Of Mythical Proportions

Chapters

Chapter 1: Oh fuck, what's going on?
Chapter 2: I can do what now?
Chapter 3: Decent
Chapter 4: The attempt to understand what the hell happened.
Chapter 5: Divine Mind and Body.
Chapter 6: New Born God
Chapter 7: Aftermath and Plans
Chapter 8: The Everfree Meetup
Chapter 9: Realm of the Sleeping
Chapter 10: Disturbing the Locals
Chapter 11: Shattered Harmony
Chapter 12: I Just Want A Map
Chapter 13: The Great and The Powerful
Chapter 14: Crossroad Town and Tracking Efforts
Chapter 15: A show of Power
Chapter 16: Leaders Assembly
Battle: Dream Luna, and Explanations
Chapter 18: Wanted
Chapter 19: On the Horizon
Welcome to Manehatten, now get out.
The Aproaching Boarder.
Battle: The Celestial Sisters
Loss of Pride.
Side Chapter 1: Tastes in Music
Dark Dreams
The Road
Why did it have to be spiders...
Cleaning (Triefort)House
Travel and Rest
Aim for the Capitol
Griffonstone - Part 1
Griffonstone - Part 2
Griffonstone - Part 3
Griffonstone Arena - Day 1
Griffonstone Arena - Day 2
Chapter 0

Chapter 1: Oh fuck, what's going on?

Nova had a pretty typical life, he was raised in Brisbane, Australia. He had bright red hair, white pale skin and a small build, basically he was your typical young adult, he attended classes in the city on creative writing, hated any form of work.
His name was a bit strange, but that's what you get for having slightly hippy parents, but Nova wanted nothing more in life than to have a little fun gaming and doing as little work as possible.

You can imagine his surprise when, one moment he's sitting at his computer desk mucking about on the web, and the next he's sitting on a stone bench surrounded by hedges.

He sat there for a few seconds, hand still reaching out for a keyboard no longer there, before he reacted.
"Sweet Merciful fuck! Where am I?!" He shout out to no one.

Quickly standing up, he looked around to get a bearing on his location, but all he got was a face full of hedge, he fell backwards, falling through the hedge behind him, his heart and brain racing, trying to understand what was going on, and failing.

It took a while, but he eventually managed to calm himself down to a more reasonable level, considering his situation.
"Okay" he said, preparing to brief himself. "The last thing I remember was screwing about on my laptop, then, I saw something in the corner of my eye and then I was here. Fuck none of that even helps me understand anything." He threw his hands up in defeat, completely baffled by his situation.
"Well, guess there's nothing left to do but find my way out of this fucking maze." He thought, and quickly took off in a random direction, making sure to always follow the right 'wall' so that eventually he could find a way out.

None too far away from said maze, a teacher could be seen leading leading her students on a trip through Canterlot visiting the various statues around the area.
One said statue was starting to crack open.

After a couple of hours roaming around the seemingly endless maze, Nova decided that he had had enough of this infernal place, especially after he saw the walls of the maze increase in height.

"Arg! What's wrong with this fucking place!? I know it's a maze, but gods be damned its like something is changing the entire place every second." he stared at the wall of leaves and branches in front of him, a face so full of fury it could light them on fire.

You can imagine his surprise when they did suddenly combust into flames, quickly burning a rather large hole through.
"Holy crap!" He shouted, quickly covering his face from the searing flames, the fire quickly died out after it had burnt a small archway through the wall.

He stood there for a second, slowly lowering his arms back down. "What the hell? I- just think about burning a way through, and it just happens?" He said to himself, rather confused on what had actually just happened.

After quickly looking over the newly burnt gateway through the hedge wall, he actually looked through to see, surprise, surprise! another wall.
"Gods be damned, I can't seem to get a break here, but, what if-" he stared at the wall.
"Burn." He commanded, and so it did, a smile slowly stretching across his face.

Meanwhile, In another part of the maze, a certain spirit felt something meddling with his own chaotic work, however he was quickly distracted by the appearance of a certain cyan coloured pegasus to properly take note on the strange occurrence, and quickly set back to work to manipulating his latest victims.

Nova quickly strode through the newly made path through the infernal maze, deciding to not question this new ability he seemed to have picked up.

After a while, he started to change things up a bit, taking a moment to focus, he thought 'freeze' and froze a part of the wall instead, shattered it into pieces with a quick kick, although it took a little longer to freeze than burn, it provided a good distraction from the building amount of frustration he was starting to feel.

However, upon seeing yet another wall of hedge in front of him, simply lost his shit.
"It's like it never ends! how the hell can a maze even be this big? Then again, how the hell am I even doing all this crazy shit with my mind?" He questions furiously. "Maybe, if I can burn and freeze these things by thinking it maybe I ca-"

A large part of the maze suddenly disappeared.
"Oh, okay, yeah, okay, YEAH, OKAY!" Nova started repeating over and over, quickly falling into a flurry of swearing and insults at his stupidity for not trying to just magic the maze away sooner.

Meanwhile, in a certain town far away from the raging man, A spirit of Chaos was quickly being frozen back to stone once again, but not before feeling the insane amount of power being used on his recently created maze, and as he felt this power, he had just enough time to think.
'It seems In not the only one who will be causing a bit of chaos today.'

Much closer to the recently trimmed down maze, Celestia, joined by her sister Luna, looked out from over a balcony to see what appeared to be a hairless Diamond dog, who had suddenly appeared out from the remains of Discords maze.

"Sister, what shall be done about the strange creature?" Luna said, Looking to her sister for an answer out of this strange event on an already strange day.

"I do not know sister, we have only just rid ourselves of a dangerous foe today, for all we know that-" Celestia paused, not quite certain what to call the being below. "That creature down there might be a servant of discord, or just some random being, whatever it is, we will deal with it in time, but for now, we have a celebration to prepare, I'll send the guards down to watch the creature in the mean time."

Both princesses quickly entered the castle, already tired after the events of the day, leaving the strange creature to rage down below in the mean time.

Author's Note

Spoiler Nova's Power here

Chapter 2: I can do what now?

Nova was upset, and rightly so, in his mind at least.
After spending what had seemed hours traversing an endless maze, to find that he could have simply thought away those infernal foliage walls which made his 'prison', he simply broke for a while and started rampaging, filling the area with rather violent threats and course words.

"I swear when I find whoever made that fucking piece of shit maze I'm going to ring their bloody neck in two!"

It wasn't until a few moment later that a simple, rational thought actually entered his mind again.

"Hang on, what did I actually do again?" He said out loud, unable to properly contain his thoughts.

Suffice to say this thought quickly broke him out of his slight mental breakdown, bringing another series of emotions to his mind, confusion, curiosity and a small dose of fear.

Nova quickly paced from side to side, his hands on the top of his head, trying to come up with some sort of logical reason for all that had happened recently.

"Lets see, made something instantly combust, and also freeze, oh shit I also managed to kick down a solid wall of ice! what the hell is going on today?!"

He brought his hands up to his eyes and looked at them, they didn't appear to be any different, and neither did the rest of his body,
everything seemed to be as normal as ever, apart from the current situation of course.
It was only after Nova's brief once over of himself he got the idea to finally look around himself, the first thing he noticed was the rather large castle now in front of him.

"Oh shit, how long has that been there?" He asked aloud, feeling slightly idiotic for not looking around earlier.

Taking a moment, he then noticed a few more things, the first being what sounds like some sort of celebration coming from inside said castle, the second was that said castle was on the side of a mountain somehow, and last but not least, there were some small horses in gold armor staring at him behind some bushes.

Nova didn't really know how to react properly to all this, so he proceeded to do the first thing that came to mind, head straight for the group of 'ponies' as he had come to call then, judging on their size and appearance.

None to far away, the previously mentioned 'ponies' were attempting to spy on the strange creature, it had done a few strange things, such as stare at its hands, then body, afterwards it started to look around, then, unexpectedly, it looked directly at them for a short amount of time.
"That's rather unsettling." said one of the guards. "Its like it can actually see us."

"Don't be absurd," said the unicorn of the group, who was currently channeling a spell from the horn atop his head. "There's no way he can see us, the cloaking spell should blend us in perfectly with these small bushes."

As the two continued to argue, the last one quickly stuttered out. "H-hes coming right this way!" Causing both to quickly shut up and stare in horror and awe as the creature slowly grew closer to them.

Meanwhile Nova has no idea what he was now privy to, the ponies were actually talking it seemed, arguing about 'being hidden' or something, but from where he stood they were quite visible, and loud.
Walking right in front of the armored ponies, the three just stood there staring up at him, before he could get a single word in, the one with a horn quietly spoke.

"Now watch this, I'll prove he can't actually see us."

Nova raised an eyebrow in curiosity, rather interested to see what the 'unicorn' would actually do.
You could only imagine his reaction when he quickly kicked Nova right in the shin.
"Ah, mother fucker!" Nova yelped, although it didn't actually hurt that much, the action itself caught him completely off guard, he bent down and quickly rubbed his leg.

"See?" the Unicorn said, quietly making his way back to his comrades. "He didn't eve-"

The unicorn didn't get to finish that sentence with a shoe quickly making its way firmly up his backside.

Celestia sat in her throne room, not alone however, they had asked a very special group of mares to join them as well.

"Princess, I don't mean to sound rude, but we did just finish our victory of Discord, what else could there be?" Rainbow asked, a tired expression plastered across her face.

"Now Rainbow, I'm sure whatever it is, its nothing short of important." Twilight quickly replied, "Now sit down, and let the Princess Celestia talk please." Rainbow quickly took her seat, Celestia gave her student a grateful smile.

"You are right however Rainbow, and I do apologies form making you all stay here longer then planned, but something unexpected has appeared recently." Pinkie quickly started jumping up and down on her seat, still bubbling with energy as always.

"Ooohhhh, what is it? a new friend?"

Applejack shook her head, flabbergasted by the fact the pink party pony still had energy after all that had happened.
"Now settle down there Pinkie, ah doubt the Princess would call us here again for a new friend"

"I-Its not a-another monster is it?" Fluttershy stuttered out, half hiding under the table already.

"My word, I sincerely hope it isn't, I for one need my beauty sleep tonight." all the girls started to talk to themselves, Celestia politely coughed to regain their attention.

"If I may get a word in?" she asked, a slightly strained smile appearing on her face. "I know it has already been a long and trying day for you all, however, I don't think I would be wise to let this new possible threat go unchecked, and before you interrupt me again." She quickly looked at each Element, all how looked about ready to start firing questions off at any moment. "I am not entirely sure what this creature is, or why its here."

"Then where did it come from?" Twilight quickly asked, slightly nervous as to what this new thing could be.

"That is what concerns me most, my faithful student, when my sister and I saw this creature, it was after Discords maze dissipated. For a moment it just stood there, then it suddenly started stomping around and started like yelling at nothing in particular, I ordered some of the guards to watch the creature as I regathered you six here."

"So, what your saying is that you think something came out of Discords maze, and might be a threat?" Twilight ask.

"That is right, but that's also the problem, I don't know if this new creature is a threat or no-"

Before Celestia could finish explaining, there was a suddenly rumble, shaking the entire castle.

Nova didn't really know what was going to happen, at first he just wanted to get revenge on that arsehole Unicorn who just kicked him, now said arsehole Unicorn was now decorating the castle wall as a lovely shade of red and gore, the sight and shock was almost enough to make him vomit right then and there, if not for one of the other ponies trying to suddenly run him through with a spear.

"Now hold on there this was ju-" Nova tried to explain, but was forced to jump backwards to dodge the spear from skewering his lower body.

"You'll pay for that you vile creature!" cried out the guard, once again thrusting his spear forward.

As all this happened, Nova thought to himself a number of things, such as; 'Oh gods.... I just killed something' and 'Holy shit I just kicked him like a rag doll' and lastly 'wait, if I can do that-'

Nova suddenly stopped, just in time for the spear to break against his body, catching him and the guard completely off guard.

The guard simply looked at his now broken spear in confusion, as Nova looked over his unharmed body, however he quickly recovered and brought his fist back ready to smack the stupid pony for trying to make him into a shish-kebab.

Up above the fight scene, the princess and six national heroines watched in horror as the strange creatures fist was suddenly covered in a blinding light, and struck the confused guard, causing his entire body to shatter and ragdoll towards the wall below them, further coloring it in a lovely shade of red.

Author's Note

when you get the power to really do anything its actually hard to right a story where it will actually be entertaining to read, so if anyone wants to make a suggestion on how I can limit the main characters Op as fuck Power please do so.

Chapter 3: Decent

At that moment, time seemed to crawl to a stand still.
Nova, with his arm stuck out, Celestia, standing above with a grim look adoring her face, and the Elements of Harmony, stood there in utter shock at what they had just witnessed.

A signal scream broke out, not from Fluttershy, who was hiding behind her friends, not from Rarity, or in fact, any of the ponies.
It was Nova, holding his right arm, screaming neither in shock or horror, but in true, raw pain.

His screams sounded like that of a wounded animal, he clutched his now bright, golden arm, a pain shot all the way through it.
There was nothing he could have done to brace himself for what felt like his arm slowly melting away, he quickly fell the grass, now covered in what remained of the pony guard from before hand, and ever so slowly, he watched his actual arm start to disappear, now he cried out in both pain and fear.

"W-what's going on with me!?" he cried out, fear and pain completely overwhelming his mind.

Celestia watched in quiet horror from above, the six mares around her all either followed suit, or were covering their eyes.

She heard it, maybe the others didn't, but she heard that pain in 'his' voice, since it sounded distinctly male, and watched him collapse to the ground, whatever it was, it seemed confused and in a great deal of pain.

Celestia acted quickly, flying down a moderate distant to the creature, she stopped about ten metres from him, she could hear her little ponies crying out from above her, telling her not to go near, but she couldn't afford to waste time.

Nova had watched it, his arm slowly disappearing, leaving only this strange golden, glowing shell around what used to be his actual arm, although the pain was still there, it had greatly reduced from what it was earlier, and when it was done, all he could see was some see through shell of what used to be his arm.

"No." he thought. "I can still feel it, like its there, but it doesn't have any actual weight."

He heard it then, the sounds of something hitting the ground nearby, after having been attacked once already, having killed someone for the first time and suffering through that unbearable pain, he reacted the only way his mind knew how to, he lashed out, attempting to strike at the new threat, before it could have a chance to hurt him.

Celestia barely had time to react, she quickly jumped back, the now glowing appendage almost brushing against her face, she could feel the raw power pouring forth from the appendage as it neared.
The arm swung past her, a clean miss, but all that power needed to go somewhere, so it left at the end of the swing.

The effects were not immediate, as if the world itself needed a second to understand what had just happened.
After a few moments of silence, the side of the mountain, in which Canterlot had stood upon for a time almost unrecorded, seemed to slightly give way, before it shook violently, a bright light exploding forth from it.

Most of Canterlot mountain simply disappeared with the light.

Celestia was simply blown back by the force of it, and not just her, everything was, the castle, every stallion, mare and child felt its divine force, as if a god had come down and struck the mountain itself, which may not be to far from the truth as it seems.

Twilight Sparkle, the student of princess Celestia, and Element of Magic itself, as at her wits end.

So much had happened it such a short period of time, Discord, the very spirit of chaos itself had broken free and put her through deep mental trials, only for her to bounce back, with the help of her friends of course, and defeated the ancient foe of ponykind.

Now, along with her friends, stood there in absolute shell shock.

Canterlot had been forcefully dislodged from the mountain, by some miracle, it had slid down the now devastated slope and landed rather harshly into the area bellow, thankfully, a large lake had formed at the bottom of Canterlot mountain due to its waterfalls.
It seems the city was even prepared for such an unlikely event as well, for it seemed to slightly float on the water, though that didn't stop most of Canterlot from suddenly flooding.

The cause of all this damage?

A strange creature that had apparently appear out of Discords maze, it had two arms, two legs, a head, and a upper torso, she knew this because while her friends may have been gawking at the grizzly sight they were exposed to, Twilight did what she usually did, observed and studied.

However, this seemed to matter very little at the moment, the town was in panic, and her friends (including her) were unsure on how to act, it was then that not only Princess Celestia appeared, but Luna as well.

Luna looked at the six mares, they were barely moving, obviously shocked at what they had just witnessed, or maybe they didn't actually understand what they saw, and were still in the process of trying to figure it out in their minds, it didn't really matter though.

She looked to her sister, her usually calming aura had been shattered, and was replaced with one of anger and slight fear, she didn't look that well either, she had a slight limp and a cut snout, probably due to being to close to source of the attack.

That's right, that strange creature that had appeared, her sister said she would deal with it, but obviously it didn't turn out that was, after the event had finished, Luna instantly sought out her sister, only to arrive at the scene they were at now, and now, only one question rang through her, and most likely her sister, mind.

"What power does this creature possess?"

Nova was shaking for a number of reasons, one, his arm had been replaced but a fake glowing version, two, the was still reeling from the pain, and three, he had just destroyed most of a mountain in one, simple sweep of his fist.

"What... am I?" He reluctantly brought his gaze back to his arm. "Am I even human any more?" He asked to no one, he was plagued by these types of questions, all which had no answers in sight.

After a while, he looked around, he seemed to have dragged himself out of a large pool of water, which now had the extra feature of an entire town.

"That's right." He said to no one, for there was none nearby. "I did that."

He looked up at his handy work, basically one side of the mountain didn't exist any more, there was no rubble falling, whatever got caught up in that white light simply didn't have the right to exist any more, so it didn't.

He looked back at his glowing arm, it had died down in intensity at least, but its ever golden glow was still clearly present.
Nova stood up, and screamed as loud as he could.

"What the ever living fuck is going on anymore?!"

He took a moment to center himself, a good trait of his, but it wouldn't last long, he thought on what he had done and how he should proceed.

"I-I killed those guards, what the hell is wrong with me? B-but it was all in self defense, yeah, of course it was." He stole a glace at the newly relocated city. "Who knows how many I've hurt, I need to make myself scarce, they'll be looking for me, either for answers or revenge."

With that conclusion in mind he looked around, in the far distance there was what appeared to be a small town, although tempting, he knew he couldn't, his appearance was to foreign compared to these ponies, so he then turned his gaze to the massive forest near said town.

"Perfect." he thought, and quickly made the rather long track towards the dark forest ahead.

Author's Note

If anyone sees the Pun I made I'll give you 8/8 m8

Chapter 4: The attempt to understand what the hell happened.

The walk to the strange Forest had taken longer than expected.

By the time he finally managed to reach the tree line of the shadowy place, a small amount of sweat formed on the top of his head, due to most of the area before hand being a flat plain, the distance between the recently moved city and forest was considerably further that originally though.

Nova walk a short distance into the shaded woods, before taking a seat on a rather large stump, he brought his new arm up to his eyes, and much like before, it freaked him out, it was a bright white, no other tone or color was present, what really set it apart was the fact it was completely see through.

"Like a ghost." Nova thought to himself, but he quickly shock the idea away. "Ghosts cannot make things burn, freeze or disappear with a though."

His thoughts then reached to the two, and possibly more, murders he had recently taken apart in, that sticky red gore sticking to the wall.

After painting the nearby grass a slightly different shade of green and yellow, he reluctantly turned back to his thoughts, what were the extent of these powers? He pondered as he stared at his arm, to test, he swung his arm out towards a nearby tree, nothing happened.

"Strange." He tried to think back to what his exact movements were, however, that hellish pain that he had been suffering through at the time made it difficult to recall.

"That's right, the glow appeared after I made a fist and swung, then came the pain." To test he closed his hand into a fist, the entire arm started to become brighter and brighter, however it also came with another sensation, as if something was warning him, he felt that if he tried to use more of this power now, he might regret it.

After filling himself with water from a nearby pond, Nova was ready to test, he needed to know what he could get away with, a thirst for knowledge and a sense of curiosity overwhelmed his better judgement.

The first test, his mind, what could he do with it? with thought along he had burnt and froze something.
Reaching into his pocket, he took out a small device, his Mp3 player which he always kept with him, and began to focus his thoughts and will, but stopped himself.

"What do I want to do with this?" He thought for a while, but eventually came up with an idea, and as soon as the idea popped into his head, he applied it, the previous small music device had become a rather large stereo, and with that, Nova suddenly collapsed in pain, falling unconscious.

It was not until some time later that Nova awoke, the feeling of the moderately hard earth he had slept on greeted him.

"uwh, fuck that's a dirty way to wake up." He stood and brushed the dirt from his clothes.

He attempted to walk, only to trip on the nearby stump, luckily he caught himself before he was forced to have a reunion with the earth.
looking over to the stereo he had made, he thought back, the feeling of pain returned to his memory for a second.

"So, test one, I have limits set for me, at this time they are currently unknown but it appears that I get a feeling of intense pain when I push it to far, glad I got that established quickly." He looked for the pond he had saw earlier, wanting to check himself for injury, however he saw something much more concerning, in his reflection, his left eye had become a pure gold light, no iris, or any eye at all was left, only the golden light, he quickly drew back in horror.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck." He thought to himself over and over, panic slowly taking over, he quickly rushed back to the waters edge wanting to confirm it, only to get his wish, but as he looked, a thought appeared in his mind.

"I am looking." the eye still had its ability to see, a wave of relief washed over him.

"All right, new update, it seems this 'warning' I get comes in the form of pain, and with it, something goes away." He grabbed his right arm, it still felt there, but it didn't feel like his arm, if anything it felt like someone else, a frightening though.

Nova looked up at the sky, barely visible through the trees, it had appeared to be morning. "How long was I asleep?" he question out loud, "either way, I feel-" He stopped, how did he feel right now?

Mentally he almost was completely overwhelmed, then recent events almost being to much, he focused on his body.

"I, feel good?" He stood back up from the ponds side.

"More testing, I need to test more." with that, he looked at the new stereo and thought, "I want it to be a mp3 player."

A mp3 player now sat in place of the stereo, and unlike last time, no pain had appeared, a sigh of relief was let out as he quickly pocketed the device.

"I appear to have 'reset' my powers, either from time passing or sleep, the judgement for now is that I have a limit to these 'powers' as of yet the 'powers' limit is unknown, but my usage of it can run out, no maybe not run out, but it comes at a cost if overused." satisfied with this conclusion in mind, Nova quickly took off deeper into the forest.

It wasn't long before Nova noticed something was following him, it was quiet, but it had made mistakes, mainly stepping on twigs he had thrown onto the ground when he felt a presence of another, now he hid above in a tree, finally getting a view on his stalker,

"A group of ponies." he thought to himself, there were six in total, two had wings, two had horns, and two had neither, and on their necks sat necklaces, apart from the purple unicorn leading them, who had a crown on hers.

"Royalty?" Nova thought to himself, but was interrupted when they talked talking.

"Twilight?" The rainbow haired one asked. "Why are we heading to the old castle?"

"I already told you Rainbow!" she replied, a slightly annoyed tone in her voice. "After everything had settled down, the guards went around asking if anyone saw the creature, they found out that it was sighted heading into the Everfree."

"B-b-b-but..... why are we headed to that..... scary castle again?" The yellow pegasus asked, the fear clear in her voice.

"Where else would it be headed?" The orange one replied. "There's not really much else in here as far as we know, and something that evil would naturally go to such a dark place."

That statement caught Nova's attention, "Evil?" he thought, but was interrupted when the white unicorn spoke.

"Dose anypony else feel like were being watched?" 'Rainbow' replied "Rarity, its the Everfree, I'd be more scared if it didn't feel like something was-" The voice had become to distant to hear, leaving Nova with his thoughts.

"A castle in this dingy forest? Strange, if they assume that I went there, then there must be something worth while there in the first place."

With this thought in mind, Nova quietly slipped down from the tree, and followed the group of mares deeper into the forest called Everfree.

Author's Note

Okay I know some of you people have liked this, and even Favorited it, so I have a slight request if anyone is willing, please gimmie some feed back on the story so far, and on the pacing and stuff like that, it would help me write better content and actually want to write more.

Chapter 5: Divine Mind and Body.

The six mares had entered the ruins of the old castle Celestia and Luna once called home, each with slightly mixed feelings on what they were doing. Twilight with her friends stood in the once grand hallway, she turned to her fellow elements.

"Okay girls, we need to find this creature as fast as possible and use the elements on him, any ideas?"

Pinkie Pie answered before anyone else could get a word in, "Why don't we lure him out with a-" Applejack quickly planted a hoof over her mouth.

"Pinkie as much as we love your parties, ah don't think this thing really deserves or wants one." Applejack told Pinkie.

"But-but-but everypony loves-" Twilight cut her off this time. "Pinkie this isn't the time for a party right now, does anypony have a proper suggestion?" she asked, a slightly annoyed tone in her voice.

"Well..." Rarity spoke up. "This castle is rather big, and we really don't know where to even begin looking, maybe we should split up for now and properly search the area?" Fluttershy suddenly got a frightened look on her face.
"I..... don't mean t-to question you Rarity, bu-but what if we run into 'him' while were alone?" Twilight nodded.

"That's a good point, but Rarity is also correct, so, instead of completely splitting up, I suggest we go in groups of three." Twilight thought for a second, "Lets see, me, Fluttershy and Applejack will make one group and go down the east corridor." Twilight pointed out the hallway to her right, "Meanwhile Rarity, Rainbow and Pinkie will go to the west instead, this way if we do run into 'him' we wont be alone, and we'll also be able to search a larger part of the castle." With a few nods, the groups split up.

"Hey, what DO we do if we run into that thing anyway?" Rainbow asked, causing Twilight to stop and think for a second.
"Well, we can activate the Elements unless were altogether, so I suppose we might just have to run if we do find 'him' wandering around here while we're split up, in that case, come back here and we'll send out a signal to meet back here."

With the plan formed, the two groups split up down the two hallways, completely unaware that the entire conversation had just been overheard from said 'creature'.

Nova shook his head after ears dropping on the conversation.

"That plan has so many problems with it." He thought to himself, walking into the recently emptied room. "First, if I did see one of those groups, how would they even get away? Second, these 'Elements' of theirs, which must be those decorations they were wearing, need to be together to even work, and since its apparently what they need to use against me, splitting up just makes them useless now." Nova stopped his criticism of these mares plan and looked around the room he found himself in, it was rather large, with parts of the ceiling missing.

Looking around, he saw he was left with four ways to go, back outside, the East and West hallways, and further up, wanting to avoid bumping into the possibly dangerous ponies, he decided to make his way up the stairs to explore the ruined castle, a sense of wanderlust building up inside him with each step he took.

Eventually, he found himself in a rather empty room, and at the middle of the room, stood some sort of alter, Nova quickly made his way over to it.

"Now, I wonder what used to be here." He said to no one, his thoughts starting to come out his mouth. "From what I can tell, this is the only important thing in the room, since its in the middle, but it appears whatever was once here has been taken." He walked over to one of the destroyed windows and looked outside, he appeared to be in some sort of tower, however he spotted something down bellow through on of the destroyed roofs.

"Hmm. if I recall, the names of them were... Rainbow, Rarity and Pinkie." He continued to spy on them, they were looking around the room they were in, poking around, Rarity appeared to be staring at some tapestry, while Pinkie just kept jumping from place to place.
Nova them had a idiotic thought, he brought his hands to his mouth and made a makeshift microphone, and started to wail like a ghost, he wasn't expecting however, for all three ponies to look straight up at him.

"Oh shit, they must have good ears." He thought, as the three of them ran off back the way they entered the room.

"Fuck why did I even do that? Now they know where I am, and are going to get their friends, stupid, stupid, stupid!" Nova shouted, hitting himself on the head as an attempt to bash the stupid from his mind.
"There's no where else else to run, shit, maybe coming up here was also a bad idea." He then heard it, the sounds of hooves coming from the only exit available.

"He really just started wailing like an idiot!" Rainbow laughed out, explaining what had happened to the other three as they rushed up the stairs. The group finally got to the to of the stairs, surprised to see where they had arrived.

"This is where we found the elements." Twilight thought out loud.

"Is it?" a male voice questioned.The girls instantly whipped their heads to the source of the sound, there he was, sitting on the alter that once housed the elements.

"I must say, I never expected to find castle in the middle of a forest, heck I may not have found it if it wasn't for you." Twilight took the time to truly look at the creature, it was taller then them, completely hairless apart from the bright orange mane on top his head, his right arm was glowing gold, obvious not normal after looking at his other arm and legs, in fact, Twilight could see through it if see focused her eyes enough.

His face was flat, with a small nose and eyes, it was then twilight saw his eyes, one was a dulled blue, but the other, was gold, pure gold, no other colours were visible in it, overall the creature didn't look frightening, just very different.

"I don't think anyone has ever stared at me with such interest before, I supposed your wonder what I am, or who, shall I tell you?" The creature spoke, hopping off the alter.

"My name is Nova, and I am a human, or maybe now that should be 'was' a human now." He brought his arm up to his face. "This isn't usually a normal thing."

"Why did you attack Canterlot!" Rainbow Yelled, demanding an answer, a question that they all wanted to know. '

"Canterlot? Is that the name of the city I accidentally moved?" Nova responded.

"Yeah right! like anyone could accidentally destroy an entire mountain!" He shrugged in response.

"So you ask me something, then, after giving you an answer, you just say it's wrong? What the hell was the point of asking them you bloody moron." Nova responded.

Twilight shook her head, "It doesn't matter, you have committed crimes against Equestria, and for that you will pay, get ready girls!" The six of them each took their place.

"What? No trial? That seems a bit harsh." Nova said as the six mares seemingly took their place, he was rather surprised when they closed their eyes and started floating above the ground, an aura appearing around them, he watched on in curiosity, surely if he had survived a spear stab and that fall from Canterlot as it was called, he would be fine here as well.

Time slowed down to a crawl, a rainbow suddenly appeared from the group of mares, Nova watched on as it suddenly dived straight for him, and a single thought entered him mind as it drew closer, his eyes widening. "I should have moved."

Time seemed to return to normal as he was enveloped by the rainbow, he could feel it inside him, as if it was trying to wash his very soul away, he fell to the ground, pain racking his mind.
"get it out, get it out, get it out,get it out,Get it out! GET IT OUT!"
Nova chanted and eventually screamed, his mind was starting to go blank, whatever this rainbow was, it was destroying his mind.

"RRRRAAAGGGGGG!" Nova roared out. A dim aura started to surround his body, and ever so slowly, the rainbow was being forced away from his body, his left eye and right arm started to shine a glorious golden glow, his mind seemed to retreat further away from his body.

The girls were suddenly blown out of the air by a suddenly force of power, each hitting the ground with substantial force, after a few seconds, they each stood up, and what they saw frightened them.

The 'human' Nova now floated above the ground he was previously kneeing on, a white aura seemed to fill all the space around him now, his hair had grown to an insane length now, almost touching his legs, his coloured eye had become filled with a deep blue, and the rest of his body was now covered in strange symbols and shapes.

Despite everything that had changed, one thing stood out more than anything else, a single feeling in the very air around her, it felt familiar, an aura she had felt before, yet it was also different.

It was the feeling she felt around the Princesses, theirs, however, was a calming, barely noticeable feeling, yet it always seemed to make itself present, if Twilight had to describe it, it felt Divine.

The aura here was radically different from that one, it filled all the space around her, almost to the point of choking, it wasn't calm, it was like a stormy ocean with the waves crashing up metres above the waters surface, it wasn't benevolent, it was filled with wrath, to Twilight, and all the other mares, they were filled with the feeling they had angered an old, wrathful god, but no matter how the mares felt, one thing was certain, it was the same divine aura that their Princesses gave off.

Author's Note

I really wish I had a pic to show you what Nova looked like, and before anyone thinks it, the hair isn't spiky.
Also I like to think this is the music playing when the last part happened

Chapter 6: New Born God

Nova simply hung there, suspended in the air, small whips of light floated out from under his feet as his body hung limp, his face almost hidden by his sudden growth of hair, Twilight took a deep breath, finally coming back to her senses.

"W-what? Why didn't the elements work?!" Rainbow shouted, the rest of the group finally breaking free of the oppressive aura filling the air.

"Twilight, what do we do now?" Applejack said, quickly looking to her for a plan or answer, Twilight's face scrunched up in concentration, quickly thinking out their next move.

"Well..." She started. "The elements appear to have had an effect on him at first, so there's no choice, we have to try again, formation girls!" Each of the mares slowly got to their feet. Nova's aura making movement itself feel wrong somehow, however, he still didn't move, even as they got back into formation.

Nova's mind was a wreak, to describe it, it was like someone had taken industrial strength bleach to a tissue, his mind had fallen back into the very reaches of his sub-conscious, and was slowly being rebooted, the only thing controlling him now was instinct alone.

He felt it, that same power as before, slowly charging up, his head slowly looked looked up to see the six mares rising into the air again, he didn't move, he still simply hung there in the air, he saw the mind melting rainbow being launched into the air, his head slowly following it, time seemed to slow down again, it inched closer and closer towards him with an intent to harm, and that's when his instinct kicked in.

Nova's arms suddenly raised together and clapped together, his fingers touching and pointing directly towards the rainbow, and just before it touched him, he swung both arms apart, and parted the rainbow like Moses parted the red sea in the bible, both halves harmlessly parted around him, hitting the floor around him. although he had diverted that attack, he still knew that the mares in front of him were a threat, around now small parts of his mind were returning, enough to make a simple thought.

"The rainbow is threat, rainbow comes from the six in front of me, the six in front of me are a threat, threats must be removed."

With this thought and with his body still mainly left to the control of his instincts, he raised both hand back up again to the six threats, who now had stopped channelling the elements and were slowly backing away in fear and confusion, his palms were pointed at the group, with white vortexes appearing on each one, they drew not from the outside, but from the power within himself.

Twilight and her friends backed away in pure fear, each had saw it, Nova had simply divided the most powerful attack in their possession, the Elements of Harmony itself.

Now, as they all slowly tried to back away, all they could do was stare at the two white vortexes slowly twisting around on Nova's palm, he had finally decided to attack back, Twilight tried to teleport her friends away to safety, but she found she couldn't, the suppressive aura around them made it impossible for her to concentrate on the spell, eventually they found that they couldn't back up any further.

They all stopped and looked back, they had backed themselves into a corner, Twilight turned back to Nova, just in time to see two large 'shots' of divine energy rapidly speed their way towards them, she simply closed her eyes, but nothing happened, apart from one distinctive feeling appearing suddenly, Twilight opened her eyes to see none other than her mentor andprincess, Celestia standing in front of her, a golden, magical shield surrounding them.

"P-princess! you came to rescued us! But what are you doing here?!" Twilight stuttered out. The surprise of her teachers appearance both shocking and relieving her.

"I'm only sorry I didn't come sooner My Little Ponies, if I had known the true nature of the being that stands before us before hand, I never would have sent you after him."

"W-w-what is he? to stop our elements..." Rarity asked, wanting some answers to the frightening events that had occurred, Celestia's face went from a passive look to a grim one.

"To put it simply, he... he is a Divine, a being that easily matches the power of a god, or maybe he is a god, to be truthful there's not much difference, repelling the elements would be easy for him with such divine power at his disposal." The mares shook with fear. Each realising they had just caught the anger of a creature that possibly defies all boundaries.

"A God? is that what I am?" everyone froze for a split moment.

They looked straight to the source of the voice, Nova's head no longer hanged limply, it stood up straight, along with the rest of his body, he was looking over himself, a face riddled with curiosity, then it slowly turned into a hate filled glare, directed straight at the group.

"You... do you even know what those waves of colours were doing to me?!" He screamed out, his voice filled with pure malice.

"It almost destroyed who I was, you could compare it to giving someone a lobotomy, cutting out the part that makes a person a person, a fate even crueler than death in my opinion. So the question now is..." Nova raised his right arm towards the shield Celestia was producing.
"What shall be your divine punishment?" he asked, his voice filled with equal parts insanity and wrath.

"Maybe, I'll cut you all to pieces." Nova suddenly drew his arm back and threw it forward like a sword, a large, sharp wave of Divine power was launched forward and impacted the shield, temporarily destroying the part it had hit, put it was quickly repaired, the stain it put of Celestia was noticeable on her face.

"Or maybe I'll just crush you like an egg. A big golden egg." Nova positioned his hands above and bellow the shield, and lowered them slowly, the shield began to rumble and crack as if two giant, invisible hands were atop and bellow it, slowly squeezing down, the pain this created for Celestia showed on her face, but it still held strong, this caused Nova to chuckle.

"My, my, it appears you are a very dangerous pony after all, perhaps I simply caught you off guard yesterday, now, maybe this time I'll-"

"Thou will do nothing but bleed beast!" a voice interrupted Nova from behind, and a giant black and silver scythe was quickly brought down with the intent to split, it did, but it split nothing but air, and standing behind the large scythe was Princess Luna.

She caught herself, despite missing her target completely, and teleported forward in front of Celestia's shield, using it to protect her back.

"We are sorry to be late, but it took us some time to find our weapon." Luna apologised, face scanning the room for Nova.

"It is no problem sister, I'm only glad you arrived when you did." a small amount of light suddenly appeared in front of Luna, Nova quickly appearing out of them.

"There are two of you? This does make things rather complicated." Nova said.

With his mind still rattled from the elements and the surge of overwhelming power coursing through him, sane thoughts were difficult right now.

"That's a rather pretty looking scythe."

"Sister!" Luna shouted, not taking her face off of Nova, who currently just floated there watching them. "Thou must retreat with the Elements, we cannot allow them to come to harm here, I will hold this 'Nova' at bay for now."

"Luna are yo-" Celestia started to protest, getting interrupted by her sister.

"I do not intend to get myself killed here stupidly sister, I will just hold him off for a short time, now go!" Celestia nodded. With that, she lowered her shield and teleported herself and the elements away, with Nova floating in the air, waving goodbye, he quickly turned his gaze to Luna.

"So, if she's the fair, benevolent one, I'm guessing your the black hearted devil of the duo?" Nova asked Luna, causing her anger to flare up.

"Dammed Beast, Thou shall fall to us!" Luna dropped her guard and shot rapid fire bolts of darkness towards Nova, he responded by raising one of his arms, an actual golden shield appeared, blocking each shot.

"Let's see if you can take what you give." he said.

The shield shined a brilliant white before firing each of the previous projectiles right back at Luna, she responded by swatting them away with her massive scythe, Nova attached the shield to his left arm, Luna used this to lunge forward towards him, attempting to slice him apart, but she only met with bounce-back as it struck his golden shield.

Nova made a sinister smile, as suddenly a wave of light flew out of the shield and headed straight at Luna, attempting to cut her in the same way she had intended to kill him, she sidestepped to avoid it, but was nicked on the shoulder, an amazing pain quickly flew through her, causing her to yelp in pain.

"A rather innocent looking shield isn't it, but I would be careful it has a rather nasty bite to it."

Just as things were starting to get into the swing of it, Luna disappeared in a flash of light. "Huh, guess it was past her bed time or something." Nova said to no one.

Rather disappointed he couldn't further test his new unlocked potential, he decided to take the only proper cause of action was to instantly fall to the ground and pass out, the stress on his body and mind starting to overwhelm him.

Author's Note

The shield if anyone wants it

Chapter 7: Aftermath and Plans

Luna re-appeared in Canterlot, surprising Celestia along with the Elements.

"Sister, your back already I had thought you would- Luna! Are you okay?!" Celestia interrupted herself, seeing blood dripping from Luna's neck and shoulder, the elements gasped in surprise and quickly surrounded her to make sure she wasn't hurt anywhere else.

"Every pony please, I will be fine, though I must admit, this wound stings like no other." Luna said, with a sigh of relief, everyone backed off a bit, not before Celestia gave her sister a quick hug.

"Sister, I can see why you retreated so quickly now, but how did it happen?" Before Luna could get a word it, the young mares quickly interrupted.

"Was it that wave of light from his arms?"

"Does he have some kind of weapon?"

"Um.... Are you.... s-sure you're going to be fine?"

"Ah reckon that wound at least needs some cleaning..."

"Do you know when his next birthday is?!"

"Girls please calm down!" Twilight shouted, silencing the other five, "I'm sorry, but I can barely hold my own questions in myself, but this isn't the time." The five girls each muttered out an apology.
"It's all right girls, I know this must be confusing for you, we will try and explain it as best we can for you." Celestia said, calming the girls down a bit.
"S-shouldn't we t-tend to Princess Luna?" Fluttershy suddenly squeaked out. Causing all the girls to quickly look over to Luna again, only to see the wound was slowly healing itself. Luna gave them all a small smile to comfort them.

"As I said girls, I'll be fine...though this wound is taking its time in closing."

Twilight let her curiosity boil over.

"What did Nova do to hurt you like that?" She asked, wondering what could have possibly happened to even come close to wounding her.
"Nothing actually, it would be fair to say all he did was defend himself." Luna answered, causing Rainbow to butt in.

"Then how the hay did that happen?" she pointed to the still closing cut.
"It was caused by a creation of his.... An actual golden shield that reflects all attacks right back at you, I attempted to slice him with my own weapon, for all the strength and power of my swing to be sent directly back at me." Luna replied. Celestia's eyes went wide, a realization coming to her.

"So that's why your wound takes so long to close....." Luna finished her sentence. "It was technically made with my own weapon."
With that mystery out of the way, Celestia cleared her voice and turned to her student and her five friends.

"Now, I know all of you have questions, however, I'm afraid there is little I can tell you about this 'Nova' character." All the girls suddenly got a look of disappointment on their face.

"That being said, I do have a few things that i can tell you." She stopped and took a deep breath, as if to prepare herself for what she was about to say.

"Nova is an unknown creature, though he calls himself a 'Human' this may not be true, however, he possesses a power that me and my sister, Luna, also have assess to, though it is not as powerful as his." Twilight interrupted.

"Are.... You are referring to your 'aura'?" she asks, Celestia nodded in response.

"Indeed, I am my student, we call it our 'Divine Pressure', it comes from the divine power we both possess inside ourselves and our magic, however, Nova is different from us by a great deal, my sister and I only hold a fraction of this 'Divine' power inside ourselves, most of our power still comes from our own magic, do you understand what I've said so far?" All of the girls nodded, Luna decided to continue the explanation.

"Like my sister said, we only have a certain amount of 'divine' power inside ourselves, although the small amount has the potential to make one incredibly powerful, Nova's entire being seems to be made divine power. This amount of power is usually only held by the gods of old themselves, beings that long since passed on from this world." This made sense to the six mares, in their own minds they had thought Nova was a wrathful god, Twilight decided to speak up.

"So what are we going to do about Nova?"

Celestia quickly answered, a serious look adorning her face.

"Nothing."

Twilight, along with her friends were shocked by this. Rainbow was confused.

"Nothing?! Did you see what he did? Who knows what he'll do?!" Luna, seemingly tired of this, answered harshly.

"It is for that reason we cannot do anything Rainbow Dash! We DID see what Nova is capable of! But the point of the matter is it isn't that we don't know what he might do, it's the problem that he CAN do anything he wishes!" Rainbow backed down instantly, causing Luna to sigh.
"I am sorry for my outburst, but this is a problem with no easy fix, there may not even be one."

