~0~0~0~0

I woke up in my house, in my study, with a splitting headache. Note to self, never ask for the strong stuff of apple cider and with a large cup. I opened my eyes to discover that the room was covered with passed out ponies. I went around waking them up gently and then asking them nicely to leave. I only had to force Filthy Rich out of my house because he refused to leave. Pinkie had helped me clean up the rooms that had been trashed during the party. Luckily no one had gone down the halls with the extra doors. I didn't want to have to search all those doors.

After everything was said and done, Pinkie left and I walked up to my bedroom. I made myself remember what happened during the time I had blacked out and I got really embarrassed. I had flirted with a total of four mares, two of them being Pinkie and Applejack, and then gotten in a heated argument with a plant pot on the veranda. And I had even admitted to losing said argument with that plant pot to the ponies that were watching me. When Lyra had entered my house, she went straight to my room for some reason. I then had to explain why I had armor that was built for humans. I didn't tell her I was one, but I had to admit that humans were real.

After Lyra had run off to gloat to Bon Bon that humans were real, I had gone to my study and looked through over half the books in search of a 'fluffy tumble bun'. I don't even know what a fluffy tumble bun is! And when I had 'finally found it', I collapsed and that was the end of it. I knew that Discord would be coming soon, so I decided that I would set up some precautions while I waited for that day.

Over the next few days, I set up a barrier around my plot of land that would cancel out any magic Discord cast. Nothing that was his would be able to even enter my zone. I then sold all my extra land to Applejack for a few bits and a promise to all the apples and apple based products I could ever want. I wasn't going to use that extra land anyways and I knew that she could use the extra land for apple trees. I made a cobblestone path from my front door that led to Ponyville so that I wouldn't get lost in the orchard that would grow.

I also started to make my costume for the next Nightmare Night that was coming up. I went all out, and actually worked on it instead of just making it appear. I started by making a few ebony ingots and finding some daedra hearts. I would make daedric armor for nightmare night. I found the forge in my house after looking through about thirty doors, all of them labeled, and I got started. Physical labor is actually quite fun when you're making armor. I knew how to make it because of my ever-growing knowledge on all subjects.

I finished in about three hours of starting. I made it because it looked totally badass and I actually wanted it ever since Luna had looked into my dream and I wore it. I put and enchantment on it so that nopony and nothing else short of Celestia or Luna could pick it up, even with magic. I also put that enchantment on the other armors I had in my room. I went to sleep when I had everything finished, ready to wake up and stay out of every ponies way.

Discord and Order

I woke up three days after I had fallen asleep and stretched the soreness out of my muscles. I walked downstairs and quickly changed into my pony form. I opened the door and saw Rainbow Dash rushing after a cotton candy cloud. I took off after her, following her towards Sweet Apple Acres. When I arrived, everypony there was having problems with the chaos that was spreading. Twilight came up shortly after I did.

"Don't worry, everyone. I've learned a new spell that'll fix everything." She concentrated, gathering a large amount of power in her horn. When she had finished gathering her magic, she shot a blast of magic to the surrounding area. Needless to say, her spell had failed. There were still cotton candy clouds and mutated rabbits. "I don't believe it, my failsafe spell… failed!"

"Don't worry about it, Twi. This is pretty strong magic, so it's understandable if you can't fix it. I'll do it." I gathered up my own spell and spread it across Ponyville. All of Discords magic was cleansed from those it had previously affected and the clouds had disappeared. "There, that was easy."

"Ah dang did you really have to do that? Those clouds rained chocolate milk! You could have at least let me keep one." Pinkie said with a pout on her face.

"No can do, Pinkie, that blast I sent out got rid of them all in Ponyville. And if I let one stay, it would have just duplicated itself and spread more chaos." At that moment, Spike burped up a letter. "I bet I know what that letter says already girls. Let's head on to Canterlot. Hold on to your breakfasts if this is your first time teleporting." I quickly teleported the entire group, minus Spike, into the safe room of the castle.

Celestia jumped in surprise as we appeared right in front of her. "I didn't expect you to arrive so quickly, but follow me. I've called you here for a matter of great importance. It seems an old foe of mine, someone I thought I had defeated long ago, has returned. His name... is Discord. You can do a great deal to help us, Ordeus."

I looked up from the book I was reading on royal guard training and responded, "Oh, I can't help with this. That would imbalance this world too much, so the girls will have to do this on their own. And I have a great idea to advertise the royal guards later on!"

"But you are supposed to…" Celestia started to argue before Pinkie interrupted her.

"Hey, look! We're famous!" She exclaimed as she pointed at the stain glass window that depicted the mane six defeating Nightmare Moon with the Elements of Harmony.

"You six showed the full potential of the Elements by harnessing the magic of your friendship to beat a mighty foe. Although Luna and I once wielded the Elements, it is you who now control their power, and it is you who must defeat Discord, because Ordeus here doesn't seem like he wants to help very much."

"Hey, I already told you the reason why I can't! If it wouldn't really affect anything I would definitely help." I put the book I was reading down and then just sat there, waiting for Discord to show himself.

"Princess, you can count on us to…" Twilight started to say before Pinkie interrupted her as well.

"Hold on a second! Eternal chaos comes with chocolate rain, you guys. Chocolate rain!" Pinkie said with a dreamy look in her eye and her face bright and excited.

"Don't mind her Princess, we'd be glad to use the Elements to defeat Discord." Twilight told Celestia as the others gathered around her and agreed.

"Have no fear, ponies. I have total confidence that you will be able to defeat Discord with these!" Celestia had unlocked the vault and taken the box out of it.

Rarity looked at the case in awe of the gems and the craftsmanship, or craftsponyship in this case. "You can keep the Elements, I'll take that case!"

Celestia simply rolled her eyes and opened the chest to reveal that nothing was there. Everypony gasped and Celestia dropped the case out of surprise. Pinkie looked in the case again and said to the group, "Oh, well. If anyone needs me, I'll be outside in the chocolate puddles with a giant swizzle straw." And before she could bounce out of the room, Twilight pulled her back with magic.

"But that doesn't make any sense! The Elements were protected by a powerful spell that only I can break!" She looked distraught and worried that something might have happened to the Elements, which was the case. But of course only Discord and I knew that they were in Ponyville's library.

There was a chuckle from a disembodied voice. "Make sense? Oh, what fun is there in making sense?" Said Discord as he spoke to us, mainly to Celestia.

"Discord, show yourself!" Celestia shouted at the disembodied voice, and we heard a snap of fingers and Discord appeared on the stain glass windows.

"Did you miss me, Celestia? I missed you. It's quite lonely being encased in stone, but you wouldn't know that, would you, because I don't turn ponies into stone." He chuckled dryly at his own joke. Frankly, I didn't see what he found funny in his comment.

"Nah, I'm pretty sure that if she missed you she could have just went into the garden and looked at your frozen form." I piped in, drawing Discords attention towards me.

"Oh, I see that we have a new alicorn among our midst. And he has a sense of humor! He should totally replace this stuck up pony princess that can't take a joke." He chuckled again, which was really annoying after about the fifth time.

Celestia simply stood her ground and stared at the Discord glass. "Enough! What have you done with the Elements of Harmony?"

Discord simply looked at her and responded, "Oh, I just borrowed them for a teensy little while." He then snapped his fingers/ talons again and appeared in one window instead of three.

"You'll never get away with this, Discord!" Celestia stamped her hoof against the ground.

"Are you serious Celestia? I forgot how boring you could be."

"Hey! I won't let you talk to the Princess like that!" Rainbow flew straight at Discord, and smacked against the glass.

"Ah, the Element of Loyalty, Rainbow Dash."

"That's right! And I'll always be loyal to the princess and my friends!"

"We'll see about that…"

Rarity rolled her eyes and looked at the case again. "I can't believe we're wasting our time talking to a tacky window."

"The beautiful Rarity, representing the Element of Generosity, if I'm not mistaken?"

Applejack grinded her teeth in annoyance. "So you know who we are. Big deal."

"Oh I know much more than just who you are, honest Applejack."

Twilight looked up at the window, scrutinizing Discord. "You seem to know our strengths too."

"Yes, Twilight Sparkle, and yours is the most powerful and elusive element, Magic. Fluttershy's is Kindness and Pinkie Pie's is a personal favorite of mine- Laughter." He laughed loudly at this, enjoying the reactions he got from the ponies in the room.

Pinkie snickered and Twilight looked over at her. "Pinkie! This is no time to be laughing!"

"But he's dancing on your head!" She pointed at Discord, who was in fact, dancing on the depiction of Twilight.

"Stop stalling, Discord! What have you done with the Elements of Harmony?" Celestia stomped her hoof against the ground again, fire in her eyes.

Oh, why so serious Celestia? Fine, I'll tell you, but I'll only tell you my way." He started speaking in a rhyming type of voice. "To retrieve your missing Elements, just make sense of this change of events. Twists and turns are my master plan. Then find the Elements back where you began." He laughed maniacally, disappearing from the window as his laugher faded.

Fluttershy was slowly creeping towards the door. "Can we go home now?"

Twilight was quietly reciting what Discord had said to herself. "Twists and turns… twists and turns… twists and turns!" she looked out the window and saw the labyrinth. "That's it! I bet Discord hid the Elements in the labyrinth!"

Celestia walked up behind the mane six and said to them, "Good luck, my little ponies. The fate of Equestria is in your hooves."

Twilight walked up to her mentor and rubbed against her neck. "Thanks, princess. We won't let you down." She led the rest of the group out towards the labyrinth. I just stayed back with Celestia and felt somewhat left out. Discord hadn't said anything about me after he had said that he would rather have me rule. He acted like I wasn't even here!

"Why are you still here, Ordeus? Are you not going to help the others find the Elements? And why have you not already defeated Discord if you are here to keep order?" She asked me as she looked at me from her throne.

"Well, I'm still here because Discord is a trickster and a silver tongued serpent. I just don't fall for his tricks though. And if I helped to find the Elements, I would mess up the timeline. Don't ask on that. And, I'm here to keep order and balance. The world needs some chaos to stay balanced, because without it the world would become 'stagnant' and would fall apart."

Celestia looked shocked at this news. "Well if you can't just defeat him, why would you not encase him in stone again?"

"Because, as I said before, that could mess up the timeline. The girls have to get through this challenge on their own. This will help deepen their friendships, like the time they defeated Nightmare Moon using the Elements. They will learn how to deal with their darker sides and overcome difficult obstacles."

"Okay, if you aren't going to help them, what are you going to do?"

"I'm going to watch over them and make sure Discord doesn't actually hurt them. I doubt that he would because he simply wants a laugh right now, but that could change in an instant. I'm going to go now, have a great day." I walked out the door and headed towards the door that led out to the labyrinth. Celestia just made a quiet grunt and headed off to the throne room.

I caught up with the girls right as soon as they reached the entrance to the labyrinth. I smiled at them and they greeted me. Fluttershy gasped and quietly stuttered "W-we have to go in there?"

Rainbow flew up and said, "Nope! Dopey Discord forgot about these babies! I'll just do a quick flyover and get the Elements in no time." Before she could get anywhere else her wings disappeared, making her fall to the ground. She felt at her back where her wings used to be and cried, "My wings!"

Fluttershy's wings were next and then Rarity's and Twilight's horn disappeared. Twilight started to freak out. She pointed at Rarity "Your horn is gone!" And then she felt her own forehead and exclaimed, "My horn is gone!"

I laughed quietly for a moment and then said with a straight face, "Yup, and we all know what this means." They looked at me like I was going to say something important. "That means that you guys are just like Applejack now."

They all just stood there with shocked looks on their faces and Applejack yelled "Hey!" at me. Then we could hear Discord's laughter again. "You–You should see the looks on your faces. Priceless!" He appeared in the air above us, crying because he was laughing so hard. Wherever his tears landed, a poison joke flower would sprout. "I knew I would like this guy, he's hilarious!"

Twilight stamped her hoof indignantly "Give us our wings and horns back!"

Discord's laughter stopped and he wiped a tear from his eye, and as it descended towards the ground it caught fire. It just sat there on the ground for a moment, smoldering, before I snuffed it out with my hoof. "You'll get them back in good time. I simply took them to ensure there's no cheating. You see, this is the first rule of our game: no flying, and no magic."

Rainbow Dash looked at him with a mad glint in her eye. "The first rule?"

Discord came down and cradled her face with his lion paw. "Yes. And the second rule is that everypony has to play, or I win. Good luck everypony!" He snapped his fingers and disappeared into the labyrinth. The labyrinth then began to twist and turn, becoming larger and more difficult. Some parts of it even rose up from the ground and became floating globs of earth with hedges on them.

"How ever are we going to find the Elements now?" Rarity asked with a downtrodden look on her face.

Twilight looked at me and saw that I still had my horns and my wings. She walked up to me and shoved me towards the entrance. "Ordeus here will help us find them. He still has his wings and his horn. How did you manage that by the way?"

"It's because I have a natural barrier surrounding my body that blocks him from using any spells on me that would be detrimental to my body. And he didn't even bother with me because I'm not a player in this game. I can't help you girls find the Elements, I'm simply here as an observer." I decided to drop the same hint that Discord had given them. "Remember girls, twists and turns are his master plan. But, find the Elements back where you began. He will try to trick you at every turn, in this labyrinth and in life."

I flew off to hover above the labyrinth so that I could watch the girls. "Don't worry, even if Ordeus can't help us, we can get through this if we just stick together" Twilight said to the girls, trying to encourage them. They all yelled yeah and lined up to enter the labyrinth. As soon as they entered the labyrinth, hedges grew as walls between them, cutting them off from one another. They all yelled loudly in despair. Twilight just yelled over the hedges, "Stay calm, girls! Everypony head to the middle as fast as you can, and we'll regroup there!"

The others confirmed that they heard what she said and began to head off, except for Pinkie who just sat there for a moment saying "What's that? Who's there? Girls!" She got up and began heading down her set path. I brought up six different viewing screens so that I could see what all of them were doing. Discord appeared behind me and tapped my shoulder.

"So, I never really got an introduction for you. Who are you by the way?" He snapped his fingers, probably trying to find out about me.

"That won't work, Discord. I'm surrounded by a barrier that prevents any of your magic from affecting me. And I'm Ordeus, as you already know, the alicorn of order and balance. So I'm not really the opposite of you, but I don't really bring about chaos. I know when the world needs some discord, and when it needs order."

"Well at least you know how to make a joke and take a joke. Old Tia never could take my jokes." He rolled his eyes into his head to watch a few of the pranks that he had pulled on Celestia and Luna.

"That's because your pranks and jokes could have hurt somepony, hopefully you have toned it down some since then. But yeah, I know how to make a great joke every now and again and I can pull some great pranks." I saw in my peripheral vision that Applejack had reached the grove of apple trees and was talking to the 'Guardians of the Grove' as they called themselves.

Discord moved up to the screen. "Ah, yes, I thought that she would be the first to reach the prank I set up there. Soon we will see how honest she really is." He laughed as she slowly lost color, collapsing on the ground in shock. The hedge opened up slightly beside her and Twilight walked up to her.

"Applejack! Thank goodness! I thought I heard voices over here. Who were you talking to?" Twilight looked at Applejack with a concerned look on her face.

"I was talking to... uh... nopony! Nopony whatsoever!" Applejack shiftily looked side to side. She then got up and said to Twilight, "Come on, uh, we best be going." She headed towards the opening in the hedge as Twilight stood there and looked questioningly at Applejack?

"Did Applejack just...? Come on, Twilight! Applejack wouldn't lie." She told herself before she followed Applejack through the opening, which closed right as soon as she went through it.

"Oh, how they will slowly fall one by one to their darker sides." Discord laughed in glee. "I do hope that Pinkie is the next one, I set up the best balloon garden for her."

I rolled my eyes at his glee. "She will be the next one, she's almost there anyways." I pointed at Pinkie's screen and it showed her about to turn the corner into the balloon garden Discord had set up. "I don't really see why you are making them go through all this when you know that they'll defeat you anyways."

"Oh, how you jest. How do you think those silly ponies could defeat me without their precious Elements of Harmony?" He nudged me in the side, putting in enough strength that would bruise anypony other than me.

"I wouldn't under-estimate the strength of their friendship. Even though you may 'Discord' them, they will still pull through in the end. It may seem silly now, but true friendship is something strong that even you cannot stop. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go back to my house and fix myself a sandwich." I flew off, and Discord disappeared to go mess with the rest of the ponies in the labyrinth.

As I made my way back to Ponyville, I fixed a few things that Discord had messed with. I stopped the dancing buffalo and settled some of the houses that were floating. When I reached Ponyville, I saw that Discord hadn't gotten the chance to mess with anything here. I went to the library to see if Spike was doing anything, and if he wasn't I was going to see if he would like to hang out at my house. I had a room full of gems that I wasn't going to use at all and they could be a great snack for the young dragon.

I went to the door and opened it, walking in because it was the public library. "Hey, Spike, you here dude?"

"Yeah, just give me a moment. I have to finish cleaning the bedroom before Twilight gets back." A few minutes later, Spike came waddling down the stairs. "There, finished. What do you need, Ordeus?"

"I didn't really need anything; I just wanted to see if you wanted to come over to my house to hang out. I have a room full of gemstones that I'm never gonna use. I was thinking that I'd let you have some."

Spikes eyes lit up and he started to salivate. "I would gladly help you get rid of some of those gems, just let me close up the library and then we can head on over to your house." He grabbed the key and the closed sign. We walked out and he closed the door, placing the closed sign on a nail in the door and locking it behind us. "Ok, let's head on over to your house."

"Hold on to your breakfast then." I charged up my horn for a teleport spell.

"What do you mean by…" he started to say before we blinked to my front doorstep. He wobbled there for a moment before falling on his back. "Ugh, you could have warned me you were going to do that."

I gave him an apologetic look, "Well I told you to hold onto your breakfast. At least I didn't burn you at all, like Twilight did that one time.' I opened my front door and pulled him in. "Anyways, welcome to my home! The gem room is down the left hallway on this floor. Don't open any other doors on the way to the gem room." I looked him straight in the eye as I said that. "I'll be in the kitchen making myself a sandwich, meet me in there when you've gotten the gems that you want."

