Author's Note

The first chapter sucked, anyone who says otherwise, thank you, but I don't agree....

Worse yet, I wasn't able to do 4 chapters ahead like I thought I could, and there is no excuse for that, I was just lazy. I did bring this out on December first, like I said, but I don't know if I can do it weekly now.... Sorry.

Ignoring that, I bring you the next chapter, this one having more work put into it. I think I did better this time with the interest. We'll see.

(Feel free to point out mistakes if you see them, so I can correct them and remember them later. Enjoy.)

Next chapter probably will come out two weeks from now on the 15th, but I'll try to do it earlier if I'm willing.

C2: Past reveals rebels

"You always do this, don't you? Whenever there's someone in danger, whenever you think there's something you can do, you don't think of the consequences, you don't stop and think if its a good idea or not, you just charge in head first with your neck exposed. This was why you died, and yet here you are, with fresh memories of the pain, fighting an opponent that would've easily killed you if not for me. I know I may not be the prettiest of pansies in the dark woods, but that's no excuse to risk both you and me.... Though, come to think of it, I was probably the reason you attacked so vehemently. What can I say? Your rage is my rage.....

Maybe I- I mean, we should both be careful. Last thing both of us want is to give either of them a hint of my existence.... They can move solar systems apart and control the weight of your morals, and since I am a part of you, I have no doubt they would exterminate me, even if their opinions of my use are polar opposites. Honestly, without me, how could you fight those two? I know I seem the villain, but face it love, you need me to survive in this world, and I fear.... That- He.... Time.... Death.... Holy.... Evil.... Love.... Survive." As the voice was finishing what it was saying, she began to fade, and her words placements seemed to mix, and he began to wake up.

Beeping. Darkness. Cloth. Headache.

These were all the things I was seeing, hearing, and feeling. I didn't want to open my eyes because I knew the light would hurt, but I also needed to know what happened to get me here in the first place. The last thing I remember was seeing that yellow pony get tackled by a wood wolf. Everything else was a blur of brown, yellow, and white. I remember the air around me turning gray, and the light around me getting.... Darker?

I remember there were two more enemies that came after the wolves, but I couldn't see who or what they were until I had my....

I started flexing my hands to see if they were fine. Oddly enough, I didn't feel any pain that would come from a severe burn.... I swear I saw their fur burn away, and I could hear and feel something sizzling under my hand. I moved my eyes around under my eyelids, attempting to recall why I stopped trying to kill them. Normally I would refrain from killing anything, tame or wild, and I wouldn't question my action to spare them normally....

But.... I feel like I stopped for reasons other than mercy.... I could barely feel my own mind anymore at that point, as if it had been hijacked by pure rage.... What stopped me?

Oh right, it was that yellow pony sitting on her pile of unconscious friends. She yelled for me to stop, and I could feel the fear coming from her voice. Last thing I remember was glancing back to look at her with a confused face, before getting shot by-

"He's awake!"

"Wha- what?! Quick! Bind him before he's completely awake! He almost killed Celestia and Luna!"

Was that their names?.... Wait, bind? I got up and opened my eyes, despite the burning and blinding light coming into my eyes, and the grievous pain in the back of my head.

"What was that about almost-" I was cut off as I felt a force push me back down roughly, causing my head to swirl with pain and my teeth to clench. I felt a leathery feeling wrap around my wrists against what I was sure was the metal in my bed. At this point I had no doubt I was in a hospital of some kind.

"There we go.... I don't know if that can really hold him, but better safe than sorry." I heard a deep voice say.

"But doctor, shouldn't we at least TRY to treat him? I mean, Fluttershy was so insistent that he be taken care of."

"Like I told her Nurse RedHeart, I'm a doctor, not a veterinarian. I don't treat pets or monsters like that pet dragon Sparkle owned."

Alright, dragons are a thing here.... Also, I feel bad for any boy with the last name Sparkle in that family.... I lightly giggled after I pictured a certain game character named Tingle having a last name Sparkle. This however, alerted them that I was clearly awake.

"Now I don't want any trouble from you, beast, and I certainly don't want anything to do with you either. So tell you what, i'm going to go have my lunch break, while you sit there and lament on attacking a nations two most powerful rulers."

Oh, well, that kind of changes the whole "make allies" thing that voice in my head was telling me to do.... I heard a door close before I heard what I assumed were hoof steps.

"You'll have to forgive him, he's never been good with anything not a pony. That can happen when you have a son murdered by griffons."

Oh... OK, well that's a back story and a half.... Also, griffons.... So making a mental checklist now; dragons, check, griffons, check, Pegasus, check, and unicorns.... Check....

