The time has finally come... to whip some glorious ass and bathe in glory for a thousand moons....

Ok so maybe that's a little much for a simple race but hey! I'm trying to get some energy here!

I look out over a sea of technicolor ponies watching the apple's warm up and me sitting in the middle of some trees cross legged with my eyes closed...or I assume cuz y'know, my eyes are closed

I am currently trying to connect myself to the land, to feel the roots of the trees beneath me to hear their opinion and where their allegiance lies...it was the with the apple's no contest, the race would be decided by whoever made the most cider within thirty minutes with no outside help and while the Apple's did have built up stamina for days they are used to long, steady marathons not quick, explosive and, not to mention, quality work they could gas out pretty quick but I'm not worried they can handle it no matter what happens they will win this day

I smile as I hear our competition start to roll up, so I give a small smile and pray that the spirits watch this contest and give us the strength we need to win...as well as to sit back and enjoy the show...

I open my eyes to see the Apple's turn to greet the Flim Flam brothers...I cannot take them seriously with that name

The Super Speedy Cider Squeezy stops in front of the designated area and the brothers stare us down...from their couch....I don't like them

I look over to the apple's to probably say some words of encouragement but I see Twilight andSpike speaking to them...maybe AJ needs to speak with her more, and besides when I get competitive I don't like to talk to anyone anyways

"Attention everypony! Attention!" I look over at our audience and see Mayor mare and Time Turner walk out, and Twilight starts to rejoin the crowd but Spike hops off her back and makes his way over to me

"Sup man! Just wanted to see if you're ready for this?"

I just look off and feel a breeze pass under me chin, "Spike, do you feel that wind?"

He gives me a look, and instead of answering, he surprises me by closing his eyes and tries to feel it...strange...

With his eyes closed, he surprises me again by answering "Yeah, it feels like it's...excited?..." he opens his eyes and looks up into my startled face

"What? Was I wrong?" he asks shyly

"No...not at all..." This...raises some questions...

"Is everypony ready!?"

"Hey monkey boy! Ya'll ready?!" came the voice of Granny Smith taking me from my stunned silence, I shake my head and yell ready

I hear as the Flim Flam brothers yell ready and all eyes turn to time turner as he turns the large hourglass too begin

"GO!"

And so it began

Without thinking I rush forward and hurl my weight against the largest tree on our designated side shaking loose all of the delicious treasures its mighty branches held

The red fruit all fell into the six buckets at the base of the tree and without missing a beat I scoop up the buckets, rush over to Granny Smith, drop them off for inspection and head back out into the orchard to start all over again. I quickly look over my shoulder to see where my team is compared to our competition...they're...just staring at me... the fuck are they doing? I look out at the competition and the crowd and they all wore the same expression. I realized something...maybe I moved a liiiiiittle too fast....great......

"What're you guys waiting for? Half Life 3?! Get moving!" Yeah I pulled out the cheap Half Life 3 joke so what? I have a right to! When I went into Cryo it was still 'in production'

My outburst, while confusing to the adorably ignorant ponies woke them up from their stupor and they start moving quick. I look at the Flim Flam brothers to see they begin loading apples into their machine, now the race is on.

About twenty minutes into the race I can see the Apple's were on their last legs, they had been going full steam since the beginning and I can tell their hurting now all the while the Flim Flam brothers and their machine....well their machine, showed no signs of slowing down.

I can see the worry in the Apple family's eyes....no, i'm not gonna let this happen

"Don't give up!" I hear from the crowd, I look and I see Spike dashing from the audience, all eyes were on him

"We know you can win! You're the Apple family! The most hard working farm ponies in Equestria!" He yells with a fist thrusted in the air and a glint in his eye...this guy...

I look back at the Apple family and see their faces free of doubt strengthened by the words of this little dragon...he just gets more and more interesting

You know what? Time to get serious, I take off towards the southern orchard like a bullet, behind me I can hear the Flim Flam brothers mocking me

"Oh what's wrong? Where are you going little monkey? Did we scare you off?"