He nodded and ran off down the hall. I headed for the kitchen, switching forms as I passed through the door. I opened up the fridge and grabbed some ham and smoked cheddar. I put them on the island countertop and grabbed the bread from the cupboard. I put the sandwich together and put it in the microwave for twenty seconds. If I didn't have technology in this world, I don't know what I would do for food.

As the microwave dinged, Spike walked in while carrying a huge stack of gems. He went over to the table and set down his stack and started to devour them. He didn't even notice me until I had taken my sandwich out of the microwave and sat down at the table. He stopped eating and jumped out of his chair. He backed away slowly, eyes darting around the room, looking for the alicorn that said he would be in the kitchen.

"What in the hay are you? And what did you do with Ordeus?" HE asked as he kept backing towards the door.

"Calm down, dude. I am Ordeus, I just actually look like this because I'm not actually a pony." I took a bite of my food and started to chew. "I let you in on a secret only three other ponies know about. I know how it feels to be left out of something others are doing and they won't let you in on it. So I figured I would make this day more exciting for you."

He looked at my sandwich, and shuddered. "Is that... meat you're eating?" I just nodded my head and he cringed. "So you're going to eat me?" I shook my head and he visibly calmed down a bit.

"I'm an omnivore; I eat both plants and animals. But I don't eat dragons; they're too chewy for my tastes." He yelped at my joke. "Don't worry that was only a joke. I've never had dragon' and I don't really feel the desire to ever have dragon." I motioned for him to sit back down. "Why don't you continue eating? We can converse on things while we eat."

We sat there for a thirty minutes, chatting while we ate our meals. I found out that Twilight had a fear of poorly written lists, which I found hilarious. I told Spike a little about me and what was going on. He paled at my description of Discord and what he was trying to do.

"So you just let him go free to mess with Twilight and the others while you came here and made food? What if he hurt them, or even worse?" He shook where he sat, shaking the table.

"Don't worry; he won't hurt them or anything. He just wants to pull a few pranks, get a few laughs. You know ultimate prankster and lord of chaos type of stuff." I looked out the window, (the kitchen was one of the only rooms with a window), and saw the day and night cycle was being messed with at rapid rates. "It seems that they have lost the game. Time to head on back to the library, Spike. Remember what I said about telling nopony about what I am. Want me to just teleport you back there by the way?"

"Sure, but can I bring a few gems back with me?" I nodded and he went back to the gem room and got some gems and put them in a small carrying pouch I had given him. "Okay, I'm ready this time."

"Then I'll send you back right away." I snapped my fingers, imitating Discord, and sent Spike back to the library. I waited a few minutes until I could see Twilight and the rest of the group coming down the soap road. I then teleported myself to the library after I had changed back into my pony form. I arrived a few minutes before the girls got there, and I entered the library. Spike had fallen asleep and was snoring peacefully in a spot away from the door. I thought about waking him up, but then I decided against it. I sat there for a few minutes and read a Daring Do book while I waited for the girls.

I didn't have to wait long, the girls filed in, soon followed by Tom being pushed into the library by Twilight's magic. Spike had been woken up by Fluttershy pouring a bucket of cold water over him. Spike looked at Twilight and I, a look of distress on his face. "Twilight, Ordeus, what's going on? Why does everybody look so...gray?"

Twilight and I said, "Don't ask," at the same time. Twilight then started to pluck books off the shelves. "I need you to help me find something." Fluttershy had refilled her bucket and had come up behind Twilight.

"Hey, Twilight, what's soaking wet and clueless?" She heaved the bucket up and prepared to dump it on Twilight.

"Fluttershy, I don't have time for-" She turned around and got the water dumped on her.

"Your face!" Fluttershy yelled and then she banged the bucket down on to Twilight's head. Spike waddled up to Twilight to help her get the bucket off of her head and then he looked at both Twilight and I.

"What's happened to everypony?" Spike asked before he got slapped upside the head by Fluttershy, who was flying around, hitting anypony who wasn't paying attention.

Applejack trotted up to Spike and put her hoof on his shoulder. "I guess you just bring out the worst in us, Spike." She dropped her hoof from his shoulder and glanced around shiftily again. Spike looked even more confused at this blatant lie that Applejack had told.

"Ugh. No time to explain. We've got to find the reference guide to the Elements of Harmony before somepony does something she'll regret!" Twilight said, giving a glare to the other ponies in the room other than me. She returned to pulling books down from the shelves, looking for the reference guide.

Spike hopped up and ran upstairs, yelling down at us, "The Elements of Harmony? Oh, I know exactly where that book is." We could hear some rummaging in the room above us before Spike shouted down at us, "Found it!" When he came back downstairs, Fluttershy grabbed the book from him and blew a raspberry at his face.

Twilight got pretty angry at this point. "Fluttershy give me that book right now!" I decided that I didn't want to watch the game of keep away so I just teleported the book to Twilight, avoiding the annoyance of the game. She looked at me and told me, "Thank you." She opened the book and gasped. "The Elements! They were here all along!"

Spike came out from his hiding spot and said to us, "This is great! Now you guys can defeat Discord and put everything back to normal!"

Twilight had an extremely happy look on her face as she looked at the other girls in the room. "See, girls? We did it! We found the Elements of Harmony! Together!" Applejack yawned and the others just stood there like they weren't going to do anything. Twilight facehoofed, "Let me guess, you guys don't care?" They all yelled no at the same time and Twilight facehoofed again and sighed. "I never thought it would happen. My friends... have turned into complete JERKS!" She said as she slapped the necklaces on to the girls with her magic, "Necklace! Necklace! Necklace! Necklace! And... big crown thingy! Come on, everypony, let's go!"

Spike looked at her and counted the ponies in the room. "But, isn't somepony missing? Where is Rainbow Dash?"

Twilight looked at him and levitated the Element of loyalty over to him, slapping it on his neck. "Congratulations Spike, you're the new Element of Loyalty." She stomped out any qualms he had with it. "Now let's go defeat Discord so we don't ever have to talk to each other again!" She opened the library door and ushered the others out, slowly levitating Tom out of the library.

We made our way to the center of town, where we could see Discord sitting upon a throne made of golden licorice and blown up bubblegum for the cushions. He looked at the necklaces and Twilights crown. "Well, well, well, I see you've found the Elements of Harmony. How terrifying!" He faked a terrified quiver before he busted out laughing.

"Discord! I've figured out your lame riddle. You're in for it now!" Twilight exclaimed as she went up towards Discord, pulling the girls along with her.

Discord stopped laughing and rolled his eyes at Twilight. "I certainly am. You've clearly out-dueled me, and now it's time to meet my fate." He made a bull's-eye target appear on his stomach/chest and said, "I'm prepared to be defeated now, ladies. Fire when ready."

Twilight shouted, "Formation, now!" and the group stood there awkwardly, waiting for Spike to get in formation. Twilight just glared at him. "Rainbow Dash, get over here now." Spike just nervously gulped and got in formation with the girls. "Alright, let's get this over with" Twilight said as the Elements started to glow and lift the small group into the air. The magic then failed and dropped them onto the hard ground. "What's going on?"

The girls squabbled over what had happened and left their elements lying on the ground in front of Twilight. Spike had left his in front of Twilight saying that he had to go clean up the library. Rarity then grabbed the Elements and ran off towards her house. Twilight slumped down onto the ground and sobbed, "FINE! Leave! See if I care! I don't need you guys either! With friends like you, who needs...enemies...?"

"Bravo, ponies, bravo!" Discord clapped and had random noises like explosions going off in the background. "Harmony in Equestria is officially dead. Discord rules, Celestia drools." He then laughed as he went off to cause more chaos in Ponyville leaving Twilight and I in the town center. I picked Twilight up and placed her on my back and carried her to the library. About halfway there, Discord appeared beside us and started to tell us about what he was doing.

"Oh, my stomach! Twilight, Ordeus, you've got to see what I just did." He pointed over to Berry Punch, who was getting pepper poured over her. When she finally sneezed, the buildings around her fell as flat cardboard cutouts. I chuckled slightly at this. Twilight just looked sadly at the draconequus beside us and then looked back down. "It's priceless!" He laughed loudly again. "Come now, Twilight Sparkle. You've got to get into the spirit of things! After all, this is your new home."

She just sadly said, "Not anymore." And I continued to carry her to the library. Thankfully, Discord had left us after yelling yes and laughing maniacally. We arrived at the library and I put Twilight down. We entered and Twilight shut the door behind us. "Spike, pack your things, we're leaving." She didn't hear Spike's pained groaning. "Don't ask where we're going, 'cause I don't know yet. Just not here."

"Can't...move. The princess...has been sending these...since I came back to the library." He belched up yet another scroll. "Make it stop!"

Twilight picked up one of the letters in her magic and opened it, reading it aloud as her eyes scanned over the page. She kept on reading the letters, gaining color back as she read. "Real friends don't care what your cover is." "Friendship is a wondrous and powerful thing." "And like the path cut through the orchard, there will always be a way through." "The best thing to do is stay true to yourself." "Everypony has a special magical connection with her friends. Maybe even before she's met them." She looked at Spike and me, beaming like the sun.

"Spike! Ordeus! It's all so clear! Can't you two see? Discord's trying to distract us from what's important. He knows how powerful our friendships are, and he's trying to keep us from seeing it. Do you remember what I said the first day we arrived in Ponyville?" I shook my head and Twilight rolled her eyes again. "I was talking to Spike for that. I told you that the future of Equestria didn't rest on me making friends. But the opposite is true! The friendships I've made since I've been here are what saved Equestria from Nightmare Moon. And now they need to save it from Discord!"

Spike just sat here moaning from the pain of receiving so many letters in such a short amount of time. Twilight, who was totally oblivious to this, continued on, "You're right, Spike. I've got to fight for my friendships. For them. For me. For Equestria!" Spike moaned again, and Twilight looked at him. "Oh...uh...why don't you just stay here and rest? Ordeus and I will take care of the whole fighting for friendship thing ourselves." Spike just moaned again and let out a small belch, releasing a bit of flame but no scroll.

We made our way towards Sweet Apple Acres, where Applejack was. "Applejack, we're here to fight for our friendship!"

Applejack just looked at us, with a look of malice on her face. "Oh, now you want to fight. Where you went when I was battlin' Discord?"

Twilight looked at me and I nodded to tell her I knew what I was supposed to do. I tackled Applejack, pinning her down so Twilight could use her memory spell on Applejack. "Snap out of it. This isn't you! You're not a liar." Applejack turned back from gray to her normal orange and golden yellow. I got up off of her and helped her up.

"Wh-what happened? Twilight!" She looked down and sighed. "I saw a vision of us feudin' and fightin'. I couldn't face the truth, so I started tellin' lies. Can you ever forgive me?" She looked at Twilight with pleading eyes, begging for forgiveness.

"I already have. Come on, we still have to get the others." We headed off for the next home. We made quick work of the others, turning them back into their normal selves. I let Applejack hold them down because I didn't want to accidently hurt them. After we got all of them but Rainbow Dash, we had to search for her.

"Ugh, we aint ever going to find her, she could be anywhere!" Applejack yelled after she had finished looking through her part of Ponyville.

Pinkie just pointed up and jubilantly exclaimed, "Yeah, we will, 'cause she's right there!" We looked up and saw Rainbow lying on a cloud, relaxing like nothing was wrong.

Twilight yelled up to the cyan mare on the cloud, "Rainbow Dash!" The mare in question just glanced down at us, said "what's up guys", and then went back to relaxing on her cloud. "We've been looking everywhere for you!"

"That's nice, I guess." Dash said as she waved at us in dismissal.

"Discord's still on the loose! We need you to help us defeat him with your element, Loyalty!" Twilight said to the stubborn mare up on the cloud.

"Pfft. Loyalty, schmoyalty! Have you guys seen Ponyville? It's a disaster! I'm staying here in Cloudsdale where everything's awesome." Dash said as she relaxed further into the cloud she was lying on.

Rarity just glanced at the cloud skeptically. "How in Equestria can she think that tiny patch of clouds is Cloudsdale?"

Applejack looked over at her and nudged her with a hoof. "The same way he got you to think that cheap rock was a bona fide diamond."

Rarity looked indignantly at Applejack. "I thought we agreed never to speak of that again."

Twilight just gathered us into a huddle. "Time for a Plan B." She told us what each of us was going to do to get Rainbow Dash back to normal, telling me that I was going to act as a block in the sky. I nodded and flew off to a spot in the sky where Rainbow would be flying towards. It didn't take long for the rest of the crew to chase Rainbow to where I was stationed. She didn't even see me and she ran straight into me, becoming dazed for a second. Fluttershy rammed into her and pushed her down to the ground. I followed the group down and held Rainbow in my magic grasp.

Rainbow Dash just struggled in a futile attempt against our hold on her. "Lemme go! I don't need you guys! Leave me alone!" Twilight walked up to Rainbow and used her magic to help Rainbow return to normal. "Wh-what happened?" She gasped and looked around. "How's Ponyville? Where are the Elements?! Did we stop Discord?" We all cheered and the girls gathered in for a group hug.

Twilight was the first one to break from the group hug. "Come on girls, maybe it's a little early for a group hug." The others agreed and we trotted off back to the center of town.

We got there as Discord was trying out a new trick, turning ponies into their negative colors. I Stayed back and reverted the ponies that Discord had messed with as they ran past me. Discord still hadn't seen us as he sat on his throne and laughed. "Chaos is truly a wonderful thing!"

Twilight stepped towards him and shouted, "Not as wonderful as friendship!"

"Oh, this again?" Discord looked at the group and conjured up a glass of chocolate milk, drank the glass, and threw away the milk. The resulting explosion caused a few of the cardboard buildings to fall over as well as tossing a few ponies a few feet backwards.

"That's right. You couldn't break apart our friendship for long." Applejack said as she stepped up beside Twilight, a steeled determination in her eyes.

"Oh, Applejack, don't lie to me. I'm the one who made you a liar. Will you ever learn?" He said as he looked over towards Applejack, then he noticed her color had turned back to normal and gasped.

"I'll tell you what we've learned Discord. We've learned that friendship isn't always easy. But there's no doubt it's worth fighting for." Twilight stated as the rest of the girls grouped around her.

Discord made his way back to his throne and sat down, making a gaging sound as he sat down. "Ugh, gag. Fine, go ahead, try and use your little Elements, "frenemies". Just make it quick. I'm missing some excellent chaos here."

Twilight held her head high, readying her element. "All right, ladies, let's show him what friendship can do!" The rest of the girls gave nods of affirmation, except for Pinkie. She was under a cloud, drinking chocolate rain.

"Wait-wait-wait!" She yelled before she finished up with the last mouthful of milk. She licked her lips and jumped back over to the girls, growling at Discord when she had gotten back to the group. The Elements began to glow brightly, lifting the girls up into the air and creating a blast of rainbow magic that headed straight for Discord.

Discord, finally realizing that the Elements actually worked now, shouted out, "Huh. What's this? No. NO!" And as he finished turning to stone, he fell forward onto the ground. When all that was over, everything turned back to normal. I walked over to the statue and tapped on his face.

"Don't worry, Discord, you'll be let out later to be reformed by Fluttershy. Don't even try to resist it either, because it'll make it that much harder on you." I picked up the statue and placed it on my back. "See you girls in a few weeks or so on Nightmare Night. I'm going to get this guy back to where he belongs for now." They waved at me as I lifted off and headed back for Canterlot.

When I arrived, Celestia was there at the garden waiting for me. I deposited Discord back to where he was before and sat down next to Tia. "So, how is Spike? I know I probably hurt him somewhat by sending that many letters in such a small amount of time."

"Don't worry, he's only somewhat nauseous. He went to sleep after you finished with the letters. But, back to the matter at hoof, what do you plan to do with Discord now?"

She lifted a hoof to her chin, pondering on what she was going to say. "I don't really have plans for him right now. If he breaks free again, we'll simply get the Element bearers to turn him to stone again."

I sighed and scooted back further into the bench. "I was thinking that you can reform him later. Get Fluttershy to do it, seeing as how she in the kindest of the group. She'll teach him how much friendship really matters. Do this a few months from now and it'll work."

She looked at me skeptically. "Are you sure? That is a large responsibility put on Fluttershy's shoulders, and a threat to Equestria will be free again."

"Yeah, don't worry about it. Have faith in your student's friends. Now, I'm going to go to sleep for a few weeks. I'll be up for Nightmare Night, so you'll be able to talk to me then if you can find me." I took off for my house and just teleported after I had flown halfway there. Sometimes I forgot that I could teleport when other times I forgot I could fly. It would have been much easier for me if I had been a pegasus or a unicorn instead of an alicorn.

I walked into my house and locked the door behind me. I locked all the doors and windows that led to the outside as I made my way through the house. When I got upstairs, I went straight for my bedroom. I changed forms and flopped down onto the bed. I looked over to my new set of armor and smiled. "This is going to be a great Nightmare Night for me." I turned over and fell asleep, ready for the coming holiday.

King of Nightmare Night

I woke up refreshed and ready for the night of frights and free candy. I donned my Daedric armor and headed out towards Ponyville. It was about five in the morning when I woke up, so nopony was out on the streets yet. I went to the center of town and lifted my hand, creating a throne of ebony and obsidian from the earth. I put the shield at my feet and the sword on my back, sitting down and getting ready to wait for a long while.

As the sun rose, more and more ponies filled the streets to help get ready for Nightmare Night. A few of them questioned Mayor Mare why a statue was in the center of town, but she said that it must have been Pinkie that put it there. She said that you could never expect what Pinkie was going to do next year or the year after that. The rest of the ponies that passed by me just gave me awkward stares and murmured quietly that I freaked them out.

It was pretty boring sitting there all day, but I knew that the resulting prank would be totally worth it. The day went on and the town got decorated even further for the upcoming festivities. The apple bobbing booth had been set up near me, but far away enough that ponies wouldn't splash me with water when they finished. Mayor Mare had finally found Pinkie and asked her if she had put the statue at the center of town as a sort of prank.

"Why would I take the time to try to prank tonight when there is free candy to be had? That statue looks like it took way too long to build and or put there, so it definitely wasn't me. Ask Ordeus when he shows up if he put it there." She bounced off, going to get into her costume so she could go for candy later on. Mayor simply shook her head and stared at me for a minute before shivering and walking away.

