The Four Stallions of the Apocalypse: Broken Formation

by UltimateRuin009

Rating: teen
Tags: Other, Original Character, Trixie, Spike, Adventure, Crossover, Gore, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Dark, Alternate Universe
Length: 80323

A 3rd person perspective following the actions of War as he changes the world one last time.

Years before existed Nightmare Moon, there existed another pony whose very actions would come to shake down Equestria to its very core, he's an earth pony with a lot of strength and valor, he's Connor Stronghooves, the adopted son of Princess Luna. A pony made god by the darkness in Nightmare's heart, and alongside Celestia's children did they all become Nightmare Moon and The 4 Stallions of the Apocalypse. The events of the story start during season one's pilot as the fallen stallion of War works alongside the mane six to stop Nightmare Moon and the other stallions and bring peace to their country.

Credit to Masteroflag of editing Chapter 11 and Chapter 12.

Published 2012-05-14 12:44:01 UTC
Last updated 2013-03-23 06:15:39 UTC

Chapter 2 (Revised)

*Disclaimer* If you have already seen the first episode, just skip this chapter.

Chapter 2

Twilight and Spike sat patiently on a pegasi drawn carriage, the golden rims of the carriage shining in the light of the afternoon sun, almost like a beacon of light approaching Ponyville. Twilight was frustrated at the thought of the princess’s letter, clouding her judgment on things. Spike talking away almost as if the letter meant nothing, aside from the part where it told Twilight to be social, they both were thinking the same thing, that Twilight wasn’t going to go down with this ‘less she was force to do it, in this case she was. Either way, Twilight is going to try to avoid ponies and Spike knows it. “Look c’mon Twilight, socializing isn’t that bad.” Said Spike.

Twilight laughed sarcastically at the sentence of which Spike spoke. “Well back at Canterlot all I had to do was just to go study, making friends wasn’t a priority at all.”

“So basically you never made friends because you never thought it important?” asked Spike.

“Well yeah, no one to bother me and I could be stuck with you and we could read books all day, me personally, I think we had it made.”

“I understand that you looove to read, but, well Twilight I didn’t.”

“What do you mean? I thought you always loved reading.”

“I do but, well, whenever I wanted to socialize with some of the ponies back at the academy you were a lot more focused on your studies than anything else and you forced me to help you out. I love to help but, I’m not like you in that sense. I like to breathe more.”

All at once Twilight had become guilty from what Spike was saying, but at the same time a little insulted by what he had finished up with, but she DID force him quite a bit to help out on reading and finding books and what not. Spike maybe a baby dragon but on the inside he’s a full grown one, one that wishes to leave and breathe out there. Twilight didn’t know what to say and in a result it became awkward, neither one talked to each other until finally, “Hey we’re here!” exclaimed Spike happily.

Twilight decided to look and saw a simple town, nice houses yet a simple town close by. The pegasi decided to park the carriage in a part of town allowing Twilight and Spike to get off. “Thank you boys” said Twilight. The pegasi just neighed and nodded, and without a word they left, heading back the way they came.

“I may understand getting friends may not be that big of a deal to you but you could at least try Twilight.” said Spike. “Here’s a pony right here.”

They both noticed a pink, messed up mane pony…err….BOUNCE up to them in a happy mood, her fur was pink but her mane and tail were even pinker. The mare’s cutie mark had 3 balloons on them, two blue, and one yellow. Twilight sighed, seeing how this odd mare had her full attention, she had to respond without being rude. “Hello, my name is Twilight Sparkle, and-”

The pony gasped all of a sudden, jumping high up in the sky, reaching a whole pony's height up to the sky. When she hit the ground she sped off to who-knows-what, Twilight sighed in disappointment and so did Spike. This was one of the last things that Spike wanted for Twilight yet it happened, a pony that ran from Twilight. “Don’t worry Twilight, I’m sure the next one is going to be super friendly.” said Spike. Twilight just kept walking, bringing along the books that she brought with her to bring to their temporary home.

“You do realize we’re going to be staying in a library right?” asked Spike.

“Shut up Spike.”

After a few minutes they hit the first object of their checkup list for the upcoming celebration. “Alright, sweet apple acres, we got to checkup how the food is here.” said Spike. The decently big check-list of things would keep Twilight busy for quite a bit, but look up more information on the elements of harmony. This was one thing that Twilight was looking forward to at the end of the day, that and the fact that reading is going to be the case as of how she was going to look up more info. She really likes reading but she likes it more if it’s her source of new information, there was always a satisfying end to it after she’s done reading up the facts.

Walking down the dirt road they finally gotten down to a farm, a sign at the entrance portion of the fence said the farm land was “Sweet Apple Acres”. “Good, we made it.” thought Twilight. The land was massive, it put the Acres in Sweet Apple Acres as a major emphasis to how large the land was, everywhere there were acres of apple orchards after apple orchards after apple orchards. No wonder this place and the ponies living in the land was in charge of food for the celebration.

“Yee-haw!!!” shouted a voice not too far away.

Twilight saw an orange pony, another mare and in the same stature as the pink one too. She had a blonde mane and tail put up into a pony tail while her bangs were left rustled and un-bothered with, she wore a cowboy style hat and freckles with attitude, her emerald green eyes made quite a glow under the sun, and her cutie mark had 3 two-dimensional apples for her cutie mark. It wasn’t much of a hard thing to know how the cutie mark came to be, this mare looked like she was born for work on this farm.

The orange mare sprinted up to an apple tree full of apples, jumped and stopped where she landed and kicked the tree as hard as she could. The apples fell down into the baskets around the tree, every single one of them. To Twilight it was pretty cool that a pony could do that with a single kick, to the orange mare it was another tiny thing to do for a day of chores on the farm, despite the fact that she seemed proud of herself for filling up the baskets. Twilight walked up to the pony, engaging into conversation.

“Good afternoon,” began Twilight. “my name is Twilight Sparkle-” all of a sudden she was surprised as the orange mare reached and grabbed her by the hoof, this seemed really forced into by Twilight’s perspective as she was worried her own hoof was going to fall off by sheer force. But instead just got a really big hoofshake.

“Well howdy do Ms. Twilight, a pleasure to meet your acquaintance. I’m Applejack, and we here at Sweet Apple Acres we sure like makin’ new friends.” said Applejack. Still violently hoofshaking Twilight, much to her distress.

“Friends…?” thought Twilight. “Actually…I…uh...-”

“Well what can I do ya’ for?” asked Applejack. Her thick country ascent getting into her voice as she speaks. Twilight not noticing Applejack stopped the hoofshake her arm kept going up and down like she was in one, her eyes closed in worry. Spike saw this and made Twilight aware so by poking her on the side, giggling at Twilight’s extent as she frowned at Spike, embarrassed as of course she’d feel.

Twilight cleared her throat before she begun to speak. “Well I am in fact here to supervise preparations for the Summer Sun Celebration,” the way Twilight was speaking it seemed rush and to the point, none the less Applejack stood there without a sound as her full attention was toward Twilight. “, and your in charge of the food?”

“We sure as sugar are, would you care to sample some?” asked Applejack politely.

“So long as it doesn’t take too long.” said Twilight. She didn’t pay enough attention to Applejack for she was gone when she even started speaking. Applejack decided to ring the cowbell, obviously signaling the alarm for lunch time.

“Soups on everypony!” hollered Applejack. In an instant Twilight and Spike were carried off by a large mob of ponies within the farm’s vicinity, however from a certain view it looked more like the two being trampled. Instead of that it turns out they were carried off to where the Sweet Apple Acre family always ate out at, the only land that wasn’t around the barn houses or houses in that matter that had grass for the ground their hoofs walked. It was in the middle of a place that looked a lot like a park with a gazebo in the middle of it all, a beautiful scenery indeed as branches took hold on the legs of the wooden, worn gazebo to make the scene truly beautiful. Twilight and Spike sat down on one of the benches placed at the gazebo as Applejack began to speak.

“Alright let me introduce ya’ll to the apple family” said Applejack. Everypony looked ambitious to meet Twilight and Spike, with big bright smiles on each of their faces, Applejack didn’t lie when she said the folk here in Sweet Apple Acres love to meet new friends.

“Thanks but I really need to hurry.” said Twilight. Her sad excuse of an attempt to escape the apple family came to utter failure as Applejack already begun to introduce everypony.

“This here is…” began Applejack. Each pony that was called up by Applejack, each one carrying in their mouths a plate of some kind of apple delicacy, each plate piling on top of the other while Applejack said each pony’s name in one breath. Finally she took one deep breath and said the last three names. “This is Macintosh, Apple Bloom and Granny Smith.” said Applejack, while at the same time stuffing an entire apple into Twilight’s mouth.

Granny Smith was an elder pony, green in general with her mane white, handkerchief tied up around her neck and her cutie mark being an apple pie. She was fast asleep on her rocking chair nearby, at all the while wondering why Twilight hasn’t noticed her before being in that general area. “Up and at ‘em Granny Smith. We got guests.” said Applejack. Granny Smith seemed to be more tired than she was before she decided to sleep in her own rocking chair as she woke up and fully started moving around.

“Uh…wait….what?” asked Granny Smith waking up. She then decided to keep talking but it sounded too much like gibberish to make out what she said in English.

“Well I’d say your already "part of the family".” said Applejack patting a hoof to her back. Twilight spat out the remains of the apple that was shoved into her mouth, Applejack assumed that she just pat her too hard much like how she hoof shook her too hard, but no. Twilight spat out the apple bits due to the amount of friendship being made, she didn’t want to make friends before but she didn’t want to start now. What really caught her tongue was when she heard that she was practically part of the Apple Family, when she just barely met all these country ponies. She did appreciate the gesture of these ponies but there was too much coming in at once and Twilight didn’t like it.

“Ha-ha…okay…well… I can see the food situation is handled so we’ll be on our way now.” said Twilight. All the ponies around her looked a little sad as the smiles quickly turned to frowns in an instant. Next thing you know...Apple Bloom was it? Broke the silence.

“Aren’t you gonna stay for brunch?” asked the young filly, her bright orange eyes brighten up and sad looking looked like she was going to cry, blinking her eyes for much needed effect on the purple mare. Twilight instantly had guilt overwhelm her.

“Sorry, but we have an awful lot to do.” said Twilight.

“Aawwww…” sighed all the ponies around Twilight. The peer-pressure Twilight had felt from Apple Bloom enlarged when everypony looked down to the ground in utter disappointment. She may not want to be social with all these ponies but she sure as hay she wouldn’t like them how they are either. With a look of defeat in her eyes, she bit her bottom lip and looked down with her eyes half open.

“Fine…” said Twilight, sounding more of a complaining tone.

All the ponies around her quickly changed their mood as they cheered for the good news brought upon them, good news for them, not for Twilight and her anti-socialness. However the brunch was good though, for them and Twilight, and certainly Spike too.

Words could not describe how full Twilight was, or how she was feeling about it, it’s easy for anypony else to describe how it looked but the thought in Twilight’s head as she was walking she couldn’t come to herself and realize how full she was. It annoyed her beyond end to have to make herself social and feel like this for eating too much food in her belly, for it seemed almost as if Twilight was having a baby and she was just 3 months due. She carried herself across Ponyville to the next part of the list. “Alright, food’s been taken care of, now time for the weather.” claimed Spike.

He looked behind him and saw Twilight just groaning as she walked. Spike decided to bring his attention back towards the sky, knowing pegasi they always hang up in the clouds and in their world in Equestria, they always handled they weather with care. “We were supposed to meet up with this Pegasus “Rainbow Dash” now…clear up in the clouds.” said Spike in complete thought.

Twilight looked around, distracted from the irritation of her full stomach as her attention went from that to finding the Pegasus pony “Rainbow Dash”. “Well she isn’t doing a very good job is she?” asked Twilight. Her expression doesn’t match her tone for she sounded condescending in a major degree while her face showed no real emotion.

All of a sudden, a flashing multi-colored light crashed right into Twilight, nearly knocking out the lights and crash landing into a pile of mud. The cyan Pegasus pony got up covered in mud like Twilight shaking it off, laughing all the while of what had just happened. “Heh heh…excuse me?” cracked up the Pegasus in a humorous tone. Twilight however was unimpressed. The Pegasus took up and hovered up in the air, laughing a little bit at Twilight’s expense. “Here, let me help you.”

In an instant she was gone from sight, in a couple more seconds she came back with a little cloud being maneuvered by her. She had it hover over Twilight before getting on the cloud and bouncing on it, forcing it to rain on top of Twilight. Getting rid of all the mud but leaving Twilight wet as a dog. “Whoops, heh heh, I guess I over did It.” said the Pegasus. “Oh I know, how about my own patented “Rainbow Dry”?”

The cyan, multi-colored mane Pegasus spun around Twilight in a frenzy, creating a small rainbow tornado, getting rid of the dirt at Twilight’s hoofs and making sure she was all dry before stopping. She did when she believed the purple unicorn was done drying. “Ah no problem, please no thanks it was my pleasure.” said the Pegasus. She took a look at Twilight and saw how messed up her mane and tail was thanks to her “Rainbow Dry” technique, it was almost as puffy as the pink pony’s was when Twilight met her. She gave a dirty scowl at the Pegasus for ruining her mane and tail.

The Pegasus tried to contain laughter as much as she tried but tears ran down her eyes as she laughed her hardest, pointing at Twilight and laughing extremely hard, falling on her back laughing as a result. Spike decided to take a look at Twilight but without hesitation, joined the Pegasus in the laughing fit, doing the same thing.

“Let me guess, your “Rainbow Dash”?” asked Twilight. She was still unamused with the laughter but showed no signs of weakness or anger at all, she worked up a pretty mean poker face being a good care-taker for Spike for the past few years. It was painfully obvious that Rainbow Dash was Rainbow Dash, for one her mane and tail were the colors of the rainbow itself, and her cutie mark showed a rainbow lightning bolt coming from a gray cloud. If nothing else pointed out the obvious that Rainbow Dash was Rainbow Dash then nothing would have made it obvious.

“The one and only.” said Rainbow Dash as she instantaneously got above Twilight’s head. She was a fast Pegasus, all of them are but this one seemed different, faster. “Why, you heard of me?” looking at Twilight with much anticipation getting up in her face.

“I heard that YOU were supposed to be keeping the sky clear.” said Twilight. She was annoyed by Rainbow Dash’s attitude but it didn’t show it, nor would it be right to do so. She gave a tired sigh then said, “I’m Twilight Sparkle, and the princess sent me to check on the weather.”

Rainbow Dash decided to rest herself on a bit of the same cloud used to get Twilight all wet and rested on her back. “Yeah yeah, that’ll be a snap, I’ll do it in a jiffy. Just as soon as I’m done practicing.” said Rainbow Dash. This confused Twilight, usually pegasi take it up as an honor to be doing such things for the princess, it’s always been like that, but this pony didn’t look like she had a care in the world about things. She wanted to be annoyed majorly but it only confused her more than anything else.

“Practicing, for what?” asked Twilight ever-so curious. Rainbow Dash gave Twilight her full attention as her eyes locked onto the purple mare.

“To join the Wonderbolts, duh.” said Rainbow Dash. “They’ll be at the Summer Sun Celebration tomorrow and I’m going to impress them with my stuff.” Twilight thought it was too good to be true, she never met a pegasi in her life that was so determined to join the Wonderbolts and believe they can actually get in easy. It would require a Pegasus to train most his/her life to become one of the fastest flyers in Equestria, which of course what the Wonderbolts are. Rainbow Dash was fast but Twilight knew that there had to be more than that if Rainbow wanted to so badly join these Wonderbolts.

“The Wonderbolts?” asked Twilight.

“Yup.” said Rainbow Dash.

“The fastest flyers in all of Equestria?”

“The one and only.”

“Well one thing for sure they wouldn’t let a Pegasus that couldn’t keep the sky clear for just one measly day.” Twilight decided to be sarcastic with the pony, to keep herself amused while the conversation was going.

“Hey, I can clear the sky in 10 seconds flat.” Rainbow Dash was always a fast flyer, and she had encountered another non-believer. She didn’t mind though, haters was always her motivation to keep going where they had failed, to show Equestria what you get when motivation is your drive. Of course Equestria has enough dreamers but Rainbow Dash had a plan to change the face of that.

“Prove it.” said Twilight. Twilight knew enough cocky Pegasus ponies in her life to know when it comes to dreaming they’re all mostly the same, all talk and no skill. Sure Rainbow was going pretty fast before but that’s the average speed of a Pegasus pony.

Rainbow Dash took one second to get off the cloud she was resting upon and began to clear the sky. Dash was going incredibly fast, faster than Twilight imagined she would, she and Spike were in awe of Dash’s speed. And after ten seconds flat the sky in Ponyville was cleared out. “See what did I tell ya?” asked Rainbow Dash. “Ten. Seconds. Flat. I never leave Ponyville hanging.”

Twilight or Spike couldn’t speak, their jaws hit the ground figuratively and her eyes were in disbelief for they were wider then plates. Rainbow Dash was true to her word, she really did clear Ponyville’s skies in ten seconds flat. Rainbow Dash couldn’t help but laugh.

“You should see the look on your face.” Rainbow already felt good about herself, so good to fly circles calmly around Twilight in the air. “Your a laugh Twilight Sparkle. I can’t wait to hang out some more.” And with that Twilight’s jaw went back to the appropriate place for her, closed. “Well see you around!” And with that Rainbow Dash left to practice, like she wanted to before. Twilight still stood there, cursing herself that she had made another friend, she was still uptight about making friends but, at the same time she liked it.

“She was amazing!” exclaimed Spike, clearly excited. His attention then diverted to Twilight’s messed up, poofy mane, laughing like a dork while he was playing with it. Twilight grunted and walked off, Spike in close pursuit. “Wait, its actually kinda pretty when you get used to it.”

They weren’t far from their next destination, the town hall for which the celebration was going to take place. Going inside they noticed that everything was already taken care of far as the decorations went. “Beautiful…” said Spike. Twilight had to agree to that statement but Spike’s mind seemed like it was in other places.

“Yes, the décor is coming along nicely. This should be quick, I’ll get to the library in no time.” said Twilight.

“Not the décor, her…” said Spike. Twilight then knew what he meant before. There was a white furred pony with a cutie mark of 3 two-dimensional diamonds, her mane and tail were both perfect streaks of purple, nothing of this pony shouted out false in her beauty, the mare was completely regel. Whoever this mare was, she managed to get Spike to drool with heart shaped eyes without effort, or even paying attention to him at all.

The mare was examining all the ribbons brought up to her by her magic, much like how Twilight gets things in reach of her, they all had different colors as they all shined beautifully in the sun-light seeping into the town hall building. “No…no…no…” she kept going on. Spike even found her voice beautiful, Twilight thought it was funny how Spike was just a little love puppy all of a sudden. The mare knew what she was doing though, each of the ribbons would have made a good match with all the assorted colored banners hanging around in the hall but looks like this pony thought otherwise. Her sparkling blue eyes are what caught Spike’s attention the most, his eyes gotten wider and cartoonishly took up more of heart shapes. Spike felt his heart racing faster then Rainbow could flap her wings.

“How are my spines, are they straight?” asked Spike. He wanted his first impression good and right for this mare, examining himself before talking to whoever the mare was. Twilight only rolled her eyes, she thought it cute and funny at the same time for Spike to have his first crush.

“Good afternoon-” begun Twilight.

“-Just a moment please, I’m in the zone, as twere.” said the white mare. “Ah yes, sparkles always does the trick, does it not? Why Rarity you are a talent.” Twilight then realized she was just busy with herself, confused for a minute there as of why…well…Rarity was talking to herself. “Now um…how can I help you-WHAT?!??!”

She looked at Twilight’s mane with complete horror written all over her face. “My dear stars darling, whatever happened with your mane?” Twilight was curious as of why Rarity would take any interest into her mane at all, sure she realized that Rarity took fashion very seriously but not enough to take interest into her at all, she was new. But Twilight’s assumption told her otherwise.

“Oh, my mane? Well it’s a long story, but I’m just here to check on the decorations and I’ll be out of your hair.” said Twilight.

“Out of my hair? What about YOUR hair darling?” asked Rarity. Rarity rushed Twilight out of the town hall building, Twilight, wanting to stay where she was didn’t want to go anywhere.

“Um, where are we going?” asked Twilight in worry. Spike however said nothing, he just followed along with the love-struck look on his face still there.

Rarity had dragged Twilight towards her own shop and home, the ground floor was where the shop was, it was full of dressed up for sale, and those that seemed to be crafted by hands of professionals. “No, no, no darling, I made all these dresses.” said Rarity. Twilight had a hard time believing all that but after showing dress after dress, seeing as she never saw them in advertisements. To come to a conclusion most of these clothes were probably unreleased and here for display and finally, for purchasing.