Everyone was silent for a moment, before Celestia spoke up.

"For now, we will deal with problems we can fix, for instance, Canterlot now has a giant pool surrounding it, we need to fix the train tracks and also run them through our new location, and build proper bridges to connect us to the road, you girls will stay here tonight and rest, and in the morning you will return home, keep a watch on the Everfree, but please, do not attempt to seek out Nova." All six mares nodded, finally glad to have a plan to follow.

Nova was awake, he had been for a while now, he sat out the window on the now, even more destroyed, old Elements room, his legs constantly swinging in and out, he had long since calmed his mind, most of his sanity had returned, however, he could feel it deep inside himself, deep within his own mind something had snapped, he sighed and brushed back his newly extended hair.

"This is going to be a pain to deal with." He thought. "Washing hair this long will take ages, Oh, wait I can just keep it clean with a single thought, ha-ha" he laughed quietly to himself.

Nova sat there for hours, not doing a thing apart from thinking about trivial things, eventually though, he stood straight up, a suddenly feeling of needing to get something done entered his body.

"I can't sit here forever, I have all this power to play with, who knows what my limits are, I think the first thing I'll do is get a new look."

He looked over his old clothes, the washed out jeans and blue shirt didn't suit his new stature, he pondered for a second on what he wanted to look like.

He snapped his fingers, and idea forming in his head, bringing his hands in front of him and concentrating, a long, shimmering grey cloak formed in his hands, he looked over it, it had a hood just has he imagined, he wrapped it around his body, it almost covered him entirely.
Next he looked at his previous clothes, first he touched his blue shirt, it suddenly shone a brilliant white and formed into the shape he wanted, now he wore a dark green Jerkin, a belt going across where his jeans top was, a single, black coloured mail shoulder pad stuck out one side, and now covering his hands were a pair of black plated gloves, he laughed a bit he really was going for the typical anime adventure look right now.

He quickly touched the side of his jeans, they changed to a light brown pair of cloth leggings, going all the way down to his feet, which were now adorned with black plated boots, he looked over himself.

"Yeah, this is much for fitting considering. Now, what to do about those mares." He thought. Those six mares from earlier and their mind melting 'Elements of Harmony'. Although they made him furious, he wouldn't take any action against them, they couldn't hurt him any more, or at least he assumed so, the other two that appeared were a different story, they were both hiding their true power inside themselves, but he got a taste of each of theirs briefly, Celestia's when she created the shield, and Luna's when she went for that attack from behind, after both times they quickly hid their true strength away, however It didn't appear they were looking for a fight any more, so maybe he should just leave them alone for now. He looked past the castle ruins and to the massive forest surround it, and then even further. "A new land, with all the power I could even need." He thought to himself.

A powerful feeling slowly built up inside him, an overwhelming want to explore and see, 'wanderlust' as people called it, Nova nodded his head, his mind made up, he wanted to see what his new place offered, and with this thought, Nova reached into his pockets and placed his earphones in, Putting a certain song on before smiling, taking a few steps back, and diving out the window and the ground below.

Meanwhile, in the nearby town of Ponyville, three certain fillies were marching straight towards the one place they were constantly told not to go, two of them worried for their sisters and another for their personal hero, before they could take a single step in, however, the ground, it seemed to shake lightly, as if something a giant creature had just taken a single step, they all looked at each other and nodded, they all headed in together, their first stop was the home of a certain zebra.

Author's Note

Finally I can actually start doing what I wanted to do with Nova in the first place, go fucking everywhere and somehow cause problems for everyone along the way.

Chapter 8: The Everfree Meetup

Nova had started out strong, music pumping through his ears and the entire world to explore ahead of him, however, there was one problem with exploring a forest. "I can't see anything but trees!" Nova cried out, no matter where he looked, there was always another tree to greet him, he quickly thought of his situation. "Okay.... Almost everything here looks the same, the best course would be to pick one direction and simply keep going till I find some landmark, from there I can either keep going or change course." With that in mind, Nova quickly took off again.
It wasn't before long Nova came across his first landmark, in fact, he got a whole fateful of it, he quickly spat out the dirt in his mouth and picked himself up off the dirt road. "Bleh.... maybe I should slow down a bit, moving around so quickly is nice... but it doesn't give me that much of a chance to actually look around." With that thought, Nova decided to look around, the path was quite plain, though the fact that there was a path to begin with. "Means it leads to somewhere.... or someone." He looked down both ways, to his left, he could see proper sunlight starting to break through the trees, and the other way lead deeper into the Everfree.
"Well, it's nice to know close to an exit if I need one... but for now..." He turned to walk down the path, heading deeper into the forest yet again. "I'm looking to explore, not escape."

After walking along the path for a while, Nova started to notice something about it. ".....hoof prints?" he started at the strange markings on the ground, he knew that they didn't belong to him, he continued to stare at them for a while as he walked. "Hmm... ponies have four hooves.... so with twelve... that means at least three ponies have been here recently." He thought, using his basic logic. "Now.... Who could it be? The elements, perhaps?.... or maybe someone else? But who would be stupid enough to walk into a dark, scary forest for no reason?"

Just then, three fillies each got a strange feeling that someone was talking about them.

Nova slowly continued along the path, and before long he was met with a curious picture, just ahead of him was a vast field of blue flowers, and just ahead of those... "Three very small ponies, Fillies maybe? what could they be doing here?" This peeked Nova's curiosity, he quickly followed after the small group, being careful to avoid the strange flowers. "If I know anything about nature, it's that color means poison."
It wasn't before long Nova caught up with the trio, his longer legs easily closing the distance, and just a few feet away from them, he coughed to clear his voice.

The Three crusaders stopped, someone was behind them, whoever it was clearly wanting their attention, hence the polite cough, they each spun around, expecting to see Zecora, or maybe even the elements. To their surprise, it was neither, at first all they was was a pair of pants, they quickly looked up, only to be greeted by something they had never seen before.
"Hello there." The strange creature said, but none of the young girls could reply, shocked to see such an alien looking creature, and for it to be talking to them as well. After a few seconds of awkward staring, the creature keeled down their level and waved a hand in their faces. "Hello? is anyone there? Did I break you by saying hello?" He said, he was obviously waiting for a reply, and not before long, one of them finally spoke up.

"W-what.... are you?" she asked, her voice cracking slightly, he frowned in response. "I think you should be asking 'who' I am, it's rather rude to ask someone what they are before that you know." She looked surprised at that response, the next one butted in. "Okay then, 'who' are you then?" He smiled and replied. "My name is Nova, now what might you three be called?" The three mares each looked at each other before responding, first one was the one with the slight voice crack. "I'm Sweetie Bell!" Second came the one who asked Nova's name. "I'm Scootaloo!" "An I'm Apple Bloom!" followed up the last girl, Nova frowned slightly at the last one, but quickly shook his head. "Well, it's nice to meet you, now.... what are you three doing out here in a dark forest like this? I haven't been here long myself, but I'm pretty sure this isn't a safe place to play."

The Trio suddenly found the ground very interesting, Apple bloom quickly spoke up "W-well.... were not normally supposed to come in here, but we had to come see somepony we know!" Nova looked a little surprised at that. "Someone actually lives here? I guess that makes sense.... What with the path and all, wait, did you just say you're NOT supposed to be in here?"
"Uh.... what she means, although we aren't allowed in the forest itself, we can come see our friend Zecora!" Sweetie Bell quickly replied in an effort to cover up the fact they weren't allowed to actually be here. "Oh, okay then, you don't mind if I tag along, do you? I'd like to meet someone that actually lives here." The three nodded in response. "We don't mind, it's not too far from here anyway." They all turned and quickly made their way down the path, Nova followed behind them, having to walk at a slightly slower pace to match their small steps, it wasn't long before Scootaloo got curious. "So.... Now that we've asked who you are, can we ask what you are now?" Nova chuckled. "Sure it's fine, I'm what you called a Human, though I doubt you've ever heard of one before."
"No, I can't say I ever have heard of a 'Human' before." Apple Bloom as the next to ask a question. "So... where did ya come from?"
Nova thought about how he should answer. "Well.... lets just say you'll never find it on any map, so it's far away, there's no measure of distance that can summarize it." He looked a bit sad for a second, before changing the subject. "Uh.... is that where you 'friend' lives?" Nova pointed up ahead to the rather strange looking house ahead of him. "Yeah, that's where Zecora lives!"

The Fillies suddenly speed up towards the house, Nova quickly catches up behind him, he was rather thrown off by the appearance, the tribal masks were a bit strange, he quickly shook his head and looked stood next to the fillies as they knocked on the door, but no reply came. "Are you girls sure she's even home? There's no light coming from inside." Apple Bloom thought for a second before an idea came to her.
"She must be in town getting supplies! I forgot today was the day she went into town.... she must have taken a short cut to get there." all three girls suddenly looked very sad, Nova actually felt a little bad for them. "Well.... That's unfortunate isn't it? she must have taken a different route through the actual forest since I don't see any other paths, well.... if that's all you girls came here to do, I better take you back to he edge of the forest at least..." All three cried out at once. "No!" Nova was caught off guard by that.
"Okay geez, I didn't realize I was such bad company." he said with a half joking tone, the three mares blushed in embarrassment, before long Apple Bloom spoke up. "Uh... it isn't that, it's just we came here for another reason as well." Nova raised an eyebrow. "And that would be...... what exactly?" Sweetie Bell decided to reply. "Well, we came here to find our sisters..... well me and Apple Bloom at least." Nova's eyes were suddenly filled with surprise.

"So that's it.... I knew I recognized the name 'Apple' from somewhere." He thought to himself, he closed his eyes and sighed. "Girls, I can safely say that your sisters are no longer in this forest, the were teleported out yesterday.... in fact, if I had to guess I'd say they would be turning up in town right about...." This caused Scootaloo to get suspicious. "And how would you know that?" She asked, a hint of distrust in her voice, Nova simply shrugged and replied. "Does it really matter? I get the feeling your families won't like it if they got home and found out you weren't there, so how about we save that question for another day and I get you three out of this forest safely, okay?" The three fillies looked at each other, before sighing and nodding at Nova. "Alright, now this may feel a bit awkward, what with it being my first time." that sentence caused instant panic. "W-what are ya talkin' about?" Apple Bloom managed to stutter out in sudden fear, Nova's hands started to glow a bright white.

"Oh.... I'm just going to have a little fun, nothing to worry about, say hi to the elements for me will you?" Nova smirked, and before the trio could either run or shout, they vanished, a small wisp of light coming up from the ground were the three fillies once stood, Nova smiled to himself. "Oh man, that's going to be funny, thought it's probably just going to piss them off even further, if that's still possible." Nova thought to himself, now that he was free from the responsibility of making sure some children don't hurt themselves, Nova headed off the path leading out and went back to exploring his surroundings.

Meanwhile, aboard a train headed back to Ponyville, six mares got the fright of their lives when three screaming fillies suddenly appeared right next to them, causing each of them to also scream, the screaming and panic went on for a while, though eventually Twilight managed to calm everyone down, Apple jack and Rarity hugged their little sisters. "Girls, though I am glad to see you, how on Equestria did you even get here?" Sweetie Bell responded. "It was that 'human' we met in the Everfree, he was walking with us to Zecoras house, but when she wasn't there, he said we needed to get home, but we said we were trying to find you guys!" All six mares gasped in shock. "Did you say Human?! Was his name Nova by any chance?"
The three fillies nodded, and Apple Bloom continued the story. "After we told him that he started acting a little funny, he then said he would get us out of the forest, but I didn't think he would teleport us right to you." Apple Jack stared at her sister. "He didn't try to hurt you, did he?" Apple Bloom shock her head. "Good.... because you're grounded." Apple Blooms mouth fit the floor "What?! Why?!" Apple Jack gave her the 'You know why' look in response. "Oh.... right.... Everfree" Meanwhile, Twilight was thinking out loud. "Why would he send them to us? Why didn't he kidnap them, or something else?" Rainbow shrugged. "Maybe he did it just to mess with us?" Twilight shook her head, before realizing something very important.

"Wait.... if he is able to teleport these three right to us, does that mean he can just teleport to us at any time?" everyone's faces paled at that. "That.... is a rather disturbing thought, what are we gonna do?" Rainbow said, looking to Twilight for answers, but all she got was a shrug. "There's nothing we can do, Celestia told us Nova is powerful, we can't do anything at the moment to stop him, for now we just have to hope he doesn't try to do anything harmful."
A while after this, The group of mares eventually reached Ponyville, the sun was already starting to set, after a short goodbye, they all took off for their own homes.

Meanwhile, in another part of the Everfree, Nova was currently sitting on a pile of twigs and branches, which previously was a living creature. "Man, wolves made of timber, this place really is dangerous.... at least for someone that isn't me." Nova picked one of the twigs and snapped it, the wolf had attempted to ambush Nova, only for him to disappear and reappear above it, and crushing it to death. Eventually Nova stood back up, the sun was starting to set, and the already dark forest was getting even darker.
"How is that even possible? it was already stupidly dark in here." He quickly looked around the area for a place to spend the night, after walking for a bit he found an open clearing with a pond in the middle, he walked into the clearing and laid down near the side of the water, looking up at the now night sky.
"Mhh... looks nothing like the one back home...." The thought brought a small sadness to him, It wasn't long before Nova closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep, to the Realm of Dream.

Author's Note

Finally broke the 2k word goal I set, now for 2.5k words.

Chapter 9: Realm of the Sleeping

Night had descended over Equestria, most ponies now lay in their beds, sleeping and dreaming peacefully, and they had their princess to thank for that. Luna currently was floating about the dream scape, a duty of hers back from before she fell to nightmare, she had only been doing this for a week at most, but already ponies were having less and less nightmares.
The Dream Scape was a large, black space with no actual floor, the only source of light was floating windows that painted the entire area, each window was some ones dream, and depending on what color the frame of the window was made out of, Luna could tell what type of dream it was. A blue frame was a normal dream, red was a 'sensual' dream, and gray was a nightmare, and each window had a name tag attached to them, clearly stating whose dream it was.

Luna was floating from window to window, quickly taking a peek inside each one, by doing this she could quickly see what the dreamer was in fact dreaming about, although tonight all the windows appeared to be blue, these could easily turn into nightmares, when this happened, Luna could watch the dream carefully at first, and only stop them if the nightmare threatened to wake the pony up, or if it went out of control.

While Luna floated from window to window, she noticed another one had just been formed in the distance, and here eyes went wide when she spotted it, instead of any of the regular colors, this window had a golden frame, she quickly flew over to it to see whose name was tagged to it, only to see none. This wasn't the first time she had seen a golden dream before, every now and then they would appear, through trail and error, Luna learned what they were, a golden frame almost always came with no name on it, the 'glass' of the window was also stained with multiple colors, stopping her from actually seeing the dream from the outside. The worst part of these windows thought was that they belonged to those who either had full control of their dreams, or has strong mental protection, Luna would have to force her way into these dreams if she wanted to see who it belonged to.

Luna quickly looked around at the other windows, none of them had changed, she turned back to the golden framed windows, took a deep breath, and opened it, quickly entering the dream.

For a quick explanation, when Luna enters a dream, at first she is in a 'fazed out' form, she can see the everything inside the dream, but she can't interact with it or the dreamer itself, effectively making her invisible. To have any control of a dream, Luna would first have to 'faze in' to the dream, usually this would not be a problem, but Golden framed windows were different, if the dreamer had control of their dream, Luna would be unable to effect the dream at all, not only that, but she would also be forced to play along with the dream as well. However, if the dreamer simply had strong mental defenses and then became aware that Luna had entered their dream, the entire dream would be turned against Luna, this had happened only a few times, but it was enough for Luna to be wary.

Luna reformed into the dream, she opened her eyes, the sight in front of her, forcing her to catch her breath, she stood atop a single hill, with a single tree at the top, at the bottom of the hill, all Luna could see was fields of wheat, painting the landscape with an amazing golden color, the wind blew gently across the area, causing everything to flow.

Luna looked past the fields of wheat, only for it to become slightly cloudy, with what looked like mountains in the distance, the completely surrounded the area, it was as if Luna had stepped into a painting of a landscape rather than a dream, however, one single thing reminded her that this was a dream, and that was the strange Tune the was playing in her ears, it seemed to come from nowhere and everywhere at the same time.
Luna broke out of the hypnotizing sight, quickly shaking her head. "The is not what I was expecting to find in a golden frame..... it is such a strange dream, nothing is changing, it's as if it isn't an actual dream.... but where is the dreamer?" Luna looked into the distance, only to see the golden wheat flowing in the breeze, she started to pace around the base of the tree, only for her to to gasp in shock at what she found.

Sitting right at the base of the tree, his eyes closed and his face calm, was Nova, he simply sat there, quietly breathing in and out.
Luna almost started to panic right then and there, only for her to remember that she never fazed herself into the dream itself, she sighed to herself, and looked at Nova's sitting form.

His face and calm, his eyes were closed and his face was completely calm, a small smile was visible on his face, his back was resting against the tree, he slowly breathed in and out.
Luna was shocked beyond belief, the all powerful, dangerous being that had killed at least a dozen by destroying the mountain and forcefully moving Canterlot, resisted the elements, and had even managed to wound her, was having such a peaceful dream.

Nova was relaxing, some time ago, he had fallen asleep, he was not sure how long, but now he was dreaming of the one sight he had always dreamed of seeing, an area of perfect beauty in his mind, he was completely content with sitting there forever, his back against the tree, taking in the feeling of complete peace. However, something was off, he could feel it, something had appeared, at first he didn't pay any attention to it, it could have been something he created in the dream, but now he could feel whatever it was staring at him. He slowly opened his eyes, only to see the blue fur of Luna standing before him, he sighed.

"...... Luna." He simply said, greeting the intruding princess, causing her to flinch violently and take a few steps back, Nova simply closed his eyes again. "There's no need to react like that, although I'm not happy you're here somehow, I'd like you to at least take a seat, and no, I'm not asking you." He said, the calm, yet demanding tone in his voice having a large effect on Luna, she sighed and reluctantly took a seat nearby Nova, keeping out of arm's reach. "..... Now... what are you doing here?" Luna didn't answer straight away.
"It.... is my duty to make sure that everypony sleeps peacefully at night, when we entered this dream, we did not expect to see this dream belonging to you." Nova suddenly frowned. "Every'pony'? isn't that... a little rude to say? I'm not a pony as you can see, why not just use everyone?" This caught her off guard, of all the conversations she was expecting to have with Nova at any time, this wasn't one of them. "We..... are not sure why, it was just the way it was." Nova shook his head. "Well.... just try to remember not everyONE is a pony, and saying every'pony' might offend them." The next couple of minutes were followed by complete silence, Nova decided to break it.
"Luna..... what do you think of me?" he said in a serious tone, Luna almost scoffed at that, but decided to actually think about it before answering. "You have killed ponies, and although they may have been accidents, they still need you to answer for them, not just that, but you almost killed six nation heroes, attacked me and my sister, and dislodged our capital from the mountain, but......" Luna paused for a moment, taking in the sight surrounding her, the music filling her mind. "Thou may not be a being of evil, but you need to pay for the crimes that you have committed thus far." Nova smiled in response, he seemed happy about the answer.

"Good.... I have done bad things, and as a ruler I would think you insane for having any other thoughts about me... However, I don't plan on dying or handing myself over to you and your sister." Nova slowly stood up, opening his eyes and looking out at the fields of gold. "..... I always wanted to see the world, find those hidden places of true beauty back in my own world, but it never seemed like it would be possible, now, here I am, in a new world with the chance to explore it." He looked over to Luna, his entire body was radiating a divine glow, Luna felt it affecting her entire body and mind. "I'm going to explore everything this place has to offer, so if you want to chase me... and I know you will, that's fine, but I will never stop until I'm satisfied."

Luna shook the mesmerizing feeling off and stood up. "Then we shall track your movements, and chase you down Nova, that is the way it must be." He nodded, and took one last glance towards the peaceful view. "It's time to leave now, the sun is rising, maybe I'll see you another time, though I hope it's never in the world of the waking." With those final words, everything was filled with a bright light, Nova awakened, and Luna was forced out of both dream and dream realm.

Author's Note

This dream in this was actually a dream I had a long time ago, I could never get it out of my head, I always wanted to see this sight in real life.... well I guess Ill just have to keep dreaming can't I?

Chapter 10: Disturbing the Locals

Nova slowly opened his eyes and forced himself to sit up, his body slightly sore from sleeping on the on the ground. "Man, I really need to organize myself a proper bed or something." he thought, he dragged himself over to the nearby lake and dunked his head straight in, and after a few seconds and a few gulps he pulled his head back out, shaking the water from his head.

Now that he was fully awake, Nova took the time to think of the events that went on in his dream. "So Luna can go into others dreams, I'm pretty sure that's an extreme violation of privacy..... oh god imagine if she walked in on someone having a dream about her? Anyway, seems like they want to punish me, so looks like I'm a fugitive now." Nova finished his thoughts and gave the area a quick look around, everything still looked the same as last night, it was barely any brighter as well.

"I guess that it's just naturally dark in this forest, though I'm not sure if the word natural actually applies here." Nova finally got to his feet, sick of standing around and doing nothing, he quickly took off back into the forest.

Meanwhile, Twilight and her friends had all just woken up and gone about their regular days, Twilight decided to completely re-organize her books for the day, and by Twilight, she actually meant a certain Purple dragon, Applejack and Rarity were both at home coming up with chores for their little sisters as punishment for wandering into the Everfree and Pinkie Pie had to work in the bakery that day.

The only two that were even near each other were Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash, Rainbow had promised to help her after she received a large amount of animals from Canterlot after the city fell.
"Just another problem that screwball Nova caused, it's like he's trying to make every ones life harder!" Rainbow complained, carrying a large bag of animal feed to the new animals.
"I swear if I ever get my hooves on him..." This was one of the rare occasions where Fluttershy actually rolled her eyes at one of her friends' comments, although she may be a coward, at least she knew when something was way from trouble then what its worth, trying to get along with most of the animals in the Everfree had taught her that lesson, although she would never let Rainbow actually see her doing it.
"So..... how many animals did get moved here anyway?" Rainbow asked. "Um..... not that many.... most of them were the birds, a lot of others got moved to other areas, since I..... don't have that much room for that many animals." Rainbow simply nodded in response and the two of them returned to work.

Around the same time, Celestia sat at her dining table, her sister sitting next to her, having just finished telling her sister about the events of last night.
"So, to summarize, you went into Nova's dreams, and all you saw was a large beautiful landscape? I must say for his actions it seems rather odd for him to have such.... Peaceful dreams." Luna nodded in agreement.
"It was quite surreal, what really caught us me off guard was the music, I'm embarrassed to admit that the dream managed to trap me in its calming aura, though I doubt I could have done anything to Nova in his dreams anyway, since he seemed to be able to control his own."
"So, he plans on exploring the entire world? that will make tracking him..... difficult, especially since you said he's willing to fight for his freedom, though I'm surprised he admitted what he did was wrong, then again it just shows how irresponsible he is towards his mistakes." Luna raised an eyebrow towards her sister. "Maybe so, he did say he might turn himself in after he's done.... though if he plans to explore the entire world, that may take a few years." Celestia nodded, and suddenly let out a small burp, quickly covering her mouth in embarrassment.
"My sister, your table manner have really taken a dive haven't they?" They both shared a small laugh, before Celestia sighed and stood up and started to head for the door. "We'll have to talk more on this later, unfortunately I have a city in crisis to deal with at the moment." Luna laughed at the last part. "I remember hearing someone came in and complained that their fish bowl had flooded, certainly a major crisis." Celestia stopped for a second, but eventually she just walked off, saying a quick goodbye, it wasn't long after Celestia had left that Luna realised what she just said.
"Some..... one......." She sighed and finished her lunch, her thoughts still wrapped in the conversation from last nights dream.

Nova had come to the conclusion that this forest was more than just a little strange, it was downright dangerous, at least for those without the means to defend themselves, like small children. "Honestly, what kind of supervision do they have going on in that town if they freely allowed their children to wander into a forest filled with living wood wolves and bloody manticores." he said as he kicked the body of the recently killed manticore in front of him, it had jumped out of the nearby brush, probably hoping to get an easy meal, only to have its skull shattered as Nova smacked it away, he sighed and wiped the blood off his hands, turning his attention to the large cave he had just found.

The entrance to the cave was massive, easy enough to fit something the size of a two story building inside, though such a thought would usually make someone nervous, this only made Nova want to dive straight inside and investigate, along the sides of the entrance were large claw marks.
"It seems that whatever lives here is a large, clawed creature that seemed to have the ability to carve through stone with a swipe of its claw... not only that, but that also means it's smart enough to make itself at home by carving one out for itself." finishing his analysis of the outside, Nova peered deeper into the cave, he couldn't see that far inside.
"Hmm, either there's some form of light deep inside, or the creature can see in the dark." Nova rolled up the sleeve of his right arm as he slowly made his way inside, as the arm became exposed, its glow barely lit up the area, he focused on as it slowly charged with power, and the glow became brighter, he continued to do this until he was able to clearly see the inside of the cave.
"My god I'm a walking torch." He thought to himself as he walked through the cave, roots stuck out of the walls and roof, but they seemed to have been forced to the sides of the cave, creating a natural support system for the cave.
It didn't take long before he found himself at the bottom of the cave, only to be completely surrounded by piles of gold, jewels and other kinds of treasure.

"Okay, let's look over the facts, this cave is home to a large creature with massive claws able to carve through the stone, the creature has shown signs of intelligence in creating a home for itself." Nova turned back around to face the entrance of the cave. "And then supporting the cave with the roots, and now I find myself surrounded by piles of treasure......." Before he could finish his thoughts, the ground around him started to shake, the piles of gold surrounding him started to fall over, he quickly turned to see what was happening, only to come face to face with a massive eye, staring directly at him.
Nova wondered what he should do.
"Should I scream? should I run? Should I poke it as hard as possible? Wait, what?" before he even knew what he was doing, his right hand had already reached out and poked the giant reptilian eye, the power he had been building up inside it had an instant effect on it, by instantly destroying the eye. "Oh sh-" Nova tried to say as the dragon let out an ear deafening roar.

Meanwhile, the collective population of Ponyville either wet themselves or froze in fear, a massive roar rang out across the entire area, Twilight stared outside her Libraries window, looking towards the source of the roar.
"That can't be good, I better see if I can round up the girls, just in case." She quickly dashed past her currently napping assistant and galloped to the center of the town, thankfully, Applejack, Rarity and Pinkie were already there.
"Thank goodness most of you are already here! but, where are Rainbow and Flutershy?" Twilight asked as she looked over the area for them.
"Oh, Dashie said she was helping Fluttershy at her house today! you know, the one rrreeeeaaaalllllyyyy close the Everfree?" Pinkie replied, Applejack held off the urge to face-hoof.
"We all know what Rainbow is gonna do, and Fluttershy is probably gonna get roped into it as well." Twilight let out an annoyed sigh. "Come on, let's see if they're still at the house." The four mares quickly ran through the streets filled with panicking ponies, each trying to get back to the safety of their homes.

Elsewhere, Rainbow and Fluttershy were currently flying towards the source of the roar, the trees of the Everfree blocking the view of the ground.
"R-Rainbow! we shouldn't be doing this!" Fluttershy said, trying to convince her hot headed friend to reconsider. "We need at know what that was! if it's Nova up to no good again, then we need to be ready for whatever it is." Fluttershy wanted to turn back, but she knew she couldn't leave Rainbow alone either, she was about to raise another argument, but didn't have the chance as the ground and trees below then erupted from the ground.

A few moments before this, Twilight and her group arrived at Fluttershys house, only to see two pegasus flying above the Everfree in the distant sky. "Oh my, it appears Applejack was right." Rarity muttered, Twilight once again let out an annoyed sigh in response. "It going to take us a while to catch up with them, so lets ge-" Twilight was interrupted when the ground suddenly shook, she looked into the distance, her eyes went wide when she saw what had caused the small earthquake.

Nova had once again, upset the locals by mistake, either due to him being in shock or some other reason that sounds just as stupid, Nova had not only poked a massive dragon in the eye, but he had also completely destroyed it with the built up power inside it, the result was a really pissed off, giant, fire breathing dragon that was now out for blood.

Nova had managed to react quickly enough to warp a fair distance away from the dragon, he turned and made his way out of the cave, the dragons quickly clawing its way behind him, however, with some quick thinking, Nova struck the roots supporting the cave system, and behind him the cave slowly began to collapse onto the dragon, although it only seemed to piss off the creature even more rather then help slowing or trapping it.

Eventually Nova broke out into the Everfree and instantly took the sky, the dragon erupted out of the earth beneath him, causing most of the area to break apart and collapse into the now destroyed cave system, after reaching a reasonable height, Nova slowly turned around to face the raging dragon.

It was a huge beast, easily dwarfing him in size, it was covered in dark blue scales, the blood running from its destroyed eye clashing against his face, his analysis was broken, however when a Rainbow blur smashed into him, knocking him off balance, he grabbed onto the object, only to find himself grappling with Rainbow Dash.
"What do you think you're doing?! Trying to cause an earthquake? Summon and ancient evil?! I won't let you!" She screamed nonsense at him, causing Nova to quickly lose both his patience and his reasonable attitude.

Nova forced himself and float upright, he wrapped his arm around Rainbows neck and forced her to stare at the large dragon bellow.
"First of all you're a fucking moron for attacking me, second, that is the real problem, and third if you try something like that again I'll
Tear off your wings, you understand me?" Nova slightly tightened the pressure on her throat, she quickly nodded in response, Nova pushed her away just as Fluttershy caught up with them.
"Well, that' two of the six, where are the rest of your merry brigade?" Both of the pegasi stared at him strangely, not understanding the insult, however, all three were quickly reminded about the enraged beast bellow them as it tried to roast them alive, Fluttershy and Rainbow flew out of the way as Nova simply warped out of the way.

Twilight and her group finally managed to catch up, above them, Fluttershy, Rainbow and Nova all flew above the massive dragon, it didn't take long for her to guess what had happened when she saw its bleeding eye.
"I swear it's like he's trying to make our lives harder just by existing!" Twilight shouted, catching the attention of the group in the sky, she suddenly came face to face with Nova.
"If I really wanted to, I could make your life worse than hell itself, just keep that in mind." Out of reflex, Twilight attempted to teleport herself backwards, Nova, not knowing what the spell was, slapped her in response, causing her to fall over.
"No, Fuck off." The others stood there in shock, but they couldn't find the courage to speak out properly, Nova's aura was slowly starting to build up, stopping them from doing anything.

Nova sighed as Twilight picked herself back up, the stress of the situation was starting to have a large effect on his mental well being.
"Okay, so I pissed off a dragon, whoops, now can you six please deal with it?" Applejack scoffed. "What? you expect us yo clean up your problem?" Nova shot her a dark glance. "Do you want it to rain dragon gore for the rest of the day? Because if you want me to deal with this, it will involve a very dead dragon as its solution."
Said dragon was currently rampaging around in the opposite direction, blinded by pain, fury and actually being blind in one eye, most of the forest was starting to catch on fire, and the ground shock as it stomped the area, Twilight finally decided to take action.
"Fine! If you won't do anything, we will handle the situation." she galloped past Nova and headed for the dragon, the other mares following behind her.

Nova let out a loud sigh.
"All I wanted to do was explore a cave, and now I've destroyed a large part of the forest and gotten the fucking Elements involves, man my day has just turned out awesome." He quickly looked back towards the mares, only to see them slowly rising off the ground, each in a familiar position, except this time, they were facing the other way.
Something snapped inside him, the sight of that 'attack' causing his mind to go into over drive, in an instant he appeared back in front of the elements just before they shot their beam of mind melting out, he summoned and raised his shield and took the entire force of the spell.
"I will not allow you to use those fucked up elements again!" Nova's shield absorbed more and more of the spell, and pressure slowly starting to build up, Nova concentrated, and just as the beam ended, unleashed it all directly back at them.
Twilight and her group had no time to react, just as they touched the ground, the reverted Elements of Harmony struck them, each mare screamed out as they felt 'something' being torn out of them, to them it felt like something was reaching through to their souls and forcefully ripping out a part of them.

Eventually it stopped, each mare was left there panting, Nova was just about to say something, but was interrupted by having to block a torrent of flame coming from behind him, the dragon had noticed the light show and had found the source of its pain, and was now focusing all its wrath on him, Nova raised his shield to absorb it, but the fire kept coming, seemingly endless.
"I swear, although I made this happen, if you don't stop soon, I'll fucking end it as well." Meanwhile, the six mares sat their speechless, as each of their elements laid in front of them, everything but the gems had been destroyed.

It was only now, after Nova had released such a extreme burst of energy, that both Celestia and Luna appeared, this time however, both were prepared, each had equipped what appeared to be powerful armour, and each held their divine weapons, Luna held her scythe from before, and Celestia wielded a massive gold and red hammer.
"We have found you Nova, and- Twilight!" Celestia had started to talk to Nova, but only to see her student and her friends sitting there, staring at what was left of their elements. "No.... he didn't, I refuse to believe it." Luna shook her thoughts away, clearing her head. "Sister, we must take the elements away from here, we may now have an even bigger problem than we thought now." Celestia snapped out of her own stupor and nodded to her sister, she turned towards Nova, who was currently still holding the flames back.
"Count yourself lucky today Nova, for at this moment you find yourself in a position we would gladly take advantage of." Nova quickly looked behind him.
"Fuck off you miserable arse wipe." Nova elegantly responded, Celestia scoffed at his response, before she and her sister teleported both the mares and their shattered elements away to safety.

Nova was actually starting to feel the heat of the dragons fire, his shield would eventually reach its limit and unleash, by this point he desperately searched for a way out of this stupid problem he had created, but nothing came to him, he let out a quiet sigh, a sudden feeling of guilt filled him.
"Sorry, but it seems like the limit has been reached, hope it's instant for you." A few things happened then, a new flame entered the battle, a white flame blinding anything that looked its way, it quickly overpowered the dragons own flame and shot directly down its throat, completely burning it from the inside almost instantly, the flame was drenched in divine power, further increasing its potency, it wasn't before long that the only thing left was burnt bones.
Nova observed the area around him, it was either destroyed or burning, the dragon now laid there as a pile of bones, having caught fire from the inside.
"I think..... I've explored enough of the Everfree for today."
With that thought, Nova disappeared completely from the area, he reappeared in the ruins, and slowly made his way around, his thoughts cluttered with different emotions of disgust, anger and sadness.

Eventually he found his was into one of the old tower rooms, a bed with a lounge and book case filled it, Nova collapse down onto the bed. "Maybe I really am a monster after all? no..... a bad choice lead to a bad outcome, though it really is all my fault, but those fucking ponies, trying to use those...... disgusting elements against the dragon" Nova let out a sinister smile. "Lets see how they like having a part of who they are taken away..."

Celestia eventually appeared where Nova once stood, the sight caused her to catch her breath, the destruction on the surrounding area was both awe inspiring and terrifying, she stared at the bones of the dragon for a while.
"I swear, I will bring you to justice for this Nova." she thought to herself, a fury she had not felt in a long time had started to build up inside her. Eventually she teleported away, leaving the disturbing sight, the area filled with the stench of burnt meat.

Author's Note

Well that took me a while.
also eventually this will be a thing.

Chapter 11: Shattered Harmony

Celestia re-appeared inside Twilights home, she quickly looked around her, the elements sat around the area, each of their faces devoid of all emotions. Spike had woken up a while ago and was currently making sure each of the girls was at least comfortable, Celestia smiled at that, glad to see Twilights assistant worried for his friends.

Luna was also there, she stood at a table near the centre of the room, sitting atop said table were the gems of the elements of harmony, each one of them, usually a bright colour, was currently dulled and appeared lifeless, as if to match their bearers.
Luna let out deep sigh, turning to face her sister.
"It is as we feared, though I don't know how, it seems that Nova has managed to cut off the elements from their bearers." She turned to face the six girls, her frowned deepened.
"As you can guess, such a forceful removal has left quite the affect on the girls." Celestia walked up to the table, looking over the six gems.
"I don't understand, how could the elements even affect themselves? As far as I know, they have only ever worked on those who have actually done something to disrupt the harmony in Equestria." Luna suddenly smirked. "I think I may already have the answer for that, from our uses of the elements, they have had a series of different effects on who they were used on." Celestia nodded. "Yes..... I remember quite well, they turned Discord to stone, then, they banished Sombera into the ice." Celestia deliberately stopped at this point, not wanting to remind Luna of her banishment. Luna continued on. "So, we both know the elements seem to have almost random effects on those they affect, now, how did they affect Nova again?" Celestia thought for a second.

"If I remember what Twilight said, he apparently said something about it destroying his mind, or at least a part of it." she recalled, Luna nodded. "That's correct, so the effect on Nova is that it target his mind and seems to either purify or destroy it, now, you remember that shield he has?" The answer instantly crossed Celestia's mind.
"He..... reflected the elements effect right back at them, and destroyed their connections to it." Luna quickly shook her head. "If that was the case, we would have even bigger problems, thankfully it seems that they managed to hold onto a small amount of their connection to them, though I doubt they will actually be able to use them for some time." Luna turned to face the mares. "Especially in the condition they're currently in."

Celestia walked over to her student and sat down next to her, Twilight barely reacted.
"Twilight, can you understand me?" she asked, getting a slow nod in response, Spike was also sitting next to Twilight, a worried look on his face.
"Hey, Twilight? please tell me you're going to be okay?" he asked, Twilight opened her mouth, but she couldn't make herself talk, Celestia extended a wing over both Twilight and Spike, trying to comfort them.
"I'm sure she will be Spike, though I will not sugar coat it, it will take a while for her to get back to normal." She stopped and looked at the other mares and sighs.
"It will take all of them a while to heal." Twilight opened her mouth again. "We....... did bad..... shouldn't.... attack him." Twilight stuttered out, tears formed in her eyes, causing Celestia hugged her student a little tighter. "Do not force yourself Twilight, his divine energy is still having a strong affect on you, it may take a while to fade, for now, you must rest." Twilight nodded in response.

Luna picked up the elements and placed them inside a golden box, quickly teleporting it away.
"I will secure a safe location for the elements, we may need to study them if they don't automatically try to reconnect to the bearers, what shall you do sister?" Celestia took a moment to think before responding. "I will need to return to Canterlot eventually, things are still chaotic there, though I would rather stay and watch over the girls....." Spike suddenly spoke up. "I can take care of the girls your majesty! so you don't need to worry about that." Celestia smiled at that, thankful that Twilight had raised her assistant to be such a caring person.
"Thank you Spike, but please, don't hesitate to send me a letter if things get out of hand." he nodded.
"For now, though, I will stay here, just to make sure." she said to her little sister, Luna nodded and walked towards the door. "I will take care of things in Canterlot for today then." With that, she flew away towards Canterlot, leaving Celestia, Spike and the mares in the library.

Meanwhile, Nova had already awoken from his brief nap and had spent some time thinking about the events that had just occurred, he brought his right hand up to his eye level, it still tingled and glowed with his power.
"Poor bastard didn't need to die, if I'm going to really travel, I'll need to learn how to properly control myself, these.... impulses I've been having ever since the elements hit me are causing a lot of problems." He thought to himself, a small frown appeared on his face.
"Although it seems I've dealt with the elements for the time being, there's still Celestia and Luna to worry about." He quickly thought back to the moment they appeared behind him, for a brief moment, he felt an overwhelming amount of pressure coming off of them, though thankfully they had their hands full with the elements being put through the same punishment he went through when they first hit him.
"Well, I've explored a fair amount of the area.... and destroyed the rest of it, I think it may be time to move on, though if I'm going to be travelling, I may need a map to help pick out my destinations." Nova thought for a second, before an idea popped into his mind. "Wait.... there is that town nearby that the three fillies mentioned..... but that also means that's where the elements most likely live, and after what I've done, I doubt Celestia or Luna would simply leave them alone, ah... but if that is the case, they won't be expecting me to come to town anyway, and even if they do, the elements are currently out of commission, therefore, now would be the best time to quickly have a run through the town and pick up a map." With this decided, Nova jumped off the bed he had been laying down on, and quickly headed out the castle.

As he existed in the castle, he looked down the giant chasm that divided it from the rest of the Everfree, he stopped halfway over the old bridge and scanned the sides of the chasm.
"hmmm... there...... some stairs appear to be leading down towards the bottom....." Once again, Nova's curiosity started to flare up, he went to run across the bridge, only to place too much weight down onto it, causing it to break.
"Oh fuck!" Nova screamed as he quickly fell down the massive chasm, however, it didn't take long for Nova to remember he could in fact fly, after a brief thought, he quickly slowed his decent to a much more comfortable pace.
"I really need to start practising with my powers more...." It didn't take long before he touched down onto the ground, the staircase was conveniently right next to him.
"Well at least I won't have to wander around to find the way out.... wait god dammit, I could just fly out." face palming himself, he quickly made his way deeper into the chasm, it wasn't before long he felt something strange, the air seemed to become thick with a strange power, Nova felt as if he shouldn't be here, but he ignored it and press onwards.
"What the..." were his first words when he finally saw it, there before him stood a large, crystal tree.

An overwhelming feeling of peace seemed to flood out from the tree, however, Nova noticed something very disturbing about the tree. "Those symbols..... They're the same as the elements, what does that mean the elements of harmony come from here? or maybe they get their power from the tree..... wait if they actually do come from the tree itself, does that make them fruit?" Novas thoughts were all over the place, however one thing was clear to him. "I should probably leave this thing alone." he couldn't really explain it himself, but he somehow knew that the strange tree should be left alone, despite its clear connection to the elements, Nova quickly turned to leave the way he came, leaving the tree untouched.

It was almost night by the time Nova reached the outskirts of the town, he sighed internally at the name of the place. "Ponyville? I really hope this doesn't become a running theme or I'll eat my hat..... Wait, I don't have a hat." Nova peered down what he guessed was the main street of the town, the twilight glow from the setting sun gave the area a peaceful area, there were only a few ponies further down the street, they appeared to be closing down stalls for the night. "Guess this place doesn't do late night shopping then, this really is a small rustic town, isn't it?" he thought to himself, admiring the simplicity of the town.

Although he was sure he could deal with any problem that may arise if he were to be seen, Nova decided to close to the alleyways of the small town, occasionally crossing into the bigger streets to get to the next alleyway, along the way he made sure to make note of land marks along the way. "Dear lord, that shop looks like it's actually made of candy.... maybe a witch lives there?" He said, a small chuckle escaping his mouth, before long enough, he found the type of building he was looking for. "Hmm, it has a book as its sign, but it's in a tree? that just seems like a fire risk waiting to happen." Nova raised his hand to knock on the door. "Wait.." He slowly brought his hand down from the door. "If all the other shops are already closed, it probably means this place has closed for the night as well." He looked around the side of the tree house, spotting a nearby window, light barely made its way through the curtain, Nova simply shrugged. "No, I shouldn't break in either, with my luck so far I'll just make more problems for myself anyway, so where to go now?" Nova turned back to the street behind him, the sun had long since disappeared, the only light available was the moonlight and the lights from inside the many homes nearby, with a small sigh escaping his lips, Nova made his way down the darkened street.