"Finally realized our technological superiority? Don't want to have to look into the eyes of the family you failed?" Oh I could feel the smug smiles on their faces...and it's going to be that much more delicious when I wipe those looks right off their faces.

I make it into a part of the orchard where no one could see me, I look around and see the trees all had buckets around their trunks as I knew they would which was why I came to the southern orchard, I had set this up last night in case I needed a trump card, looks like I needed after all. I sat down and focused my spirit, this took around five minutes as I needed to calm down and find the essence of the spirits that were around me, soon however I found it and I called out

"Great Quetzalcoatl grant me your winds, I need them for a trivial, meaningless task that you will enjoy..." the trees around me rustle with the winds as they rush to my outstretched hand, I close my eyes and imagine the gentle breeze accelerate and sharpen into a fine edge in my hand, it gives off a faint glow and a high pitch whistling sound, almost like music, I grin as I bring my hand to my face

"Thank you spirit....now let the show begin..." with a quick practiced move of my arm willing the wind to cut only the ripe apples from all the trees two hundred feet in front of me filling all the buckets and not leaving a single scratch on the trees themselves...I got skillzz yo....

I hear a whistle behind and realize it was the two minute warning...Shit! I gotta go! I command the wind to force the buckets to me around,about ten buckets full of apples land in front of me, I loop my arms through the rope handles of each one and heft them onto my back

"Oof! Oh god...oooooh I'm out of shape..." I say as I sprint with the surprisingly heavy buckets on my back towards victory

3rd-person POV

The situation between the Apple's and the Flim Flam brothers had turned to the brothers favor soon as the the Apple's Simian friend had left them, without him supplementing each one of their jobs the full weight of their burdens was on them, they were slowing down and the brothers, seeing the opportunity after the only threat that they saw apparently abandon them switched their machine to full speed, steam erupting from their machine as it started pumping out barrel after barrel of cider quickly closing the distance, however in doing so it started taking in twigs, rotten apples, leaves and all manner of debris and refuse that degraded each barrel more and more the longer it ran at this speed.

The mane six stood by and watched helpless as they saw the brothers barrels number overtake the Apple's, almost everyone in the crowd shared their looks of worry, they finally realized just how hard the Apple's work especially since it was just for them, the words of the strange naked monkey yesterday now seemed like more of a gut punch now to each one of them than unwanted preaching. However not all shared the worry, Spike stood tall in front of the crowd undaunted with a smile on his snout, giving cheers of encouragement to the Apple's, this look of confidence was shared by each one of the Apple's as well not one giving an inch and even, in the case of Applebloom, pushing even harder at the young drakes cheers.

The brothers leaned back with smug smiles on their faces as they looked out at the Apple's. They decided it would be fun to have a little fun with their competition

"Aww what's the matter Apple's? Having trouble now that your pet monkey isn't here to help you?" Flam sneered from the top of their machine

The Apple's ignored them

"Yes brother, apparently his words were nothing but hot air" Flim replied

Again they were ignored

"I mean seriously, did he honestly think they would win? Technology trumps all!"

...

"What a fool! He should have kept his barbaric nose out of our business and this wouldn't be happening"

"And now he's abandoned them, looks like he couldn't face the people he failed!" with that the two brothers laughed

"Shut up..." and they did, they turned and looked at the element of honesty as did the crowd

"Ya'll don't know a dern thing about 'im!" she yelled back at them, her emerald eyes burning with an extreme intensity, surprised looks graced the all within earshot at her words, they were so busy they couldn't hear the two minute warning

"He's a hard worker" she states taking a step toward the brothers

"He's funny" another step

"He's really nice" and another

"He believed in us when no one else did! And ah promise you both right here and now..." now she was looking right up into their eyes from the ground and yet they felt like the smallest ponies there, "He. Did. Not. Abandon. Us!" And at that moment the leaves of the trees leading to the southern orchard erupted as everyone turned and saw Mark carrying ten buckets filled to the brim with apples so plump and delicious they looked as though you could stick a straw into it and you could drink it straight from the fruit.