Rarity decided to give Twilight a whole makeover, having her try on different outfits, though relatively forcibly, Twilight gave in and decided to keep the dresses coming and going. Finally when Twilight had to wear a simple dress, it was pretty but she had to have her upper torso squeezed like crazy in order for it to fit completely, thought Twilight was happy her mane and tail were the same as before Rainbow decided to mess it all up. Rarity helped out in the squeezing by pulling on a string attached to the dress.

“Oh go on my dear, you need to tell me where you’re from.” said Rarity. Clearly she hasn’t begun at all with pulling on the corset, but now she has.

“I’ve….been….sent…” begun Twilight. The corset was getting tighter and tighter on her the more Rarity pulled the rope, it was getting harder to talk and breathe. Twilight never had to wear stupid corsets like these. “From…Canterlot…to…” Tears began to swell up in her eyes and her voice got more higher pitched. Finally Rarity stopped pulling as she was thrown back at what Twilight just said, and the corset decided to fit around Twilight’s original body shape.

“Canterlot!!” exclaimed Rarity with surprise in her voice. “Oh I am so envious of you, the glamor, the sophistication, I’ve always DREAMED of living there! I can’t wait to hear ALL about it.” She then went up to Twilight and hugged her. “Oh I can tell we’ll be the best of friends.” To anypony else who heard it they would have found it sincere, in Twilight’s case however she found it ironic how she promised herself that she wouldn’t make any more friends unintentionally. Rarity took one look at Twilight’s dress and saw the emerald at the chest part of the dress. “Emerald? What was I thinking? Let me get you some rubies!” and with that Rarity took off to where all she stashed her gems.

“Quick! Let’s go before she decides to dye my coat a new color!” exclaimed Twilight In fear. She grabbed spike and placed him on his back while she sprinted out of the store before Rarity even noticed.

Spike was still sitting on Twilight’s back, daydreaming of Rarity, he never seen someone so regel in Canterlot so he didn’t know why she was jealous of all the unicorn ponies there. “Wasn’t she amazing?” asked Spike. He was still drooling, even after the 10 minutes of Twilight’s walking, and she appeared without the dress oddly enough.

“Focus Casanova, what’s next on the list?” asked Twilight. Spike came back from dream land and back into reality as he looked upon the parchment for it contained their to-do list.

“Well now we have to check up on the music for the celebration, it’s the last thing we got to do to.” said Spike. Twilight was happy to receive this news, she knew that after this she could study on as much as she wanted on the elements of harmony, nothing to hold her back. Just then, they heard birds chirping loudly, and in number. They realized it wasn’t chirping, it was singing, and it was birds. They came up to the sound as they saw a yellow pegasus floating in mid-air as the mare seemed to be instructing the birds on how to sing as it seems.

The birds were of numerous species, not one bird looked the same as the other. The yellow pegasus had yellow fur and pink hair, she wasn’t a bad looking pony in Twilight’s case either but Spike decided just to stick with Rarity as his crush. Twilight noticed that her cutie mark resembled 3 pink butterflies, by then it didn’t take long for Twilight to connect the dots as of what her special talent was. During the bird’s recital a blue jay was going way off tune and the yellow pegasus knew it too. “Oh my, stop, please, everyone.” said the yellow pegasus shyly. She flew up to the branch where the blue jay stood as she stopped right at it. “Um, excuse me sir, no offence but your singing was just a wee bit off.” The blue jay nodded as the pegasus went back to her spot instructing the birds.

“Um, hello?” asked Twilight. Her loud voice scared off all the birds and the pegasus froze in her own tracks, she floated down to make a simple conversation with Twilight. “Oh…I’m sorry for disturbing but that sounded just beautiful.” The yellow pegasus refused to talk, making it awkward for them both. Twilight looked around, the awkwardness setting in like a flame to wood. “So…what’s your name?” asked Twilight.

“My name is Fluttershy…” said Fluttershy. She was just way too silent for Twilight to hear her as Twilight stared in confusion.

“I’m sorry I didn’t quite catch that.” said Twilight.

“My name is Fluttershy…” said Fluttershy again, becoming quieter. Twilight looked around, the awkwardness setting in.

“Are you okay?” asked Twilight, now sounding concerned for the pegasus pony. For some reason the pegasus just…squealed? From Twilights point of view in this situation she wasn’t going to go anywhere with this pony. “Well you’re doing a wonderful job so far, I guess we’ll leave now.”

Oh the thoughts going through Fluttershy’s head now, embarrassed by her shyness and how she made everything awkward. She really hates it when she has to put up with such things made by her. She looked back at Twilight with tears coming in through. When she saw Spike walk out of the bush her mood completely changed, she loved animals so much, as much as she feared dragons, she was calm when she would see a smaller one, one that doesn’t look threatening. “A baby dragon!” shouted Fluttershy, some of the birds flying away from the force of her voice. She galloped over to Twilight and Spike and thrown her over her shoulder as her full attention was directed to Spike.

“I’ve never seen a baby dragon before, he’s sooo cute!” exclaimed Fluttershy.

“Well, well, well.” said Spike. He looked over at Twilight, noticing her dizziness from being thrown over and hitting the ground too hard. He folded his arms and closed his eyes like he was some sort of king or something.

“Wow, he even talks! I never knew dragons could talk,” said Fluttershy. “It’s so incredibly wonderful that I don’t know what to say.” Fluttershy then flew up to the sky, a short distance from the ground and hovered above, a big smile on her face. Twilight managed to recover from her fall as she used her magic to bring Spike onto her back, he too was really dizzy.

“That’s great, but we really must be on our way.” said Twilight. In a hurry she started to walk off. Fluttershy in close-pursuit was coming in though.

“Oh, I do apologize, I don’t know anything much on dragons, think that maybe you could tell me all about yourself?” asked Fluttershy. She wasn’t talking to Twilight though, she was talking to Spike.

“What do you want to know?” asked Spike.

“Absolutely everything.” answered Fluttershy. Twilight groaned at the moment she heard Fluttershy say that, she was now pretty irritated at the fact that now she has an overly shy pony having to follow them around, or more specifically, Spike.

“And that’s all there is to know about my whole entire life, up until today.” said Spike. They all finally reached the library, also known as Twilight’s temporary home while the Summer Sun Celebration goes on. “Wanna hear about today?”

“Oh yes please!” exclaimed Fluttershy. Twilight was already annoyed of having to hear Spike’s life repeated in words and didn’t want to hear anymore story tales.

“Oh I am so sorry, how did we get here so fast?” asked Twilight. It was a sarcastic sound with not much care into it, as anyone would have done. “This is where I’m staying while I’m in Ponyville, and my poor baby dragon needs his sleep.”

“No I don’t.” said Spike. Twilight bucked Spike off hard enough for him to fall next to Twilight with a pained expression on his face.

“Aw, look at him he’s just so sleepy he can’t keep his lil’ balance.” said Twilight. She was baby talking all that while Spike remained annoyed at the gesture. Suddenly Fluttershy picked up Spike and carried him inside.

“Poor thing, we must simply get him into bed.” said Fluttershy, concerned. Twilight had to stop her at the door.

“Yes yes, we’ll get right on that. Well, goodnight!” said Twilight. She kinda slammed the door at her face as she went to go turn on the lights, while being met with a big party, out of nowhere. Having to make friends was one thing but a party in a library? Twilight had no patience for such things.

“Surprise!!” shouted everypony. Twilight did well to hold what anger she had.

“Surprise! I’m Pinkie Pie and I threw this party just for you!” said Pinkie Pie. This was the first pony that Twilight had encountered before, and the first one to interact with the moment they hit Ponyville too. “Were you surprised? Where you? Where you? Huh? Huh? Huh?” Twilight immediately got the message that this was one very hyperactive pony, a very pink one too.

“Very surprised, libraries are supposed to be quiet…” said Twilight annoyed. It’s true though, libraries all over Equestria had a strict sound rule, and now here she is, Twilight, breaking one thing that she swore to up hold in a library. Silence.

“That’s silly, what kind of welcome party would this be if it was quiet. I mean, DUH. BORING!” said Pinkie. It seemed like a smile was always fixated on the pony’s face most of the time, Twilight found it a little ridiculous as she walked away. “I saw you when you first got here remember? You were all “Hello” and I was all, “GASP”. Remember? You see I never saw you before and if I never seen you before that MEANT your new, and I know everypony and I mean EVERYPONY in Ponyville.”

Twilight had gone over to the snack pub, groaning to having to hear the endless rabble of Pinkie Pie, going off about how this party even happened. She then took a cup and a bottle, she wasn’t paying attention as she poured hot sauce into her cup. She had noticed that all the ponies from before, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, and Rarity, all of them were here. Twilight found it ironic but at that time she felt too tired to care. She drank from the cup and her tongue, it felt like lava was being poured onto her tongue, she never had anything so spicy or hot in her whole life. She reacted much more dramatically then she should have and ran up to what she believed to be her room. To her expense, she was correct.

Pinkie grabbed one of the cupcakes placed on the snack table as she poured the hot sauce onto the cupcake. She ate it as the other 4 mares looked at her in confusion, who in their right mind would eat a cupcake covered in hot sauce? Well…Pinkie Pie. “What? Its good!” said Pinkie Pie. The other’s couldn’t help but laugh, they didn’t mind that Twilight Sparkle was such a bummer at the time and they had fun at the party till night came.

Chapter 3 (Revised)

Chapter 3

Twilight lay in her bed, her pillow to face as night time was closing in to end the day to start the fun part of the Summer Sun Celebration. To Twilight, “fun” was just a sarcastic word used for situations like this. She couldn't help but roll around in her bed in a fuss with the loud music coming from the main room. She groaned to herself about how she even allowed ponies to throw a party in the library. Spike came stumbling in, much to Twilight's surprise with a lamp shade on his head, covered in streamers, losing his balance. He regained his balance and began to speak. “Hey Twilight, Pinkie’s party has pin the tail on the pony, wanna play?” Spike asked eagerly.

“NO!” she shouted in anger. “All the ponies of this town are CRAZY! Do you KNOW what time it is?”

“It’s the eve of the summer sun celebration.” said Spike. “Everypony has to stay up or they’ll miss the princess raise the sun!” He noticed Twilight rolled her eyes at what Spike was saying, sure she loved the Summer Sun celebration but she didn’t like it how it was at the moment, in the library. “Look Twilight, you really need to lighten up, it’s a party!” He walked out of the room, closing the door behind him.

Twilight in irritation imitated what Spike said in an annoyed tone like a teenager would. “Here I thought I would have time to learn more about the elements of harmony, but oh wait, all this ridiculous friend making had to keep me from it!” said Twilight to herself. She rolled on to her side to look out the window, in deep thought of what had been going on that night. She noticed the moon gleaming brighter than before, with the symbol of Nightmare Moon on it and four stars aligned next to it exactly as the book about it had shown.

“On the longest day of the thousandth year, the path will be lightened by darkness, and the world will be engulfed in fire.” She looked back at the book, then at the moon, the picture of the book was exactly like how the moon is now, she was terrified of the prospect of Nightmare Moon and her son’s return to Equestria.

“I really hope it really is an old pony’s tale.” said Twilight, unsure of herself. Then she noticed the four stars fall to the Earth, any hope that the tale was true have been taken away and replaced with fear. She shook her head, the princess said that this was more of her kind of trouble, not Twilight’s. She decided to let it go. Spike came in for a second time.

“Hey Twilight, everypony is going back to the town hall building, the princess is going to raise the sun pretty soon!” said Spike. He then closed the door and let Twilight get out to the celebration on her own time.

War had treaded fifteen miles till he finally hit the part of the Everfree forest where he could see Ponyville, from the looks of things his brothers hasn’t even gotten here yet. This was good in his case and lucky enough to not impact into the Earth on the other side of Equestria, unlike his brothers though. He then morphed back to his black and red mane form, only to revert colors again till he turned into a blue version of himself. He still had the same stature as before but his mane and tail were shorter. He had brown eyes and mane bright up under the moon; he knew he couldn’t stay in this form for the entire night before turning into his vengeful self again. He looked up at the moon and noticed the mare of the moon symbol grow brighter every second; slowly showing real results of you-know-who's freedom.

“Dammit, I don’t have much time!” exclaimed War. He began galloping towards Ponyville, he had to play all this safe though, he knows he can’t do anything that would blow his cover. It seemed unlikely to but he knew that his name was good enough to blow his cover; he needed a backup story, none of this "War" crap he had to deal with for generations. Alright, his name is Connor Stronghooves like it always was, from…where? Right, he’s just a foreign stallion in need of Equestria to help out get a better future for himself, having to stay in Fillydelphia for a short stay, and he’s in Ponyville to attend the summer sun celebration just like every other pony here.

He decided to slow down and started on some espionage, he hasn’t been seen yet and he’ll be sure to enter the crowds of ponies easy. However he decided it was better to stay in a little crowd of ponies, but which one? At that moment his brain froze up, why would this happen? He never felt this kind of lockup before, not even after a bloody battle he had lost like so many of those before. He noticed a unicorn pony trotting with a baby dragon on her back. She was also along with 5 other ponies but she seemed annoyed. Connor didn’t mind though, any little crowd of ponies was good enough.

He walked up to the crowd of ponies with confidence, whoever these ponies were it didn’t matter all that much to him. “Um, hello there.” began Connor. The six mares looked at him, they all seemed confused but their attention was Connor’s.

“’Ello there sugarcube.” said Applejack. “What could we all help ya’ for?” Connor wondered what was up with the southern accent but it was best not to ask.

“Well you see, I came to town from my home in Fillydelphia to attend the Summer Sun Celebration but, I don’t know where it’s being held, you think you all could show me the way?” asked Connor politely. He decided to give himself the personality of a shy person, but with confidence, no point in being himself at that time. He found himself grabbed by the white mare with a well groomed purple mane and a cutie mark with three diamonds. “Um…?”

“Shush you! C’mon girls, let’s take this hunk to the town hall!” exclaimed Rarity.  Connor had to blush to this; he had been met with the most unlikely of responses from anypony. He looked at Rarity, then back at the rest of the other mares, confused and blushing a bit with an expression that cried out help.

Twilight noticed this too, she blushed at the sight of Connor like a couple other of the ponies but she giggled at Rarity taking her new prize, or so however the ponies here call it. For the next five minutes Connor had to uncomfortably walk next to Rarity getting all up on him, he was irritated but wished no harm or any ill will, by all means let her do what she was doing. Finally they all hit the town hall where everything was going to be set for the summer sun celebration, Rarity had to leave to make sure the princess’s appearance was flashy. “I’m so sorry Connor, but I do have priorities to take care of for the celebration.” said Rarity. For most of the time Connor was politely trying to turn away any moves played on him by Rarity, he didn’t want to get serious with anypony anytime soon.

“Yes I do understand myself, well I guess I’ll be seeing you around.” said Connor. Connor bowed, as so past traditions demanded him to. Rarity smiled at him as she was trotting along and her attention went back to going to the princess. Connor looked at the other mares uncomfortably and noticed a yellow pegasus with butterflies for a cutie mark seemed not only very shy but also seemingly very intimidated by Connor’s size and stature.

“Um, I better attend to the…music.” said Fluttershy. She flew off quickly away from Connor, making him more confused.

“So I get flirted with and now I’m feared, jeez I just wanted to see Celestia rise the sun, not this.” said Connor, actually sincere saying all that. Applejack was the first to hit Connor at the side.

“Ah shucks sugarcube it’s no big deal, so do we, hope to see ya’ll in there!” said Applejack. She walked in happy leaving behind the other mares with Connor. Connor then turned his attention to the Rainbow mane pony with interest of her mane.

“You have some funky color’s there.” said Connor. Rainbow Dash had an insulted look on her face as Connor smiled sheepishly. “No offence at all or anything.”

“Well it better not have.” said Rainbow Dash. She went into the town hall leaving the rest of the ponies at the door step. Pinkie Pie was the next to introduce herself.

“Ah don’t mind Dashie, she’s just a little irritated after a little prank I pulled on her.” said Pinkie Pie. She merrily hopped through the front door, now leaving Connor and Twilight alone with each other. They stood at the door steps of the town hall, the last of the ponies in Ponyville aside from those two were left to go in. Sure he had thoughts that he didn’t want to be serious with anypony at the time but, that was during the time where he was uncomfortable, now he’s only feeling awkward.

“Hello,” began Twilight. “My name is Twilight Sparkle; we didn’t get to meet each other properly before seeing as you allowed Rarity to claim her prize.” She began to giggle at that thought, Connor, a trophy prize to Rarity. Connor felt disgusted and hated to be claimed by another pony, he was passionate to feel free.

“Well, I didn’t want any trouble with anypony, or myself, I came to see to it that Princess Celestia raises the sun and nothing more.” said Connor. He sounded very stern and slightly demanding at the same time, Twilight didn’t like that.

“Well I understand I wouldn’t like to be anypony’s trophy either.” said Twilight, trying to keep up the small talk. “I was sent here by Princess Celestia on taking care of handling this celebration before she arrived-” Connor pressed a hoof against Twilight’s lips, getting a bit closer to her doing so, Twilight blushed a bit. This was not a line that was crossed by stallions.

“Wait, you’re saying that Princess Celestia, the one and only pony, sent you here?” asked Connor in disbelief.

“Why yes, I’m her personal student…why do you ask?” asked Twilight. Connor skipped a couple heart beats thinking of what he would have to say next. He finally then knew what to say, in his mind he’ll regret it but they’re the only ponies there.

“Look, I’m not here for the summer sun celebration, I’m only here to advert a crisis.” said Connor. Twilight stared at him in disbelief as he took on a worried expression; she soon felt the same and her body said it too. The limited but massive amount of possibilities popped up in her head like wildfire as she took on what he had said.

“What do you mean?...” asked Twilight in confusion.

“Listen, have you heard of the mare in the moon legend?” asked Connor. Yes she had, and she expected the worst of things. “Well, if so or not it’s true, and she’s coming back tonight. Any minute now too.”  He looked up into the moon, seeing the symbol growing brighter and brighter. Twilight matched his gaze upon the moon, noticing the same thing too.

“And her four sons of the apocalypse too.” said Twilight.

“No, only three will.” said Connor in correction. Twilight was confused now; her Connor is telling her that everything of the legend is true but the fact that the four brothers will only be three now? This didn’t fit well in her head.

“How do you know?” asked Twilight. Now Connor left himself in a pickle, he had to lie, now or never.

“You saw those meteorites that came in a bit ago? The fourth one hit the seas north west of Ponyville past Fillydelphia, whoever that pony was won’t make it here, however the other three will.” said Connor. He looked up at the moon one more time, the moon was different know, the symbol was gone and on the inside he felt shock, major shock. “Shit!” shouted Connor. He galloped into a full sprint into the Town Hall, with Twilight in close pursuit.

When Connor got inside he saw the worst, the introduction of Nightmare Moon. It was presented by evil, hollow laughter, female of which as the ponies in the vicinity was shocked and scared. Finally, Nightmare Moon appeared in front of the ponies, appearing in a cloud of thick, black fog which had come out of nowhere. The smog took form into the dreaded black alicorn, the same size as their beloved leader. She had armor on, not a lot of it but she had a helmet and some body armor at her chest area with a blue orb at the center where the it all took a hold on. Her black feathery wings spread out really wide as her lazy; evil eyes gazed upon the crowd of pegasi, unicorns and earth ponies alike.

The black smog matched her mane and tail and her cutie mark was, well, a crescent moon. Spike, now in Twilight’s attention ever since they had left the library neglecting his presence up until that moment, fainted.

“Dammit…” whispered Connor.

“Oh my beloved subjects,” began Nightmare Moon. “It’s been so long since I’ve seen your sun loving faces.” Her very words inflicted fear into the ponies around him, Connor knew better then to let her what she wanted.

“What have you done with our princess?” asked Rainbow Dash, not as forcefully as she would have liked. She tried to dash towards Nightmare but was stopped by Applejack pulling at her tail.

“Slow down ‘nelly.” said Applejack through gritted teeth. Nightmare Moon cackled at such words, clearly not going to answer her question.

“Why? Am I not royal enough for you?” said Nightmare Moon in a sarcastic tone. “Do you even know who I am?” Pinkie Pie was really eager despite the tension spiked up in the air.

“Ooh, ooh, more guessing games! Umm…pokey smokes!” said Pinkie Pie. “No…Queen Meanie! Oh uh…black snooty, black snooty!” Applejack went and stuffed a cupcake into her mouth, it did the trick beautifully. Nightmare Moon’s attention switched over to Fluttershy.