When the festivities actually began, the town was filled with numerous colts and fillies dressed up as ghosts and ghouls. There were many parents that headed for the games after leaving their kids with a few of the older children to watch them. I stopped hearing the questions of why I was there and started hearing the murmurings of how scary I looked. I definitely fit in with the theme of Nightmare Night, but they questioned if the creepy statue was going too far.

I spotted Twilight out of the corner of my eye, just inside the visor limits for my helm. She was dragging Spike along with her, the young dragon munching on candy he had gotten already. "Hey look, we're here already! Should we get something to eat?" Spike just burped in response and kept eating the candy from the bag.

Pinkie rushed up to Twilight showing her the candy she had already accumulated. "Twilight, Twilight! Look at our haul! Ah! Can you believe it? And then, we went to Cheerilee's house, and got a bunch more goodies. Didn't we, Pip?" Pip gave a nod and exclaimed "Sure did!" before pinkie started to ramble on. "And then, we had to stop and wait for Granny Smith, and –"

She was interrupted as a crack of lightning went off behind her. She and the group of ponies around her screamed and ran off. Rainbow Dash, who was wearing a Shadow Bolt costume, was laughing maniacally on the cloud that had released the lightning and thunder that had scared off the small group that was following Pinkie. Twilight glared at her and chastised her, "Rainbow Dash, that wasn't very nice."

"Lighten up, old-timer. This is the best time of the year for pranks, other than April Foals day."

I tuned out the rest of the conversation because it wasn't going to actually get interesting. I moved my head slightly from left to right, looking for something that would interest me until I actually got up from my spot. I heard a shout from the apple bobbing booth beside me and glanced at it. The pony that shouted was pointing his hoof at me, and he trembled.

"I just saw that statue move! And don't try to tell me it didn't, because I know what I saw!" He scurried away, pulling his filly along with him. Applejack looked at me and shrugged, figuring that the pony that had run off was crazy.

I decided that I should probably just sit still until the town had accepted that Luna was going to come back for next Nightmare night. It took a few more hours, but the waiting finally paid off. Just as soon as Luna said that she was allowing Nightmare night to come back, I lifted to my feet and picked up my shield. The lightning and thunder behind me made it so I wasn't heard by her, but the ponies that were looking at her saw my silhouette. They shrank away from her and she turned around to see what some of the ponies were pointing at.

She gasped and faced me, lighting up her horn with her magic. "We will defeat you, vile demon of Tartarus!" She tried to pick me up and throw me using her magic, but she only managed in lifting me up a few centimeters off the ground. I swatted away her magic and landed, creating a small cloud of dust because of my weight. She looked stunned; her magic wasn't powerful enough to lift a creature off the ground when she was able to move the moon with relative ease!

"Oh how I would love to see you try, puny princess of the night. I shall shroud the entire world in a blanket of darkness and endless nightmares. I shall be known as the King of Nightmares, and shall be feared the world round!" I raised a fist and stomped my foot against the ground, creating red glowing cracks in the area around me. Laughing maniacally, I pointed at Luna and the ponies behind her. "Nothing you and your subjects do can stop me. Your sister will fail as well. It shall always be the night of eternal demons!"

"Not if we can stop it," Shouted somepony behind me. I turned around and met a buck straight to the chest from Applejack. It didn't even move me an inch; it only got my armor dirty. The girls were gathered around behind her, Twilight writing a letter to send to Celestia. "They may not be able to stop you but we can!" Rainbow Dash said, getting straight in my face.

"Be careful, colorful one. Your courage is brash, as you know nothing about the one you are challenging. I could crush you all underneath my boot without having to move from this spot." I lifted my foot and pointed to the bottom of it. "You would be flattened without a second thought."

A spell, sent by Luna, harmlessly bounced off my back. I turned around again and glared at her, my eyes giving off an ethereal red glow as I looked at her. "Thou shall not harm our subjects as long as we stand!" She sent another spell at me, intending to paralyze me, but I caught it with one hand using a small magical ward and I sent it back at her. She fell stiff and frozen to the ground, unable to move because of the strength of the spell she had used.

"As I said before, you have no hope of stopping me. Your magic is powerless against me and any physical attacks will simply bounce off of my armor. Now, be gone from my sight! Your presence is bothersome." I gathered a ball of magic in my hand and flicked it towards Luna. She screamed as she vanished, disappearing slowly from sight.

The ponies in the crowd gasped, they had seen one of the most powerful ponies in existence defeated so easily by this new creature. In truth, I had actually just sent Luna to her quarters in Canterlot castle, but the ponies in front of me didn't know that. The ponies then began to scramble off to their houses and shops to get away from me, screaming and yelling as they ran.

I heard a small thump behind me and turned around to see Celestia standing before me. I had to look down somewhat because I had gotten taller than the last time I stood before her in my human form. "I really wish that you ponies would stop making me turn around to see what was happening. It gets tiresome to continually turn around." I tapped Celestia on the muzzle. "Boop, you're it." I slid into the shadows that surrounded me, quickly disappearing from Celestia's sight.

"Be careful, Princess. It defeated Luna without even trying. We don't know the extent of its true powers." Twilight explained as she followed her mentor through the streets of Ponyville as they looked for me.

"I know when to exercise extreme caution, Twilight. That is why I also brought the Elements of Harmony with me in case I cannot defeat this monster. Now go, I do not wish for you to be harmed in the upcoming battle." She shooed Twilight with her wing. Twilight looked up at her mentor and then ran off towards the library. Celestia sighed and spoke to the building next to her, "I do not see why you did this. You said that you wouldn't harm our subjects."

I slid out of the shadows of the building. "Don't worry, I don't actually mean any harm to these ponies. It is simply a large scale prank, orchestrated by me. I will be 'defeated' by the Elements after they have been retrieved by the girls. I will repair any damage done and provide free psychological counseling to those affected by my appearance and the 'defeat' of you and your sister." I raised my shield and took my sword off my back. "Are you ready to 'fight' for the safety of your ponies?"

She readied her magic, a small smile on her face. "Only if you're ready for a true battle."

She started off by using her magic to create a blinding light, forcing me to close my eyes and look away. She took the chance to fire a large fireball straight for my chest. I heard the crackling sound coming for me and raised my shield, deflecting the blow off into the air. She teleported behind me and shot a paralyzing spell at my back. I fell over for a brief second before I leaped back, swinging the blunt side of my sword at her. It hit her flank and she yelped and jumped back out of my sword's reach.

"Hey, that thing is cold! Is it a real sword?" She looked at her flank, which had a red mark where my sword had hit her. "And why did you have to hit me there? That place is sensitive!"

I chuckled, "Well maybe you shouldn't have given me such a big target. It would do you good to lay off the sweets somewhat."

She blushed a deep crimson and charged up her horn again. I wasn't going to let her take the offensive again, so I charged her with my shield raised. I knocked her back and she hit the ground, momentarily stunned. I sheathed my sword and charged up a paralyzing spell of my own, ready to end the fight. She got up and dodged my spell as soon as I had cast it, firing off a freezing spell of her own. I found my feet suck to the ground by ice, and I tugged by feet until they came free.

The battle went on for a few more minutes, while we traded off the rolls of attacking and defending. It finally ended when Celestia had gathered up a large amount of energy into her horn and thrown a large ball of light at me. I hit it with my sword, sending it back to a surprised alicorn. It hit her and she fell out of the sky. I caught her before she hit the ground, and then I healed her wounds that she received.

"Great fight, Tia, but you're out of practice. I'll send you back to Canterlot and you'll be in the medical ward of the castle. I'll see you again around Hearths Warming." She nodded to acknowledge what I said and I teleported her to Canterlot. "Now that I finished that, it's time to spread some nightmares to the Element bearers." I made my way to the library, sending out nightmare threads to affect the ponies. They imagined their worst fears while asleep, but they wouldn't be physically hurt.

When I got to the library, the door was barred from inside. It didn't really bother me because I just kicked the door in, forcing the planks to splinter under my boot. "Here comes the King!" I roared, causing some of the books on the shelves to fall off. The library was dark, but I could see a light coming up from the basement, so I made my way down there. When I got to the bottom of the stairs, the girls were waiting there for me with the Elements charged.

"Fire!" Yelled Twilight, and there was a rainbow blast quickly making its way towards me. I made a hole into a pocket dimension and let the blast go in there. The girls had floated down and stood there, flabbergasted. "How did that not work!? It always works!"

I let out a demonic bellow. "Do you really think it would be that simple? No, I'm going to make you work for my defeat. Sleep now, and face your worst nightmares to find your Element." I waved my hand in front of me, casting a sleeping spell on the group. I sent out my nightmare tendrils into their minds and began to ready myself to enter their minds. Right before I jumped into the first nightmare, there was a metallic ripping sound from above my head. I turned around and saw Spike, dressed in makeshift battle armor of pots and pans, standing behind me with a horrified look on his face. "Oh, I nearly forgot about you Spike." I cast the sleeping spell on him but I didn't send the nightmare tendrils to him.

I quickly jumped into Pinkie's mind, because she was the one that was closest to me. I fell for a short moment in a sea of darkness and then I landed in a deserted Ponyville. There were some buildings on fire, and some that were already burnt down to their framework. I found Sugar Cube Corner and walked in to find a very dark sight. There were torture racks with ponies tied to them. There were also small puddles of blood underneath some of the racks. I found Pinkie tied to one of the racks, her hair deflated and a scared look plastered on her face. When she saw me she giggled slightly and then went into full blown hysterical laughter.

"Why are you laughing, pink one? Is there something in my appearance that you find humorous? Is there no fear in your heart and mind for the one that brings nightmares to helpless ponies?!" I slammed my fist on an empty rack beside me, making the crusted on blood flake off.

"You have a frying pan stuck on your head, silly!" She wheezed, after having had laughed for a good while.

I turned around to look for a reflective surface, and I soon found one. What Pinkie had said was correct, there was a frying pan stuck to my head. It was jammed on one of the spikes on my helmet, probably there from when Spike had hit me. It was what created that ripping noise. I tore the pan off of my head, and turned around again, only to find that Pinkie wasn't behind me anymore and that I wasn't even in Sugar Cube Corner anymore. I was standing in a lush field of grass with the sun shining down on me.

"So where are you going next?" Pinkie asked from above me, right before she fell on me. I fell under her weight, pinned to the ground. "Oops, I forgot about that. Since we're in my dream, you're subject to my imagination. And that means that if I can think clearly, then you have no power in my head. And that means that your plan has failed." She jumped off of me and I got up slowly, popping my back. She had her Element around her neck.

"You realize that the others won't exactly know this, except for maybe Twilight. So I can still have some fun while the night is young. So now that your nightmare was completed, I guess it's time to move on to the next pony. Who do you think I should go to next?" I pulled up an image of the room where the others were still asleep. Pinkie was standing up, completely awake. I looked at the image and then at the Pinkie I was standing next to, then I just shook my head. Rule number one for Pinkie is don't question what Pinkie can do.

"You should go into Fluttershy's mind next. She isn't as strong as the others when it comes to nightmares." I swiped my hand, causing her to not remember the nightmare anymore. Pinkie pushed me out of her mind before she fell to the ground and I was forced into Fluttershy's mind. I found it unsettling how powerful Pinkie really was because of her meeting with Tim.

When I landed in Fluttershy's dream, it was like I had left Pinkie's dream and arrived in the same place after a fight. There were claw marks all over the ground and small craters that had burning fires within them. I looked around some more and found a set of hoof marks that led to Fluttershy's cottage. What was strange was that there was also a long drag mark that trailed beside the hoof prints. I got to the door and opened it slowly. The walls were adorned with the pelts of dead bunnies and squirrels.

I heard the sound of heavy breathing coming from upstairs and made my way there. I turned the corner to look down the hall and saw a door that was cracked open slightly. I pushed it open and saw Fluttershy, standing on a bearskin rug, clutching her eyes shut and taking care of a dragon that was badly injured. Her Element was sitting on a bunny skull that was discarded in a corner of the room. I quietly made my way to stand beside Fluttershy, taking the gauze out of her mouth so that I could bandage the dragon myself. She wasn't doing much with her eyes closed.

She yelped and jumped back towards the corner of the room with her Element sitting there. She cracked open one of her eyes slowly to see what had taken the gauze out of her mouth and screamed when she saw it was me. "Leave me alone! I don't want any of this! It's too much for me." She fell upon the floor and started to weep, covering her eyes so that she wouldn't see the room around her.

"You know that you could end this anytime you wish, right? All you have to do is grab your Element from that skull in the corner, and this would all end." I finished wrapping up the rest of the wounds that the dragon had and began to rub healing ointment onto the bruises he showed. "Death is a natural part of the world balance, and these decorations are quite common in the lands of the griffons and the lands of the wolves. I said that you have to face your fear, and you seem to not want to accept that these things are normal. Just open your eyes and grab it, and this will all be finished.

She stopped crying after a few more second and then she opened her eyes, which were red and puffy from the crying she had done, and she leaped for her Element. She clutched it to her chest and quickly fastened it around her neck. The image of the room around us disappeared and we were in the same meadow that we started out in. The difference was, it was the meadow that I had seen in Pinkie's dream.

I walked over to Fluttershy and took off my gauntlet, rubbing her head lightly. She cringed away from my touch. "Don't worry, I won't harm you. I'll help you forget about the horrors you have seen created by your own mind." I placed my hand on her head again and wiped her memories of the nightmare from her mind. She fell to the ground in a heap of fur, lying like how she was in the real world.

I chose to go to Rainbow Dash's nightmare next. It was pretty easy to guess what her worst nightmare would be. Not having the ability to fly. She loved her wings and would be crushed to never have them again. I hopped into her mind, to find that I was surrounded by white walls and the place smelled like bleach. I would have held my nose, but that would require taking off the helmet. I cast a quick spell to make it so if I wore the helmet, it would always smell like I was in a room with freshly baked snicker doodle cookies.

When I had done that, I started to look around. It seemed that I was in a mental hospital because I passed a few empty padded rooms with slots in the door. I passed one that had the Doctor in it, who had a sour look on his face. I opened the door and walked in, startling the occupant of the room. I looked at him and shook my head, and then I went over to him and undid his jacket.

"Why thank you, person that I don't know. I don't know how I got here, but when I did some crazy pony grabbed me and put me in here. They said I was demented for going on about time not being a straight line. It is clearly wibbly-wobbly-timey-wimey stuff that is not a straight line."

"I know what you are saying, Doctor. You need to get out of here, or else you'll most likely be stuck in the mind of Rainbow Dash when she wakes up. Did Derpy get in here with you, or is she safe at home?"

"She didn't come with me, so I'm assuming that she is safe. I shall leave post-haste! Tally-ho!" He galloped off towards the front entrance of the hospital, making loud clopping noises as he rushed down the halls.

I made my way out of the cell and headed on my merry way. This place wasn't as bad as I had thought it would be. I was used to seeing mental wards that had bloody walls and body parts hanging everywhere. Also, I was running from some kind of undead monster that was trying to rip my face off. But this place was safe, no blood and no monsters.

I stopped dead in my tracks when I heard a loud shuffling behind me. I turned around slowly and was face to face with one of the ugliest things I had seen in my life. It was tall, about eight feet, and it had two mouths. Its right hand dragged along the ground and it walked with a limp. It looked horribly burned, with skin peeling off in random parts of its body. On the end of its hands, it had four fingers with jagged claws. The worst part was that it had no eyes and no nose, just the two mouths that covered its face.

"It seems that we have a new patient. You are diagnosed with identity crisis. You think you are a primate that walks on two legs and has superior intellect." It clubbed me across the back on my head, knocking me out. The last thing I remembered, I was being dragged across the floor.

I woke up in a cell of my own, but there was a window on the right side of the cell from the inside. I slowly got up and walked over to the window. What I saw next made me take a step back in shock. The room next to me was filled with wings strapped to the wall, and hanging from the ceiling by hooks. Everything was dripping blood, meaning the wings had just been recently removed. In the corner of the room was Rainbow Dash, huddled up in a small ball and whimpering quietly. She had two bloody stumps where her wings would have been, if they had not been ripped off and hung on the wall.

I knocked on the glass and that startled Rainbow so badly she jumped five feet into the air. She hit the floor with a 'thwump' and looked over to the window. When she saw me, she looked really confused at what I was. Small holes in the window allowed me to talk to her without having to yell through the glass.

"Don't worry Rainbow; you can get out of this. You just have to get out of that cell and escape this place." As I was speaking to her, I was working free of the straight jacket the monster had put me in. It was pretty loose in some areas because it wasn't made for something like me. When I had finally gotten out of it, I had learned that Rainbow Dash had about the same story as the Doctor did. She was placed in this cell by the monster after it had said she needed to have surgery because she had a mental disease of too big of an ego caused by her ability of flight.

"Look for the way out while I try to find my way out of this cell, it shouldn't be too hard with the skills I know." She tentatively made her way around the room while I looked at the door. It had a simple lock, one that I could easily pick if I had something like a wire or paperclip or something. I tore up some of the padding in the room, looking for something that could help me. After I had found nothing in my search, I went back over to the window. "Have you found the way out yet? I need something to pick the lock with."

"I looked all around the room, but I couldn't find any kind of door. But I did find this broken light bulb, and it looks like the filament on the inside is a bit loose. You could probably use that to pick the lock." She picked up the light bulb and moved over to the window, holding the light bulb so that the filament fit though one of the holes.

I grabbed the small wire and tugged and twisted at the same time, pulling the filament out of its socket in the light bulb. A small spark popped out of the hole and landed on the floor of my cell, easily lighting the torn up padding. A metal grate slammed shut over the window, cutting off Rainbow's cries of alarm. I rushed over to the door and inserted the filament into the lock. I quickly found the right positions for the tumblers of the lock and opened the door. I slammed it shut behind me, leaving the fire in the room to die out. It had nothing else to burn after it got through that padding; the rest of the cell was made with concrete.

I was hit with the smell of bleach again, but I didn't have my helmet to block out the smell so I had to bear with it. I looked over to my right and blinked in surprise. There was no door to the cell beside me! I rushed over to the blank wall and started to look for some kind of switch or button that would open the room, but I found nothing. Then I heard the shuffling of the monster in the corridor around the corner. I looked around and found a hiding spot, a small crack in the wall adjacent to the door I came out of. I slid in just as the monster came around the corner.