A few moments later, Spike opened the door of the library. "That's weird, I thought I heard somepony talking...." He shrugged it off and quickly closed the door again.

After wandering around the dark streets for a while, Nova eventually found his way into the local park, he laughed to himself as he took a seat on one of the benches. "Dear lord, it's like I've become a hobo or something, though I suppose it beats the ground, or the bark of a tree." He shot a glance up towards the night sky. "It really is a beautiful sky." he thought to himself, after star gazing for a while, he simply laid down onto the bench and closed his eyes.

It wasn't before long that Nova 'woke up' in his dream, the same calming landscape laid out before him, however one thing stood out that made him sigh in frustration.
"Hello Luna, it didn't take long for you to appear did it?" he said, making sure she could hear the annoyance in his tone, though she simple chose to ignore it. "The last time we were here, I recall you saying all you wish to do is travel, if that is truly the case then why did you-" before she could finish however, Nova had grabbed her by the snout, quickly shutting her up. "How dare you come into my place of rest, uninvited, and you start your visit by questioning me?"
Nova slowly applied more and more pressure, the pain causing Luna to flinch a little.
"All you need to know is that I gave the elements a taste of what they inflicted onto me, and what they may have done to the bloody dragon if I had not reflected their spell." Luna pushed Nova's hand off of her.

"The elements are one of Equestria's best defensive, if you had completely cut them off from their bearers, you would undo everything they have done recently." Nova scoffed. "Pray tell, what have those elements done recently? no wait, let me guess, judging by what they did to me, did they..... banish someone to hell itself? forever trap someone, leaving them to a fate worse then death? because as far as I can tell, your so called 'elements of harmony' are rather brutal when it comes to serving out their targets sentences." Luna faltered at that, having endured what the elements could do for themselves, she found it hard to argue for them. Nova noticed her hesitation.

"What's this then? no rebuttal? could it be that you agree with me?" Luna tried to shake her head.
"No, it's not that simple is it?" Luna found herself nodding in response, peaking Nova's curiosity. "Well, don't leave me hanging in suspense here." Luna suddenly found the grass very interesting as she finally responded with words.

"A long time ago.... I fell from grace and became a monster known as Nightmare Moon, my sister was forced to use the elements on me.... the sentence.... was banishment..... to the moon... for one thousand year." Nova was almost to shocked to respond.
"Wait, you were banished, alone, for a thousand year, on the bloody moon?" Luna nodded.

"Holy shit, how the hell are you still sane?" Luna responded quickly. "I was not myself, I was possessed by-" Nova cut her off. "Okay, no, I don't care who you are, or what you have done, but being forced to live alone for a thousand years? even murderers don't get sentences that long where I come from."

Nova shook his head. "Dear lord, if the elements had done that to me, I would have bloody snapped after the first few days, still, trying to destroy who I am is just as bad, and you ponies call these things the 'elements of harmony'." Nova flopped down onto the grass and stared up at the 'sky' of the dream. "I think we have talked enough for tonight Luna, I want some peace and quiet if you don't mind." Nova's tone made it obvious that he wasn't asking her to leave, Luna sighed and quickly made her way out of his dream, however, instead of leaving with an answer like she wished, she had left with a few new questions.

Author's Note

I don't care if it's a kids show, a thousand years imprisonment is just bloody harsh in my opinion.

Chapter 12: I Just Want A Map

Nova slowly awoke to an unpleasant sensation, at first he thought it maybe have just been from sleeping outside on a bench like a hobo, however the quick jab to his ribs quickly, but that thought to rest, expecting an enemy, Nova jumped straight up to face his would be attacker.

"Wow, you're pretty tall." the small colt said, looking up at Nova with a mix of awe and fear, Nova sighed and rubbed his eyes.
"I may not be from around here little buster, but I'm pretty sure it's rude to poke others, especially while they sleep." Nova said, giving the colt a frustrated glare, the colt laughed nervously. "Uh, sorry about that, I just got curious." Before Nova could respond, the colts mother called out for him. "Coming Mom!" he quickly ran off in the direction of his mother's voice, leaving a slightly grumpy Nova behind.

Nova let out another yawn and sat back down on the bench, he quickly looked around the area, he could see a few ponies in the park, either doing what he assumed was some form of exercise, gardening, and just taking a stroll, surprisingly, none of the them paid any attention to Nova. "Well, that's a relief, I guess if you live right next to such a dangerous forest you get used to some odd sights." Nova concluded. "Now, it's time to find myself a map, I should take a look back at the markets first before heading to the library, I might be able to find it there, and maybe some info if I keep my ear out." With one last yawn, Nova got to his feet and headed down the path towards the markets.

It wasn't before long Nova arrived at his destination, the main street was filled with stalls selling mostly produce, though occasionally he spotted the odd store selling something completely different.
Thankfully, the ponies either didn't care, or were to busy bartering to pay much notice to the strange bipedal creature making his way down the sidewalk, Nova constantly kept his ear out for anything interesting.
"So then she said...." "That earthquake from yesterday was rather shocking wasn't it?" "Sorry, just the price is non-negotiable, it stays at five bits a bunch." Nova suddenly stopped in his tracks, that last sentence had quickly woke him up to a rather blaring fact he had managed to overlook so far. "I...... don't have any of their currency on me." Nova stole a glance towards one of the stalls, seeing the so called "bits" we're golden coins, he let out a long sigh.

"This trip was a massive waste of time, I can't even buy anything, and stealing isn't really a good idea, since I already stand out enough." Nova looked around the area once more. "I don't see any maps being sold either, not like I could buy one anyway, so I guess I should head toward the-" Nova's thoughts were interrupted when a certain group of fillies bumped into his leg.
"Yo, you should watch where you're..... Oh, it's you three again." at the sound of his voice, each of the fillies froze in fear, and slowly looked up to Nova's face. "What are you three-" was all Nova managed to get out before they screamed and run past him, leaving a slightly confused Nova the center of attention of the entire street, Nova muttered out a swear under his breath. "All I wanted was a fucking map."

Celestia was currently getting ready to leave Golden Oaks Library, much to the elements dismay, each one of them had recovered a significant amount of their minds since the previous night, although they were still a while off from full recovery. "W-what if, Nova comes back?" Twilight asked her teacher in fear, Celestia's heart almost broke to see her student so scared.
"Twilight, if I could, I would stay here until you were fully recovered, however, as a princess I have a duty to all of Equestria, besides, if anything does happen, Spike can send me a letter and I'll come straight away." Celestia draped Twilight with her wing and gave her a comforting hug. "Your friends have all been taken home, Spike will help you with anything you need and I will come running if anything goes wrong, be at peace my student." Twilight sighed and nodded. Spike chose this moment to come from the kitchen, two plates of food ready for himself and Twilight in hand. "Come on Twilight, you worry too much, I mean what's the worst that could happen?"

It was at this very moment, with those very words spoken, that a loud uproar came from outside, the door was suddenly slammed open and Nova tumbled into the room, to shocked by the event, Celestia, Spike and Twilight stood there as he quickly got to his feet, and closed the door again, facing away from the group, he let out a long sigh. "All I wanted was a map, sorry for the sudden entrance, but...." Nova finally turned around, his mood dropped even further. "Oh fuck off." The effect was instant, Twilight screamed and ran upstairs, leaving Celestia, Nova and Spike in the main room.
Celestia shook herself out of her stupor. "Nova! you dare come here to attack my student? have you not already done enough damage already!?" She yelled furiously towards him, Nova shook his head. "Yeah, totally, that's why I crashed through the door, turned around to close it, and tried to apologize, because I'm looking for a fight." Celestia snorted. "It doesn't matter why you came, the fact that you're here is enough for me!" Without warning, Celestia tried to shoot a bolt of energy at Nova, only to quickly find her target missing, she suddenly collapsed as Nova appeared, sitting on her back. "Now, now, that's no way to treat a customer." He said, a silly grin on his face, Celestia tried to stand, but found that the more she pushed back, the heavier he became. "To think, I had but one bloody goal for today, find a fucking map, so far I've been rudely awoken by poking, had three very loud fillies scream almost at my face, then chased by an entire town because of said screaming."

Nova finally jumped off of Celestia's back, causing her to fly up and hit the ceiling, her horn getting stuck in the floorboards above her, Nova continued to talk. "So I run here, to the last place I hoped to find a map, and what do I find? A fucking princess instead, an element, and....." Nova stopped and looked at Spike, who was currently attempting to hide by curling up behind a chair. "I don't even know, anyway! the point is, all I fucking want is a goddamn map, it shouldn't be this hard!" With Nova's mini rant over, Celestia finally dislodged herself from the floor boards.

"Nova, if all you have come here for is a map, then quickly take one and leave here, under other conditions, I would not simply let you walk away, however..." Celestia looked towards the stairs leading to where Twilight was currently hiding. "I will not risk any more harm to the ones I care about." Celestia looked back towards Nova, her face filled with suppressed rage. "Take what you need and leave this place." Nova simply shrugged and looked around the library, some of the books had been knocked off their shelves from the brief struggle, but the area was mostly intact. "All right then, lets find me a-" Suddenly a large piece of paper fell onto his head, the words 'Map of Current World' appearing in front of his eyes. "Huh, that's convenient." He took the large map off his head, quickly rolling it up. "Well..... I have what I came for, you would think such a simple goal wouldn't take such an effort, but-"
Celestia stomped her hoof down. "Nova..... leave." she muttered out, her patients wavering, Nova shrugged and headed for the door, suddenly stopping right in front of it. "Oh, I just realized, as soon as I leave you're going to try to find me.... Well, I can't have that now can I?" Before she could react, Nova ripped the door off its hinges and flung it towards Celestia, the force of it flung her towards the bookshelves and almost through the wall behind it. "Catch." He said as he quickly made his way out the library and disappeared from view.

After a few moments, Celestia finally managed to pick herself up, the force of the attack catching her completely off guard. "Damn you Nova, I will find you eventually." Celestia looked around the now messy library, she sighed and starting moving the books into neat piles, and placed the door back into position, Spike finally came out of hiding. "Was... that Nova? I can see why Twilight is scared of him, I'll go check on her." Spike quickly made his was upstairs to find Twilight, he found her tucked into her bed, shaking in fear. "Twilight? he's gone now, he only came here for a map or something." Twilight quickly pulled Spike into the bed with her, hugging him tightly. "AH! Twilight, what are you doing?" He said, startled by the sudden hug. "I'm..... sorry, I.... ran." She muttered out, spike sighed and returned the hug. "It's okay Twilight, I'm here for you." The two kept hugging for a while, before Twilight finally let him go, pulling herself out from the covers. "Is.... Celestia?" She tried to ask, Spike nodded. "She's fine Twilight, I doubt she could be hurt that easily."

After a little while, Celestia finally made her way upstairs, Twilight was sitting in her bed with Spike, she walked over to her student. "Twilight, are you all right?" she asked, getting a slow nod in response. "Good, I cleaned up the mess downstairs for you Spike, so you don't have to worry yourself with that." Spike let out a sigh of relief. "Thank you princess, that would have taken all night." Celestia smiled sadly. "I'm afraid I must leave now, Luna can only do so much on her own with how Canterlot is now." Celestia nuzzled her student, comforting her. "Stay safe Twilight, and let me know if anything happens." Twilight sighed and shook her head slowly in agreement. "I... understand.." With that, Celestia walked out to the balcony and flew off towards Canterlot.

Nova eventually found himself on one of the roads outside of Ponyville, not wanting to stay in the hostile town any longer than necessary, after reaching a crossroads, he took a seat on the side of the dirt road and brought out the map. "All right, let's see what we have here..........." he looked over the massive map, shocked to see just how big the world really was. "hmm, not really what I expected.... Then again, I don't really know what I expected... still this WORLD looks to be just as big as earth....." After looking over the map for a while, he sighed and rolled it back up. "I'm going to need to think this through properly, and some advice on where to go would be nice, might as well just head down the road till I hit a town and ask around." With that, Nova jumped back to his feet and headed down the road.

Meanwhile, further down the road Nova took, a blue unicorn was having difficulties with a wheel on her mobile stage/house.

Author's Note

Finally can get started on the journey.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gC4dcu_CvA

Chapter 13: The Great and The Powerful

Today had started out so well for Trixie, she woke up from a peaceful sleep, had a nice breakfast, bathed and the weather was bright and sunny. This was all ruined when one of the wheels on her caravan broke off, however with a bit of magic and a spare wheel, she had quickly fixed the issue.
Then the replacement wheel decided the of broken wheel was feeling lonely and decided to join it.
"Dammit, that was my last spare, why must I have to suffer like this? today started out so well as well."
She slowly thought on her options.
"The nearest town if I recall is...... no, I refuse to go back there, not after what happened last time, and from what I heard Canterlot is still a big mess." She sighed, realising the only option was to attempt to fix the wheel, although she had done this before, the time it took was a massive pain.

"Hey there." The sudden voice from behind made Trixie jump in shock, she quickly turned to face the voice.
"Who dares sneak up on..." she slowly raised her head to meet Nova's eyes. "On..... the.... great and powerful...."
She gulped, Nova simply stood there waiting for her to finish.
"T-Trixie...." She finally finished, Nova chuckled a little before responding.
"Sorry, wasn't my attention to startle you, and since you introduced yourself to me, allow me to do the same, I'm Nova."
Trixie wasn't sure how to respond, Nova's sudden appearance and alien look completely threw her off, Nova decided to ignore the fact she was just staring at him and bent down to look at the broken wheel.
"Hmm, seems your having some technical difficulty here, do you have a spare?"
The question snapped her out of the stupor, she quickly took a deep breath to calm herself before responding.
"The great and powerful Trixie never has any difficulty with any task, this is a simple fix."
"Are...... you speaking in third person?"
She was caught off guard by the sudden judgement of her speech.
"The way Trixie speaks is none of your concern, now if you will excuse Trixie, she needs to fix her wheel."
Nova let out a long sigh, quickly getting tired of Trixie's obsession with third person speech.
"Whatever, do you want some help with you wheel, or are you just gonna magic it back to full condition?" he asked, making note on her horn.
"Yes, Trixie will be, now if you could please leave...."
Nova shook his head, given the way she was acting earlier and the fact she refused help and was trying to rush him away, he suspected she might be a bit too proud to admit she needed the help.
"What, you think I'm in some rush to get somewhere? besides, I want to see if you can actually magic a wheel back together."
She groaned in frustration and quickly turned her back to Nova, her horn quickly flashed and she turned back towards him, the still broken wheel being help up by levitation.
"See? Trixie has fixed her problem." She said, a smug look on her face.
Nova looked at the wheel, it was still clearly broken.
"Do you think I'm blind or something?" He asked her. "The thing is clearly still broken."
Trixie's face quickly dropped to an expression of shock.
"How can you tell?! Trixie cast her best illusion spell on it!" she suddenly shouted at him.
Nova once again sighed, it was clear to him that this mare needed to O.D. on some humility, he also noted that he couldn't even see the apparently illusion she had cast.
"You can't fix the wheel with magic can't you?" He asked, causing Trixie to flinch violently.
"T-Trixie already said she doesn't need your help so-"
Nova cut her off by suddenly yanking the wheel out of her levitation.
"Hey! what do you think you are doing?"
"Helping." He replied, he stared at the broken part of the wheel for a second, suddenly a gust of power flew out from Nova, almost knocking Trixie onto her flank.
"What did you do to Trixie's wheel?!" She yelled, worried he had destroyed it, but much to her surprises, he suddenly handed the wheel back, fully repaired.
"I'm helping."

After a little while, Trixie finally managed to put the wheel back into place.
"Trixie..... is thankful for your help, but Trixie is curious about something."
"About what?" He asked.
"Everything, what are you doing here, How did you see through Trixie's illusion, and how did you fix the wheel so easily." She asked, Nova let out a small chuckle.
"In that order? well okay, I'm travelling, I didn't see your illusion, and because I can."
Trixie didn't look satisfied with any of those answers.
"All right, where are you travelling to?"
"Dunno."
Trixie visibly twitched with rage, but took a deep breath to calm herself.
"Fine, so how did you 'not see' Trixie's illusion then? it is one of her specialities." Nova responded by pointing to his left eye.
"Magic."
She suddenly stomped her hoof down in anger.
"Why are you being so infuriating?!" She yelled in anger.
Nova face was suddenly covered with a large grin, getting a kick out of trolling the pony.
"Because I know your type, and the right way to get a reaction out of you, that and I don't actually have a set destination yet."
She scoffed at Nova and turn towards her caravan.
"Well, Trixie had best be off, it will take a while to reach the next city, Trixie can not afford to waste any more time."
"You're absolutely right, we should be heading off immediately."
Trixie followed the voice up to the roof of her home, Nova now laid there like a cat on a roof.
"What do you think you're doing on Trixie's house? get down immediately!" She shouted, Nova simply stretched out further on the roof in response, causing Trixie's Jimmies to get even more rustled.
"Look, I fixed your wheel, the least you can do is give me a ride, besides, I don't really know where I'm going anyway, it would help to have such a experienced traveller such as yourself to get me started."
Trixie stopped for a second, before suddenly looking very smug.
"Very well, since you seemed to realise Trixie is a seasoned traveller, I will give you a ride to the next town, and if your lucky Trixie may even help you find your next destination."
Trixie took a seat at the front of the caravan, her horn glowed and wrapped its magic around the wheels, slowly turning them, Nova slid down from the roof and next to Trixie.
"I get the feeling this is the start of a horrible, horrible friendship."
"Don't get ahead of yourself, Trixie is only doing this because you helped." She quickly corrected.
"Yep, a horrible, horrible friendship." He repeated, Trixie simply rolled her eyes in annoyance as they slowly made their way down the long road.

Author's Note

Companion gained? maybe, maybe not, one thing for sure though is that remembering to write in third person for Trixie is gonna be a bitch.

Chapter 14: Crossroad Town and Tracking Efforts

Nova and Trixie sat in silence, the long road ahead of them combined with the sun's warmth put them both in a relaxed state, Nova struggled to keep his eyes open, letting out a small yawn.
as the pair got travelled further and further down the road, Nova took the time to observe the area's on both sides of the road, to the left laid what he assumed was either the Everfree or some other forest close to Ponyville, and to the right was nothing more than grassy hills, with the newly remodelled mountain in the distance, Nova quickly looked away from his work of art.

"Trixie assumes that you know what happened at Canterlot?" She asked, attempting to kill the silence.
"Eh..... Kind of, I heard there was some kind of big explosion or something." He replied.
"Not quite, you see, Trixie was close to Canterlot when it happened, thankfully Trixie had not yet graced the city with her presence yet, so she got a good view from the outside." She said excitedly, happy to tell a story to someone.
"Trixie was just below the mountain, ready to take the road up, however, just before Trixie could ascend, there was a giant flash of pure white..... something, normally Trixie would assume it was just magic, but Trixie has always been good at analysing the patterns of magic." Nova stopped her by raising his hand to ask a question, she rolled her eyes.
"Yes, you down in front, what is it?" She said, as if addressing a member of an audience.
"What do you mean by the patterns of magic?" She almost fell off her seat in shock.

"How does one with such abilities have no clue on one of the most basic rules of magic?!" She said, appalled by Nova's lack of basic knowledge, Nova simply shrugged in response, further irking Trixie.
"Fine, Trixie will quickly explain, all you need to know is that all magic is made up of rough patterns, to create a spell, one must link the correct patterns together, this is also why most Unicorns that wish to study magic are sent to schools designed to specifically teach them these patterns." She quickly explained, taking a deep breath afterwards.
"So that means you have the ability to.... understand spells by sensing the patterns used in them?" Nova guessed.
"That is correct, Trixie has always had the ability to almost understand any spell just by looking at them being used, however, we are getting off topic now, you can shower Trixie with praise for her talent later." She said, Nova rolled his eyes as she continued on with her story.

"As Trixie was saying, she has always been able to understand the patterns used in spells and magic, however, when Trixie looked up at this giant white flash, she couldn't not see, sense, or analyse what she was looking at, at first Trixie thought she was just too far away." She stopped to breathe, getting so wrapped in spinning the tale she forgot to breathe.
"Trixie quickly changed her mind when most of the mountain suddenly dissipated from existence, if that truly was the work of magic, Trixie would still have been able to see the patterns within it, due to the amount of power such a spell would require, however, Trixie still couldn't understand what she had seen, and just like that, Canterlot fell into the lake bellow." She said, finishing her tale.
Nova thought about what she just said, eventually a single question came to mind.
"Does anyone know what caused it?" He asked, Hoping the answer was a no.
"Not entirely, from Trixies guess, they don't want to set every pony into panic that some creature was on the loose with that much power right after the fiasco with Discord." She said, Nova opened his mouth to speak but Trixie cut him off.
"No, Trixie will not explain what or who Discord is, that would take too long, also Trixie believes it would be impossible to explain a being whose very existence defies all logic." She said, ending the conversation.

After a brief moment of silence, Nova decided to pick the conversation up again.
"Hey Trixie, how come you wear that hat and cape?" He asked, causing her to quickly look up at him with anger.
"Why do you ask, do you think they're stupid?" She asked back, Nova shrugged.
"I'm just curious, from what I've seen, almost all the Ponies I've seen walk around naked."
"Oh, Trixie sees, well why do you wear clothes?" She asked.
"Trixie, the answer to that question will require me telling you about the evolution, biology and culture of my entire species, so unless your up for a lecture...." She quickly shook her head.
"No thank you, Although Trixie is surprised that there is such a complicated explanation behind it, and as for your original question, Trixie is a stage performer, the cape and hat add flair to Trixie's performance." She explained. Nova nodding as she spoke.
"I see, but then what's up with the way you talk, surely it's annoying always speaking in third person?" He asked, causing Trixie to sigh in annoyance.
"Again, its for Trixie's performance, it add flair to it."
"But why do it all the time? unless your secretly holding a performance right now, you don't really have a reason to keep doing it." He stated, only annoying Trixie further.
"Enough, Trixie doesn't require you to tell her how to talk, it is Trixie's wish to keep speaking this way, so stop bugging Trixie about it already." She said, tired of Nova's constant questioning of her lifestyle.
Nova sighed and raised his hands in defeat, dropping the subject, and once again the duo sat in silence as they just reached the top of a small hill.

"Ah, finally, we're getting close." Trixie said, prompting Nova to peer into the distance, and barely visible in the distance, a small town appeared on the horizon.
"It doesn't look like a very big town." Nova said, Noting on the size of it.
"That's because it isn't, if anything it's more of a pit stop, the town was built around a crossroad, so they get a lot of trade going through it." Trixie explained.
"Now, once we get there, try not to do anything like you did earlier with my wheel." she asked, causing Nova to look at her in confusion, sensing this, she quickly explained.
"The town is mainly populated by earth ponies, with only a few pegasi to manage the weather, as far as Trixie knows, there isn't a single unicorn living their."
"I don't get it, what does that have to do with anything?" he asked, still confused.
"Urg, basically they are a bunch of hicks that have little to no knowledge on magic." she elegantly explained, causing Nova to raise an eye brow in surprise.
"Well that's a little harsh, and surprising, you would think that the school would at least teach them what magic is."
"Usually yes, that is the case, however this town seems to..... dislike magic, not only that, but an earth pony wouldn't really have the knowledge to be able to explain or teach magic, and as Trixie said, this town is pretty much all earth ponies." She said, Nova finally started to understand the situation.
"So, since they have no proper experience with magic, doing anything like that might.... displease them?" he asked, Trixie snorted in response.
"More like try to run you out, like Trixie said, they are a bunch of hicks, so don't do anything magic related, okay?" Nova slowly nodded in response, staring at the slowly approaching town.

Celestia looked over the small group of guards in front of her, after seeing Nova at the library, she wanted to start the tracking effort as soon as possible, however with the city still in chaos, this would have to do for now.
"Now, please repeat your orders to me one last time." She asked them.
"One, Post the provided wanted posters at every town and settlement within Equestrian boarders."
"Two, While one part of the group posts the posters, the others will ask citizens to come forward if they have any information to provide about the criminal."
"Three, if the criminal is spotted, we are to only to track from a safe distance and to make contact with either you or your sister as soon as possible." The guards said, Celestia giving them a nod of approval.
"Very good, you will be heading out first thing tomorrow morning, now I know you just said this, but I must repeat that you are never to engage or even attempt to get close to the target, although you are all skilled in your own ways, he is simply too powerful for you." She said, each of the guards nodded in sync.
"I always found that really unsettling...." Celestia mumbled to herself. "Dismissed." Each guard turned in unison and left the room, Celestia shuddered at just how in-sync they were with one another.

It wasn't before long that Celestia once again found herself dealing with more of the city's problems, thankfully this time it has been just paperwork, and not some whiny noble come to complain about his pool overflowing, she physically flinched at the memory of that one just as Luna entered the room.
"You really should sort that out sister, you made the court very nervous that day." She said with a smirk on her face, Celestia let out a snort in response. "So, have you sent out the trackers yet?" Luna asked, getting a short nod from her sister.
"Yes, though they will be headed out in the morning if you wish to talk to them before they leave, I just wish we had the time and resources to mount a full scale effort against Nova." Celestia complained, her face scrunching upon mentioning his name.
"Well, there is something else we could do." Luna started, catching her sisters attention. "Nova has clearly stated that he wishes to travel to as many locations as possible, so that means he plans on eventually visiting the other nations."
Celestia let out a soft sigh, cutting off her sister. "I have already thought about it." She said, surprising her sister.
"However, I wish to wait a little longer, I don't want them to think the situation is completely out of control, if we can tell them then news AND the current location of Nova at the same time, it would make us look a little better in the long run at least."
Luna scoffed towards her sister. "I don't think our image is our top concern right now sister, but I suppose if we have to tell them, it may as well be with all the information we can provide." Luna let out a small sigh. "It has been a while since the last gathering."
Celestia smiled. "Yes, I believe it's time that the Council of the Divine finally had their next meeting."

Trixie let out a sigh of both relief and annoyance as the wooden gates to the town finally opened, she slowly started to walk forward, the strain of her carriage made even worse by her new companion.
"Trixie I would love to help you push, but I doubt I would even be able to move this thing an inch if I wanted." He lied, not that Trixie knew this, after a short trip to the local inn, Trixie unhooked herself and fell to the ground, taking a deep breath.
"Jesus Trixie, you should probably get more exercise in, you were doing that for a whole three minutes." Nova said with a shit eating grin on his face, Trixie shot him a scowl in response.
"So, what now?" Nova asked, Trixie collected herself off the ground before responding. "Trixie must pay the innkeeper some gold to park here, after that we can start discussing what to do and where to go." she said, Nova shrugged in response, much to her dismay, she quickly troted inside the inn, leaving Nova alone with his thoughts. "Well, she could use a lesson in humility, and maybe some speech lessons, but she seems decent enough company." He concluded.

He smiled to himself as he laid down on the seat and looked up to the sky. "The perfect blue sky was a bit boring to be honest, without any clouds in the sky, it looked kind of empty." He thought to himself just as Trixie walked out of the inn. "Hey." He said, catching her attention. "What, have you finally decided on what you want to do?" she asked, causing Nova to smile.
"Nope, but that's the point, I have no idea where I want to go, I never really had a knack for planning, so I had an idea, how about WE travel together!" He announced, Trixie's eyes went wide. "Look, you seemed to be pretty well travelled, and hell, your tolerable to be around, a quality I have found hard to find recently, so unless you want me gone, I wouldn't mind if we went together."
Trixie stopped, finally snapping out of her initial shock to Nova's choice, on one hand, Nova had the uncanny ability to poke fun of her, and on the other hand, he was willing to travel with her, something no one else had ever wanted to do before. Eventually she let out a sigh in defeat, in truth she had been lonely for a while now, so for Nova to actually want to travel with her was both surprising and exciting for her. "All right, Trixie will allow you to travel with her." Nova smiled and put his hand out towards her, causing some confusion. "You are supposed to shake it with your hoof, its a sign of agreement." He explained, still not really understanding it, Trixie reached her hoof out to Nova's hand, where he wrapped his fingers around her hoof and shook it up and down. "There, we are in agreement." He said, letting go of her hoof, she brought her hoof to her face and looked at it for a second. "Trixie found that... wierd." She said. Nova laughed a bit before respond. "It's a human thing, I guess it works better if both participants have hands." he said, wriggling his fingers towards Trixie, she rolled her eyes at him in annoyance as he giggled at her reaction.

Nova placed his hands under his head and looked back up towards the sky, letting out a relaxing sigh, he closed his eyes and let the late afternoon sun warm him up a bit, Trixie was currently messing around inside her carriage, planning out their next destination for the both of them, not that he minded, he was content to simply lay there, completely relaxed, that was of course, until he started paying attention to what some passing ponies were saying. "Ya see that strange creature layin' thar?" One asked his two companions. "Ah reckon it belongs to that Unicorn girl that owns that there carriage." He said, causing one of his companions to snort. "Teh, leave it to a horn head to have a weird lookin pet." Nova frowned at this, then got a "brilliant" idea, he quickly sat up and turned towards the three earth ponies. "YOU FUCKING WHAT MATE?!" He suddenly yelled at them using his most British accent, causing them to jump in fright "SAY THAT AGAIN AND I'LL BASH YA FUCKING HEADS IN, I SWEAR ON ME MUM." by this point one of the three ponies had pissed themselves and they quickly fled the area, Nova laid back down on the seat just as Trixie popped her head out of her carriage to see what was going on, she looked over to Nova. "What the heck was that?" She asked him.
"You said it yourself Trixie, this town is full of hicks, just one of them yelling I guess." He replied, Trixie shock her head and went back to her planning, leaving a very happy Nova to his thoughts.

Author's Note

*COUGH* *HACK* I'm not dead!
God dammit I hate it when real life gets busy.
Also yes that ending was completely necessary.

Chapter 15: A show of Power

Nova was currently napping on the front of Trixie's carriage, the late afternoon sun providing the perfect amount of warmth for him to sleep, this was suddenly interrupted when Trixie started to poke him in an attempt to rouse him, he waved in her general direction in an attempt to shoo her off, this only got him a harder poke and an annoyed Trixie.
"Nova, either get up now or Trixie will dump a bucket of water over you." She threatened him, Nova groaned as he finally opened his eyes and sat up, stretching out his slightly cramped back.
"Fine, I'm awake, there's no need to make such threats." He grumbled out. "So, did you finally decide on where we're going?"
Trixie nodded in response, pulling out his map of the world and handing it to him.
"Trixie has marked several destinations that we will eventually be heading to, our first major stop will be Manehatten." She pointed to the city on the map. "It's not too far, and from there we will be able to make our way to the next stop." Nova noted that it was a coastal city.

"Are we going to be travelling by sea?" He asked her, Trixie quickly shook her head. "No, Trixie would prefer to stay on land if possible." She pointed out one of the lines leading out from the city. "We will be taking this road all the way to the Griffon Kingdom in the north." She pointed out to Nova. "Equestria's borders are almost completely surrounded by mountains, making travelling in and out of it quite the hassle, its the main reason you don't see many of the other cultures or species in Equestria." She explained.
"Anyway, we can further discuss our plans after we hit Manehatten, Trixie decided that I would be better to plan out our steps one stop at a time, leaving room to alter our course." Trixie snatched the map out of Nova's hands and quickly rolled it up, storing it away for safe keeping. "Any questions?" She asked, Nova thought for a second, eventually shaking his head in response. "Good, now if you will excuse Trixie, she will be resting in her room." and with that, she once again vanished into her carriage, leaving Nova alone to his thoughts.

"Griffon's exist in this world as well?" he thought to himself, the idea of meeting a creature straight out of mythology made him feel giddy inside. "This world is just full of surprises, speaking of surprises." Nova looked down to his right arm, the bright glow it gave off was barely visible through his clothes. "I think it's time I figured out what I can actually do with this bloody power of mine." with this in mind, he quickly hopped off the seat of the carriage and quickly made his way behind the nearby inn, he quickly looked around the area, with the wall of the town to his right and the inn to his left, it made for the perfect spot for some experimentation with his power.

(Meanwhile, somewhere in the Griffon Kingdom)

A young griffon covered in armor approached the throne.
"Sire, there is a message for you." He said, handing the letter over to his King. The old griffon quickly grabbed his glasses and scanned through the letter, a small chuckle escaped his beak.
"A summons from the Princesses, it certainly has been a while, hasn't it Celly?" He said to no one in particular, he put the letter down and looked back at the guard. "Prepare a carriage for me, would you?" He asked, the young griffon saluted and left the throne room.
The old king once again let out a small chuckle, "What has that pair of ponies gotten themselves involved in this time...."

(Meanwhile, somewhere far to the West)

The two lords carefully read over the letter they had just received, both sighing one they finished.
"You just know that whatever the problem is, it's their fault." The first lord said, causing the second to snort in response.
"Maybe so, but the fact they actually sent for a gathering this time is rather disturbing, don't forget we're talking about the ones who took down discord without any help." She replied, causing her fellow lord to sigh in frustration. "Well, we best not delay then, I'll get the transport sorted." He said as he turned to exit the room, however, before he could leave, his fellow lord grabbed his arm and pulled him back. "Oh no you don't, the last time I left you in charge of transport, you had us walking for the last leg of it, I'll sort it out this time, and you announce our plans to the council." She said, The first lord mumbled something under his breath and headed towards the council room instead.

(Meanwhile, somewhere over the ocean)

The large being struggled to read the tiny piece of paper in front of her, the letters almost too small to read.
"Honestly, you would think they would at least have the knowledge to send the message on a bigger piece of paper, not this tiny scrap." She complained. She slowly picked herself off her hoard and made her way towards the entrance, passing her guardians.
"I will be making a long trip over the sea, try to keep some resemblance of order while I'm gone." The guardians simply nodded in response.

Finally exiting her home, she stretched her body out, having slept for the past couple of months left her body stiff and rigid, she sniffed the air, the smell of the nearby sea filled her senses, "Honestly, what I wouldn't give for a century where nothing world shattering happened....." she said, a yawn escaping her maw, before spreading her wings and taking flight.

(Meanwhile, back behind an Inn)

The Innkeeper slowly carried the trash bag out towards the back of his establishment, only to be greeted with most of the area and its content destroyed or simply missing, he dropped the bag of trash and started cursing everything under the sun.

Meanwhile, Nova once again took his place on the front of the carriage, a small smile covered his face, satisfied with what progress he had made.
"I never thought all that time playing games would end up helping me one day." He thought to himself, however, his thoughts were interrupted when a large rock suddenly smacked him in the side of the head, causing the rock to shatter on contact, Nova glanced up to see a rather drunk and confused looking pony standing over him.
"What da heck.." Was all the drunk local managed to say before finding himself in a world of pain, he quickly fell back towards the ground. "Hey! are ya okay?" Another pony asked, Nova placed the voice, it was the bloody hicks from earlier, apparently getting drunk enough to think it was a good idea to attempt to murder someone over an insult.
Nova casually sat up in his seat, looking at the offending party, the other two ponies both had shovels in the hooves, looking ready to strike, Nova let out a dark chuckle, almost turning into full blown laughter. "My word, I cannot believe my luck, I was just starting to think about how I needed to test my newly found moves on some pathetic worms." He said, his voice dripping with malice.
"And look, the three of you just happened to wriggle my way." Nova hopped off his seat just as the hick with the rock finally managed to pick himself up. "The is our town, we don't need strange vermin like you here." One of the hicks mumbled out. Nova smiled sinisterly at them.
"Then let me remove you like the rats you are." With that, one of the would be assailants rushed towards Nova, shovel in hand, Nova raise his hand together, a small wave of light suddenly struck the charging pony, burning where it touched, causing him to fall over, screeching in pain.

By this point, Trixie had heard all the commotion and had swiftly made her way to see what was happening, only to see Nova standing over a pony, a massive burn mark covering his face, chest and legs.
"Now, what about you two....." Nova looked back up the two other ponies, both who were staring at him in fright.
"R-run for it!" One of them yells as he turn to run, Nova quickly raised his hand above his head muttering out the word
"Judgement" before casting his hand back down, a golden, spectral hammer suddenly appeared and fell right on top of the fleeing one's head, He let out a deafening scream as he fell to the ground in pain.
Before the last pony could properly react to what was happening around him, Nova thrust both hands towards him, a golden light instantly travelled down Nova's arms and flung itself towards him, it engulfed and tore the last hick apart. "Exorcism." was all Nova said as the he fell to the ground.

Trixie stood there, unable to understand what she had just witnessed. "He.... just destroyed them with a few arm movements, were those spells he cast?" She thought, she opened her mouth to speak, but Nova spoke first.
"You saw that, huh?" He asked her, not bothering to turn and see that she was nodding, he let out a small sigh.
"Just so you're aware, they attacked me first, although somehow I don't think the locals are going to believe that."
Trixie shook herself out of her stupor. "You didn't....." She started to ask, however, Nova cut her off again, guessing what her question was going to be.
"No, but I don't think they will ever recover either." He said, his voice devoid of emotion, he quickly made his way over to the seat of the carriage and sat down.
"Come on, let get out of here before we get into any more trouble." Trixie looked around and noticed that some of the locals were finally starting to take notice of what had happened, sighing, she jumped up next to Nova and quickly pushed to Carriage forward.

(Some time later)

Trixie subtly looks over to Nova, his face had a neutral expression, giving no insight to the way he was feeling, Trixie sighed, her thoughts were all over the place. "Did they actually attack him first? How powerful is Nova? Is he going to do the same to..."
"Hey." He said, suddenly cutting off Trixie's line of thought. "I just want you to know that, what you saw back there, was justified."
Trixie scoffed at him. "Justified? One was almost completely burnt, the other had his head caved in and I don't even know what you did to the last one, how the hell do you justify that!?" She yelled.

Nova let out a long sigh. "If you must know, those hicks were trying to kill me and most likely you as well, I don't know much about pony culture, but I'm pretty sure a rock to the head while you rest usually means they want you dead." He said.
Trixie tried to come up with another reason to yell at him, but nothing really came to mind, in fact, the more she thought about it, the more she realized that Nova was most likely correct, that, and town already had a bad reputation.
"I think we're far enough now." Nova suddenly said. "I can't see the town from here, you can stop." Trixie slowly pulled the carriage over to the side of the road, she fidgeted around in her seat, not really sure of what to do next, one on hand, she wanted to run, and on the other, she somehow Knew Nova was most likely in the right in what he did, the conflict of emotions annoyed her, she scoffed and suddenly jumped off her seat. "Where are you..." Nova began to ask. "Trixie.... is tried, and needs to think, we will talk tomorrow, now goodnight." Was all she said before disappearing inside her carriage, Nova sighed and looked up towards the sky, it had long since turned into night and the moon quietly shone down on him, he let out a yawn as he laid down onto the seat and slowly closed his eyes, letting the world of dreams take over.

Author's Note

For those who can't tell, Nova is using both priest and Paladin abilities from World of Warcraft, first attack was Smite, Followed by Judgement and Exorcism.
No he is not limited to these types of attacks, but he doesn't know that yet.

Chapter 16: Leaders Assembly

(Unknown Location, Unknown time)
Lord Minros, second lord of the West, patiently waited in his appointed seat, he gave the room he sat in a quick glance.
The entire room was made from pure white marble, several pillars surrounded him, holding up the roof of the ancient building, he tried to look outside, but as always, the spell covering the building only let him see a fake, night sky.

"See, I told you I would get us here on time." A voice said, Minros look down to the seat next to him, on it sat his fellow ruler, Lady Terra.
"On time?" He replied, raising his eyebrow. "None of the others have even arrived yet, who knows how long we may have to wait."
Terra scoffed at her companion. "It's still better than arriving two days late." She said, causing him to look away in embarrassment.

"I hope I'm not interrupting anything..." A third voice spoke out. The first two quickly looked for the source, only to see a large, white and grey griffon slowly float into the room, taking his seat opposite them.
"Ah, Ares, it's been a long time hasn't it?" Terra said, causing the griffon to chuckle.
"Indeed, I almost expected to see this place in ruins, but that was just foolish thinking on my part, so, how does the clans of the Minotaur and Dogs fair these days?" He asked, causing Terra to give him an annoyed look.
"Diamond Dogs." She corrected. "The Western kingdom fairs well, thank you." Minros snorted in response.
"That's one opinion, if you ask me, we could be doing much better." He said, Terra quickly gave him a swift kick to the leg to shut him up.
"Yes, well, your version of better involves us removing the entire elected council from power." She said, giving her fellow ruler a stern glare, Ares couldn't help but laugh.

"Ah, I see some things really never change, you two still bicker like an old married couple." He said, a sly smile forming on his beak.
Minros let out and awkward cough before changing the subject. "How fares your lands Ares, from what I've gathered, the North isn't fairing so well." Asked Minros, Ares let out a sigh before replying. "You would be right, the current winter has lasted longer than usual, although you make it sound more dire than it actually is." Ares face suddenly scrunched up in annoyance.
"It would help if a certain country just south didn't have such strict trade laws, the giant mountains don't help much either." Ares complained, Terra rolled her eyes.
"You would think those two want to cut their land off from the rest of ours." She said, just as a large figure slowly made its way inside.

"Oh, are we bad mouthing the sisters, I guess that means they have yet to arrive?" The new voice asked, quickly obtaining the attention of her fellow rulers.
She slowly made her way inside, her rather large form barely fitting inside the building, she slowly made her way to her seat, slightly shaking the ground as she sat down, each of the other rulers gave a quick bow in greetings.
"Thessa, it's rather surprising to see you, I'd had thought you would have just slept through this like last time." Minros said.
Thessa shrugged before responding. "Well, the last time I did, little Lulu got possessed and was imprisoned on her moon, with that in mind, thought it best that I attend this one, just to be safe." She said, all the while giving a sly smirk.
"What's really surprising me is that we have all managed to arrive before the ones who actually called this meeting, honestly its rather rude to keep us waiting like this." Said Terra, letting out a sigh of frustration.

After about an hour of light banter between the four rulers, a bright light suddenly appeared in one of the last seats left, Luna materializing in its place, she quickly looked up, surprised to see that the other members had already arrived.
"Ah, it seems we have kept you waiting, on behalf of my sister and me, I would like to apologize, this was a rather rushed meeting after all."
Luna said, giving a quick bow in apology.
Ares let out a small chuckle. "It is quite all right Luna, although I am surprised that your sister has not come as well." He said, his curiosity building.
"Yes, well that has something to do with the reason this meeting was called in the first place." Said Luna, quickly trotting to her seat.
After sitting down and clearing her throat, she began.
"As you all know, each of us has ruled over our lands for almost as long as time itself, and during this time, we have managed to keep relative peace in our world through our granted divine powers." Each member slowly nodded in agreement.
"Although this council hasn't always agreed on the same things, or some of us just slept through it." She shot a nasty glance towards Thessa, who responded by ignoring it.