“Does my crown even count anymore despite the fact that I’ve been gone for over a thousand years?” asked Nightmare in an angered tone. Fluttershy flinched from Nightmare the more advances she made towards her, angering Connor but he couldn’t let feelings get in the way, not even after all that Nightmare had done to him before. “Do you not recall the legend? Did you not see the signs?”

“I know who you are.” said Twilight. “You’re the mare of the moon, Nightmare Moon!” Her voiced went and broke the silence due to Nightmare Moon’s angry questions, she also noticed Connor was nowhere in sight now. Nightmare Moon laughed her same evil laugh as before.

“Well, well, well, some pony remembers me. Then you must also know why I’m here.” said Nightmare Moon.

“Yes, but this doesn’t explain anything, your sons of Apocalypse aren’t here.” said Twilight, quizzical. Nightmare Moon only grinned as three crash sounds were made. Three more alicorns came into the scene from 3 different directions, one of them underneath the platform Nightmare Moon stood. One of them was a pale white stallion with a grim mask covering most of his head, with the cutie mark resembling the cycle of life showing a leaf in full bloom and another in death with only the spines remaining. This pony must have been Death.

The 2nd one was a scrawny stallion, still strong in stature but looked like there was no meat on him, nor any feathers on his wings. His cutie mark showed a hoof, not any hoof but a hoof of a dying pony with skin down to the bone, on its belly reaching down at the ground. This pony must have been Famine.

The 3rd pony was a sickly looking pony, same thing with Famine but had a darker appearance to him, his cutie mark showed the same thing but the pony was on its back reaching up to the sky as if in distress. This pony must have been Pestilence.

“Wait, where’s the fourth pony?” asked Rainbow Dash.

“What do ya’ll mean sugarcube?” asked Applejack. She was in fear of the alicorns before them but had to wonder what Rainbow meant.

“Well I remember the old legend of four legendary ponies called the Stallions of the Apocalypse, meant to rid the world of the cruel and the wicked, and these ponies match up the description of the old legends.” said Rainbow Dash. She was scared also, well, at this point everypony was but out of her fear she decided to keep talking. “This kind of thing suited me so don’t be surprised that I have read this legend before.”

The three menacing ponies looked around the room, seemingly trying to look out for something. “A fourth should have been here.” said Death.

“War was always useless, too soft.” Connor, disappearing in the crowd, attempted to leave but had frozen in his tracks. If there was one thing he hated more than anything was a challenge issued against him in cold blood, or as he must have assumed from the modern slang, calling him out. He turned and started trotting towards the three ponies, others moving away from him so that a clear path could be made from him to the three stallions. When finally he was the only one in his own space, one wide enough for him to be made out in the open so he stopped trotting; the stallions looked at Connor with immense, evil smiles on them, Death’s seemed to show no emotion due to the mask on his face but his eyes definably spelt out evil joy.

“So, the lost sheep returns to the flock.” said Famine. Twilight was confused, what did that stallion mean by it? Connor said one of the meteorites, or in this case, War landed into the ocean and wouldn’t be able to join his brothers immediately. But then she got back to thinking, Connor said that he came from Fillydelphia and that the meteorite landed just up North from it. Right now the pieces she had gathered were not enough to solve the mysterious puzzle but only one conclusion remained.

Connor slowly morphed back into War, the rocky, volcanic-like form happened and became War, his eyes were completely white and his mane and tail were fire as it bright up in the dark lit room. The aura surrounding War made the mood even worse than how Nightmare Moon had brought the room to be. Right now the six mares and everypony were standing there, dumbstruck and their jaws hit the floor. Twilight was really confused now, she saw this coming but with someone like Connor, one who appeared to be nice, shy in nature is really a pony of hatred and violence.

“So easy for you to talk while I’m not here is it?” asked War in a dark tone. Famine and Pestilence were shaking a bit but Death stood his ground.

“Don’t make me laugh brother, you were useless to begin with and here you stand against us like you are now, in defiance of our rightful rule over Equestria.” said Death. They both circled the room in their own space, never leaving the gaze of each other’s hateful eyes.

“It was you who has proven worthless, Death.” said War. Twilight still couldn’t believe what was happening, for the same reasons as stated before too.

“Before you had the tone to be able to stand up to us real easy but here you stand without a bit of confidence in your eyes I can see the doubt as clear as day.” said Death. “But soon day will be gone as Nightmare Moon takes up the throne, and brings forth eternal darkness, just like the image we four had shared before.”

“Well how about we get to the part where I wipe the floor with you three.” said War, with hallow dark tone to his voice now. “I’m through talking.”

They both charged at each other, then in an instant the four disappeared as they heard clashes of hoofs against hoofs. War was floating in the air, holding his own against the three stallions with ease, what confused people the most was that War was an earth pony, not an alicorn and there he was doing it all with ease.

In three simple strikes the other three stallions hit the floor like a bad habit as they were knocked unconscious and turned into black smog like Nightmare Moon as they all went off into the Everfree forest’s direction. War hit the floor too but to land on his hoofs as he went at super high speeds out of the town hall in vain pursuit of the smog, but it was simply too fast for him or anypony. His bright, volcanic eyes looked back into the town hall as Twilight stood at the doorway with Spike on her back, Connor met her eyes too. He slowly morphed back into his blue colored form as he looked back at Twilight in his normal form.

He took a step forward to her but she only took a step back, and the more he got closer the more she went away. “What’s wrong?” asked Connor.

“You lied to us.” said Twilight in anger.

“It was necessary to keep up my disguise while I was in this form, I truly mean no harm to you or to anyone here in Equestria.” said Connor sternly. Twilight’s brain was still in a freak out mode but she stopped moving away from Connor the more steps she took towards him. “I really mean it Twilight.” They were in front of the other as they got close to each other, but not touching.

“Whatever you say, if I find that you lied to me and that you only used us for another one of your “plans” then you’re going down.” said Twilight. Connor knew that even in this form he would take on Twilight, and she knew it too. But Connor knew better and let her take this one.

“Alright fine, whatever you say, now let’s get to the library.” said Connor. They both galloped next to each other towards her temporary home with a mission in both of their minds, to stop Nightmare Moon and his brothers. “Look when all this is done I’ll make it up to you for lying.”

“Good.” said Twilight. Connor was still so very confused on one thing.

“Why do you even care that I had to lie? We both know it was necessary to stay incognito.” said Connor.

“I have my reasons.” said Twilight. Connor was way confused at that moment but he just didn’t care anymore, all that was on his mind was stopping Nightmare and his brothers.

Chapter 4 (Revised)

Chapter 4

Spike awoke from his bed but only for an instant. “We, got to stop, Nightmare…” and with that he drifted back to sleep.

“Oh Spike, you’ve been up all night.” said Twilight. “But you’re still only a baby dragon.” Twilight and Connor have been looking throughout the library looking for anything on the Elements of Harmony. Connor knows of their powers from before, being there as it demonstrated on him, and since then he’s been to a place worse then the moon.

“God dammit where the hell is any book on those elements!” exclaimed Connor.

“You know you don’t have to swear so much.” said Twilight. She wore a scowl on her face but Connor didn’t care about it.

“Well gee sorry for having the same mouth I had one thousand years ago, being banished didn’t help learn much modern culture.” said Connor with an irritated look on his face. They both glared at each other for a couple of seconds then minded their own business’s as they continued looking for a book on the elements. After some time Connor felt guilty but those thoughts left as Rainbow Dash flew through the door, nearly crashing into it.

“Okay, so who are you REALLY and what are these elements?” asked Rainbow irritated. Applejack grabbed her by the tail and pulled her back.

“Look, if ya’ll aren’t REALLY Connor just tell all of us. We don’t wanna have liar’s here.” said Applejack. She looked sincere saying that, if Connor was in her shoes he’d sound more harsh and would sound threatening, but as it seems Connor is just learning how to stop being his old self.

“I understand your concern, and I may have lied to you as of who I am. But believe me when I say that Connor is my real name, I don’t go by War anymore.” said Connor.

“But those three other ponies ya’ll were fightin’, they called you by that though.” said Applejack.

“Listen, I know what they called me, but I’m only War when I’m in that form, and as you can see I'm not. I’m not here to infiltrate anything, nor am I to hurt anypony, not even Nightmare Moon, I’m only here to prevent tragedies, nothing more.” said Connor.

Applejack took a minute to observe Connor’s face, and when she seemed satisfied, she looked deep into his eyes. Connor was wondering why she did it but he had to show that he was truthfully being honest with her, for he could tell why she was looking into him, staring through him. She was done when she said,

“You’re telling the truth.” Applejack then walked over to Twilight, on her way saying also, “And ah hope that ya won't be haunted anymore.” Connor was right on one thing; she really was looking right through him, or at least could tell what was wrong with him. Twilight looked at Connor with a bit of concern as to what Applejack had said to Connor but he didn’t bother looking at Applejack after what she had said. “Now sugarcube, mind telling us what these elements are?”

“Well I don’t really know much about them, that’s why we’re in here lies a book about them, I don’t know where it is though.” said Twilight. Then suddenly out of nowhere, almost literally Pinkie Pie had a book in her hoof.

“Here it is!” exclaimed Pinkie Pie. Twilight looked at the cover of the book shocked.

“A reference guide to the Elements of Harmony, but how did you find it so quickly?” asked Twilight overly confused.

“It was under the E section.” said Pinkie Pie. Something about her tone made Twilight quickly think that she was being condescending but this wasn’t the time to argue about it. She flipped through the pages of the book quickly until she finally hit a page where she wanted to be.

“Alright, the elements of harmony, 6 in total are the forces that bind Equestria and the world together through Honesty, Kindness, Laughter, Generosity, Loyalty, and finally the 6th and most powerful element, Magic,” read Twilight. “A spark will ignite the sixth element to appear after all the other five have come together.” The text came with a picture featuring a web of 5 different colored gems, representing the five separate elements with a bigger gem in the middle of it representing the element of magic.

“It is said here that the elements last known location was in the Everfree forest.” finished Twilight. She gulped at those words and so did the other 5 mares in the room.

“Then we have no time to waste.” said Connor. He proceeded to go through the door as he looked back not hearing the hoof steps of the others following. “Look, I understand the risks, the Everfree forest was never the safest place to be but if we don’t go, it’ll be hell on earth and afterwards nothing can stop it, it’s either now or never.” The mares agreed with Connor and Rarity walked up to him and looked him dead in the eye.

“He’s right girls, I’m not sure about the hell on earth bit but I know that if we don’t do it now we won’t be able to do it again.” said Rarity. Connor had to smile a bit, Rarity seemed more understanding then before, back then she was just too flirtatious, now it just seems otherwise. They were walking out the door when they noticed Fluttershy wasn’t with them. Connor knew what he had to do.

Fluttershy was walking away from Connor, much like how Twilight did back at the town hall but Connor didn’t make any sudden movements. “Look, I won’t hurt you, I would rather kill myself before hurting you or anypony in this town.” said Connor sincerely. “But I know that we need you, just as much as you need us I think. I will not let a single thing in that forest lay so much of a finger or hoof on you, okay?” Fluttershy stopped backing away as she walked up to Connor and she nodded.

“Alright, I’ll tag along.” said Fluttershy. Connor noticed she still sounded too unsure of herself still, he expected as much but it was alright, he didn’t expect her to completely secure of herself. With one look back Connor saw that the mares we're ready for the adventure they were to make, it was a rag-tag little gang but none the less very necessary for what they had to do. These were the ponies needed for this trip, and they just had to stop Nightmare Moon.

“Let’s ride.” said Connor. He neighed and stood on his back hooves as a form of dominance as the mares followed suit except for Fluttershy and Twilight and they all galloped to the Everfree forest, they’re mission set and goals made.

“I will make things right, for Equestria, I will not repeat my history.” thought Connor.

They hit the entrance of the Everfree forest as a clear path was there, seemingly already set for them as if destiny had this pre-determined. Connor ignored that thought as he led the 6 mares through the path.

“Alright, no turning back girls.” said Connor, looking back at them. They all looked determined with their silent nods, knowing what had to be done. They all walked through the path as Rainbow Dash stayed along with Fluttershy to help make sure she wasn’t too scared to continue onward. They continued until they hit a cliff and they stopped right there, looking for any other paths.

“Well, the only path we’d be able to find is the direction we all came back from.” said Twilight. Connor knew she was right but there had to be another way.

The black smog from before was back, but doesn’t bother to change form back to the 4 alicorns from which it came from. It went right into the rock and broke off the support of the bit of the cliff that would seem logical for it to break off and went out of the rock. The smog went off to accomplish some other deed to get the ponies off tract from the elements.

Finally Rainbow Dash walked over near the edge with the rest. “Well, this is kind of a bust, no other path but down.” said Rainbow. Then almost if it was all too easy, the part of the cliff from where everyone was collapsed; Rainbow and Fluttershy were fine immediately since being pegasi they had wings. However the rest of the ponies were sliding down the rock for another cliff came up when they were sliding down. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy was able to save Pinkie and Rarity, setting them on the ground while Applejack, Twilight and Connor were sliding down.

Connor was able to hold his ground good enough to traverse the slippery mud of the ground as he was able to jump down from the cliff off of several jump points. He looked back up to see Applejack grabbing a hold of Twilight’s hooves. Connor knew what he had to do.

“Applejack, pull me up! Please!” plead Twilight. Applejack had a moment of doubt, she was one tough pony but she wouldn’t be able to pull up Twilight, she didn’t have the strength. Then all of a sudden, some ponies caught her eye.

“Twilight, let go.” said Applejack. That was the craziest thing that she had heard in her life. Her life hung in the balance in one pony’s hooves and she’s telling her to let go.

“Are you crazy?!” asked Twilight.

“Look Twi,” said Applejack. “I would never to tell you that if I knew it would hurt you, now I will ask ya’ll again, let go.” Twilight was in major doubt but she knew Applejack was right, she barely knew her she knew that Applejack was an honest one. So Twilight did as Applejack told her and let go.

She was falling, wailing around as anypony would and then was caught by Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash. They weren’t fully prepared to catch Twilight so then they both let go, but mostly out of the weight of Twilight Sparkle. Applejack gasped as she was scared to death, she froze up into a mental and physical lock-down as she felt unable to do anything next.

Connor was running off of the walls of the canyon they were in and right before she was too close to the ground. He jumped off the wall and caught Twilight Sparkle on his back. His hooves hit the other side of the canyon as he held on for dear life, sliding down the wall. “Dammit not yet.” thought Connor. He saw that he was low enough to the ground as it would be to be safe then jumped off the wall and hit the ground with his hooves, nearly breaking them but Twilight was good.

“You okay?” asked Connor.

“Yeah, just fine really, thanks.” said Twilight. The two pegasi floating down towards the ground as they landed safely.

“Uh, fellas?” asked Applejack. Everyone’s attention diverted to Applejack, at the edge of the cliff still. “Is anypony gonna help me down from here?”

The 6 mares and Connor continued their path forward, Connor despite nearly breaking his legs just kept going. In his mind, pain was weakness, weakness was giving up, giving up was surrender, surrender was cowardly, and he never was a coward. Fluttershy and Rainbow went up to Twilight. “Sorry that we weren’t able to catch you.” said Rainbow. “And having enough strength to keep you up.”

“Its okay girls, I think anypony would make that mistake too, not just you two.” said Twilight.

“I wouldn’t.” said Connor. Twilight and Rainbow Dash looked at Connor with disgust while Fluttershy turned her head away in shame.

“What’s your problem?” asked Rainbow Dash.

“I have no problems with any of you mares, however I’m merely stating the obvious, I wouldn’t because I don’t have wings.” said Connor. Connor looked back at the three with a big grin on his face. “Problem?” Rainbow Dash grunted in disgust as a loud thump hit the ground just in front of all of them.

The creature had a man’s face, lion’s body and a scorpion’s tail. They all knew what this creature was called, a Manticore, a magical creature of all the above features. Connor immediately took up his position. “Get back!” yelled Connor. His eyes fixated on the Manticore as it charged up to Connor. Connor expected everything from anything, and he wouldn’t let his mind off in the heat of a 1 on 1 battle.

The Manticore was the first to strike, flailing its front paw with claws as sharp as diamonds coming in fast. Connor was barely able to dodge the attack and had done the same, hitting the Manticore with his might and making the creature fly back a bit. The wings of the beast caught the wind allowing it to get ground with graceful ease. Rainbow Dash was cheering at the sidelines but the others seemed to not know what to do. Fluttershy, was wanting to speak but no words coming from her muzzle, just silence wanting to be broken.

“It’s alright, I know what I’m doing.” said Connor. By now he could have killed this Manticore with ease, yet with adrenaline flowing through his body, causing his eyes to turn into slits. The mares must have caught what his eyes had become; Rainbow Dash’s cheers weren’t quite as they were as it died out. The Manticore and Connor were at a stand-off. They circled their battlefield never loosing each other’s body movements or their eyes. The Manticore let out a blood curdling roar which unsettled the ponies, Connor more or less scared.

“You are one tough Manticore, but this is only beginning.” said Connor. He prepared himself, knowing the only way to make the fight shorter was to scream louder than those that apposed you. He inhaled a lot of air then came out with a thunderous roar, louder than the manticore's  that blew back the Manticore and making its hairs stood up on their own as a look of shock took over the beast’s face. The six mares couldn’t believe what assaulted their ears either, they all backed up as Fluttershy compulsively fled to the nearest bush.

Connor made the first move, jumping into the air higher then he should have the moon illuminating onto his figure, a perfect image of one of Nightmare’s sons. As if the force of the heavens beat down from Connor as he descended down towards the Manticore, he was stopped by Applejack and Rainbow Dash. They tackled him from the ground with all their might as it was only enough to make sure Connor hit the ground with his hooves instead of the Manticore.

“Are you two crazy?” asked Connor. Connor was overly surprised to see the mares hold him down as Fluttershy walked up to the creature. “GET BACK FROM IT!” shouted Connor.

Fluttershy stopped the beast by brushing her nuzzle up against one of the creature’s paws, it seemed to calm down. “What the-?” asked Connor. Fluttershy convinced the creature to show that paw she brushed her face against and noticed a large splint of wood in it, lodged in the paw.

“Oh you poor thing.” said Fluttershy. She pulled it out with her teeth as the Manticore roared at Fluttershy, her hair blowing from the force. Connor pushed the mares off of him as he charged over at the Manticore but stopped. The Manticore was licking Fluttershy like it was her pet.

“Oh who’s a good kitty?” asked Fluttershy in a baby voice. Connor was dumbfounded at the sight, not knowing what to think. The Manticore left as Fluttershy caught up with the other mares, leaving Connor standing there with his mouth gapping. He was deep in thought on what had happened. Whenever he had a battle with a Manticore he would break the beast, making it a shadow of its old self. But now having to win a battle without breaking, this was new. Twilight saw Connor stand there.

“Connor?” asked Twilight. Connor snapped out of it as he saw the mares actually wait for him. “Are you coming or what?”

Connor never felt this way before about anything, he never had friends to help him out, nor friends to show him better, but friends that would encourage him to do things. He wasn’t encouraged to fight but he found it his number one solution. To know another way to fight it really blew his mind. His closed his gaping mouth bringing his senses back to Equestria.

“Yeah, I’m coming, no worries Twilight.” said Connor. He walked up to Fluttershy with a question in mind. “You know I could have pulverized that beast, how come you did what you did?”

“Well, sometimes it doesn’t hurt to show a little kindness.” said Fluttershy. Connor stopped in his tracts and smiled. That was a nice thought that never entered his brain before, it was alien to him and he liked it. He felt his knees were a little weak but he knew he could press forward with the others. He slowed down to trot next to Twilight so they could talk.

“Wow, heh.” said Connor.

“How come you’re laughing?” asked Twilight. Connor closed his eyes to think for only a minute then opened his mouth again. “Well?”

“I lived most of my old life fighting, and that was mostly the solution, to know another alternative is pretty amazing to Mm.” said Connor. “Honestly, I think it’s a nice touch.” Twilight had to smile at that, to know not only she was touched by something nice, innocent and new, she had the same feeling at that moment to. They both caught up with the others as they all talked like the Manticore never really happened.

The trail had led the 7 to a dark part in the Everfree forest, it was almost spookily dark. The mares weren’t very intimidated by it, so was Connor, not even Fluttershy was remotely scarred. They were talking like it was just a regular forest. “How far do you think we’ve gotten so far?”  asked Rainbow Dash.

“Ah believe we’ve gotten pretty darn far, if I do say so myself.” said Applejack. They all kept trotting forward as they all noticed the lighting was getting darker. Everyone’s concerns of the sudden darkness coming were heightening farther into the depths of their minds as a dark presence emerged in the form of black smog. It didn’t show itself directly but instead decided to do another trick.

The trees took on horrible faces taking up most of their trunks, faces of those that have been tortured.

“What’s going on?” asked Rarity scared.