It saw the smoke coming out of the slot and shuffled over to the door. When it looked inside, it gave off a ghostly howl. "That creature has ruined my observation room! I was hoping to take it apart piece by piece to see what it was. But now that it's dead, I get no satisfaction of its screams as I tear it apart. No matter, I shall see how that rainbow horse is doing. They normally die by now." It took a look at its waist, where a key ring was sewn into its flesh. "I just have to remember where I put the key. I could have sworn I had it in the mess hall." It slowly shuffled off further down the hall, disappearing from my field of view.

I waited until I couldn't hear it anymore, and then I slid out of my hiding spot. I made my way to the end of the hall and peered around the corner, checking to see if it was really gone. Then I made my way to the plaque on the wall saying where I was. I was in S Ward, and there was a small map beside the plaque. It showed me where I was, and I was a significant distance from the mess hall, but I could make it there before that monster did. I just had to take the path that led outside and then take a left.

I ran off down the halls, my feet making soft pattering sounds as they hit the floor. I saw more cells that were unoccupied as I made my way to the outside world, but they were more than just unoccupied. They were filled with puddles of blood that seeped out from below the door. I almost slipped in a few blood puddles as I ran. Lights in the hallways didn't always work, so they went out every once and awhile. This left me running in the dark, surrounded by walls and trapped in a mental hospital with some demonic monster RD had created.

I finally reached the door to the courtyard that would allow me to easily make my way to the mess hall. I opened it and dashed out, running into four very large dogs that had the same appearance of the monster. They barked and started to chase me as I ran towards the door that would allow me access to my destination. I threw open the door when I had reached it, slamming it closed behind me. The dogs ran into the door and began to scratch at it, their claws making small holes in it.

I left that behind me and started to look for the key. I had entered through the kitchen, and nothing was in there that would allow me to get RD out of her cell. When I entered the main area, I saw that it was covered in a fleshy substance that hung from the ceiling as well as covered the walls. I saw a glint out of the corner of my eye and turned to see the key sitting on a table, in the ribcage of a half-eaten pony. I dashed over to the key and grabbed it, and then I heard the shuffling behind me.

The monster made its way into the mess hall as I had finished climbing one of the hanging things. It was strong enough to hold my weight without breaking easily. So I figured as long as the monster didn't look up, I was golden. It made its way over to the table where it had left its half-eaten meal and groaned in frustration. "I may have just left it in my office. I can never keep track of all my keys. Maybe I need to change all the locks so that I only need one key." It started to walk out, but it stopped when it heard a fleshy ripping sound. The thing I had grabbed onto was falling from the ceiling, bringing me along with it.

I hit the ground with a hard thud, causing the monster to whirl around to see me. It made an angry hiss and lurched in my direction. I ran off, trying to lose it in the labyrinth of halls. The dream was starting to get darker, the walls peeling and showing more of the fleshy substance. The lights were so dim; it was almost as if there were no lights at all. And when my feet hit the floor, they made squishing noises as every step caused blood to flow from the floor. After a short while, I couldn't hear it chasing after me anymore. I guessed it was safe to take a somewhat slower pace back to the cell room where Rainbow Dash was.

When I got back to the S Ward, I made my way over to RD's room. I tried to use the key on the door to the right of the spot where her door would be, but I had no luck. I peered around in the dark to see if there were any helpful clues on what I should do next. I spotted a sign that pointed to the stairs, so I figured I would check upstairs for any clues. When I got to the next floor, I made my way over to the room above Rainbow's. I tried the key on that door and was pleased when I heard the click of the lock unlocking. I walked in and saw that there was a large hole in the floor, for the monster to throw in its victims.

I locked the door behind me so that there would be no nasty surprises and then I walked over to the hole. I peered down and could see Rainbow huddled in the same corner of the room that she had been in before. I could also now see that the monster had thrown my armor in there as well. I jumped down and landed with a wet squishing sound that startled Rainbow. She bolted upright and started to try to go further into the corner she was in.

"Whoa, calm down there Sally. I'm here to rescue you. I'm guessing all we have to do is get you out of this place and this nightmare will end." I walked over to my armor and quickly put it on, blocking out the smell of blood that now permeated the air.

Rainbow Dash looked at me and glared daggers before she rushed in to give me a buck. "How dare you! You hurt my friends and then put us in these weird nightmares!" I slid out of the way right before her hooves connected with my midsection.

"Hey, as I said before, I'm here to rescue you. This one has been a nightmare for me as well. This place has some messed up stuff. Let's get out of this hole so that we can escape this place." I started to climb up the chains, crushing some of the wings that hung from them. Rainbow Dash cringed every time that happened. When I reached the edge of the hole I hoisted myself up and looked down to Rainbow. "You coming up? I don't think we have much time until that thing realizes where I went off to after I grabbed its key."

"I can't! Look at all those wings, torn off of helpless pegasi!" She fell into a heap on the ground, crying loudly. "Even if that didn't disturb me, I still can't climb chains, I have hooves. Not those things you have at the end of your arms."

I sighed and then jumped back down, and then I realized that something was very wrong. The wings on the wall were dripping blood at a faster rate, causing the room to fill with blood at a somewhat fast rate. The wings on the hooks were doing the same, causing blood to drip down on us. "Well, we definitely don't have time to just sit around and cry out of fear!" I grabbed Rainbow and placed her on my back, making sure that she wouldn't fall off. I climbed the chains again, slipping down a few times because the blood had made them slippery.

I got to the top and threw myself onto the floor of the room. I got up, Rainbow still on my back, and opened the door using the key. When I shut it behind me I could hear the squelching of the floor from down the hall. I looked over and saw that the dogs had found me again, and their master was right behind them. I bolted down the stairs, using the railing as a slide to get down faster. I cast a wall of flame at the bottom of the stairs quickly before I kept running. I looked back and saw that the fire had no effect on the monsters.

"Where are we going?!" Rainbow Dash yelled in my ear. She clung as tightly as she could to my armor, trying to not fall of as we made our way through the halls.

"As I said before, if we make our way out of this place, the nightmare will end. So, I'm heading for the entrance." I slid around a corner, grabbing onto the corner of the hallway so that I could slingshot myself to be faster. This caused me to gain some ground against the monsters chasing after me. Rainbow Dash and I swiftly made our way to the lobby, seemingly losing our pursuers on the way there. I threw open the front door and was about to make my way out when I felt a set of teeth clench against my armor. I was thrown off of my feet, and when I looked up I was looking at one of the demon dogs.

Rainbow had been thrown off of my back when I had been attacked, and she had gotten outside. I scrambled up to my feet and slammed the doors shut. I soon found myself surrounded by the demon dogs; they circled slowly and started to close in on me. I heard cold laughter coming from the lobby desk and saw that the monster had been there the whole time.

"I see that we have lost another patient today, but we will reclaim another. I had thought that you were dead, before you stole my key! But no matter, I will find another room for you and make sure you never escape." It clicked its claws against the table. "You may now attack it, but do not kill it."

"Well, have fun with that you ugly beasts." I ducked under the first one, causing it to sail past the space I previously occupied with my head. I slammed my fist into its head, causing its neck to snap. It fell limp on the floor where it landed, a few feet away from me. The other two growled and leaped at me at the same time. I jumped and clung onto one of the growths from the ceiling. I dropped down on them, crushing their heads under my greaves.

"Well, you know what they say," the monster said as it got up from its seat, "never tell others to get something done for you. Get it done yourself." It launched itself towards me, claws outreached to pierce my armor. I sidestepped and felt its claws rake against my armor. It left gashes in the metal where its claws had gone.

'You also should know that you should never throw the first attack unless you have the element of surprise." It launched itself at me again, a low growl emanating from its chest. I grabbed its arm as it swung at me, using its force against it. I threw it against the floor, stunning it for a moment before it straightened itself. It came at me again and I jumped into the air, clinging onto the growth from the ceiling again. It dodged out from under me as I came crashing on the ground.

It started to rely on throwing things at me, which I either block or dodged out of the way easily. The last thing it threw at me caused me to drop my guard for a second, which it took advantage of immediately. It rushed me again, slamming into me and causing my chest armor to dent. I fell to the floor, dazed, and got up slowly. It didn't relent in its attacks, causing me to keep dodging and defending. Its foot slipped and I used that opportunity to trip it. I put my greave against its neck and started to put pressure on it slightly. The creature gasped for air and writhed a bit before it resigned to its fate.

"Do you have any last words, beast from Tartarus?"

"Only one thing. Sombra will return, and he will crush your soul with his unending cruelty."

"Oh, will he now? I'll be waiting for him." I sneered under my helmet and slammed my foot down on its head, causing a satisfying crunching sound and a fountain of blood to spray on me. The nightmare started to dissolve around me. I looked at the doors and saw that Rainbow had seen me in the last moments before I killed the monster. "Don't worry, this is all over now. I'll wipe these memories and get on to the next pony."

She looked like she was about to say something, but then I cast the spell and she fell on the ground of the meadow. I looked into the window that looked into the basement of the library. Fluttershy was up and talking to Pinkie about having the worst nightmare that she couldn't remember even one detail of. I realized that dream walking was a tough job. I didn't envy Luna at all for the fact that she did this every night. Rainbow Dash had the longest nightmare sequence of the ponies I had finished with. I jumped into Rarity's mind next.

I landed in the boutique, and saw that it was completely filled with ponyquins that were wearing horrible dresses. I carefully made my way to Rarity's workroom to see that she was working on dress after dress, trying to make them beautiful. Every dress that she worked on slowly turned ugly again after she had put it on the ponyquin next to her that was empty. I face palmed, causing a clanking noise. Rarity spun around and glared at me.

"I have no time for this right now, Mr. evildoer. I have to make all these dresses beautiful be tonight for the show, or my reputation will be ruined!" She went back onto working on the dresses, looking up occasionally to check how many more dresses she had to work on.

"Come on Rarity! This has got to be the lamest nightmare I have seen in all my years of living! Just give up, you're getting nowhere with these dresses. As soon as you accept this, the nightmare will end." I moved over to her and picked her up from her seat.

"No! Put me back right now you ruffian! I have to…" She got a look of understanding on her face. "This is a nightmare? But it seemed so real! I even woke up in the basement of the library and went through the normal day before I got this large order for dresses." The nightmare dissolved around us as she accepted that this was a nightmare.

"Seriously, to believe that something as lame as that was your nightmare. Could have been more exciting, considering that Rainbow's felt like it had been going on for hours." I put her down on the grass, popping my wrists and neck after she had fallen asleep, waking up in the real world. She got up more quickly than both Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash had and she went straight to Rainbow to ask her about what her nightmare had been about. I decided to hop into Twilights nightmare next, leaving Applejack for last.

I fell on Twilight's bed in her bedroom as I entered the dream. I made my way downstairs and found Twilight rearranging all the books on the shelves. She was muttering to herself and her mane was in a mess like it had been when she was learning lesson zero. I knocked on the bookshelf next to me and Twilight didn't even look around to see who it was.

"Spike, don't be making so much noise right now. You know I have to have all my concentration when I'm re-sorting the books. Somepony found it funny to move all the books into the wrong shelves and whenever I turn around, they mess with them again." She kept on moving the books around on the shelves she was looking at intently. The bookshelf next to me tipped over and made a loud crashing sound. Twilight jumped up and spun around, fury in her features. "Spike, don't knock over the…" She stared at me a second before yelling and backing up into the bookshelf behind her.

"Hey, I'm not that ugly am I? There's no need to scream, Twilight, we're in a library. And it wasn't me who knocked over the bookshelf, neither was it Spike." I looked over into the kitchen, where Spike was just making his way into the library to see what the noise was about. He sneezed from the cloud of dust that he walked into that was raised by the bookshelf falling. It caught the dry pages of the books on fire quickly and spread for the wall.

"Oh no, I have a spell to stop this though!" Twilight gathered her magic and cast a bubble around the fire. It didn't snuff it out; it only seemed to make the fire grow larger and wilder. It spread along the wall and started to lick against the ceiling. "That was supposed to work! Why does nothing work anymore?"

"That's because we're in your nightmare. Apparently Spike made his way into your mind when I made him fall asleep, possibly because of the magical link you two share. But that is not important right now. You need to face your worst dreams here and now. The princess has abandoned you, and your friends have left you with your precious library burning down. There will be no help from outside forces, only you and Spike may get this done." I walked towards the front door, a flaming beam falling behind me and blocking the front way out.

I walked around to the back and timed how long it took for Twilight and Spike to get out of the house. It took them six minutes and thirty two seconds, because they had tried to put out the fire with anything they knew would usually work. They came out coughing and spluttering, Twilight had a slightly singed tail but Spike was perfectly fine in appearance. His scales had protected him from the flames

"Now that is over with, what do you plan to do now; now that you have been abandoned by all the ponies that cared for you?" I picked her up from where she was sitting and looked her in the eyes. She was starting to cry, and her sobs carried out through the empty air around us. I set her down and made the nightmare end because it was most likely that she wouldn't stop crying anytime soon if I left it there. I picked her up and bopped her on the nose, stopping her crying.

"Remember, this was only a nightmare. If you focus strong enough and tune out the fear in your mind, you can change it into a dream. It all depends on your will power and thought process. Now it is time for you to return to the waking realm, as it is almost midnight and I will have no reign after Nightmare Night is over." I waved my hand over her and Spike, causing them to wake up. I moved to my final destination, Applejacks nightmare.

I found myself in another hospital, but this was like a normal hospital. Doctors were walking around, acting as if I weren't there at all. I walked up to one and tried to poke him, but my hand went straight through him. I realized that this wasn't a dream or a nightmare really, it was a memory. That was why I couldn't affect the world around me. I wandered the halls, looking for any sign of AJ in this place.

I walked past a room with an open door and what I heard made me stop. I heard a quiet sobbing, that was obviously AJ's crying. I walked into the room, and I saw that she was crying next the bed of and older stallion that was most likely her father. He wore the Stetson that Applejack normally wore and he was primarily orange in color. He was hooked up to and IV drip, and he was almost completely covered in bandages. He was talking softly to Applejack in a raspy voice.

"You know that I don't have long for this world anymore, AJ. I want you to know something." He leaned in close to her ear, as close as he could get without messing with his bandages or pulling out the IV. I moved closer so that I could hear what he said. "I lied to you when I said that the farm is going to be ok. I also lied when I said that I would be fine after that barrel hit me. I want you to have my hat and I want you to take over the farm. I know you can keep it running better than I can."

He pulled the hat off of his head and placed it on AJ's head. He slid back into a more comfortable position on his bed and breathed his last breaths. The heart monitor let out a final beep before he flat lined, leaving AJ crying even harder while holding onto her dads hoof. "Ah'm gonna make ya proud, Pa. And I aint gonna let lies come out of my mouth."

I walked over to Applejack and placed my hand on her shoulder, pulling her out of the memory. We appeared in the meadow, her with her Element around her neck now. I waved my hand and sent her back to the waking world. I was pulled along with her, and I entered the basement right where I was standing before I went into Pinkie's head. The girls were up and gathering themselves for another use of the Elements.

"Don't even bother with it. I've had enough for one night. I'm not even coming next year. Rainbow, your dream was some kind of whack, and of course you don't remember it. I'm out." With that, I blinked over to my house, where I bumped into Luna and Celestia. "Luna, your job freakin sucks. I'm goin to bed. See you two at the wedding." I closed my door behind me and threw my armor on my stand. I flopped down on my bed and went to sleep.

A Horrible Wedding Experience

I woke up and blearily rubbed my eyes. There was sunlight streaming through my window, so I guessed it to be somewhere around eleven o' clock. I got up and stretched, making my way to the kitchen as I did so. My left hand got very itchy as I neared the kitchen, but I dismissed it as just a normal itch. When I entered the kitchen I was greeted by a very enthusiastic Pinkie Pie.

"Hello and good morning, Mr. Sleepyhead. You always miss out on some of the best things when you sleep for that long, like Hearths Warming and that time where Flim and Flam were here squeezing up trouble and…"

I tuned her out and made my way to the fridge, grabbing a cup along the way. I poured myself some orange juice. I slowly drank as Pinkie retold what had happened while I slept, but it was pointless for her to tell me what happened. I already knew everything that went on.

"And today, all of our friends are going to have a picnic on this great hill! I should probably get going so that I'm not late to it. Twilight would be mad at me again if I was late to this. Bye!" She gave me a hug and bolted out of my house.

"Hey, remember to close the door behind you! And don't slam it." I heard the door slowly click shut and then I made myself a breakfast fit for a king. This, in reality, wasn't much for me. I finished it off within a few minutes and started to get dressed. I realized then that Pinkie had seen me in nothing but my underwear; and I got really embarrassed. I finished up with dressing and transformed before I left my house.

The hill where they were having the picnic wasn't that far off, so I made my way there doing a light jog. I got there in five minutes, and was greeted by the girls. Twilight was starting to trust me more than she previously did. I sat down next to Pinkie and I grabbed a sandwich; then I quietly munched away as I waited for Spike to come running up the hill. I was three sandwiches in when he finally appeared, heaving his way up the hill on his stubby legs.

"Twi... light! ...I... have... Lemme just..." He took a deep breath and then belched out a scroll before he fell to the ground panting. Twilight took the scroll and started to read it. I got up and backed a few feet away from the group and made my preparations to blink into Canterlot. I had to do it so that I didn't disturb Shining's barrier, and I had to land where nopony would see me immediately. I decided to blink into Celestias room, that was most likely empty and where nopony would see me.

I blinked as soon as Twilight had finished reading about who was getting married. I didn't want to sit there through that song; it wasn't one of my favorites. I felt dizzy as I landed in the room; I had no idea why though. It might have been because of the barrier messing with my usual routine for blinking, but that was only a random guess. I heard a gasp and I quickly ran to the door and opened it. It was closed with magic that had a golden glow and I gulped as I turned around to see Celestia standing in front of a mirror.

"So, why do I have the pleasantry of your presence in my room this morning?" She had the kind of smile on her face that said she was seriously ticked off; her left eyebrow was twitching at a rapid speed.

