The life of a Spriggan Fairy.

  Twilight and the rest of her friends, along with that lizard she had, arrived about half an hour after I was rebuked by the old mare, who I now knew as Granny Smith. There were also about twelve ponies in some kind of gold armor, they must have been guards or something. If it was honestly gold, it must be just for show, that stuff wouldn't take a single hit from my sword. To me those guys were just cannon fodder.

    "Well, glad you could make it, Twilight Sparkle; I was beginning to wonder if you would show up." I taunted.

    "I had to send a letter to Princess Celestia letting her know about the duel, and she sent an armed escort with me." She said with a sigh.

    "So are your guards just for show, or do you think that they could overpower me? If I can slay dragons with little effort, what makes you think that a few guards would even have a chance against me?" I say, noticing that the small lizard was now looking at me with eyes the size of saucers. Was it something I said?

    "Y-y-you slay d-dragons?" The small lizard stutters.

    "Don't worry, I don't even think your a..." I stop mid sentence as I watch the little guy burped out a scroll, and some green flames.

    "Dragon" I finish, earning a bemused look from Twilight. " I can't help but wonder why that baby dragon is so small, though." I mutter angrily.

    Shaking my head in defeat over the baby dragon,  I think about how to start out the duel. I look over to Twilight and her friends, only to see that they are all in states of nervousness. They were all surrounding the baby dragon and the scroll he had belched up. Was the scroll really that disturbing to hear? They paled as he kept reading, looking back towards me occasionally.

     After the dragon had finished reading, the girls began to pull out a golden object from their saddlebags. Twilight's was a crown with a purple star, and the others all had necklaces that had a gem that matched the mark on their flanks.

     So, was this what real friends were like? Sharing each other's problems and  trying to help each other overcome them? Unlike the players in Alfhiem, who only tried to be my friend due to my social status, a false friend; these were real friends standing before me.

    They grimaced as they all stood before me, Pinkie was actually crying. Applejack put her hoof around her, trying to comfort her. Fluttershy was in the same state as Pinkie, Rainbow Dash was glaring at me, Rarity was just standing there with a look of discomfort, while Twilight looked dumbfounded.  What was going on? Why were they sad, angry and confused? Was it the duel? I could cancel it if it was. There was no way in hell I was going to be responsible for the destruction of a friendship, or the harming of a group of friends.

     I saw their mouths moving, speaking to one another, but I couldn't hear them. Why couldn't I hear what they were saying? They kept pointing at me, arguing amongst themselves.

    "Twilight, whats going on?" I yell, trying to get her attention. If she  heard me, she was doing a good job of ignoring me.

     The group of six ponies formed a semicircle around me, each avoiding eye contact with me. Using a telekinesis spell, I grabbed the scroll from the baby dragon. I hear them begin to protest, but I tune them out completely as I begin reading the scroll.  The first words were 'Don't trust the human.' The next sentence was 'Use the Elements of Harmony on the human to vanquish him.'

    I finished the scroll and felt my legs give out on me. I land in a heap on the ground before the six ponies that stood there in shame. My six little executioners, sent by their princesses. What grave thing had I done to deserve this punishment? Was it me, or was it humanity as a whole? How did Celestia  and Luna know about mankind, and what gave them this attitude over us? But if it is their wish, so be it.

     Standing up slowly, using my sword for support, I walk over to a barrel of water and look at the reflective surface. I see at first the face of a spriggan, rounded features facial features, jet-black hair, and angular ears, looking back at me. I blink and the reflection changes. Looking back at me was a my real self; angular clean-shaven face, dirty-blond hair that rarely ever stayed down, a long scar that begun at the base of my hairline that ended halfway down my forehead, and deep blue eyes that other people thought disturbing to look at. I looked at my true self; a human being, stolen from my home by some otherworldly force, about to be executed.

    "This never was a game, was it?" I asked, watching them shake their heads.

    "Then I'll go willingly." I say bowing my head.

     I remove my hat and place the still sleeping Kahlan in it and walk over to Fluttershy.

    "Please take good care of her for me." I whisper to her, my voice cracking when I see her begin crying.

     Taking my sword, I slide my hand over the razor-edge drawing a small line of blood on my palm, feeling the cold sting of the metal's icy surface, possibly for the last time.

     My lifeblood, the lifeblood of a human, not that of a Spriggan Lord, flowed down the blade and ran into the runes at the cross-guard, enchanting it with my spirit. I turn to Twilight and hand her the sword, wrapping it in my cloak.