“I don’t know but whatever it is, it doesn’t have good intentions.” said Twilight. They all coward and walked back until they all were in a little crowd of their own, except Pinkie Pie and Connor weren’t there. They looked to their left as the 5 mares saw Connor, on his flank with a gaping mouth and eyes that looked upon the faces in fear.

“Connor, what’s the matter sugarcube?” asked Applejack. He didn’t respond, he didn’t move, his face looked upon the tortured faces with utter horror. They looked to see Pinkie Pie in another direction laughing at the faces.

“Pinkie? What are you doing?” asked Twilight in complete confusion. Pinkie ignored the question as she continued to laugh at the faces. She made all kind of faces at the deformed looking trees.

“These faces are funny!” exclaimed Pinkie Pie. He just bellowed in laughter and then all of a sudden, the face on the tree disappeared. Connor went into more shock, muttering under his breath.

“God dammit, not this again…” thought Connor. He tried to scoot himself back but only hitting another deformed tree, scared out of his own mind as the images came back again.

“When I was a little filly, grandma Pinkie told me that I had to learn to face my fears.” began Pinkie Pie. “She taught me how to laugh at my fears like they were nothing, watch.” She pranced up happily to another tree. “Ha. Ha.” And just like that the face on the other tree had disappeared. Connor was becoming to be angry; in his head those faces are on ponies and not on trees, PTSD taking over his normal functions.

The other mares fully understood what Pinkie was doing, and they all joined her. Connor’s fears had taken over, primal instincts kicked in and kicking out all rational thought. “No, they’re just laughing to make sure they don’t hurt anypony, they’re not ponies…” thought Connor. The more the faces kept disappearing the more that Connor kept freaking out, then all of a sudden he couldn’t take it.

“NO!” screamed Connor. “QUIT LAUGHING AT THEM!! THEY DON’T DESERVE THIS!!” Connor galloped towards Pinkie Pie, in the middle of an exhale as he stopped her by stuffing a hoof into her mouth. “PLEASE!! STOP!! THEY’RE HURTING!!”

“What’s hurting?” asked Fluttershy.

“THE PONIES!! THEY’RE GRIM FACES ARE RESULTS OF PAIN AND TORTURE!! STOP!!”

“Connor, they aren’t ponies.” said Twilight. The sight of another pony screaming in mental agony wanted to make her cry.

“THEY HAVE THE SAME FACES OF THOSE IN SUFFERING TWILIGHT!!”

“Connor, they aren’t ponies.” said Rainbow Dash. She made him look at it all differently, then it hit him. They weren’t the ponies he thought they were, they were only deformed trees, probably a result of magic since they weren’t here before. Whoever casted the spell, it wasn’t aimed at all of them, it aimed right at Connor. The faces he had tortured closely resembled the faces on these trees and the insane part of his brain knew it too. Pinkie Pie spat out Connor’s hoof in disgust.

“You could have just asked me to not laugh.” said Pinkie Pie. Connor was in fight or flight mode now, adrenaline kicking in again. He hated this feeling, he wasn’t in combat yet he felt cornered, numbers were numbers but he wasn’t as strong on the inside as he was on the inside, that much he knew. He backed up from the mares, and then went into a full gallop down the path they were in before.

“There you go Connor, you went and blew It.” said Connor under his breath. He felt ashamed, weak and just wanted to drop dead, the first few ponies he met that welcomed him, even after seeing his mantle that wanted to be his friends. And now he just felt like crap, the more he thought of it the more depressed he became. He galloped off of the right track and found himself on another cliff. He just stood there at the edge, looking down to find himself at a cliff with a bottomless end. Tears were going down his face like no tomorrow as he lay down, bawling himself to death, figuratively, not literally. He wanted the heavens to strike him down like a rag doll and they were a 2 year old kid that was too rough with his toy. But once again, his prayers weren’t answered

“Connor?” asked a voice. Connor turned his head to see the 6 mares standing just a small distance from him with empathetic looks on their faces.

“Go away.” said Connor. He turned his head back to the bottomless cliff as he looked down, the tears falling down it, not making a sound when they fell; the only sound in the dark was Connor’s sniffles. Twilight approached Connor slowly, not making any sudden movements but found that Connor didn’t care much for anything in his surroundings. She lay down next to Connor placing a fore hoof on him.

“Look, Connor, we don’t mind what you just did.” said Twilight.

“Right…” said Connor. He wasn’t buying in whatever façade Twilight try to pull on him, but he knew that he wouldn’t break down the wall just for that.

“Connor, why you did it, well, you don’t have to share it with us but I just wanted you to know that it’s okay.” said Twilight.

“Why you did it, it must have been for a good reason right?”

Connor just stared at Twilight in desperation. He knew that he didn’t have to share but, they were sincere in enough to not think ill of him, not judge him for the bad but for the good. He gathered himself together before talking, making sure he wouldn’t get stuck in his own words.

“No, I have to share.” said Connor.

“Connor, you don’t have to.” said Twilight.

“If I don’t know, I’ll regret it and feel more like crap.” said Connor. “It’s okay, I find that I have to for my own good. I’m done hiding anyways.” Connor took one more deep breath, the tears stopped flowing out like a faucet as he begun.

“When I took on the mantle of War, I had to do things I was far unready psychologically for what I had done, and for it I suffer from it to this day. I had to torture ponies, order other ponies to torture other ponies, more cruelly then I had to. On the outside I was strong, and I was the icon for others that wanted to follow in the footsteps of a warlord. I felt wrong but the way the mantle kept getting to me, it had told me that it was alright kept going in and eventually I stopped feeling sorry and let the darkness take over.”

“Soon, I found myself covered in blood. It was the blood of a family that each had the same grimace as the tree’s just back there. It was my first time killing some pony out of the spite of Nightmare Moon, for who of which wanted to die so badly because of their defiance, it wasn’t the right way but Nightmare wanted to make an example out of these innocent ponies. The parents only wanted the best for her young and I had tortured them in front of their own filly and colt, punishing them for defying Nightmare Moon, the only crime. I amounted a lot of pain on to her like I could without consequences, there truly wasn’t any but not that anypony could see, it was a mental consequence.”

“I tortured her for hours without end, whipping her, putting out fiery coals onto her body. Believe me; torture methods in the old days were downright horrible. After an hour I’d stop, give the mother and father ten minutes to recover a bit then go right back to it. The young wanted to be with their mother; to comfort her but the spears that threatened to cut them open told them otherwise. They were unable to do the same with their dad for the same reasons. They stood there in desperation, constantly shouting at us to stop torturing their beloved parents. The stallion I was, that I knew I was cried out at me to stop but my mantle, the other me, told me to keep going in the name of Nightmare Moon. I should have never listened to the dark side. I should have just kept fighting it no matter what. If only I could change what I have done...”

“Then I did the unbelievable, the mare was dying, she wasn’t going to make it but she was conscious but she was screaming with the same damn grimace. Then for one final act of torture, I…” Connor broke off into sobs again, then back again, recovering a little faster. “I killed their children.” The mares gasped, they’re reassuring stature replaced with shock of such acts.

“The mother was crying, asking us to take her own life, make the pain go away, the father just kept threatening to take my own life, all of the threats were discarded as I sliced his neck open without a hitch. But I let the mother rot in her shackles, alone with the bodies of her children and husband. I came back the following morning and found her dead, they had those damn faces, I wanted to die and it ultimately what made me want to defy Nightmare Moon. What had really driven me over the edge is Nightmare’s sadistic ways of handling the bodies of torture victims, by eating their rotten corpses.”

The mares gasped in complete horror of what they had to hear form Connor, it was downright…well…inpony. Connor seemed to cringe a bit but was able to hide it well enough for that the mares wouldn't see it.

“I didn’t shed a tear because anger came in, and it came in as rage as I made bodies hit the floor breaking out of the Old Canterlot castle.  I worked with Celestia to use the elements of harmony to make sure Nightmare never came back, along with the other 3 alicorns you saw me fight back at Ponyville. As you all well know, staying on the moon forever was never the result, I’m here aren’t I?”

“But I was never on the moon; I stood on a star to guard Nightmare Moon, to make sure that she and my brothers would never come down again. Soon the same brainwashing that had taken me and the princess of the night over came down harder on my brothers, it was like how it was before but it wasn't right. For 1000 years that very darkness tried to win me over like it did my brothers, for 1000 years I had endured the immensely painful heat of a damn star. It felt like the force that keeps us on Equestria was a million times greater on the star, and it hurt beyond reasoning. But the weight of myself and the weight of hallow words never hurt as bad as the weight of other ponies whose lives I had taken away without remorse, whom I’ve stripped their hope, dreams, families, and worse of all their breaths, that hurt far worse. More than I expected...”

“Celestia told me that I had to go, I had left too many scars on this beautiful world and I was told to be put on the moon. Sadly I ended up on a place much would consider worse, to me it didn’t make a difference. It was cruel for myself to think that being banished to a place where the world was in eyeshot for 1000 years seemed pleasing, but after a while I felt tortured by it's mere presence, a monument to all my sins and acts of violence. Coming back to this place and remembering ponies that were a lot like those that were kind hurt far less than it should have. I knew I would never repay what I’ve done, but my heart told me I had to finish my mission, end Nightmare Moon. But it looks like she got the better of me all along.”

The mares cried, they cried not for Connor but what he’s done and how he regretted it all and wanted to die for it. They all went up to Connor as they lay down with him, crying for him as eyes dried up, unable to cry anymore he just lay there with the others.

“I don’t deserve this kindness.” said Connor.

“You do, more than you think.” said Twilight. They all lay down, relying on one another’s body heat to survive much of the cold of the night. Connor felt right here, next to his new friends, next to knowing that in some pony’s eyes he was forgiven for his sins. Connor promised himself that he would do better the moment he touched the Earth but he had to say it to himself again so he wouldn’t forget again.

“I promise I will never be that pony again.” said Connor. The mares heard him as they hugged on tighter. They just stood there as they were, he felt right and he let the mares do what they were doing. He didn’t care much for himself at that moment anymore, nor for the rest of his life. But he knew what he had to do, he may have ditched his vices but he must cling to sacrifice.

“We have to go back." said Connor. "I know they’re trees now, I won’t freak out at the sight of them.” The mares got up from Connor as they all walked back to the trees, they had to finish what Pinkie Pie had started.

Laughing at those faces was the most emotionally hardest thing Connor had to do for the longest time, to laugh away faces forever in pain and stricken of hope was something Connor wasn’t really ready to accomplish. “It was the right thing to do, it was really only trees.” said Connor. On the outside Connor seemed fine but even if it was trees it just didn’t feel right. Trees helped give life to Equestria and all the other countries through photosynthesis, even an inanimate object deserved something different than that.

“It was just a spell Connor, if anything the caster is to blame.” said Twilight. She knew Connor was over sensitive right now about the gift of life, but he had been through enough.

“I know but,” Connor let out a sigh, thinking of what to say. “I don’t know why I’m being so oversensitive right now; I’ll get over it though that’s one thing I know.” He shrugged off the weight of emotions like it was nothing, just so that he could keep going on without more thoughts like that. He hated that he had to do what he had done before which led his mantle to take over, but doing it for the reasons he did at the time was easily justified seeing how it was to be strong for others and not just for his own wellbeing.

They finally got to a stopping point in the road to the elements of harmony, a river which was violently swirling around, making it so that the ponies wouldn’t be able to go across on hooves.

“What in tarnation is making all this happen?” asked Applejack.

“I don’t know but it can’t be good.” said Rarity. They decided to further investigate the river, double checking to make sure that they wouldn’t be able to make it across by hooves.

“Yep, just as I thought.” said Rainbow Dash. They were really not going to make it across by their own hooves, and even if they tried to go over Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash didn’t have the strength to get them over. And with Connor nearly breaking his ankles, he just couldn’t risk it by jumping over the river with another pony on his back. They then heard the sounds of crying, the kind of crying which seemed to sound whiny and annoying, mostly to Connor though.

They saw a sea serpent, it had purple scales and had…well groomed hair? Now that didn’t make sense to Connor. Back in his original time sea serpents were savage creatures that didn’t have time for such things, guess he was wrong on how they are now. It seemed to thrash about in the water, causing the water around it, and the river itself to turn into rapids, explains both the crying and as of why the water was how it is now, but doesn’t explain the ends of it.

“Excuse me…um…sir...?” said Connor. “How come you’re thrashing about like this? We aren’t able to make it through the forest on hooves with the water how it is.” The sea serpent changed its attention back from what it was doing and swam over the ponies.

“Oh, I really am sorry,” began the sea serpent. “But here I was, minding my own business when some kind of black smog went right in and SWOOSH! It cut through my mustache!” He, as the sound of the serpent’s voice made the ponies believe it to be, pointed at its mustache. It was how he said it was, cut into two as one lay perfectly groomed while the other bit of hair was messed up, it didn’t look good on the creature. “And now I look absolutely horrid!” The sea serpent went about back into its crying and thrashed around in the water again, making the river worse.

A big wave of water hit the ponies as they all stood there, wet to the bone and cold as hell. “Are you serious…this is what this is all about?” asked Applejack. Everyone else but one pony thought the same.

“Why, of course it is!” exclaimed Rarity. All their manes were messed up by the water as she walked up to the sea serpent. “Here darling, I know how to solve this predicament.” Connor felt like endlessly hoof facing himself at the thought that this is why they wouldn’t keep going, but then realized that this was another test for them by Nightmare Moon. The thought of that mare made him angry without end, and he hated being angry for no good reason.

Rarity went up to the body of the serpent as she tore off one of the scales off of his body. “OW!” shouted the serpent. “What did you do that for?” Rarity took the scale in her mouth and did what she thought wasn’t much of a good idea to do, for her at least. She cut off most of her tail, the curly hair hit the ground as the others were in shock. Then by her telekinesis, Rarity had it permanently attached the serpent’s messed up mustache.

Connor thought it looked even worse, the creature’s hair was orange and what was Rarity’s tail was not the same as the mustache which was less curly. The tail was purple and the shade it was didn’t match the mustache at all. But he knew it was an act of extreme generosity, knowing she would never part with such a well groomed tail so easily wasn’t the easiest thing Rarity had done in her life.

“Your tail Rarity…” said Fluttershy, her shyness getting the best of her.

“Oh it’s alright girls, it’ll grow back eventually.” said Rarity. Then they all noticed the river stopped moving like the rapids it was before, and instead now it was calm and pleasing.

“Hey girls, it stopped moving like that, we can cross now!” exclaimed Twilight. Twilight was trotting into the river when she was picked up by the tail of the serpent, along with the 6 other ponies.

“For such an act, I’ll carry you all across!” exclaimed the serpent. He stuck true to his word and by his tail carried the little ponies across the river. They hit the solid ground with a small thud, and with a little salute from the serpent, he was off, swimming away in the river to some other part of the Everfree forest.

“Now that was a very…interesting sea serpent.” said Connor. He looked at the other ponies that were with him, with a look of “are you serious” on his face.

“Well don’t doubt the importance of beauty.” said Rarity annoyed. “It may not seem so important but posture and looks are everything.”

Connor had to roll his eyes at this; he was never the type to worry much of his appearance. “Whatever you say Rarity.” said Connor.

“I know you’re not that kind of guy to worry about your appearance, but it doesn’t hurt to do that at least once.” said Rarity.

Connor had to give her a sincere look; she was trying to reach out to him.

“I’ll... do it when the time is right.”

They all were trotting down the dirt path still; knowing that they couldn’t be far it gave them drive to their trot. Until finally they saw the old castle, the old castle was withering away and was close to a need for demolition. Twilight could see why the elements were put here; if the ponies weren’t able to get here the Everfree forest would just finish them. Horrible thought thinking about it but she knew it was true.

“Hey, we’re almost there!” said Twilight. She went into a full gallop as excitement got the better of her; she didn’t even notice the destroyed bridge that lay in the path. She was halfway from falling off when she got the bridge, doing her best to not fall off by pushing herself up by her front hooves. Applejack had pulled her up by the tail just in time before Twilight fell, seconds close to that actually.

“Whoa there nelly.” said Applejack. “What’s with you and falling off of things lately?” Applejack chuckled a bit but Twilight stood there unamused by Applejack’s attempt at a joke.

“Well great, how are we gonna get over now?” asked Pinkie Pie. Rainbow Dash let her mojo kick in as she trotted up to her friends.

“Ahem.” said Rainbow Dash. And with that she was off to the other side by wings. Feeling a sense of pride of herself when she got over.

“Oh yeah!” said Pinkie Pie in a realization. Connor laughed out loud from the silliness that had ensued, Pinkie Pie scowled at him. “What?”

“Oh nothing.” said Connor. “It was just funny how the answer was so simple.” Pinkie Pie kept scowling at Connor for a good minute or two. “Um, why are you doing that?” Pinkie Pie took another minute to scowl then surprised Connor with a happy jump.

“Because I want to!” exclaimed Pinkie Pie happily. She all of a sudden hit Connor at the shoulder with her front hoof, this actually surprised Connor.

“What was that for?” asked Connor. He could tell Pinkie just did it but his confusion overtook his understanding for he didn’t understand modern attitude all that well, his only option was to drop it.

He took a look over to where Rainbow Dash was, she was taking quite a bit a time as he noticed 3 other Pegasus talking to Rainbow. They were all wearing skin-tight spandex and wore dark masks over their faces; Connor knew the façade in an instant.

“Rainbow!” shouted Connor. It was loud enough for Rainbow Dash to hear Connor’s worried tone, now knowing he has seen the three mares that were with her. One of the pegasus eyes had glowed in a dark color and the fog surrounding the space between the other mares and Rainbow Dash was closed off.

“You know our deal, be our leader or help your friends, you can only choose one.” said the mare pegasus whom fogged up the space. Rainbow was now deep into thought, she had just met the 5 most amazing mares of her life, sure she’s seen these ponies before but she never knew them. And Connor, Connor was a troubled stallion but she knew as much as the others did that he is no different a pony then the others. The deal of a lifetime, becoming the leader of a pegasus group that rivals the Wonderbolts would be really wonderful.

“So, you in or what, come on we don’t have all day.” said the Pegasus. Rainbow smiled, knowing her answer.

“Thanks.” said Rainbow Dash. The 3 mare pegasus ponies grinned widely believing her answer final. “For the offer I mean.” And with that the three pegasi had their grin’s drop and their mouths gaping open. “But there’s some ponies out there who I just simply can’t leave hanging.”

And with that she was about to fly over but Connor came up, coming from a long leap from the other side and hitting the ground before Rainbow Dash. The mares in spandex grinned devilishly as they turned into the stallions Connor knew they really were, his brothers.

“Going after my new friends won’t help anything.” said Connor with a malicious growl. The 3 stallions smiled at Connor, ignoring the tone and held him to account lighter than they should, they knew of his strength.

“Ah but on the contrary, it does old man.” said Death. “Divide and conquer remember? It’s one of the first lessons that you had us constantly review. Showing us how weak we are alone.” Rainbow didn’t know how to take that in, it was bad enough for Connor to be associated with these ponies but to have trained them personally? She knew she had to tell the others of this disturbing news.

“Your right, but me and these mares are too strong to follow the ideals of combat, the combat that I have taught you all.” said Connor. “And Rainbow Dash, I talk like this now to show you that I am, as they say, not afraid of what will happen next.” Truth be told, he was. After what the mares had tried to do for them he feared his brothers would lay a harmful hoof towards one of them, especially Rainbow right now.

“Let’s put that to the test, shall we?” said Famine. It seemed as if time slowed down as Famine became border-line close to Rainbow Dash ready to strike a hoof at her with all his fury, while Famine was fast, Connor was faster. Connor gracefully countered his move with a hind leg kick that sent the apocalypse pony flying. With some kind of force Connor struck a hoof towards Rainbow, but a hit that didn’t neither hit nor connect, but just sent Rainbow to the other side of the cliff where the others lay in wait.

Connor turned around to feel a horn, sharper then the manticore’s claws, struck him in the chest and push him a few feet. An intense amount of pain came from the initial strike as two more horns, striking his sides came up and the world felt agonizing. Connor gritted his teeth through the pain and tried to hit the stallions whom pierced him with their horns but doing so made it worse for him, more pain kicking at his brain telling him to stop. He just kept pounding at their heads, the more strikes that connected the more his pain increased but he just had to keep doing it.

Until at last, the stallions were out of his body and Connor bleeding like a faucet through his gaping wounds. He lay there on the floor in a pool of his own blood, but the wounds were quickly regenerating and the gaping holes seemed to have been covered completely. He was breathing heavily as he noticed Celestia’s magic was fading, the first instance he knew it was, his cutie mark reappeared.

“Awwww, poor little Connor’s true nature is current? How cute.” said Death mockingly.