"Well, I was just making my way here for the wedding and I didn't want to bother anypony with their preparations. And I didn't want to go through that barrier that Shining put up. I figured I would just come in where nopony would be, and I thought that you wouldn't be in your room at this time. I guess I was wrong. And by the way, what were you doing in front of that mirror?"

She blushed and looked away sheepishly. "I remembered what you had said about me making the target too easy to hit. I figured I would be able to tell if my diet had been working lately. There have been no results so far. In fact, it seems to only get worse no matter what I try."

I smiled and patted her on the back. "I was just kidding when I told you that. There's nothing wrong with it. Also, I think it suits someone like you." I walked out of the room, leaving Celestia standing in front of that mirror. She had a raging blush on her face as she looked in the mirror again and shook her flank from side to side. I chuckled and left her to do what she was doing.

The whole city was getting ready for the wedding, but only certain ponies were actually helping to put things up. I saw Fancy Pants helping, so I gave him a hoof for a while. We chatted while we worked, and I learned what had happened in his life since I had last met him. He and Fleur were doing well, and that they were expecting to get married and have a child soon after they got married. I gave him a slap on the back and congratulated him and went on my way after we had finished up with what we were doing. But before I left him, I told him to get everypony in the city to a safe place during the wedding. He asked me why, but I didn't give him an answer.

I found my way to the train station right before the girls had pulled up. They got off the train and I walked up to greet them. "Hello girls, how was your trip over here? Hopefully it wasn't strange going through that barrier; security is somewhat tight right now because there was a threat against Canterlot. We don't know who sent the threat, but that doesn't mean that it is meaningless." Twilight barreled past me, heading towards the castle at a fast pace. "Let me guess, she's going to confront her brother about him not telling her about the wedding."

Rarity spoke first, "Yes, darling, she is. I too would have been angry if one of my siblings was getting married and had not invited me personally. And I would have been insulted even more if they had not asked me to design the bridesmaid dresses."

Applejack moved to the front of the group as we made our way to the castle. "Ah would have been mad too, but Twilight seems to be more sad than angry. She missed her brother, and he seems to have forgotten about her."

"He didn't forget about her, Applejack." I told her and the group as we entered the halls of the castle. "He simply has a lot of stuff to focus on right now, and he didn't have the time to do things himself. He also gets magic induced headaches from the constant replenishing of the barrier. You girls should probably get to your jobs; there is a busy day ahead of us. Same goes for the rest of the week."

They said goodbye and we parted ways. I moved towards the wall where Twilight and Shining were talking, almost running into 'Cadance' as I made my way there. We walked there together without speaking, a tense air between us. It was almost as if she could feel that I knew who she really was. We walked out onto the wall and Twilight ran up to 'Cadance' and did her ladybug dance. "Cadance simply looked at her with a look of disgust and walked up to Shining Armor.

"I've gotta get back to my station, but Cadance will be checking in with all of you to see how things are going. I think I speak for both of us when I say we couldn't be more excited to have you here. Right, dear?" He looked at 'Cadance' expectantly. She just nodded and he walked off to get back to his station.

Twilight and 'Cadance' started to go do their things, but when 'Cadance' walked past me I whispered to her, "You should know that the disguise doesn't fool my, Chrysalis. I won't stop you right now, but I will if you make an early move." She slowly blinked and then quickly made her way after Twilight. I walked back into the city to see what I could do to help.

The rest of the time spent in Canterlot was pretty much uneventful for me. I helped around the city and met with the girls every once and awhile. They spoke about how much fun they were having preparing for the wedding. Rarity only spoke about how much she wanted to improve the dresses, but she just didn't know how she was going to do it. I told her that she would definitely find some way to make them better.

I was looking through the city as I worked, trying to spot any other changelings. I noticed about eight right off the bat, because they were horrible at trying to act like the ponies they were supposed to be. The others were harder to notice because they actually knew how to act. I quietly took them out of the picture, making them sleep and bringing them to the dungeons of the castle. Nopony questioned why I was bringing in so many ponies in such a short amount of time; partly because I was royalty and the other part was about how tight security was at the moment. I just made sure that Chrysalis didn't see me bringing these guys in; this was just a precaution against her.

I woke up on the day of the wedding; I took to sleeping to look like a normal pony, ready for the rest of the day. I would just have and epic battle with Chrysalis after she foolishly revealed herself to the rest of the kingdom. But, first, I would help get Twilight and the real Princess Cadance out of the crystal caverns. I walked to the room where the practice was being held and where the actual wedding was going to be. I got there right after Twilight had gotten there and spoken against Chrysalis. As the ponies filed past me I spoke to them, "You should have really listened to her." They didn't seem to have heard as they kept on walking down the hall.

Twilight collapsed onto the stairs. "Maybe I was being overprotective. I could've gained a sister. But instead... I just lost a brother." She cried after she had sung the last part of her BBBFF song. Chrysalis moved in front of her and looked down. "I'm sorry" Twilight said as she looked up at Chrysalis and wiped her own eyes.

Chrysalis's eyes flashed green and she growled, "You should be." A green flame surrounded Twilight and she slowly sunk into the ground. Chrysalis cackled and started to walk to the door she entered from. I dashed to the flame that was slowly diminishing.

"Geronimo!" I shouted as I jumped into the portal that had been created. The last thing I had seen was Chrysalis turning around and seething in rage that I had gotten into the portal with Twilight. I fell and fell for what seemed like a good three to five minutes. When I had gotten into the caverns I opened my wings so that I could get a soft landing. I landed beside Twilight and picked her up to her hooves.

"Why are you down here? Don't tell me, she got you too?" Twilight looked scared that we had been trapped down here by a pony she thought was her old foalsitter.

"No, I jumped into the portal after you. I knew from the very start that she wasn't who she said she was; I just can't act during the wrong times. That could mess up the flow of things, and I do not like having unknowns in an equation."

She stomped her hoof. "Ug! Why didn't you do anything?! This could have been avoided if you had just said something!" We heard a cackling from around the cavern and Twilight spun around in a circle to see where it was coming from. "Where are we anyways?"

The fake Cadance's face appeared on the largest crystal in the cavern above our heads. "The caves beneath Canterlot, once home to greedy unicorns who wanted to claim the gems that could be found inside. And now, your prison."

Twilight started to panic and look around franticly for a way out. "Help! Help!"

"It's no use. No one can hear you. And no one will ever think to look for you, either. Most ponies have forgotten that these caves even exist, which is why they are the ideal place to keep the ones who try to interfere with my plans." She laughed again and disappeared from the crystal she was on.

"Plans? What plans?"

"The plans for your brother of course."

"Don't you dare do anything to my brother!"

"Only way to stop me is to catch me!" Chrysalis said in a singsong voice as Twilight fired a beam at the crystal where her face was." She disappeared and appeared on another crystal. "Over here!" As Twilight charged up another beam, I put my hoof on her shoulder.

"Twilight, we gain nothing from this. Doing this will only tire you out and serve as entertainment for this fiend. We find the real Princess Cadance and then get out of here and crash the wedding. That's the plan." I fired my own beam at the crystal where Chrysalis was and it shattered it easily, and I also made sure some of the blast transferred over to the caster of the image spell. It wouldn't hurt her, it was only meant to send her skidding back a few feet.

"Twilight looked up at me. "And how do you propose we find where Cadance really is. She could be anywhere down here! And even if we do find her, we still have to find the way out. I can't teleport out of here because the crystals are messing with my location spells."

"Don't worry about getting out; I know these caverns like the back of my hoof." I looked down at the back of my hoof. "Ooh, that cut wasn't there before! And neither was that singe mark. Anyways, the real Cadance is just on the other side of this crystal wall." I busted the wall beside us and as the debris cleared, we could see the real Cadance sitting there. Twilight ran up to her and gave her a hug.

"Twilight, how good it is to see you. If only it was in better circumstances." She hugged Twilight back and looked towards me. "Who is this other pony with you?"

"Oh come on Cadance, did Celestia not tell you about me? I'm Ordeus, your uncle, Celestia's older brother. Now that this is over with, we have to get out of here."

Cadance nodded and rose to her hooves, slightly wobbly. "Yes, we have to get out of here before Shining Armor marries the fake me."

Twilight and I helped her along the halls of the caverns, stopping occasionally so that she could catch her breath. I took us on a path that would avoid most of the cave-ins and seemingly bottomless drops. We passed a few mine cart tracks with mine carts on them and we let Cadance sit in them while I pushed her along. We eventually reached the final mine cart ride that ended with a broken track at the end. I was already flying beside the cart when it had launched into the air. I glanced back and saw that Cadance had finally gotten enough of her strength back to fly and carry Twilight. We landed with a soft thud as Cadance collapsed slightly upon landing.

"Good we just have to find the way… there!" Twilight pointed at a crack where we could see light pouring into the caverns. We were blocked by the three bridesmaids that had been sent down here to stop us."

They all said in unison, "You're not going anywhere."

I just looked at Cadance and gave a nod. She pulled out the bouquet and threw it over the edge. The bridesmaids chased after it. "Don't you think that was a bit too much?"

"There is water down there so there's a soft landing. Now, let's go save my fiancée." She rushed through the crack, startling a few ponies that were near the holed off entrance. She had fit easily through the boards.

I had to break through the boards, sending splinters flying everywhere. The ponies that had been startled by Cadance ran off when I had busted out. Twilight was right behind me, charging up her horn for a teleport spell. "No time for that!" I blinked us over to where Cadance was running through the streets. "I got this Cadance!" I then blinked us all to the entrance to the wedding room, where Twilight busted into the room to halt the ceremony. I walked in behind her slowly, causing a few standers by to gasp upon seeing me.

The fake chrysalis looked shocked and sad at the same time. "Ugh! Why does she have to be so possessive of her brother?" She gave a fake sob. "Why does she have to ruin my special day?"

The real Cadance barged in. "Because it's not your special day! It's mine!" The rest of the room gasped when she had appeared. It seemed that all these ponies could do was gasp. It was really annoying.

"What? But how did you escape my bridesmaids?"

I spoke up. "You shouldn't guard the bride, who has the bouquet, with her own bridesmaids. That was possibly one of the worst decisions you have made during this entire takeover."

Applejack glanced between the two Cadances in the room. "I-I don't understand. How can there be two of 'em?"

The real princess Cadance explained to the room, "She's a changeling. She takes the form of somepony you love and gains power by feeding off your love for them."

Chrysalis engulfed her body in green flames, slowly revealing her true form. The ponies, again, gasped. They really needed to find out how to express a wider range of reactions in situations like these. "Right you are, Princess. And as queen of the changelings, it is up to me to find food for my subjects. Equestria has more love than any place I've ever encountered. My fellow changelings will be able to devour so much of it that we will gain more power than we have ever dreamed of!" She gave a glance at her hoof, a smug smile plastered on her face. "Ever since I took your place, I've been feeding off Shining Armor's love for you. Every moment he grows weaker and so does his spell. Even now my minions are chipping away at it." Everypony in the audience looked outside to see a swarm of changelings bashing the barrier, slowly making dents and cracks in its surface. "Soon, my changeling army will break through. First, we take Canterlot. And then, all of Equestria!"

Celestia stepped in between Chrysalis and the rest of the ponies in the room. "No. You won't. You may have made it impossible for Shining Armor to perform his spell, but now that you have so foolishly revealed your true self, I can protect my subjects from you!" She shot a beam of magic from her horn, Chrysalis quickly countered. The two beams clashed against each other for a short while before Chrysalis's beam overpowered Celestia's and blasted Celestia to the ground, throwing her crown to the ground.

Chrysalis stood there in a second of amazement before laughing evilly. "It's funny, really, Twilight here was suspicious of my behavior all along. Too bad the rest of you were too caught up in your wedding planning to realize those suspicions were correct!"

Applejack walked up beside Twilight and placed a hoof on her shoulder. "Sorry, Twi. We should have listened to you."

Twilight smiled at Applejack and told her "It's not your fault. She fooled everypony!"

Chrysalis was about to respond to that when I intervened. "Uh, guys, right now is not really the time to be asking for reconciliation. You guys go help fend off the changelings while I take care of this problem." The girls along with Cadance nodded and ran off into the city to help with the fighting. "And now that they're gone, I don't have to hold back." I shifted forms and brought my Daedric armor to me while I shifted. I pulled out a large two handed sword from my hammerspace and acted like I was having trouble swinging it up to my shoulder.

"It seems that you have some changeling powers of your own, foolish pony. Why not abandon those weak ponies and join us, you could be king of the changelings! But of course, I would still be the supreme ruler and you would be under me in the hierarchy."

"Nah, I don't really feel like being under anybody in any hierarchy. I also don't want to be blasted out of Canterlot by a magical bubble." I slowly made my way towards her, still pretending that the sword was really heavy and that it weighed me down immensely.

She growled in frustration. "Fine then, don't join us! That just means that you will be crushed in our path towards conquering Equestria!" She charged up another beam of magic from her horn and fired it at me.

I slowed down time around me and simply stepped out of the way, after which I returned the flow of time to normal. The beam hit one of the doors and blew it off its hinges. She just raised her eyebrows in surprise and fired another shot. We went through these steps a few times, me moving closer every time I slowed down time. She began to panic seeing that I was slowly gaining ground even though I seemed that I was moving too slowly to have made it so far in such a short amount of time.

"How are you doing this? It seems that every time my magic is about to hit you, you simply sidestep it and keep moving." She backed up into the wall and growled in frustration again. "It seems that this method is fruitless, how about we try something else." She buzzed her wings and took to flying around the room, while trying to stay away from me.

"The truth is, I'm just slowing down time whenever you fire a blast at me. And this sword isn't heavy at all, I only made it seem that way so you would drop your guard slightly. Have you not noticed the marks on the floor that I have left whenever I sidestepped your magic?" I indicated some magical marks on the floor that I had been placing every time I had dodged her magic. I then sent a small burst of magic into each, causing a geyser of blue magical flames spurt up from the floor. "I have literally been toying with you this entire time, wasting time so that the others would have time to do what they need to do. I also do not wish to actually harm or kill you, so that's another reason why I did it this way."

She screamed in anger and shot a hail of magical energy on my position. I placed the flat edge of the blade in front of me, blocking the energy and sending it back at her. She flew out of the way of the energy and took another shot at me. This time I just flash stepped out of the way and jumped into the air. I sprouted dragon wings that were a midnight black with blood red highlights around the edges of the scales and just hovered there. Wings felt really weird, the feel of the air fitting in the pockets of membrane and giving lift was somewhat tingly. I guess that it was something you just get used to after a while of flying.

"You have been gaining new powers as you fight! That is completely un-natural! This is the last chance I will give you, join us or perish protecting these weak ponies." She charged up a large amount of energy in her horn, preparing to send a destructive ball of magic at me.

"As I have already said before, I will continue to protect these ponies while I can. I will not join you, and I will finish this fight if need be." I raised the sword in one hand and pointed it at her, me looking at her down the spine of the weapon. "And I will use lethal force if need be."

She didn't say anything before she sent the ball hurling towards me. I hovered there without moving, waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike back. The ball got closer, and then finally reached the exact point I was waiting for it to reach. I swung my sword and hit the ball with the spine of the weapon and sent it back. Chrysalis's eyes widened in shock as she tried to backpedal in the air before she got hit. The ball collided with her and she lost consciousness, falling to the floor. I caught her before she hit the ground and shifted back into my pony form.

The girls came rushing into the room just a few seconds after I had reverted to my pony form. Cadance ran up to Shining Armor and helped him raise the shield again. I felt a slight push as the force field passed through me, probably detecting the part of me that wasn't pony. The changelings were blasted out of the city along with the queen. Nopony had asked me how I had defeated the one who had beaten Princess Celestia, and they were never going to get an answer even if they did ask.

Celestia walked in after the barrier had been put up and Twilight rushed up to her asking all these random questions, but most of them were asking if she was going to be okay. Celestia just bent down and nuzzled her student. "Don't worry about me. I'm fine. You have a real wedding to put together." I just nodded in agreement and used my magic to fix up Canterlot and the room from any damage it had received in the fighting. The ponies around took a deep breath in in amazement.

"How did you do that so quickly, using that amount of magic? You just defeated Chrysalis, who defeated Princess Celestia, and you still have magic to spare for such a large scale thing like that?" Twilight asked in a shocked voice.

"Hey, I have vast reserves of magical power. What I used to fight Chrysalis wasn't even scratching the surface of those reserves. And I fixed everything that way because it would have been a pain in the royal tush to have fixed everything by hoof or by small amounts of magic." I giggled as I said tush, because I was poking fun at Celestia. She seemed to have noticed, because she gave me a glare. The others simply looked confused. "Don't worry about it guys. Something between us that should stay that way. Now let's get this wedding started, it has been to long waiting."

Everypony agreed and we all gathered the wedding guests again. The wedding went as planned and the after party was a blast. I got asked to dance from a few of the classier ponies and I danced with them to appease them. I also danced with the girls, Rarity being the best dancer of them all. When Pinkie got Vinyl up to play Love's In Bloom, I got them to throw a mic to me as well. I made sure that Vinyl had gotten the record for the Aviators version, because I was going to sing along with Twilight and do the rap in the middle. When I mentioned the muffins, I found Derpy and the Doctor in the crowd and gave them a wink. We finished and were applauded by everypony in the audience.

"I didn't know that you could sing like that. Did you have it in you the entire time?" Celestia came up to me after the party had ended.

"Yeah, I just didn't feel like singing in everything else that came up. I have many other talents that I have hidden and I won't even show half of them. The next time I show myself shall be a time of great importance, for you and some ponies in a frozen wasteland."

"You don't mean…" She looked shocked, her mouth hanging open.

"Yes, I do mean what you are thinking I mean. I just simply don't know when that will happen. It could be in a few years, months, or even days. But when it does happen, I'll be there right away. Send Twilight and her friends about three days after it appears. That should be enough time in between it showing up and them finding out about its existence. Now, I shall take my leave." I trotted off to go find Twilight and the others. "Just make sure you send Cadance and Shining there immediately after it shows up. Shining can come back to escort Twilight and the others when they have to make the trip there."

"Okay, I will make sure that that is done to the point. Have a good rest." She headed off to the castle, most likely to the barracks to tell some of the guards to keep an eye out for the Crystal Empire.

