Freedom

I woke up to the sound of beeping, I must be in a hospital…I opened my eyes to see Twily and the girls were talking with Vernie. I could only catch brief blurbs of the conversation “Caith…etter...ease…im…”it sounded like Twily… why was she talking about me? I was right here. I tried to get up and found that I was very light headed; I fell back and looked to my side to see starswirl the bearded was at my bedside.

He smiled “Vernie already woke up, Caith, The girls are worried about you.” His voice was gravelly and rough, yet it was full of care and kindness. “I think you should let them know you are up, don’t you? Now… I’m sorry to say I can’t stay long, paradoxes and all that, time isn’t as wibbly wobbly here as it is in other realities…Oh, and keep an eye out for more humans in equestrian, I think you could use their help.” He waved his wand, which was clasped in a hand wrapped in a chain that held pocket watches set to different time zones and had a small blue box at its end, the clocks began spinning rapidly and then stopped at the same spot at the exact same time as the blue box whirred and disappeared along with the rest of the chain, and then Starswirl himself was gone from the room, leaving only a single chain link the size of a thimble.

I looked to the girls and struggled to get up again, this time fighting through the fog in my mind and standing up, I looked down to see I was still wearing my clothes thankfully, and my buzzaxe was at my bedside, I put it in its sheathe and put the link in my pocket as I walked over to the door to my hospital room. “Hey girls, what’s up?” Twilight and Pinkie glomped me as the others went to my side Twilight and pinkie were talking together so fast that I could not even understand them “Girls, GIRLS! One at a time!”

Pinkie Pie, obviously, spoke first “We were so worried! I mean, you just wouldn’t wake up and, and *Sniff* Waaugh!” she began crying as Twily teared up as well, I was stunned at how worried for me these mares I just met were. Twily too… I mean… they saw what I could do!

“Why do you all care so much about me? I’m a monster…You saw what I could do”
Within seconds of that last word exiting my lips Pinkie slapped me hard in the face “Don’t ever say that! You saved our lives TWICE! No monster would do that! What I saw was a brave, caring hero!”

Twilight looked to me sadly “I’m so sorry… I can’t believe I thought you would actually hurt me…” She hugged me as well and the hug held for a few moments before we broke it up.

“Well… uh…” I had no idea how to respond to this information.

Luckily, Some stranger looked to me and smiled “I think we’ve overwhelmed him, he is unaccustomed to anyone but me, and I assume Twilight, saying such things.”

I looked to the stranger for a moment, he wore a red gi with Japanese script on the back, he had pale white skin and blue eyes that seemed to glow… wait “Vernie?”

The man nodded “Yes Caith, it’s me.”

I looked to him in shock “B-but… how?”

Vernie smiled “I was affected by the elements of harmony, they affected you too… I scanned you Caith… you are no longer a clone, you are one hundred percent your own person.”

I was flabbergasted “Y-you mean… I am…Not Krieg OR Brick?”

Vernie smiled and shook his head “No, you are Caith Sparkle, no more, no less.”

I then remembered something at the same time as Pinkie and blushed deeply as she smiled bashfully “So… um… you wanna go out on that date? I can treat you to anywhere…”

Pinkie smiled even wider “I’d actually love a picnic! I know a nice place, and Author told me that you were waking up today, so I prepared a picnic basket.”

[GOD DAMMIT PINKIE! WHY MUST YOU ALERT MY CHARACTERS TO MY EXISTANCE?!]

{WHY, DAMN YOU!?}

Pinkie giggled “Cause I’m a jerk!” she said sassily…I am so confused… Did I just hear a voice? Pinkie took my hand and ran with me to the most beautiful hilltop view I have ever seen, it was sunset, and the sky was awash with hues of red, pink, and orange. There was a blanket and picnic basket under the lone tree at its peak.

I sat down next to Pinkie and was blushing like mad “So… you wanna talk about anything?”

Pinkie thought a moment “Hmmm… How about…what you like about me? I mean you totally caught me off guard with asking me out like that.” She then blushed herself while waving her hands “N-not that I mind! I think you’re really cute, a-and-” she sighed “I’ll stop talking now…”

I smiled “Thank you, well, let’s see… You’re drop dead gorgeous; you’d throw a welcome party for someone you just met, your rambunctious energy is infectious, aaaand I love peppy mares.”

Pinkie smiled bashfully “Wow, so you pretty much like everything about me huh?”

I laughed “Yeah, pretty much! So…” I opened the picnic basket and handed her a red velvet cupcake with chocolate frosting before getting myself one and taking a bite “Man, this is delicious! Anyway, what do you like about me?”

Pinkie blushed and fidgeted in place “Well, you’re really handsome, you’re super nice, and… I kinda think it’s super hot you can protect me if anything bad ever happens…” She ate her cupcake and started on some apple cider and a sandwich, as did I.