“We both now I’m not that damn pony anymore.” said Connor in a low growl. And with that, Nightmare appeared, Connor freezing where he lay, trying to get up but for the first time, his legs ignored his plea.

“Oh, but we know you are Connor.” said Nightmare. Magic erupted from her horn as a pitch black aura was looming over the five. “Welcome back to the family, son.” said Nightmare.

“I have fallen from your evil long ago. The only thing that remains is the mark of which you branded me.” He looked back at his flanks another time, his cutie mark was only a brand to him and in hindsight, it was. Until finally his coat became a black, a black that was darker then the glow illuminating Nightmare, his brothers and himself. His eyes glowed a devilish red, the form he had took up during land down onto Equestria.

“It’s not just your mark that remains.” said Nightmare. “But eventually, your ashes shall be blacker by the start of the day, for the sun shall never return.”

“It will return, so long as there is just one pony out there willing to fight you, just like before.” said Connor. “It may be too late for someone like me, but it isn’t for the rest of the world.”

And with that, they all were gone by a teleportation spell. And Connor knew he would be going through hell. Again.

Chapter 5 (revised)

Chapter 5

“I’m telling you, I really have no idea what Connor did but I just flew here by some kind of wind and here I am.” explained Rainbow Dash. She had just got done explaining what had happen from her perspective, and when she was done she heard a loud agonizing scream, the one Connor had made.

“C’mon gals, we ain’t got no time to waste.” said Applejack. The mares hurryingly agreed as they saw a black flash appear and leave just as fast as it popped up in the fog. When they got to the other side they saw the old Equestrian castle, though in ruins it still shone brightly in the Everfree’s darkness.

The mares hurried over to the other side of the wooden bridge, only to find Connor and the other stallions gone. “Oh princess, where could he have gone?” asked Rainbow Dash. “He was just right here too!” A wave of panic struck over the mares as they noticed the pool of dark crimson at their feet, and what seemed to be a pony lying in it, a large shape too. It didn’t mean good as questions filled the head of these mares, but fear and irrational thoughts had invaded and kicked out any positive solutions to the current predicament.

“Did they…” started Fluttershy. She didn’t want to say it, she feared she may have been right for the evidence was right there in front of them, leaving more questions than answers. No pony body was around so it wasn’t able to tell whose blood it was, far as they knew it could have been one of his brother’s blood, or Nightmare’s. But with nothing to support even that, or anything else other then, “…kill him?” She shuddered at the words and tears on the urge of breaking from her eyeballs. Rarity came up next to Fluttershy and tried to comfort her with a front hoof.

“No, he isn’t dead, those stallions maybe strong but they wouldn’t be able to take him on and win that easy.” said Rarity enthusiastically. “Or at least from what we have witnessed back at the town hall.” Yes, they did remember what had happened a few hours ago, but it still left room for doubt.

“Easy for you to say, but there’s no need for false hope with Nightmare Moon running around.” said Twilight. Rarity got a little angered at that retort and faced Twilight.

“Yeah but what do you know? We hardly even know Connor, he’s probably the one that drew blood.”

“Well all I’m saying is that there’s no point in having false hope for some earth pony that had seemed to lose his strength when we laughed at trees.” Rarity got even angrier.

“And I’m saying that you have as much right to argue about this as I do, Connor isn’t dead and I have faith that he’s still alive.” Twilight rolled her eyes at that, Rarity was right once again but her logic that challenged everything that confused her came up like it always had.

“We don’t have time to fight over this! We’d be better off trying to find the elements of harmony, not debating over lives.” Twilight went ahead of the path while the other mares had shrugged off the argument and followed Twilight’s lead.

The fog had gotten clearer since they started moving and the old castle was in sight. Twilight’s eyes…sparkled at the sight, knowing they were that much closer to the elements had made her excited beyond words.

“The elements, they should be in there!” exclaimed Twilight happily, turning into a full gallop towards the castle. The other mares followed suit, panic getting the better of them but they had to be level headed, they were at the end of the road and the goddess of darkness there waiting for them. They had panic come over seeing how Connor had left without any tracks or trace, they just knew him but seeing a soul so injured on the inside had their hearts get the better of them.

They hit the grounds of the old castle as the lighting had once again gotten darker, the ominous feel got worse without Connor at their sides, at least he made it seem safe to traverse through. And what seemed like forever they got through the darkness of the old courtyard and found the room from which the elements were in sight. A beam of joy hit Twilight and ignoring her natural instincts of awareness faded but the others were more alert then ever.

“Alright girls, just let me mess around with the elements and see how they work.” said Twilight. A light erupted from her horn as she had 5 of the stones that were the elements float to her through telekinesis. She was awfully confused but she brought them all into a little circle, trying something out that had caught her attention when she read the reference book on the elements.

“Twi?” asked Applejack quizzically. “What are ya’ doin’?” Twilight looked back, getting out of the trance that was her focus that was on the elements. The darkness creeping in silently towards the 5 stones.

“The reference guide mentioned something about a spark revealing the sixth element. So what other then shocking the stones?” asked Twilight. She continuously shock the stones with simple little spark spells, hoping that the mentioning of a spark was a literal thing.

After so and so minutes, it seemed that everything that Twilight was doing just wasn’t doing anything. It seemed fairly hopeless as the purple unicorn let out an irritated sigh. “Why is nothing happening?” She gave up, throwing her front hooves up into the air she decided to just calm down by shifting her attention over to the other mares. Big mistake.

The darkness appeared, visible now as it came from the shadows caused by the lighting of the room as it had the stones float. The stones were floating around in circles and it spun faster and faster. The mares had seen this and Twilight was the first one to react when she could. “NO!” screamed Twilight. She jumped right for the elements but the moment she was next to them, her along with the elements disappeared in a blinding light.

The 5 mares stared in disbelief at what had just happened, the assumption that Connor wasn’t lying about divide and conquer was the first thing on top of Rainbow Dash’s head. “Oh no, where did she go?” asked Fluttershy in pure horror. They looked around until finally…

“Look over there!” said Applejack. She pointed a front hoof towards a building. It wasn’t too far and it seemed to be a part of the old Canterlot castle too. They had to work fast, Twilight was in the hooves of one of the cruelest entity’s known to pony kind, there was no room for slacking off. They had a friend to save.

Twilight had awoken from what felt like hours after being unconscious, the last thing she remembered was diving towards the stones that were the elements of harmony and they were all gone in a flash, and her with. Her vision was a little blurry but with a few winks she was able to solve that, she took in what she saw, she was surrounded by the 3 stallions and Nightmare Moon out of the corner of her eye. The next sight she saw wasn’t a very pretty one, it was a pitch black stallion that was covered in scars, and he had the look of being tortured, brutally.

“She’s awake mother…” said Pestilence. “Are you ready?” Twilight looked over at Nightmare who was slowly trotting to where the moonlight hit the hard floor of the room they were in.

“Where am I?” asked Twilight. “Where’s Connor?” Nightmare didn’t look back at the purple mare as she floated the elements towards her figure in the moonlight. And in an instant, they were shattered without reason, it just seemed to happen out of mid-air. Twilight just stared there horrified, her ears perched down as she was ready to slump into defeat. But still, she held her head up strong. “I didn’t get my question answered.”

“Idiot girl,” began Nightmare Moon. “He was here the whole time, in case you haven’t noticed anything about that stallion yet.” Twilight looked over at the black stallion, his figure was similar but it wasn’t anything like Connor aside from that.

“That isn’t Connor.” said Twilight blankly. Nightmare Moon just rolled her eyes and walked over to the seemingly unconscious stallion as she pressed a hard hoof onto the stallion’s spine. It didn’t break but it was enough for the stallion to shudder from the pain.

“Wake up.” said Nightmare Moon coldly. The stallion slowly raised his head up and saw everyone surrounding him, and noticed a familiar purple mare just away from him. “Somepony is expecting you.”

“Yeah, after you teleported her here…” said the pitch black stallion coldly. He spat into the face of Nightmare Moon and was met with a painful kick to his face, nearly breaking his lower jaw.

“I am your mother and you shall show me the proper respect I demand!” shouted Nightmare Moon. Twilight pieced it all together, this was Connor, no doubt about it too, what horrified her was how he was much different and covered in scars. Connor struggled to get up but did so without any signs of seeming to collapse.

“My real mother died when you were born.” said Connor darkly. Nightmare had to smirk at this, evilly.

“Oh you’re still on about it all, I could hardly blame you though,” said Nightmare Moon. “I’d probably still remember everything, especially if it was on my flanks too.” Twilight was confused now, last she remembered Connor had no cutie mark, Nightmare saw the mare’s confusion. “Oh, you thought after all this time he was just a simple blank flank? Hardly true.”

She levitated Connor using telekinesis by a sickly dark glow from her horn. Connor wasn’t struggling anymore, there was no point fighting right now, he wasn’t in any immediate danger. He was rotated so that Twilight could see his cutie mark…his damned cutie mark…there wasn’t anything cute about 3 spears with a pony skull on each one. Twilight was shocked, there was never a cutie mark that could possibly look like how it was, there just wasn’t enough pieces to put together to figure out why such was on his flanks.

“Oh you see dear, what was it? Oh yes, Twilight Sparkle.” began Nightmare Moon, a hint of madness setting in, guess Twilight had to get used to it. She noticed the other stallions back up and behind the 2 black ponies. “Connor was…my favorite amongst my boys here, always did what mommy wanted him to do.”

“I know what he has done, and it was cruel of you to remind him of it.” said Twilight Sparkle. Nightmare Moon just laughed evilly again.

“Oh, you think you really know him?” asked Nightmare Moon. “You have only touched the surface of what Connor has done.” The black coated stallion struggled in the magic field that Nightmare had put him under, he just couldn’t tell Twilight what he’s done, not yet at least. He really cared for this mare and put a lot of trust into her and she had done the same for him, he couldn’t disappoint her or the others. His heart sank when the 5 other mares came into the room.

“Twi, you’re alright!” exclaimed Applejack in excitement.

“Oh…thank goodness.” said Fluttershy shyly.

“It’s nice to see you’re okay and all, but where’s Connor?” asked Rainbow Dash. She looked back at the mares and looked gravely at Connor. The hope gone from his eyes and now encased with fear, fear of something but Twilight couldn’t make out what that fear was.

“No…please…stay away!” shouted Connor. It was a weak timid shout, all his energy gone and his defenses weakened, Nightmare was gonna spill the beans on what he’s done, and he’ll be forever condemned, again.

“Who’s that black stallion?” asked Rarity. “He looks like Connor…sounds like him…but he couldn’t just turn black…right?” Connor had to look on the white unicorn mare in front of him, so beautiful to him, so stunning, it may not be innocence in her but all he knew was a generous pony who just wanted to help her new friends. He felt ashamed to have to turn such a mare away the first time they met.

“C’mon silly filly’s.” said Pinkie Pie. “You got to be silly like me to turn your coat into some sort of color really fast like me!” She was laughing a bit but the tension of the room heightened and she stopped laughing. Now Connor was going crazy, struggling and struggling to break free but no matter what he did he just couldn’t. He just had to protect their innocence, the world isn’t ready to know of him again. And Pinkie Pie…oh mother of Celestia, she was too happy and joyful to see it all die within her, that would hurt far too much. Twilight felt a spark ignite within her, and it was present in her eyes and Connor knew it, and when he saw it he just grinned.

“Alright, go ahead Nightmare Moon, I won’t fight anymore...” said Connor. He seemed to have given up and closed his eyes, and then smiled softly. It was going to hurt to have to hear his new friends hear about more of his bad, but he was going to get through this without anymore guilt or hiding left within him. The sooner the better right?

“I expected more of you,” said Nightmare Moon. “You were always a fighter, and that’s why I chose you to be who you are now.”

“Oh cry me a river bitch, I don’t care anymore.” said Connor. With that, he was met with a horn to the side by none-other than Death. The mares were horrified as Fluttershy broke out into tears, and the mares follow suit, but Connor just looked at Death. “You know, before when you guys did this, it felt horrible.” said Connor. “Now it’s just getting too damn old.” And with that, Death was flung across the room from where he was and going through the wall, and Nightmare’s telekinesis was fading, allowing Connor to float to the ground gently.

“You see, Connor in the days of my reign over a small innocent country was sent out to do my bidding, a punishment for defying me, and to show the world that I could take away its last beacon.” began Nightmare Moon. “Each spear on his flanks resembles a crime beyond imagining, something only I would be capable of doing without showing remorse. The first spear represents The Death of Peace, he wiped out a peaceful hamlet off the face of the earth to show that any chance of peace under my wing would be gone. Complete and utter tyranny.” The mares looked at Connor with complete and utter shock, knowing it was a punishment but a punishment that was more like an order than anything else. Rarity had a heartbreaking face on her and looked at Connor with despair, he always hated those faces.

“The second spear represents what he had down with the last bearers of the elements of harmony.” said Nightmare Moon. “There were good reasons as of why Celestia had to use them herself, she was the last pony in the world that believed in those vices so it was up to her to use them, and what happened to the last ponies that used them? Died. Murdered.

Mutilated, and their heads on spears with their blood across the Old Equestria’s borders, asking where their harmony was. Or in other words, The Death of Harmony.” Now it was time for Connor to have a face of desperation. The mares looked at him, the same familiar looks he’d get from other ponies when he’d do something wrong, or at least did something they didn’t like. It wasn’t faces of disgust though that he had saw, it was faces of one who had just been betrayed, which made it all the worst.

“The third and final deed…-”

“-…They already know about it…” said Connor in depression. He had to cry, he had no choice but to cry. The last ponies on the planet that could have possibly trusted him and he felt that with the rest of his tale as War had been told under these circumstances that history would repeat himself, that he would be an outcast again. “It was the…Death of Hope…” He began bawling, lying on the ground in utter defeat and felt like he was being stabbed by a thousand tiny needles made to strike one nerve. The mares looked at him with sadness, before telling them his story of having PTSD they cried for him, now they seemed to not care too much but felt pity that such a prideful pony was so weak at the moment. He looked back up to see that expression on their faces, and he hated them for it.

“I will always regret what I’ve done, but none the less regret that ponies like you had to know, so much sweetness and innocence within all of you, even if you may not see it, I do. And…I know I’m not that pony anymore but…I’m sorry…” And with that he cried even harder, seeing the mares closer on the urge of tears before. He decided that if he was going down he would do it the only way he knew how, on his hooves and being cocky towards Nightmare, just like last time. “And you know what? Screw you for having me do all that, screw you for making me a puppet just for your sick game of tyrannical rule, and screw you for making me this way! I HATE YOU!!” Nightmare seemed to wince a bit at the “I hate you” rant but shrugged it off as easy as it came.

“It appears that I need to punish you for a 4th time. For defying me again.” said Nightmare Moon. She hit her front hoof hard to the floor and from that spot, a small black portal appeared, and from it slowly came a red, demonic spear. The tip sharpened from the best of grindstones, and had a hellish red aura, the design was spiked with the greatest of enchantments for lightning surrounded the spear. Connor knew what this had meant…and his mind was in a lock-up. “You had used this weapon to bring death to harmony before, now it’s time for history to repeat itself.” Yup…just as Connor had thought.

“I will not do it!” screamed Connor. His nerves on the edge, his heart pounding in his chest just like the voices in his mind pounding at what was left of his sanity, he knew he would not.

“Now hold up…what do you mean Nightmare?” demanded Rainbow Dash. She was just about to fly over and rear kick her but Applejack was there again holding her back by her tail. Nightmare just laughed sadistically.

“I had assumptions that you 6 mares were going to be the new bearers of the elements, and through all those tests I had put you through they were all true.” said Nightmare. “Each one of you is the bearer of the 6 elements of harmony.”

“But you just crushed them under your hooves, how could we bear something that isn’t there anymore?” asked Twilight Sparkle.

“They’re gone physically, not mentally, or in your case, morally.” said Nightmare Moon. A rush of the wind blew through the room everyone was in and the dusts of the element stones were picked up. The dust of a certain element, gathering together as one and going towards one of the mares. The element of Honesty’s dusts gathered around Applejack. The element of Loyalty’s dusts gathered around Rainbow Dash. The element of Kindness’s dust gathered around Fluttershy. The element of Laughter’s dust gathered around Pinkie Pie. The element of generosity gathered around Rarity. All of them were floated up by the element’s magic and became talismans, necklaces which the gems had gathered around to look like their cutie marks. And finally a light from the 5 came down onto Twilight Sparkle, forming a purple tiara which she knew better and knew it was the talisman of the element of Magic.

They were all amazed, Famine, Death and Pestilence gaped their mouths into shock as they saw the elements as they were, and it was everything of their old lives. “You see, harmony never dies, but it only becomes in a state of absence when ponies stop believing in harmony.” said Nightmare Moon. “And you see, Connor will do to you like he did with the last bearers.” The spear flew over to Connor and landed on its head right in front of him. He knew what Nightmare wanted, but he wasn’t going to pick it up to strike a pony down, not tonight.

A mysterious force took over Connor as the familiar black glow of Nightmare’s magic was over Connor, forcing him, even though Connor was resisting, picked up the hellish spear. The mares looked over at him in fear, the spear looked very suiting for Connor’s dark form. “I…don’t…want…to…do this!” said Connor through gritted teeth. He was fighting harder than he was before now, putting himself into major strain he just had to break free from Nightmare. If these mares would die, so should she and his brothers, no matter what. “I…REFUSE!!!”

“Oh calm down Connor, its just six mares.” said Nightmare Moon. “Bearers or not.” Connor looked at the mares one more time, studied their faces, all of it in fear as they know their lives were on the line. He looked at them one at a time. From Fluttershy’s horrified face, to Applejack’s frightened yet strong face, to Twilight’s unsure face, to everyone else’s. They all trust him, or at least they trusted him but it seems like all that’s long gone from their faces at the moment. Looking at them, knowing they were all beautiful in their own rights and stronger than him on the inside, and then he found himself again. Not the soldier pony’s personality he had played all his life, nor the accursed War himself, no. He had found Connor, a Connor that was able to withstand this psychic hold on him, it was time to fight the power.

He gained the upper hand and turned towards Nightmare and his brothers, the mares relieved and Nightmare angered. “You just don’t know when to quit do you?” asked Death angrily.

“Allowing others to use you is a self-righteous crime.” began Connor. “It’s a crime because you are a coward, you’re a coward for letting someone else control you, and in letting someone control you means you lost all sense of yourself as a pony. And to lose yourself is weakness, and I’ve been weak for too damn long!” And with a motion of his head, blew back Nightmare Moon and his brothers to the other side of the room, and with another motion threw the spear as it landed right in front of Nightmare’s muzzle. The mane 6 cheering on Connor’s effort with pride.

"And another thing!" shouted Connor. "For all my life and my time as War I was nothing but a monster, not the Connor Stronghooves I believe is me, but the monster that you and everypony else made me out to be! Not this time! I fight so that I will not only defend my beautiful country but to show you all that I'm not War, I'm not a monster, but that however I'M CONNOR STRONGHOOVES!!" At that point he was already galloping towards another battle, the battle from outside, and towards the battle within.

“Not this time!” shouted Nightmare Moon. Using telekinesis, she flung the spear right into Connor’s face, but breaking apart into pieces at the contact of Connor. The mares knew that whatever Connor’s skin was made of, it could withstand a lot of harm. The 3 stallions charged at Connor, horns at the ready for piercing and magic spewing out of them. From all the horns shot out lasers beams. They all hit Connor but one by one they just bounced off of him until they met at a stand-still. The 4 stallions stood up on their hind legs and put together their front hooves with each other, Connor on one side, the other 3 on the other as they two sides prepared attacks.

"You'll never defeat us! Its three of us vs one of you!" shouted Famine.

"You think you alone could stop us?" asked Pestilence. "We represent the forces of darkness! The agents of change in all the world and the forces that bring about the emotions that resemble what you believe your having and what other ponies feel. You have no hope against us!"

From their hooves came the form of balls of magic, spiraling into its sphere shapes. Connor’s magic, despite his devilish colors had his magic light yellow, while the others had sickly green, black and white colors. The tension spiked the room and magic flowing through the room from the spheres of spiraling light. "YOU SEEM TO BE FORGETTING SOMETHING!!" shouted Connor. They all screamed as they pointed their hoofs to whomever was on the other side as giant lasers engulfed the room. "I. AM. CONNOR STRONGHOOVES!!!!!" And at that point, the laser spells were fired.

"REMEMBER BROTHERS!! WE GOTTA TAKE HIM DOWN!!!" shouted Death.

Death’s, Famine’s and Pestilence’s beams crossed forming a giant sized beam that matched Connor’s size. He knew what he had to do. He was walking forward, struggling but was walking forward as their attacks seemed pretty evenly matched.