I found the girls making their way to the station and joined them. They were all laughing and chattering about what they thought was going to happen next. Spike made the comment about how they would have to wait for what he had planned for the bachelor party. That elicited new laughs as we got on board the train, and it left a very confused Spike waiting for an explanation that he would never get.

The ride back was uneventful as the girls were tired and sleeping until we got back to Ponyville. I was watching the landscape from the window and I noticed a shadow coming up alongside the train. I glanced around to see if any of the girls were awake, and when I was sure that none of them were I opened the window and jumped out. I flared my wings and caught an updraft that let me hover just out of the trains slipstream. I saw that the shadow was actually Luna, looking for the train compartment we were staying in.

"I wish to speak to you about what happened today. It seems that I missed many things while I slept." She hovered beside me as we made our way to Ponyville, letting the train get ahead of us.

"You mean while you were playing your games with your blinds closed, right?" She blushed deeply, letting me know that I was correct. "Don't worry; I'll fill you in on what happened. Let's fly faster; it won't really take me that long to fill you in." We flew towards my house, me filling her in quickly and then just engaging idle chatter after I had finished. She didn't really have anything interesting to say other that she also had noticed that Celestia was putting on a few pounds. We shared a few laughs before we reached my house, and I said goodbye to her as I landed at my doorstep.

"Well, it has been fun talking to you. I have to get back to Canterlot and carry out the royal duties." She got prepared to take off again, but I stopped her.

"I'll just teleport you over there so you don't have to worry about travel time." I immediately sent her to the throne room and then I entered my house. I locked the door behind me and trudged up the stairs. I didn't even bother changing forms before I fell on the bed and drifted off to sleep.

The Clash of the Nightmare Kings and the Crystal Empire

I woke up and untangled myself from my sheets. I had tossed and turned in my sleep, so they were wrapped around me snugly. Some of my feathers had been dislodged during my slumber, and I had to sweep them off of the bed. I checked my wings to check if they were any feathers necessary for flight, but I was pleasantly surprised to see that my wings were not missing any feathers. They had grown back as I slept so that I wouldn't have to worry about them. Not like I would actually have need of them for the upcoming events.

I had figured earlier that I would disguise myself as another pony so that others wouldn't know that it was me. I could act more easily behind the scenes and they wouldn't figure out that Ordeus can shift into the King of Nightmares from Nightmare Night. I teleported myself over to the area where the crystal empire would appear later today. I set up a precautionary barrier that would last until Shining Armor could cast his own and get Cadance to keep it up. I then transformed into an earth stallion that was a dark black that had small patches of white fur on my body. Mane and tail were a bright sapphire blue, a stark contrast to my dark fur. I sat down on a rock and waited for the Empire to appear, it reminded me of when I first got to the planet. It was just way colder and windier than in the beginning.

I waited for about an hour before I could see a crystal start to poke up out of the ground. It was the top of the palace, and the rest of it followed quickly after it first broke the earth. Other buildings were popping out of the ground left and right, quickly forming the snowflake pattern that the Empire was built in. I could see a pegasus guard flying away, off to tell Celestia that the Empire had returned. I was surprised that he hadn't asked me what I was doing here, but then I realized he hadn't seen me.

I walked through the Empire and watched as the residents exited their homes. I greeted those that welcomed me, but those were few. Most of the ponies were depressed looking and hung their heads as they walked about. They didn't greet each other enthusiastically, but in hushed tones, as if something were out to hurt them if they spoke loudly or cheerfully. I was on my way to the palace when I bumped into somepony that was running out of an alleyway. We crashed to the ground and I was picked up in a blue glow of magic.

"Watch where you are going, citizen. You ran into my wife, and I don't want to see anything bad happen to her." The tone of this stallion's voice was stern and angry, but there was an undertone of worry.

I looked up and was greeted by the sight of Shining Armor picking up Cadance from the ground where she had landed. I chuckled and then let out a loud guffaw. They looked at me as if I was crazy, but I would have done the same if the stallion I ran into randomly started to laugh. They looked at each other and shrugged their shoulders.

"Do you guys not recognize me? I was at your wedding! I knew that the Crystal Empire was going to return and I got here even before it came up. Try to guess who I am. I'll give you three guesses before I tell you." I held up my front two hooves and one of my back hooves so they could keep track of their guesses.

"Um, are you the Duke of Stalliongrad?" Cadance asked as she was scratching her head, trying to think of who I was.

"Nope, there goes your first guess." I let my back hoof fall down, indicating that they only had two guesses left.

Shining Armor was sitting down and scratching his chin, still holding me up with his magic. "Are you my second cousin on my father's side of my family? He has some relatives that have really dark fur but bright manes."

"No, you got further away from the answer with that guess." I put down my right front hoof. "I'll give you a hint; I know the caverns like the back of my hoof." I looked down at my hoof, inspecting it like one would a map. "Hey, that scar is new!"

Shining just looked at my quizzically but Cadance totally got it. "Uncle Ordeus, what are you doing here? I would have figured that you would have been in Canterlot to help brief the others about what is going to happen."

"No, I'm taking an active role in this. Did you guys not notice the barrier I set up when you arrived? It is to repel Sombra until you guys got here and set up your own. It also acts as a secondary protector, and it doesn't need to be constantly replenished. I need you guys to get to the palace and set up the barrier. Cadance can keep it going while Shining goes to get Twilight and the others." I put my other hoof down and just looked at Shining. "Now that you know that it's me, you can put me down Shining."

"Oh, sorry, I completely forgot." He lowered me to the ground and then released his magical grip on me. "Why are you not in your original form? It would allow you to act under any circumstances and you wouldn't be hindered by anypony. It also would allow you to use magic and fly, which you can't do in your current form."

"I'm doing this incognito. The only two who will know of the fact that I'm Ordeus are you guys. Believe it or not, I can get more done in this form that I can in my original form in this situation. I'll be less noticeable and can sneak around and gather information easily. I'll meet you in the palace when Twilight and her friends arrive with Shining." I started to gallop off before I turned around quickly and looked Shining in the eye. "And be warned, Sombra will most likely appear when the train gets near here. He'll try to stop help from arriving, but just surround everypony in a barrier. When you have to go on hoof, keep that barrier up and keep walking. Get Twilight to help you because Sombra will try to break you with powerful dark magic." I turned and ran around a corner, not listening to what Shining was saying.

"I walked around the Empire for the next few days, setting up some runes for protection from dark magic. I had to return to the palace every now and then to get more materials for creating the runes, and Cadance, Shining and I had strategy meetings where we exchanged info about what was happening and what we were planning on doing in the upcoming events. I kept what I was doing mostly a secret, only telling them what was necessary at the moment. I didn't tell them about anything that would happen in the future.

True to her word, Celestia sent the girls four days after the Empire appeared. It took about a full day to travel from Canterlot to the Empire, and that is why it was four days instead of three like I would have expected it to be. Shining and Cadance had appeared so soon because Celestia had teleported those two to a location near the Crystal Empire. From where I was when the girls neared the Empire, I could see the massive black cloud that was Sombra. I could also see a small, in perspective, purplish bubble that protected the girls from Sombra's attempts to hinder them.

I ran through the streets to reach the spot where the small group would enter from. I slid to a stop in front of the small group; the girls were looking around in amazement. "No time to be amazed in the beauty and splendor. We need to get you girls to the palace so that you can be briefed on the situation and begin the investigation." We began to hurry our way to the palace, and Pinkie asked Shining who I was. I turned my head and told her, "My name is Midnight Cry. I am an infiltrator for the Lunar guard. I am also its captain, while Shiny here is captain of the Day guard. I'm retiring after this so one of the others will take my place. Hopefully it will be Night Breeze; she is the best second hoof I've had in a long time."

We reached the palace and I opened the doors for the group and I closed them after everypony had gotten inside. We rushed for the throne room, where Cadance currently was. She looked even more tired than the last time I had seen her.

"Hello girls, it would have been nice to talk and hang out, but this isn't the time for that. Sombra is trying to break down the barrier that I'm holding up." That explained the exhaustion she showed. She looked at me and I mouthed for her to not tell the girls who I really was. "Shining and he will tell you what we have learned so far, and they will point you in the right direction for your search. Now, I have to focus on this barrier."

Shining and I led the girls back to the entrance of the palace. We filled them in on where the library was and any other thing they might need to know. I felt Cadance's barrier falter for a moment and Sombra's magic slip in. My barrier and runes stopped the further spread of his magic for now, but they too would falter in time and his magic would start to slowly spread across the empire. Hopefully, it would be the same amount of time that the girls would have had in the show. Heck, it could even lengthen the time by a short amount.

I decided that I would confront Sombra now rather than later, it would save us a ton of time. I made my way to the outer edge of the Empire, seeing the girls every now and then trying to get information out of the ponies that Shining hadn't gotten yet. There weren't many things left that they had to say. I reached the edge in a short amount of time and stepped out into the frozen wasteland outside of the bubble. There, pools of shadow coalesced around me and shaped into the form of Sombra, the very stallion I was there to meet.

"It seems that we have a brave one here. You would be fit to be my first slave after so many years of imprisonment, your tail shines like the brightest sapphire." He conjured shadow shackles that rushed forward to latch onto my legs. I stepped forward and the shackles disappeared.

"It's great and all that you think my mane and tail are pretty, but that's not what I came here for. I came here to tell you to scram and leave these ponies alone. You will be defeated either by me or by those in the Empire right now. Either way, it doesn't matter in the long run, as you will be defeated. Have you heard from your nightmare monster of the Nightmare King?" I shifted and pulled my armor to me.

"Oh, so you are the one that defeated one of my most faithful servants. To think you took the guise of a pony. Nopony would have thought of looking for you that way. But now is not the time for useless chatter, as we have a battle to fight." He pulled at a dark crystal that was sticking out of the ground and his scythe came out. He twirled it with his magic before he held it beside him. "This will be a wonderful warm-up, crushing a worthless and fake king."

"Oh, so you underestimate me? Fine, I'll fight with my hands until thirty minutes are up. Then I shall switch to my first weapon, then my second, and finally my third after an hour and a half. Hopefully you can stand up to me that long, because I haven't had the chance to try out the third in a while." I clenched my fists, took a boxers stance, and gestured for him to attack first.

He basically threw the scythe at me, spinning it while it flew towards me. I kicked it out of the air and cancelled his magic on it at the same time. He had to grab it out of the air again before it hit him, and then he snarled and grabbed it in his teeth. He found out that magic wouldn't work while fighting me, so he figured he would do it the old fashioned way like an earth pony. When he got close to me, I caught his scythe as he swung it at me and flung him off of it. He landed some distance away and I threw the weapon back to him.

"Why are you giving me my weapon back? You could have finished me off by now!" He stamped his hoof in anger, blowing hot air through his nostrils.

"I told you that I would fight with my fists for the first thirty minutes and it's barely been five. I want the challenge that you aren't providing. Fight me seriously or leave now." I changed my stance into that of an aikido fighter. I sat on the ground with my legs underneath me. "Come at me full force and do not hold back."

He yowled and conjured up shadow beasts that took physical forms after they appeared. They ran at me, followed by their master. I simply sat there and flung them as they attacked me. For those readers who don't know what aikido is, it is sometimes known also as the Way of harmonious spirit. You either use the attacker's momentum to throw them, or you use joint locking techniques to stop them from moving. It is a style that does little to no damage to the attacker unless the environment is dangerous. But since we were surrounded by thick snow, there was plenty of cushioning.

I took the shadow beasts down easily, them disappearing right after I threw them or stopped their movements. These beasts actually had really easy to see joint areas and pressure points. Sombra was smart enough to be able to right himself after being thrown, and he kept his body out of my reach by using the length of the scythe to his advantage. The rest of the first thirty minutes passed with him trying to hit me with no avail. I got up and stretched, pulling my sword and shield to me while I put my arms behind my back.

"Now that you have had your chance to be offensive, it is my turn to attack and you to defend." I pointed at him with the sword, making myself look really cliché. "Your scythe will shatter alongside your soul as you realize that your efforts are fruitless."

He just glared at me and pulled more shadow magic to him. It gathered around his scythe, reinforcing it. I rushed him with my shield raised and caught his scythe in the spikes at the top of my shield and broke the blade in half. Then I crashed my sword against the top of the scythe, breaking the top off of it. Now that he only had a long staff to protect himself, Sombra actually started to look panicked. I spent the rest of the time slowly chipping the stick down into a stub that was worthless.

"Have you decided to give up yet, Sombra. You know that you can't win, so why even bother. Your magic is being blocked by my barrier and the others are getting closer to finding out where you hid the crystal heart. See, they already have the fair set up. When they find the heart, you will be blown away from the Empire towards the Badlands. You could probably meet up with Chrysalis over there and plot to overthrow pony kind or something, but I would still be here to stop you."

"I will not give up! A king shall never relinquish his kingdom to those unfit to rule, especially if they don't have an iron hoof when dealing with their subjects!" He rushed me again, trying to stab me with his horn. I sidestepped and kicked him in his ribs, sending him flying.

"That's too bad to hear. We could have ended this peacefully, but I figure that I shouldn't drag this out any longer than I have to." I pulled out my third weapon, a sword that was made from metal that came from a meteorite. It was a well-known blade of a paladin that was used to vanquish many a demon. It would quickly deal with Sombra, seeing that he was just a unicorn that used dark magic rather than a demon that took form of a pony.

I held it in front of me and started to gather energy into the blade. It began to glow, and it got brighter every second. Sombra began to scramble back, but he fell on his haunches after he tripped on one of the crystals that were spread around him every time he used his magic. I made my eyes glow an ethereal white and I shouted "May the power of Celestia smite thee!" I swung my blade and unleashed the energy that had been built up in it. Sombra screamed as he was engulfed in the blinding white light that slashed across the land. Any crystals around were disintegrated by the light and there was a scar in the snow and earth for miles away from where the blast originated.

"Well, no more Sombra. I have found out that I have been getting more and more violent as I stay here, probably because I haven't had the chances to vent that I normally would have. I should find the training room in the house to vent some steam every one and awhile. Time to return to the empire and take down those runes and the barrier." I changed into my pony form and trotted back to the empire. I still carried the blade because I felt that it would help me explain on how Sombra left.

Shining was already at the place where I entered and exited from. I faked a limp so that it would seem that Sombra had hurt me in some way. I didn't want him to think that I had gotten out of a battle unscathed, especially one with Sombra. I could hear the galloping of others coming towards us as well. I pulled Shining into a darker alleyway so that the girls wouldn't see us.

"What happened out there? You've been gone for over an hour and then this huge burst of light came from out there. And where did you get that blade? It seems that it is filled with power, greater than even the strongest unicorn."

"Well, the light came from this blade and my own power. Sombra has been dealt with and won't be coming back any time soon. The blade, as I call it, is called the god-sword and is filled with the power of the light. Though it seems that one of Sombra's crystals got stuck in there. I'll get it out later, for now, how about we help the girls with the fair?" I walked off at a brisk trot, followed by Shining. We made our way for the crystal palace, going to tell Cadance that she didn't have to keep the barrier up anymore.

Along the way, I found a piece of cloth and strapped the sword to my back. When we got to the entrance, I let Shining go up to tell Cadance about Sombra. I went over to the crystal heart where Rainbow was standing, looking extremely bored. "Hey Dash, what have you been up to?"

She looked up from the spot she was staring at and huffed. "After the jousting, which I was awesome at, Twilight made me come over here and watch the heart. I am so freakin bored, nothing has happened that is exciting." She scratched at the ground with her hoof. "So, what's up with you?"

"Oh, nothing much, just came to see what you were doing. Also, I defeated Sombra a short while ago; making sure that he wouldn't bother us or these other ponies for a long while. Oh, I also need to tell you that the crystal heart right there is not the actual crystal heart. If the crystal ponies see that thing, they're going to be crushed." I poked at the fake crystal heart, waiting for Dash to react to what I just said.

"You defeated Sombra?! All by yourself? I won't believe that, even Celestia and Luna could only trap him." She blinked, and did a double take at the heart. "Wait, what did you say about the heart? You said this one was a fake? Meaning there's a real one?!"

I just nodded yes and Rainbow took off to find Twilight. I pulled over a cloth to cover the fake heart, making sure that I didn't alert any other pony that anything was wrong. It felt weird picking up everything with your mouth, and you could taste whatever it was you picked up. I really missed my magic right now. When I got back to the heart, Twilight was already there with the rest of the group. She was holding the book and was flipping through the pages, scanning them for anything that mentioned the crystal heart.

I threw the cloth over the heart and walked up to the book. "Here Twilight, let me show you where the information would have been." I flipped over to the place where Sombra had ripped out a few pages. "That's where it would have been if Sombra hadn't torn it out before he was imprisoned. I learned that he did that right before he, um, left."

"What do you mean by 'left'? Ugh, never mind, we don't have time for that. We have to find the real heart before things take a turn for the worse. Fluttershy and Pinkie, go off that way to see if you can find anything. Applejack and Rarity go the other way and search around and talk to the ponies over there. Rainbow, see if you can find anything while flying. Spike and I will search the castle to see what we can find there."

I held up my hoof, waving it so Twilight would notice. She looked over at me and gave me a nod, telling me to speak. "I know where you can start the search. Follow me." I led Twilight and Spike up to the throne room. "Cadance isn't here because she's resting after having used all that magic. See if you can find anything in this room. I'll help you search."

Twilight and Spike went off to one side of the room to see if they could find anything unusual while I just stood there waiting for Twilight to figure out that this wasn't exactly what the throne room looked like while Sombra was in power. Twilight and Spike walked over to me and asked me if I had found anything. It sounded like Twilight wasn't anywhere close to figuring out that the room needed to be changed, so I figured I would just tell her. I wanted this to speed up as quickly as possible.

"I didn't find anything, but that's most likely because the throne room didn't look like this while Sombra was in power. I would change it, but I don't have magic." I pointed to my forehead, showing the absence of a horn. "Twilight, if you would do the honors."

She just nodded and gathered dark energy into the tip of her horn. She struggled slightly, and her eyes began to glow and give off a green mist. She shot the magic into the center of the room and the entire room changed into the dark crystals that Sombra created. Stairs appeared in front of where Twilight was standing.