"We have always striven to keep the balance of things between us, however, it is this very balance of power that is now threatened."
Luna said, she quickly brought up a detailed illusion of Nova in the middle of the room, each member giving different reactions.
"Oh lord, don't tell me Equestria has given birth to another creature that threatens to either destroy or rule the world" Minros said, causing Luna's temper to flare up.

"If you would allow me to finish explaining, Lord Minros, you will have your answer, this creature that I show before you calls himself Nova."
She started to explain. Luna hopped off her seat and started to pace around the room.
"My sister and I are yet to discern where he has originated from, however he appeared right after discord was re-imprisoned." Each member let out a groan at the mention of the Draconequus.
"We all bloody warned you that Discord would break free, and what did you do? make him a lawn decoration." Ares said, speaking what the others were thinking.

"Discord has been dealt with and my sister and I have plans in motion to deal with him another time, but moving back to the subject at hand." Luna motioned for the others to look at her illusion of Nova.
"Unsure of how to approach him, and only having just dealt with discord, we sent three guards to keep an eye on him, a moment later, and with the new elements of harmony in tow, two of the guards were dead, and Nova appeared to be charging for some attack against the third." As she said this, the illusion of Nova seemed to frown suddenly, but quickly went back to its blank expression, Thessa took note of this, but decided to keep quiet, letting Luna continue.

"My sister flew down to stop him, but all she accomplished was startling him, he swung wildly at her, thankfully Celestia was able to avoid the attack, however, the mountain was not." Terra and Minros both suddenly raised their eyebrows in interest.
"You're referring to Canterlot mountain, correct?" Terra started. "The one we helped fuse the supports of your capital to?" Minros finished, Luna let out an awkward chuckle.

"Yes.... well, it would be suffice to say that most of the mountain is now.... gone." She finished explaining. Both Terra and Minros stared at her in slight shock.
"What do you mean gone?" Minros asked, still slightly confused.
"Gone as in most of it no longer exists, the attack that was meant for my sister hit the side of the mountain instead, there was a suddenly explosion of light, and most of the mountain was simply gone, Canterlot then started to slide down what was left of it, falling into the lake bellow." Luna clarified.
"What became of Canterlot?" Thessa asked. "Thankfully, most of the city is still intact, there were a few casualties and a lot of flooding however, hence why my sister is currently absent." Luna answered, answering two questions at once.

"What about your elements of harmony, surely they could deal with the situation?" Ares asked, Luna shook her head in response.
"Originally we had thought the same, the elements have different effects depending who they are used on, when they struck Nova, they apparently wiped his mind away, only leaving his body intact." Luna sighed before continuing on.
"The elements tried to strike him again, and he simply parted the attack with his hands, my sister arrived soon afterwards, and from what she told me, it was as if without his mind, his power grew to an immersible amount."

"Soon after, Nova started to strike back against the elements and my sister, it was all she could do just to hold off his attacks at first, and as he attacked, his mind slowly started to return, seemingly broken at the time." As Luna said this, the projection of Nova seemed to smile slightly, but once again it faded back to its neutral expression.
"I arrived just in time to save them, I had thought to play it safe and retrieve my weapon before setting out, I tried to strike Nova, but he simply disappeared and reappeared close by, I told my sister to transport the elements away while I distracted Nova." Luna suddenly looked down to the floor ashamed.

"Although I had taken the time to prepare myself, I couldn't do a thing to him, he was able to constantly avoid every attack I threw at him, until he stopped and summoned a shield to his hand, he taunted me, and in my rage I struck at him with with scythe, only for his shield to completely bounce the attack back towards me." Luna turned and showed the slight scar the reflected attack left, causing a few gasps from the others.

"Hang on, he just reflected the blow back at you, didn't you create that scythe specifically to wound and kill beings similar to us?" Ares asked. Luna's ears drooped down in sadness.
"Yes... although technically it was Nightmare Moon who added the ability to my weapon when she took control, continuing on, after wounding me with my own weapon, I was forced to flee back to Canterlot."

The assembly sat in silence for a while, each member going over what they just heard, Terra suddenly coughed to clear her throat.
"So, to summarise, a being known as Nova has appeared, this creature is of unknown species and origin and has powers easily rivalling, if not completely overshadowing, our own, have I got this right so far?" Everyone nodded in agreement.
"Furthermore, one of Equestria's most powerful forms of defence seem to only have a temporary effect on him, coming with the draw back that it also seems to have made him even more powerful, now the only question is, why tell us about this?" Terra asked.
"Indeed, I have yet to actually hear why this also concerns us, so far I've only heard about how this is Equestria's problem." Minros said, Luna shot him a angry glare before responding.

"Because, after a few meetings inside the dream space, I have come to learn that Nova does not plan on staying in Equestria for much longer." Luna said. Each of the other members faces quickly drained of colour.
"Yes, Nova has admitted to me that he plans on travailing the entire world, so you can see why my sister and I called this council together." She finished explaining.
"Well, do you know where he is at the moment?" Ares asked, the worry in this voice clear.

"Oh, I don't actually know right now, somewhere on the road." A new voice suddenly replied.
Everyone in the room jumped in surprised, everyone except Thessa, who glared at the projection of Nova, Luna let out a tired sigh.
"I should have realised it wouldn't be a simple meeting, why don't you show yourself Nova?" Luna asked.
"Show himself, why would he need to? he's been standing in plain sight the entire time." Thessa replied, causing everyone to look at her in confusion.

"Thessa what are you on about?" Minros began to ask "The only things in this room are us and......" Suddenly everyone's eyes went wide, finally understanding, they each slowly turned to face the supposed projection of Nova.
"Ah, so you finally caught on did you?" 'Nova' asked, giving a sly smile. "It took you long enough, although M'lady Thessa here caught on pretty quickly." he said.

"B-but I don't understand, you're just a magical projection!" Luna stuttered out, clearly confused.
"Luna, do you recall the last time we met in the realm of dreams?" he asked. "Didn't it seem strange that I suddenly rushed forward and grabbed you so violently, it seems a little out of character for me, doesn't it?"
Luna quickly thought back to the event, remember how his attitude changed so quickly, she raised her hoof to her snout and was greeted by a strange sensation, Ares eyes suddenly went wide. "Luna, there on your snout.... that strange symbol." He pointed out.

Surely enough, right where Ares was pointing, a small, golden rune had appeared right where Nova had grabbed Luna in the realm of dreams.
"That's it all right, I guess you could say I planted a little bug on Luna to keep track of what she might do, although it only activates when I sleep." Nova explained. "It's quite convenient you chose to hold this little gathering so late at night, otherwise I would have been none the wiser." Minros suddenly jumped out of his seat and straight towards Nova, however he ended up falling right through him instead of grabbing him as intended, Nova chuckled at this.
"There's no need to get so worked up, this is still only a projection, I've just hijacked it for my own needs for the moment." Nova said as Minros picked himself back up.

"If I may be allowed a question, what are your plans exactly?" Terra asked, taking the opposite approach to her companion.
"It's just as Luna said, I only wish to see the world and everything it has to offer." He said, a genuine smile covering his face.
"Before I arrived here, I always wanted to travel my world, but now I'll never get that chance, so your world will just have to do instead."
Nova's smile suddenly faded away, his face completely devoid of any emotion.
"And if any of you decide to interferer with these plans..... it wont end pleasantly." He said with a monotone voice.
"Do you truly thinks it's wise the threaten us like that?" Thessa asked. "You may be powerful, but you are in our world, and we are not to be trifled with." She threatened, a small amount of smoke escaping her nose and mouth.
Nova smiled and shrugged at her. "Probably not, but I really don't care, I've said all I wanted to say, so for now, goodbye." The projection of Nova bowed, before dispersing itself.

Everyone in the room sat in silence for a while, before Ares sighed, stood up, and stretched.
"Well, I guess there's no time to waste, if what Nova said is true, then there's only one place he can go after he's done with Equestria."
He said as he made his way to leave. "I'll be in contact with you after I arrive back home, and I suggest everyone here strive to do the same." He said just before he took off into the night sky.
"Tch, it's just like him to leave so quickly." Minros complained. "However he does have a point, I get the feeling Nova is going to be a handful, we should all stay connected while we sort this out." The other members nodded in agreement.

"I wonder what such a creature could be doing right now, surely he must be planning something sinister...."

Nova slowly tossed and turned in his sleep, the roof of Trixie's caravan providing little comfort, however after a few to many turns, he found that the ground bellow him was as equally uncomfortable.
"Ooohh..... thankfully this hard dirt and stone road was here to break my fall.... and by fall I mean my body...." He groaned as he rolled onto his back and quickly fell back asleep.

Author's Note

That's Nova for you, truly the poster boy for evil masterminds everywhere.
Also, just in case you didn't pick up on it, here are the races of the rulers and where they rule
Minros = Male Minotaur, First ruler of the West
Terra = female diamond dog, Second ruler of the West
Ares = Male griffon, Ruler of the North
Thessa = female dragon, "Ruler" of the South, however unlike the others, her lands are separated by an ocean.

Battle: Dream Luna, and Explanations

Nova patiently waited within his dream, the normally peaceful landscape of his mind was replaced with a war torn field, the sky covered with smoke and dark clouds.
He could "see" Luna quickly approaching towards his mind, her anger slowly rising.

Luna soared through the realm of dreams, blind to all else but one single window.
"How dare he!" She thought to herself. "Not only embarrassing me in front of the others, but tainting my mind with his power, I will show him why I control the realm of dreams."
Disregarding her usual caution, she flew straight into Nova's dream, fully syncing herself with his dream.

Nova didn't even flinch when Luna landed in front of him, the earth cracking under her hooves, in an instant, Luna's form was covered In armor, her scythe appearing next to her. "Luna, for what it's worth, I'm-" Nova started. Luna quickly cut him off.
"Save it, I no longer care for your words Nova, now either prepare thyself, or I will cut you down." She threatened him.
Nova smile lightly. "My Luna, you're being quite bold, forcing your way into my mind like this." He started, as he talked, his smile slowly turned sinister.
"You want to fight? fine, but you're playing on my home turf, hope you're ready for a thrashing."

(Music Start: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ssyanpbnzw)

Without another word, Luna dove into the air and lunged towards Nova, bring her scythe across the cut him in two, to her surprise Nova somehow managed to cartwheel around the attack, his entire body dropped into a relaxed, yet battle ready stance, a sudden burst of energy shot out of his right arm, and a small, strangely shaped sword appeared in his hand.

She quickly turned around and lunged at him again, using her magic to propel herself faster than before, However, just as she swung her scythe, Nova reacted with almost blinding speed, swinging his weapon to meet hers mid swing, only for hers to bounce off, leaving her wide open.
Nova didn't waste a second, with a quick step he struck Luna several times, the blade seemed to glide within his grip, finishing with a quick kick before jumping back a small distance, once again falling into his fluid battle stance.

It was at this point Luna realised a few things, one was that she was glad this was the dream realm and her actual body wouldn't be hurt, the second was that charging Nova would never work, and the last being that she was In a lot of pain.
She quickly picked herself back up and focused her eyes on Nova, and without warning, her horn shot out a small missile of magic into the sky of Nova's dream, exploding into a massive ring filled with arcane runes, just as Nova looked up towards it, several massive bolts of magic started to rain down towards him.

With barely enough time to react, he quickly charged forwards to avoid the first of the massive projectiles, the ground exploding wherever they landed, however, he was quickly stopped by a large pile of earth Luna had pulled out and throw towards him.
Quickly regaining his footing, Nova once again charge forwards, taking care to avoid the onslaught of arcane magic currently falling towards him, Luna quickly formed a shield around herself before flying towards him, however, just before the two of the got close enough to clash blades, Nova lowered his body and slid across the ground, making Luna's swing go wide.

Attempting to once again taking advantage of the Princesses opening, he swung upwards, only for Luna's shield to send him flying in the opposite direction, right into one of the bolts of arcane falling from above. Luna turned and smirked, pleased she had finally found a way around Nova's battling style, only for a massive lash of light magic to cut her across the front of her body.
Nova was crouching low to the ground, in his left arm, he held his shield, meanwhile his right arm outstretched outwards towards Luna, glowing with power.

Luna attempted to pick herself back up, the burning sensation almost overwhelming her, but before she could stand, a golden hammer suddenly slammed into her, exploding into a brilliant golden light, Nova was slowly walking towards her, and once again, before she even had the chance to recover properly, and explosion of light suddenly shot out from within her.

Those three attacks alone had almost caused Luna to lose focus on keeping her own body tangible within the dream, she struggled to look up, only to see Nova standing above her almost broken form, an evil smile slowly came across his face, slowly lifting his shield above his head, the last thing Luna saw in that dream was the corner of his shield coming down towards her neck.

(Music end)

Luna's eyes quickly shot open, almost screaming in fear and pain, her mind reeling from being forcefully pushed out of the dream, panicking, she looked around her room, only for her bloodshot eyes to prevent her from seeing straight.
She quickly lowered her forelegs to the ground, wanting to stand up so she could steady her mind, only succeeding in falling face first into the thankfully soft carpet.
As the room spun all around her, she realised she had one last task to perform before she could allow herself to give in to her exhaustion.
Slowly gathering her magic, she barely managed to lower her moon, allowing for her sisters sun to slowly rise in the distance, sighing, she finally closed her eyes, passing out on the floor.

(Optional Music)

Meanwhile, on a dirt road somewhere, Nova eyes slowly cracked open, with his right eye almost completely bloodshot, he forced himself to sit up, grasping his head in pain from the previous battle, he look up to the sky just to see the sun slowly rising, he sighed as he picked himself up and dusted himself off, getting ready for the day ahead.

Nova simply sat at the front of his companions portable home, staring ahead at the road in front of him, it wasn't before long that he heard the door on the other side quietly open and close, a slightly messing looking Trixie appearing next to him, a small piece of toast floating next to her.
"Morning." Nova said as he scooted over, she sighed as she jumped up next to him.

Nova took the chance to quickly look over Trixie, unlike most of the time, she had yet to don on her cape and hat, her normally well groomed hair seemed to stick out in places, and she was chewing quite loudly on a piece of toast.

With all this information, Nova quickly came to the conclusion that Trixie was not a morning person, and decided to keep quiet until she had properly woken up.
After Trixie finish off the rest of her toast, she quickly used her magic to fix her hair and threw her cape around her shoulders, sighing, she finally looked over toward Nova.
"Trixie wishes to talk about what happened back at the trade post, mainly what you did to those ponies and why." She said, her face completely void of any emotions.

"Okay, guess I'll go in that order as well, first, I used my extremely awesome yet dangerous powers to fight off a bunch of attempted murders, second.... no wait I just answered both your question at the same time." He replied, giving her a small smile.

She stared at Nova for a few seconds, her face scrunching up in thought, Nova took this opportunity to poke the tip of her snout, causing her to sneeze.
"You scrunch your face up like that and you're going to get wrinkles, besides, its to early to be doing any proper thinking." He said as he stretched out his body.
Trixie gave an annoyed groan before replying.

"Why do you keep avoiding Trixie's questions, would it not be easier if you just decided to comply?" She asked, getting a sigh from Nova.
"Look, its not that I don't want to answer your questions, it's that I don't really have an answer for all of them." He said, looking away from her.

Trixie 'hmphed' in response, already getting tired of Nova's excuses. "Then can you answer this one question?" She asked, Nova turned back to face her.
Trixie's entire persona had changed, the usually boastful, proud show mare had a worried, even scared look on her face.
"Is Trixie...... am.... I.... safe around you?" She muttered out.

Nova didn't know how to respond to this sudden change of character straight away, and after a few tense moments of silence, he let out a sigh.
"Look, those guys back there? they tried to smash my head in with a rock, as far as I'm concerned, scum like that don't deserve to breathe the same air as others." He started explaining, further worrying her.

"However, it was still wrong, there were so many ways I could have dealt with the situation, but I ended up picking the easy way out." Nova reached out towards Trixie, she flinched as he started patting the top of her head.

"As far as I know, you're one of the only ponies I've met that's been willing to put up with my bloody antics, so don't worry yourself." He moved his hand off her.
"I'm sorry if I scared you."

She stared at Nova for a while, a black expression on her face, she sighed and looked away, before grinning and using her magic summon her hat.
"Trixie accepts your apology, now no more of this sappy stuff, we still have a lot of road ahead of us." She stated as she slowly forced the wheels on her home to move forwards.

Nova gave her small smile, turning his eyes towards the road, he could still feel that she wasn't completely comfortable around him, but he was glad she hadn't asked him to leave either.

Author's Note

Man, real life has its way of keeping me busy.
Also sorry if the battle was a bit short, Kinda saving a long battle for a different chapter.

Chapter 18: Wanted

As Trixie and Nova travelled the road, Celestia's trackers were currently speeding ahead of the duo on the train to Manhattan.
After a brief stop at Crossroad, they arrived just to find three earth ponies badly hurt and passed out on the ground, after taking them to the local doctor, they only managed to get one of them to wake up and recount the events that took place.

"All right, lets do a short re-cap." The Captain said. "From what we were able to get from that drunk, we have been able to assume that it was Nova that attacked them."
"Although our witness was the first to be struck, he seemed to stay conscious long enough to see what happened to his friends, first, Nova struck him with what he described as, an invisible sword, although I doubt this is what it actually was, any ideas?" The captain asked his soldiers.

A young Female guard raised her hoof before responding.
"Sir, as a unicorn myself, I have a idea of what the attack might have been." She said, the captain nodded at her, singling for her to continue.
"In magic combat training, we are taught a simple spell that we are only to use in extreme cases, to describe it, the user created a concentrated amount of magic into a thin line and strikes the enemy with it, the spell however, is usually fatal, as its like striking someone with a sword that can cut through anything." She concluded, only to have the guard sitting next to her cut in.

"Hang on there, it doesn't entirely fit the description of the wound." The pegasus Guard said, reading over the notes the doctor provided on the victims.
"Although you got the cutting part right, it also seems that the stallion had burn marks were the wound was, not only that, but it seems it was actually this burn that closed the wound as well, keeping the stallion from bleeding." He finished correcting, the Captain thought on this for a moment, before shrugging.

"It's to hard to discern whether this was intentional or not, not only that, but the spell doesn't exactly match anything we know, lets move on for now." He said, quickly clearing his throat.
"The second victim was reported to have suffered extreme blunt force trauma to the top of his head, correct?" He asked, The Pegasus nodded.
"According to the first victim, a rather large, golden hammer suddenly appeared above his friends head, fell, and exploded onto his head, what was the extent of the damage?"

"Sir, according to the notes, not only was the victims skull was cracked, but it appears that his brain was slightly fried as well, although the doctor said that the way those stallions drink, the difference would be hard to spot." The pegasus summarised.
"However sir, the one that has me worried is the third victim, according to the witness, an explosion of light shot OUT from his friend, and he just fell over." He said, looking down to his notes.
"The notes say that the victim is lucky to be alive, most of his insides were seared and damaged, not only that, but the stallion's mind seems to be broken as well."

The captain stretched out on his seat, looking out the window of the train. "Thankfully, before the first victim passed out, he saw our target heading out the road leading to Manehatten, hence why we are here now." He concluded.

The mare raised her hoof again. "Permission to speak sir?" She asked, her captain nodding. "Why are headed to Manehatten by train anyway, wasn't our task to track Nova, rather than ambushing him?" She asked, confused on her captain's motives.

"Our objective hasn't changed, we will not be ambushing our target, rather, I have decided it would be best not to attempt to track him at this time, the area from Crossroad to Manehatten is mostly flat, grassy plains, he would see us from ages away." He began to explain.
"Instead, we will be getting ahead of our target and setting up wanted posters everywhere we can, this will hopefully prevent any more incidences and make it harder for our target to move about." He finished, the pegasus filling in the rest.

"That way, all we have to do is wait for our target to arrive, making our job easier in the long run, no one will question a small group of ponies leaving the city the same time as him." The mare nodded, finally understanding their goals.

"For now, I order you to relax and enjoy the train ride, because as soon as we arrive, we have an entire city to warn."

(Ponyville)

Twilight quietly hummed as she once again re-arranged the books in the library, her assistant Spike was busy in the kitchen washing up after breakfast.
Although it had been a few days since the incident, Twilight was starting to feel the effects of Nova's rebounded Elements of harmony ware off.
However, her fear had only increased over that time.

Each night, she would have the same recurring nightmare, it always started out simple. Twilight would wake up on her couch, hearing a strange noises outside her door, slowly getting off the couch, she made her way over to the door, and upon opening it, she found herself in an empty, lifeless field.

Trying to turn around and go back inside, she would see nothing behind her, she looked down to the ground, the grass was brown and and earth muddy.
Then the noises started again, only this time they were clear enough to hear, the sounds of metal meeting metal, yelling, screaming and the sounds of death suddenly surrounded her, yet there was nothing there to see.

Finally, Upon turning around once more, a colossal figure towered over her, entirely made up light energy, it stared at her, seeing everything Twilight was and will be, then it slowly reached for her.

Twilight snapped out of her memory, almost dropping the books she was floating, sighing, she went back to sorting her books, reminding herself to talk about this nightmare with her friends.

(Road To Manehatten)
The journey to Manehatten was long and tedious, Nova had constantly fiddled and shifted in his seat, changing positions and twiddling his thumbs, he had thought about speeding up the trip, but he was worried he might accidentally blow up the wheels if he tried.

It was then that he remember he had his Ipod in his pocket, quickly pulling the small device out, he placed one of the headphones in his ear and pressed Play.

Trixie, noticing the small device in Nova's hand, stared in curiosity as he placed the headphone in his ear, she coughed to get his attention.
"Trixie was wondering what that little thing you have is, is it a weapon of sorts?" She asked, genuinely curious.

Nova blinked, surprised by just how far behind ponies appeared to be technology wise. "This little device is called an Ipod." He started to explain.
"An Ipod is a electronic device that uses soundwaves to play music through these headphones, it can store thousands of songs, and other things."

Trixie stared at the small device, a confused look on her face. "That little thing has the ability to store Thousands of songs?" She asked, getting a nod from Nova.
"How is this possible, Trixie has never head of such a device before, and something like that would not go unnoticed by one as great as me." She said.

Nova shrugged before responding. "Trixie, You know how you never heard of a human before as well?" He said, Trixie nodding in response.
"Well that's because you will never find another human..... on this world at least." He explained.

Trixie's face did multiple things at this moment, first it was confused, then thinking, shocked, almost laughing, thinking again, then finally curious.
"So, is Trixie safe to assume you are implying you are other worldly, like in those trashy sci-fi books?" She asked, getting a chuckle from Nova.

"You see, this is why I didn't want to bother explaining stuff, its pretty unbelievable, but yes, I am." He said.
Before Trixie could get a word out, Nova reached down and placed the other headphone in her ear, the sudden music making her flinch.

"Wha- what is this? it sounds strange." she asked as her hoof started to tap to the beat.
"That, my dear Trixie, is my worlds music, however its important to note that there are many different types of music, do you have a particular genre you like to listen to?" Nova asked, Trixie thought for a second.

"Trixie doesn't suppose you have any piano music? its fitting for one as great as Trixie." She said, Nova quickly brought up his Ipod and pressed a few buttons, smiling, he found the song he was looking for and clicked play again.

The two of them quietly sat there, listening to the song, Nova closed his eyes and leaned back on the seat, relaxing as it played out, Trixie simply kept pushing the carriage down the road, a small smile on her face as the beautiful melody played out.

As the music started to end, Trixie sighed and looked towards Nova.
"Trixie is still..... unsure if you really are what you say you are, however, she cannot deny that your people make amazing music."

"You could almost say its as great as yourself?" He asked, a sly smile on his face. Trixie let out a small laugh before giving his a slight nudge with her hoof.
"Nothing is as great, or as powerful as Trixie, and don't you forget it!" She stated proudly. Nova simply smiled as the two of the continued to listen to the music.

(Canterlot)

Luna sat in the empty dinning hall, slowly eating her breakfast (and everyone else's lunch) in peace, this was until the door the door slammed open, she flinched as the loud sound caused her head to ache, she sister blushed as she walked into the room.
"Oh dear, I really mustn't take my frustration out on the poor doors." She glanced towards her sister, seeing her rather unwell state.
"Luna, are you all right? I heard you arrived late last night and retired straight to your room, did something happen at the meeting?" She asked her sister as she took a seat next to her.

Luna slowly opened her eyes, looking towards her sister, causing Celestia to gasp at the sight.
"Well, it didn't go quiet the way I had hoped, instead of having a secret meeting of the worlds most powerful figures about our enemy, Nova was privy to almost the entire thing." She explained, worrying Celestia.

"Was Nova at the meeting?" She asked her younger sister, sighing in relief when she nodded.

"Well, it wasn't there physically at least, sister, Nova has found a way to.... spy on my activities." Luna said, causing Celestia's face to pale.
"It seems that, through our constant meetings in the dream scape, Nova found a way to implant a part of his self into my magic, or at least that's how I think he did it." She said.
"Thankfully, he is only able to track me while he sleeps, but since the meeting took place at night...." Luna trailed off, causing Celestia to sigh.

"All right, but that doesn't explain why you look like someone just hit you over the head with a train." Celestia said, causing Luna to laugh awkwardly.

"Yes well, about that, you see, after using me to spy on the meeting, I felt rather humiliated and rather angry, so, as soon as I arrive home, I may have tried to fight him.... in his dream." She nervously explained, Celestia's face slowly meet the table.
"Suffice to say, it was quite the painful experience." Celestia's face lifted up slightly and hit the table again, before sighing.

"Well, at least it seems you took the proper steps to assure you weren't to badly hurt, no wonder the Moon was so...... eccentric in its decent." Celestia said, brightening the mood.
"Well, as long as you are okay, thats all that matters, and thankfully things are finally calming down around the city, so we might finally have time to start our efforts on finding out what happened to the elements, and hopefully, getting rid of Nova's power from yours." She said as a servant brought out her meal, quickly thanking him.

"Indeed sister, I will be eager to start as soon as possible, the thought of that miscreant watching me is disturbing, who knows what evil things he could do with it.

(Meanwhile, with Nova.)
"Ooh Eeh Ooh Ah Aah Ting Tang Walla Walla Bing Bang!" Nova sang terribly out of tune as he danced on the roof, Trixie trying to hold her laughter back, and failing terribly.

Author's Note

Time for an explanation! YAY
Divine Power: A mysterious power that only the most powerful immortal's may use, this power can be used in multiple ways, it can be shapped into different powers, allowing the user to use any type of magic, or it itself can be used as a form of attack or to greatly strengthen the user in different ways.

Although Divine power does have its draw backs, because no mortal body or mind can safely use this power to its full extent, since the power belongs to the gods and other such creatures.

Another is that using too much of this power can slowly whittle away ones body, replacing the lost part with the users power, once replaced, the user can never return it to normal.

Also, as an update: with the map I provided a few chapters ago, it ins't completely accurate. The Map
First, the griffons kingdoms more the the right, and completely move Manehatten the the right side of Equestria, I like to think its connected to the ocean.
Everything past the Mild West belongs to the Diamond dogs and Minotaurs, the Soarched lands and Boarean tundra is were the dragons would reside, exept they are one giant continent on there own, and further away from Equestria.
Also the map doesnt list the crystal empire, which fills the area between the mild west, Equestra, and The griffon kingdoms.
Also note that I have yet to decide if I will be adding other races yet, so feel free to assume that the entire eastern Kingdom in the far right corner is a thing, but its currently unmentioned in the story so far.

Chapter 19: On the Horizon

Nova stood on the roof of the carriage, attempting to peer over the hill they were slowly acceding.

"Nova would you just sit down, are you so impatient you can't wait till we get to the top?" Trixie asked in an annoyed tone.

Flat out ignoring her, He continued to get a glimpse of their destination, after two days of travel, Nova was itching to do something other than sitting around and listening to music.

Trixie, unamused by her companion's actions, tugged on the front of his shirt with her magic, the sudden action caused Nova to tumble forward and land face first into his seat.

"There, now sit down properly and stop acting like a foal." Trixie said as a question popped up in her mind.

"Nova, how old are you anyway?" She asked, realizing she never asked the age of her companion, for all she knew, he was still a child.

Nova raised an eyebrow at her, but quickly realized why she was asking.

"I suppose I never did mention my age did I? Well, I don't know how age works here.... is there 365 days in a year?" He asked, getting a quick nod of confirmation from Trixie.

"Well, either way, I'm nineteen years old if you must know, where I come from I'm barely an adult." He answered.

"So, I know this isn't very tactful, but how old are you?" He asked, instantly getting a dirty look from Trixie.

"Hey now, you're the one that started this conversation, remember?" Nova reasoned.

"Well, Trixie did start the topic, so she guesses you're right, Trixie is eighteen years of age." She quickly answered, wanting to move the subject on.

"Also, what do you mean you are barely considered an adult?" She asked back.

Nova thought for a second, quickly thinking of the easiest way to explain how age works back home.

"Well, when a human is born, they are referred to as a baby, next, from age two to four, they are considered toddlers I guess, then from five to twelve, its child." Nova took a short breath before continuing.

"Now, from thirteen to nineteen, humans are considered teenagers, get it? because the numbers have the word teen in it!" Nova finished, slapping his knee and earning a groan from Trixie.

"Trixie refuses to believe that terrible pun is the real answer, now can you please answer seriously!" She demanded, her voice rising a bit.

"Why are you so interested in this? this conversation is literally about age groups right now." Nova said, slightly annoyed at Trixie's inability to have fun.

The two stared at each other for a bit, but before long Nova threw up his hands in defeat.

"Fine, whatever, since this apparently interests you so much." he said mockingly.

Nova once again paused and scratched his head, trying to think of a way to explain this to her, however he quickly gave up.

"Okay, I can't really explain it properly, because the subject changes depending on where you are from in my world." He started.

"Each different country and even states have different idea's on when someone becomes an adult, where I'm from, I guess you're classified as a young adult from eighteen until twenty-one, but for a lot of different places, it might be different." Nova slowly slid down into his seat as he explained.

"Not only that, but then hormones and culture, and all kinds of different shit get involved in it, but In my opinion, I guess you classify as an adult around eighteen, when you are expected to start voting and crap like that." He finished explaining, all the while Trixie was nodding her head.

"Okay, now Trixie understands why you would rather make a pun about it instead, but why is it so complicated?" She asked, simply getting a shrug from Nova.

Trixie, slightly happier with a somewhat proper answer, dropped the subject, seeing Nova was apparently no longer interested in continuing and brought her attention back to the road.

"Oh, were almost at the top now if you want to get a look at Manehatten." She said to Nova, only to see the seat next to her already empty once again.

Nova smiled as the view came into sight, from what he could tell, Manehatten looked like an ordinary city from back on earth, the tallest skyscrapers reaching into the sky, what looked like to a proper road, and so on.

This small moment of nostalgia and slight home sickness didn't last long, however, as he realized something he should have a while ago, he quickly jumped back down to his seat.

"Hey Trixie, you know how I did that stuff to those guys back in the town?" He asked. Trixie slowly nodded in response, both curious and worried about where this subject might head.

"Now, I didn't kill those ponies, so, what do you think the odds are that they may have bent the truth a little?"

"Uhh... very likely?" Trixie answered, still unsure where this was going.

"Okay, now, you know how I look really different that pretty much everything else around here, what are the odds that the guards might be looking to arrest me?" Nova asked rhetorically.

Trixie's eyes snapped open, finally realizing what Nova was getting it.

"Yes, Trixie see's how this is going to be a problem, it doesn't help that your eye and arm glow almost as bright as Trixie." She said, with him rolling his eyes at the last part.

Trixie stopped the carriage at the peak of the hill and trotted over to the back of her home.

She quickly entered the surprisingly large room and started shuffling things around, as she did, the thought came to her that Nova had never actually entered her home, and had always just slept outside.

*Hmm, maybe Trixie should see if he would rather sleep on the floor inside at least.* She thought to herself as she finally pulled out what she was looking for.

As she came back around to the front of the carriage, she noticed Nova was quietly sitting down on the grass away from the carriage, staring out at the city in the distance.

Trixie called out him, getting no response, however, she quickly trotted over and tapped him on the shoulder, causing him to jump a bit.

"What were you doing, you looked pretty zoned out to Trixie." She curiously asked.

Nova slowly laid down into the grass, letting out a long breath.

"I was just memorizing the view, it's not very often you get to look at a city from this view." He said, tapping his head.

He looked over to Trixie, with a small smile.

"It might sound dumb to you, but one of the reasons I want to go explore this world is to see as many remarkable sights as I can." He let out a small chuckle.

"I've always been a sucker for a good landscape." He slowly sat back up, finally noticing the object Trixie had retrieved from inside.

"Bandages and a blanket?" He asked, confused to their purpose.

"Yes and no, the Bandages..." She started, flinging them over to him.

"Are to cover up your glowy stuff, while the blanket as you called it, is actually Trixie's old cape and hood, it should fit you well enough." She explained.

Nova nodded and started to wrap the moderately think bandages around his arm, thankfully, it seems they did the job and managed to cover up the ever present glow.

A short amount of time later, both his arm and eye had been wrapped up with bandages.

"Heh, the bandage makes me look like a pirate, expect you know, if the eye patch part was covering all the way around the head, rather than just their eye." He mused to himself.

Trixie handed the last part of Nova's disguise, he quickly flung the cape over his back and tied raised the hood.

"So, what do you think?" He asked as he stood up, doing a little twirl.

Trixie looked over Nova, the clock was enchanted with a spell to hide the user's face in darkness, and with the bandages covering the glow.

*Hmm, I guess he could pass for a skinny Minotaur or something, but at least that weird glow isn't interfering with the illusion.* She thought, giving a small nod to Nova.

"Yep, Trixie has successfully managed to hide your more, uh, more noticeable features from view, this will have to suffice for now." She concluded.

Nova lowered the hood back down and gave Trixie a small smile.

"Thanks for that, would have been awkward if I had to stay in the carriage for the entire time we're here." He said, making Trixie's already inflated ego all the much bigger.

However, before she could start boasting, Nova clapped his hands together.

"Alright, we got a way for me to enter the city without being arrested or worse, how about we get this show back on the road huh?" He quickly blurted out.

He quickly made his way past Trixie, giving her a small pat on the head as he passed, not noticing her blush as he did.

After quickly composing herself, Trixie followed suit and hopped back onto her seat, feeling good about managing to help her friend out.

Trixie caught herself for a second.

*Wait, does Trixie really think of him as a friend?* She asked herself, obviously getting no response.

She shot a glance over to the human next to her, with the hood back on she couldn't really make out his face, but she could feel the excitement radiating off of him.

Tilting her hat down to cover her smile, she poured her magic back into the wheels and continued their way on the road again.

Meanwhile, In the capital city of the North, Ares held is head in pain as his advisors argued with one another.

"We Cannot allow his creature to enter our homelands, I advise we post troops near the boarder and forbade entry." One voice spoke.

"And risk making the Equestrians think we are making an aggressive act towards them? Besides, I doubt even an army could stop a DIVINE from entering." Another retorted.

"Oh, then what do you suggest? we roll over and let it in? that-"

"ENOUGH." Ares Voice echoed throughout the halls, as if carried by the winds themselves.

He slowly lifted himself back up in his seat, glad the bickering had stopped.

"Each one of you has had a point, Nova does pose a threat to our homeland, however, as a creature with powers that may rival mine and the other divines, our military would be almost useless." He started to explain.

"However, it is also true that Nova could in fact cause damage untold, but I have a feeling that the Equestrians may be overstating just how 'Evil' Nova may be." He said as he finally sat up properly on his throne, his size dwarfing his fellow griffins.

"So, I have decided that we will send out our scouts to every corner of our kingdom, in an attempt to track Nova's movements from the moment he enters when he leaves, do you understand?" He asked.

One of the lower lords raised their talon in question

"My lord, what do you hope to do with this action?" He asked, wondering his rulers intent.

"At the gathering, Nova clearly stated that he has no desire to cause harm to anygriffin, he simply wishes to explore the lands of our world, with this, it is my hope that if we do not antagonize him, he will simply move on eventually." The lords in the room looked around in confusion.

"My King, does that not seem like a rather.... Weak route to take?" Another lord asked, causing Ares to sigh.

"My lords, the one thing I want to avoid is creating a conflict with a creature that matches me in power, the fallout from such a conflict could tear our world apart if it got out of hand, so no, its not the weak route, it's the sensible one." Ares Finishes explaining.

"Now, that concludes this day's meeting, you may all leave, immediately." He announced, the lords quickly made their way out of the hall.

As the last of the lords left, he sighed in frustration, the lords bickering had always bothered him, but without them, he would have to be managed every aspect of his kingdom.

Author's Note

Whoop, im not dead, Moving house is a bitch, here have a chapter, and feel free to ask any questions or highlight any errors you see.

Welcome to Manehatten, now get out.

Nova carefully peeked out from beneath his newly acquired hood, although it was beginning to turn dark, the bustling town didn't seem to slow down.
"Huh, this place does kinda resemble a big city, nice to see something familiar for once." He thought out loud, catching Trixie's attention.

"That reminds Trixie, you said something about having lots of cities like Manehattan in your world?" She inquired, hoping to pry some information from Nova's reluctant lips.

Nova nodded at Trixie, trying to keep himself unnoticeable to the passing citizens.
"Yeah, the whole world is covered in cities like this, but even this one is small compared to them, especially Manhattan." He said, the last part catching Trixie's attention.

"Manhattan? that..... Is way too similar to Manehattan." She said, looking a little disturbed.

Nova let out a small chuckle.
"You're telling me, when you first said this place was called Manehattan, I had to do a double take just to make sure you didn't say the same thing." Nova cleared his voice, then continued.
"While we're talking about cities, though, might as well talk about where I come from."

"I was born in Australia, the largest Island and smallest continent in the world, I was born in Brisbane, a city in Queensland." He explained.

"Australia's cities are a bit smaller than most others, due to the fact we have a smaller population than most other countries, but we make up for it with multiculturalism, which pretty much means anyone with any cultural background is free to move and live in Australia." Nova finished with a sigh, he turned his head to look back at the tall buildings next to him.
"Honestly this place reminds me more of Brisbane city than Manhattan, though I doubt it has anything like the Story Bridge in it."

However one last question was still on Trixie's mind.
"Nova, you said that your world has many cities like this, how many are in Australia?" She asked.

"Oh, about six I think." He said casually.

Trixie immediately went wide eyed at this, not that Nova noticed this, being distracted by his surroundings.
*Six alone in ONE country, Didn't he mention that there was an almost uncountable amount of countries were hes from?* Trixie thought, beginning to realize just how many of these 'Humans' there might actually be.
Just before Trixie could ask another question, she caught Nova reaching out and snagging a large piece of paper from a nearby pole.

"Nova what did you just take?" She asked, curious to what he was doing.

Nova let out a small sigh before tearing up the paper.
"Oh, you know, just a very poorly drawn wanted poster of me." he said, a tinge of annoyance in his voice.

Trixie, sensing his annoyance, attempted to cheer up her companion a little.
"Well, Trixie was right in giving you a means of concealing yourself, She doubts anyone here will bother looking to closely at you anyway."
She said slightly cheerfully, seeing a small smile form on Nova's lips.

"Yes well, that wanted poster was so poorly drawn I'd be surprised if anyone could even believe it was me, I mean, it had BROWN hair, that's not even close to mine." he said, pretending to be offended.

The rest of the trip through Manehattan went rather peacefully, if you can call getting caught in traffic peaceful that is.
After a while, Trixie pulled up near a strange looking store almost hidden between two others.

"Ah, there it is, thankfully it is still open, Trixie shall be but a moment." She said, hopping off from her seat.

"Wait, what the hell is this place anyway?" Nova asked, confused to why they were stopping at such an out of place looking shop.

"Although Trixie has plenty of food and water, She is rather lacking in a few, more... magically based items she requires, Trixie will be but a moment." She said as she quickly trotted inside.

Nova watched her walk away before quickly focusing his attention on his surroundings, unfortunately, there appeared to be wanted posters of him all around the area.
*Guess its safe to assume that the city is plastered in these, guess I got lucky that whoever provided the description is slightly blind, my nose isn't nearby that big..... is it?* He thought, suddenly becoming very self conscious about his nose.

The thoughts didn't last long though, as a small patrol of guards suddenly turned the corner and made their way down the sidewalk towards him.
Nova suddenly found the ground very interesting, hoping to avoid any kind of exchange with the guardsmen, and apparently guards woman.

*Well at least they have equal gender opportunities in this world.* Nova thought as he slowly looked back towards the ground, hoping the guards would just wander by.

"Excuse me, uh... sire? madam?" One of the guardsmen asked.

Nova silently cursed his luck before responding, since it seemed the guard was wasn't sure what he was.
"Yes officer, is there something I can help you with?" Nova asked, praying that the darkness enchantment Trixie had but on the hood would work.

"Yes, you see, your vehicle is currently parked in a no parking zone, although it will become available in half an hour, I thought I'd tell you just in case some other guard having a bad day comes along and decided to book you for it, have a nice day sir." The guard said.

He tipped his hat before him and the other two guards continued on what Nova assumed was their partol route, Nova let out a nervous sigh as they left earshot.

*Well at least I know the hood seems to work now.* He thought, barely noticing Trixie hopping back onto the seat next to him.

"Trixie assumes you didn't cause any trouble while she was away?" She asked. Her horn lit up and the bag of supposedly 'magical items' dispersed from sight.

Nova let out a short laugh.
"I might not have, but you certainly did Miss Trixie, this is still a no parking zone for your information." He said rather smugly.

Trixie gave a deadpan stare towards him before starting up the carriage again.
"Trixie only made a short stop, she is surprised that you would care about such a thing." She said, slightly annoyed.

"Eh, what can I say, I'm a stickler for rules." He said with a shrug.
"So, where are we gonna go now?" Nova asked, curious to Trixie's plans for the rest of the day.

"Well, before long, normal working hours are going to end and the streets are going to become clogged with traffic." She started getting a small chuckle from Nova.

"Ha, guess some things are the same regardless of what world you're on." He said, ushering for Trixie to continue.

"Yes... well, Trixie thought that we should travel closer towards the road out of the city and find somewhere to spend the night, that way we can leave the city by early tomorrow and get ahead of any other traffic." She finished, confusing Nova.

"Wait, were trying to beat the traffic, is there even any traffic to worry about?" He asked.

Trixie sighed, as if Nova should know this like it was common knowledge.
"Nova, it's the only road that connects two kingdoms together, why do you think we need to beat the traffic?" She said with a condescending tone.

Nova pretty much mentally slapped himself for not even thinking about it.
"There's a lot of exports and Imports going through there, right?" He answered. Trixie gave a small nod as confirmation.