I smiled and hugged her “Thanks; I think you’re pretty hot too.”

Pinkie kissed my cheek “Thanks for saving me…”

I smiled and kissed her back “No problem…” I looked into the basket we’ve been eating from all this time and it was empty. “Wow, um… OH! Since we’ve had our picnic, you want to go meet Dougan again? I don’t know how long I’ve been out cold, but he’s probably worried.”

Pinkie smiled and nodded “I’d love to! That big old softie must be lonely, I mean, it’s been a whole day since you told him you’d call him!”

I frowned “I’ve been out a whole day?”

Pinkie nodded regretfully “Yeah, the weird pony Twily called Starswirl said it was because you had ‘awoken to your potential’, and had been using so much magic that day already, apparently you used up your magic reserves.” She then started walking towards the Everfree and I followed suit.

I pounded my fist in my palm “Oh… so that’s why I was so tired!” I then smiled as we reached the Everfree Border “Dougan! Here boy!” I whistled and heard a large creature bounding towards us, I tensed in preparation to protect Pinkie, but relaxed as I saw a familiar big bundle of badassery bounded our way and tackled me to the floor, licking me lovingly. “Alright boy, I get it! How about we go for a walk, hmm? Maybe find a cave or somewhere to stay.”

Pinkie looked to me in confusion “Why are you going to stay in a cave, Caithy?”

I blushed and looked away “I…I’m used to hard floors, I had to sleep in caves when I hunted monsters…”
Dougan looked uncomfortably to me and meowed

“Don’t worry buddy, I’d never hurt you, I only hurt monsters that decide to hurt ponies.” I patted his head and he rubbed against me “Besides, people will freak out if they see a Manticore around town, no offence, but ponies are easy to panic.”
Pinkie put a palm on her hip “I do NOT panic easily!”

I deadpanned as I pointed behind her “Look, a snake.”

Pinkie shrieked and leapt into my arms, then looked where I pointed before glaring at me “This proves nothing.”

I grinned “Au contraire, mi amore” I set her down “it proves everything.”

Pinkie giggled and stuck her tongue out at me as a cloud of smoke floated down to me and materialized as a note

Dear Caith;

Please help me! I’m being mobbed by Gala maddened ponies!

Sincerely; Twilight Sparkle

P.S: PLEASE HURRY!

I looked apologetically to Pinkie “I’ll continue our date momentarily, be riiight back.” I mounted Dougan and rode off to save my sister, we travelled through the town with ease, Dougan leaping from rooftop to rooftop with no problem before we landed right between Spike, Twily and a mob of avarice laced ponies, I calmly raised my hand “Who here knows Twilight Sparkle on a personal level?” No one raised their hands “Hmm? None of you ever got to know her? So why are you all mobbing her for favors? You’d have to be quite a little asshole to do that.”

A huge stallion who frankly made Bulk Biceps look wimpy, whom I ironically later learned was Bulk Biceps father, walked up to me threateningly, the mob of ponies parting as he walked through them “Who you calling an asshole?!”

I looked up to the massive stallion that stood an entire foot taller than me and calmly responded “You, and all of your buddies back there who are trying to extort tickets from my SISTER, seriously, the fuck is your deal?”

Bulk Biceps senior tried to punch me as I firestepped behind him, leaping up and roundhouse kicking him in the back of the head, thus knocking him out cold. I then looked to the crowd “Anyone else wanna be a dumbass? I could sick Dougan on you.” Dougan then began growling lowly as he approached the crowd “Heel boy.”

The crowd dispersed quickly as Pinkie skipped over to me “Hey, Twily! How’s the whole ticket thing going?”

Twily’s eye twitched “How’d you know about that!?”

Pinkie giggled “The author told me!”

{*Falls to knees dramatically* FFFFFFUUUUUUUUUU-}

Pinkie pulled out some chocolate “Fudge?”

{-UUUUUUUUCKING SHIIIIII-}

Pinkie pulled out a shirt with a picture of me on it that said ‘team Caith’ much to my disturbance, with a troll smile on “Shirts?”

{-IIIIIIIITTTEEEERRRR HOOOOOO-}

Pinkie giggled and pointed to Twily’s head “Horn?”

{-OOOOLEEEES!!!}

[Better?]

{...Yes.}

Twily ignored the randomness of Pinkie while I checked her for a fever, as she was acting extra loopy and walked inside to find the rest of the mane six in her home, seems I left the window open…hehe…

Twilight broke down “I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I just can’t decide!”

The girls looked to each other guiltily as AJ came forward “We’re sorry, Sugarcube, we shouldn’t have pressured y’all like we did… If it means anything, I don’t want the ticket anymore…”

Pinkie nodded “Me neither!”