“WHEN I GET IN CLOSE ENOUGH, FIRE THE ELEMENTS AT US!” screamed Connor towards the six mares. "ITS THE ONLY WAY THEY'LL CHANGE!! I KNOW IT!!" The mares saw that their talismans glow up in bright colors as they all floated in the air, feeling the magic within them. Connor took one step after another in the direction of the stallions as he kept going nearer and nearer.

“No! I will not give up this body no matter what!” screamed Nightmare Moon. She fed magic into her three sons as their end of the laser spell was increased and Connor felt being pushed back. But he decided that he needed to put everything into this, no little bit of this or that, he had to do it for his brothers and Nightmare Moon.

"LOOKS LIKE I GOTTA GO ALL OUT!!" shouted Connor. He began to tap into his inner chambers of magic, and soon his life force as both things were pumping pure energy into his attack. The other ponies in the laser struggle were doing all they could but they felt really burnt out of magic, they began to weaken. "THIS IS IT!!"

"NO!! HOW COULD THIS HAPPEN?!?!" screeched Death. "YOU WERE SUPPOSE TO LOSE!!! FATE DECIDED OUR VICTORY TO BE THE ONLY FUTURE!!" Him and his brothers were getting weaker by the second, in the moments to come they knew their demise was imminent. They could feel the rush of Connor's energy going to their end of the struggle as it began to make their bodies shake violently. Nightmare Moon couldn't provide anymore magic, Connnor had just simply out burned her.

Connor finally got in close as he was able to bring the standoff closed down as he forced the colliding spells to go up into the air and there were no more beams to worry about. "FATE DOESN'T DECIDE WHAT HAPPENS TO US, PONIES LIKE YOU AND ME DO!! AND MY VICTORY IS SECURE HERE BECAUSE I BELIEVE IN THE CONNOR STRONGHOOVES THAT BELIEVES IN HARMONY!!!" screamed Connor.

The stallions and Nightmare were too burned out of energy to even stand up on their legs. To their surprise they were still alive, barely breathing because they had given it their complete all into their laser spells, and from the complete use of magic it had brought them into unconsciousness. This was the moment they were waiting for, no turning back now. They had to finish what they started. “NOW!!!” screamed Connor as loud as he could.

The 6 mares began charging up their talismans, they were in for a big blast of magic to hit everyone in the room. Nightmare just barely had enough to stand on her legs as she tried to fire lightning spells at the 6 mares, but because of her blurry vision, it was near impossible to hit the mares right. "I've waited too long to be defeated like this now!" shrieked Nightmare Moon. Her attempts were met with a hoof bringing her down to the ground by a stallion with blacker fur then her.

"Shut the hell up bitch." flatly stated Connor.

Twilight Sparkle opened her eyes to show the element of magic taking over and unleashing her true potential, and the potentials of her friends, even the potential of the talismans themselves. And with that, a ginormous spell hit the room, and everything in Connor’s vision turned white. And then, darkness.

"Thank you..."

Twilight was the first to wake up, seeing her tiara still there, perched on her head but by the feel of it, it felt like it was gonna fall off. She used her telekinesis magic to get it at the right position and made a sigh of relief that it was the way she wanted it. She snapped back into reality as she saw 4 new alicorns in the room, replacing what should have been Famine, Pestilence, Death and Nightmare Moon. One of them was almost the size of a regular pony with a crescent shaped necklace on her neck. Her mane a dark blue, however more blue then her fur, along with her long tail.

The alicorns where the most odd that she’s ever seen, mostly due because of the fact that Celestia was the only alicorn she saw before tonight’s events transpired. An alicorn, bigger than the blue furred alicorn had green fur and a flowing light yellow mane and tale, it had markings all over the pony that took up plant-like designs. It seemed…unnatural yet it was at the same time.

She noticed a red alicorn, had a fine brown mane and tail, in the place of Pestilence as she believed where he lay, so did he. Then another, it seemed odd, it had the skin of a zebra, and long flowing mane, it was purple and had streaks of white in it too. This was confusing to Twilight at first but she pieced the puzzle together, these stallions were the stallions of the apocalypse. As of why they aren’t the way they were that was yet to be determined.

She looked around, seeing her new friends get up like they were hung over on apple cider. “Ugh…my head…” said Rainbow Dash. She shook her head a couple times, her rainbow colored mane becoming a color blur the faster she shook her head.

“Dang, mah head hurts bad…” said Applejack. She had gotten up too and shook her head as focus came in easier than it had a second ago for her. “Is everypony alright?” Applejack looked around seeing her friends get up and noticed the dark blue alicorn get up too.

“Huh…? Where…am I?” asked the blue alicorn in confusion. The pony had a soft voice, it was pretty childish but it was soft like a baby’s bottom. “This isn’t the moon.” She looked upon the mares, then back to where the 3 stallions lie down. “They should be a little younger…they seem fully grown…” The more the small pony alicorn thought of these things, the more confused she became. More questions kept popping up in her head as a bit of paranoia crept in like a smooth predator, and her mind was the prey.

A brilliant light shone through the glass windows of the old castle, a light that all of the ponies in the room grown to know, and grown up with, the sun. It was rising in the air faster then it usually would have, that’s when Twilight realized that the sun should have shined just a bit over an hour ago, and that Nightmare made sure that the sun wouldn’t come again. This was the first guarantee that she had won, no, that her and her friends had won.

The light seemed to grow brighter as a figure flew into the room, the same species of ponies as the 4 others in the room. Twilight could recognize the pony anywhere, it was Princess Celestia. The dark blue alicorn’s mind was in a lockdown, the pony…that very pony that had put her to 1000 years of solitude on the moon was right in front of her, her seemingly soft, glowing multi-colored mane swaying with the wind of the room. Emotions came in with a vengeance, the fires of pure fury burning through her. She felt so weak though, she never felt this exhausted in her life. “No, what kind of a mother can’t follow their own kid’s virtues?” thought the Alicorn. “Then again, if I thought like this…I wouldn’t have been on that moon to begin with...”

The 5 mares excluding Twilight looked at the angry alicorn in worry, Fluttershy half tempted to duck to the nearest obstacle that would conceal her to avoid any upcoming violence. They still held to their respect towards their leader however, and bowed in front of them. “Princess Celestia!” exclaimed Twilight in joy. She partially hopped up to the white alicorn as they embraced each other into a hug.

“Twilight Sparkle, my faithful student.” said Princess Celestia. “I knew you could do it.” Her smile felt warmer then the sun, her voice more serene and graceful then any they had all heard in their lives before, if felt right to hear it after a long night. However Twilight got confused by what the princess had said, going through and back her brain to what her mentor had told her a lot earlier.

“But…you told me it was an old pony’s tale, something to not worry about.” said Twilight.

“I told you to make some friends, and that it was more of a situation that I should handle, not yourself, but I was wrong.” said Princess Celestia. Those were words that Twilight would never hear in her life, it seemed so for the other mares too for they got off their knees and stood on their hooves tall. “I had seen the signs of my children and sister’s return. And the moment you touched Everfree forest I knew you all had the magic to help them find the light.”

The 6 mare’s jaws hit the floor with such speed to rival Rainbow Dash’s speed, this plot twist becoming overly confusing to them for nothing helped piece it together for common sense. “What do you mean princess? I figured that you had to banish your sister too but I didn’t know you had any children! It only said Nightmare Moon had them when I read it off of that book.” said Twilight Sparkle. Celestia had brought up her warm signature smile, content in having to tell her story to 6 new ponies that she knew would be very good friends with, already a good friend with one of them.

“You see, just like Luna they had darkness corrupt them by feelings of doubt, hatred, loathing and spite.” begun Princess Celestia. “It went after my sister, creating the evil incarnate that had been known as Nightmare Moon. Then that darkness spread, attacking my 3 son’s just like it did to Luna and then, the stallions of the apocalypse were born.” Twilight and the gang were giving their leader their full attention, but a question spiked up in hearing it, Celestia had 3 children, there were four stallions of the apocalypse.

“But…what about Connor? He was the stallion of War, how did he get mixed in?” asked Rarity. Celestia had a sorrowful look on her face as a tear escaped her eye.

“It’s a long complicated story, one of which had made me regret doing to anypony, me and my sister. All you need to know is that we found him at our doorsteps and Luna took it upon herself to become the mother and train Connor everything she knew about combat, flight even, and also how to become interconnected to the Earth.” said Princess Celestia “Like a true earth pony.”

The mane 6 looked over at the blue alicorn, realizing who it was, Princess Luna. She seemed to be in tears herself and laying on her knees, bawling. Princess Celestia trotted up to her and they both shared each other’s body heats as they cried together. Pinkie Pie was cartoonishly crying as the tears came out like a mad faucet while the other mares felt a panging guilt to know that such a pony who had been tortured not only by Nightmare Moon but by the other side of the coin as well, both good and evil had put Connor through hell.

“We didn’t mean to cause him harm, we were just sad because we hated how mortality had taken our friends.” said Princess Celestia. “And on the look of that adorable colt’s eyes…we knew he was special, and in the end we had taken what was special about him and made him who he was truly. It’s not just Nightmare Moon’s fault for making him who he is…it was our own mistake to begin with anyway.” The alicorn sisters kept crying and crying for a good couple of minutes until they regained posture, they decided to wake up her children, no use having them on the ground. They all woke up with blurry vision, just like the mane 6 had to wake up with.

“Ah…dang…what did we do last night…?” asked the red alicorn. His voice seemed like that of an intelligent person’s, similar to Twilight’s voice in a lot of ways. He had emerald green eyes that really matched the short brown mane cut that he had, it looked good.

“Must have been crazy if we feel like this now…ow.” said the zebra looking alicorn. His voice was gruff but it wasn’t threatening, something the mane 6 could deal with for now. His eyes were purple just like his mane.

“Well…least we know it gets better.” said the green alicorn. His voice was nearly as serene as Princess Celestia’s, his blue iris was huge and took up most of his eyes as his green flowing green mane trickled with the wind. They all were pretty muscular compared to Celestia as they stood up to full height, they were a good half a foot shorter than their mother, it was odd to see more alicorns at this height.

“Twilight, meet my children, Brett Lifegiver...” began Princess Celestia.

“Pleasure to meet everypony.” said Brett, the red alicorn.

“James Plantgrower…” continued Princess Celestia.

“Nice to meet you.” said James, the green alicorn.

“And my eldest, Jacob Lightbringer.” finished Princess Celestia.

“Hey there.” said Jacob, the zebra looking alicorn.

“They were all meant to not only embrace the beauty of a mother and her children, the way Luna had with Connor but to help me and the rest of Equestria, and eventually to show other nations the magic of friendship and harmony.” started Princess Celestia. “Brett would help revolutionize medicine and be in charge of general health care for all living creatures. James would help out earth ponies do crops and farms and even help the eco-system out and make sure plant eaters like us and others can grow from his food. And finally Jacob to help spread the rays of the sun to those that needed it more than any happy pony, to show darkness the light, and also to support the right of life in all categories.”

The 3 alicorns looked at their flanks which had their cutie marks on, and looked down to the ground in shame, the memories of being the stallions of the apocalypse quite fresh in their mind. “But thanks to Nightmare Moon, not Luna, the darkness changed my sons to the opposites of what they were and what they represented, and telling you what the original plan was I assume you know how each of my boys had gotten their marks as the stallions of the apocalypse.” said Princess Celestia. The mane 6 nodded to show Celestia that they knew what she had meant, and Celestia seemed content with it.

“And the darkness did the same thing like what Luna and I did to Connor to my children. Turned them into the opposites and made them perfect paragons of which stallion they represented. It had me beyond rage but Connor tried to save you 4, but he failed…and in turn became War.” said Princess Celestia. “Connor had a good heart fighting with me to banish my children and Nightmare Moon but…he had to leave…the scars he made as War were still present…it was so bad the ashes of Old Equestria made the darkness that tainted Connor and made it physically obvious that it was there. There was no other pony in history that had to go through something like this…”

Pained regret sky rocketed through Celestia, Luna, Brett, Jacob and James bodies as the tears came back. “Even though he never got his cutie mark for it, all he really wanted was just to help ponies, but in the end, the darkness made him the opposite and turned it into a paragon of War.” said Luna. Now it was the mane 6 to cry, oh god be damned…a pony like Connor having to be hurting what he had loved doing…now that was cold for anything to do. But then it occurred to them about something…Connor…Connor…CONNOR!!

They had completely forgot about where he was as Luna searched around the room with the most effort and a pained look on her face. “Connor!” shouted Luna. “Where are you!?” They looked and looked till they noticed that he was outside one of the windows, looking at the sun. Everypony had a heavy sigh of relief as they all galloped out of the building to join Connor with his blue fur and brown mane instead of his black fur and red mane. Luna was the first to trot up to him. He wasn’t quite as tall as the 3 stallions Celestia had helped out in growing but Luna’s new height had made Connor’s figure tower over hers. And after everything that had happened…it wasn’t going to be easy but she had to do it.

“…Connor?” asked Luna timidly. “…Why are you out here?” Connor was sort of glad Luna didn’t refer to him as a son, but that made him feel more guilty over everything that ever happened to him, he held grudges but hated it when it had to be against his own blood.

“Just looking at the sun, happy for everything that happened.” said Connor. This took Luna by surprise and everypony else too, this was not the reaction they all had expected. “I understand it may seem very, very odd but I have my reasons…” He was silent for the longest time, just for a minute and right before Luna tried to lend out a comforting hoof to her own son, he replied. “Mom”

And in a surprise Connor grabbed his mother’s hoof and embraced her with a bear hug, wrapping his hooves around her in sadness. Luna noticed Connor’s whimpering and tears streaming down her back, and she returned it all with the same thing. “I’m so sorry son.” said Luna.

“Its okay mom, live and forget right?” Connor laughed but it was weak and his whimpering had calmed down a bit and breathed deeply.

“Don’t hyperventilate son, its not good for you. Try to calm down.” said Luna. Connor broke off the hug and looked into his mother’s dark blue eyes, the same eyes that had always comforted him. Connor wanted to chuckle but he didn’t, it wasn’t the appropriate timing, and if he did his mother would get the wrong message.

“What do you think I’m trying to do? Silly mother.” His tear-stricken eyes were bright red as Luna has expected them to be, he looked like he had been crying the entire night, and it was true. “C’mon, there’s a new world expecting us.” His mother gave him an approving nod and they both walked together side by side as the other ponies had smiled at them. Connor took a good look at Celestia and her boys for a good minute and said,

“You know, you all may not be my family by blood, but I’m sure as hell certain I’m your cousin at the least.” said Connor, looking at the 3 stallions he called brothers. “Or heck, even a nephew.” He gives a quick look at Celestia with a bright smile and Celestia repaid it with a smile of her own. “But know this, I have done a lot of things, bad mostly but I know that Old Equestria is gone and a newer, brighter one has arrived thanks to a princess I know.” He looked at Celestia again with a sappy wink of approval. “If it wasn’t for the hope, dreams and joy of you Aunt Celestia, this world would have fallen on its own. And you six mares…”

He looked over at the mane 6 whom gave him his full attention. “Despite the fact that I have known these three alicorns for over twenty years prior to the events of Nightmare Moon’s reign, I never really learned about friendship or harmony. I had always done everything by myself most of the time and that was enough to keep things going smoothly.” said Connor. “It was enough but not enough to keep the whole of a country together, I need to learn more of friendship and bonds then I have before if I’m gonna do what I tried to do for Equestria.”

Connor walked up closer to the mane 6 and held a front hoof high in front of them. “Will you, and can you help me?” The mares looked at each other and back at Connor, to them it was a simple question with a simple answer, to Connor it was everything. Rarity grabbed a hold onto Connor’s hoof with her right hoof too and smiled at him.

“I’ll see what I can do about that darling.” said Rarity with a satisfied smile. Applejack was the next to join on in.

“Don’t worry now sugarcube, we’ll help ya’ll out nice and easy.” said Applejack with her signature southern smile. Rainbow Dash was the next one in.

“Count me in big guy.” said Rainbow Dash. Connor chuckled at that response. Pinkie Pie joined in.

“Okie dokie lokie!” said Pinkie Pie with a bright, cartoonish smile on her face. Twilight joined in with her hoof.

“Well you aren’t the only that needs to learn either.” said Twilight Sparkle. Fluttershy seemed half tempted to join in but her usual shyness stopped her for a moment.

“No, not this time.” thought Fluttershy. She shakily held out a front hoof but she managed to do so, and completing the circle of hooves.

“Well…I’ll join in…if that’s okay…” said Fluttershy, seemingly embarrassed to share a hoof with so many other ponies, Connor had to smile at that.

“Its more than okay Fluttershy, no worries.” said Connor with a nod. Fluttershy smiled and nodded back as the 7 threw their hooves up into the air.

They all walked towards the direction of the sun, going back the way they came. Connor took one last look at the castle he had used to live in before it had fallen into disrepair to how it was now. He made one last smile and shed a single tear, but not a tear of sadness, it was a tear of moving on, he felt like had finally let go of his past, and for good. “I promise I won’t be that pony anymore.” thought Connor.

“Connor darling, you coming or what?” asked Rarity, the British accent had yet to be old and annoying to Connor’s ears. He looked back with a happy grin on his face, he caught up with the other ponies, chatting away for the start of a new future.

A brighter future.

Chapter 6 (Revised)

Chapter 6 (Revised)

Chapter 6

“No way, no friggin’ way.” thought Connor. When he got back to Ponyville he had seen the biggest celebration go down, and all in the name of him and his little family. They walked through the streets as they were blasted by streamers and marching band instruments, it was really loud but Connor enjoyed every second of it, they all did. Crowns made of flower petals was perched on the heads of Luna and Celestia’s stallions, all of them had their own personal color to them to match the following ponies. To Connor’s surprise he was offered a blue flower petal necklace which he had declined the offer.

“Please, I’m not of real royalty.” said Connor. Luna cleared her throat, Connor didn’t realize he was being rude about it and saw the mare who offered it to him look sad. He felt bad but he knew how to fix it, “But…” as he continued the mare had a happy look on her face when Connor said but, “I will take it, it looks beautiful.” The mare jumped in joy and hugged the large stallion, and gave the crown to him.

“Oh thank you!” exclaimed the happy mare. “I hope you’ll enjoy it as much as I loved making it!” She beamed at Connor and trotted off happily, he felt warm inside, it’s been more than a millennium since he was given something that somepony else enjoyed. A tear quickly left his eye but he wiped it off before anypony could see it.

They all walked till they were all in a crowd of ponies, all of them moved away till everyone from the Old Canterlot castle had a lot of room, the crowd in applause of the new alicorns. Really soon Brett, James, Jacob and Luna will receive their new duties, to increase the potency of medicine, to be more in synch with their plant life to help feed the population, to spread good cheer and to preach equality, to raise the moon, and to become Equestria’s defender once again. Connor knew he can now out run his past and gallop into a brighter future, a future where he doesn’t become the purge again, and he was very content with that.

He was looking up to the bright sun; it was partially cloudy outside, the fluffy white clouds setting his mind off to a daze. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, taking it all in. Yes, this is indeed a bright future, and a future he vows to protect, and knowing he won’t be the pony he used to bea, no…he has new friends. Happy new friends, all unique and different from one another but the courage in their heart and souls and their loving personalities is what had brought them together and him too. He only hopes that the other stallions will think the same and become a part of the growing circle.

His attention went back to his surroundings as colors assaulted his eyes, everything was so bright and happy, it seemed almost girly to him but he didn’t care. It was all very cheerful and happy, it was beautiful to see and it melted the stone heart of this blue stallion, he had always been serious, it was only with last night and today it had brought out the emotional side of him.

The mayor of Ponyville was waiting patiently for Princess Celestia and her family as all but Connor and the mane 6 walked up on to the stage. “And here we gladly introduce for the Summer Sun Celebration…Princess CELESTIA!” said the mayor into the microphone. All the ponies cheered in glee at the sight of their glorious leader, with big grins and smiles on their faces they waited patiently for Celestia’s words to be spoken.

“Hello my little ponies…-” said Princess Celestia.

“HA! She said it!” shouted a distant stallion’s voice. It was no voice Princess Celestia or the mane 6 had recognized at all and it was very annoying to have to hear. “Sorry…continue please!” Princess Celestia paused for a minute and hesitated to continue in the possibility of being interrupted again, then she began talking, the crowd instantly silent and their attention Celestia’s.

“Okay then…as you see, these other ponies are the same species as I am.” begun Princess Celestia. “The stallion ones you see here are…my children.” The entire town gasped as James, Brett and Jacob took the spotlight as they walked to stand side-by-side with their white furred mother.

“Yeah, and remember those stallions that was with Nightmare Moon…they were us too.” said Jacob. “And hell, even whom Nightmare Moon used to be is here with us.” He gestured over to Luna who seemed very shy to express herself despite given a crown of flowers without hesitation. That worried Connor slightly.

