Brave New World: Fallen.

Celestia had seen many things in her long long life, many of them had been indirectly caused by the arrival of one creature in this world. Ethan. Discord’s imprisonment in stone could not have happened without Ethan. Sombra would not have gone mad with power had Ethan not revealed the magical properties of crystals. The Nightmare Moon incident was a direct result of Luna’s failure to protect Ethan from Discord. The gate to Tartarus itself was inspired by Ethan’s design for an inescapable prison. But the magic used to create it had corrupted the forest around the capital and resulted in the Everfree.

But with all of the negative things that Ethan had impacted there were great positives. The tree of harmony and by extension the elements of harmony owed their existence to the man. Discord could not have been captured, Luna could not have been purified, and many demons and monsters would roam, free to terrorize the land had Ethan not come.

Celestia paced around her room. Ethan was developing magical abilities. Terrible powerful magical abilities. She didn’t want to weigh the goods and bads of keeping Ethan. She couldn’t bear losing him again. But the risk to herself and her ponies were too great. Ethan would need to be trained, and schooled and that’s not even mentioning the fact that she hadn’t even given him an official citizenship BEFORE knighting him. The paperwork was piled up, the nobles were in a frenzy and there was even the emergence of another human on her hand. Celestia was hyperventilating at the thought of being even slightly overwhelmed for the first time in a millenium as a princess.

The double doors to her chambers were ripped off their hinges as Luna burst in. Luna’s hysterical fit was making her cries unintelligible, but Celestia could make out one phrase in Luna’s panic as she was curled up on the floor. Ethan had disappeared.

Derpy made her way through the castle. The guards were in a panic, the maids were shouting and calling out for someone, and Blueblood was screaming like a little filly about a monster on the loose. Of course Derpy ignored all this and went straight to the room Celestia said her best friend would be staying in.

Derpy opened the door to Ethan’s room. “Hey Ethan are you the--” As she looked in she stopped. Ethan was nowhere to be found. “Ethan? Are we playing hide and seek now?” Derpy asked cautiously. She searched under the bed, under the table, inside the cabinets and drawers, but there was still no sign of Ethan.

Derpy shivered as a breeze blew into the room through the set of closed curtains on the wall. “Better close that window for when Ethan gets back from wherever he’s hiding!” Derpy thought aloud to herself. As she opened the curtains and reached for the window she paused. The window was open far wider than it would normally be for someone hoping for a bit of fresh air. She looked down and lying on the windowsill was a single white feather.

Celestia’s attempts to calm Luna had somewhat worked. Luna had given Celestia a note she found on Ethan’s bed. A note written on a crystalline parchment she had found only when her and Luna had become the spirits of the sun and moon. When Cadance became the spirit of love, and Twilight the spirit of friendship. A note that like it’s predecessors had only a single word on it. REVENGE.

It was too late for Ethan.

All that was left was to wait for his polar ascendant.

Ethan landed on the rocky southern face of the mountain with a muffled thump. He cursed his wings. As he put his duster back on. They reminded him that he wasn’t human anymore. That there was no way back even if he found one.

He set down the bag he had been carrying his duster in and opened it. Inside the bag was a sheathed sword and a set of light metal armor custom fit for him two days before. The perks of being a knight were sweet. Ethan laid all the armor out on the ground and equipped the pauldrons, arm guards, gauntlets, greaves, and cuisses. Ethan stuffed the chest piece, helmet, and sabatons back into the bag before strapping the sword onto his belt and slinging the bag over his shoulder.

Ethan started on his long trek down the mountain.

Deep beneath Equestria, even deeper than tartarus, and even farther than the sleeping gods of old, there stood a man. But calling him a mere man would be a lie. He was a god, or rather, The God. The creator of everything on his twisted little version of Earth. His Earth had been lost a long time ago.

He stood at an altar, watching. “I see your plan has been set in motion. My move old friend,” He spoke to nobody in particular. He snapped his fingers. Nothing happened. Not even the clicking sound that normally accompanies the snapping of fingers. “Fucking fingers...an infinite amount of lifetimes to practice and I still can’t get it right. Oh well. I don’t need to add flourish anyway. Nobody’s watching of course.” And with that, the next piece was in play.