    "Take care of this weapon, Twilight Sparkle. Its blade is not of this world. The sword holds my own lifeblood within its runes, making it part of me; I give this to you ."  The mare took the Dark Liberator's Repulser and put it into the dragon's claws, just looking at the ground the entire time.

     I then took my armor off and piled it next to Rarity, who just broke down crying before I could speak. Why should I trouble her more?

     I stand before six mares that were to carry out an execution; my execution. They had most of my physical possessions, all of which all had been given as parting gifts to make up for not having been able to get to know them. All of them cried, not for me, but for the act that they were about to preform.

    "The only thing I regret would be not having enough time to help end your war, make friends with the six of you. I am ready"

     The six hesitantly reformed their semi-circle. Their gems on their jewelry glowed weakly, gradually growing in strength until a beam of rainbow colored light arced high above us. The beam then drove toward me, surrounding me in the multicolored light. When it hit, I didn't feel pain, it was more like a slight pull on my soul. I felt like something was being driven from me, something that shouldn't have been there.

     When the light vanished, I stood before the six ponies. They had turned away from me, talking amongst one another. I decided to take that moment to try and walk away.

     Turning to leave, I noticed a figure clothed on black laying sprawled. He had black wings, black hair, sharp angular ears, and pale skin. This was my Spriggan avatar, only at the same time it wasn't. This creature had an evil aura about it; hatred seemed to radiate from it.

    "This isn't possible, there was no way that you were the byproduct of that light; that should have killed me, not create you." I whispered venomously to the Spriggan, which opens his eyes, red in color, suddenly after hearing my voice.

     The Spriggan sits up, and looks at me curiously, tilting his head slightly. After about a minute he grins and lifts his left hand. A red magic blast blows me back causing me to land a few feet from the girls. They jumped and turned back to me and the Spriggan, looks of horror on their faces. They rushed over to me, eyeing the Spriggan cautiously.

    "What happened? The elements weren't supposed to create another human! What will Princess Celestia say when she sees that we only made the problem worse!" She said as she half-yelled at me.

    "Well don't get onto me about it! All I can tell you is that I'm myself again, and that we now have to deal with Spriggan that apparently is evil, and the only thing standing between him and your world happens to be those elements that you have." I snap back.

     The mares again form a line and activate their elements. They fire it at the Spriggan. The light surrounds him and stays there for a moment, only to be sent back at the six of them, knocking them off their hooves. I remained standing and grabbed the sword, rushing the Spriggan. My blade hit a barrier and blasts me back, behind the six ponies. I felt my left leg bend at an awkward angle and both my arms snapped.

     The Spriggan walks over to the mares and holds out his hand, dark energy forming at his fingertips. He laughs and begins to speak, using my own voice.

    "Foolish little ponies, did you think your pathetic Elements would vanquish me; John, Lord of the Spriggans, and soon to be ruler of this world. I curse you now, first of many, to live in a body that is foreign to you. You shall walk on two hooves and have hands like humans. Your lives will be like they were before, but the Elements of Harmony shall be made useless on their own, and will require a seventh element: that of an unbreakable spirit." With that he hit the six of them with the dark energies.

     The girls began to slowly change. Their rear legs began to grow in length and their forelegs began to shrink in size and length. The girls' front-hooves changed into hands. Their bodies changed as well, becoming like a woman's body, with a tail and wings( at least for Twilight, Rainbow Dash, and Fluttershy.) Their faces shrunk and again resembled that of young woman, with a small muzzle and pony ears. The Spriggan turned them Into anthropomorphic ponies.

    The six remained on the ground, not moving. John looked over to me, his piercing red eyes gazed through me. He walked over to my broken form, bending down to my ear.

    "I have many things to thank you for; my life, my mind, my wrath, my hate, my lust for power, my magic; all of these things I owe to you, John. Honestly, I hate to do this to you, but it is the only way my plan will work. I curse you, John of humanity, to live in a body like that of the six. Your spirit shall be unbreakable and shall not yield to any creature beneath the sky. During times of sorrow, you'll long for death time and time again, but it shall not be granted to you, o seventh element. You mind shall be warped and molded to that of an inhabitant of this land, but my one mercy to you shall be that your memories of your home shall not be lost, but lay dormant. All these are but a few of your gifts and curses I have laid upon you, my father, brother, and greatest foe."