"Fluttershy told me you could talk. Are you ignoring me? Because I know for a fact you're not asleep, I saw you get up to question something we said. I couldn't hear if it was words or not because Mr.-"

"Yea, I can talk, and my head hurts, so can you get your mouth away from my ear?"

I heard some light back peddling, and a.... squeaking sound?

"Right, sorry. I wasn't sure if you could hear me or not, you weren't giving any signs of listening. Your eyes are still closed and your face wasn't scrunched in any way."

She sounded embarrassed, maybe even.... Bashful? Weird, but OK.

"No, it's alright, it was pretty rude of me pretending to be asleep again anyway. So.... Rulers?"

There was some silence, most likely the foreboding kind, but my head hurt to much and my eyes were too closed to take notice of it.

"Yes, you sort of.... Almost .... Yea...." Nurse RedHeart said quietly.

I inhaled slowly, and then exhaled slowly, thinking carefully about what to say. I decided the first step would not be to start with words, but to start with action. An action that would most certainly hurt, but one that had to be done for this to continue. It was at this moment I decided to slowly open my eyes to the blinding light. As I slowly opened my eyes, I heard a gasp to I was sure where RedHeart was standing.

"Your eyes!" She exclaimed in what sounded to me like panic.

"What is it nurse? I know i'm not blind because everything's bright." I said with mild concern. Before I could ask her why she was being so quiet to my question, the light started to fade and I was starting to be able to see.

"Your eyes, they were.... Glowing...." She said with shock.

"Oh, well.... That's new. That also explains why everything was white-"
"No, They weren't glowing white...."

I looked at her with my head cocked in confusion, "Pardon?"

Before she could answer, the door burst open and all I could see, mind you I was still partially blind, was a yellow and pink blur. I heard some stuttering whispers, barely catching a "Is he OK?" and a "he's fine right?"

Normally I would thank someone for their concern, but right now what the nurse just said was foreboding, I had to ask what my eyes were doing.

"Nurse what did you-" I was interrupted when the doors slammed open again, this time I saw a multitude of colors, and they were all jumbling about. They looked like blurry pinballs smacking into each other. If I had to guess what was going on, I would assume that the yellow blur was told I woke up, and if that voice was anything to go on, the yellow blur is probably the pony I saved yesterday. The friends were likely stopping her from coddling me for fear of what I'll do, since I almost.... Killed?.... Their rulers.

"We can't get too close to him Fluttershy! I know your saying he saved both you and me, but at the same time he almost killed Celestia and Luna-"

Well, that spelled it out for me pretty well.

"Who knows what he'll do!" The blue blur seemed to be the one talking, and I was starting to see more clearly now. Just after she exclaimed her statement, the purple blur walked up to Flutterblur and agreed. "It's true, I know how powerful Celestia is, and supposedly Luna is even better at offensive magic than she is, but he took both of their incendiary magic on. The only way for any being to do that is to either have a natural resistance to fire, or to simply have enough innate magic to absorb the blast." There was a small pause. "And only dragons, or at the very least, beings with scales, have that kind of resistance to fire. If we mark off the first reason, he would have to be twice as strong as both Celestia and Luna combined."

"But didn't he get knocked out from that short range blast?" Questioned blue blur. The purple blur replied, "According to the doctors and nurses, what knocked him out was head trauma, in other words that bloody rock he landed on." And that explains the head ache as well.... That rock was pointy, how am I alive?

"How is he alive? That rock was pointy!" An excellent question pink blur that reads minds.

"Well, if I had to guess, he probably landed on an angle, instead of directly on the point." Well, ain't this one astute....

There was another long pause, and I was still trying to make out the blurs, which were now turning pony shape. Before they were all just one distinct mixed color, which slowly became an array of colors. This silence was a lot longer than before though, and I was starting to feel uncomfortable.

"Why is he staring at us so intently?" Oh.... Well that's my bad.
"Are you alright?" Questioned flutter-not-blur-anymore.

I blinked a few times, and shook my head lightly, finally getting my eyes to work properly before looking at them all again. The one closest to me was the pony named Fluttershy, a look of concern plastered on her face, and the other one behind her, Rainbow if I remember correctly, was doing a "I'm watching you" gesture with her hooves. I reached my hand up towards my eyes, causing all but one of the ponies in the room to flinch, Fluttershy merely observing my every move with a strange focus.

As I started to rub my eyes, I could hear someone clear their throat.

"Well, you seem to be OK, Mr...." There was another pause, this one most likely waiting for my response. It sounded like it was the purple blur talking again, but she probably wasn't a blur by now. I took some more time to rub my eyes, and run my hands through my hair, before looking at her again.