"Ahem" the brothers, who had been staring at the monkey in both shock and worry, looked back at AJ who wore a smug expression

"Told ya" and with that she sprinted back to her family

Mark's-POV

I sprint as fast as I can across the field looking like a blur to most, I rush past Aj and Granny Smith since I know for a fact that each one of these apples were grade A, in quick succession I empty each bucket into the grinder that Big mac was operating on and hopped onto the treadmill lightly pushing the exhausted stallion off, as soon as he was out of the way I pushed with all my might causing some smoke to come off the machine, all the while AJ had ran up behind me quickly replacing barrel after barrel as soon as they were full, soon all the barrels were filled and stacked into a pyramid and not long after, the final bell rang. I leaped off the treadmill and sprinted back towards the brothers, with a hop I landed on the machines railing, standing tall with my head held high, a smug grin on my face and my arms crossed, they gaped up at me as did the crowd and some of the Apple family

all was quite as the wind blew carrying leaves in a flourish behind me

"You may want to buy a blender" I say with smile

"..."

"..."

"...Wha-"

"So you can drink it all in"

If I had sunglasses on at the time I would have lifted them off my face to reveal an even nicer pair of sunglasses underneath. Cheering erupted behind me at my performance. While I reveled in the moment I felt a tsunami of fatigue slam into me, I wobbled where I stood, my eyesight growing blurry, that was when I felt a sharp pain in my right hand, I looked down and saw a circular gash running the width of my hand, right where the wind had been, why hadn't I felt it before, as soon as I saw this was when blackness began to frame the edges of my vision, soon I collapse and let unconsciousness take me.

3rd-person POV, somewhere in the wastes

The hive of Queen Chrysalis, the last of the vast legions of the ancient changelings, loudly buzzed, agitated by some unknown force, for the past few days an intense feeling of unease and hostility permeating the hive like a disease

Chrysalis herself has been anxious, feeling as though a noose was slowly tightening itself around her throat, she sits in her throne room contemplating the new feelings of helplessness, as though she wasn't in control, like all that she was wasn't hers alone to command anymore

"Why am I feeling like this? Something isn't right, everything feels...wrong...."

Suddenly the western wall of the hive exploded rain chunks of chitin reinforced hive wall plummeting to the ground causing chambers to collapse crushing any unlucky changelings caught beneath the rubble, in a blink of an eye Chrysalis was surrounded by an army of her hive, workers, warriors elite royal guards all surrounding their ruler with fanatical zeal

Chrysalis soon overcomes her surprise and her face shows indignant rage

"WHO DARES TO ATTACK QUEEN CHRYSALIS! RULER OF THE CHANGELINGS!?"

silence, an eerie silence permeated the throne room, the dust kicked up from the explosion, them came the laughter, a garbled meaty putrid sounding laughter filled the throne room and filled the rooms emotion feeding occupants with not the soft, sweet taste of mirth, but the black ashen taste of evil itself. Suddenly a deep, terrible voice rings out from the obscuring dust

"Have you forgotten so easily?" two sickly green eyes faintly glow from the dust. A split second later two shadows burst from the cloud and colliding into two elite changeling guards, all the eyes of the changelings including their queen turned to see the mutilated corpses of two elite guards, their eyes gazed in terror at their twisted broken bodies, joints bent at disturbing angles, compound fractures across major limbs, spinal vertebrae broken and skulls caved in from some massive force

"Have you forgotten your purpose?"

Queen Chrysalis, through great effort, yelled out at the invader

"Forgotten what?! WHO ARE YOU!?"