Flutters smiled “Same for me…”

Rarity sighed “That goes for me as well, I’m sorry…”

RD whooped “Yeah! That means the ticket is mine!” Everyone glared at Dashie “Actually, I haven’t perfected the tricks I want to show the Wonderbolts, so… I’ll take a pass on the tickets.”

Twilight smiled, doubtlessly touched by their kindness as she had Spike send the tickets back to Celestia, who as we all know is a massive Troll and planned this all along, immediately sent a reply with tickets for everyone, including two for me, who had already gotten one as payment for my last job, I then wondered what I’d do with the extra ticket as I remembered Vernie had never been to a party before, I decided to go see him about it “Hey, girls?” Everyone turned to look at me “Any of you know where Vernie is?”

Pinkie nodded “Yup! He’s down the street at Vinyl Scratch’s club looking at a poster!”

{GODDAMIT PINKIE! DON’T FORCE US TO PLACE CHARACTERS AND SCENES!}

[You know, you're kind of annoying.]

I swear I’m hearing a voice… it’s faint… but…really annoying...

[See? even he agrees with me- oh shit!]

{…Shit… he can hear us now… SEE WHAT YOU’VE DONE TO THE FOURTH WALL?! T-T}

Pinkie frowned “Sorry, author…” I sighed and smiled, guessing Pinkie must be rubbing off on me. I walked down the street to Vernie to find him looking at a poster of… oh my god a human DJ?!

“His concert is tomorrow, dear Faust…” I sighed “What the fucking hell, man…”

Vernie looked to me “It seems the walls between realities are getting weaker, this… DJ R3MN4NT person seems to be one of us, I have asked around, and it seems he is a mentor and lover to a mare named DJ PON-3.”

I nodded “Hmm… we should go to this concert, maybe we can enlist his assistance, Starswirl informed me of the situation. Apparently an Eldritch Abomination is coming to Equestria.”

“…” I stood there silently for a total of five minutes “WHAAAAT!? He didn’t tell me that!”

Vernie nodded “Yes, I assumed he did not tell you, I deemed it necessary to give you a day to recuperate.”

I was panicking “Do you have an IDEA what that means?! Those things can kill entire cities in a single night! Some of them are lethal just to HEAR!”

Vernie nodded “I am aware of this, which is why this R3MN4NT character will be useful to us, as his music may cancel out that effect.”

I then realized Vernie was right and sighed “Okay, let’s go see him tomorrow…”

Vernie shook his head “No need, he’s right behind you.”

I quickly turned around to see a man about as tall as me wearing a mouse skull helmet lined with glowsticks, a red hoodie with a smiling cow skull logo on the front, a pair of camo cargo pants, and red and white sneakers. He looked to me calmly, or… I assumed he was, I couldn’t see through the full head helmet “Yeah, sure, I’ll help ya,” he spoke with a New Yorkers accent and had a voice that was clearly being modulated, as it sounded like he was talking through a machine “If that thing’s for real, Vinyl and Tavi could die, and I’m not about to let my girlfriend and her best friend die on me.”

I nodded uncomfortably “Well, I’ll see how you can handle yourself in a fight after your concert, Right now, I think I’ll take Dougan home.” I whistled and Dougan came to me nigh instantly

R3MN4NT smiled “Oh, and since we’ll be working together, call me RJ.”

I nodded and rode off into the everfree, after finding a cave and starting a fire, I rested against Dougan and went to sleep with him curled around me...

I woke up to Dougan licking me, so I opened my eyes to see Dougan pointing his snout at the caves mouth, I looked in that direction to see it was morning, I then smiled and patted Dougans head lovingly “Good boy, Dougan.” I then went to the caves mouth with Dougan close behind me, and saw the beautiful morning, birds chirping, sunrise, the works.

I walked Dougan into town and waved at the townsfolk on my way to Sugarcube corner, when I reached there, Pinkie was out front talking with Fluttershy as a herd of cows began stampeding into town I looked quickly to my faithful pet, whose instincts were warring with him not to attack the cows to protect his master “Dougan! Go to the cave!” Dougan nodded and ran back home while I set up a wall of fire to stop the cows from entering Ponyville, knowing full well that AJ had it handled, but making it so that the ponies didn’t KNOW I knew. As AJ handled the situation I gradually lowered the fire wall to walk over to Pinkie “So, how’d you sleep?”

Pinkie smiled “Great, thanks for asking! And thanks for helping AJ save us!” she excitedly kissed me on the lips and I blushed, she tasted like chocolate frosting…

“Th-that was my first kiss…” I looked nervously to the ground, blushing intensely

Pinkie giggled “That was mine too! I’m happy it was with someone as nice as you.”

I smiled, my blush deepening “D’aaw shucks…”

Pinkie grinned and waved goodbye as AJ walked off, most likely to start her Applebucking, I then remembered RJ’s concert was today and went to Vinyls house to Find Vernie conversing with RJ “…elieve that is plausible, but I will need to discuss it with Caith.”