"Can we hold off on that for a bit? The nurse said something really foreboding just a second ago." I dodged, not having thought up a name just yet.

"I'm sorry, but she left after we all got here, she said something about her shift being over." The purple unicorn replied.

What kind of nurse leaves right after guests arrive? Especially with a(n) unique and unpredictable patient?

"Right.... Well...." Hell, I have to make up a name on the spot, don't I? That nurse said my eyes weren't glowing white. Were they glowing.... Black? Can black glow? A better question, am I gonna die two steps outta bed? Throwing those first two questions out of mind, since there's nothing I can do about either of them, I decided to name myself after a username I used to run with on the computer. The name also relating with the color black.

"Erebus. My name is Erebus.... Prince Erebus if you prefer." At this one of them seemed to perk up.

"You're a prince?!" Exclaimed the white pony in the room with gems on her.... Flank?

"Its more of a nickname I got when I was younger, i'm not really a prince." I said with some bashful dismissal.

"My advice dear, keep the title, it will do wonders for your reputation in places like Canterlot. Reputation that you'll probably need after your little.... incident with Celestia and Luna." I could see and feel everyone in the room cringe a bit, except for fluttershy, she just looked.... A cross between sad and disappointed?

This time the orange pony spoke up, "Yea, what on Equestria did you go an' do that for?" she asked, a bit of anger in her voice.

They all agreed with her question at this point, the one most interested, again, was Fluttershy.

"Well.... Honestly, I saw that the wolf was about to eat you guys, and after that I just.... Blanked out...." I said, this time with some downtrodden confusion. I assume they wanted more because there was a long silence, with 5 at the moment getting colder, glares.

"I remember that after I beat the wolf-" "Killed" interjected the purple one. "Killed" I corrected "the wolf.... I remember being shot by a really bright light that felt warm, yet painful, like someone hitting me with rocks in a constant beam, and there shortly after two lights, one more a glowing black. I probably thought it was more special types of wolves or something. They said something, but it was drowned out by a constant.... Glowing sound?.... Can glowing be a description for a sound?" I glanced at the purple one, she seeming like a good person to look at for this question. She gave me a no.

"Anyways, they shot first and I didn't have any idea what was going on other than I was being shot and it hurt, so I attacked the being or beings that was causing me to hurt. After that I heard someone yell for me to stop, and next thing I know, i'm out like a light." They still didn't seem to satisfied with that answer until the one known as Fluttershy spoke up.

"That was me, and i'm glad you did. I don't know what Equestria would do without those two." She said happily, before continuing, "and I completely believe your story, because when you went to look at me, I saw you let go of them and looked at me with confusion. I knew you didn't mean to hurt anyone who wasn't mean, which was why I could forgive you." She said sweetly. This also seemed to have the effect of calming down the others, there glares turning into passive stares.

I smiled, thankful for her interjection. I began to actually observe the room as they stewed with their thoughts. The ceiling had a single spinning ceiling fan, the light creepily flickering. I looked to my right again past the ponies to see another, though completely wrapped, purple pony, who appeared to watching the exchange with interest. Until Rainbow saw where I was looking, and she and the purple pony shared a look, and then looked away from each other blushing.

Oh wow.... Must of been a hell of a night....

I turned around to look out my window- "BALLS- AGK!"

I exclaimed at the top of my lungs, jumping slightly in the air from my bed, and then immediately landing on the floor.

"Pinkie! He's recovering, don't do your Pinkie things just yet, who knows what you'll do to him, or make him do!" Rainbow reprehended, while I slowly exhaled again from the quick intake of breath. Those big eyes can be terrifying when they're right in front of your face, staring into your soul. I decided to lay there for a bit, questioning my position in reality, before sitting back up.

"Are you OK?" asked Fluttershy, genuinely concerned at my reaction to her friend. I admit I was tempted to get up, shout at the top of my lungs, "Everything is broken!" Before breaking my own neck, but decided against that. If dying once led me to here, what could dying again do? So I simply gave an affirmative grunt. I was tempted to become intimate lovers with the floor, despite its clear filth, before I was picked up off the ground, and placed back into the bed. I won't question that I just levitated, or that I glowed, but I will look absolutely confused in hopes someone explains how I just pulled a magicians wet dream.

"What's with that look? Have you never seen magic before?" Asked the astute unicorn. There was a pause as I turned my confused look directly at her, and it was clear to me there were gears grinding in that head of hers. "Have you ever, I mean, I know this is a long shot, but have you ever heard of magic?" I slowly shook my head, true magic not really being a proven thing in my .... World? Universe?