“Meh, must be stage fright or something.” thought Connor. He looked attentively at the princess of the night as he gave a big sigh to himself. “Didn’t think I’d have to go public anymore then I had to, but looks like plans have changed.” He trotted up softly to the stage as all eyes went to him as he walked up the little staircase to the stage. He looked over at the ponies staring at him as he walked up to his mother and sat with her.

“Yeah, and I was also one of the stallions, if anypony here can remember me turning into that dreadful form.” said Connor. “And, this is going to be a shocker but this is your leader’s sister, and I’m her son believe it or not.” Gasps and confused looks were exchanged from one pony to another, whispers becoming loud conversations, it annoyed Connor how things like this remained the same, he had hoped it mostly changed. “ENOUGH!” shouted Connor. The crowd went silent and the attentive faces returned. This was a beauty to Connor’s eyes.

“Thank you and I do apologize for any confusion, we all do but there is just one thing that you need to know.” said Connor. “We do not mean harm, before we were a force of reckoning but now we are a force of good. We were once the vices that put all evils into the 5 of us, but now we are the vices of all true good. Sure we may have to do our duties in a similar manner as we had being the stallions of the apocalypse…only some of us at least…but know we do it for the right reasons. And not for the wrong that I’ve done, that we stallions and Princess Luna had done.”

He looked upon the crowd for whom they had curious faces and quizzical looks. He then had realized that he didn’t know what he was talking about, explaining to a bunch of ponies who they were, was gonna take quite the time. “Alright…me, and Celestia’s children, and alongside Princess Luna were the ones that invaded Ponyville and threatened the world as we once had before, however that was during a time where no one here was alive except for Princess Celestia.” began Connor. “We were Nightmare Moon and the 4 Stallions of the Apocalypse, we were the evil that was shoved out by the good and created into the ponies we became and wreaked havoc on Equestria, but not just here. We extended our reach to the world around us, tainted it like a plague.” The crowd of ponies looked at Connor with worry, his words were unsettling, not right, but it had a lot of honesty to them. Connor exhaled a deep sigh and inhaled before continuing.

“Maybe your princess might explain it better.” said Connor. He trotted next to his mother and sat next to her again. “I thought I was better off to stop before I confused somepony.” Luna looked at her son and brushed a hoof over his fur and held him close to her.

“Yeah, it was probably the right thing to do,” said Luna. “They don’t know you Connor, they don’t know me either.” She said so with sadness, Connor responded with a soft nuzzle against her neck. They patiently looked at Princess Celestia as she walked up to the microphone, with no need to stand up on her hind legs like Connor had to, she was tall enough to be at a good level with the microphone as she began to speak.

“I know what my nephew here sounded confusing,” begun Princess Celestia. Connor let out a soft chuckle that was in hearing range of the princess’s ears as she smiled at him. “But what he was trying to say was that now that I have…” She stopped for a moment as she sniffled a bit and continued. “…That I have my family back, they will uphold their duties, the ones appointed to them by chance, and that they’ll be here to stay. And please, I know they may have the same blood as me but they’re just like anypony else.” Connor smiled, Princess Celestia had changed, but it might have been the years of hearing the same compliments given to noble ponies towards her is what made her want to hear words that would make her feel like a common pony. She knew that he hated it within a few years.

“They just...had bad luck before, having to be who they were.” said Princess Celestia. “But now, they can live with us, among us, and please. They may seem odd or strange, your opinions are your own but they’ll help me with this land. But before I go and continue ruling, I will be on a one week hiatus.” The ponies stared at their leader with big eyes of confusion and fear. They had become right with Celestia and Celestia’s alone rule of their peaceful country, even the mane 6 were confused alongside her sons and sister. Connor didn’t seem too surprised though.

“I need to help shape my family before I help shape a country. That is all. I will return to my duty after a week, it won’t be too different.” said Princess Celestia. “It’ll be like I was still ruling.” She walked away from the microphone as her boys trotted up to her with a whole lot of questions.

“Mom…we know you don’t need to help us, we already love you tons.” said James. Hearing the soft, shy stallion Celestia knew to love say that warmed her heart.

“Yeah Mom, I do believe that this is unnecessary and therefore…-” said Brett. He was met with a white and black stripped hoof in his mouth to shut him up.

“What I think Brett here is saying that you don’t have to spend a week with us, we learned our lesson.” said Jacob. Celestia stomped a strong hoof to the ground to quiet Jacob.

“I understand you don’t feel like I don’t have to take a vacation but we all need some time with each other, we’ll function better for it, I know it.” said Princess Celestia. Connor smiled alongside everypony else. The boys may have been true that such action wouldn’t be necessary, before the Nightmare Moon situation they were all very close knit with each other, even if it didn’t seem so. But Celestia just missed them, she couldn’t just go and rule and pretend that everything was okay when she had three sons she hasn’t seen in a long time. She did it not for them alone but also for her.

“Same with you Connor and Luna.” said Celestia. Luna smiled and trotted over to Celestia and they both embraced into a hug. Both of them went on their knees as they had warm smiles on their faces. Celestia’s boys surrounded the sisters and the mane 6 looked upon the sisters with warm smiles and warmer hearts. Connor let out a soft smile as he got up on his hooves and walked off the stage and towards the sun’s direction. The mane 6 and everypony else watched him as he walked off without a care. Rarity was the first to gallop over to Connor.

“Connor!” called out Rarity. Hearing his name caught him off guard as he snapped his head over to see everypony else, his family and the mane 6 right behind him and galloping to him. “Where in the heavens are you trotting about for?” The regel unicorn looked at the scruff earth pony with a quizzical look.

“Would you mind walking with me, a fair price to pay in exchange for some information don’t you believe?” asked Connor. He had a sly smile on his face as Rarity looked at him dumbfounded for only a second.

“Um…sure alright then.” The others had walked off, knowing why Connor only asked HER to walk with him. Rarity took note and ignored such thoughts from her mind, she was never the pony to be left wondering and she refused to start now. They both walked down Ponyville’s streets, passing ponies like them as the day went on, except none of the stallions in Ponyville seemed to match Connor’s exterior.

“You still haven’t told me why you’re walking randomly.” said Rarity impatiently. Connor scoffed and laughed at Rarity’s impatience, he found it humorous. “Why are you laughing?” Connor looked ahead of him, coming across to what seemed as a little forest with exotic flowers and trees, the animals were normal for their habitat so it seemed right at the moment. Connor took it all in as he inhaled deeply. Everything in Ponyville felt right. “Well?”

“I haven’t been on this world for 1000 years,” began Connor. “I’m enjoying the world as I had before for one.” Rarity felt a little guilty in her heart, she forgot about that, it didn’t come across her mind as of why he was walking around how he was. “And even though it has changed a lot since I’ve been here, the world is still just as beautiful as it was before. And that satisfies me greatly.” Connor looked up brightly, Rarity following his gaze as they looked upon an empty field of grass swaying against the wind. Connor looked upon it all, and smiled with such warmth it would have melted glaciers.

“You know why we’re called earth ponies, correct?” asked Connor.

“Because your kind’s form of magic allows you to tap into the earth, but aside from that I never really interested myself into things like that.” said Rarity. “I am a fashionista after all and I felt like I needed to stay true to my cutie mark.” Connor looked upon her flanks, breaking the attention he had on nature and looked at her cutie mark, which bore three complete rhombuses which was to be like diamonds.

“Yes, well I myself never got mine so I didn’t care much for destinies.” said Connor. It was Rarity’s turn to look at somepony’s flanks now. Just like how she met him, he had a blank flank. Though she knew Celestia admitted that she and her sister Luna had taken away what was special about him, something related to combat, in her mind, would have been appropriate for a cutie mark, from what she got out of Connor the time she knew him.

“But to me, being what I was born to be made me feel happy, and for a time I too cared for having a cutie mark but it was nothing compared to the Earth.” said Connor. “I mean, a land which is able to hold life, a gift so precious yet one that can be swiftly taken away, and here she is in all her glorious beauty.” Rarity thought that Connor was implying the Earth as it was the only real rational explanation of Connor’s words…or was it? “And your right, us earth ponies can tap into the magic of the earth and help grow crops. But to me, becoming interconnected with nature was my big goal, and it was something I wanted to grab by the tail, swing it around and grab it for all its worth was my plan. But with duties I had, I was never really able to accomplish that. And my time in Ponyville will help me get there, alongside you mares.”

Rarity smiled, maybe Connor wasn’t meant to be a blank flank after all, maybe it could be something to represent him and the Earth somehow, you just never know. Celestia and Luna appeared behind them, alongside everypony else, Connor figured they’d follow him, he had unfinished business ultimately deciding his fate in Ponyville.

“Having a good time?” asked Luna to Rarity and Connor.

“Damn strait,” said Connor. “It’s been too long…” He looked back out to the field, the place he had once called home whilst being banished. After 1000 years, he could again. He had a big determined smile on his face looking over the field. It was starting to get to the before noon time and ponies were smiling, laughing and prancing around like there was gonna be no tomorrow. “These ponies, they seem devoid of our dark history, Aunt Celestia.” He eyed his favorite aunt as she had a blank stare.

“Well who else could be able to bring the ponies from any possible slum that Nightmare Moon drove them too?” asked Princess Celestia. Luna shuddered at that name; Celestia had seen it and winced a bit, wondering what her sister would do. “…Anyways, it’s not like it’s an easy thing to deal with, imagine everything that you thought was real stripped from you. Not everypony is like you Connor.” True…Connor nodded his head in agreement and solemnly looked upon the ponies.

“Besides, my sons are aware of their duties, and now it’s time to be aware of yours.” said Princess Celestia. She trotted up to Connor who just stared back at her with blank eyes. “Ponyville…well I’ll tell you more about it. But for now try to find a house or something to stay out at.” Rarity stepped in on the two.

“I have a guest room out in my home, I think it could have somepony in occupancy.” said Rarity. Connor smiled warmly at her.

“Looks like the element of generosity strikes again.” said Connor. Rarity gave Connor a sappy wink and a little chuckle. “But don’t worry about it though, I won’t overuse my stay.”

“Oh it’s no problem at all darling!” exclaimed Rarity. “You’re welcome to my house so long as an extra bed or at LEAST a couch is ready and good for you.”

“Same with mah place, sugarcube.” said Applejack.

“Yeah silly filly! Even mine!” happily exclaimed Pinkie Pie.

“Well I do have a house in the sky,” said Rainbow Dash. “But…if you magically come up there somehow I suppose your welcome.” Connor smirked and chuckled as loud as he could…evilly…as Rainbow Dash looked upon him with utter confusion. “…Why are you laughing?” Connor stopped to look at him with a criminal’s sly smile.

“Remember how I told you I could fly?” asked Connor. Then it hit Rainbow Dash like a jack hammer…he did.

“Oh yeah! Heh…I forgot about that…” said Rainbow Dash, giving an awkward grin at Connor who just laughed even harder.

”Yup, I can even walk on clouds too, no use to limiting myself at just flight you know?” asked Connor. “Or…at least some other pony’s thoughts went…” He stared at his mother with a looked that asked her to say something, Luna just blushed a bit and shooed it off. Celestia had to clear her throat to make sure everypony had her attention.

“Well Rarity, and the rest of you, it really is nice to offer my nephew a bed and a roof but I will have to place him in the library.” said Celestia. “Along with Twilight Sparkle.” Twilight just looked at her mentor in disbelief; Connor raised an eyebrow at his aunt with confusion on the mind too. “You both are incredibly anti-social, and Twilight does need another helper for the library if she’s going to stay here.”

Twilight couldn’t believe her ears, and so did the other mares, they all pounced on Twilight and Celestia was met by the thankfulness of their friends. Connor hadn’t liked Twilight all that much, to be honest, he found her as a know it all, despite seeing her as a female form of one of his old heroes. Connor shrugged his shoulders and casually said “Meh, okay.” The mares had ignored him, apparently only wishing for ponies that cared of this news.

“Oh thank you! Thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou!!” bounced Twilight in glee. Even though she had known her friends for just one night, she couldn’t imagine having to continue without the magic of friendship on her. She had found the beauty of each and everypony she had met tonight, even though she hardly knew Celestia’s kids and her sister, they were just as great as the mares. Connor on the other hoof…well…she decided to ignore him at the moment, he’s cool but he’s a bit too forceful if anything else. “But why does Connor have to live with me though? Everypony else seemed to not mind him too much to offer a bed for him.”

“And what’s so wrong with me then?” asked Connor, in a serious tone. Twilight scowled at him with a glare of her own.

“Your cool, but your too forceful with things it’s pretty ridiculous.” said Twilight.

“It gets stuff done, and the ends justify the means if the situation requires it.” countered Connor. Twilight just grew a little more angered by Connor, this was not the way the ponies of Equestria rolled, not in a long shot.

“That’s not how we do things in Equestria, and I’m sure that you had it different long ago but the old world is gone, we achieved a state of total harmony and that could possibly threaten our new lifestyle.” said Twilight.

“Enough!” shouted Princess Celestia. Twilight cringed at the words while Connor just merely stood there silently, he was used to hearing loud noises and his relatives didn’t scare him one bit, even if one controlled the sun and it’s power. Twilight only cringed because the shouting came from, what she had found herself to be comfortable to live with: a second mother. “I understand you two ponies are very different from each other but I beg you to try to give each other a shot at real friendship, not companionship through friends. That’s not how the magic of friendship even works.”

Twilight nodded her head sadly. “I’m sorry Princess, I’ll try my best to stay rational.”

“I guess so as well.” said Connor. Twilight couldn’t understand Connor one bit, sure she got to the emotional side at least, she even tried to talk Connor out of his emotional lump back at the forest but here he is, calm as can be and doesn’t seem to care too much of authority, especially to their country’s leader. She knew he had her as family but the fact that he’s so passive towards any affront to him was beyond maddening. She didn’t know why she was so uptight about it but she just couldn’t help herself but to feel this way. “Anyways, I guess we should all get comfortable to this town don’t you think?”

Everypony nodded their head into agreement as they all walked off to the town together, to spend the last hours of the day on the Summer Sun Celebration as previously planned.

Chapter 7 (Revised)

Chapter 7

The day was spent entirely under the sun as Celestia, Brett, James, Jacob and Luna were adored by their subjects, surprisingly most of the cheering done to celebrate the newest members of the Equestrian monarchy. Connor on the other hoof steered away from attention as he could and hung low alongside the other mares that enjoyed the simplicity of the festival games.

"Pray tell, what the deuce am I supposed to do again?" asked Connor. He stared blankly down what seemed as an alley made of wood leading up to a bunch of holes surrounding the form of a giant bulls-eye target and on hole in the middle. There were other machines like this right next to this one and ponies on all of them. The unicorns playing this trivial game used telekinesis to hold on to the balls given to them by the sorcery of the machine and tossed into the holes, or at least in their general direction of them. "The action seems so simple yet it makes no sense, what's the point of this bloody game?"

Pinkie Pie was trying to show him how to play skeeball since the other mares had tried the best they could to show Connor how to play, he ignored them all and tried doing it his own way, making the mares annoyed by Connor's stubbornness. It was only Pinkie Pie that had been able to stick around Connor due to her nature with ponies, for she was generally more annoying than Connor but the fun kind of annoying, not the stubborn kind of annoying. But she had dealt with types like Connor; she was more than ready for somepony like Connor. "You just take a ball by the mouth and roll it down the alley and hope to get into a hole!" said Pinkie Pie.

She took a ball by the mouth and did the best she could to have it roll down the alley with a motion of her head and down the ball went. To Connor's amazement the ball hit the middle of the bullseye and landing in the middle hole. "And the better the shot, the more points that roll in!" Pinkie had pointed a hoof towards what appeared to be a scoreboard. It went from a…whatever they call it go from 0 to 50 in a blur. Connor was utterly shocked at the technology he had witnessed.

"What form of witchcraft is this?" asked Connor. "It's…not controlled by a unicorn, nor is it by an alicorn or any other kind of pony or creature that's able to manipulate magic. Did…things change that much…?"

"Yup! It's awesome!" exclaimed Pinkie Pie. She took another skeeball and repeated what she had done just a bit earlier, turning the 50 into a 100. A cold shiver went down Connor's spine.

"This…witchcraft…creeps me out…" said Connor. Pinkie handed him over a skeeball and deeply sighed. "Alright Pinkie, just for you." He took the ball with his mouth and threw it with a flick of his neck and it made a gaping hole in the middle of the bullseye, breaking the machine. He stood there dumbfounded, and ponies all around stopped and stared at what he had just done. Some ponies had scowls on their faces, others had looks of shock and concern and mother mares hid away their foals to make sure they wouldn't see the damage that had been done. Connor looked around and had a scarred mind.

Connor walked away from the scene as fast and awkwardly as he could with a sad look on his face, seemed very different from Pinkie's gleeful demeanor as she was happily bouncing instead of walking. Connor sighed to himself and looked down as they both walked down the dirt road they were on, colts and fillies running around, playing tag and doing the things that colts and fillies usually do. Some other ponies had seen Connor's face and some had come up to him asking if he was feeling good, mostly mares though.

"Yes, I'm just fine, thank you." said Connor. He had to repeat himself over and over and over and over and over to everypony that trotted his way and try to bring his frown upside down.

"Well you don't seem fine Mr. Grumpy!" said Pinkie Pie happily. Connor raised an eyebrow at the pink mare and sighed once again.

"I don't meant to be upset at this time to be honest Pinkie," said Connor. "I just got scarred and disappointed at myself seeing so many scarred faces, remember what happened at the Everfree Forest?" Oh yes she did. She felt a little guilty to have Connor laugh at the trees, they reminded him of too much things that had happened in a time long ago. She had a frown at best but she went from sad to happy in an instant. Connor thought if she was bipolar but it was best not to ask.

"Well of course I do, but c'mon it was just an accident! Not like it went real wrong right?" asked Pinkie merrily. Connor abandoned his depressed demeanor and had one of attention as he stood up tall. He shrugged Pinkie's answer with a "meh". "Well I think you need a cheering up, I doubt that my words can help out this time." She went into deep thought for a time, seemingly unaware of the world around her as ponies passed by with weird glances at her, whispering why she was in the trance she appeared to be in. Until she gasped really loudly and her mouth hung open.

"I know! Stay RIGHT here!" exclaimed Pinkie Pie. And in a flash, the pink mare seemed to have vanished out of mid-air but Connor's perception was good enough to see Pinkie Pie leave in one direction. He decided to follow Pinkie's orders and stayed where he stood, patiently waiting for Pinkie Pie. And as quick as she disappeared, she reappeared with a box in her mouth. "We have these accessories called "sun glasses" or some would like to call them, "shades"." began Pinkie Pie. "And we'll see which ones are right for you!" At that point Connor began laughing.

"Why in the world would I want these…"shades" Pinkie Pie?" asked Connor.

"Well…they always cheered up somepony when I offered them a pair of sun glasses." said Pinkie Pie. "So I figured, why not Connor?" Connor frowned a bit as Pinkie Pie dug through the box, carelessly tossing to the side any pair of glasses that came in. If one thing Connor knew about fashion is that he would need to try on each pair of shades to decide which one he liked the most out of all the many choices there was. But nope, Pinkie just kept going through the glasses and tossing them to the side whenever one came up.

"Ooooh!" exclaimed Pinkie Pie. At this point her head was fully inside the box but…it seemed to have been smaller than Pinkie's head, and with the remaining sun glasses inside there shouldn't be any logical reason that Pinkie's head would be able to fit. It seems this is lesson one on one of his new friendship bonds to make with a pony, Pinkie can deify any rational logic. She must have been driven to a point of insanity to have to be at this point where she can do what she's doing and Connor could only imagine what else she could do. She then popped her head out of the box with what was the sexiest thing that Connor ever saw.

"These are called gar glasses! They aren't very popular but I think you'd like It." said Pinkie. She handed over Connor the triangular-shaped shades. He took it by a hoof and slowly put the shades on with the triangular ends pointing up. Connor's vision made everything orange, though some shades were darker than other, just like how Pinkie's mane seemed to be a darker shade of orange-pink then her fur. Despite how his vision was, he absolutely loved his new pair of sunglasses.

"Pinkie Pie…" said Connor. Tears swelled up in his eyes, it was visible even through the lens of the gar glasses as Pinkie Pie looked at him with a worried expression, seeing the water build up in Connor's eyes.

"Um…did I offend you or something? I don't mean any harm." said Pinkie Pie. Connor's eyes eased down as he sucked up his manly tears and embraced Pinkie Pie into a heartfelt hug.