I raised an eyebrow “Discuss what?”

RJ looked to me “Hey, I need a chain to arm myself with if I’m going to go fight alongside you guys, Last thing I want is to hold you guys back.”

I nodded “Yeah? So?”

RJ laughed “So, I heard you got a special chain link from Starswirl, I’d like to make a chain using that metal.”

“Oh yeah, that link I had found on the floor when he phased out. Sure, but why?” I was unsure what use a single chain link could be…

RJ did a doubletake “Seriously!? That dude invented Malachite!”

I looked quizzically “Malachite?”

Vernie began to clarify “It is apparently the strongest metal in equestria, it also has immense magical power. Upon inspecting my blade, it is made of the metal in question, it was also folded twenty times and enchanted to not only give me power over electricity, but make me the only person who can wield this blade and grant me the ability to move in a fashion similar to your firestepping, except utilizing electricity. It also seems that your buzzaxe blade had turned into Malachite temporarily while you were in what shall be referred to as an ‘awoken’ state”
I looked to Vernie in awe “How do you know all of this?!”

Vernie smiled “Easy, I went to the library and studied with Twilight Sparkle, her company was quite enjoyable.”

I looked to Vernie with a wry smile “Oh? You enjoy her company? Mayhaps you like her… a little more?”

I saw Twilight behind Vernie holding a letter in her hand as Vernie began to answer me, a blush actually forming on his face “W-well… she is quite attractive, but… while I may be in a man’s body, I am still but a machine, being in a relationship with her will most likely bring her naught but pain, as my emotions are all artificial.”

Twilight cleared her throat at that moment and Vernie quickly turned around to see Twilight, who handed him the letter shyly “U-umm… I wrote this for you…” Twilight then teleported away, leaving a very flustered Vernie, and both me and RJ laughing our asses off.
Vernie glared at me “That was not a kind thing to do.” After I stopped Rolling on the Floor Laughing, I handed RJ the link as Vinyl came out of the house

“Yo, teach, whassup?”

RJ took off his helmet, unveiling his shaggy brown hair and green eyes, as well as his iron skull earrings. He then held Vinyl close and kissed her deeply on the lips “Just talking with some friends, love, then I’m going to pay the blacksmith a visit and get ready for my concert, oh, and Vernie? Good luck with that Twilight chick.”

Vinyl nodded before smiling at me and Vernie “So, you’re friends of RJs, huh? Cool, guy could use a life outside of the music and me!” She hugged us and went to the directon of the town square.

Vernie then opened the letter and read it silently, his face flushing deeply at the end of the letter “I… I will talk to her later…”
I then looked to Vernie and smiled “Wanna spar? Just like the old days, maybe it’ll help you think.”

Vernie nodded, then paused “I think we should check up on AppleJack first, I saw her brother get injured the other day, and I am quite certain that AppleJack cannot do this on her own.”

I nodded and we headed to Sweet Apple Acres, I noticed that the orchard was halfway harvested as we walked in on an argument between Twily and AJ, Vernie blinked “It seems that the issue has been resolved, our interference was unnecessary.” He then looked to Twily and blushed “…But… perhaps it was a good thing we came here.” He walked to Twilight and they talked, I respected my friends’ privacy and did not listen in on his conversation, which ended in Twily kissing him on the lips.

{Transitions again!}

We made our way to a clearing in the White Tail Wood and took out our weapons, both of us stepping to each other and forming a pillar of fire and lightning, at which we materialized at the top before we began to fall, I formed a massive fireball while Vernie became a lightning bolt. I landed first and struck his bolt with the blunt of my axe, knocking his materialized body into a large tree. I then blasted a fireball at him, only for him to slice it neatly in half with his katana, the flames materializing as hunks of red crystal that fell to the ground “I forgot to mention, Malachite can turn elemental magic into crystal.”

I nodded “Well, it seems we are at a stalemate, how about we go see RJ’s concert?”

Vernie nodded and went with me to the town square, which was set up like a huge stage with lights and mics, but… no DJ gear… RJ came on the stage and the ponies all screamed with thrill. He then began making typing motions in the air and an ethereal mist flowed from him as music began to sound.

Just as the music ended, a massive creature that was at least ten feet tall and made of roots, vines and various fungi erupted from the earth, and began shambling towards the ponies, I acted quickly, knowing that the Reavers were not to be taken lightly, and burned him to a cinder, only for three more to spring from the earth, one near Vinyl, RJ saw this and leapt in the way of a certainly fatal strike, only for there to be a bright flash of light as the Reavers were scared back off, I then went to their holes and burned the root system they made to travel here as they tried to escape as Vernie zapstepped through them.
RJ sighed “Well, this was an eventful night.”