"Wow! You must either live under a rock, or be from an entirely different universe!" Whelp, universe it is then.

I shook my head, the multiverse theory well understood by me, but I don't think it can actually change the physical appearance of every single molecule.... No wait, it definitely could, if the big bang just so happened to create those specific molecules.... Science!

"Starswirl did create mirrors that could jump between realities, but never in any of his writings did he say he met a biped other than what we know before." Well, now I can't tell if they're more, or less advanced than us anymore. I looked towards my window, which was still covered by a balloon pink pony.... Balloon pink pony.... Before anyone could say anything about the ball of pink with two eyes on its sides, I stood right up and said, "Nope!"

The pony let loose all the air she was holding in her lungs, having the comical effect of making a whooshing sound, before she asked, "What?"

I looked at her with a look that said 'no more' and said, "I could handle teleporting ponies, I can handle levitation, hell, I can even handle wolves the size of buildings, but the second I see a pony puffer fish...." I paused, everyone in the room staring at me, waiting for me to finish. "You know what, if I compare that to everything else that's happened so far, its not quite that bad." I said humorously, before sitting back down.

"So, what did you want to say so badly that you turned into a balloon over?" I heard some groaning behind me, and the sound of someone hitting their face, giving me a hint that I just opened a shaken soda can. Before I could prepare myself for what was likely going to be a sonic boom of words, she spoke. The only words I could really pick up were; party, fun, friends, cake, party again, ....Sex?, and something about a geeky filly twist crock sock? I don't think crock was what she said, but I'll assume it was.

I looked behind me to see if they understood what she said, but all I got was a bunch of blushing and some shocked looks.

I cleared my throat, catching the meaning of her long, and most likely perverted spout, and said, "I'll think I'll pass on that last bit, but the party sounds nice." with suspicion evident in my voice.

"Okie doki Loki!" She exclaimed happily, spitting out something she was chewing before leaving a trail of confetti and.... What the hell?

"Could somebody grab a mop before someone slips?" I said to one of the passing staff, every other pony in the room completely shocked red. There was a long pause, and while looking at the ponies in the room, I could tell that the pink one doesn't act this way normally. I heard some grunting from the purple pony, and we all glanced at him, and it looked like he was attempting to point with his eyes. We all looked at what he was looking at, before everyone in the room, except for myself, putting their hooves to their faces. I just chuckled quietly.

"Gum laced with Aphrodisiac, for parties that need to last all night...." I chuckled.

After my chuckle ended, I looked at them, turning from a smile to a serious face, "So why are me and aphrodisiacs in the same room?"

Everyone in the room stopped blushing under my gaze and gave short responds of "wasn't me." or "I don't even know you."

Then I heard a grunt from the injured pony, who was now sweating, and blushing even harder. My eye-brows rose a little, and I looked over at Rainbow Pony. She saw I was looking at her, and said, "What?" in an accusatory manner. I just looked back at the purple pony, wrapped completely in bandages and said, "Nice." He blushed even harder, if that was possible, and closed his eyes, while Rainbow looked at me with a raised eyebrow. It also looked like the purple pony was trying to shake his head....

Well, though it would be funny to think that the Rainbow pony banged purple pony broken, I don't think that's the case here sadly.... I guess this pony is just a victim of his own lustful decisions. Poor guy. I'll definitely tease him if I ever meet him again later though.

At this point I slowly stood up and started to stretch, "Alright, so I think a change of scenery is in order, smell of bubble gum is nice, but fresh air is better, yes?" Everyone nodded, for obvious reasons. "Bubble Gum?" Rainbow Pony questioned.

"Are you sure you're fine to walk around?" Asked Fluttershy.

"I'll be fine, aside from light stumbling, I can hold my SHI-" As I started to walk, I stumbled like I said I would, but right over the liquid left behind by the pink pony. I slipped and landed on my face. Graceful as a drunk clown on ice.

"OH GOD IT WENT IN MY MOUTH!"

"So this is Ponyville?" I questioned, a little humored by the obvious pun.

"Yes, this is Ponyville, and it's the most spectacular small town ever!" Exclaimed the Rainbow Dash, catching some slight attention from the patients and medical staff who were currently outside the building. I almost giggled at the deaf person who was just looking confused.... Which isn't like me, so I immediately questioned my brain for a short second, before taking my surroundings in. The grass laid upon the hill was glistening with dew, and the sun was barely rising past the mountains in the distance, so it must be morning. I noticed they observed me observing, and I held up my hands to the grass on the ground, "Whoever takes care of the grass here does a great job."