"That's right, ten points to Nova, jokes aside, although it's not as bad as the city can get, Trixie would rather not have to share to road with others for as long as possible." She said.

The rest of the day in Manehattan went rather well, after a quick stop to get something to eat, and to 'admire' one of Nova's wanted posters, they eventually stopped at a pay-to-stay parking zone.

Nova looked back to the road, and just as Trixie said, they were starting to clog up something fierce with ponies wanting to get home from work.
He turned to face Trixie. "So, what now?" He asked. Wondering what the next stop in her plan would be.

"Well, there is a small park near here that sell's the most amazing fries in the city, in fact, they may almost be as amazing as Trixie herself." She said, actually giddy with excitement.

Nova to a second to think on how to respond, and although it was tempting to poke fun at her sudden outburst of child like enthusiasm, something in that sentence caught his attention.
"Wait, Fries, don't you mean Hay Fries?" He asked, hoping beyond hope that this is what he thought it was.

"No, Trixie believes this place is called a 'fish and fries' shop, although Trixie cannot eat the fish, their fries taste much better than any hay fries, apparently they are made from potatoes." She said. Nova suddenly to burst out in a massive grin, before sinking back down into confusion.

"Wait, I'm assuming Ponies don't eat fish, then why sell it..... ooohhhhh, griffins, right?" Nova said, answering his own question.

"Indeed, although its a rather small establishment, it does rather well for itself, due to it being one of the only places a griffin can get a quick meal that suits their needs." She said. Trixie suddenly shook her head.
"Enough questions, Trixie is eager to go, are you coming along or not?" She asked, remembering how Nova decided not to eat earlier, or at all for their entire journey so far.

"Damn right I'm coming, no way I'd miss out on some good old fish and chips." He replied with enthusiasm.

Trixie, who was just finishing locking up, turned and happily began to trot towards the park, Nova following right behind her.
However, just as they left the parking lot, two cloaked figures quietly entered and made their way to the carriage.

After a short walk, they eventually made their way to the small park, however, something caught Nova off guard, the Ocean just over the railings.
"Wait, what, were this close to the ocean? I didn't even smell it." He said in confusion.

Trixie's face scrunched up in what seemed like slight disgust.
"The smells the city produces tend to block out most other smells, Trixie is surprised you didn't mention it on our way in."

Nova shrugged. "Well I did grow up in a city, guess after that you kinda grow immune to it." He said. Trixie shuddered slightly.

"Canterlot doesn't smell like this, then again it's at the top of... no, was at the top of a mountain, so the air must have been cleaner." She said. After taking another whiff of the air and scrunching up her nose, she shook her head clear of the smells.
"Let us move on to better subjects, like the purchasing of Trixie's favorite food." She announced before continuing on.

Eventually they arrived at the small take away shop located somewhere on the far side of the park, the ocean clearly visible next to them now.
The fish and chip shop was rather small, but despite that it had quite the line, all who were in fact, griffins.
Nova took a second to look over the large bird/lions, they all seemed to be bigger than the average pony, their wings also appeared much larger than any Pegasus he had seen thus far, and they all appeared to have rather dark coloured feathers, much different from the usually brightly coloured pony.

However his observation of the large feathered creatures was cut short when Trixie pulled him into line with her, causing him to lightly bump into the griffin in front of them.

"Oi now, be a little more careful there." The apparently male griffin said, thankfully only sounding a little miffed.
Nova muttered out a short apology before giving Trixie a rather harsh glare, causing her to hide her eyes under her hat, quietly chuckling to herself.

Although the waiting part was rather boring, Nova found himself getting rather excited the closer they got, eventually reaching the front of the line.
"Next please!" The cashier called out, who was also a griffin.

*Well, I guess that makes sense, since ponies don't eat fish, they wouldn't want to be cooking the stuff either.* He thought as he walked up with Trixie.

The Griffin smiled as she saw Trixie
"Well hey there Trixie, Haven't seen you in a good while, who's the big guy with ya?" The apparently female cashier said.

Nova took a second to note that female griffins have slightly smaller face's and bodies then their male counterparts.

"Hello Rita, Trixie has been traveling, of course, and this is...." Trixie started to say.

Nova quickly cut in before she could finish.
"Herc, the names Herc, its lovely to met you Rita." Nova said, lying just in case she had seen any of the wanted posters with his name on them.

"Well Herc, its lovely to met you to, though you don't have to put it so formally." She said, giving Nova a small smile before turning back to Trixie. "While I'd usually love to ask where you two met up, we're rather busy this afternoon, so I'll assume you're looking for the usual?"
She asked Trixie.

"Yes, but my friend.... Herc here would like something to I assume." She said, putting a little to much emphasis on the word Herc.

Rita quickly looked towards Nova, who had just finished looking over the menu.
"I'd like a small fries with two piece of whiting please." He said, getting a surprised look from Rita.

"Ah, you a meat eater as well huh? well sure, if that's what you need." Rita said, scribbling down the order and passing it back somewhere behind her, most likely to the cooks behind.
"Well if you two just wanna head round back, your order should be done soon, I'll hopefully see you around Trixie." She said as the two of the them nodded and started walking around.

"So, guessing from her reaction, you must come here pretty often." Nova guessed.

"Trixie has always stopped here to get something since she started traveling around Equestria, I've met Rita enough times to at least be friendly acquaintances." She replied.

By the time they had reached the other side, another griffin was already holding their meal ready for pick up, Trixie quickly paid him and they made their way over to a bench looking over the ocean.

The late afternoon sun was barely starting to touch the horizon, further out, Nova could spot a few ships either heading out or coming back from sea, the entire scene was rather pretty to look at.
However his little observation was cut short when a small container filled with heavenly smells suddenly appeared in front of his face, he quickly took the box out of its magic glow, opened it up, and for a second, he could swear he saw heaven itself appear out of the little box.

All the meanwhile, Trixie stared at her own little box fill with chips, quickly beginning to eat.
"Hmm, Twixe juce wuv des" Trixie said, barely understandable with a mouthful of chips.

Usually Nova would take this perfect moment to point out how rude it was of her to talk with a full mouth, however he was similarly to busy stuffing his own face with his own food.

The pair spent to rest to the time simply enjoying their little treats as they looked out to the ocean in front of them, by the time they both finished, the sun had almost dispersed bellow the water.

"Ah, now that taste takes me back, back home I used to spoil myself every once in a while and get some fish and chips as well, guess I wont be doing that any time soon." Nova said, a rather somber look on his face.

Trixie let out a content sigh. "Come along, as much as Trixie enjoys the view, she would rather be back at her home before night completely falls." She said, hopping off the bench and stretching her legs out.

Nova sighed, though his was for a different reason entirely, and followed suit, the two of them quickly tidying up and heading back to the parking lot.

A few moments later, the two of the arrived back at the parking lot, only to see two clocked figures standing either side of the carriage.
"What is the-" Trixie began to say, before Nova grabbed her and brought her around the other side of the wall.
The two of them poked their heads, getting a good look at the two suspicious ponies.
"Trixie can't quite make them out properly, its getting too dark to see." She complained.

"They.... look fucking weird...." Nova said, getting a questioning look from Trixie.
"Well... their eyes have slits in them... they have black fur, and I swear their wings look like bat wings."

At first, Trixie was going to ask how Nova could even see all that, but she figured that wasn't important for right now.
"They must be bat ponies, they're the special guard devoted to Princess Luna, they only just reappeared a while after she did." She realized.
Although she wouldn't show it, Trixie was starting to panic a little, the sudden appearance of guards by her home was rather off putting to say the least.
"What are we going to do?" She asked.

Nova took a second to think, an idea popping up in his head.
"Okay, I got a plan, first, you go over there alone, the guards will probably ask you a few questions like where have you been and stuff, I want you to answer truthfully and act your usual self, however, if they ask you anything about me, I want you to lie and say you haven't." Nova explained.

Trixie scoffed quietly. "Well of course, but Trixie does not want them snooping around my-" She began to complain, getting cut off by Nova.

"I was getting to that part, if they do ask to have a look around, I want to to glance over here, I'll slightly poke out and make a small sound, the guards will come over and I'll handle the rest, okay? and don't worry, I'm not going to kill them or anything." He finished explaining.

Trixie gave him a rather suspicious look at that last part, but sighed and accepted anyway, she began to head down towards her house.

Although Nova was barely in earshot, he could hear the guards asking her to stop, Trixie put on a rather convincing act of mock shock to the sudden appearance of the two guards.
The duo started asking Trixie a few questions, such as where she had been, what was she doing here, where was she going, to which she answered truthfully.

"Miss, have you been traveling with anyone recently?" One of he guards eventually asked.

"No, Trixie is not in the habit of taking traveling companions, for none have proven themselves great enough for the privilege." She said.
The guards looked at each other, unable to believe how cocky the mare in front of them was.

"Anyway.... Miss Trixie do you mind if we have a look insi-" The guards started to ask, and just on cue, Trixie suddenly shot a glance towards Nova.

Of course the guards instantly noticed this, and with the help of their eyes, easily saw the leg and cloak of a strange creature suddenly move around the side of a wall and kick what sounded like an empty can.
The two looked at each other, nodded, told Trixie to stay put and quietly made they way to the corner.
Now, what the guards were hoping for was to catch the clumsy suspect off guard, what the first guard didn't expect though, was that as soon as he came around the corner, a foot would suddenly collide with the side of his head with enough force to both knock him out and send him flying towards his partner.
The second guard, much like his partner, didn't expect the sudden impact of his fellow guard to slam right onto his head, also knocking him out cold.

Nova, quickly observing his handiwork, stepped over the two unconscious guards, causally whistling as he walked up to Trixie, who was standing their gawking.
Nova rolled his eyes at her as he got close.

"Ah don't worry about them, they'll be up and about soon.....ish, though I recommend we leave as soon as possible." He said, continuing to walk around to the front seats.

Trixie, suddenly becoming aware of her surroundings, gave one quick glance towards the guards before shaking her head clear and running up to her seat, jumping up and quickly getting the carriage on its way.
"I..I.... Trixie cannot believe you were able to just simply knock out two trained guards that easily!" She said, making sure to drive around said 'highly trained' guards.

"Pffff, highly trained my arse, they shouldn't have gotten so close to the bloody corner of the wall, of course I was able to attack them that easily." Nova criticized.
As the pair quickly made their way down the road out of Manehattan, Nova turned back to see a few Pegasi fly down to their previous location.

"Welp, so much for Manehattan, hopefully things will get better once we hit the boarder, right?" Nova said, attempting to lighten the mood.

Trixie simply nodded in response, focusing on getting as much distance from the guards as possible.

(Canterlot, Around 6pm)

Luna had barely finished rising her moon as her sister walked in, a rather annoyed look on her face.
"Ah, greetings sister, what bad news do we have today?" She said half jokingly.

"First of all Lulu, I think we need to completely retrain our standing military." Celestia said with a flat tone.

"Yes...... although our kingdom has been blessed with peace for the last millennium, it hasn't done much for our guards, pray tell, what is the second thing?" Luna said, rather concerned what the last piece of news might be.

Celestia let out a sigh as she walked next to her sister to view the moon rising.
"It seems that one of our little ponies is willingly traveling with Nova, a traveling magician named Trixie, she actually appeared in one of my students previous friendship reports, apparently, she caused some problems there before running out of town." Celestia explained.

"It would make sense that Nova would attract company such as that, but even so it is hard to believe anyone would wish to travel with a villain such as he." Luna said, clearly disappointed in the news.

"It makes me wonder what those two would get up to alone together....."

Meanwhile, somewhere beside the road between Manehattan and the Griffin boarders, the previously mentioned pair were up to unspeakable acts.

"The wind is pushing me, into the clouds again I feel the blood in my veins Time is running free, I feel like letting go Just like the Dangan!"

Author's Note

Here, have an update ya gobs.
Also, if you're confused geographically where our Main characters are, they are currently just a little above Manehattan, which in itself is on the most Eastern part of Equestria, right next to the sea, since it does have a port.

The Aproaching Boarder.

(A day before the events in Manehatten, Ponyville)
Just as the first drops of rain started to fall, Rarity quickly knocked and made her way inside Twilight's house.
"Sorry I'm late darlings, Finishing that last order took longer than I thought, what with getting my supplies from Canterlot later than usual."
She apologized, announcing her arrival to the rest of her friends.

Twilight gave her a quick hug as she entered.
"It's fine Rarity, we've all been busy getting back into our normal routines, but I'm glad we were finally able to get together to discuss this."
She said, motioning her to take a seat behind her.

As Rarity went to sit, the rest of the mares, who have previously been chatting amongst themselves, welcomed her.
After a quick hello, Twilight cleared her throat to gain their attention.
"Okay girls, I'm assuming everyone remembers why we're here?" Twilight asked, getting a blank look from her friends.

Pinkie took it upon herself to try and answer.
"Oh! Oh! are we having a slumber party? I didn't have any time to prepare, I didn't bring a sleeping bag, an- Mmphf!" Pinkie started to rant before Rainbow closed her mouth.

Twilight rolled her eyes at her energetic friends outburst, but was glad to see her friend return to normal.
"While that sounds like fun Pinkie, the reason we're here is to talk about these weird dreams we've all been having." She reminded them, getting a collective 'ooohhhh' as a response.

"I don't see what the big deal is Twilight, I mean, they're just dreams." Rainbow said.

"Ah supposed the fact that we've all been having the same dream for the past week didn't tip you off to something's wrong did it?" Applejack replied, getting a glare from Rainbow.

"That's right, we've all been having the same dream ever since Nova reflected the elements back at us, thankfully it seems that the elements themselves were just rendered unusable for a short while, however the fact that we're all sharing the same dream must mean something more." Twilight said, pulling out a quill and paper.

"Now, for the sake of clarification, I want to go over the dream again, so we can get all the details down, who wants to go first?" Twilight asked.

Pinkie Pie immediately bounced up and down on the couch, flailing her hoof in the air. "Oh, pick me, pick me!" Pinked exclaimed loudly.

Twilight giggled at Pinkies enthusiasm and played along. "Hmm, yes you, the one with their hoof raised."

"Well.... it starts off like...."

You wake up in your bed, unsure of what woke you up, however, it doesn't take long for you to figure what it was, for a strange, indescribable sound comes from your door.
You slowly approach it, nervous to see what could be causing such an unholy sound, gathering any courage you have, you reach for the handle and pull the door open.

Instead of some simple monster, you are suddenly in a barren, muddy field, the sounds of metal meeting metal, screeches of pain and death suddenly fill the air around you, but for as much as you look around, there is nothing to see except the barren landscape, or at least you thought so.

As you finally turn all the way back around, you find yourself staring at a colossal being, made up of blinding light, the giant stares down into you, sees through you, see what you have, are and will be doing, you try to scream out, and just before you do......

"-I wake up, almost screaming." Fluttershy finished off.

Twilight sighed and nodded.
"Yep, all our dreams are the same, detail for detail, now that we have that solidified, we can go through and try to figure out what the dream means." Twilight explained.

"Well, one thing that's easy to guess is that giant.... thing is, most likely some sort of representation of Nova, given that it was made of the same kind of light, he gave off." Rarity deducted as Twilight nodded while taking notes.

"Hey, the giant thing always shows up after that invisible battle part, right?" Rainbow began to start. "Well, maybe that means there's going to be some sort of battle involving the giant, i.e. Involving Nova."

"Good point Rainbow, but there's the fact we don't actually see any battle....... maybe it means we aren't present for the fight, but it will still affect us somehow?" Twilight brainstormed, scribbling down more notes.

"Ah think ah actually know where that place is." Applejack nervously said, quickly gaining everyone's attention.
"When ah went to live with mah Aunt and Uncle Orange in Manehatten, they took me up north to the boarder." She started explaining.
"The further up you go, the more dead the grass started to get, most likely due to the fact that the area isn't patrolled by any weather teams."

Twilight finished writing down the last part, then quickly scanned over it.
"Alright, from what I've got, our collective dreams seem to be about some sort of battle that will take place, involving Nova, near the borders to the Griffin Empire, however, although WE won't be involved in the actual battle, it will somehow affect us in some way."
Twilight pieced together.

"I... I think that, maybe, we should, probably, tell the Princesses this?" Fluttershy muttered out, slightly trembling from recounting the dream.

"She's right darling, if the dream has any significance to it, that means there's going to be a battle involving Nova, and we know how that would end for some unfortunate ponies." Rarity said, backing up Fluttershy.

Twilight and the rest of them nodded in agreement.

"Spike, I need you to take a letter....."

(Canterlot Castle, A short time after Nova left Manehatten)
Celestia couldn't think that her day could get any worse, not only were two of her sisters guards hurt quite badly, but they had managed to lose track of Nova once again after he fled from Manehatten.

However, there was one good thing, it was break time, and there, sitting in front of her, was the one thing that could improve her mood, a heavenly slice of...

Cake on the floor, with a scroll in it.

Meanwhile, two guards standing guard outside their princess's room could swear it just got about twenty degrees hotter all of a sudden.

After managing to calm down from her rather unseemly outburst, Celestia pick up the scroll, with cake still attached to it, and began to read through it.
It wasn't before long there was a knock at her door.
"Sister, are you in there?" Luna asked, having felt the sudden outburst from her sister from the other side of the castle.

"Yes, quickly come in Lulu." She answered.

Luna entered, quickly trotting up to her sister and seeing the cake on the floor.
"Sister, you must refrain from such outbursts about simple baked good, the kitchen staff can always..." Luna started to complain.

"This is hardly the time to be talking about this." Celestia said, cutting off her sister. "Here, read, I fear our day has managed to somehow become worse than before."

Luna quickly took the scroll and read over it, her eyes going wide.
"I.... can believe I didn't see this before, I am such a fool, I've been so obsessed with Nova I've failed in my duties to properly patrol the rest of the dream scape." She said, shame covering her face.

"Nova is our number one concern right now Lulu, and right now, if what Twilight says is true, he is about to cause harm to our little ponies once again, except this time, we know where he will be." Celestia comforted her sister.

Celestia slowly walked over to the nearby window, looking out to the north, her face hardening with resolve.

"We must fulfill our duties to our little ponies, and protect them from whatever wishes harm them, come sister, this time we will be prepared to face him, together this time.

(The Next day, the northern road out of Manehatten)

Nova sat there, unmoving, his faced scrunched up into something that could either be deep thought or great annoyance.
Trixie wasn't sure what to make of it, he was sitting there like that ever since she woke up.
"Nova, Trixie has noticed your unusual.... silence so far, would you mind informing your amazing companion what you are thinking?"
She asked, tired of the strange silence

Nova almost jumped when she talked, trapped in his thoughts.
"I... don't know, I'm just getting a weird feeling... I don't know it's like I just..... know something is about to happen...." he said, unsure of his own words.

Nova's face suddenly hardened to a rather stoic face.
"Trixie, if something bad happens, something you don't want to get involved in, I want you to make a dash over the boarder, okay?" Nova asked, but with his tone, it didn't really sound like she has much of a choice, she simply stared and eventually nodded in response.

Nova turned his head back towards the strangely empty road, the dead grass and muddy plains surrounding the area left the mood rather dull.

*This is it* is all Nova thought as they slowly continued down the road to the boarder.

Author's Note

Lol whats this thing? when did I start writing a story.
Sorry about being absent, plans have gone awry and I feel like I owed you guys something, so instead of giving you a satisfying chapter, I gave you a "Shit about to happen in the NEXT chapter."

Battle: The Celestial Sisters

The two sisters stood outside the main barracks, covered with ancient, yet impressive looking Armour.
On Celestia's right side rested a hammer of insane proportions, although it had sat in storage for almost a millennium, the weapon pulsed with a power that sent a chill down an enemies spin, yet somehow inspired allies at the same time.

Luna, standing next to her sister, was similarly dressed as her sister, though her armor seemed to be focused more on speed than her counterparts.
Next to her sits her scythe, although it wasn't as large as her sister's weapon, its size was still impressive in scope, the old weapon gave off a deadly aura, as if promising death with one simple cut.

Standing in front of the sister was currently Equestria's most experienced military force, although the group didn't have a name, they had earned many commendations from border skirmishes with bandits looking for easy pickings.
The group stood about twenty strong, with about twelve unicorns, five pegasi and three earth ponies.

Luna let out a small sigh upon seeing the gather soldiers.
"I suppose after so long with no true conflict, it would be expected for our military to be some what lacking compared to before, but is this truly the best we can do?" Luna complained.

Celestia shook her head. "Not quite Luna, although you are right, our military is not what it used to be, these soldiers aren't coming to actually fight Nova, that would be insane." She started to explain.

Celestia turned to look at her little ponies, each of them standing in attention, ready to move out on her command.
"No, they will have a different role, however, you'll have to wait, we don't have time to waste." She said, clearly annoying her sister on the lack of information.

Luna cleared her voice and turned to address the group.
"On my mark, my sister and I shall teleport us and all of you to the site, upon arrival, time will be of the essence, you all know your roles, even if I don't... now ready yourselves."

The small group prepared themselves as the two princesses charged their spell.

Nova and Trixie's mood had improved over the passing time, especially with their goal finally coming into view.
"Ah, so that's the check point is it?" Nova said, pointing to the two rather large buildings that were seemingly building into the two mountain sides.

"Indeed, they say that the griffins built the one leading into their nation and the ponies built the one leading into Equestria as a sign of alliance, although Trixie cannot say if that's actually true or not." Trixie explained.

"So, Equestria and..... wait, what is the Griffin kingdom called anyway?" Nova asked, mentally slapping himself for not asking sooner.

"You really..... no, Trixie should not be surprised you don't know, they call it Griffionia, although its usually just referred to as the Frozen North." Trixie explained.

"Huh, I've never seen snow." He replied.

"Well, you won't be seeing it for a little bit still, despite the name 'Frozen North' its not all just snow and ice, most of the area close to the Equestrian Border is apparently fertile land." She further explained.

Nova slowly nodded, before getting slightly confused.
"Wait, how do you know that, I thought this was your first time leaving Equestria?" He said with confusion.

"Trixie is just that amazing, what can she say, no but really unlike most other ponies, she actually has an interest in what lies beyond our borders." She said.

Nova could have sworn he just saw Trixie's head grow a little bigger, and was going to comment on is, but was interrupted as a massive flash of brilliant white appeared far to the left of their carriage.

Trixie blinked a couple times, and lost focus on her magic, the carriage quickly came to a stop.
"wh- what, I... that was a teleport spell.... a very Powerful one at that.... what... Trixie still can't see properly.." She said, rubbing her eyes.

Nova however, could see perfectly fine.
"Trixie..... remember what I said earlier?" He said, the tone in his voice a mix of annoyance and anger.

Her face suddenly changed into panic.
"What, what is it Nova, Trixie doesn't..."

However, before she could finish, Nova let out an annoyed groan and hopped off his seat.
"Go, I'll catch up when this is done." He said, giving her a small smile. "Don't worry about me, I'll be fine, now get going already, the borders just ahead."

Trixie let out a sigh of defeat, starting her magic back up.
"Dammit Nova, you had better explain yourself to Trixie when you get back." She yelled out as the carriage took off with surprising speed, leaving Nova beside the road.

Nova stood there for a second before slowly walking towards where the flash had come from, and not before long he saw exactly what he expected.

Although annoyed, he had to admit the two princesses looked much more ready for an actual fight than before, what was previously simple regal attire was replaced with imposing looking armor, however what really caught his attention was the disgustingly huge hammer Celestia had with her.
"Holy fuck..... that's... bigger than me." He said, generally impressed with the sheer size of the thing.

What Nova failed to notice, however, was the group of unicorns quickly spreading out and around him, encircling the three of them.

The three eventually stopped walking, simply staring at each other for a short while.
"Nova!" Celestia called out. "This will be your last chance, come quietly, and face a fair court, or we will be forced to stop you here!"

"I thought I made myself clear already." He said, lowering his hood and unwrapping the bandages around his arm.

Luna scoffed at him. "Your reasons mean little to us, you have committed crimes against Equestria, you cannot deny this, and you will not deny justice." She announced.

Nova stared at the two blankly for a few seconds, the tension was almost getting too much to bare, however, ever so quietly, He began to chuckle to himself.
It was almost as if he couldn't control himself, so many thoughts and emotions suddenly swelled up inside himself, he wasn't laughing at the princesses, their little speech or anything like that, he just didn't know what to feel at the moment.

"Do you think this is a laughing matter?" Celestia said furiously, stomping her hoof down, crackling the earth beneath her.
Upon this, each of the unicorn guards cast and combined their magic, a massive magical dome forming around the area.
Luna smirked as the barrier formed.
"You cannot escape Nova, submit." She commanded.

By this point, Nova had stopped laughing, his face was devoid of all emotions, he slowly raised both his hands above his head.
"I guess this is it then..." he mumbled out.

Celestia and Luna both blinked is confusion and shock. Surprised by his sudden surrender.
"Well.... good, I-" Celestia began to say.

In an instant, His face changed to that of pure, unbridled fury, the surrounding area became engulfed in his aura as he slammed his hands onto the ground, the entire area around him cracking with light seemingly pouring out of said cracks.
-Music start-
"This is it for you then." He finished saying, before summoning his shield to his hand.

Celestia and Luna acted instantly, bringing their weapons in front of them.
"If that is your answer, then fine."

Luna flew up into the air, intent on charging Nova as Celestia began charging a spell, Nova simply stood still, his right arm outstretched towards the sky, slowly growing brighter and brighter.

Not wanting him to cast one of his spells, Luna closed in for a quick strike, forcing him to dodge backwards, only for her to quickly follow up with another slash.
As Nova was forced to keep dodging Luna's strikes, Celestia summoned massive pillars of flame behind him, cutting off his escape route.

Nova raised his shield to block Luna's next attack, however the scythe, instead of hitting the shield, was aimed to swipe around and instead cut into his shoulder.

As the weapon cuts into his shoulder, Nova's eyes went wide, he used his shield to knock the weapon away and warped himself far to the other side of the barrier.
Nova quickly looked at the wound, a strange black colour spread from it to the rest of his body.
Concentrating for a second, he sealed the wound with a basic heal, thankfully clearing up the strange affliction as well.

Luna landed next to her sister, clearly annoyed from his apparent healing abilities.
"It seems he's able to nullify the enchantment, then again, it wasn't a very deep cut."

"Stay focused sister, we have to keep up the pressure, I'll attack this time." Celestia said, getting a short nod from her sister.

As Luna began to ready her attack, Celestia took off towards Nova.

Once again, Nova raised his hand above his head, an insane amount of power clearly building in the palm of his hand, and just as Celestia closed in, she felt herself physically pushed back by a sudden eruption of light.

Celestia barely had time to recover as Nova suddenly charged her, bringing her hammer down to block, steel met with steel as the force of the two weapons meeting caused another eruption of power, causing Luna to lose focus and having to brace herself.

The weapon appeared to be a large sword, obviously supposed to be held with two hands, yet, Nova stood there, easily wielding the thing in his right hand alone.

Celestia had little time to properly look at the Nova's new weapon as he brought his shield around and slammed it against her, forcing her to fly backwards to recover.

As Nova pressed forward to take advantage of this, Luna interrupted it with a sudden bolt of lightning, only for the attack to be harmlessly absorbed into the shield, however, this gave her sister the time she needed to come around for another strike with her hammer.

Not wanting to test the actual damage the massive thing could do, Nova quickly cast judgement upon her, the spell struck her back, causing her to yelp in pain and crash into the ground.
Nova prepared to strike the downed princess, but was suddenly struck by a massive blast of magic, sending him crashing into the barrier.

Luna quickly flew to her sister's aid, only for Celestia to pick herself up, a few small cuts on her body from the crash.

Nova similarly pick himself up off the ground, clearly frustrated. "Fucking hell, two on one isn't bloody fair is it?" He asked rhetorically.
He brought the sword up to his gaze, smiling sinisterly.
"Well, not fair for you, that is, but I'm getting tired of dicking around, I promised my friend I'd catch up with her, so I think it's time we cut this short." He stated.

With that, Nova simply disappeared, only to reappear right beside Luna.
Not giving her a chance to act, he brought his shield up, lightning spewed forth sending the mare flying, landing and slightly convulsing from her own spell.
Celestia brought her hammer around to strike Nova, however, the slightly slow attack was knocked back as Nova perfectly timed and parried the blow with his shield, Causing it to swing out far, leaving her wide open.

-Music end-

The guards outside couldn't believe what they were seeing, just a few moments ago, it seemed like their princesses were set to win, now, Luna was struggling to stand, the combined force of her own spell plus the added power from Nova almost knocking her out.
However, this was nothing compared to her sister, who know laid in the ground, armor torn open, and a massive gash across her chest.

"Soldiers! don't lose focus, if that barrier comes down-" The leader of the group began to say.
Only to be cut off when Nova charged towards the closest side of the barrier, wielding his blade in both hands.
As the blade met with the barrier, it cuts through it like a knife with butter, the entire thing suddenly shatters completely, the magical backlash killing most of the unicorns and knocking out the few who survived.

"You Bastard!" cried out one of the pegasi, taking out her crossbow, only for her to be struck with an exorcism, her lifeless body quickly fell to the earth.

None of the other guards dared move, either to scared, or knowing they simply didn't have a chance at this rate.
"Smart move." Nova said, swinging the blade onto his back and walking away towards the borders.

As soon as he left, the leftover guards rush to their princesses aid.
"Dammit, See if any of the unicorns are alive, you, the princesses need medical aid!" The next in commander started to bark out orders.
The guard quickly checked for Celestia's pulse.
"Bless our luck, she's still breathing, you, get to Manehatten, we need proper medical aid YESTERDAY." He shouted, one of the pegasi flying towards the city.

Luna slowly managed to stagger towards her sister's side, almost crying as she saw her bleeding frame on the ground.
"Sister... please, hold on..." she cried out, attempting to close her wound.

Meanwhile, in Ponyville's Library, Twilight suddenly got a terrifying shiver down her spine, she couldn't describe it, it was as if someone had suddenly torn a part of her away.

Meanwhile, Trixie sat there with her wagon, she had caused quite the commotion when she was seen rushing towards the border so quickly, though with a bit of hassle from the griffin guards, had finally made it through the gates a while ago.

Staring at the gate, Trixie found herself surprisingly worried for her companion, however, those fears were apparently unfounded as she saw him appear on the other side of the gate.
With a small smile, she gave with a quick wave as the gate opened up and he quickly jogged over.
It wasn't until he got closer that she saw all the cuts and bruises on his body, not to mention the scar on his shoulder.

Nova, not giving her time to ask anything, jumped up onto the seat next to her.
"There was a problem, but it's been taken care of." He simply said.

Trixie almost flinched when he talked, his voice was harsh, the anger clearly visible on his face.
"Are you sure you're going to be okay?" She asked. "You're not looking very well."

He relaxed into his seat, leaning his head back and closing his eyes.
"Yeah, I just, used a lot of energy, it's making me feel like shit, any more and I might have actually done some self harm." He answered.
Nova reached out and scratched Trixie's ear, the sudden contact caught her off guard, but the shock was soon replaced by a feeling of reassurance and comfort.

"Well, fine, Trixie.... never mind... let's just get going." She stuttered out nervously.

As the carriage slowly began to move forward, Nova felt a massive amount of fatigue suddenly overcome him, as he started to fall asleep, he smiled to himself, happy to finally leave his problems behind him.

(A few hours later, Manehatten Royal Hospital)

"Sir, how is the princess doing?"

"Thankfully, thanks to Princess Luna's efforts, we were able to close the wound easily and most other injuries have been properly healed, she's going to have a long recovery, however, something else is bothering me."

"You mean the scar doctor?"

"Indeed, the regeneration spells should have healed the skin perfectly, however, despite not only ourselves, but princess Luna's best efforts, the skin has scarred as if she has been burnt, yet the reports say she was cut with a blade."

"What does that mean for the princess?"

"I'm afraid it looks like she may be in constant pain from this, as it appears the wound refuses to properly heal..... There's nothing we can do at this point."

"Her student Twilight Sparkle should be contacted."

"Yes.... but lets wait till morning, give them one more day before we give the news."

Author's Note

In before: omg, what, princesses so weak so this is shit.
Will explain this if asked... or maybe in THE NEXT CHAPTER.

Loss of Pride.

Celestia stared out the window of her room, the plain, white walls of the hospital only helping to remind herself of her own stupid mistakes.

If that wasn't enough of a reminder though, she could always move slightly, causing the scar across her chest to wrack her body in pain.

Due to her own bodies nature, the medication the doctors had her on was barely enough to stop the scar from hurting constantly, still, it was better than simply lying there in pain, or being dead.

She constantly kept replaying the events through her mind, trying to pinpoint when everything started to go wrong, sure, there was the fact that Nova simply stopped screwing around and got serious, but even before that, they seemed to barely cause him any damage, only inflicting a few scrapes and bruises at best.

Her thoughts were distracted when the door opened, an old unicorn doctor quietly strolled in and took a seat beside her.

Pulling up a small clipboard seemingly out of nowhere, he quickly read over it before addressing her.

"Good morning princess, how are we feeling today?" He asked generically.

"I'd lie and say good, but I feel like you already know the answer to that Dr. Gold" She joked, the two sharing a small laugh.

Celestia had known the good doctor for a good while now, being the head of the Manehatten royal hospital for almost fifty years now, with no signs of slowing down.

"Well, I'll see about getting you a higher dosage of medication, but to be honest with you, I couldn't say for sure if it would even help, judging from what I'm reading here." He explained, clearing his throat before continuing.

"After almost a full night of our best and brightest looking after you, we've been able to detect an anomaly, it seems that whatever blade struck you has left a trace of magic within you, although I assume you yourself had already assumed this much." Dr. Gold said, getting a nod from her.

"Well, here is where it gets annoying, while you were passed out, our unicorn staff, along with Princess Luna herself, attempted to remove said magic from your body, only for it to re-appear from within your own magic." He said, the annoyance in his tone obvious.

"If that wasn't enough, whatever cursed magic has wormed its way into you is also causing the scar to reject even the strongest of healing magic and medicine, I'm sorry to tell you this princess, but unless the original source of the magic is destroyed, I doubt that wound will ever heal." He finished explaining.

Celestia shook her head.
"There's no need to apologize for this my little pony, you were not the one who struck me, and I'm sure you did everything you could." She reassured, causing the old pony to smile lopsidedly.

"Thank you princess, as for other news, your sister was forced to return to Canterlot, though begrudgingly, to calm the populace and keep rumors from spreading, honestly, those nobleponies, you think they would have more important things to do than gossip." He joked, getting a small chuckle from Celestia.

"Anything else I should be aware of?"

"Ah yes, your student, Twilight Sparkle has been made aware of your situation, and is due to arrive in a few hours, along with the other elements of harmony." The doctor explained.

Celestia felt both sad and happy to hear this, sad that she was forcing her student to see her like this, but glad she would get the chance to see her again.

"Princess, my I be blunt with you?" Gold asked, his face blank and unreadable.

Celestia, caught off guard by the sudden change in tone, took a second to recover before answering.

"Of course Doctor, you shouldn't need to ask."

The old unicorn sighed, taking off his glasses before beginning.

"In my long life, I have been blessed to see no war, Equestria itself has been blessed to go almost a thousand years without and true conflict or strife, we truly do live in a peaceful paradise." He began to monologue.

"However, that peace is a double edged sword, with our lands and ponies going so long without any true strife, we have grown complicit and weak, and princess, you are no different." He said, his words cutting like a hot knife through butter.

Celestia opened her mouth to speak, but was cut off as Gold continued.

"Ponies... no, everything grows stronger from the hardships they endure, and with a thousand years of peace, ponies, and you, have grown weak."

Celestia, a little miffed by these accusations, cut the doctor off before he could continue.

"Surely, you have no forgotten what has happened in recent-" She began, before also being cut off.

"BAH! do you mean the return of Nightmare Moon and Discord? tell me, how were those dealt with again? That's right, a group of young mares wielding ancient, all powerful artifacts that solved everything instantly." He pointed out.

By this point, Celestia was beginning to see where this was going, however the doctor continued.

"Princess, when was the last time you directly involved yourself with the defeat of any of Equestria's enemies?" He simply asked.

With that one question, everything changed in her mind, Celestia and Luna's mistake wasn't made in the battle with Nova, no, the mistake was starting the battle altogether.

Of course she was no match for Nova in her current state, she was a fool for thinking she could simply defeat such a foe after years of either doing nothing, or letting others solve the problem.

*I should have realized this when the elements of harmony failed to defeat Nova, what a fool I am.* She thought.

*It was my own stubborn pride that blinded me to the truth of the situation, oh Lulu, I should have listened to you.* She lamented, thinking back to her sisters words on their guards might compared to the past.

Dr. Gold didn't really expect an answer from his princess, with her sudden silence, he assumed he had gotten his point across, with a small bow, the left the room, leaving Celestia to her harsh reality check.

Author's Note

Summary: you don't do shit for a long time, you become bad at it.
Dr. Gold for best smart pony, dropping the much needed reality bomb onto Celly.
Also, sorry for not updating, or giving a real chapter, but Im kidna working on something else and that has been delayed a bit, worry not, I'm ~~Hoping~~ sure its worth the wait.

Side Chapter 1: Tastes in Music

This chapter, although cannon, does not have any important impact on the story, and takes place before Nova and Trixie arrive in Manehatten

As the odd pair made their way further towards Manehatten, Trixie eyes once again fell onto the device in Nova's ears.
Although she wouldn't say it out loud, it was quite the impressive feat of technology, if what Nova had told her about it was true.
With nothing else to pass the time, she decided to inquire further about it.

"Nova, you told Trixie the device you have can play music, so, Trixie has been wonde- hey, are you ignoring Trixie?!" She asked.

Nova, with the earphones still in, completely failed to hear her, and instead kept bopping his head to the beat.
After a lot of yelling and demands, Nova finally took the earphones out, only to suddenly find himself being yelled at.

"Furthermore, It is just rude to ignore someone when they are talking to you!" She yelled, out of breath from her rant.

Nova, having no clue on what she was yelling at, spotted a chance to tease and dived right in.

"Oh, sorry Trixie, did you just say something?" He asked, feigning innocence.

"HOW DARE YO-" Trixie started to shout before stopping herself.
Having spent enough time around him, Trixie had caught on to his little taunts, with a deep breath, she forcefully calmed herself before beginning again.
"Trixie was going to ask what kind of music you prefer, since you seem to spend most of your time with those things in your ears."

Although a little disappointed he couldn't get under her skin, Nova chuckled a bit at her question.
"Ah, you'd be surprised how many times I've been asked that question in the past, and unfortunately I'll have to give you the same boring answer I always give, I don't really have a preferred genre of music, I just listen to what I think sounds good." He answered.

Trixie's face scrunched up, clearly dissatisfied with the provided answer, quickly thinking of another way to ask.
"Okay then, what kind of music do you dislike then?" She asked again, getting a small smile from Nova.

"Now there's a question I can give some definite answers to." He said, pausing for a moment to think.
"Scremo, I can't even identify that as a form of singing, let alone music, in not that into heavy metal, but there are a few exceptions, and lastly, most forms of Dupstep, or as I like to refer to it; Shitstep." He said, a clearly audible tone of disgust in his voice.

Nova, realizing how off putting he might be sounding, cleared his throat and attempted to steer the conversation back towards her.
"So what about you, got any preferences in music yourself?"

"The Piano, it is, without a doubt in the Great and Powerful Trixie's amazing mind, the most magic of instruments, Trixie would go as far as to say it could, and should be classified as its own genre." She announced, Nova nods his head in agreement.

"Actually, yeah, now that you mention it, I really like the piano myself, infact...." Nova trailed off as he started looking through his Ipod.
After a bit of searching, Nova found the song he was looking for.
"Here, I don't remember downloading this song, but I've been listening to it almost non stop for a while now." He said as he put the earphone up to Trixie's ear.

Trixie grabbed the earphone out of his hand and gently placed it to her ear.

After a few second of further fumbling around with the device, The music started.
The only was Trixie could describe it was musical bliss, although the piano was the driving force of the song, the other instruments blended in perfectly.
After a few minutes (and almost running the carriage off the road a few times) The song ended, Nova went to take the earphone back, only for her to stop him with her hood.

"Trixie, would like to listen to the song again, in fact Trixie never wants to stop listening to it." She said, only to blush upon realizing how childish she was being.

However, instead of teasing her, Nova just smiled, leaned back into his seat and pressed play again.
"Just promise me you won't drive us into a ditch this time."

Author's Note

So, this is a to not only give you something to read, but also allowed me to ~~RE-ASK A QUESTION I POSTED ON MY BLOG THAT NO ONE READ OR COMMENTED ON~~ ask you, my reader, if you would like more chapters like this, they could range from cannon to non-cannon, and also vary is relevance to the plot as well, such as world building and what not.
Please give me some feed back on this, otherwise I might just scrape the whole side chapter idea.
(also here's another link to the song if the one in the story doesnt work for reasons)

Dark Dreams

Trixie slowly looked over at Nova's currently sleeping form, it had been a few days since the two of them had crossed the border successfully, and to her concern, Nova had spent most of that time sleeping.

What was really catching her attention, though, was the cuts and bruises that seemed to be healing themselves at an alarming quick speed.
Although he didn't appear to be too injured when he got back from whatever he fought, most of the wounds on his body would normally take either a week or two to properly heal and close, yet before her eyes, they were either scabs or had just flat out disappeared already.

Trixie truly didn't know what to make of her companion, sometimes, although she dreaded to admit it, he frightened her, but at the same time, there was this constant air of mystery to him, she wanted to know more, she HAD to know more.

Shaking her head, she turned her attention back towards the road, casually picking up the earphones and music player with her magic and putting it in her ears.

(Canterlot, Some time after midday, Luna's room)

Luna stretched her body out as she entered her room, the last few days had been particularly hectic for her.
With Celestia still in the hospital for observation, running most of the country had fallen to her for the time being, coupled with the recent defeat at Nova's hands and her concern for her sisters health, she welcomed the prospect of sleep, even if it meant suffering at the hand of her own nightmares.

Taking off her regalia, Luna slipped in between the covers and prepared for nightmares to come.

Something was wrong, she could feel it as soon as the dream started, looking around, she was once again within the ruins of her old castle in the Everfree, the Tantabus, the provider of her nightmares, was nowhere to be seen.
Focusing her magic, she could clearly sense its dark energy, but there was something else here as well, as she tried to focus on this foreign presence, she found herself being ripped forwards against her will.

Panicking, she attempted to struggle against whatever had suddenly taken a hold of her, only to find herself suddenly slamming to a halt.
Quickly taking a look at her surroundings, what she saw confused her, it was the same castle, only different.

Instead of the dark and gloomy presence of the Everfree, warm sunlight made its way through the holes in the ceiling, the grass that poked itself out of the stone floor had been replaced by golden wheat.