     With those words, John Spriggan blasted me with his dark magic. I went through a transformation similar to Twilight and her friends, but instead of becoming more human, like they did, I gained horselike characteristics. My feet became hooves, my ears moved, being higher on my head; I grew a tail, and fur covered my entire body. A pair of wings grew out of my back and hung limply at my sides. Finally my face distorted; a shortened muzzle and larger eyes warped my facial features into a more equine appearance. Most of my teeth changed to those of a pony, however, my canines remained.

     I crawled over to a barrel to look into the reflective surface. A dark blue, almost black, anthropomorphic stallion looked back at me. The mane was dirty-blond with a light cyan streak running down the left-most part of it. It was an absolute nightmare for me.

    "What do you hope to gain from this?" I demanded, my voice cracking as I sliding down to the ground with my back against the barrel.

    "Well, since you asked, I'll tell you. Nothing ever done by us has been worth anything to us unless we had a challenge to go with it." John said with a small grin. "You should know that just as much as I do. So I took the liberty to create my own challenge to make things more interesting for me. I start with you and the Elements, and after I send you guys seven years into the past, I'm going to change everyone in the world."

    "Why are you just making this into a game? Isn't that why we ended up here to begin with? And wasn't that why we both had the false pretense that this entire world was just a large RPG? Your actually from a game, so that might not matter to you; but this is a real world, and your messing with people's lives!"

    "So what, I'm not the only one who did that, am I? You yourself messed with the lives those six ponies laying on the ground over there. What makes you any different from me?"

    "I was too stupid to realize that this wasn't a video game. And now, because of my stupidity, these ponies now have to worry about you."

    "Don't fret, its not your fault that I'm here, you can blame Celestia for that. She was the one who ordered Twilight and her friends to hit us with the Elements of Harmony. But sorry to chat and run, but there are so many ponies to change, and little time to do it in. Good luck, see you in seven years!" John said cheerfully, enveloping me in a thick cloud of dark energy.

     The last thing I remember seeing was Twilight and her friends, watching me helplessly, and Kahlan, who had just woke up flying into the energy vortex with me, then I felt pain. As the pain got stronger, I slipped in and out of unconsciousness. I remember hearing Kahlan saying my name, then I felt nothing at all.

     I woke from a dreamlike state and looked around, finding myself on the Apple family farm, but it looked different.  It felt larger, almost like I had become smaller. My sword lay on the ground beside me, and when I picked it up it felt heavier. Looking around, I found one of the farms water barrels and walked over to it. Looking over the edge of the barrel, an eleven year old colt looked back at me in the water's surface.

     While I still stared at my reflection, frozen in fear, a hard object made contact with the one of my wings with an audible thump. Holding my hand to the spot that I had been hit at, I looked down to see a hard green apple.

    I quickly turned around to face whatever it had been that had thrown the apple at me. A filly was standing next to an apple cart, about seven meters away. She didn't look happy at all, in fact she seemed furious. She grabbed another on if the green apples and chucked it at me.

    "I thought I already told ya ta get out of here!" She yelled as the apple got closer to me.

     Swinging the now heavy sword, I barely sliced the apple before it made contact with my face. After the halves fell, I looked back to see the filly walking toward me with a scowl. She had an orange coat, with nice golden hair. She wore a cowboy hat, and had a red cotton button-up shirt and had a dusty pair of jeans. She honestly didn't look half bad.

    "Who the hay are ya, and what do you want?" She asked

    "My name is... is...what is my name?" I say, getting panicked at the end. "I don't even remember my name!"

    "Woah there, sugarcube, take a few breaths and try ta think about the last thing ya remember." Said the filly, going from looking mad to concerned.

    "Well, there was a creature that had black wings and hit me with some sort of black ball of energy, then I felt nothing but pain. Then I heard a voice saying something, maybe a name, it started with a J. After that the pain vanished I was here on your farm." I say, all the while confusing myself even more than I had been. "Look, if I'm being bothersome I could just leave."

    "Nope, come on, maybe Grandpa Apple can help ya. My name's Applejack by the way." She said, grabbing my hand and dragging me off to the main Farmhouse.

     About five minutes later I was sitting at a table in the family's dining room. Grandpa Apple sat across from me, eyeing me, almost like he was sizing me up. After a while longer, the old stallion looked me in the eye and grinned.

    "Son, would ya like to be an adopted member of the Apple family?"

    "Yes sir." I replied meekly.

    "We'll call ya Jonathan,if ya think the name suits ya," he pauses while I nod my head in agreement. "Ha, Jonathan Apple, always told Gran we'd have a cold named Jonathan. Well son, go get some rest, you have bright future ahead of ya."

     Somehow I knew he meant that in more ways that one.