"I'll say!" barked a certain manic looking earth pony.... Literally barked.... Before going back and eating the grass.

As soon as the others and I saw that the staff were surrounding her, we decided to make haste so the struggle would be out of our sights. We quickly made it to our destination of the market, currently littered with passing's of currency, or, if my ears don't deceive me, bits. If there's one thing that would help me here, it would be paying the utmost attention possible. As I surveyed his surroundings, I was surprised to see that the inhabitants seemed calm. I assumed that they would be more cautious of one who almost beat the two strongest in the nation. I decided to save the questions for the end of his trip however, no need to cause a ruckus out in the open with questioning that could turn aggressive.

Why did I assume it would turn aggressive?

I stopped walking in order to question just what was causing my mind to be so aggressive and cruel. I didn't notice that the others had also stopped to stare at me, they being confused as to why I was scratching my head. I was trying to think back, to what could be causing me to behave like this. The nurse told him something, his eyes were.... Something.... His eyes.... His? What was.... He stumbled and clutched his head, not hearing his guides asking what was wrong. A voice, he heard a voice while he was dreaming. What was it saying? What did it say? Love? Death? Time?.... Survive.... Survive from what? His head began to hurt, not from him holding one side so tightly, but from the pain of what was said. The voice became distorted, but that one word had so much emotion in it.... What was it, what was the emotion? What burden was laying upon those words so heavily.... He was just about to remember what it was, before-

"EREBUS!" A shout into his ear brought me out of my thoughts. He gasped and fell to the ground, clutching my head, as well as my stomach. The head pain was much worse, but now he felt like he was going to empty his lunch. I felt some hooves on my shoulders and he saw a light, an orange and yellow light. I squinted this time, things were blurry again, but this was different. The outlines of the ponies became less and less like ponies and more like....

"No.... Not here.... Not again.... I don't want to see this again!" The memories were forgotten, or rather, ignored. He had felt like he did everything he could to save them, but the burning on their flesh spread to him. The image of him carrying one after another out of their fiery prison was excruciating, the tears forming in his eyes already clearly on his images face. He began to hear his own voice from the image, "I promised I wouldn't lose any of you, I swore I would do anything to protect you." He told himself, as he carried his mother, father, sister, and his two best friends over to the wet grassy field. The rain was doing little to put out their burning flesh, and his own was already burning away, and from the image he could see that his own blood was literally boiling, long after the temperature of death.

"I promised! I promised you, I promised myself" Tears were forming in his eyes "I PROMISED TO MY VERY SOUL THAT I WILL PROTECT YOU!" That's when he noticed that it wasn't his image yelling anymore. There was a shade, a mist of some kind, inside of the flames licking off of his body. It's voice the same as his own, and the more he looked, the more he could see of the shade. It looked like him, or at least his shape, made from smoke and fire, and there were strings of .... Light? Coming out of its finger tips. He traced the short distance of the strings, and saw that they were reaching into his own body.

He looked at his family again, ignoring the disturbing image before him for another. He fell to his knees as he watched their skin becoming darker, and darker. He saved them. He remembers that he saved them! Why! WHY! Why.... Are they dying? Tears streaked freely down his eyes as he watched them burn, before he heard a scream. He turned to his image again, and saw that it wasn't him screaming, but the shade. His image, after having stood there watching with an empty look in its burning eyes, immediately ran forwards to the.... Bodies.... And knelt before them.

Then he saw something he could scarcely believe. The flames that had been eating their bodies were now turning into a bending cylinder, heading towards his image. He watched with interest as the flames seem to cling not to his image, but to the shade behind it. It was then that he covered his ears, for then there was screaming, screaming of pure agony and pain. He forced his now fading vision to watch the shade, and saw that there were black cracks forming along it. As the shade was eating the flames, it seemed to be breaking. It was then that he saw the pieces of the shade falling off were floating into the loved ones he was saving. He watched, removing his hands from his ears despite the pain, with pure joy in his heart, that his loved ones skin and breathing started to become normal.

He was blacking out, now, falling to one knee, as he watched what happened next with pure curiosity, now that his family had been saved. He saw that his shade was writhing, and the flames it seemed to be made of were being sucked into the cracks that had formed. He then started to hear laughing instead of screams, and the more he faded, the louder the laughs became. He looked into the cracks, despite his mind telling him not to, and saw something horrifying. He saw two eyes inside the cracks, and a smile was made from the cracks across where his shades mouth should be. The eyes looked strange, changing constantly to all sorts of mixed colors, ranging from blue, to purple, to green, to teal, to red, and back to blue.