Luna's eyes shot open in realization.
"Nova and I must both be asleep, and because of the link he forged between us, our dreams have also linked." She said to herself.
A burst of rage coursed through her body, but it was quickly replaced with terror.

"If our dreams have been linked......" Luna gasped in horror. "The Tantabus!"

Charging out the giant wooden doors, Luna found herself looking upon a familiar sight, Nova's side of the dream existed directly outside hers.

Quickly scanning the area, it didn't take long to spot him, back against the single tree on top the hill was Nova.
Cautiously approaching, Luna made her way towards him, landing a few steps from him.

"Nova, what are you playing at, why are you here?" Luna asked, her voice thick with venom.
Despite this, Nova made no effort to move, let alone respond, it was only after getting a better look at his face, that she discovered why.
Sitting there, face scrunched in pain, Nova slept within his own dream, Luna, confused by this quickly remember the other reason she was here and attempted to focus on the Tantabus's location.

It was close, too close, she scanned the area, seeing nothing, but Nova.
It was at this point, that Luna almost shit herself, realizing the worst possible scenario had presented itself, the Tantabus had infected Nova, forcing him into a Nightmare, within a dream.

Panic coursed through Luna's body, if her creation managed to find its way out into the real world through Nova, the entire world would suffer endless nightmare.
Looking over Nova's forum, an insane idea entered her head, if Nova was technically dreaming due to the Tantabus's influence, she could enter his nightmare and force capture the living nightmare.
Upon thinking this, Luna could swear she heard a strange noise ring out through the air.

Shaking her head clear, she lowered her horn towards Nova's head and prepared herself to enter his nightmare.

The first thing Luna noticed was the oppressive atmosphere, a sense of loneliness, and fear ruled the area.
Opening her eyes, she was greeted with grey, everything was grey, massive structures raised high into the sky above her, the ground seemed to be made out of concrete, not a shred of nature could be seen.
Luna attempted to step forwards, only to find the action impossible, as if she didn't have the energy to do so.
Rooted as she was, she was still able to turn her body, though the simple action seemed to drain the will from her body.

After what seemed an eternity, she finally managed to turn herself around, only to be greeted with a grisly sight.
A few meters away, hung Nova, both arms chained and suspending him just above the ground.
His sudden appearance caused Luna to attempt to back up, only to find she was still rooted in place, forced to stare at his limp form.
After getting a better look, she noticed something was off, his entire body seemed a bit smaller, his hair was much shorter, and he was covered in rags, though he seemed to be breathing at least.

It was only after observing him, that she noticed his quiet mumbling, she strained her ear to listen to what he was saying.

"getoutofmyhead,getoutofmyhead,getoutofmyhead,getoutofmyhead."

To say Luna was disturbed by this would be putting it mildly.
Steeling herself, she focused her magic once again to find the living nightmare, only to once again, find it coming from Nova.
It was at that moment, that she saw it, a sick, black twisting forum was slowly making its way out of the back of his head, after a few seconds, the Tantabus suddenly rocketed out the back of Nova's head, seemingly forced out.
The was a groan that seemed to echo from all around, as the chains holding Nova up suddenly broke, his body falling to the ground.

Everything was still for a second, Luna, being rooted, the Tantabus, seemingly reeling from its expulsion, and Nova seemingly lifeless on the cold ground.

The Tantabus was the first to move, its ethereal form shot back towards Nova, seemingly wanting to force its way further into his mind, only to find itself stopped by some unseen force.

Nova was now standing, his hands holding his head in what looked like extreme pain, only for him to suddenly dart forward towards the living nightmare, which hopelessly struggled in its invisible bonds.
Nova's almost limp form stood in front of the dark creature, hands slowly rising around it, as if to clap his hands together, he started to close them around the Tantabus, though not quite touching it.

The effect was instant, the Tantabus violently lashed out, its form slowly being crushed by an invisible force, Nova slowly kept closing his hands together, seemingly commanding the unseen force to further crush the dark magic.

Before Luna could even shout out, Nova slammed his hands together, the Tantabus disappearing into nothingness.

A few seconds pass, Luna, frozen both literally and figuratively, couldn't process the event's she just bore witness too.
The Tantabus, the embodiment of nightmares, was just casually crushed to death in a nightmare it created.
Luna focused her magic and got herself the fuck out of there.

Luna opened her eyes to the sight of Nova's still sleeping forum, apparently still locked in his own nightmare, which she was grateful for.
Not wishing to find herself sharing a similar experience as the now dead Tantabus, Luna began to once again focus her magic to force herself awake.

Just before leaving the combined dream, Luna shot one more glance at Nova, only to see him looking her dead in the eye, a look of fury never before seen at her invasion of privacy, and probably figuring out the Tantabus came from her, he slowly reached towards her throat, only to grasp empty air as she disappeared.
Trembling with rage, Nova slowly stood up, before letting out a roar, that shook the entire dreaming world awake.

Nova's eye shot open, only to find himself staring at the same long road.
Letting out a long, tired sigh, he looked over to his companion, casually nodding her head to whatever song she was listening to.
Wiping the sweat from his brow, Nova gave Trixie's shoulder a soft tap to get her attention, she jumped a little in her seat before looking over towards him, giving a small smile before going back to her music.

Nova stretched his body out, no longer feeling any aches or pains from his encounter with the two ever frustrating princesses, a sense of relief washed over him as he reminded himself that they had long since left Equestria behind them now, and had a whole new place to explore where, hopefully, his recent past wouldn't cause him to much hassle.

Luna shot awake, scared out of her wits as she attempted to process the series of events she just bore witness to.
Getting out of her sweat soaked bed, she quickly trotted over to the nearest window and swung it open, giving a sigh of relief as fresh air quickly swept into the stuffy room.

After a few moments to collect herself, Luna took a deep breath and attempted to check on the dreaming world, only, to find it gone.

This could only mean that Nova, in his fury, had forcefully expelled every sleeping being from their sleep at the same time.
It was only then that Luna noticed the sounds coming from outside, multiple foals were screaming and crying, and the town seemed to be in a state of confusion and slight panic.

It was at this moment, that Luna knew, she'd fucked up.

Author's Note

Because Fuck the Tantabus.

The Road

Nova opened his eyes again, and, too much of his disappointment, saw the same, seemingly endless, road stretch out ahead of him again.

"Oh my god!" He cried out in frustration. "It feels like we've been on this road for what seems a year!"

Trixie, having heard this complaint for the sixth time today, let out a long winded sigh, resisting the urge to snap, if only barely.

"Nova, as Trixie has now explained MULTIPLE times, the nearest city worth stopping in isn't too far away."

"Yeah, but that's still at least a day away, and who are you to say none of the other places along the way weren't worth stopping in?"

"Ignoring the fact most were just farm houses with only a single family living there?" Trixie retorted, raising her eyebrow.

Nova began to say something, but gave up before saying anything, pouting while folding his arms.

The pair sat in silence for a while, the unremarkable countryside had quickly gone from new and fresh to old and repetitive to him, almost everything so far had either been farmland, or just open fields.
This was one of the main reasons Nova was also so eager to reach the next big city, since, according to Trixie, the entire place was built in a forest, and not like the tame, boring ones such as Whitetail woods back in Equestria, apparently, these were thick trunk, colossus sized trees, similar to what one would find in Canada, only much larger.

Of course, there was one other reason Nova was so excited, one thing in particular had gripped his mind since he started heading through the Northern kingdom.
Snow.
Growing up in a country such as Australia, Nova had never had the chance to even get near the stuff, from what people had told him, it was just REALLY cold, and wet.
Regardless of the reasons, he could feel that the next big thing was just lying in wait for him in this next city.

A thought suddenly entered his mind. "Hey Trixie, what's the name of the next town anyway?"

"Oh, right, Trixie did forget to mention it, a moment." Reaching down beside her, she pulled the map out and unfolded it, taking a second to scan over it.

"The next town's name is...."

"Triefort will most likely be their next stop." Celestia answered, a confused look appearing on her sister's face.

"I do not believe I am familiar with this city, could you tell us a bit about it?" Luna asked.

The two sisters were currently conversing in Celestia's bedroom, while such a meeting would usually take place in the throne room, such a thing was not possible while Celestia was still recovering.

"Of course, the city was originally a small trade station set up to secure goods from Manehatten, over time, with more and more traffic and people setting up there, it eventually grew into a full city." Celestia took a moment to catch her breath, Causing Luna to cut in.

"If this is too much sister, I can leave you to-"

"I'll be fine Lulu, just needed to catch my breath, anyway, after one particularly hard winter, the entire city was almost buried under snow, despite the cover of the large trees that surrounded the area, it was then a particular griffin by the name of Gregory Trie had the idea of relocating the city into the trees themselves."

"The trees themselves? But how were they able to do so?" Luna asked, her curiosity peaked, now lost in her sisters storytelling.

"Well, that's where things get a little, cloudy, you must understand, I haven't been there myself, and this all took place quite some time ago, however, somehow, the townsfolk carved out the insides of a few of the great trees, and eventually moved the entire town inside, and into the branches of these trees." Celestia finished her story, taking a cup of water sitting on a nearby end table and sipping it lightly.

Luna took a mental note to look up more on the subject later.
"So, what shall we do then sister, we can't just let Nova escape without punishment, especially after how he humiliated us so."

Celestia almost seemed to flare up at the mention of his name.

"For the moment, we can do very little, we cannot just go barging into Ares domain, demanding that he let us take the battle into his country, and any military movement may be taken the wrong way, for the moment, he may be out of our rea-"
Just as Celestia was about to finish her sentence, there was a knock at the door.

"Hello, your majesty?" A quite, male voice inquired.

Celestia's mood dropped considerably.

"Ah, seems it's time for my check up."

Luna snorted. "I don't understand why you let them, if it's that uncomfortable, just refuse."

Her sister shook her head, smiling. "If only it was that simple, can we continue this later?"

"Of course, I shall return later, I have duties to attend to anyway." Luna quickly gave her sister a light snuggle before teleported out of the room, leaving her sister to her tormentors.

Nova laid back in his seat, thinking of all the ways he could pass the time, but couldn't since he wasn't home anymore.

"You know, that Iphone is cool, but it's not a computer." He said, casually flipping the device in his hand.

Trixie perked up, once again seeing an opportunity to learn more about Nova's world.

"Oh, what's a computer?" Trixie asked, hoping he'd take the bait.

While Nova usually just deflected these types of questions with humor, the idea of temporarily distracting himself from his boredom was to tempting.

"Hmm, how to describe a computer." Nate said, taking a moment to think.

"Well, imagine a metal box, connected to a slim box that has a screen on one side of it and sits on a stand." He began, Trixie already struggling to picture the contraption.

"Well, there's more to it than that, but let's just keep it basic at the moment, now, the metal box is rectangular in shape, and inside it, it's filled with small machinery and other piece of technology I.... can't really explain."

Trixie looks at Nova, a little peeved.

"Do you believe Trixie lacks the mental capacity to understand your technology?"

"No, it's not quite like that, it's just, as far as I know, this world lacks any form of technology I could use to explain this to you, I mean, you have camera's, but you're still ages away from the level of tech humans have." Nate explains in an attempt to calm Trixie down.

"Anyway, the rectangular box is connected to the other piece via wires, it's sends singles to it and stuff appears on the screen, humans can use it to play games, watch movies, listen to music.... ALL at the same time, it's like a more powerful version of this." Nova finishes, holding up the Iphone as an example.

Trixie nodded her head, faking understanding.

"Trixie..... still doesn't get it, but it sounds impressive if its a better version of that." She admits, floating the device over to her.

Nova goes to turn away, but turns back.

"Say, what was Equestria's latest technological achievement anyway?" He asks, the thought suddenly entering his mind.

Trixie takes a second to think. "Trixie isn't too sure, from what she last heard, it would be something a pair of brothers made, some sort of machine that picks fruit very quickly."

"I don't suppose you know what fuel it runs on?" Nova pried.

"Nova, Trixie is well versed in traveling and magic, and as much as anyone as great as me loathes to admit, there are some things Trixie is unaware of, from what Trixie understands, it's the same thing trains runs off, Coal Trixie believes it's called."

Nova seemed to droop a little on hearing that.
"Ah, so, coal huh, jeez that puts you guys ages behind us, guess I won't be getting that computer any time soon."

With the silence once again taking over, Nova let out a short yawn, before climbing up onto the roof.

Trixie looked back, slightly confused.

"Are you really going to sleep up there again?"

Nova's head peered over the side of the roof.

"Well, where else am I gonna sleep, I can't very well stretch myself out on the seat you know, and the last thing I want is cramps."

Trixie looks him in the eye for a second, before turning away sharply.

"J-just take Trixie's bed inside okay?" She suddenly announced.

There was a brief silence.

"Why is there something wrong with it?" He asked, teasing her.

Trixie blushed hard from anger.
"Look, it's not like Trixie is going to bed any time soon, pray tell Trixie can't understand how you sleep so much, besides, you look like a homeless bum sleeping up there, it tarnishes Trixie's image."

Nova chuckled. "Hey, if you're offering, I'll take it, just head in through the door in the back right?" He asked, getting a nod from her.

Nova moved himself towards the back of the carriage, lowered himself and pushed open the door.

"AND DON'T TOUCH TRIXIE'S STUFF." She yelled after him.

"I won't." He answered, entering the doorway.

The room itself was much larger on the inside, most likely magically enchanted to be that way, inside, there was a small kitchen area, dirty plates left uncleaned in the sink, opposite it was rows of strange items, show props and other miscellaneous items strewn about, at the far end sat a comfy looking bed with a small light, bookcase and lounge chair.

Nova took one look at that beautiful bed, and knew what he must do.

Meanwhile, as Trixie was starting to have regrets about letting Nova into her room, she felt the carriage shake ever so slightly, as if someone had just bombed dived into something.

Author's Note

Welp, I actually updated this again, bet you all thought the story was dead.
well, it kinda was, if were being honest, and its not really... "back" yet truthfully.
Im going to try and keep updating whenever I can, but as an adult now, life expects things from me, and its been taking a LOT of my time until recently.

So lets keep our fingers crossed that I can get back to writing this more often, aye?

Why did it have to be spiders...

"Welp, this is terrible." Nova repeats for the eighth time in five minutes, Trixie resists the urge to beat her head against the carriage, if only barely.

Two hours ago

"Wow, this is impressive." Nova says, looking up inside the massive, hollow tree.
From what he could see, the bulk of the city was contained within two main trees, these things were HUGE, easily holding a town the size of Canterlot inside each one.
The inside was seemingly carved out in a spiral pattern, going up and up all the way into the branches, though apparently the lower parts of the tree were unused due to the general difficulty of ascending via pulling a cart all the way to the town proper.

"While this is cool, couldn't we have used the elevator platform thing to take us too the top?" He asked, turning to his companion.

She snorted at the suggestion.
"Trixie refuses to pay that much to simply access the town, when on the other hoof, Trixie could use her all powerful magic to climb up no problem."

He wanted to argue, but since she was the one with the money, he couldn't argue with her decisions on what to do with it.
Not only that, but using his own powers to simply, pick up the thing and fly up, or even teleport were out of the question, keeping a low profile and blending in was already going to difficult enough, considering he was completely alien to everything here.

"Don't worry, it shouldn't take to long for us to reach the main area anyway."

One Hour ago

"The hell is this...?" Nova question, Staring at the completely blocked off spiral road, griffins, ponies and even some minotaurs, all with carts and whatnot, completely filled the rest of the road, looking up, he noticed what appeared to be two griffins wearing Armour blocking, what he assumed to be, the entrance to the town, the noise was deafening, everyone shouting in frustration or confusion, some in panic?

Current time

"Welp, this is terrible." Nova repeats for the ninth time in six minutes, Trixie finally snapped.

"OH MY CELESTIA, I-" She stopped, forgetting to speak in third person in her rage.
Taking a deep breathe, she tried to calm herself, not to much effect, but more to stop herself from screaming anymore.

"Nova, would you be a dear and go find out what the delay is?" She suggested, her eye slightly twitching.

He opened his mouth, then decided against a witty remark.

"Hmm, okay, beats sitting here pissing you off." He said, giving her his best wily grin before hopping off the carriage.

Pushing is way through the crowded road earned him quite a few stares from his fellow trapped travelers, though if they were ones of annoyance or confusion to what exactly WAS pushing them, he couldn't tell.
The Guards were already starring at him by the time he got up close enough to talk.

"Yo, quick question, what the hell is the hold up for?" He tried asking.

The griffins leaned in closer to one another, whispering.

"What do you think that is, a hairless, mutated minotaur?"

The two snickered at their shit talk, Nova just smiled.

"Says the disturbed love child of a lion desperate enough to fuck a bird."

One guard broke down into full blown laughter, the other, not so much.

"You talk like that again and I'll...." He suddenly lost his confidence when Nova shifted his shoulders, showing off the giant blade attached to his back.

Trying, and barely, to compose themselves, one answered.

"T-towns off limits until the infestation is cleared." He stuttered out, looking over their bodies behind them.

"Infestation, what are you..." Nova began to question, only to hear something drop onto the path behind the guards.

Despite their attitudes, the guards instantly flipped around, spears drawn and ready to fight whatever caused the noise, Nova took a moment to focus his eye sight.

Only to be met with his worst fear, a giant spider.

"Crap, I thought the patrols cleared out this section!" One of the guards said, while the other threw his spear to pierce the arachnid, only for it to skitter out of the way.

"Why did you throw your bleeding spear?!" "I was panicking okay!?" "Well how are we going to-" The guards rambled on and on as the spider suddenly sat up and spat what is to be assumed poison right at them.

Only for it to harmlessly bounce off a floating golden shield, the pair turned to face what protected them, and promptly shit themselves.

Nova stood there, blade in hand, slightly floating off the ground, his face contorted in what seemed to be equal parts anger and horror.
His eyes were pinpricks, waves of pressure shot out, pushing the pair back towards the giant arachnid.

The spider, sensing its moment to strike, scurried forward and reared its head to sink its fangs into the distracted guards, its poison already leaking off its sword like fangs, its eyes focused in on the prey in front of it.

And then a lot of things were on fire.

Author's Note

Bit shorter than I would have liked, but its more of a set up chapter.

Cleaning (Triefort)House

One thing was very clear now, the giant spider was dead.

"Holy crap what did you do?!"

In fact, 'dead' might be an understatement, all that was left was ash now.

"Dear gods, it's all on fire!"

However, it wasn't just a normal pile of ash, no, it was like one of those shadows that stain the ground after a nuke goes off, just the shadow stain of the spider.
Oh yeah, and, like, a lot of the tree was now on fire as well.

Nova quickly shook his head clear, the overpowering sense of fear finally leaving him.

The two griffon guards were scrambling, both very confused and alarmed at the sudden appearance of so much fire on their ALL WOOD city.

"Somegriffon, get some-" One guard started to shout.

With a sigh, Nova waved his hand, the holy fire snuffed out, not even leaving any scorch marks where it once burned.

"I apologize for that, spiders tend to make me react rather rashly, never seen any that big either." He casually remarked to the two guards.

After a brief moment of confusion, they remarkably regained their composure, nodding to one another, one guard turned to keep watch for more while the other turned to Nova.

"That was, unexpected to say the least, still, you saved our lives just then, but this brings up a new issue." He began to explain.
"If the spiders have managed to make it into this part of the city, that can only mean two things, they either slipped past our patrols, or..."
He trailed off, Nova simply nodded, understanding that it would rather remain unsaid.

"Well, if I may offer a suggestion?" Nova asked, getting both guard's attention. "You have almost an entire tree full of travelers, merchants and whatnot just a bit further below us, if the spiders have gotten this far, they need to be moved, quickly."

"Yes, you're right, there's no point in just standing here, but, we also need to get word to our outlying garrisons for more support to-"

"Don't bother, leave clearing out the city to me." Nova interrupted.

One of the guards scoffed at the suggestion.

"Yes, lets just leave the fate of our one of our most important trade cities in the hands of a total stranger who just sent a lot of stuff on fire and has admitted to being SCARED of the multi eyed buggers."

"Oh, I'm sorry, did you have a better suggestion on what to do?" He retorted, quickly shutting the guard up.
"That's what I thought, look, just make sure you get everyone out safely, then go get the garrison, I'll take care of the spiders, I swear on what little honor I have left by this point."

The pair looked at each other, before relenting.

"Fine, we'll trust you stranger, but only because we don't have many options left, just don't set the place on fire."

The two guards moved to get started on the evacuation.

"Oh, one thing before you go..."

Trixie was counting the coins she had earned from preforming for some of the other travelers as she heard the call go out.

"Pass on word, everyone is to fully evacuate the tree, and infestation has spread and safety can no longer be guaranteed!" Some shouted, clearly passing on the message, many sighed, some complained, but all slowly turned and started leaving the tree.

All except Trixie, who waited for her companion to return, and waited, and waited, eventually she started to worry, where was that troublemaker Nova?

A sudden knock above her caused her to jump, looking up, a griffon wearing armor stared down at her.

"A blue unicorn, you wouldn't happen to be Trixie, would you?"

Nova swore and he recklessly lashed out with Ashbringer, slicing through the nearest spiders front legs and head, it twitched and another crawled over its dead relative towards him.

After having wandered into the city for a bit, only bumping into the odd lone spider, he had the misfortune to have walked into what seemed to be their new nest in the making, webs hung from branch to branch, creating sticky walkways for the multi legged freaks to skitter around, and skitter towards him they did, with alarming speed.

It took almost all of his will power and ounce of sanity to not just burn everything down for real this time.

Originally being from the Outback, Nova was no stranger to spiders, from the freakishly huge huntsman, to the tiny redback's, he'd seen them all, and swiftly introduced them to his weapon of choice, the shoe.

Right now he would gladly take on any amount of huntsman's, rather than these cow sized horrors.

Channeling the power within the blade, Nova swung the blade in a large, horizontal swing, holy fire erupted out its edge, cutting and burning all that were unfortunate to be close by.

With the last spider taken care of for the time being, he quickly back peddled away from the mass of spider corpses, even dead, they still disturbed him, some godly being he was, he thought, to still be so deathly afraid of such things.

Taking a moment to regain his composure, he took off once more to find the remaining creatures.

Trixie waited and the base of the tree with the remained griffon guard, his partner having gone to the nearest garrison, who had introduced himself as Heru.

"I swear, I can't tell if your friend is the bravest, or the stupidest... thing I've ever met, you could tell just by looking at him that he was terrified of the buggers, then again, I don't know any sane griffon that WOULDN'T be terrified of those monstrosities." He said, trying to make conversation.

Trixie let out an annoyed sigh, this whole situation was taxing her patience.

"What Trixie fails to understand is how the mighty griffon empire managed to let one of its most valuable cities fall to a group of oversized arachnids?!" She questioned, causing Heru to flinch a bit.

"Now look here, there hasn't been an attack like this since before my father was born!' He explained forcefully.
"The spiders have always been there, stories say some mad magician tried to make an army of magically enhanced spiders eons ago, but when they failed, he just let them lose, but they have never attacked Triefort like this in any recorded history." He finished, letting out a frustrated sigh.

The two sat in silence for a bit.

"If you are a guard, then where if your weapon?"
"I threw it."
"You threw it, as in, threw it away?"
"No, at a spider."
"You threw your weapon at the spider, why?"
"I PANICKED, OKAY?!"

This was going to be a long wait.

Nova cut down the last cocooned victim, carefully removing the webbing, only to find another shriveled up griffon inside, two huge puncture wounds in his belly, unlike the others, however, this one wore more flashy armor, the commander of the forces in Triefort probably.

Quickly checking the body for anything useful, he found a small pouch of coins, putting it away before putting the body down next to his troops.

"Poor bastards, must have been terrifying." he said.

What worried him was not that the guards were dead, it was the size of the wounds on the bellies, the size of the fangs required to create such holes needed to be immense, which could only mean he had found the new lair of these spiders brood mother, but where was she?

As if to answer his question, a small branch behind him suddenly snapped, spinning around, he was wet the two massive fangs biting into his neck and shoulder, along with two legs piercing his body to hold him.

Pain erupted everywhere inside him, but not from the wounds, but the poison that followed, he could feel it burning and melting his insides almost instantly.

Something snapped inside him, the Brood mother jumped back just in time to save her head, but her two front legs weren't so lucky, she struggled to stand up as the two stubs dangled uselessly.

Nova pulled the two freshly cut legs out of his torso, his blood spurting out at an alarming rate, hell, at this rate, he wouldn't be surprised his some of his liquidized organs were also falling out as well, but that didn't matter right now, he could fix the damage later.

He looked at the huge spider in front of him, easily as large as a small cottage, but that wasn't the real issue here, he could see it, this things poison sac was infused with magic, which would explain why it was even having an effect on him at the moment.

"What kind of sick fuck makes a GIANT MAGIC SPIDER!" Nova roared as he pooled as much holy energy into his remaining good arm as possible.

Sensing the overwhelming magic gathering, the brood mother attempted to quickly finish off the threat, only to receive a swift kick right into its mass of eyes, slightly caving in a large part of her skull, it helplessly looked up, only to see a mass of divine light coming straight for it.

Trixie and Heru looked up at the second part of Triefort far in the distance, a pillar of light completely enveloping it, before disappearing, surprisingly leaving the city intact.

Both stared in awe, Trixie's mind trying and failing to place just what magic had been cast there, Heru simply trying to fathom that magic like that could even exist.

After a few moments, there was movement in the tree.

"Wait, are those...?" Trixie stared to ask, unable to finish her own question.

Heru gulped, his hawk-like eyes allowing him to see with much more clarity.

"The spiders, they're all falling out of the tree."

Nova fell to his knee's the poison still pumping through him.
Taking a moment to focus, which proved difficult with most of his organs slowly dissolving into a fine mushy paste, he analyses just what was happening to his body.

When he found the answer, he swore to himself, the spiders poison was using his own magic to power itself, Nova made a mental note that if he ever found who created such a fiendish creature, he would kill them, and if they were dead, he would resurrect him just to kill him again.

Slowly channeling every once of power he was willing to risk using, he brought his hands to his chest and healed his body, making sure to burn out as much magic doing so to stop the poison.

The effects were immediate, the poison fizzled out, the wounds closed and organs were remade, which felt very odd.

This was followed by a blinding pain throughout his right leg, he grimaced at the familiar sensation, after taking a moment to compose himself, he removed the shoe, only to see his new golden, slightly see through replacement.

Pulling the leg of his pants up, he sighed in relief to see it stopped just below his ankle, simply wearing the shoe would hide the oddity.

Putting the shoe back on he carefully stood, being thankful that his new foot seemed to still work as normal, and decided to make his way back to Trixie and whichever guard had stayed behind with her.

"Here comes the hero of the hour!" Greeted Heru, as Nova finally appeared at the base of the city.

"Trixie understands the need to show one's magical prowess off, but was that light show truly necessary?" She said with a snarky smile.

Nova responded by flipping them both the bird.

"Oh great, the one that threw their spear away stayed back." Nova responded, causing Trixie to giggle and Heru to flare up in anger slightly.

"I have a name you know, its Heru!"

"Heru? oh, I'm going to find so many ways to turn that name into a pun." Nova responded, ruffling his feathers further.

Taking a long, calming breath, he composed himself.

"So, I take it all the spiders are dead, considering what I saw earlier." Nova confirmed with a nod.

"Along with their brood mother, nasty piece of work that." He added, causing the guards eyes to widen is disbelief.

"Y-you killed the brood mother?!" he shouted, suddenly flying up to Nova.

"Yes?" Nova responded, not quite sure what was going on.

Heru slowly flew back down to the ground, not really sure if he could believe his own ears.

"You may not know, but that THING has been around for... gods know how long, before Triefort was even founded, so many have set out to kill the creature, all died, to just hear that such a legendary creature was slain so casually..."

Nova looked to Trixie to explain, who just shrugged in response.

"Oh, also, your commander is dead, my condolences." Nova said, getting a chuckle out of Heru.

"More good news huh? the griffon was an arse of a leader, but that would also mean everyone else died, that's a shame."

The three sat together in relevant silence for a while, before the beating of wings got their attention.

"Hmm, looks like reinforcements are here." Nova said, being the first to hear them.

"Report." Ares commanded

"My lord, we have confirmed the pillar of light came from Triefort, the city still stands thankfully, it seems this 'Nova' has done us a favor, and has freed the city from the legendary brood mother." the scout reported.

Ares slowly nodded.

"Not even a month in our Empire and he has already made such a spectacle, I wonder, does he want the attention of the world?" Ares shook his head.

"No matter, he may have done us a favor, but I still want him carefully watched, if anything, this just proves he's willing to use that outrageous power of his willy nilly, you are dismissed."

The scout nodded and took off, leaving the old griffon to his thoughts.

"Nova, what are you planning?"

Author's Note

aye yo random inspiration to write suddenly appears!

Travel and Rest

Twilight paced nervously outside the throne room, the summons from Celestia and Luna had urged her to gather her friends, pack to travel and come to Canterlot with all haste.

It didn't help that the letter had arrived at three in the morning, leaving all but Applejack, who was used to being up early, tired from lack of sleep.

"Twilight." Rarity spoke, startling her. "While I understand your apprehension at what this may be about, you're just going to tire yourself further trotting back and forth like that."

Twilight shot an annoyed look towards her, but it melted away at the devilish sight of her friend, who normally prided herself on always looking prim and proper.

"I'm sorry Rarity, I know you're right, but I just can't keep my nerves in check, a summons like this can really only be about one thing, or rather, one person."

The group nodded in understanding, the subject of Nova, although had lost its edge, was still a sore point for the lot of them.

"Ah, whatever." Rainbow suddenly interrupted, getting the group's attention. "So what if it is Nova? After what he did to Celestia, and the damn nightmares we're having to deal with, I'd give anything to put my hoof through his face!"

Applejack rolled her eyes and pulled her friend down to the ground.

"Yea Darlin, cuz if the princesses couldn't do anything ta stop him leavin, we sure as heck could do somethin ta stop him." She said, the tone of sarcasm plain for all to hear.

Rainbow turned to respond, but was cut off by the guards cough at the door.

"The Princesses are ready to see you, please head inside." He said, opening the large door for them.

Settling for shooting an angry look at Applejack, the group headed inside.

The room was different this early in the morning, the usual row of guards was nowhere to be seen, only a few sleepy looking guards were around, and already heading off to what was probably well earned rest, the morning sun barely lit the room, the rest being lit by candle.

Celestia and Luna sat at the end of the room, Luna, looking ready for bed, and Celestia, still looking half asleep, but even then the two still managed an air of regal standing between them.

"G-" Celestia started to say, accidentally letting a large yawn out instead.

The girls, including Luna, chuckled a bit at Celestia's expense.

"I believe what my sister was trying to say was, greetings, my little ponies, and our apologies for summoning you all her so early and in such a rush."

Celestia nodded and took over.

"Indeed, I have called you all here today-" The girls prepared themselves for it. "For a mission-" They all collectively gulped.

"To the Northern Kingdom to visit Griffonstone and King Ares." All six girls had to stop themselves from either sighing with relief or face planting the floor.

"You called us here just for that! couldn't this have waited until, I don't know, at least a reasonable hour?!" Rainbow fumed.

"Silly Rainbow, I bet the princesses want us to plan-" Pinkie started to say, but was cut off by Twilight's hoof against her mouth.

"Pinkie, the Princesses didn't call us here to plan a party, how about we all give them a chance to explain before we start arguing." Twilight reasoned.

Celestia gave Twilight an appreciative smile, Luna cleared her throat.

"Thank you Twilight, while normally you'd be right Rainbow, current events do not leave us with a lot of time, and we must act quickly." Luna said. "Let me explain the situation.
"In a few days, a festival will be taking place in the north called the 'Spring of Rebirth', as you may assume, it has to do with it soon becoming spring over there.
"Every year during this time, an ambassador is sent over to Griffonstone to meet with Ares and discuss the state of affairs, trade and other such things.
"However, this is not all, the ambassador must always a Unicorn, because they have a very important task to fill as well, the renewal of a very old spell.

"A spell, what-" Twilight began to ask.

"Please, let us finish first, all will be explained." Celestia stopped her student, picking up where he sister left off.
"This spell renewal is tied into an ancient gladiatorial event that takes place for the duration of the festival, in fact, it has essentially become all that the festival is about by this point.
"The spell in question is very old and powerful, it essentially stops anyone from dying to their wounds during the fight, no matter how bad they get, you can guess why it's important that it is kept up.
"Usually, the spell is left dormant for most of the year, even with the occasional fight in their arena, it's never drained enough to warrant renewal, however, during the festival, there are so many battles, that if the spell were not completely refreshed before hand, it would run dry before the first day was through." Celestia finished explaining.

"Now, you may ask your questions, and one at a time if you please."

The group was quiet for a second, before, surprisingly, Fluttershy raised her hoof to speak.

"U-um, if I may ask, if only a unicorn is required, then why are we all going?" The girls nodded and agreed.

"That is the slightly complicated part, for some reason, Ares has asked that the Ambassadors be the elements of Harmony this time." Luna answered.

"But, why?" Twilight asked.

"Although he did not give us a clear answer, we suspect it has something to do with Nova's recent activities in his kingdom, and before you all assume or ask, we are not asking you to deal with Nova." There was a collective sigh of relief.

"The main reason we agreed on this was because we need to show that we are ready to aid our allies in what they need, that, and I think you all need a bit of a get away after all that has transpired." Celestia said, looking over the group.

Looking over her friends, and getting a small nod of approval, Twilight stepped forward.

"We gladly accept Princesses, we are honored to represent Equestria and will do our best." Twilight said, getting a small cheer from her friends.

Celestia and Luna smiled.

"Thank you for agreeing to this my little ponies, it means a lot to us, now, as for getting there..."

Nova sneezed, suddenly waking up from his nap.
Stretching out on the bed, he looked over the inn room, it was small, or someone of his size at least, but warm and comfortable, this also applied to the bed he was currently laying back on.

After having saved Triefort from its infestation, a squad of heavily armed griffon and their commander had appeared before Nova, Trixie and Heru, After the latter explained what had transpired to his superior, the commander personally thanked Nova and invited him to stay in the city, offering to foot the bill for where ever they decided to stay.

So naturally the two found the most expensive inn they could find, downside was the commander payed for them to get their cheapest rooms.

Not that it mattered much, Nova thought to himself, even the cheapest rooms here was quite nice, not only that, but Nova came to the very sudden realization that he had not slept in a real bed since he got here.

After a few hours of much needed rest, he hopped off the bed, got dressed and left his room, knocking on the one opposite him.

"Trixie, c'mon, we stay here any longer and I'm going to fall in love with that bed." He half joked.

Seriously, that bed made him feel things he hadn't felt in a while, like true comfort.

A few muffled noises later, Trixie opened her door, stepping out.

"Trixie supposes you're right, if we stay here any longer, we are going to have to pay, and Trixie doubts she has that kind of money on her."
She said with a sigh, it was clear Nova wasn't the only one enjoying their stay here.

After giving the proprietor their thanks, and getting thanked in return for saving the city, they left to explore the area.

Pretty much everything was made from wood, the sidewalk, the roads, stalls, everything, which makes sense since most of the town existed either on the massive branches or inside of of the trunks of the two trees that makes the city.

"Trixie admits she has never seen anything like this back in Equestria, but..." She started, trailing off.

"-But everything is flammable." Nova said, biting into a freshly made sandwich they had bought from one of the nearby stalls.

"D-did you just read Trixie's mind?" She said, slightly disturbed.

"Nah, it's just REALLY obvious, I mean, I saw them cooking in that inn, with an open fire, I don't understand how this place fell to spiders, it should have burnt down by now."

"Well, that's actually really easy to explain." A voice from behind them said, causing them to turn and see none other than Heru, strangely lacking his armor from yesterday.

"The sap in the tree's around here is completely fire retardant, if a fire ever broke out, all anygriffon would need to do is-"

"Anybody." Nova corrected.

"... Anygriffon would need to do-"

"ANYBODY." Both Trixie and Nova corrected.

"FINE, anyBODY would need to do is cut a bit into the tree to get the sap out, and get it on the fire." Heru finally finished, almost out of breath from having to restart twice.

"Huh, guess my teachers were right, yelling IS the best way to get something across." Nova said, smiling like a bastard.

"So, to what pleasure does the halberd heaving Hero Heru grace us with his presence?" He continued.

Trixie sighed heavily, Heru's eye twitched, clearing his throat, he began to explain.

"Nothing really, just making my way out of the city." He said with a shrug.

Trixie raised her eyebrow in surprise. "Why would you be leaving the city so soon after it was saved, are you not a guard here?" she asked, confused and curious.

"I was wondering why you weren't wearing armor." Nova pitched in. "You got fired, didn't you, was it for losing the spear?"

Heru chuckled. "You're not far off Flare, let me-"

"Flare, what the hell was that?" Nova asked, confused.

"Uh, your nickname, cuz, you know, you have red hair, and that massive light show yesterday, flare." he explained, leaving Nova to mull this over.

"Anyway, I was kind of fired, but not the way you think, you see, in the griffon army, when a squad loses most of its company, what's left is no longer officially recognized as either guards or troops until they are reassigned to another squad.
"Well, the only place someBODY can go to get reassigned is in the capital, Griffonstone, so that's where I must go." Heru finished explaining.

Trixie's eyes suddenly lit up, before turning away and pulling Nova down to her level, then quickly turned back to Heru.

"Just a moment, please." She said, then turned back to Nova, who was suddenly right in her face.

"How's the weather down here?" He whispered to her.

"We should invite him to travel with us." Trixie ignored him.

Nova's face went from surprised, to thoughtful, to mild disgust, lustful, then finally, confused.

"Wait, why do we want someone else to feed, board and take up space?" He asked.

"You are not looking at the bigger picture here, Trixie is amazing and talented, but admittedly her knowledge of other kingdoms is limited, it would be helpful to drag someone along that knows about where we are, do you not agree?" She proposed.

Nova just shrugged, then nodded in agreement, they both turned to Heru, who was picking his beak clean.

"Oh my boy Heru, have we got the offer for you." Nova said, putting on his best Tim Ferguson impression.

Heru immediately looked worried. "Do I need to get the guards?"

Trixie kicked Nova in the shin and promptly took over. "The Great Trixie, and her annoyance Nova, are offering you a place in our little dysfunctional group, and are willing to help you travel to the Capitol."

"Oh, you are? I thought you guys were going to stay here for a bit longer." He said in response.

Nova shrugged once again. "Eh, don't get me wrong, this place is pretty cool, and the spider thing was an adrenaline rush, but I'm looking for exploration, so staying in one place, isn't really my thing."

Heru took a moment to consider, before nodding his head. "Well, sure, I was going to see if I could hook up with a caravan headed there anyway, traveling alone isn't the safest option."

Nova clapped his hands together, startling everyone. "Ah, sorry, but right! Now that that's settled, let's-"

"Hang on, I'm not quite ready to head out just yet, I need to go buy some essentials, if you two want to make your way down the trunk, I can meet up with you in a bit, save some time." Heru suggested.

Trixie nodded in agreement. "A fine proposal, no point in wasting time, come Nova, let us see if we cannot beat the traffic before it gets too congested." Trixie said, already turning away.

"I still don't know how there can be traffic problems in a tree with carriages and what not..." He mumbled, trailing after his companion.

As the pegasi carriages, carrying the Elements of Harmony, took off towards the Griffon Kingdom, Celestia let out a long, worry filled sigh.

"Come now sister, you must have more faith in your student and the elements, they will be careful, and Ares will make sure nothing happens to them." Luna reassured her sister.

"I know, but I worry none the less, for I love them each dearly, we can only hope that Nova will not reach the Capitol till after the festival is over."

"Ah, you're here, so have you secured yourself in the group?"

"Yes sir, they actually offered me a place, it couldn't have gone any better."

"Good, take this, it will allow you to contact who you need to, do not lose it, it's worth more than you'll ever get paid, unless you pull this off."

"Don't worry sir, I'll be careful, but I really don't see what the problem is, Flare seems like an alright... thing."

Author's Note

continuous uploads? please, quality takes time.
and motivation, here was mine this time.

Aim for the Capitol

Nova and Trixie both sighed in relief at the sight of Heru flying down towards them, having taken almost an hour just to get out of the city was bad enough, but the additional thirty minutes waiting for their newest traveling partner was pushing the limits of their patients.

Heru landed and slid towards the pair, breathing hard, he took a second to compose himself.

"S-sorry about that, hope you two weren't waiting too long." He said, scratching his head in embarrassment.

Trixie just rolled here eyes and began setting back up to move the carriage.

"Christ my man, you said you had to quickly pick some things up, did you stop off to help someone move?" Nova said, causing the griffon to fluster.

"What? no, I ju-"
"Stopped to get something to eat?"
"I already-"
"Had a quick shag in a back alley?"

Heru looked like he was about to burst, his feathers and fur puffing up in what may have been an attempt to look big and threatening.
Nova just though he used too much shampoo on his feathers or something.

"Nova, stop being vulgar and get on already, surely we have already floundered around here enough as it is." Trixie interrupted, hoping to put a stop to things before they could escalate.

Nova, who was previously frowning a moment ago, suddenly smiled and shrugged, turning and sitting down next to Trixie.
Taking a second to try and fix his ruffled feathers and fur, Heru walked over to the seats, only to instantly see a problem, namely, that both seats were already occupied.

"Uh, wait where am I supposed to sit, actually, where am I going to put my stuff?" he questioned, putting his rather large travel pack down next to him.

"Oh, yes, Trixie didn't really think that far ahead, but as for your things, you may put them in the back of my home."

"Wait, this small thing is your home?" He asked, walking around the back of the carriage.

Opening the door, he gawked at what he saw for a second, before regaining his senses and putting his things aside, he quickly returned to the front.

"Holy Winds, it's huge on the inside!" He exclaimed, Nova giggled a bit.

"Yes, that's what everyone says when they first see Trixie's fabulous space for the first time." She said with pride, Nova started to chuckle loudly.

"There's so much room in there, you could fit the whole family in there if you wanted, plenty of room for everybody to be comfortable." Heru continued to gush.

Nova fell off his seat, laughing, the two stared at him for a moment, before shrugging at each other.
Barely managing to hold back his laughter, Nova sat up.

"M-maybe if you a-a-asked Trixie nicely, she'd give you a to-o-ou-t-TOUR inside?" He said, breaking down in laughter again.

Now really confused, they both took a second to go over everything was just said, Trixie face went bright red.

"If you do not drag your mind out of the gutter this instant, Trixie knows a very simple way of fixing the seating issue!" She barked out.

Heru still looked confused, but just assumed it was a thing people of Nova's species did.

Taking a moment to calm himself, Nova got back up, brushing the leaves and grass off his clothes.

"It was never really an issue, I can just-" Nova grabbed hold of the side of the carriage and hoisted himself up onto the roof. "Do this."

"Are you sure that's okay?" Heru asked. "You've been traveling with Trixie longer, so I wouldn't mind being up there is I have to."