“Your move,”

It had been an hour since Ethan set off down the mountain. The trail from canterlot to the nearest town was overgrown yet not very worn out. The train to canterlot was much faster and easier, so almost everypony chose it over the mountain path. But as a result those that do risk  being attacked by the animals that have moved into the area. Namely manticores.

RRRRRRRRRROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!

The feral sound came accompanied by panicked shrieks coming from a pony. Ethan dropped his bag and ran towards the sound, one hand on the hilt of his sword.

The shrieks became clearer and gave way to somepony speaking. “Trixie does not want to be cat food! Trixie would like to be anything but cat food right now!” There was another roar and the sound of wood breaking. “Go away please! Trixie did not mean to disturb you!”

Ethan burst into the clearing and skidded to a halt. A blue pony with a silver-grey mane topped with a ragged wizard’s cap and wearing a torn starry cape was cowering on the ground between a very scratched up cart and a very hungry looking manticore. “Hey ugly!” Ethan shouted drawing his sword. The manticore’s growling paused as he turned his head to face Ethan.

The blue pony looked up at Ethan with wide fearful eyes. “Trixie does not want to trade one evil for another! Manticore, Trixie implores you to protect her from the scarier thing with the armor and sword!”

The manticore charged at Ethan with a roar. Ethan clumsily dodged it while trying to counter. Not used to fighting with a sword, Ethan missed and ended up falling over. “Fuck, anime made this shit look easy,” Ethan grumbled to himself as he stood up. The manticore recovered and charged again. Ethan tried to dodge and counter a second time, and only managed to succeed in not falling over. The manticore scored a scratch on Ethan’s side. “FUCK man! That hurts!” Ethan shouted while holding his side. Ethan was in too much pain to dodge the next charge. The manticore trampled Ethan and didn’t stop until it reached the edge of the clearing.

Ethan, too hurt to get up, looked over to the blue pony who had taken off her hat and revealed her horn. The unicorn was charging up a spell as the manticore slowly stalked over to Ethan. Wary that it’s new prey may have some tricks up it’s sleeve like other ponies on the path. The blue unicorn went unnoticed by the manticore who now stood over Ethan, one claw raised to prepare to finish off the struggling creature beneath it.

“LOOK OUT BELOW!”

The manticore brought it’s claw down but was immediately knocked over by a grey  and yellow blur. The blue unicorn let loose her spell in surprise.

Ethan was losing blood fast from the scratch on his side. It cut deep, he couldn’t move. He wished that he had stayed in the castle instead of going out and seeking revenge. The blue unicorn walked up to Ethan with the gray blur, Derpy. Sound and sight were fading as Ethan slowly slipped into unconsciousness. “Ummm miss? do you think you can fix ethan?”

The world went dark as Ethan blacked out from the pain and blood loss.

“Trixie is not sure if she should. Is this ‘Ethan’ dangerous?” Trixie asked Derpy.

Derpy gave Trixie a large smile. “Of course not! Ethan couldn’t hurt a fly!”

“He certainly couldn’t with those skills…” Trixie muttered under her breath. “Well then let’s see what Trixie can do for the fellow. He appears to be bleeding quite...heavily…” Trixie’s voice trailed off as she got a closer look at the scratch in Ethan’s side. It was less of a scratch and more of a gash. Trixie blanched at the amount of blood pouring out. “Let’s hurry if we want him to live!”

Nothing. Absolutely nothing. It wasn’t a void of white or black, it was just nothing. Ethan didn’t know if he was alive or dead.

“Oh Ethan, there’s no need to worry. You’re very much alive. But that’s not what we need to worry about right now…” a female voice spoke from all directions. A shape began to form in the nothing that Ethan could see. Limbs began to form off a long snaky torso with a serpentine tail. Limbs that didn’t belong together.

“Discord?” Ethan wondered.

“No my dear. Someone far more powerful. Someone who may help you restore what you’ve lost,” The shape began to take on more detail. The head began to form and grow long white hair.

When the draconequus was complete she gave Ethan’s general direction a devious smile as she slithered through the air. “The name is Eris. Charmed to finally meet you Ethan. Or I should say...The King in Grey,”