He fell forward, onto his arm being at the edge of consciousness. He saw a bright light hitting his image and the shade. Lightning? He forced his eyes to watch this last image, and what he saw wasn't lightning, but a glowing blue chain. He saw the cracks on the shade glow blue, and the crack in his mouth open up to look as if it was screaming, before the shade was pulled up swiftly, the chain clearly embedded into the back area, and an explosion was made where his image was. The last thing he saw was a rock heading directly for his face, before he was pulled away from the vision.

I awoke with a start, a sudden sharp pain in my face region. I rolled to the side, wanting to put as much pressure on the pain as possible in order to get used to it, and ended falling off whatever bedding I was put into.

"Zecora! Why did you do that?!" I heard someone yell. When I started to hear arguing about methods and failures, I decided the best thing I could do was ignore the pain on my face, sit up straight, and question what just happened. As I started to get up, I felt a very large pain in the back of my skull, much larger than my face. Fluttershy noticed me grabbing my head with a pained expression, and flew over to hold it against her chest. When the others saw I was in pain, they began to fight with their words with a little more vigor. Despite the pain, I pushed Fluttershy away lightly and stood up.

"Stop fighting." I said at first, quietly so as to not agitate my head. I noticed that two of them had stopped and was looking at me, Applejack and Twilight I believe. Rainbow and .... Pinkie, if I remember right, were both still yelling at the zebra; Probably the one called Zecora. I inhaled a bit so I could speak louder, and said in loud voice, "Stop fighting!"

That did it. They all looked at me at that point in small surprise, and now all their attention was on me. I rubbed the back of my head, not thinking about what I was going to say at that point. "Is something wrong with your minds reverence? Has it been taken by your virulence?" Well, those are some big words.... Also I feel like she just insulted-

"Zecora, that was just uncalled for." Said Twilight. Yep.... She insulted me. "I know your medicine cart may have caught fire, but we don't know if that was him for sure or not!" Ouch, medicine? That explains why she would be mad.

"I saw the fire in his eye, you can't tell me that was a lie." She said with disgruntlement, turning to look at me with a glare. I think I may have pissed off a witch doctor....

"Even if you say that Zecora, it didn't look like he did it on purpose, he was holding his head and was clearly in pain." Said Applejack, putting in her two bits.

"His mouth and hands spoke of innocence, but his eyes spoke of pure malevolence. I have not seen such anger and malice since iv'e been to the Griffin Palace." So she constantly rhymes, constantly travels, and has a large amount of knowledge on medicine.... Yep, I pissed off the witch doctor, and ain't no magic words for me here.

"We already apologized, and helped put out the fires, what more do you want?" "Yea!" Questioned Rainbow, as Pinkie affirmed.

"I am quite grateful for you assistance, but I can't forgive the cause of the instance." She said, glancing at me. I was sure the arguing was about to continue in full throttle if I didn't say anything, so if the problem was her losing her medicine.

"Hey." I said trying to get their attention before they got back into their arguments, "I'm sorry if I somehow caused anything, if you want, maybe I could help you procure some fresh medical supplies if needed." I offered. I ignored the worried glances of Twilight and Applejack, as the zebra stared at me.

"While help would be appreciated, there is no need for it to be initiated. Most of the supplies I feared lost, were saved before there became a cost." I nodded, glad that nothing was damaged, but worried that there was nothing I could do to get her to forgive me.

"Well, i'm glad to hear that you didn't lose anything, but I wouldn't feel right if I didn't do something to make up for the problem." Everyone in the room, except for Fluttershy, seemed to be surprised I was so eager to make up for a problem I don't remember causing.

The zebra stared at me apprehensively for a good 10 seconds, probably thinking about what there was I could do, before she sighed and walked up to me, and put her hoof on my shoulder. "While I have nothing for you to do, I do appreciate your asking if I had any need of you. I believe I can forgive the mistake you made, but if the problems replayed, I'll expect to get payed." She smiled, before walking out of the door. I saw the shadow of a cart moving outside the window, before I lost sight of it.

"I can't believe you forgave her so fast for bucking you in the face." I heard one of the ponies say, which made me freeze up quickly and look at them, "She did what to my face?" I asked in pure surprise. The pony speaking was Rainbow Dash, and she said passively to my question,"bucked your face, meaning she kicked you." "Oh...." I said, relieved. That would of shocked me for many reasons.

"What did you think I said?" asked Rainbow Dash, curiously. I looked at her and smiled, before patting her on the head, giving it a slight rub. "Stop that!" She said, pushing my hand away. I just continued to smile as I looked around the house, before it slowly turned into a frown. "Why she kicked me in the face beats me-" I heard a giggle from the Pinkie, before continuing, "but it doesn't matter, I'm alright now, and she doesn't hate me, and that's all I care about." Everyone in the room smiled at my sheer ability to forgive, except for Fluttershy, who seemed kind of angry honestly....