"Nah, it's fine man, besides, up here, I can stretch out and lay down for a change, I usually sleep up here anyway, so it's cool." He said, stretching out to show his point, before laying flat and relaxing.

"Yes, yes, Trixie is happy you have masterfully solved our seating arrangements, now if you could just sit down already, we may actually make some progress today."

Getting her point across, Heru quickly hopped up on the seat next to Trixie, giving her a shy smile, she responded by rolling her eyes and moving the carriage forward.

A few hours past, for the most part, the three sat in silence, mainly because Nova had apparently fallen asleep almost as soon as they started moving, and Heru being shy and unsure of what to say to the unicorn next to him.
They quickly left the lived in area of Triefort into the edge of the forest it was built next to, the trees around them rose so high, seeing deep into the forest was a struggle, Trixie could see why the town was kept to its outskirts now, she occasionally heard the rustling of leaves far above her, but whenever she looked, there was nothing there.

"Heru." Trixie said, getting his attention. "We don't have to worry about any creatures attacking us, do we?"

Heru shook his head. "Not really, maybe the occasional pred will wander close to the edge of the forest proper, but I've never heard of anything happening on the roads, we should be safe.
"If this is about that rustling, it was most likely birds, hell, it might have even been some griffon guards, they do often protect the roads, at least until we fully leave the forest." He assured her nothing was going to happen to them.

Even later, Heru finally decided it was time to maybe ask some questions about who he was traveling with, starting with Trixie, then, moving on to Nova.

"So, do you know what he is?, I've seen a lot of different species, since Triefort is kinda a main hub for trade with it being the closest to Manehatten, but I've never seen anything like him."

"He can hear you." She replied.

"What? no, he's been asleep for the entire time so far, not that I know how." Heru said, even looking up to confirm, and low and behold, there Nova still slept.

"Yes, he tends to do that a lot while we travel, but even then, he seems to always be ready for anything, even if he was just asleep, Trixie once tried to push him more to the side, since he was leaning towards me while he slept, but before I could lay a hoof on him, he was awake and shuffled over to the side, then back asleep again." She explained.

Heru shrugged at this. "If that's the case, then he clearly doesn't care that I'm asked, and doesn't care to answer either."

"Trixie supposes you have a point." He admitted. "Well, to answer your question..."

After several hours of travel, the party had managed to make it out of the forest and back out again into the open sky on the road, only to find it had started to turn night already.
Trixie, as usual, went to head inside her home, before Nova stopped her, suggesting they start a fire and they all relax outside together for a change.

After chopping some wood for the group, Nova set it up for Heru to chop into firewood, much to his dismay, followed by Trixie using a bit of magic to get the fire going.
The three talked about everything and nothing, from Nova and Trixie time together in Equestria, to Heru's daily schedule as a guard, they whittled away the hours, and before they knew it, it was late into the night.

"Well, as enjoyable as this has been, Trixie must be off to bed early, since she is the one that must move us all day tomorrow, sleep well you two." She said to her male companions.

"A good evening to you, Miss Lulamoon, and once again, thank you for allowing me to travel with you."

"Night night Trix, want me to tuck yo-" The door slamming shut cut him off.

After a few moments of silence, Heru shifted to stand.

"You're already heading to bed as well?" Nova asked.

"Well, I was a day guard, so I'm used to sleeping early, but I just gotta go to the toilet, you staying up?"

"For a bit longer, funnyily enough I, don't feel that tired." Nova said, the two shared a chuckle as Heru went to find some privacy.

This continued on for several days, they would travel at first light, and set up for camp just as dusk hit, this was under the advice of Heru, who reveal that the creatures of the night between Triefort and Griffonstone were quite dangerous.

On the third night, Nova turned to Heru.

"Hey, we are heading north, right?" He asked, getting a nod from both Heru and Trixie. "Okay, then where's the snow? I won't lie, I was pretty excited to see it."

Heru shook his head. "Sorry Nova, but your not gonna see any for a while, then, you arrived towards the end of winter, and unlike Equestria, we have a more natural changing of seasons, most of it would have melted by now." He explained, leaving a devastated Nova.

"H-hey, don't look so glum, at least we have the festival to look forward to." He said, catching both their attention.

"Trixie is unfamiliar with Griffon culture, but I assume this festival has something to do with the change into spring?" He guessed, getting an eager nod from Heru, who excitedly started to explain.

"Oh, it's the best, its called the Spring of Rebirth festival, it lasts about a week, there's drinking, eating, fighting-"

Nova raised an eyebrow. "Fighting, care to explain?"

"Ah, well, it's an ancient tradition to completely let loose during the festival, you're only expected to enjoy yourself during this time, well, according to history, there used to be problems with violence breaking out during this time, so the King decided that if there was to be fighting, might as well manage it to make sure it doesn't get out of hand.
In towns like Triefort, the fighting is usually just a small bout that never gets serious, however, it's different in Griffonstone." Heru took a moment to breath properly, getting carried away in explaining.

"In Griffonstone, the King Ares had a giant arena built to hold a several day spanning tournament for fighter, it was also magically enchanted by unicorns, so that fighter could go all out with no fear of dying due to wounds and such, doesn't stop the pain though."

"Sounds like you have first hand experience." Trixie interrupted.

"Well yeah, a few years back, I traveled and took place in the first round of the tournament, which just involved throwing every fighter that applied into a giant free for all, it goes until there's only twenty fighters remaining."

"Hang on." Nova interrupted this time. "If the spell stops you from dying, how do you lose?"
"Trixie was about to ask that as well, I-WE am not familiar with such magic." The two questioned.

Heru struggled to think of an answer. "Well, from what little I remember from my fight, which is little, I blacked out as some point due to... something happening, not sure what, I assume that after you take enough damage, the spell forces you to stop." He said, shrugging.

Trixie got to her hooves and yawned. "Well, as horrifically barbaric as this fighting sounds, the rest of this festival sounds fun, at least, but Trixie is tied, and will retire to her room now, good night." she said, turning to leave, the pair grunted their good nights.

After a few moments of silence, Nova shuffled closer to Heru. "So, tell me more about this arena event." He whispered excitedly.

"Not much more too tell, I mean, other than the fact the champion of the arena gets to have a battle with the King if he chooses."

Luna watched in silence as Nova swung the long, slightly curved blade at the dummy for the umpteenth time, it once again fell to pieces, and once again reassembled itself.

She had been reluctant to return to his dreams ever since the fiasco with the nightmare, but she could feel the energy his dream was giving off as soon as she started her dream walking.

The scenery had returned to what it once was, however, rather than just sitting and relaxing, Nova was practicing with this new weapon of his, and his skill with it was improving at an impossible rate, it was as if every time he placed the sword back in its sheath, then drew it again, a different person was using it, the jumps in skill were off putting to say in the least.

The boon of this was that he was so focused on his training, he failed to notice her, or maybe he really just didn't want to talk with her anymore, not that she would blame him for that, considering what happened.

Without warning, Nova suddenly turned and slashed out in the opposite direction, Luna held her breath for a second, as in one clean cut, the giant tree behind him was destroyed, before re-materializing a few moments later.

She decided it was time to leave.

"Sir, I have a report for you."

"Speak quickly, less chance of you getting seen doing this then."

"The target has decided to enter the tournament in Griffonstone."

Author's Note

Holy shit what another chapter already?
I swear I'm not a changeling.
Also, on a completely different note, if anyone here is looking for a good book series to read, I highly recommend the Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind, it will not disappoint, but there are 15 books in the main series and 3 prequels, so its a commitment.

Griffonstone - Part 1

Stepping off Celestia's royal flying carriage, Twilight and her friends found themselves in what appeared to be a reserved area of the city, little to no one was in sight, apart from the occasional important looking person, walking out of similar looking areas.
As they all took a couple steps forward, they were immediately flanked by several griffon soldiers, Twilight attempted to ask them what was going on, but was cut off by the one standing closest to her.

"Twilight Sparkle and friends I assume, we have orders to take you straight to the king, no stops on the way." The apparent commander said.

Rainbow, as rowdy as ever, wasn't so eager to comply. "What the hay is this about? We haven't done anything wrong, heck, we just bucking got here!"

The commander looked confused for a moment, before realizing what she was implying, and chuckling to himself.

"You misunderstand miss, we are not escorting you because you are in trouble, far from it in fact, we're here to make sure nothing unfortunate happens to you lot on the way there." The commanding officer explained, a small sigh of relief coming from the group of girls.

All except Fluttershy. "W-what do you mean 'make sure nothing unfortunate happens?' do you mean l-like, getting lost or-"

"More like getting kidnapped, mugged or worse." He interrupted, causing them all to recoil in horror.

"Isn't this the capitol?" Rarity asked. "Surely the chances of something like that happening here cannot be that high?"

The commander tilted his head in confusion. "This is a large city miss, with a lot of griffons and whatnot living in it, some are decent, hard working folk, and some are nothing more than scum. I'm not sure how things work in Equestria, but here, it pays to keep one's self aware of that fact at all times, especially near the lower area's of the city. Now come along please, we are keeping the king waiting." With that, he turned to his soldiers, signalling them to move out.

The group of girls looked uneasily at one another, before getting swept up in the moving troop.

Before the girls knew it, they found themselves walking into the halls of the kings home, the guards not allowing any time to look around the city as they quickly made their way to the castle.
The inside of the castle wasn't as flashy as Canterlot castle, but still grand in design, with imposing looking walls and architecture, it was clearly fashioned for defense, rather than atheistic.
Being pushed on by the guards, they walked through a series of corridors lined with guards, all standing at full attention, even after they had passed them, the difference between these griffons and the Equestrian military was becoming more apparent with each passing moment.

"They may be a bit pushy, but ya have to admit they take their job seriously." Applejack muttered, the group silently agreeing.

A few corridors later, they came up to an impressive looking door, while not beautiful, it looked sturdy enough to hold against a siege by itself.
Knocking on the door, the commander spoke.

"Ambassador Twilight Sparkle, Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy and Rainbow Rash-"

"DASH!" Rainbow forcefully corrected, the soldiers grinning at their commanders mistake, which earned them all an hour on latrine duty.

Clearing his throat, the commander continued. "Rainbow Dash are here to see the king, open the doors!"

After a few moments of awkward silence, the doors slowly slid open, two griffons standing at each door, struggling to pull them open.
Twilight immediately knew that everything they had seen on the way here was for show, after all, why bother closing the doors if they were that taxing to open each time.

When the doors were finally fully opened, the commander saluted to Twilight and motioned at the group to head inside, before taking his troops to leave.

With nothing left to do, the girls entered the room.

The room in question was obviously not the throne room, for it housed a massive table that took up most of the available space, chairs littered down its sides, each with a small carving on its back, from what they could make out, this was some sort of meeting room.
The room had no windows, but rather a large skylight that spanned most of the ceiling, from down here, it was impossible to discern whether it opened or not.

So distracted were they, that they almost missed the rather large griffon sitting at the far end of the table.

"Well, it took you lot long enough to get here, lets not drag this out with unnecessary gawking, I made this room unremarkable to avoid such things." Spoke Ares, King of the North.

Ares very presence seemed to take up the whole room suddenly, which was not surprising given just how much larger he was than any of the previous griffons they had encountered. His feathers were a brilliant white, and his lion half a steely gray, he motioned for the group of girls to take the seats nearest to him, they felt compelled to obey.

After each element had taken a seat, he gave them each a smile, it reminded them of a grandfather smiling at his grand kids.

"I welcome you all to Griffonstone, I hope your flight here was not too tiring, for we have a few things to go over before I can set you all loose on my city." He said casually, catching the girls, mainly Twilight, off guard.

"King Ares? I'm not sure I quite follow, I was lead to believe we were sent here to discuss-" Ares silenced Twilight with a wave of his claw.

"I will make one thing clear to you all, while it is true, I have asked for you girls, personally, to be the Equestrian ambassadors for this years Spring of Rebirth, I expect we will be having little to no discussion on such matters. You are all young, naive girls, and while I do not doubt that you may have sound advice or judgement on certain things, I do not believe for a second any of you are truly prepared for such important talks." Ares explained.

The girls sat in silence, each trying to process what they had just been told, Twilight was the first to speak up.
"Ares, if I may ask, if you do not attend to speak on matters of diplomacy with us, they why have you called us here?"

Ares smiled at her. "That's good, you know how to ask the right questions, there may be hope for you. To answer you, I have requested the elements for a few reasons, one is the renewal of the spell woven into the Grand Arena. The other, is your help in dealing with a particular being you are all quite familiar with, Nova."

Each of the girls began to pale rapidly, Fluttershy almost looked ready to faint, however, before they could all freak out, Ares continued.

"Do not be alarmed, I am not foolish enough to place any of you in harms way, in regards to dealing with Nova, I had hoped to gain your insight and advice on what to do in regards to this unknown in my kingdom. Rest assured, I am not asking you to go anywhere near him."

The girls looked relieved, but only slightly, Rarity took the lead this time. "My king, we will answer any questions you may have in regards to that... thing, Nova, but I believe I speak for my friends when I say we doubt we could give any real advice."

Ares waved his claw dismissively. "I am not asking you to do this right now, you have all just arrived in my city from a long trip and are surely tired, you will be provided board here in the castle, and will be allowed to explore the upper parts of the city." Ares motioned behind him, and a previously unseen griffon servant stepped forward, opening a small box he held.

Inside the box were several necklaces, each with the symbol of a griffon crossing his front claws, the servant moved to each of the girls, handing them each a necklace.

"This will mark you as my guests while you stay in the city, you will not have to pay for anything, and anyone of noble standing will treat you with the respect you deserve, do not lose these." he said, putting large emphasis on the last part.

Slowly, the group put the amulets over their heads, the chain feeling cold and cumbersome on their necks.

"Good, now the guards outside the doors will show you to your quarters for your stay here, that is unless you wish to stay in one of the hotels or inns in the city. Speaking of, for the rest of today, I give you permission to explore the upper levels of Griffonstone, but I ask that you do not wander down to the lower parts in the time being."

With that out of the way, Ares excused himself and left the room, leaving the girls to themselves.

"Well, that was sure one doosey of a welcoming, wasn't it?" Pinkie exclaimed, playing with her new bling.

After having been shown to their accommodations for the duration of their stay, the girls, after getting lost a few times, made their way out of the grand fortress and looked out at the city below.

The first thing that caught their attention was just how high up they all were compared to the rest of the city. The palace was first built onto of a massive hill that dominated the rest of the landscape, and the city had been built out around it over time, just below the palace sat the upper levels, as Ares called it, and was clearly where those of high standing and class stayed.

The streets were made of a white marble, and the buildings ranged from ancient, beautiful wooden buildings to more modern looking houses and buildings. Griffons dominated the area, filling the air and streets below, with only the odd pony or other creatures occasionally popping into view, as one would expect from the capitol of the Griffon Empire.

It just dawned on each element just how far from home, they really were at the moment, however, their apprehension was quickly overrun by excitement and curiosity.

"I've never seen so many new ponies!" Pinkie exclaimed, jumping up and down on the spot with excitement.

"A-actually, I don't think it's right to call them ponies, Pinkie." Fluttershy timidly corrected, getting a stern nod from Rainbow.

"Yeah, try not to call any of the griffons ponies, when I first became friends with Gilda, she got really mad at that, said it was an insult not to recognize them as their own species." She said, suddenly looking worried. "Oh geez, we might run into Gilda while were here, she's no lower class citizen, that's for sure."

Rarity scoffed "Are you implying that brute is a noble, surely you just Rainbow."

"Well, maybe not noble, but she has to come from money at least, I mean, she came from all the way here to Cloudsdale for school, I doubt her parents could have afforded something like that unless they were well off." She replied, all her friends looking confused.

"Why are you all looking at me like that?" Rainbow asked. "Do I have something in my wings?"

"I guess we're all just a little surprised to hear such insightful things coming from you." Twilight said with a smirk, earning a giggle from all her friends.

Everyone except Rainbow of course. "Arg, whatever, I'm out of here." She announced, quickly taking off before anyone could object or apologies. Applejack rolled here eyes. "Girl can't take a joke unless shes the one tellin' it, I'll go track her down, see ya'll later." She said, quickly trotting off after her speedy friend.

Twilight shook her head, slightly upset she had been the cause for her friends having to already split up, but got over it quickly.
"Well, I for one, want to go see this arena Ares mentioned, I want to know more about the spell that was cast on it before actually doing anything to it." She decided.

"Hmm, I think I'll go and get myself acquainted with the citizens of this fine city, you never know, I might be able to drum myself up some business contacts while I'm here, tootles darlings." Rarity said, beginning to walk off.

Fluttershy meekly started to follow her. "Um, I'll go with Rarity, I don't really want to go anywhere near that arena place, see you later..." She trailed off.

Twilight sighed, she had hoped to explore the city with all of her friends together, she turned to Pinkie. "I don't suppose you want to do something else as well?" She asked.

She was surprised when Pinkie shook her head. "Of course I want to go to the arena Twilight, that's where the most interesting people will be!" She explained, and already began hopping off towards it.

Twilight smiled, happy to have one of her friends stick with her, before becoming confused and charging off after Pinkie.

"Wait, we don't even know where it it!" She said, trying to catch up with the hyperactive pony.

"Wowie, look at all them Twilight, there's griffons, Minotaurs, Diamond Dogs, Ponies and ARE THOSE DRAGONS!?" Pinkie said to Twilight, almost hyperventilating from excitement.
As it turned out, the arena hadn't been that hard to find, as it took up the second half of the upper city, although it was usually closed off for most of the year, with the Spring of Rebirth festival fast approaching, it had been open up for fighters to sign up and find accommodations.

"No kidding Pinkie, I've never seen so many different species in one area before, I hope there's nothing to worry about." Twilight said, frowning at the large crowd.

Pinkie tilted her head slightly to the side. "What do you mean Twi?"

"Well, All these poni- *Ahem* different beings are all here to fight, they might already be looking for one." She began to explain. "I mean, they must love hurting others if they willfully want to participate in a fight like this."

As if on cue, the sounds of approaching feet caused Twilight to spin around, only to get a snout full of robe.

"My, such a naive outlook on things you have, little ambassador, seems Ares may have had a point after all." Accused the female Diamond Dog. Twilight looked up, only to gasp in surprise when she saw the same necklace they had been given earlier.

After a few days of travel, the group of three unlikely companions were finally approaching Griffonstone.

"So, we shall arrive by tomorrow you say?" Trixie asks, looking at her map.

However, Heru was too distracted by the nearby hillside to answer, and Nova was asleep on top of the roof once again.
He was so distracted by the hillside, he didn't have time to notice Trixie rolling up the map and bonking him on the head with it, causing him to scream in surprise.

"There, now that Trixie has your attention, you can politely answer me." She said looking smug.

Heru was less than happy, his temper flared. "Be quite damn you!, I thought I saw-" He was cut off by an arrow piercing Trixie's performance hat.

In an instant, a small assorted group of bandits rushed from over the hill, Heru quickly pulled a short bow he had picked up from a small trading post a few days back, nocked an arrow and returned fire, the distance squeal from over the hill told him he had found his target.
As the rest of the bandits closed in, and with Trixie still slightly dazed with her near death experience, Heru started to pull his spear out.

"Nova, get up! we-"

A golden shield suddenly surrounded them and the carriage, Nova poked his head out from the roof.

"Yeah, yeah, I've got us, keep your feathers in a bunch Heru, anyone hurt?" Nova asked, Pulling Trixie's hat free and putting it on himself.

Heru looked over at Trixie, who had finally snapped out of her shock at the theft of her hat, thankfully, she was unhurt.

"No, we're all fine down here, so, how are we gonna deal with these cretins?" Trixie asked.

"Nova, you wanna round them up so we can hand them over to the authorities? I can give you a claw if you need." Heru said, looking ready to fight.

"Actually, I think we should just go, I can hold the shield up as we-"

"WHAT?!" Heru shouted, looking rather pissed. "If we just leave these bastards, they will just attack some other poor sods, you have all this power, and you just want to leave, why?!"

Nova's face turned unreadable. "Criminals don't have any business arresting anyone." He said quietly.

While the three were distracted, a unicorn bandit had cast the spell she had been charging, it rocketed forward and slammed into the shield, causing it to waver and shatter. Nova was blown off the top of the carriage, the magical feedback almost knocking him out completely, Heru braced himself spear ready to fight.

Trixie, however, was not so lucky, the bandit had assumed that she had been the one to cast the spell, so she had aimed her spell to not only break the shield, but carry on past and through to her. She was sent flying past Nova, a small trickle of blood coming from her head.

"TRIXIE!" Heru cried out. He took off after her, barely managing to catch her mid air. "Hey, are you alright, speak to me!" He said, getting a pained moan in response.

One of the bandits started to close in on the carriage. "Ha, come on lads, let's get what we need from these louts and-"

His words were drowned out by his screams as he slowly turned into a pile of ashes, the other bandits recoiled in horror, before looking around to find what had dared attacked them this time.

Nova stood on the top of the carriage once more, his face twisted into a look of feral rage, in one hand, he held a small magical flame, while the other seemed to have completely frozen over. "T-Trace, quickly, kill that thing!" One of the other brigands ordered to their unicorn mage.

That was a mistake, Nova quickly scanned the area for the one who had dared hurt his friend, as soon as his eyes found a horn, he reached out with his frozen hand.

That entire area now looked like a frozen wasteland, with every brigand caught in the spell forever frozen with an expression of horror and pain on their faces. By this point, the others had realized just how much deep shit they had found themselves in, and were already fleeing to the top of the hill, only for Nova to appear before they could get there.

"You made your choice already, now, burn in hell for the rest of your pathetic lives." Nova said, reaching out with the small flame in his hand.

The entire hill was either ash or still burning, not a single brigand remained.

It was now a rather odd sight to behold, the bottom of the hill resembled the frozen wastes of where the Crystal Empire used to be, and the hill itself looked as if a piece of Tartarus itself had been ripped out and put there instead.

Taking a moment to center himself, Nova warped himself back to the carriage, seeing that Heru had moved Trixie onto the seat, upon doing so, he felt that familiar sensation that he was getting close to his limits.

"Crap, I might have overdone it a bit there, I don't feel one hundred percent." He said, trying to shake his head clear.

"Well, while I can't say those scum didn't deserve what came to them, you really went overboard there, who knows how long it will take the land to go back to normal. Anyway, Trixie appears to be okay, just a nasty scrape to the head and shock." Heru explained, motioning to the side of her head. "Man, I know Equestria is supposed to be a land of peace and harmony, but she actually bloody past out from shock, you'd never see a griffon do that."

"Ah, ponies are herbivores, and were originally a prey species, while griffons are omnivores, and are natural predators, so honestly, it's not that big of a surprise, regardless, lets see what I can do about that scrape." Nova said.

Putting both hands over the wound, which ran from the top of her eye, and curved all the way around most of the left side of her face, Nova started to channel healing energies into it, as the wound started to close and scar, he felt pain starting to rise in his body, he instantly stopped, leaving a neat, but obvious scar behind.

"N-nope, that's all I can do at the moment, shit, what the hell is going on with me recently? I can usually do more than this." He complained, staring at his hands. Heru simply shrugged, carefully propping Trixie upright in the chair.

"You say that, but honestly, I don't know if anybody could do half the stuff you do regardless of how they were feeling, I mean except maybe the rulers of the lands." Just as he finished saying that, Trixie's eyes fluttered open.

She shot up instantly, clearly not aware the battle was already over. "W-what, where am I? B-back you fou-" Trixie began to panic, Nova put a hand on her back and gave her a quick rub. "It's fine Trixie, the problem has been dealt with, I'm sorry I let you get hurt like that, but I didn't expect a spell like that to break one of my shields." Nova apologized, quickly calming her down.

"I-it's fine, but Trixie's head hurts a bit, could you heal it a bit? I must have hit it." She asked.

"He already did, but he couldn't fully heal it, you've got a pretty big scar, here, lemme just..." Heru said, searching one of his bags, before pulling out a mirror and letting Trixie look at her new facial decal. She stared at the mirror, almost unable to recognize her own reflection.

"Maybe after some rest, I could give it another go, I'm sure I could get rid of the scar next time." Nova offered. Surprisingly, she shook her head. "No, Trixie will keep this scar, it will remind her that she needs to be more prepared in the future for such things to happen. Besides, Trixie could easily work this into her performance, she could tell the tale of how she helped fight off a large host of brigands from the far north!" She announced, seemingly having regained her composure.

"Come now, let us leave this place, Griffonstone cannot be far away!"

Luna sat with her sister in the library, several pieces of paper were scattered all over the desk.

"Are you sure this is right sister?" Celestia asked, looking over their current notes on Nova.

"Indeed, sister, for the past few nights, rather than risk entering his waking dream again, I have been observing it from the outside. While this does not allow me to know what he his doing in there, it instead let me see something much more interesting, he is wasting a large amount of his energies to maintain his ability to lucid dream." Luna explained.

"I see, so, this is yet another piece of evidence to support our theory that he is very inexperienced with the proper use of his powers, that, and the fact he's using his time while dreaming to train himself." Celestia concluded, adding the note to their collection of fact on Nova.

Rarity almost screamed when she saw Twilight and Pinkie walking towards her and Fluttershy, who was already hiding behind her, with a Diamond Dog.

"T-Twilight dear, who might your friend be?" She asked, calming down slightly when she spotted the same necklace they were given.

Before Twilight could speak, the female Diamond Dog shook one of her fingers from side to side disapprovingly. "My word, what if with others in this city, is it not common courtesy to offers your own name first, before asking another?"

Rarity, quickly catching on, moved to correct herself. "Please pardon my rudeness, but back home, I had a rather... unpleasant experience with others of your own kind. However, you are right, and that was rude of me, my name is Rarity, and this is my friend, Fluttershy." She said with a bow. Fluttershy meekly stepped forward, giving a small, but nervous wave.

As if on cue, Rainbow and Applejack appeared from one of the nearby alleyways, both looking like they had lost a fight with a bale of hay.
"I found her." Applejack said, clearly not wanting to explain just what had transpired.

After repeating almost the exact same scene as before, they quickly introduced themselves to the newcomer.

"Alright, now that we have gotten that out of the way, it is my turn, as these two already know." She motioned towards Twilight and Pinkie.
"My name is Terra, I am one of the two advisors and acting ambassador for the Western continent; Myrellia." She announced, getting a few impressed and shocked looks.

Terra stood about five foot nine, wearing a plain brown robe that covered most of her fur, which was colored dirty blonde. Her breed was something of a mix, but she looked beautiful, at least to her own kinds standards, however, what stood out most was her eyes, which were a deep, earthy brown mix with a small amount of green, It was as if you were staring at the earth itself.

"Isn't this fun girls, we got to meet two rulers today!" Pinkie said with her usual level of excitement.

"I'm not quite a ruler anymore, we have a council for that, though they still rely on us for a lot of things..." Terra corrected.

The lot of them talked and walked for a while, before Applejack asked a particular question.

"If ya don't mind me asking, but ah remember hearin' ya say you're the actin' ambassador, and that ya'll only one of the advisors, who's the other?" She asked.

"That would be Minros, if you can guess from his name, he is the previous ruler of the Minotaur nation, back from before both our nations combined into one. He has always been the one to attend the Spring of Rebirth festival as our nations ambassador, but, he was not able to attend this year, so I have taken his place in the meantime." She explained.

"Why couldn't he come?" Rainbow asked without thinking.

Terra's face became unreadable for a moment, before slipping into a neutral smile. "We are soon approaching into a festival of cheer and good times, would not do to burden your minds with unhappy thoughts." Terra said.

Sensing a moment to quickly change the subject, Rarity took the lead.

"Ah yes, the festival, pray tell Lady Terra, do you know the reason why there is such a focus on this arena, I cannot imagine why such violence is to be supported."

Terra sighed, having already explained this once, Twilight decided to answer for her instead.

"Well, as Terra explained to me and Pinkie earlier, the festival goes for about a week, during that week, everyone is allowed to fully indulge themselves through drink, food, you name it. However, with everyone getting so spirited, things can get out of hand fast, especially since the majority of the species that celebrate it are predators, it's just a part of who they are, so, Ares decided a long time ago to focus it all into one big, manageable event. He even took it one step further, and somehow got a bunch of unicorns together to weave a spell into an arena he had built to prevent anyone that fought from dying, and after a while, the fights just became bigger and bigger until the fights became the tournament it is today."

Everyone felt really tired all of a sudden, as if they were suddenly all back in school, learning about history, at least Terra looked impressed.

Rainbow rolled her eyes. "Okay, that's cool and all, but, is there a reward for winning at least?" Rainbow asked.

"Y-you're not thinking of entering, are you?" Fluttershy asked, worried about her friends' safety.

"Nah, I'm just curious is all." She replied, waving her hoof dismissively.

"Well, of course, there must be a reward for the brave warrior that battles their way through to the end. If the winner of the arena wishes it, they may walk away with a chest filled with gold and other riches." Terra said, before letting out a quiet chuckle. "However, if they so desire, They may choose instead to challenge the undefeated champion of the arena, King Ares himself, for the title of arena champion."

Author's Note

IT BEGINS

Griffonstone - Part 2

Twilight and her friends woke up to the sun hitting their eyes, much to their annoyance. Apparently griffons designed their windows to do this so that they would always be awoken at first light for their hunts. Even Applejack, who was used to early mornings, found herself wishing to sleep in a bit.

Considering the recent traveling and tour of the upper city yesterday, it was no surprise the young mares wish to have a longer rest, but before they could even consider tucking their heads under the pillows to avoid the sun's wrath, a loud knock came from their door.

"Excuse me, but I have been sent to inform you all that breakfast will be served shortly." Came a muffled voice from outside.

Twilight, still half asleep, mumbled out something incoherent.

"Yes, I understand it is early, but everyone is on a tight scheduled with the festival just around the corner, please make yourselves presentable, then I will escort you to the dinning hall."

With that, everyone resigned themselves to the fact there would be no more sleep, and prepared themselves.

A griffon servant entered the dining hall, bowed and cleared his throat.

"Ambassador Twilight and her fellow Elements of Harmony." He announced to the room, moving aside for the aforementioned as they entered.

As each entered, they took a moment to look around the room, to say it was huge would be an understatement, resembling something of a viking long house, only much grander in design, it paintings of various important figures covering the walls, beautiful designed stained glass windows, strangely resembling the ones back in Canterlot.

One long table sat in the middle of the room, its sides littered with chairs all the way up and down it. Almost every chair was filled, most of course being griffons, although there were a few ponies further down. All the way at the end sat Ares, with Lady Terra sitting beside him, six seats were left empty opposite her.

The girls were so busy taking it all in, they almost missed everybody, except Ares and Terra, standing and bowing to them, before sitting themselves back down. The servant that announced them shuffled over to Twilight.

"The seats next to the king are yours." He whispered. Shuffling back to the door.

The group quickly made its way to their seats, Ares looked at them, slightly annoyed.

"Now that the last of us have finally arrived, maybe we can finally have our food brought in." He said quietly. Clearly frustrated on having to wait for his breakfast in his own castle. Everyone shot Rarity a dirty look, she sheepishly smiled back.

"A-apologies, King Ares, we won't be so late next time." Twilight said, knowing he wasn't looking for an excuse. They were all confused when he suddenly smiled.

"Oh okay then, as long as it doesn't happen again." He said, his tone completely carefree all of a sudden. "Servants, breakfast may begin!"

As if materializing from the shadows, servants came from each direction, filling the whole table in but a few moments, as the last one left, everyone dug in as if they had been waiting for ages to eat. Rarity suddenly felt worse about taking so long.

The food ranged from meats, which were tastefully kept away from anyone who wasn't a meat eater, to Equestrian dishes, much to the groups surprise, it seems Ares went to great effort to make sure his guests were looked after.

The whole room was filled with the sounds of eating and discussion, the girls started to chat among themselves as they ate.

"So, are you two finally going to tell us what happened yesterday?" Rarity asked Applejack and Rainbow.

"Nope." Both replied.

"That just makes me want to know more..."

"Hey Fluttershy, are you all right? I mean, they are eating meat."

"Please stop reminding me Pinkie..."

This continued on for a while, before Twilight turned to Ares.

"Sire, you said you wanted to talk to us about Nova yesterday, and if I'm right, Lady Terra would probably like to hear this as well, do you want to do it now or-" She began to ask. Ares suddenly started coughing violently, everyone froze in panic, before he suddenly coughed up a small bone.

The whole room was silent, before roaring into laughter. Twilight was mortified that they could laugh at their ruler like that, and even further so when she saw Rainbow and Pinkie laughing as well. She was about to tell them off before she saw that even Terra was giggling at the sight, Ares, for the most part, just sat there, looking annoyed at most.

"Yes, yes I'm old and can't eat right anymore, shut it and go back to your meal you dastards." Ares said through a barely contained smile.

It took a few moments, but eventually everyone settled down, Ares cleared his throat and turned to Twilight.

"Yes, actually, I think now would be a good time to talk about that, what say you Terra?" He asked.

"It's your castle Ares, you don't need to ask my-"

"Excellent, now." Ares cut her off, getting a dirty look from Terra. "Celestia mentioned that you and your friends were there when he first appeared, could you tell me what happened?"

Twilight frowned, it wasn't something she enjoyed remembering, that, and now a lot of the nobles suddenly seemed very interested in her. "W-well, it all started after we had defeated Discord..."

Nova looked down at toward Trixie, eye filled with concern for his friend.

"Are you sure you don't want me to fully heal that scar?" He asked. "You asked me to finish it off yesterday, what's changed?"

She continued to stare out at the road for a bit longer, trying to put her reasoning into words, or maybe trying to come up with a reason that sounded suitable.

"Trixie was almost killed yesterday due to her own inaction, Trixie will keep this scar as a reminder not to be such a weak sap in the future." She explained. Her face hardened in determination. "With that said, Trixie has a request of you."

"Well, depends on what you need I suppose." Nova said, slightly worried.

"Trixie want's you to show her how you preform such powerful magic. She has seen you do things that even the Princesses themselves would struggle to do on a daily biases. There must be a secret, or at least something you can teach me." She announced.

Nova was a little shocked, for someone like Trixie asking to be taught couldn't be easy for her, given her giant ego. Though almost getting killed usually does shift ones view on themselves. Nova let out a long sigh.

"Well, I would relish the chance to tease you about being my student, and I'll be honest, I'd love to teach you." Nova started.

Trixie face turned crestfallen. "There is a but coming next, isn't there?" Nova winced at the sight.

"...But I barely understand how my own powers work, how the hell could I teach someone when all I really need to do is 'think' about doing it, and it just kinda happens." He said. "Maybe you could have Heru teach you some stuff, he seems pretty good at self defense." Nova looked around for the aforementioned griffon. "Uh, where is Heru anyway?"

Trixie facehoofed, and flinched when she grazed her still sore face.

"You truly do astound Trixie sometimes, have you already forgotten what he said to us this morning?" She accused.

"No, of course not, I just want to know if he told you the same thing is all." He replied, looking side to side nervously.

"He said he was flying ahead to meet with some griffons he knew along the way, he'll be back later. Anyway, Trixie is a magician, she has no desire to learn such barbaric ways of defense." She said arrogantly.

"For gods sake Trixie make up your mind, just a moment ago you were saying you wanted to learn to defend yourself. Now when I offer a suggestion on how to do just that, you shoot it down without a second thought." Nova fumed.

The pair sat in uncomfortable silence, staring out at the constant farmland that seemed to be everywhere, Heru had explained that most of the area outlining the city was like this, after all, where else would they get their food. Unfortunately it made for a rather boring viewing experience, if it wasn't for the occasional fellow traveler (usually a griffon) coming along, making conversation or even offering things to sell every so often, Nova would have slept the rest of the way there. That, and the sight of the Capitol in the far distance.

From what the two could see, Griffonstone appeared to be build along the side of a steep hill, or at least that's what they guessed, still having at least a day and a half of travel to go.

After another hour of unbearable silence, Nova pulled out his I-pod, which he had recently changed to have a bigger screen and better speakers, and looked for a song to play. Looking for something to raise the mood a bit, he smiled when he found the perfect song.

"Here, lets give this a listen." Nova said. Getting Trixie's attentions, she couldn't help but smile at the sight of his music device.

"Fine, lets hear what you've got this time." Without needing further prompting, he pressed play.

Maps - Hey Ocean.

It was almost time for lunch by the time Twilight and her friends had finished their story, most of the nobles had left to continue preparations for the festival, only Ares and Terra had remained. Ares shook his head again, still unable to believe what he had heard.

"Damn those two sisters, if they had actually fought at full strength, then maybe Celestia wouldn't be..." He sighed. "No matter, so he really does refuse to give himself up, and is willing to fight to remain free to do as he pleases."

The girls looked confused. "What do you mean 'if they had fought at full strength'?" Rainbow decided to ask what they all were thinking.

Terra laughed. "Girls, your rulers are no pushovers, they have both lived through some of the most trying times in our worlds history. They may not look it, but they are even older than Ares here, who is well into a thousand years."

"W-wait, what? How can that be? I thought the Princesses were the only living immortals." Twilight asked.

"It is true, I am no immortal like Celestia and Luna, but I share a deep connection with this world, and it has allowed me long life, though, as you can tell, I do still age." Ares clarified. "Now, since the festival is but a day away, I believe you, Twilight, still need to recharge the spell on our arena, did you study it enough to know what to do?"

Twilight coughed awkwardly. "Well, about that-"

"Oh dear, my apologies Ares, but it seems I may have distracted young Twilight here from her duty yesterday." Terra quickly interrupted.

Twilight gave her a sheepish smile, mouthing a thank you across the table. Ares just sighed, shaking his head.

"Twilight, I am hereby officially ordering you to get it done by today, I don't enjoy having to be so formal, but if this is not done properly, there is going to be a lot of casualties come time for the fight. In fact, Lady Terra, since you claim it was your fault that miss Twilight forgot her one duty yesterday, I'd like you to go with her and assist in anyway required." Ares announced.

The shift in personality from Ares was a but jarring for the group of girls, everyone except Terra, who just nodded her head.

Ares next turned towards Pinkie of all ponies. "Miss Pinkie, if I recall, you profession is party planning, correct?" He asked.

"Weeeeelllll, kinda, I mean, my real job is working with Mr. and Mrs. Cake, I consider my parties more of a hobby, since work isn't really work if you enjoy it enough." She was about to babble on, before Ares raised a claw to silence her.

"All I needed was a simple yes or no, now, Miss Rarity, I have already heard word that you are making connections with some of the nobles, given you profession as a designer, I would appreciate it if the two of you gave a helping claw with setting up the rest of the festival, you don't have to, but I can imagine it would be a good chance to make some new friends while your at i-"

"WE ACCEPT." Pinkie interrupted loudly, jumping up onto the table in excitement.

"Yes, we would be happy to your highness." Rarity said, pulling Pinkie back down into her chair.

"Excellent, there is a servant waiting outside to take you where you need to go." Ares explained. The atmosphere of the room suddenly went dark as he turned his attention to Rainbow and Applejack. "As for you two, I will be having a private conversation with both of you on how you are supposed to conduct one selves when representing another nation, do not think what happened yesterday escaped my notice." The pair gulped and nodded.

Now the rest of the group REALLY wanted to know what happened. Thought once again they were denied when Ares good mood suddenly returned.

"Now, we all have a long day ahead of us, lunch will be served here at twelve thirty, so please don't be late, unless you are unable to come, in which case, please pass word onto one of my guards, they will make sure it gets to me, now let us be off." Ares said. With that, everyone stood and went off to their assigned tasks for the day.

Everything was a blur to Trixie and Nova, the surrounding landscape was distorted, into a mash of colors.

"WHY ARE WE GOING SO FUCKING FAST?" Nova yelled at Trixie.

(A few moments ago)

"Well, here's an idea, what if you gave Trixie a small portion of your magical energy?" She suggested.

Nova thought on it for a second. "How... how would that even work, is such a thing possible?" Nova asked. Trixie nodded eagerly in response.

"Of course, there are many cases of such things being done, often times, when a spell requires an insane amount of magical energy to pull off. Unicorns would channel their magical essence into a host, that way, only one pony would have to cast the spell, rather than have a group try and work on one spell, which could lead to a mistake." Trixie suddenly lore dumped on Nova.

"Well, okay sure, I'll give it a go." Nova said. He placed his bandaged hand on the back of her neck. "Whats the worst that could happen?"

(Current time)

Trixie didn't respond to Nova, looking at her, she seemed to be completely out of it, her horn giving off a brilliant golden glow, rather than her normal light pink.

Nova, not wanting her or himself to end up as a pretty smear on the road, grabbed the back of her neck, and focused on pulling his power back out of her. Within a few moments, he felt a familiar rush as his energy traveled back into himself, Trixie suddenly jerked out of her stupor, and the carriage eventually returned to a much safer speed.

"Okay, well, how did that feel?" Nova asked her.

Trixie just stared out at the road for a few seconds, eventually mumbling something out.

"I've never felt power like that before."

Nova snapped his fingers, getting her attention. She smiled at him creepily.

"You have to do that again some time, just, maybe not so much, Trixie could barely think." She said, looking giddy.

"WELL, glad one of us enjoyed themselves." Nova said, smiling his usual shit eating grin. "I usually charge for providing such a good time. now where the hell are we." Nova turned his head. His smile was replaced with a mix of terror, shock and wonder.

Trixie turned her head, confused to what had actually managed to cause Nova of all people to stare in wonder like that.

"Nova what is... it... oh." Just a few meters in front of them was the outer wall of Griffonstone. they had been but seconds away from smashing into it at supersonic speeds. Nova regained his composure and started laughing.

"W-what is so funny? We were almost turned into pancakes!" Trixie said.

Nova tried to answer, but failed to catch is breath and kept laughing, by this point Trixie was worried he had gone (more) insane. After a few more minutes of laughing and worrying, Nova finally managed to stop long enough to explain.

"We just fucking DITCHED Heru."

"Uh, command, come in please?" Heru spoke into the crystal, it flared to life.

"This is command, what to you have to report today? you sound winded." Command replied.

"I'm currently flying as fast as I can to the capitol, Nova and Trixie just blitz past me on the road suddenly at such a speed, it actually blew me away from the road and into a tree." He explained, picking a leaf out of his feathers as he flew.

"Crap, do you know when they will arrive at the capitol?" Command asked. A nervous tone edging into his voice.

"With how fast they were going? I think they're already there sir."

Author's Note

Heru right now.

Sorry this took a while, the combination of writers block and my new way of writing these chapters made it difficult to get this out in a timely manner.

Honestly it was going to be longer, but I decided that you guys would want something a bit sooner rather than much later.
This also means that Part 3 will have more in it for me to work with, so look forward to that!

Griffonstone - Part 3

After spending a few moments to re-organizing the inside of her home, Trixie sat back down at the front of the carriage.

"How bad was it in there?" Nova asked sympathetically.