"How did you know that was what we were supposed to do?"

"Eh, it was just a hunch. Besides, we have descending to do. No time to spend dilly dallying like this." I started to run down the steps, leaving Twilight and Spike standing at the top. It took them a moment to register that I had just run down into the darkness by myself and they took off after me. I had slowed down slightly to allow them to catch up with me. Spike had already gotten tired and was riding on Twilight's back. I grabbed onto the railing that wasn't naturally there, I made it appear, and I slid down. Twilight followed my lead and did the same.

We reached the bottom of the stairs within minutes. We stood in front of the door and Twilight inspected it. I put up a spell on myself so that I couldn't be affected by illusionary magic, and I did so when Spike wasn't looking. Twilight went into a stupor, standing there with a blank look on her face. Then she was screaming and crying, going through her own nightmare. I walked up to her and pushed her aside, placing myself in front of the door.

"Huh, what happened?" Twilight looked around to figure out where she was.

"That was weird Twilight. You had a one mare show going on there." Spike was trying to explain what Twilight had done while she was stuck in her nightmare, but I just kicked a nearby crystal and it showed a playback of the scene.

"Sombra put a strong illusion spell on the crystal above this door. It made you live your worst nightmare in your own head, leaving you vulnerable to any kind of attack on your physical body." I stared at the crystal. It had shifted into an eye, and it stared back at me. I held my gaze and, it took a few moments, it shattered. It had tried to use too much power to make me weak or vulnerable, but the spell I had cast on myself prevented anything from happening to me. I opened the door to show even more stairs and I walked out and began to climb.

"What was that?!" Twilight ran up next to me, carrying Spike on her back again.

"What was what, Twilight? I got us through the door, is there any need to know how I did it?"

"Yes, I mean, even I was affected by that door. How were you not, when you are an earth pony that doesn't have any strong affinity to magic?"

"I got a spell placed on me a while ago that blocked any illusionary magic from affecting me. It has aided me in my missions." I leaned over the edge of the stairs and looked up to see how much further we had to travel. We still had a long way. "If you could speed this up, that would be greatly appreciated."

She nodded and flipped our gravity, and we slid the rest of the way up the tower. She reversed our gravity back to normal and we landed on our hooves. We looked at the real crystal heart, and Spike licked his lips. I glared at him and told him to not get any ideas. This gem was not for eating, we had to get it back down to the ground. I felt a small pulse of energy from the sword on my back. I glanced at it and saw that it had turned half black and half white.

"Well, I should have seen this coming. Can't have one without the other. Time to signal Dash to help us out." I walked over to the edge of the top and pulled the sword off of my back and caught the sun's rays on it. I found where Rainbow was and flashed the light over her. She looked up and saw that I was holding the sword at the very top of the palace. She bolted up to where we were standing.

"Did you guys find it already? It's barely been twenty minutes."

"Well, Midnight here seemed to know exactly how to get up here. He even broke the crystal above the door that affected me, without even having to do anything but stare at it."

Rainbow Dash rushed up to my face. "Are you a spy for Sombra? You seem to have an awful amount of knowledge about this place."

"I am a spy, but not for Sombra. And the reason why I know so much about this place is that one of my ancestors is a crystal pony. He was a palace servant under Sombra's rule, and he was an undercover agent for Celestia and Luna. He passed down the knowledge of the palace and its secret corridors and such in the stories he used to tell. Now that we have that cleared up, go get Fluttershy. She can help you get this down to the ground and then you can come back for Twilight and Spike."

Rainbow Dash grunted and flew off to get Fluttershy. I walked over to the edge of the tower and jumped off onto the crystal below it. Twilight had yelled and rushed over to me when I had jumped off, and she had tried to envelop me in magic so I wouldn't fall. When she saw that I was fine, she just yelled at me to not scare her like that again. I just chuckled and made my way down to the ground. By the time I had gotten there, Rainbow and Fluttershy had brought down the heart and were going back to get Twilight and Spike.

"So now that we have the real heart, how about we gather everypony here so we can wrap this up? Places to go, ponies to see." I walked over to the crystal heart and placed it on the pedestal. The rest of the group fanned out to tell everypony in the empire to come to the palace. I went and got Shining and Cadance so they could be there to celebrate along with the others.

In almost no time at all, the crystal ponies were gathered around the center and pouring their happiness into the heart (super cheesy sounding if you ask me). A massive wave of energy passed over us and the others became crystal ponies. For some reason, only my tail had become like crystal while the rest of me stayed the same. I placed the sword against the pedestal because I was probably never going to use it again and even if I did need it I could just pull it to me using my powers. I also placed a 'do not touch' sign on it because I knew some ponies would want to touch it.

Nopony noticed me as I walked out of the empire and into the frozen wasteland that surrounded it. I transformed into my alicorn form and teleported to Canterlot. I appeared in the main hall and made my way to the night court, because that was the one that was currently in session. I walked in right after something had hit the door, and it turns out the thing that hit the door was one of Luna's slippers. She had gotten angry at one of the aristocrat ponies and had almost hit him.

"Well, it seems that I have come at the most opportune time. If I may, I ask that you leave the room everypony and leave Lu-Lu and I alone while somepony sends a servant to fetch Tia." There was much grumbling from the ponies as they walked out of the room. The last one almost bumped into somepony that was coming in.

"You had no need to send a servant to fetch me because I was already making my way down here after I heard that my brother had come back after his long absence. What have you to say for not visiting us often?" She made a pouty face and was gathering fake tears in the corners of her eyes.

"Tia, you should know that doesn't work on me at all." She stopped and gave me a smile. "I came to tell you that Sombra is no more for now. I have purified him using a blade that I left at the Crystal Empire for now. But I have also come to tell you that Twilight will soon be ready to fulfill her destiny partially, you just have to find that spell from Starswirl that is somewhere in the library's restricted section. And with that said, I must go! My bed needs me!" I teleported into my house, because screw my own spells. I walked up the stairs and opened my bedroom door, and was surprised when I saw that somepony was already sleeping on my bed.

I don't even know how she got in again. I locked all the doors, I put up spells preventing ponies from entering my house without me being in it, and I had asked her to not use any of her 'special powers' to enter my house. Even after all that, there was Pinkie sleeping in my bed; her pink hair covering most of the pillow she was laying her head on. I went over to her and nudged her awake.

"Huh? Who is that?" She looked up at me with bleary eyes. She rubbed at them and then leaped up with a huge gasp and hugged me.

"Pinkie, go home. I don't need any pony in my house, when I'm about to sleep." I smoothed out the covers from where Pinkie had messed them up and then got into the bed. She got in next to me and snuggled up to me. "And I definitely don't need a pony to get close to me, in the same bed, while I try to sleep."

"But you live alone in this humongous house with nopony else. It must be really lonely at times. That's why I decided that I would be here for you one night to surprise you and spend the night with you so you wouldn't be lonely. That, and Mr. and Mrs. Cake told me that I needed to go to one of my friends' houses for the night because they were going to Manehattan and didn't trust me alone in the shop alone for some reason. And the others were doing something, so I couldn't stay with them."

"Fine, you can stay here for one night. One. Night. Only. There is a guest room down the hall on the third left door I think. Goodnight, I will most likely not be up in the morning, so you will have to show yourself out." I turned over so that I was facing away from her. I looked back over to her when I hadn't heard her get up and leave and found that she had gone back to sleep. I just smiled and patted her head, turning out the light so that I could get to sleep.

Cutie Swap, The Mind Boggling Mirror, and The End

I woke up and found that Pinkie had left a sticky note on my forehead. I peeled it off and read it. "Thanks for letting me stay the night. You didn't wake up when I nudged you, poked you, tried to push you out of the bed, or kissed you." Wait what!? I read it again to make sure that my eyes were not playing tricks on me. Plain as day, Pinkie had wrote that down, along with some other things I'm not comfortable typing. Taking advantage of me while I slept, gah dang it Pinkie. I should have realized that she smelled differently than normal.

I felt violated, which I had all right to feel that, but I had to move on with my life and forget about it. Thought processes during that time for mares can be radically different than what they normally are. I got up out of bed and stretched to find another note stuck on my mirror. "Sorry for what I did, I just wasn't thinking straight. Hopefully we can still be friends. Signed- Pinkie."

Of course we could still be friends. I forgive and forget easily when it comes to my close friends. Even though I didn't really spend as much time around them as a normal friend would, I still felt a close bond with the girls. I preened my wings and went to the kitchen to make myself a hay sandwich. Even though it was just a bit of hay between two slices of bread, it tasted great. Now I could see why hay fries were actually popular nowadays. I finished up my sandwich and took a step outside, only to be covered in snow and then have it blown off by a powerful gust of wind.

"And the first victim of the day turns out to be me. Karma is a bitch, you hear that Karma? You are a bitch!" A bolt of lightning struck right by my front hooves. I backed up a few steps. "Ok, I get it. I won't say that anymore, please don't hit me. Even though it wouldn't hurt, it would still be uncomfortable." I made my way over to the library to meet up with Twilight, and saw that none of Rarity's clouds had gotten into town so far. I walked up to the library as soon as Twilight had burst into her musical number.

I was dragged along by her and forced to sing a few parts. I liked the song, but forcing me to sing is kinda pushing your luck. She got to the last few lines and I slipped out of her grasp and made myself a makeshift umbrella. I was not going to be drenched in water after having had experienced snow dropping on me. There was a short torrential downpour, and then it was sunny again.

Twilight was completely drenched, and she looked peeved that her perfect day had been ruined. "Rainbow Dash, that's not funny!"

Rarity walked up behind us, her horn glowing with magic as she controlled the clouds. "Terribly sorry, darling. I'm afraid I'm... I'm not good with the thundery ones. Good morning Ordeus, Pinkie also told me of the mistake she made. Hopefully you don't hold it against her."

"Don't worry, I already forgive her. I just have to say it to her face so that she knows that I do forgive her. You have your job to do," I said as I pointed to the clouds above us and the ones that covered the rest of Ponyville. "Twilight, let's get over to the library. You have to figure out what has happened."

She nodded and we briskly trotted towards the library. She opened the door and let me in, closing the door behind me. She stopped looking around when she realized exactly what I had said. "Wait, you mean I have to do this myself? Then why are you here?"

"I'm here for moral support. And the reason why you have to do this on your own is because it is your lesson from Celestia. She didn't know this was going to happen. Get Spike and head over to Rainbow's cottage. We can figure out how this happened when you get back." I took a seat and made myself a cup of chamomile tea.

She just grunted angrily and pulled Spike out of the door with her. I figured that I would liven things up a little by playing along. I changed into my human form so I could play my guitar and then I made myself and my guitar invisible. I blinked over to the cottage, where Twilight and Spike were just arriving. It was a good thing that nopony realized how weird it was to just randomly break into song. They didn't even realize that music was going on in the background. I plugged up the guitar to an amp on my back and skipped forward in the song a bit so I would be on the right part. (Magical Mystery Cure Rock!- Claire Anne Carr)

After Twilight had run around all of Ponyville, she rushed back to the library and accidentally tossed Spike onto the floor. She ran around the room, looking for a book or something that could help her fix her friend's cutie marks. "This is bad. This is very, very bad."

Spike got up and rubbed his back from where he had landed on it. "What's going on? Why is this happening?!"

Twilight went into a story about how she had received the special delivery from Celestia while Spike had been taking one of his seven hour long bubble baths. (That's a really freaking long time to take a bubble bath). When she finished she said, "I cast the spell so I could find out what it was, but nothing seemed to happen. But now I know something did happen. The spell has changed the Elements of Harmony! That must be why their cutie marks are all wrong!"

Spike looked shocked and he said nonchalantly, "So just cast a counter-spell to switch them back."

Twilight looked relieved and she picked up the text to see what the counter spell was. "Oh." She scanned it and dropped it when she had finished. "There is no counter-spell!"

Spike was even more shocked and he started to list some things that he believed would help. Some of them that he said were not even said in the show, thankfully. Let's just say, it was close to Cupcakes. After all of his ideas were shot down he started to make his way upstairs. "Well" he sighed, "maybe it won't be so bad. Maybe our friends will grow to like their new lives."

Twilight looked down at the floorboards and started to cry lightly. "No, Spike. They're not who they are meant to be anymore. Their destinies are now changed, and it's all my fault." She went upstairs along with Spike and I followed them. I was still invisible, so they didn't even know I was there. She crawled into her bed and sang her short song while I played along with her tune. "Oh, Spike, what have I done?"

I went out the door and turned into my pony form. I walked into the room and told her, "Twilight, no matter what happened, you have to realize that they are still your friends. And what do friends do for their friends? They help them out no matter what. You know how to fix this; you just have to believe in your friends and your heart. Get out there and do what only you know how to do. Be a great friend through even the hardest times."

I levitated the Elements over to her and she stopped crying. She got up and took the Elements with her as she ran out the door to find the nearest of her friends. I turned back to my human form and followed her again, readying up my guitar for the next song. She went and got Fluttershy right before she moved back to Cloudsdale. They then made their way over to where Rainbow was, being prepared to cook. They started up their song and I began playing. We went around town and got the girls their real cutie marks back, and inadvertently beginning a parade behind us.

When we had finished, the girls went into a group hug. I decided that the guitar want needed anymore, and I sent it back to my house. I found an alley and transformed there, then I walked out and up to the girls. While I had been gone, Twilight had thought of the way to complete the spell. She pulled everypony along with her as she made a mad dash for the library. She grabbed a quill as she walked in and levitated the text over to a podium.

"From all of us together, together we're friends. With the marks of our destinies made one, there is magic without end!" She said this as she wrote it down, and the Elements around the girl's necks began to glow brightly. They shot beams that locked in with Twilight's crown and then there was a bright flash of light. When everypony looked back up to see what had happened, they cried out when they saw that Twilight wasn't standing there anymore and there was a scorch mark on the floor.

"Don't worry about it, girls. I know exactly where she is and I can tell you that she is perfectly fine. We have awhile to wait before she gets back, so how about we have some tea and biscuits while we wait?" I levitated over a tea tray and offered a cup to each of the girls. When I made it to Pinkie, I looked her straight in the eye and gave her a stern look. She looked frightened for a second before I smiled and gave her a noogie. "I forgive ya Pinkie. I don't hold grudges against my friends, and I know that you weren't exactly in your right mind when you did it. Honestly, it's my fault because I should have realized it sooner."

The girls, all except for Rarity, had confused looks on their faces. Rainbow was the one who voiced all of their questions. "What are you talking about? Should have realized what sooner?" Pinkie, Rarity and I looked at each other and gave the look that we weren't going to say a word about what had happened to anypony else in the room. We all made the gestures for the Pinkie Swear and nodded afterwards. "Seriously, what are you guys talking about?"

I looked at her. "Something you and the others don't really need to know about. Does anypony else need a refill?" The others just looked confused before Applejack said that she needed a refill, breaking up the awkward silence in the room. We waited for the next few hours in the library, quietly chatting about recent events. I learned that Rarity, though a mare of high status, did not actually date many stallions. This was probably because of her high standards. She had told us the tale (actually tales) of how many stallions had come up to her in the past month alone. Applejack, Rainbow and I tried to tune her out, but we were unsuccessful.

Rainbow talked about how her new tricks meant to impress the Wonderbolts were coming along. I actually listened in on this because I wanted to know how to do more aerial maneuvers. Applejack told us about her apple trees and how well they were producing high quality apples again this year. Pinkie just yabbered on about how she was coming along at making one of the cakes from my cookbooks. Apparently, the cake she was making consisted of seventeen different layers of cake with varying sizes. Each layer was glued together with a different flavor of icing, giving a huge mass of flavor in one cake.

I had to create a story when it got to be my turn to talk. I decided to tell them my life story before I came to Equestria. "There was this young colt, about the age of seven when he decided to try to become something that he had always dreamed of becoming. A rock star. Sadly, he never really got the chance because he was horrible at playing the guitar and he couldn't sing at all. So he was ridiculed by his classmates from then on, even through his high school career he was ridiculed by his classmates. He felt that life was always going to be the same way it was up until that one day, boring."

Rainbow piped up, "Why are you telling us this story? It's not like it's you or something. And what is this 'one day' you're talking about?"

"Dash, don't interrupt when somepony is telling a story. Now, where was I? Ah, this young colt was given the opportunity to meet those he had always wished to meet, but he would have to do something in return. He agreed, and he was sent to meet his heroes. He became friends with them even though he was completely different from each of them; he learned that life does not always have to be predictable and boring. He also learned the real meaning of friendship from these heroes of his. Can you guess who this young colt was and is?"

Pinkie started to wave her hoof. I looked at her and shook my head. "Pinkie, since you already know the answer, you can't tell them who it is." Pinkie giggled and put her hoof back down. Applejack was the first one to guess after Pinkie had tried to answer.

"Um, is it Snips or Snails? Them two seem like they would do anything to meet their heroes."

"No, Applejack, it is not those two. Even though I don't doubt that they would basically do anything to meet their heroes. They are also not old enough, which you would have realized if you had listened to the entire story." Rainbow held up her hoof. "Yes, the cyan mare near the back. Speak up so the class may hear you."

"Um, is it Soarin'? He had to give up something to become part of the Wonderbolts, he's old enough to fit into the story, and he once tried his hoof at rock music." She grinned at me, believing that she had gotten the right answer.

"No, Rainbow, it wasn't Soarin' either. At least you didn't say somepony younger than the age I mentioned in the story." Fluttershy was the next to hold up her hoof, but it was only a tiny amount. I had to make sure that she was actually raising her hoof before I walked over to her to hear who she thought the story was about.

"Um, is it about you?"

"And ding ding ding! We have a winner here folks. What would you like to say on your glorious victory in guessing who it was the story was about?" I pulled a microphone from the air and a camera was handed to me by Pinkie. Fluttershy cowered back behind her hair.

"Um, I don't really want to say anything, if that's okay with you."

"Of course, now, it seems as though Twilight is about to return. How about we talk about this later, like at the time where all the princesses are gathered at the Crystal Empire to talk about stuff. Tally ho!" I opened the front door of the library with my magic and galloped out of the place. The girls followed me as I made my way to the spot where Twilight would come to land at. I arrived at the spot at the exact same moment she landed, leaving the embrace of the light and allowing us to see what she had become. The others around me gasped and ran up to her.