I started to slowly turn my focus to Fluttershy, "Is something wrong Fluttershy?" I asked, a little worried by that look she was giving the floor. She seemed to snap out of herself, and looked at me with surprise before hiding behind her mane muttering a sorry. I raised an eyebrow, before shrugging and deciding it wasn't really that important to find out what made her angry, if just noticing her anger made her say sorry.

There was a long awkward silence, everyone trying to think of something to say. I simply looked around, finally getting a chance to focus less on the situation, and more on the surroundings. I saw that there were masks lying on the walls, a pot in the center of the room, and various herbs hung about here and there. If she isn't a witch doctor, i'm Mohammed the Profit. After looking more closely at the walls, I was surprised to find out that we were living inside of a tree.... Maybe she's a more serious female version of Rafiki.... Who I guess is still a witch doctor....

"So what was up with your eyes?" Questioned Rainbow, who was attempting to break the ice. Apparently that was the wrong question to ask, because everyone glared at her when she said it. "What? You were all wondering what it was too." She said, rubbing the back of her head at the negative attention. "Yes, but we agreed it was best not to talk about it because it seemed it was him thinking about it that caused it." Said Twilight, after which Rainbow nervously rubbed her foreleg and put on the fakest looking nervous looking smile i've ever seen.

"If thinking about what caused me to be here is what caused these problems, I'll just have to not think about it, at least unless we're in a controlled environment." I said in a casual tone. Everyone looked at me before they all began to do nervous actions such as rubbing their forelegs and looking away. "Well, you don't seem bad, and Fluttershy says that you saved her from the timber wolves, so we won't hold it against you." Said Twilight, who had everyone nod after what she said, before continuing, "You didn't get the full tour of Ponyville before that.... occurrence.... happened. Everyone is probably scared of you now though, even if the fire was small and you never got close enough to start it, ponies will still probably assume you did it...." She said, thinking about where we could possibly go next.

After some long thought, an idea came to her. This was obvious thanks to her clapping her hooves together and saying "Oh!" in a happy/surprised tone. She looked around for a bit, everyone glad they had something to focus on, before she picked up a book from a nearby bookshelf, which was clearly about herbs if the picture on the title was any hint. She opened to the first page and pointed a hoof at the first page looking at me, before asking, "Can you read this? We speak the same language, but it's still possible the written language is different." I looked at her and then the book, before taking it from her hands and reading the whole first page.

After I finished, the book's first page pretty much just an encyclopedia on the pages in the book, which didn't really give me any information, I saw everyone was looking at me with a little surprise, which i'm seeing a lot of today, and a little happiness. I looked at Twilight, before she opened her mouth and said gladly, "I know just where to go that can teach you both about us, our history, our culture, and even our- " She was interrupted by Rainbow Dash who just groaned and said, "We're going to the-

Library...." Said Rainbow, clearly bored already if her expression was any hint. She groaned as she started to pace back and forth, that was until the one known as Twilight walked up and gave her a book titled Daring Do. She stopped complaining the second she got it, and just plopped down reading. Must be one good book. I stretched, the "nap" I got from earlier in the day doing nothing for my tired mind, and the head trauma induced coma before also didn't really help that much. I felt like the best thing I could do then was sleep, but after a few snapping sounds coming from Pinkie's hooves.... The snapping didn't wake me up, it was the fact she WAS snapping without fingers. I glanced once, and then twice with wide eyes, making her laugh.

After a few snorts she calmed down and pointed towards Twilight, who was currently standing there staring at me with an unamused expression. I may have nodded off while she was trying to ask me a question, which is down right rude of me, excuse or no. I shook my head a little bit, and I asked her to repeat the question she had. After clearing her throat, she repeated, "Yes, what I was asking was what kind of book would you want first?" I nodded at the question before putting my hand on my chin in a thoughtful expression. While I could ask for a culture book to understand their history, I-....

I don't really need to think about it all that much do I, since I have all day.

"Ill take a history book please." I said, sighing out of exhaustion and unneeded thinking.