"Such arrogance, you have forgotten"

Immediately the shades shot from the shadows of the throne room snatching up Queen Chrysalis dragging her towards the dust cloud, she screams in surprise and looks back at her subjects for help attempting to mentally command them to help her, yet she was met with a terrifying sight, the eyes of her subjects were glowing the same pale green as their attacker. In fact as she was being taken closer and closer to the cloud she began to hear the mysterious attackers voice

'For you see, what you, and all of your misbegotten race have forgotten'

A fat, green, foul smelling, maggot encrusted forearm reached out from the dust wrapping it's decomposed digits around the queens throat, as she struggles her eyes are forced open by an unseen force, she was compelled to meet this beings eyes, to give in to his words and with that feeling, her body stopped struggling

"IS THE FACE OF YOUR GOD!!!!" a badly decomposed face of a minotaur erupted from the dust clearing it away from the throne room in an instant, planting fear in the heart of the changeling queen for more than one reason. Not wasn't his appearance or her current situation terrify her the most, it was his words the filled her body with fear...the Dark Shaper had returned.

A long disgusting smile grew along the living corpses maw

"Heh heh heh heh, so you do remember, as you should" dropping the queen to the floor, "You know now who I am, and yet you resist me...how admirable, but it is all in vain little bug' anger flashes through her, she was not a bug and she was not going to let some relic of a long dead era call her such

Chrysalis exploded from where she lay charging any magic she had available to her but due to her peoples current situation of a lack of food she was weak...and He was far from weak

He caught her by her horn blocking all magic from leaving her body, he snarls and slams her into the ground, her breath leaving her as her face froze in agony, she was sure she had broken three or four ribs from that alone and he only used one hand, he hefted her up to look at him

"You DARE to attempt to strike a GOD?! Let alone your CREATOR?!" Queen Chrysalis looks up through her hair to meet the eyes of the monster but quickly looked away so as not to fall under his control again and fought with all the will she had to not give into his mental commands

"So the slave challenges the master, but don't you see?" he gestures across the throne room "Your armies are MINE! Your body is BROKEN! You came from me, and I will decide when to take you BACK!...but I am not without compassion.... take her away, I will come for her in time she will be made to obey one way...or another... " The monster looks out at his newly acquired army, rush forward to take the ex-queen away, his smile found it's way to his deformed maw once again as he watched her kick and scream, demanding to be released and for him to release her people, he spoke to himself when she was out of sight

"Let this day be known as the day that darkness has reawakened, and reconquest of this miserable rock can begin" He throws his head back giving out a deep bellowing laugh that's seemed too chill the very blood of anything that heard it's sickly sound on the wind

Mark's-POV

My eyes snap open, what the hell was that? It was a small pulse, but it was unmistakable, something woke up...

wait where was I? I look around to see that I had been moved under a tree, I look out to see a line at the Apple's stand and the Super Speedy Cider Squeeze parked by the wayside with the brothers no where to be seen, I start to sit up from where I was lying , I had a headache, my hand stung to high holy hell and my body felt like it had fifty pounds of extra weight on it, yep I remember the feeling, physical and mental overload from using magic to augment myself, should've taken it easy, but then again, what in life is worth doing that's easy?

"Hey he's awake!" I jump at the voice, suddenly I feel three weights slam into my side, I look to see who it was to find the CMC hugging my chest, this is a great way to wake up

"Hey what's going on?" I ask laughing lightly

"Ya'll was so cool!" Applebloom said

"You were all zoom, smash all over the place" Sweetie Belle piped up

"And tied it all together with a nice one-liner, classy" this came from the ever smart aleck Scootaloo

"Eh, I was alright" I say with an embarrassed smile, no matter how many times people compliment me I still get easily flustered.

"Alright? You were straight up amazing!" a new voice chimes in, I look to see who it was to see Spike running over to me with a hand raised for a high five to which I reciprocated, I look passed him to see the rest of the mane 6 and Big Mac standing there with smiles on their faces, well except for Rarity but, she wasn't scowling so that's good

"So?...Did we win?" I ask with a smile

AJ walked up to me with a big smile on her face while offering me a hoof up

"What do you think sugar cube?" she asked with a raised eyebrow

I laugh as I grab her hoof to let her pull me up

"So what happened to the brothers?" I asked curiously

"Well, after the barrel counting putting us ahead by one" she said with a smile and a wink in my direction, why did my heart skip?