Rainbow was the first to regain from her stupor. "Ha! Twilight's got wings! Awesome! A new flying buddy!" She laughed and flew a small loop in the air.

Rarity looked carefully at Twilight's new wings, unfolding them from her body. "Why, you've become an Alicorn. I didn't even know that was possible."

Pinkie swung in from somewhere off-screen (don't ask how that is possible in the actual world) and shouted "Alicorn party!" She blew a kazoo and the rest of the group cheered loudly, except for Fluttershy who cheered softly.

She walked up to Twilight and looked at her new wings. "Wow... You look just like a princess!"

Celestia came in from a ball of light. "That's because she is a princess."

As a collective group, the ponies around me asked "Huh?"

Pinkie said, "Hold on one second." She grabbed a glass of water and did a spit-take, drenching me in warm water. "Sorry Ordeus, I forgot that you were there."

I grabbed a towel and dried myself off. "It's ok; I'm not really doing much here. I'm used to it."

Twilight looked at her old mentor, shocked at what she had heard. "A… a princess?"

Celestia gazed down at her old student. "Since you've come to Ponyville, you've displayed the charity, compassion, devotion, integrity, optimism, and of course, the leadership of a true princess."

Twilight looked sadly at her old mentor. "Does this mean I won't be your student anymore?"

"Not in the same way as before. I'll still be here to help and guide you, but we're all your students now, too. You are an inspiration to us all, Twilight." Celestia bowed down to Twilight and the rest of the group followed her lead. I was the last to bow, and I gave Twilight an encouraging nod.

Twilight looked panicked. "But... what do I do now? Is there a book about being a princess I should read?"

Celestia and I got up from our bows and walked up to Twilight. "There will be time for all of that later. For now, we have a coronation ceremony to plan." She picked up Twilight in her forelegs and teleported them over to Canterlot. I turned around to the group and smiled.

"You girls ready for the coronation of your best friend and leader?" They all looked at me; all of them had their own questions to be asked. "Don't worry about not seeing her after she is officially a princess, she'll still live in Ponyville and be able to hang out with you girls. We have planning to do and Rarity has dresses to make. I'm pretty sure that you can't wear the same dresses to this that you did to the Gala."

Rarity gasped and ran for her boutique, new designs already on her mind. The others went off to Sugarcube corner to start planning a party for Twilight when she got back to Ponyville. I walked off to my house to sleep until the coronation, which I had learned from Celestia, which was going to be in a week. She had already planned out most of it, meaning she only had to plan a few smaller details and fill Twilight in on what was going to happen. There was probably also something like paperwork that Twilight had to fill out, and I'm glad that I wasn't needed to be present during that.

I walked up to my door, looking at my house in earnest. It looked perfectly fine, even though I had barely done anything to help maintain its appearance. I walked in and looked around the inside. There wasn't even a speck of dust on any of the doorknobs or paintings. It was as if time itself couldn't touch any part of my house, which is exactly what I needed when I had built it. I had put that effect on it without even realizing it. I walked up the stairs, and for the first time, realized that I was actually tired. This slightly concerned me, but I brushed it off as my mind finally catching up with all that had happened since I had come here. I walked up to my bed and plopped down on it, quickly falling into a quiet slumber.

The following week…

I woke up, well rested and ready for the day. I knew that I wouldn't feel tired anymore, since I had finally been caught up with my mind. It was like a severe case of delayed jet lag or something. I got my tux out of the closet and put it on, smoothing out any wrinkles that had formed in the time that I hadn't worn it. I went to the spot in Ponyville where everypony was getting ready to go to the coronation, the train platform.

Even when I got near it, I knew that I wasn't going to be able to get a ride for a long time. I had arrived at the very back of the line, which went on for a long while. I had arrived at the same time as the rest of the group and Rainbow Dash started to complain.

"Ugh, this is exactly like cider season. But this is way more important than that, and we're at the back of the line." She angrily crossed her forelegs and hovered there with a scowl on her face.

"Don't worry about it, Dash. You're forgetting about who is with you. I knew it was going to be this long a wait, so I was just really waiting for you girls to show up. Group together as tight as you can and get ready for a tingly sensation." I charged up my horn, readying up a group teleportation spell. I let it go and enveloped myself and the girls in the light. There was a second of blank space before all of us appeared in the main hall of the castle.

Rarity looked around her, searching for her luggage. "But, dear, what about our luggage. All my work will have been meaningless if we just left the dresses behind."

"Don't worry about it Rarity, your luggage is in your room. Same as everypony else here." We heard the tapping of hooves against marble racing towards us. I turned around to see Shining and some of his guards come around the corner from one of the halls. "And these fellas right here will show you to your rooms, ladies" I appointed each guard to a member of the group and sent them off. "Shining, you're with Rarity. Make sure she doesn't make and detours. I'm off to take my place for the ceremony."

Shining took Rarity to her room as I made my way for the coronation room, which was the same room where Shining's and Cadance's wedding had been held. When I entered, I saw that nopony was there yet. I went up to the front of the room and turned around, imagining what was going to happen. Celestia had left the speech for Twilight's coronation to me because I was the oldest of the three alicorns that would be attending.

Ponies began to fill the room, and guards made sure that they left a space in the middle for Twilight to walk down. Celestia and Luna arrived fashionably on time, arriving at the exact time they said they would be there. When the room had been sufficiently filled, I cleared my throat and said, "We are gathered here today in celebration of a momentous occasion. My sister's most faithful student, Twilight Sparkle, has done many extraordinary things since she's lived in Ponyville. She even helped reunite me and my sister with our sister, Princess Luna. But today, Twilight Sparkle did something extraordinary. She created new magic, proving without a doubt that she is ready to be crowned Equestria's newest princess. Fillies and gentlecolts, may I present for the very first time, Princess Twilight Sparkle!"

The chorus began up their song as Twilight came in the double doors at the back of the room. Celestia, Luna, and I watched Twilight as she came up that row. We all felt pride in seeing what she had become, even though I had very little with what she had become. I was just a tiny nudge here and there that she could have done fine without, but I felt that I still had something with what she had accomplished. When she got up to us, I levitated her crown onto her head and bowed to her. The rest of the ponies in the room bowed to her and she made her way onto the balcony.

The girls, Celestia, Luna, and I followed her out as she stood in front of the crowd of ponies in the castle's grounds and the entirety of Canterlot, and the entire population of Equestria. She stood there, stock still and not moving. She was frozen by shock. I nudged her and smiled. "Say something, Princess"

She gulped and moved closer to the edge of the balcony. "A little while ago, my teacher and mentor Princess Celestia sent me to live in Ponyville. She sent me to study friendship, which is something I didn't really care much about. But now, on a day like today, I can honestly say I wouldn't be standing here if it weren't for the friendships I've made with all of you. Each one of you taught me something about friendship, and for that, I will always be grateful. Today, I consider myself the luckiest pony in Equestria. Thank you, friends. Thank you, everypony!"

The crowd below us cheered and Shining came up with Cadance and hugged his sister. "Twilight! I'm so proud of you!" He was shedding a few tears, trying to stifle his crying.

"Are you crying?" Twilight asked as she looked at her brother, a smile on her face.

He stood up taller and wiped his eyes. "Of course not. It's... it's liquid pride. Totally different thing." The two laughed and hugged again.

The girls rushed over to Twilight to congratulate her on her coronation. They all said their congratulations and hugged her. She and her friends jumped down to the chariot that was awaiting her at ground level and began her parade. She began singing, and the parade went on. At the end, she flew off into the distance, towards Ponyville, saying that everything was going to be fine.

I turned towards Celestia and asked her, "So when is the summit planned for?"

"It's planned for a month from today, at the Crystal Empire. I'm guessing that you're asking so that you'll know when to wake up."

"Kinda, but there's time to talk then. I'm going to go back to my house and get some more sleep." I was beginning to feel more sleepy by the hour. "See all of you there." I teleported myself into my bed and fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow. I dreamt of a white void, where I met up with Tim for the first time. Then I dreamed of when I had agreed to be sent to Equestria. Lastly, I ended up in the white void, but I felt that this was actually happening now rather than in my dreams. Tim appeared before me and spread his arms.

"So it seems that your time in that world is coming to a close. You have performed your duty to its extent. You may now tell your friends of what you are, but you will have to leave them as soon as you do. Their memory of you will be erased, but anything you leave will stay. The sun, the moon, and the star will be the only ones who remember you. Will you choose to stay as something else or return to your world? The time will come when you know you are about to disappear and you will make your choice then." Tim disappeared and left me alone in the white void.

I woke up, and looked around my room for the last time probably. I spent a lot of time here, and it really felt like my true home, more so than the one I had on Earth. The only problem was, it was empty of true family; just as Pinkie had said. I walked out and put wards up so that even Pinkie couldn't enter my house. I also put a spell on the door so that only I could open it, so that I would still have a place to live if I did return here.

I teleported myself to the front of the palace, meeting up with the girls as they entered. We greeted each other and went to the throne room. We were each shown to our own rooms, but I slipped away from the guide and went to find Celestia and Luna to tell them about what was coming. I found them in the throne room, talking to Cadance and Shining. I asked Shining and Cadance to leave so that I could talk to the others alone. They left and I pulled up a seat from against the wall and transformed into my human form.

"This must be serious if even you are sitting down. Tell us, what ails you?" Luna had grabbed herself a cushion, while Celestia opted to stay standing.

"My time here is getting short, you two. I was visited by Tim while I slept, and he has told me that my job here is done. I can either go back to whence I came, or I can return here after I disappear for a short while. I will just have to be in a different form and only you two and Twilight will remember who I was. Truth is, I don't really know what I'm going to choose to do, but I just wanted you two to know about this so it won't be a surprise." I got up from my chair and gave then each a hug. "Even though I don't see you that often, I still consider you guys to be my family, and I hope that you see the same in me."

They both gave me a hug at the same time. "Of course we see you that way. And no matter what you choose, we will still remember you." They both were crying and trying not to show it.

I knelt down so that I looked both of them in the eyes easily. "I'm glad to hear that. And just so you know, if I do return, I placed a seal on my house so that only I can open it. You will know I have returned if somepony says that the untouched house has been entered." I got up, and pushed the chair back to the wall where I had gotten it from. "I'll see you two tomorrow, and hopefully three days after that." I walked to my room and lay down on the bed, staring up at the ceiling.

Halfway through the night, there was a scuffling out in the hallway. I transformed back into my pony form just in case Sunset Shimmer opened the wrong door. She didn't. She opened Twilight's door and slipped inside. A few moments later, Twilight shouted that somepony had stolen her crown. She busted out of her door and chased after Sunset, waking up everypony else on the hallway. I stayed out of the chase, pretending to be asleep. The next morning, we all gathered in the throne room in front of the mirror that Sunset had arrived through.

Celestia was standing next to Luna, who stood next to the mirror. "That was my former student, Sunset Shimmer. She began her studies with me not long before Twilight. But when she did not get what she wanted as quickly as she liked, she turned cruel and dishonest. I tried to help her, but she eventually decided to abandon her studies and pursue her own path. One that has sadly led to her stealing your crown."

Spike held up the fake crown that Sunset had tried to replace Twilight's with. "She replaced Twilight's with this one."

"I suppose Sunset Shimmer thought you wouldn't notice right away that this was not yours. And by the time you did, it would be too late to go after your crown and Element of Harmony."

"But I don't understand. Where did she go? Why did she take the crown?"

Celestia pointed to the mirror. "You'll soon know more about this place than even I do." She left out how I had knowledge about the world Twilight was going to go to, on my request.

"This is no ordinary mirror. It is a gateway to another world. A gateway that opens once every thirty moons." She topped Pinkie as she tried to touch the mirror with her hoof. "It has always been kept in the throne room of Canterlot Castle. But when Princess Cadance took over the Crystal Empire, we sent it here for her to watch over."

Celestia sighed. "I had always hoped that Sunset Shimmer would someday use it to return, to come back to Equestria seeking my guidance. Obviously, this is not what has happened."

Cadance walked up to Twilight. "Twilight, you must use the mirror to go into this other world and retrieve your crown. Without it, the other Elements of Harmony have no power and Equestria is left without one of its most important means of defense."

Luna stepped in front of Cadance. "Your crown does not belong in the place Sunset Shimmer now calls home. And in her possession, your Element of Harmony will no doubt be used to bring harm to the inhabitants of this other realm. They will not have the power to defend themselves."

Celestia looked at her young pupil, the one she was sending into this somewhat unknown world. "You understand the importance of your task?"

Twilight looked at the mirror and then everypony else in the room. "Of course."

"Good. Then you must go at once."

Twilight sighed and headed for the mirror. All of a sudden, rest of the girls popped up in front of her. "Whoa, whoa, whoa! She's going, we're going with her." The rest of the girls agreed, saying how they would always stick with their friend.

Celestia moved the group out of Twilight's way with her magic. "I'm afraid I can't let you go." When the girls responded with their complaints, she quieted them down and told them, "Sending all of you could upset the balance of this alternate world, creating havoc that would make it impossible for Twilight to get the crown back from Sunset Shimmer. This is something Princess Twilight must do alone."

Luna cast a projection spell, showing the moon hovering in the night sky. "Time is of the essence. On the third day, when the moon reaches its peak in the night sky, the gateway will close. And once it does, it will be another thirty moons before you will be able to use it to return."

Twilight nodded and stepped through the portal. I grabbed Spike, and before anypony could react, I threw him into the portal. "Trust me; she's going to need his help." The others just looked at me as if I was crazy, but Luna and Celestia knew what I was doing. They were the only ones that knew that I had been through that portal already. We all agreed that we should do something until Twilight got back, and I suggested that we all go to the library. Needless to say, nopony wanted to go with me. We parted ways as soon as we exited the castle, and I headed for the library.

When I got there, I went to the librarian and asked if he had any crystal growing books. They apparently had a large collection in the back, so that was where I headed. I found huge mounds of books, of which the previous reader had not even bothered trying to shelve. I began to shelve them all, making sure that they went in their exact right spot. Some of the books were from all the way across the library, so it took me a long time to shelve all the books. When I had them all shelved, I pulled out a random book from a nearby shelf and started to read.

I sat there for I don't know how long just reading random books off of the shelves. After having read one, I would promptly shelve it and read another random book. I stopped reading when Rarity had come to get me, telling me that Twilight had returned and that I had been in the library for three whole days. That library had a ton of books, I hadn't even made a dent in the available books, and I spent three days just reading books!

We all went up to the throne room to meet up with Twilight, the hero of this tale. She walked straight up to me and glared at me in disbelief. "When did you go through the portal?! You had already been there for a week before I got there! And are you really over fifty million years old?"

"In order of questions, I had been through the portal three months before the Gala. It just sent me where I needed to be, when I needed to be. Don't question the laws of dimensional travel. And two, yes, I am over fifty million years old physically, but not mentally. I'm about twenty five when it comes to the mental age."

Even Celestia and Luna were shocked at this information. I was flooded with a river of questions from the girls, all regarding me and who I really was. I told them to quiet down before I told them. They all sat in a semi-circle around me. I literally told them my entire story, from my teenage years up. I told them about how I was a human who received a gift from Tim, and was sent to Equestria. I told them of how I helped shape the land and create life on the planet. I also told them about everything I had done while in Equestria, from the small things of helping, to the full out Nightmare Night ordeal. I got a few scowls from them when I told them that.

When I was finished, they all gazed at me with open mouths. "Close your mouth guys, you'd catch flies if you keep them open like that." I felt myself begin to fade from existence, starting from my hooves. I transformed into my human form for the last time, showing them what I really was. 'Well, it's been great knowing you guys, but my time here is up. I've already told Celestia and Luna about this, but Twilight should also know. When I disappear, the memories of me will also disappear. Only Twilight, Luna, and Celestia will remember me." As I spoke, the rest of my body was quickly disappearing. "Just one request before I go you guys. Can I get a last hug?"

They all were crying softly as they came and gave me a hug individually. Pinkie's hair had gone flat, and she was the one who had given me the longest hug. I felt the last of my existence slip away, and I found myself in the void. I was standing beside Tim in my original body. We stood there for what felt like days, just staring off into the endless white expanse.

"You have had your time to choose. If you choose to return to your world, you will be placed exactly right where you had been before this entire episode started and your memories you have gathered up until now will be erased. If you choose to return to the world in which you were just a part of, you will keep your memories, but you will have none of the powers and you will be a mortal. Now, you have the two doors to choose from. The left will lead you to your original life, while the other will lead you to a new life."

Two doors appeared in front of me, and it looked like I was in some sort of office building. It looked exactly like that one room from the Stanley Parable. When I looked beside me, I was surprised to see that Tim was no longer standing there. It was exactly like the Stanley Parable. I didn't even have to take any more time to consider my options. I went straight for the door on my right, and was blinded by a bright light. I felt like I was tumbling through cotton, and I could feel my features slowly changing to that of a pony.

I finally landed in a small meadow, with a ring of trees surrounding me. I tried to get up, but for some reason my body wouldn't respond the way I wanted it to. I tried to move my head from side to side, but I could only move it a few centimeters in each direction. When I was finally able to crawl around, after having spent a good hour or so trying to get my limbs to respond, I made my way to a small pond I had spotted while trying to move my head. I got a look at my reflection, and I toppled back in shock. I was a foal, with a black coat dotted with white spots, but I had a rainbow mane and tail. I thought to myself, "Ok, what the fuck did I do to deserve this?" Then I remembered what I had said not that long ago to Twilight about not questioning the laws of dimensional travel. Right before I could recover from my tumble, they jumped out of the trees and circled me. Yep, the first day in this dimension and I was probably about to die.

Sneak peek on the upcoming story.

They sat around me, eating the prey they had just taken from the hunt pile. They were laughing and telling stories. I piped up, "So you guys are the only ones left of your kind right?" They quieted down, and the elder came over to me and placed his paw on my head.

"Yes, we are the last of our kind. The timber wolves have hunted us down to extinction, and we are the only survivors of their attacks. Soon we will die off because we cannot repopulate just by ourselves. That is why we adopted you, so you can carry on the legacy and become the Leader.