She raised an eye brow when I sighed, maybe assuming something negative, but she didn't call me on it as she went over and got a brown book with a golden unicorn head on it with blue eyes. She smiled as she placed it on a table, and scooted out a stool for me, patting it twice. I shrugged as I went over and sat down, I glanced behind me looking at all of their smiling faces, before I turned back around to the book, my expression currently neutral. I opened up the book, and began to read quietly. The text was actually pretty small, so there was a lot on the page. I sat there reading the rise of Equestria until I heard someone clearing their throat, before I heard, "Well, it looks like you have everything in order, my little sister is probably back at the boutique wondering where I am now, waiting for me to ask her about the Canterlot statue garden, so I should get back." "Me too, Applebloom won't know what to do without me around." Everyone started saying their goodbyes leaving one after another, before all of them had left except for Twilight, who closed the door.... And then locked it....

"Um...." I said, wondering why she just locked the door to a public place. She looked at me before giggling and quickly beating down any foreboding thoughts, "I live here, and it's past closing time. My helper Spike already went to sleep earlier, before you got here. It was getting pretty late." I glanced outside and saw that the sun was just barely starting to dip over the mountains. I looked back to her with an eye brow raised, before she giggled and said, "It's the longest day in summer, so of course the suns going to be out for awhile." She smiled until she herself also yawned.

She still had her smile after she finished yawning, and said in a tired voice, "I think I should probably go to sleep too, but before I do, I've got to place a shield spell around you." She said, her horn starting to glow. I remembered how much the bullet like light from their ruler hurt and instinctively lifted an arm to my face, before I saw a sphere around me forming. The shield was about half the size of the room, big enough to walk around and stretch, but not big enough to let me walk up the stairs or leave. After looking around, I asked her where I would sleep. "Over there." she said, pointing with her hoof towards some planks. I looked back at her, and almost shrugged before I heard a poof sound and saw some light out of the corner of my eye. I looked back and there was a green sleeping back with a pillow combo.

I looked back at her again, and said thank you tiredly, her smile still there, but the bags under her eyes more noticeable. She yawned one last time, nodding at my thanks, before heading up the stairs to sleep.

I felt myself nodding off too, and I didn't even get to finish the first page of the book. I shrugged, because as I know it's not like I have a time limit to finish reading it, and the sleeping bag looked really appealing to me right now. I decided that it would be a good idea to finally catch some real sleep, this day being really stress-fully unusual. As I walked over I began to hear some whispers out in the corner of the room, I turned my head slowly, not really being that scared considering it sounds like the kind of whispering you hear in a horror game. Seeing nothing but a dark corner then started to put me a little bit on edge, as I took two steps more towards the sleeping bag the room began to get darker. I figured the clouds were covering the moon at first, until I stopped being able to see the window at all. I started to look around me at this point, most people would be scared at this point, having pure shadow surrounding you at ever glance.

While I was worried at first, I began to actually look at where the unusual shadows and where the actual shadows were separating. Suffice to say, I was very happy the shield was here. I assumed the reason they wanted to put the shield around me was so they would know if I tried anything, or make it so I couldn't try anything even if I wanted to. They really have an issue with monsters here, I swear. After glancing around me for a bit more, intrigued by this shadow monster, I proceeded to flip it off as I got into the sleeping bag. As I started to nod off, I began to understand the whispers a little better. My eyes started to shut as I heard syllables piecing together. The only word I heard from them right before my dreams, and a conversation with someone.... Unique.... Began.... Was my name.

"You saw how he took out that giant wolf, and those two sisters, i'm sure he's ready to face me now."

"No my star student, if he were to fight you now, you would easily be able to kill him. If you want your wish to become true, and be replaced, he's going to have to wake up his true potential. The cold shadows that I sent to whisper dark things to him are trying to corrupt his inner mind. Patience is a handy thing, and though here we don't believe in virtues, that is no excuse not to use them when they're handy."

The one being spoken to grunted in anger before turning around to walk away. After he was some distance away, the one who spoke last looked up towards the endless abyss of darkness above him.

"How long will he take I wonder, brother. What I wonder even more, is if he truly is what we think he is. Only time can tell now...." The voice lifted it's arms, the chains around him jingling slightly, and he took one of them in has hands. The chain slowly began to glow a shade of red, and the longer he held it, the darker it became. He looked back up into the sky, changing the image in the darkness before him from the human currently known as Erebus, to his brother. The same chains the binds the viewer, are currently held in his brothers hands.

As a blue glow started to illuminate the chains and the vision, the brother in the image turned towards the viewer. For a moment they stared upon each other. One of anger. One of determination. As the image before them both started to crack, the one looking in anger laughed, holding his red chains. The laugh merged with the cracks, distorting the sound on the other end, until the image before both of them broke.

The one holding the blue chains slowly turned back to the chains he was holding. The image of better times flashing before his eyes, driving him to focus on the task he set before himself. "I can only hope.... That I made the right decision."