"Those two varmints tried to convince the other ponies that this was a fluke, that you wouldn't always be there to help, and that their contraption would always be there, and i'm kinda sore to say that they were right and that some of the ponies in the crowd started to get unsure looks...the brothers started handing out free samples of their cider, but..." she gave me a devious smirk, oh i'm loving this!

"Because they switched their machine on to maximum speed it made mistakes, dirt, twigs, rotten apples, bugs! They were all put into their cider, all it took was one drink and ponies were ready to lynch'em out of town, they tried to take their machine with them but we stopped those varmints before they could, you earned that machine, what ever you planned to do with it is up to you" She says with a smile

I look out over at the crowd and my new quarry, I smile as I felt a sense of pride long forgotten, the joy of knowing I gave my all for someone, and even better they appreciate it

"Come on, let's go enjoy ourselves!" I yell with a fist punching the air, and this was joined by the voices of my friends, and the rest of the day was filled with the sounds of celebration

(Bonus)

The Golden Oaks library usually as quiet as quiet can be as is the case with any self respecting library, however tonight the sounds of laughter and games filled the night air around it. The celebration that started at Sweet Apple Acres after the defeat of the Flim Flam brothers somehow continued well into the night and carried over to Twilights after she suggested a celebratory sleepover, I just rolled my eyes at the suggestion and went back to basking in the sun, however I noticed seven pairs of expectant eyes waiting for my response, I mean how could I say no?

So that's where I was chilling on the floor sitting next to mah boy Spike as I had made it very clear that if I was going to be in a sleep over with six girls I wanted to have back up

The sleepover started off with some music and drinks, some soft some hard, tel you guys one thing AJ could put them away, I don't drink myself but it sure is fun to see others get completely plastered, or at the very least pretty buzzed

And this is where I fine myself now, since Pinkie Pie had suggested a game of truth or dare and of course I thought this would be worth some laughs so obviously I joined in

"Alright every pony let's get started!" Yelled Pinkie as she spun the bottle, and...what luck! It landed on me lovely.

"So Markie, Truth or Dare?" As she said this all the eyes in the room watched me attentively, and me I just gave my signature grin and half lidded eyes

"Hit me with that dare" I say with confidence

"Ok, I dare you....to stand on your hand for ten minutes" Pinkie says with a smile

so an easy one to start huh? Alright, I stand from where I was sitting stretch a little hands above my head and!... I kneel down and place my feet on top of my hands, my grin was wide across my face, I'm such a little shit

Varying different faces were worn by the ponies and my friend Spike, most were questioning but Spike just had a grin the same as mine

"Hey, I'm standin' on my hands" This caused a wave of laughter

The game continued on through the night with the truths and the dares becoming more and more insane the more drinks were downed

Eventually things started to wind down, the drinks and food was put away and the sleeping bags were pulled out, I was helping Spike putting stuff away while the girls continued to enjoy the party

I was currently carrying a stack of food while eating and looked down at Spike whose face was a bit sullen I wonder what's wrong with him?

"Hey Spike, what's wrong?" I ask and he glances up at me with a startled look as he tries to hide it, too late buddy

"N-nothing! Nothings wrong"

"Spike?" I ask again with a raised eyebrow

"*sigh* It's just....I sometimes feel...."

"...yeah?..."