"Trixie is going to have to spend the better part of a week finding and placing everything back, she wasn't even able to spot Heru's stuff." She said pouting. "You could have at least offered to help clean up, since it is your fault."

Nova dramatically gasped in shock. "Me? Whatever do you mean?" He said mockingly. "No, I understand, but lets be real, do you really want me rummaging through your stuff?"

Trixie groaned, but conceded to the point, after all, it was her home, and there were private things in there, most of which now laid bare for all to see if they entered. After taking a second to get her bearings, she slowly started moving them towards the distant road, which would eventually lead to the city entrance.

The pair sat in relative silence for most of it, apart from the odd comment on one of the few buildings they could spot over the massive wall, until Nova spoke up.

"Hey Trix, do you think I should be going in like this?" Nova asked, motioning to himself.

"Trixie doesn't quite understand what you mean, some context might help."

"Oh, well, it's just that I am still a wanted criminal in Equestria, and who knows who might be in this city, what with it being the capitol and everything." Nova explained.

"When you say wanted, just how wanted do you-" Trixie started to ask. Nova suddenly burst into a coughing fit. "Are you okay?" Trixie asked, moving away slightly.

"Y-yeah, sorry, I think I swallowed a bug or something, anyway, so should I wear something to conceal myself?" He tactfully interrupted and distracted.

"Well, it would be troublesome if Trixie was caught up in anything due to you, so yes, you probably should find something." She responded. "Though I don't know where you are going to find anything, it's not like you have-"

Just before Trixie could finish her sentence, she was blinded by a quick flash of light, after blinking her eyes back to working order, she turned to ask Nova what the hell he was doing. She was greeted by a rather interesting outfit suddenly falling on her. After almost driving into the wall in blind panic, Nova now sat next to Trixie in his new gear.

"Trixie swears to whatever higher powers exist, you are trying to get us killed today." She said. Although frustrated, she was clearly interested in the new clothes.

"Did you come up with the design yourself, or is this inspired by something from where you come from?" Trixie asked. "Trixie is guessing it's the latter."

"Well you called it then, it's based off a video game I played in the day, and since I needed something to cover my face and most of my body, this was the first thing that popped into my head." He explained.

"Trixie is not surprised, she doubts you have the ability to even come up with something original by this point." She said smugly.

"Oh, harsh, and that's not true-"

"Name one thing you have in your possession that you actually designed or created yourself." She interrupted.

Nova opened his mouth to argue, but was left in silence at the realization that she was right. Not being able prove her wrong, he admitted defeat and sat in silence, Trixie all the while smiling at her small victory over her smart arse companion.

After a few minuted they eventually heard, then spotted one of the entrances into the city, thankfully it appeared it was one of the less frequented ones, though there was still a small line to contend with.

As they slowly traveled up the line, Trixie whispered to Nova.

"Try and leave most of the talking to Trixie this time, she has already thought over what she is going to say." Nova nodded in response.

"Halt." A very bored looking guard said as they reached the front of the line. "Name and reason for visit please."

"Do you usually stop traveler like this from entering the city?" Nova asked, getting a small kick in the shin from Trixie.

Surprising both of them, the guard chuckled.

"No, not usually, but with the festival starting tomorrow, it helps to keep tabs on traffic coming in and out of the city, trust me this is as painful for me as it is you, guess who has to file and go through all this afterwards?" He complained. Nova tried to give him a sympathetic look, but it was made void with his mask.

"Now come on, names and reason, please, we've got others waiting." He asked again.

"My name is Trixie Lulamoon, Trixie is a traveling performer here for the festivities, this is my bodyguard and companion, uh, Rex." She bluffed.

For the most part, it seemed to have worked, but the momentary pause in coming up with a new name caused to guard to finally look up at 'Rex'. The look of confusion made what he was going to ask next obvious.

"Uh, not to be rude or anything, but, is Rex here a diamond dog?" Or maybe not so obvious, the pair had to stop themselves from sighing in relief.

"Yep, it wasn't obvious?" Nova said, trying to sound at least slightly offended. The guard, obviously trying to avoid an incident, quickly back peddled.

"Uh, no I'm sorry, sir, its just with that mask and all those clothes I wasn't quite sure, that and, uh, you're missing a lot of fur around your mouth..." He explained.

"A-ah yeah, right, well, you see, a few days back while we were traveling, THIS ONE HERE-" Nova said, shooting a glare at Trixie. "Was testing some spells for her upcoming performances, one of them went a bit wrong and next thing I know, I'm covered in this sticky... stuff. I couldn't get it out of my fur, so the only thing to do was... shave." Nova finished lying. The guard just looked horrified, then oddly sympathetic.

"Ah, yes, I myself had a slightly similar experience, though it was with a large piece of gum and only a portion of my backside, still those were the most uncomfortable days of my life, first time I ever worse pants either." He reminisced. "Alright, lemme just write that down... okay, you two are clear to enter, enjoy the Spring of Rebirth." Moving aside, the guard signaled for them to move along, as the carriage powered back to life, the pair finally entered Griffonstone.

Looking around the city, it was painfully obvious that there was a rather large class difference between what could be seen as the lower and upper levels of the city. Although not quite slum levels of bad, the streets were dirty, small houses were crammed up next to each other, though, despite all this, none of the citizens seemed to reflect their surroundings.

"Man, I've heard of class segregation before, but they have literally just separated the rich and poor parts of the city into two" Nova remarked, looking up at the 'richer' part of the city.

"Oh Trixie doubts its as bad as it seems, it doesn't seem like anyone down here is kept from the upper parts." She replied, pointing to several sets of gates with stairs leading to the upper city. "See, anyone can go up, there's no guards around either, if Trixie had to make an educated guess, she'd say this part of the city was built first, it just looks worse because it's older."

Nova shrugged, turning his attention to the people instead, all seemed happy, for the most part, though he still wouldn't want to walk down any alleyways around here, or rather, have Trixie wander down any. After riding through the city a little longer, it finally struck him what the city reminded him of.

"Wow, this is like a miniature Minas Tirith, cept it's more inspired by Victorian architecture, that was bugging me for a bit." He explained.

"That's nice, now, were in the city, what do you want to do?" Trixie asked suddenly.

"Oh, uh, well you know, Heru mentioned that giant fighting thing going on so-" He started to explain, Trixie let out a rather annoyed sigh. "Is there a problem with that?"

"Oh yeah, no sure, trying to avoid attention, so just go sign up for the very famous tournament that most of the city will be watching." She complained. "Not to mention it's just more pointless fighting, like we really need more of that."

"Aw, are you worried that I'm gonna get hurt?" Nova teased. His smiled vanished when she blushes and tries looking away.

"Uh, okay, wow, look if that's actually the case I'm flattered that you care enough, but I'll seriously be fine, I mean the arena does have that spell on it." Nova tried reasoning, Trixie shook her head.

"Trixie has come to notice that things tend to go... awry when it involves you, I mean, we were attacked by bandits so close the capital, the spiders in Triefort, and not to mention whatever it was that happened in Manehatten. Trixie is admittedly worried that something is going to happen again."

"Then why are you traveling with me in the first place?" Nova asked, confused. Going to respond, Trixie bites her lip and stops herself, before sighing somberly in defeat.

"Just, can you just be careful for a change?" She asks, the worry in her voice easy to hear.

Reaching out and patting her head, Nova gives her a comforting smile.

"Alright, I guess I'll try, cuz you asked so nicely." He says.

Nova moves to hop off the carriage, but quickly looks back to her. "Are you gonna go find somewhere for us to stay in the mean time?"

Trixie rolls her eyes at him. "Yes, Trixie will be the responsible one, as usual, you know, you could-" Nova was already out of sight before she could finish.

"Urg, he couldn't even let Trixie finish... wait, how is he going to find me lat-"

"Oh dear, that does sound like a problem, but so many cute little rabbits..."

"Yes, they are cute, until their holes start causing weaknesses in our tunnels and they start eating all our crops." Terra remarked.

"S-surely there's a better way than just, c-culling them, that just seems so brutal." Fluttershy retorted.

"We have tried relocating them, they just breed to the point where they have to move to find more food, and then look where they find themselves again." Terra explained, shaking her head. "They honestly breed to the point they kill themselves, culling their numbers regularly has been the only solution we have found. My dear Fluttershy, sometimes you have to be cruel to be kind, that's a lesson you should take to heart." Terra finished explaining.

While the two continued their conversation on the wildlife of the West, Twilight was busy finishing her analysis of the Arena. The smile on her face was big enough to make several of the lingering fighters back away worried. With a sudden flash of her horn, she was done, and scribbled one last note down onto a notepad she had brought along.

Skipping back over to the pair, it was all she could do from not exploding right then and there from excitement.

"My, you look like you just WON first place in the lottery Miss Twilight, I assume you admire the spell on the arena?" Terra asked.

"Admire doesn't even come close to what I feel about this, it's just so, so amazing!" Twilight said, no longer able to keep her composure.

"I-is it really that good?" Fluttershy asked, getting caught up in her friend's excitement.

"Good doesn't even begin to cover it! So as it turns out-"

As Twilight began gushing about the details of the ancient spell to Fluttershy, Terra quickly zoned herself out from the conversation, having already figured out the basics of the spell on her first day here, although it was admittedly impressive, the only thing stopping Terra herself from recharging the spell was the fact it was Unicorn magic, and her own wouldn't meld well with it.

What did quickly catch her attention, however, was the almost subtle, yet overwhelming feeling of power that suddenly filled her senses, turning towards the main entrance of the Arena, she was greeted with the most peculiar sight so a strangely garbed figure wearing a mask.
She immediately remembered the sensation, It was him.

She almost reached out to him to try and get his attention, she had so many questions for the strange being that had presented himself at the meeting a while back. She managed to control herself, and instead watched him curiously as he made his way over the sign up table for the tournament.

"Alright Mr. Carolus Rex, you just have to be here by 9 am tomorrow." The arena attendant said, handing Nova a few pieces of paper. "Please read these, they will explain the rules and whatnot for tomorrow, if you choose to ignore those, we cannot be held liable for anything, enjoy the Festival of Rebirth."

"Thank you, and you too." He gave a quick reply. Before moving aside for someone behind him.

As he turned and leaned onto the side of the arena wall to read what he had just been handed, his eyes caught sight of a distressingly familiar pair of mares not too far away. His entire body tensed as he felt himself pulled back into the events in the Everfree castle, his fist clenched in fury at the memory of what the elements had done to him.

"Ah, it is good to see another of our kind signing up for the event tomorrow." A voice said to him.

Snapping his head in the direction of the voice, his heart almost stops when he sees who's talking to him.

"My name is Terra, I thought I had already met all of those who came with me to the festival, or are you here on your own?" She questioned him.

Managing to pull off the best poker face, he could muster, he turned to face her, he knew she knew who he was already, he could easily recognize that mischievous look in her eyes.

Deciding to play along, he gave her a smug grin.

"I'm traveling with a few others, but that's not important, My name is Carolus Rex, it's such an honor to meet you." He answered sarcastically, giving a half arsed bow.

"My, such proper manners, it's refreshing to know that youth today still knows how to introduce themselves." She replied, equally sarcastic.

A million questions were running through Novas head, what was she up to? Was she just messing with him? Was this some sort of trap, and she had alerted the guards to come? 'No' He thought, crushing the questions, she wasn't dumb, it was more likely that she was just doing this to amuse herself.

He knew because He'd do the same.

"So, brave warrior Rex, why are you entering the Arena tomorrow? Are you here for the prize of-"

"Oh, Lady Terra, there you are!" Twilight interrupted. The two ponies trotted up beside her. "Sorry for taking so long, but we're ready to head back if you are. Oh, I'm sorry I didn't know you were talking to someone, who is-" She started asking.

"My apologies, but as I said, I am traveling with someone, and I need to go find where they have chosen for us to stay, farewell milady." Nova interrupted.

Giving Terra proper bow this time, He quickly excused himself from the group and set off to find Trixie.

Trixie was broken out of her inner thoughts when the chair next to her was suddenly filled with a very angry looking Heru.

"O-OH, Heru, it's, uh, nice to see that you managed to catch up?" She said, getting nothing but a silent glare from him.

Trixie sighed in frustration, having expected this after ditching him accidentally while hyped up on Nova.

"Okay, yes Trixie is sorry we ditched you back there, but it wasn't intentional and we almost died as a result, so stop bloody staring at Trixie like that!" She said.

"I have never had to fly so go damn hard before, just to catch up with you two." He said, obviously still slightly peeved. "As long as it wasn't intentional, it's whatever, but god dammit if I'm still not upset over it."

"Fine, be upset, but-"

"I'm telling you, that new 'magic' store is nothing but trash!" A Minotaur sitting at another table announced, clearly enjoying his drink.

"I know right? I swear on my nana that most of the stuff in there is just plastic garbage." His friend, a Griffon, affirmed.

Trixie was about to tell them off for being so loud, before the Minotaur one spoke up again.

"Especially that stupid amulet thing on display, what did he call it? 'twas all silver and red and looked completely evil."

That caught Trixie's attention, her eyes widened in surprise, and it didn't go unnoticed by Heru either.

Before either of them could say anything, the door suddenly slammed open, with Nova quickly striding over to their table and taking a seat for himself.

"Well shit, what took you so long Heru?" He teased, earning him a death glare from the griffon.

Terra entered her room and locked the door behind her, walking over to the nearby side table near her bed, she took out a small crystal.

"Minros, are you there?" She spoke to it, it slowly started to flare to life.

"Yep, coming through nice and clear this time, did you fix the crystal?"

"Of course, who do you think you're talking to, need I remind you who made these?"

"Please, I don't want to suffer through another one of your-"

"Nova is here in the city."

"Wait, what? Nov- OH, right, him... Uh, he's not blowing up the city is he?"

"No, I don't believe so, he's actually entering the tournament tomorrow, under a false identity of course."

"Nova's not like, gonna KILL Ares or something when he wins, is he? Hell have you even told Ares about this?"

"Not yet, and I guess well have to see how this plays out."

"Dammit Terra, I know you love your games but seriously, don't let that old bird get roasted or anything."

"If that happened, do you think he would taste like roast chicken?"

"Dammit Terra."

Author's Note

Even through a fucked sleep scheduled, being sick and ~~FUCKING~~ migraines, I deliver unto you all, this chapter.

Might have to slow down on these for a bit, got things coming up that will keep me away from my writing, nothing to long thought, so don't worry.

Griffonstone Arena - Day 1

There was laughter and merriment wherever one looked, the streets filled with bodies of all shapes and sizes, slowly getting into the swing of the first day of the Spring of Rebirth. As far as one could see, griffons and all manner of foreign species were either eating, drinking or simply playing in the streets.

Nova was none of the above, as he was currently running late for the tournament.

After a whole lot more running than one should do after just waking up, Nova finally caught a glimpse at the entrance to the arena, the only body in sight was a griffon guard standing outside the gate, holding a checklist.

The guard glanced up from his list, before sighing in frustration.

"I'm assuming you're Carolus Rex correct?" He asked, Nova giving him a quick nod. "Geez buddy, a few more minutes and I would have shut the entrance, but at least you're here, now, if you please hand in the forum you were given."

Nova rummaged through his pockets, handing in the handout of had been given, from what he had to fill in yesterday, it seemed to be both a rules list and questionnaire about how the fighter will be using.

The guard gave it a quick once over, his eyes almost looked surprised as he read the last part.

"Huh, that's a new one, didn't know.... well, it doesn't matter, as long as you keep it within the set rules, it should be fine, now get your tail in there and head to block D, the sign will point you the right way." The guard moved to the side, letting Nova stroll right on in.

Little did he know, Nova still hadn't read any of the rules, he took out the copy he had made the night before and started to read while he walked.

Elsewhere, Ares, Terra, Twilight, Rainbow, Applejack and, surprisingly, Pinkie had just taken their seats in the royal box above the arena stands, griffons as far as the eyes could see filled almost every seat available, every single one with an excited look on their faces.

"Quite the turnout ah see, ah think there's more griffons here than there were Ponies in Canterlot." Applejack said.

"Well, the tournament is the most popular event of the festival, since griffons are natural predators, they need a way to satisfy that part of their nature, this is one of the few legal ways." Terra explained.

Rainbow leaned closer to Pinkie "Uh, are you sure you wanna see this Pinkie, I mean apparently no ones gonna get too badly hurt cuz of the spell, but..." Rainbow said, worried for her friend.

"It's fine Dashie, I mean, sure I don't like it when others get hurt, or they hurt each other, but this is like, really important to them, and if it makes them happy I should at least give it a watch." Pinkie said, surprising everyone.

"Quite the mature response young one, you really are full of surprises, especially after how much you apparently help set up yesterday." Ares said. "Now, lets get this speech out of the way."

Standing back up, Ares walks to the edge of the box, clearing his voice.

"Silence."

The entire arena shook slightly as he spoke, followed by the complete silence and attention of everyone present.

"Today, we gather here to celebrate the passing of another harsh winter, one of the hardest we've had in recent history, but as always, our people have persevered and endured it!" A loud cheer went up through the crowd, before Ares silenced it by raising his claw.

"The winter is past us, and today is not about it, today we all gather here to see warriors of all sizes clash against one another in glorious battle, however, due to the overwhelming amount of participants this year, we have broken the battle royal stage into four different blocks to make sure we get through it in one day. Now, without further delay-" Ares turned mid speech and nodded towards Twilight, how began to release the spell she had been channeling. "Let the first battle of the Spring of Rebirth begin!"

On cue, Twilight let her magic flow, channeling it into the already present enchantment, the entire arena was suddenly cloaked in magic, marking the beginning of the tournament.

"Guess it's starting." Nova mumbled to himself. The cheering of the crowds was so loud it drowned out all the noise in the room he was in.

After having walked into the wrong room around three times, a guard had taken pity on him and not so gently dragged him to his assigned block, he found himself surrounded by mostly griffons, however he spotted the odd Pony, Dog and Minotaur every now and then.

The tension in the room was so thick you could cut it with a knife, everyone was standing or sitting in groups of those they knew, avoiding contact with their rivals.

At least most were.

"Well, well, get a look at this mutt over here boys!" A voice said.

Nova, assuming the insult was directed at him, looked up to see he was suddenly surrounded by a semi-circle of thuggish looking griffons.

"Is there something you need friend?" Nova asked, keeping his voice neutral, but inside he was laughing is arse off already.

"There sure is 'friend' how about you get your ugly mug out of here, you're stinking this place up ya' freak!" The assumed 'leader' said, getting a laugh from his friends.

By this point most of the other fighters were now focused on them, waiting for something to happen. However, Nova had just finished reading the rules, especially the part saying that any fighting before their match will result in immediate disqualification.

Nova stood straight up, then looked down at the griffon, before giving him a disarming smile.

"My, it seems you have bested me in the contest of words good sir, I shall retire from my spot and move elsewhere as you request." He said, giving his best nobles impression.

Nova slowly moved his body to tower over the griffons leader, his body visibly tightening in what looked like barely restrained fury, at least it looked like it, in reality, he was acting the part. He gave the griffon and snarl and frightening grin.

"Let's see how that shit talk helps you in the arena, bird brain." With that, he simply moved past the very frightened group of griffons to a more secluded spot in the room.

After the incident, most of the other fighters made a point to avoid Nova, which is what he had been aiming for, the less others interacted with him, the less chance they had to possibly figure out who he really was. He took a moment to stretch out his body to relax, just as he felt the bench he was sitting on shift.

Looking to his right, now sat a particularly large, red scaled, heavily armored anthropomorphic dragon.

He couldn't really help but stare at the sight, even with everything he had seen so far on his misadventures, there was a real live dragon sitting right next to him. He honestly felt like a little kid, lost in wonder over the sight.

Unfortunately, his very obvious staring (and maybe just the tiniest bit of drool) seemed to have caught the attention of said dragon.

"Excuse me, but just what are you staring at?" An annoyed, and feminine voice asked him. He mentally corrected dragon, to dragoness, before blushing slightly, embarrassed at letting himself get caught staring.

"Oh, sorry about that, it's just that, well, you're the first dragon I've really ever met, guess I was just a bit wonder-struck. I'm N-" He suddenly coughed, cutting himself off and stopping his mistake. "Sorry, I'm Carolus Rex, but you can just call me Rex."

It was obvious from the look on her face that she had expected either something rude or vulgar rather than a polite response. Finally realizing someone had just introduced themselves to her, she regained her composure.

"Well, then you may call me Ruby, I'll admit, the last thing I expected to find here today was someone willing to be friendly."

"Yeah, I get what you mean, just cuz were going to be beating the crap out of each other soon doesn't mean you have to be a dick." Nova shot a glance towards the group of griffons from earlier. "Seems not everyone thinks that way."

"I heard that commotion from the other side of the room, he's just talking tough because he managed to convince a bunch of other lowlifes that it had to be a griffon that won." Ruby said, the disgust obvious in her voice.

Nova took the chance to give her a proper once over, though she was mostly covered in sturdy looking armor, a lot of her red scales were still visible. Nova assumed that with her being a dragon, her scales alone were probably enough armor for most weapons, speaking of, she had a nasty looking spear resting against her right side, it was almost two times his size. What really caught his attention were her eyes, reptilian in nature, they were a blazing red, it was almost like looking into a ruby.

He mentally slapped himself for the terrible pun he just made concerning her name.

Nova and Ruby spent the better part of their waiting time mindlessly chatting about her first few days in Griffonstone, Nova being careful to avoid having her ask too many questions about him fake identity.

"That's enough about me though, what about you Rex? what wer-" Nova as already panicking.

Thankfully, their conversation was interrupted by a very loud horn blow, singling that it was finally their blocks time to enter the arena.

"Ah, looks like it's time to finally get out there, I'll save the questions till after I wipe the floor with you." Ruby said, a smug look on her face.

"Oh ho, feisty aren't ya? hmm, I'll tell you what though, wouldn't it be more fun for us to fight in the one on one matches, rather than the royale?" He suggested. Standing up and following the rest of the fighters.

Surprisingly, Ruby seemed to seriously consider this, eventually nodding her head.

"Alright then Rex, we have a deal, no attacking each other during this part, but you better promise me you'll make it to the finales, because I'll be waiting for you." She said, her already red eyes seeming to catch alight with passion.

As they finally stepped out into the open arena, Nova gave her a smile and thumbs up, before the guard yelled for their attention.

"Alright fighters, I know you're all excited, having to have waited so long for your turn, you lot are the final fight of the day, so make it a good one! Now, everyone spread out a nice distance from one another across the arena, hurry up now!"

Everyone rushed out to stake their position in the arena, as Nova was about to do the same, Ruby grabbed his shoulder to stop him.

"Hang on there, I'll take the far side of the arena, if you stay here, better chance we don't fight each other." With that, she suddenly took off in a strange mix of running and flying, making it to the other side before anyone else.

Nova rolled his eyes, but admitted it was a good idea, turning around, he claimed a small spot against the wall near the entrance. As the last fighter got into place, and the guards signaled Ares that they were happy with everyone's placements, Ares cleared his voice to speak once again.

"Today has been a great day of battle for us, we have had the honor of seeing some of the best warriors This year has to offer. Now, we are down to one last, glorious fight!" Ares looked down to each one of the fighters, as he eventually reached Nova, his gaze lingered a second longer, before snapping back into his speech. "Fighters, give us a good send off for the first day of the Spring of Rebirth, now, BEGIN!"

All at once there was an explosion of noise, the crowd roar to life in cheers and excitement, while more than a few of the fighters roared out in rage. The chaos began instantly, the sound of metal striking metal, bodies crashing against one another, each with the intent to kill their opponent. It took almost all of Nova's willpower not to let himself get carried away in the violent emotions himself, instead his attention was drawn to the two griffons who were quickly flying towards him.

As one got close enough to almost tear at his throat, Nova stepped to the side, and the griffons face got a nice personally one on one with the arena's wall, turning his attention to the one remaining, He quickly pulled out the blade he had been practicing within his dreams.

The blade went straight into the griffon chest, with him flying so fast, Nova didn't have to do much more than simply hold the blade up for him to impale himself on it. As he drew the blade back from the griffon, he noticed the lack of blood, checking the griffon, it seemed that rather than dead, he had been knocked out.

"Well, it's a relief to know they weren't lying about the spell then." He said to himself.

His senses alerted him to the sound of hoof beats quickly approaching him, he looked up just in time to see a unicorn summon an ungodly amount of arrows.

"Oh shi-" His words were cut short as the arrows were released.

Deciding that becoming a magic pincushion didn't sound all that fun, he rolled forward and under the magic volley, bringing his blade cleanly across the Unicorns throat. Once again, he quickly checks his blade, and once again finds no blood on it.

"So, I really don't have to worry about really hurting anyone here, huh?" He said quietly. A large grin crept its way onto his face as he looked out at the orgy of violence unfolding without him.

"I'd say it's time to cut loose a little." He announced, charging into the fray.

A long, bloodless battle later.

Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted Ruby facing off against what looked like to be a Minotaur using nothing but a giant tower shield, this quick look almost got him skewered in the shoulder by a spear from one of the six griffons flying just out of his reach.

Most of the fighters simply laid knocked out on the ground now, the crowd was now divided into groups, each cheering their favorite fighter one. Although it was nice to have his own giant fan group, having someone constantly call your name in a fight was rather distracting.

Unfortunately, the group of griffons currently keeping his attention just had to be the ones from earlier today.

"Ha ha, look at the flightless mutt, what are you gonna do to us up here?" He teased as he tried to take a poke, missing like a fuck wit.

Although Nova could simply just jump in the air to take them, he could take a lot of hits doing it, and although such attacks would never really hurt him, it would make a lot of people wonder how he was able to still stand after that. Sighing, he decided he had no other choice but to use his trump card, concentrating on his blade for a second, the blade quickly morphed into a large crossbow.

Nova simply aimed up at the now very confused griffons, and shot each one out of the sky.

"Wait, what?!" Twilight exclaimed, having just seen the diamond dog named Carolus Rex seemingly pulled a crossbow out of nowhere.

"How did he do that? I didn't see him bring anything in apart from that blade, was that magic, and is that legal?"

Terra chuckled. "Very much so, you saw that unicorn at the beginning with the magic arrows, correct? Magic is perfectly legal as long as its not too much, it's listed on his profile as his 'magic' power."

"I haven't seen him use it this whole time though, why wasn't he using it?" Rainbow asked.

"Because, he was trying to save his ace in the whole for the finals, and if I had to guess, that crossbow isn't going to be the only thing he's going to pull out." Ares answered.

Everyone seemed to accept this, but Twilight, how now found herself unable to look away from the masked Diamond Dog.

After shooting down a lot more griffons, Nova quickly turned to shoot whatever movement he heard behind him, before Ares voice exploded to life.

"All fighters stand down, the match has been concluded! He announced.

Nova let his body finally relax, looking up to see he had almost shot an earth pony wearing nothing but leather armor, which is rather grim considering he's a Pony.

"Ha, close call, one more second and there would have been one less finalist." Nova teased the Pony.

"Yeah, almost planted your head into the ground there friend." He said, returning the snark.

Turning away from the snarky Pony, He looked around to see if Ruby had made it, only to see that she and the Minotaur with the giant tower shield had apparently still been fighting one another. Before he could go over to them two guards approached, then split off to him and Pony.

"Alright, congratulations on making it this far, now come along, we are going to show you where you'll be staying tonight." The guard explained.

"Wait, you mean we can't just go home?" Nova asked, the Pony already following his guard.

"Sorry, but this is to prevent someone attacking the finalists before their fights, or to prevent any... foul play."

Nova sighed in defeat, too tired to argue with the guard, and followed in tow.

After what seemed like forever, Nova finally found himself alone in the room he had been provided, at first he thought he was going to be stuffed in a cell, given that he was still in the arena. Surprisingly, it seemed that the finalists were actually given rather nice quarters to stay in, although the lack of a window was annoying, same with the two guards he could hear on the other side of the door.

Flopping down onto the queen sized bed, He gave a long, drawn out yawn, before smiling to himself. The thought of finally getting a proper nights' sleep after all the nights he had spent awake in his dreams, endlessly making weapons then practicing with them was finally over.

Tomorrow, he could finally fight at 100%.

In the early morning sun slowly began to rise in the distance, a lone figure entered a store.

"Uh, hello dearest customer, I knew opening early would pay off." The Unicorn greeted. "Now, what can I get for you today?"

The cloaked figure said nothing, eventually walking up to the counter and pointed at the amulet on display.

Griffonstone Arena - Day 2

Nova woke with a start, a heavy handed knock slamming into the solid wood door.

"Fighter Carolus, you awake yet?" A voice shouted from the other side of the door.

Nova responded with a noise similar to that of a dying animal.

"Alright, I'll take that as a yes, you have an hour till you're needed in the arena, food will be coming in about twenty minutes." The voice informed him. Before presumably heading off to give a similar wake up call to the other fighters.

Slowly sitting up on the bed, Nova instantly regretted not slipping out of his armor before sleeping, his entire body feeling both sweaty and cramped. Thankfully, it seemed that they expected the fighters to look their best, and each room (he presumed) came equipped with a bathroom, shower included. Slowly doing a strange mix of standing and stretching, Nova pried himself off the bed and dragged himself into the bathroom.

While Nova showered, a guard and servant entered his room, the servant carrying a meal similar to a typical English breakfast. The guard gave a quick look around the room, before walking up to the bathroom door and hearing the running of water.

"Huh, he must be showering, guess he'll get a nice surprise to see breakfast earlier than expec-"

~Every night when the stars come out, am I the only living soul around~

"Is he... singing?" The servant asked.

"Yeah, huh, even sounds like there's music in there as well."

"That's silly, where would the music even be coming from? This isn't Equestria after all." The servant dismissed, placing the meal down and leaving the room.

The guard lingered at the door for a second, before shrugging and following suit.

After finishing his shower and turning the music off, stared at his body as he began drying himself off. He almost didn't recognize himself anymore, his hair had grown to what almost looked like a mullet by this point, he made a note to fix that as soon as possible. His once rather flat stomach now had turned toned with some serious muscle starting to show, in fact, overall his body seemed to have beefed up slightly.

What really caught his attention was his glowing limbs, while they usually just looked like almost see through, golden prosthetics, now they seemed to shine almost radiantly. That wasn't all though, he could feel an abnormal amount of power pulsing perpetually through each one.

"Hmm, guess all that lucid dreaming really was taking its toll on me." He assumed aloud.

Deciding he'd ogled himself long enough already, He focused and re-equipped his armor back onto himself before leaving the bathroom, as soon as he entered the room, he could already tell someone had been in here while he was busy showering. Assuming the worst, he quickly checked around the room to make sure no one was still hiding inside, just as he was about to look under the bed, his eyes caught sight of the meal they had left for him.

Now feeling a bit stupid for assuming the worst, he took a calming breath before sitting down and digging into his food.

Meanwhile, somewhere on the lower level of the city, a robed figure ducked into an alleyway, quickly looking back to see if they were followed, they snapped their claws twice and waited, after a few moments, the sounds of hooves striking the cobbled path behind them alerted them.
Spinning around, they let out a sigh of relief when they saw a similarly hooded figure.

"You shouldn't approach from behind like that, I thought the point of the signal was for you to know it was me."

"Just making sure, can't be too careful after all, now, do you have it?"

Reaching into their robes, the first figure pulled out a small brown bag, handing it over, a magical aura grasped the bag and floated it over to the second figure, who proceeded to look inside.

"Yes, this is defiantly the artifact, I cannot begin to fathom how such a simple merchant managed to get their grasp on this amulet, but it doesn't matter." The second figure floated the bag back to the first, who snatched it and hid it within their robes once again.

"This will defiantly allow you to carry out your plans, however, best not to use it till the very last minute, after all they say power is corrupting, and isn't that what your little group claims it's trying to fight against?"

"Indeed, I have to thank you for alerting us to this, I don't know what your stakes in our efforts are, but it doesn't matter." The figure turned and looked up pass the upper level city, all the way to the palace. "As long as it helps us get rid of that old bastard, I'll use anything I have to."

Nova followed behind the rest of the fighters as they were escorted back to the arena, he could already feel the excitement of the crowd as he was the last one to walk out into the giant battlefield, the guard behind him pointed to his spot with the rest of the D block finalists.

He gave Ruby a quick smile as he took his place beside her, next to her was the Earth Pony and beside him the Minotaur, the other block winners were also similarly lined up. Looking up at the royal box, he saw Ares getting ready to talk.

"Welcome everybody, to the second day of the Spring of Rebirth Tournament! He announced. The crowd went wild with cheers, before eventually quieting down to let Ares continue.

"Today, we come to see the best fighters from yesterdays free-for-all fight it out in an epic four way battle, each fighter will be randomly chosen, and be taken to the enclosed arena towards the middle.

Nova took a second to look behind him, where he could see what looked to be a rather large, if archaic, boxing arena.

"Random huh?" Ruby whispered to him. "Let's hope we don't get pulled to fight in the same bout, would be annoying if we had to waste of strength fighting someone else before each other."

"Nah, he says its random, but if I had to guess, there's going to be one fighter from each block fighting one another. If I had to guess, the only random part will be who goes to fight from each block." A sudden nudge from one of the nearby guards told him he needed to be quiet.

"Now, without wasting anymore time, lets see who the first fighter will be!" Ares announced, seemingly reaching into a bag filled with names.

"The first fighter shall be Carolus Rex from block D, please step forward!" Ares announced.

Nova almost had to do a double take when he heard his fake name get called, after pointing to himself, as is to ask, 'Me?', He took a step forward away from the rest of his block. Ares reached back down into the bag.

"Second shall be Piper from block B, also step forward."

Taking their place next to Nova was a griffon, presumably female by the name, though unlike a lot of the griffons he had seen up to now, Piper seemed a bit different, in that she looked more like a seagull than an eagle. Most of her feathers and fur was a brilliant white, as for her weapons, she seemed to have a pair of rather nasty looking metal gauntlets, making her natural weapons even more deadly, and if that wasn't enough, the outer sides of the gauntlets each had large blades coming out of them.

"Third will be Digsby, block C, step forward.

Stepping up next to Piper was what Nova assumed to be an actual Diamond Dog. Digsby was a shorty that pretty much looked like what would happen if a greyhound and a human got mushed together to create a fursona, he had a dirty black coat, with a long white shirt, short brown pants and a red scarf. His weapon of choice, funny enough, seemed to be a shovel with serrated edges. Given how different the two of them looked, he wondered how anyone mistook him for a Diamond Dog, but remembered all the times they said how ugly he was for one.

"Last but not least, from block A, Heru, step forward!"

Nova almost lost his footing when he heard the name. Sure enough, there Heru was, casually strolling up to take his place. He was wearing what looked like a modified version of the typical guards armor, and instead of a spear, he held a huge halberd. Nova simply continued to stare at him until Heru could feel his eyes burning into him, the cheeky bastard just smiled back and gave a thumbs up.

With the four fighters decided, the guards started shepherding the rest to the sidelines while the four selected began walking towards the ring, Nova took the chance to quickly jog up beside Heru.

"Ok you bastard, you got into the city way after us, how the hell did you even manage to get into the tournament?" Nova asked.

"So I take it I surprised you?" Heru said with a smug look on his face. "To answer your question, let's just say that being a guard has its benefits, anyway, you might want to back off Carolus, before somebody gets curious about why were so talkative."

Still not happy with the given answer, Nova conceded and let Heru move ahead of him. Upon reaching the ring, the guards instructed each fighter to take one corner, Nova, being the lazy prick he his, took the corner he was closest to, with Heru and Piper taking his sides, and Digsby taking the furthest corner.

"The fighters are finally in place, and with the beginning of this fight, I hereby officially welcome you all to the second day of the Spring of Rebirth. Fighters, BEGIN!"

As soon as the words left Ares mouth, both Heru and Piper launched themselves far into the air and instantly locked weapons with one another. The two left behind just awkwardly stared at the griffons for a second, before Digsby cleared his throat.

"Eh, let the griffons deal with griffons, guess it's you against me kin." He said with a shrug.

"Alright, sounds good to me, good luck." Nova responded, drawing his blade from yesterday.

Wanting to get a chance to smack Heru around as quickly as possible, Nova rushed forward, drawing his blade and swiping at Digsby's chest. The real Diamond Dog quickly jumped backwards up onto the rings' corner post, taking the chance to swing down onto Nova's head, who barely managed to raise his weapon in time to block.

"Quick little bastard, aren't you?" Nova taunted.

Digsby just smiled, suddenly hooking the corner of his shovel under Nova's blade and launching himself forward, as he tumbled, the blade was forcibly ripped from his grasp, clattering to the ground some distance away. Digsby quickly caught himself and spun around, hoping to catch his unarmed opponent off guard, only to be met with a pair of twin axes catching his shovel.

"W-what? Where do you get those? I only saw you enter with that blade!" Digsby said, stupefied.

Nova responded with a harsh kick to his midriff, sending the smaller opponent reeling to the ground. Taking a step forward and raising the axes, he prepared to end the fight, however, Digsby quickly reached into his pocket and through it towards Nova.

"Pocket sand!" He triumphantly announced as it harmlessly bounced off Nova's mask.

Nova just stared down at the small dog as condescendingly as possible while wearing a mask.

"Boy you all kinds of stupi-"

His insult was cut off when Heru's halberd slammed down right onto the downed Diamond Dog's chest, immediately knocking him out. Nova was about to say something before, yet again, getting cut off when the unconscious body of Piper suddenly slammed down onto the ring right beside him, causing him to jump.

"Jesus crust Heru, you're making me look bad here." He said, allowing him to pull his halberd free and take his stance.

"Have you ever looked in a mirror? Not that hard to do."

"Big words for a guard that couldn't even handle a few spiders, you're not gonna panic throw that halberd at me, are you?"

Nova's taunt was successful, pissing of Heru enough to have him recklessly move forward and violently trust the halberd towards his stomach. Nova responded by dropping both axes, they disappeared as he dodged the stab, Heru followed up with a downwards slice, but was deflected by Nova's newly summoned weapon.

Heru's was visibly confused by the drastic switch in weapons, before shaking it off and going for another quick stab, Nova once against avoided the blow, taking a step closer towards Heru this time. Trying to keep Nova within the effective range of his halberd, he tried to pace back, lashing out with a series of large horizontal swings.

In the blink of an eye, Nova effortlessly moves through the desperate swing, Heru felt his weapon finally land a hit, only to despair when he saw it was the shaft of his weapon. He didn't have time to pull back before Nova's fist collided with the side of his head, the knuckle of the knife making it all that much worse as he was sent crashing across the ground.

Nova was startled by he effectiveness of his blow, before he noticed the light golden glow, barely visible through the cracks in his armor.

Heru, barely managing to fight off the arena's best efforts to knock him out due to the force of the blow, leaned against his halberd for support and he shakily got to his feet, only to feel a sharp pain enter his chest. Looking down, he could barely make out the knife that had somehow managed to pierce through his chest guard, he grunted in pain when a hand suddenly grasped its handle.

As Heru looked up, Nova gave him a warm smile before brutally pulling the knife back out, the spell instantly stole his consciousness from him.

The entire arena sat in shocked silence, before erupting into a frenzy of deafening cheers.

"My, that was an exhilarating first battle, guess it's time to announce Rex as the winner and move on to the next round."

As Ares went to do just that, Applejack decided to voice her confusion.

"Ah don't get it, why would that Diamond Dog switch ta such ah small weapon when he had those two axes?" She asked, looking to Terra for a possible answer.

"Well, the halberd is a very dangerous weapon, being both a spear and axe gives it much versatility, and its range can keep the user safe, but, that range can also be its downfall, if someone were to get too close with a weapon like a short sword or knife, the long reach of the halberd is instantly turned against it, basically turning it into a metal pole." Terra explained.

"Yeah, yeah, thats all boring and whatever, you know what else was boring? How he just tossed the knife at him!" Rainbow exclaimed. "I mean it was cool when he just straight up whacked him before that, but why did he have to go and ruin it afterwards?"

"Yeah, but he won." Pinkie said.

"But it wasn't awesome!" She retorted.

"The part where he slowly walked up afterwards and pulled the knife out wasn't awesome enough?" Pinkie argued back.

Rainbow tried to respond, but found he didn't have a counter argument, and sat there quietly pouting, waiting for the next fight.

Nova was having a hard time keeping himself from laughing. He currently stood there with the three remaining fighters, and each one was from block D.

"Ladies and gentle-griffons, right now you are all seeing history in the making!" Ares started to announce. "For the first time in this tournament's history, the finalists are not only all from the same block, but each a different species, none of which include one of our own kind!"

The crowd gave an uneasy cheer, it was clear that they weren't entirely thrilled that not even a single griffon had managed to make it to the finals this year.

"What is this lack of a reaction? You should all be thankful that these glorious fighters have chosen to grace our arena with their fierce skill and strength, is that not why you all came here today?!" Ares worked the crowd.

A quiet murmur made its way through the arena, before slowly some started to cheer, it slowly grew till the whole arena was shouting in agreement and encouragement.

"That's more like it, now without any further delay, let us introduce our finalists! First, we have the fierce dragoness Ruby, second, we have the unwavering Minotaur Stout-arm, Thirdly, is the overpowering Earth Pony Quake, and last but not least, the masked Diamond Dog N- I mean Carolus Rex!"

Nova seriously considered unmasking himself for giggles, drama and mass panic, he barely managed to restrain himself.

Barely.

Author's Note

Good part getting close, hold onto your butts.

Chapter 0

There, sat a man, or was it a woman? who could tell, but either way someone sat there, watching as everything went on, and only one thought crossed their Mind.

"This is rather Dull."

Infinite existence can get boring sometimes, because eventually, your going to have seen everything once, and this being had seen everything once, and then little bit more to boot.

There were so many worlds to watch, each having different beings doing different things at different times, but to this cosmic being, it had all become repetitive.

Sure, sometimes something would happen, a world war breaking out, an evil spirit freeing itself, but after a while those even these events started to lose their edge.

So that's when 'they' made the 'fuck everything up' Button.
It was placed quite close to 'them', only a hands reach away, it was rather large as well, and quite red, sometimes it became difficult for 'them' not to just press it a bunch of times, but the side effects of that might be a little to extreme.

'they' wondered what would happen this time, even with all 'their' knowledge at 'their' disposal, one could never quite predict what would happen once the button was pressed, at least it always managed to provide sufficient entertainment, designed to be completely random, It could simply make a flower bloom early, or blow an entire race out of existence.

Ever so slowly, 'they' reached over, hand hovering over the button, before slamming it down.

Celestia Had just finished a day of Politics, with the return of her sister she no longer had to watch the night, so after a quiet dinner, or Lunch for Luna, she retired to her room for a well earned rest.

It was as she lay down she felt something happen, and whatever it was, It didn't feel good.

Author's Note

This chapter doesn't really have much importance other than setting the scene.
OR MAYBE ITS THE MOST IMPORTANT SCENE TO EXIST.