"I sometimes feel, unimportant, like I'm just a butler to them you know? I mean don't get me wrong! I am incredibly grateful to Twilight and everyone else for all that they've done for me but, I mean if you hadn't say anything I would be up in my...basket...trying to will myself asleep, I just feel like I'm just-" I stopped him by kneeling down and wrapping my arms around his tiny body, I had been sensing this for a while now, a small cloud over his head

"Spike...your far more than some dragon butler, I can tell, you're meant to do something in this world" His emerald gaze up into mine with a flicker of hope in them, like a spark, and by god I was gonna see it turn into a wildfire

"Do you mean that?"

"Of course, you remind me a lot of...myself..." now that's a curious thought

"What do you mean?" I pull myself from my thought, probably best not to make assumptions

"Not sure myself, but you're not just someone to forget, I look at you and I see a protector,someone who, while he may trip and fall, he will get back up and fight for what he believes in, like a... a-"

"Like a guardian?" my eyes widen...

"Mark?"

"Maybe Spike" I say with a warm smile, "just maybe"

I place my hand on the top of his head and he gave me a grateful smile

"Now come on, let's see what the girls are up to in our absence"

We walk in to here Rainbow Dash trying to give ...poetry? What?

Twilight turns to me with a funny look on her face, looks like she was a bit buzzed, I look out to see the rest of the ponies had this same look on their faces, even Rarity was giving me a funny lop sided smile to which I reciprocated

"Maaaark! Great you're here! Your up now, everyone else already went!"

"What are you talking about Twilight"

"We decided to have a great big poetry contest to see who could say the best poem and right now Twilights in the lead with her william shakes pony piece" said Pinkie with a lot of enthusiasm, I look over at Twilight as she gives me a smug grin

I look at Spike, he just shrugs his shoulders at me

"Well" I start, " I don't think Dash would forgive me if i get beaten by Twilight of all ponies" a say earning myself a glare from said unicorn and a laugh from everyone else

I walk in front of my audience while I go through my mind to decide what poem I should recite, then I took one look at Spike and knew exactly what I should recite, one of my favorites

"Alright ladies and amazing young dragons I will retire you a poem from my culture-"

"So it goes a little something like, "I'm a big dumb brute I like to fling my own-" I cut Rarity off before she could finish that sentence

"Not even close Snowflake" Rarity's snout scrunched up at my nickname for her

"Snowflake? What's that supposed to me-"

"Anyway, let's get this underway, I wanna get to sleep, and Spike!" Spike downward looking eyes sped up to look at me in surprise, "don't just listen to this, let it in, let it speak to you, I think you'll enjoy it"

I clear my throat as I dress the crowd

"This poem has influenced me throughout my life, it has helped shape my ideals, my decisions and my outlook, it was written a long time ago by a Mr.William Ernest Henley, I believe this poem personifies what it means to be truly human, to stand in the face of overwhelming adversity and to never give in, to be thankful for the soul you've be given and to always know you are the decider of your own fate, the poems name is 'invictus'"

I look out and see all eyes that were once droopy either by drink or by sleep was now wide awake at my words, good, I think they all need to hear this

"Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
for my unconquorable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeoning of chance
my head is bloody but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
looms but the horror of the shade,
and yet the menace of the years
finds, and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
how charged the punishments the scroll.
I am the master of my fate
I am the captain of my soul."

As I finish the poem I look out to see gobsmacked faces, I just smile and walk off. I grab the still starstruck Spike off the floor and put him under my arm, as I walk up the stairs to crash in Twilights room where my sleeping bag was I turn, and with a smirk on my face I say

"I win"

Author's Note

Ok first off, I am very sorry for the extremely long wait, a lot has gone down, basically everything bad that could've happened did and I was left to pick up a lot of pieces with my family my work and my social life, admittedly I did get a little lazy a wile ago and Fallout 4 had come out then Zootopia, I mean jesus! Zootopia was great! Anyway off topic I will try to get more chapters out as quick as I can while also making sure their better quality unlike this one, like before I'm not to happy with it but still, Also I do not own any rights to the great poem that is Invictus so please don't delete my stuff! let me know what all of you think so I can make a better story for all of you, within reason of course, Have a great day Tlazocamatli