"Your one crazy mare but these sun glasses are absolutely awesome. Thank you." He hugged Pinkie Pie hard until she found it hard to breathe. Connor realized what he was doing and set her down and scratched the back of his head in embarrassment. "Oh god…sorry about that Pinkie Pie, I get a little carried away sometimes." Pinkie took a deep breath and stifled a loud laugh. She looked brightly on Connor who in turn did the same.

"I'm glad somepony here can get like me! It's maddening to have to live being the only random pony around here!" exclaimed Pinkie Pie, much to Connor's surprise of what he was hearing. "I do love everypony but no pony is fun like that."

"Well all the more reason to make ponies smile right?" asked Connor. A sparkle like Pinkie's eyes as she smiled brightly, showing off all her teeth when all of a sudden, random music started playing in the background, taking up all the noise of the place but not loud enough to hurt somepony's ears. Connor looked around in shock as Pinkie Pie started singing and walking away from him.

"My name is Pinkie Pie, hello! And I am here to say, how ya doing?

I'm gonna make you smile and I will brighten up your da-ay." sang Pinkie Pie. She had completely ignored Connor and trotted off merrily singing.

Connor chuckled to himself at Pinkie's sudden burst of a musical number. "Damn that mare is pretty crazy, she's funny though I give her that." thought Connor. He decided it was time to stop being so sad and show of his new pair of gar glasses. His family and friends just had to see it but then a thought occurred to him. "Somepony really needs to clean this up. Oh…"

Celestia's kids weren't too far behind on trying to have fun and learn the activities played by the happy ponies of Ponyville. They too had shared their embarrassing moments that day as they had broken down some of the other game machines as well. All in all they all had fun regardless. It was Princess Luna that seemed to get the hang of the games at all. Claiming, "Huzzah! The fun hath been doubled!" Every time that she was playing a game right. Princess Celestia couldn't help but smile as her family was enjoying every bit of the Summer Sun Celebration as she was.

Her sons did seem to enjoy the company of the elements of harmony around with them. Brett's usual anti-social self actually letting in the joy of friendship seep in alongside his brothers. It brought joy to his mother's heart to see her children coping with modern society as well as they were. She thought she would have to work alongside them to help them do what they're doing now but it seemed the elements of harmony themselves are sustaining them as it is. Princess Celestia still wanted to spend a week on vacation before going back to her duties after today though, there was no doubt about it. Princess Luna would agree with her sister on that too but her son however…Connor always had a touch of arrogance but it was all in the right place, but it had always turned around and bucked him in the flanks whenever he did have those moments.

"Should we check to see where Connor and Pinkie Pie went off to?" asked James. Almost as if it was fated, Pinkie Pie was trotting merrily in the middle of the street with a whole bunch of other ponies following suit. And for unexplained reasons, happy cheery music was in the background, and no sign of an instrument playing.

"C'mon everypony, Smile Smile Smile. Fill my heart up with sunshine, sunshine.

All I really need is a Smile Smile Smile. From all these happy friends of mi-ine." sang Pinkie Pie. The rambunctious mare was trotting past the Princess's and her friends like they weren't there as she continued in on her musical number with the other ponies singing with her. Pinkie Pie and the ponies following her trotted out of view as they seemed to have finished their number, or to them the music and singing was so faint that it sounded like it.

"That was…interesting indeed." said Brett. "I only have saw such acts in old plays a long while ago. "And there was music playing? No instruments? No lutes? No nothing?"

"That's Pinkie Pie for yah." said Applejack. Brett had a little scowl on her face, his logic and a bit of a condescending demeanor taking over.

"Oh Brett hasn't changed a bit." thought Princess Celestia. "You know Brett," Her son, the craft pony of medicine looked up to his mother with attentive eyes. "these modern ponies maybe weird to you and Luna, but they're what's upholding harmony in Equestria now. I'd show a little respect if I were you." Brett looked back at his mother and then the other mares as he went back to share a gaze into his mother's face and bowed his head into respect for his mother.

"I'm sorry, I don't mean to be condescending right now, it just…idk I just don't find stuff like this logical." said Brett.

"Honestly Brett, you're not the only one." said Twilight Sparkle. "I would say I'm feeling roughly the same way too. This challenges any real logical sense to me too." Brett chuckled awkwardly a bit. He was always the intelligent one, and now that there was another pony like it he felt a little less alone, but felt challenged at his position as the smart one at the same time.

"Yes…now…let's continue our adventures of fun!" exclaimed Brett loudly, much to every pony's surprise. Twilight couldn't help but giggle, it was one of the silliest things she had ever heard in her life, and it came up out of a moment of awkwardness. "Connor, dear cousin…why must you wear that monstrosity?"

The group's attention went towards where Brett was, and seeing the blue coated stallion standing in front of the red alicorn. He wore gar glasses; they were orange and wore a smirk on his face that spoke of determination…for some reason. "Because I'm Connor Stronghooves, WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK I AM?!" exclaimed Connor. Brett was surprised to hear what he had just heard assault his ears.

"Um…you aren't the Connor I knew…" said Brett. Connor just snorted at Brett's response.

"Believe me my stallion, you see the real meaning of "G" coming through on your door steps." said Connor. Luna was shocked at Connor's new apparent personality. Whatever the gar shades were made of, it made Connor extremely cocky for some reason.

Other ponies looked upon Connor and Brett with annoyed looks, mostly at Connor but the two were so close to each other it could have easily confused for all the looks to be aimed at Connor and Brett simultaneously. "These…what are these glasses called?" asked Brett. He stared at Connor's shades in wonder; they were not like any form of glasses he had ever seen before.

"It was Pinkie's idea for me to have these "sun glasses"." said Connor. Rarity face hoofed at the sentence. Pinkie Pie, in her words, had the weirdest taste in fashion but this was taking it to an extreme. "And she was right! Man these things are the best pair of shades that I've seen."

"And you've seen more of these…"sun glasses" as you call them?" asked Brett. As if on cue, Connor's gar glasses shined at the sun as he flicked his neck to look at Brett again.

"Damn strait man, they aren't as cool as these gar glasses though! These shades are, as the youngsters call them, "off the hook"." said Connor. Twilight Sparkle was smacking her head against a nearby pole, what she had heard from an ancient entity was the most ridiculous thing she ever heard.

"Okay, what you just said was incredibly stupid. No offense but I'm not kidding, it really was." said Twilight Sparkle. Celestia glared at her pupil as she popped her head towards her mentor. "What? Your thinking it too, Princess!"

"Well…yes…" said Princess Celestia. "But, it's Connor's decision, and if the worst that's gonna happen is annoyance then it's something that can be allowed. Regardless of how silly it may seem to be." Connor beamed at his aunt when she said that. Luna however, had other plans then letting her big sister have her way.

"Well, I am his mother, and I say no, you'll take these shades off RIGHT NOW mister!" demanded Princess Luna. She was smaller than Connor but that didn't stop Connor from having a faint appearance of fear in his eyes at the power in his mother's voice. He gulped just a bit and started to laugh, however it was awkward and hardly any real effort was put into it. "Why are you laughing mister? Take off those shades NOW." said Luna in a deathly tone.

"I'm sorry mother but I'm my own stallion now, I wear what I want to wear." said Connor sternly. Luna furrowed her brow at her son as she sighed deeply.

"Fine…just this once, any form of clothing that I don't approve of you will NOT wear it. You hear me?" asked Luna in a demanding tone. Connor scoffed his mother off, true it wasn't a very smart move but it was a move he felt he had to make.

"I understand mom, but this is my body, if I want any fashion advice it would be from Rarity, or something like that." said Connor. Princess Luna raised a weary eyebrow at his response and so did Rarity. Connor turned a little red at the attention from both mares and chuckled a bit, scratching the back of his head. "No, it's just that you seem into fashion enough to know what would look good on me so…" He answered bashfully, bringing his front hooves together nervously and laughing with painful awkwardness.

"Sure, whatever you say darling," said Rarity. "And it's okay, I would understand why somepony like you would come to my help."

"Yeah." said Connor, still feeling awkward. "But if it's anything that seems frou-frou to me, I ain't gonna wear it."

"Oh c'mon Connor, you'd look so adorable!" teased Rarity. Connor stopped nudging his front hooves together to look at the ground ad turn redder when Rarity said what she said. She giggled a bit as she went up and nudge Connor with a hoof in a pushing motion but he didn't move. "You know I'm kidding, don't you Connor?"

"Yes, but it doesn't make it any less embarrassing to Me." said Connor. He sat on his flanks, folded his front legs and let out some air before being met with a kick to the side from Rarity.

"Cheer up Connor, it ain't no big deal." said Applejack.

"Yeah dude, it isn't like we're mocking you or anything." said Rainbow Dash. "We're just teasing you."

"Yeah, already heard it Rainbow Dash, I know, I just get like this when somepony pushes my buttons alright?" asked Connor, he said it full of arrogance. The mares looked at Connor with mixed feelings about his reaction and shrugged it off the best they could.

"Your glasses are still silly." said Rainbow Dash. Connor shot Rainbow a look that was supposed to be serious but Rainbow just laughed as hard as she could, falling down to her back and just couldn't stop laughing. She was breathing heavily but her sides hurt too much from laughing. Connor looked flank-hurt and ignored Rainbow Dash the best he could with a look of defeat on his face.

"Well I still have my gar glasses," beamed Connor. He trotted off happily, the swag in his steps reading "haters gonna hate". The group shook their heads but Rainbow Dash was still on the floor, laughing at Connor's fail at trying to be threatening through a look, and now she was laughing at how stupid Connor looked right now. None the less, they all had fun, getting used to Connor's ridiculous gar glasses. This admittedly did make him look (twenty percent) cooler, though even with that he still looked dumb, Twilight Sparkle face hoofed at the thought that Connor was gonna be his room-mate during their studies on friendship in Ponyville. She groaned at the thought with disgust behind it.

Connor looked back on Twilight while they were still trotting down the middle of the street. "You okay Twilight?" asked Connor.

"Yeah, just fantastic…" said Twilight. She trotted right past him to catch up with the group with a half-awake face.

"Damn, she looks bothered by something. I wonder what it is…"

Night had descended upon Ponyville and the rest of Equestria thanks to Luna. Celestia, Luna, Brett, James and Jacob had said their goodbyes to the mane six and Connor before taking off to the nearest hotel in Ponyville. Leaving behind the 7 ponies at the library for which Twilight and Connor were ordered by Princess Celestia to stay during their studies in Ponyville.

"Wait, am I coming with you?" asked Connor. His family hasn't taken off yet as Luna placed a front hoof on her son's shoulder. He looked down on her earnestly and awaiting reply.

"You know what your aunt said, you are to have to stay with this "Twilight Sparkle" to learn more about friendship." said Princess Luna. Connor got a bit impatient and scoffed at what he had to hear. He wasn't completely oblivious about what Twilight had thought of him and found it rather odd for Princess Celestia to have him stay with her.

"But mom, she doesn't like me at all, not that I'd care too much about affections and all but she seriously has a mutual disrespect of me." said Connor. Princess Luna sighed as her older sister flew right back to where she was in the sky, seeing her sister still on the ground Celestia decided to help Connor see why she made this decision. "Aunt Celestia, why do I have to do this?"

"It's so that you can learn about-" said Princess Celestia.

"I know about THAT part, but surely there's more to it than that is there?" asked Connor. Celestia exhaled a long sigh before continuing.

"Take a look at her, take a look at all the mares." said Princess Celestia. Connor did as his aunt told him too, all he could see was the mane six, and they were the same as they were five seconds ago before this talk, what was so special now?

"I don't see what you mean." said Connor. "If you wanted for me to see the obvious then looks like I passed with flying colors. I still don't see why I have to stay with someone who has mutual disrespect for me."

"You don't see what I do, let me change that." said Princess Celestia. She lowered her head until the tip of the horn touched Connor's forehead and time seemed to slow down except for him. Everything was gray, even Celestia, who shined in the world like the sun she gives to her subjects was black and white, so was his mother. He looked in confusion and decided to do what his aunt had wanted and look at the mane six. What he had saw shocked him to the very core.

There, before him the mane six still held on to their colors, hell, even glowing brighter than before. What really shocked him though was that the last bearers of the Elements were hovering as spirits above the Elements. They're bodies formed ghostly appearances above the heads of the mane six, and Connor remembered what he had done before. The pony ghosts above the heads of the mane six sported the same fur and mane colors as the mares they floated above. "The Death of Harmony…" thought Connor. He redirected his attention towards Twilight Sparkle, the last bearer of the element of magic, the magic that kept the other elements together through friendship and love, was just above Twilight's head, the face smiling at him and too the other elements.

"Star Swirl the Bearded…" whispered Connor under his breath. His old mentor, the stallion that had taught him to defy logic and learn magic unsuited for an earth pony, was smiling at him alongside the other bearers of the Elements. "Oh god…I'm sorry…" Connor was on the verge of tears, this was not what he had expected at all.

"Hey, it's alright Connor." said the yellow mare ghost above Fluttershy's head. "It's okay…"

"You make us proud Connor…" said Star Swirl. "No matter what you do, we will be watching you, through the eyes of the Elements…" Connor was about to break down, to hear his old mentor say that, despite having to kill him in cold blood told him that he cares. "We will guide the new bearers to be aspiring mares just like the last spirits of harmony had before…"

"You can count on that without a doubt!" exclaimed the orange stallion above Applejack's head. "And that's the truth."

"Yeah," said the pink stallion above Pinkie's head. "It'll be a big laugh when they discover us." The stallion chuckled to himself merrily, the stallion had age all over his voice when he laughed, but despite that, he laughed like he was still in his youth.

"But in the meantime we got to stay loyal to our Elements." said the cyan-colored mare ghost above Rainbow's head. She didn't have Rainbow's rainbow style mane but she did have the same gruff style as the pegasus she looks over in spirit. "Even though you did what you did to us, we know you won't repeat your mistake again, but I'm glad you were still loyal to us in the end…" Connor was struggling at this point to stand on his legs, he felt so weak in the legs at the moment that everything felt wobbly. A flood of emotions pouring in.

"Hey, we forgive you," said the white mare ghost above Rarity's head. She seemed even more beautiful and stunning then Rarity was and she wore no make-up to boot. "We love you still to this day, even after one thousand years our spirits were watching you and Equestria, and we still will…" The ghosts of the past bearers surrounded Connor and embraced him into a group hug, Connor didn't feel a thing but he imagined the warmth of their bodies.

"Thank you…and, I'm so…god damned sorry…" said Connor. His voice was raspy and barely above a whisper as a single tear struck down his face, had he thought he could out run his past but it seemed that the past had caught up with him. But it was warmth from this that he felt like he belonged, just like the mares had shown him in the Everfree forest. They truly were right to be the new bearers of the elements of harmony.

"We know you are, and we know why you did it and we know it wasn't your fault…" began Star Swirl "But one day, and listen well, the darkness will return. It was will come in all of its rightful might and smite Equestria and the rest of the world to add to its zone of darkness."

"How can I stop it? What can I do about it when I have failed before…?" asked Connor. He looked down to the ground, the old bearer of generosity holding his head up with a forehoof.

"You know the darkness, you have become a part of it despite fighting against its will..." said the white ghost mare. "Even though you failed to win when our time came, you still won in the end, to win against your enemy is to become it in the end right?"

"I remember," said Connor. "It was one of the first lessons Star Swirl taught me, but it's done nothing but make me feel more guilty…" It was honesty's ghost to hold up Connor's head this time.

"Now hold up there silly filly…" said the orange stallion ghost. "It's done nothing but make you stronger, and if you haven't known I'm the Element of Honesty. You sir are supposed to be the light bringer." Connor was now more shocked than he was moments ago. Him, the light bringer, the son of the night and the Stallion of War? Surely this was a huge mistake.

"You've become War incarnate through horrible irony…" said the pink stallion ghost. "But in the end, you laugh it off like it was nothing, heck you even got a new pair of these "sun glasses" there." Connor took off his gar glasses and took a good long look at them. It was the yellow mare that snapped him out of his daze.

"You're the light bringer because of what you can do…" said the butter-yellow mare ghost. "You're able to show kindness and love, tolerating even the irritating moments; you make me proud to see you as you are…" Connor still felt weak in his limbs, he couldn't believe what he was hearing, it all was happening so fast.

"And you know Connor…" said the cyan mare ghost. "Despite everything that had happened, you always stood loyal to Equestria, even when you found that you couldn't stay loyal to yourself anymore because of your guilt. Anypony would understand why you feel the way you do but you're Connor Stronghooves remember?" With that Connor felt a spark and the Elements could see it, the fire in his eyes ignited from the spark of spirit within. Connor put his gar glasses on dramatically with one hoof and held a cocky smirk. Star Swirl and the other five shot smiles at their earth pony friend.

"Yeah, I am, aren't I?" asked Connor with strength in his voice. Star Swirl trotted up to him with a warm smile on his face.

"You were the best that could be trained, we know you are ready, but there is one form of magic you have yet to learn, and had failed to learn before." said Star Swirl. Connor looked a little confused at his old mentor but knew the answer.

"The magic of friendship huh?" asked Connor. Star Swirl nodded.

"You shared bonds but at the time, lacked the kindness to fully complete them…" said the yellow mare ghost. "But we know it's different this time…"

"Yeah…" said the orange stallion ghost. "You're an honest pony Connor, you won't lie to yourself and the others about not befriending them, over the past two days you made six friendship bonds!"

"Even though you did argue left and right with them…" said the pink stallion ghost. "You all could smile through the heat of every argument you had and found a reason to laugh in the end."

"And in return they gave to you what you gave back…" said the white mare ghost. "Love, Kindness, and the joy of Friendship most of all. Any needy pony would never show those emotions, nor give them to those that deserved it, yet you did."

"Not to mention loyalty of course…" said the cyan mare ghost. "Your one truly remarkable stallion thinking right down to it, and I believe these mares think the same too…"

"We know you won't fail us, and we love you for all it's worth." said Star Swirl. "Even though it may not seem much, being spirits now and all…" Connor just smiled at him, on the verge to cry again and his eyes watered up.

"It means everything to me…" said Connor. He wiped his snout with a forehoof and embraced the warmth of a hug one more time before reality came back in. Celestia raised her head and smiled warmly at Connor.

"You see now?" asked Princess Celestia. Connor looked up to his aunt and nodded determination and fire burning brightly in his eyes.

"Yeah, they're just like the last bearers…" said Connor trailing off. He looked back at the mane six who were still in a conversation with each other at Twilight's doors.

"…well I'll see everypony tomorrow, goodnight guys!" said Twilight Sparkle.

"Good night Twilight darling." said Rarity.

"G'Night Twi." said Applejack.

"Good night Twilight Sparkle." Said Rainbow Dash, using the same tone as she did before when she referred Twilight by her full name.

"Good night silly filly!" said the rambunctious Pinkie Pie.

"Oh…um…good night Twilight, sweet dreams…" said Fluttershy, shyly.

"You too Fluttershy, all of you." said Twilight Sparkle. They all embraced each other in a group hug as the mares that weren't Twilight left into their own directions.

"No matter what path they take, the road will always lead them together…" thought Connor. He looked over at Twilight Sparkle who seemed to actually smile at him contently…now this was new.

"Are you coming in Connor? It's pretty chilly out here." said Twilight Sparkle. Connor gave a confident nod and walked through the front door with Twilight. As if on cue, Spike walked in.

"Whoa, you made some friends already?" asked Spike. Connor seemed enthusiastic to see a dragon, especially one that wasn't likely to kill him. "That was pretty fast Twilight…and he's staying here?"

"Yup, but don't worry though I won't do anything wrong to good ol' Twilight now." said Connor. Spike wagged his index finger at the blue coated stallion.

"You better not, this is my mom we're talking here now." said Spike. "Though she may not be my real mom, she's done enough for me to call her that." Twilight smiled warmly at her assistant who returned the smile. Connor patted Spike on the head with a hoof and smiled brightly at him, almost as bright as the light illuminating off of his gar glasses.

"I know that feel little stallion." said Connor. Spike chuckled a bit as he went up to Twilight's room and closed the door behind him.

"Hey," begun Twilight. Her words had some pain behind them and Connor, despite what he thought of Twilight, still lent out a listening ear to the purple mare. "I'm sorry about the way I acted, I just found myself annoyed by your gimmicks but I'm sorry for even being annoyed at all." Connor smiled again and embraced Twilight in a hug.

"And I'm sorry for complaining about you the whole time." said Connor. Twilight returned the gesture with her front legs like Connor did and they broke off after a few seconds, not wanting the moment to be awkward. "Well…I'll find a bed somewhere, just go to bed and don't worry about a thing okay?" Twilight nodded and started to trot up the stairs of the library leading to her room, and then she stopped into her tracts and looked at Connor.

"You know Connor, you're alright," said Twilight. "I look forward to our time together as friends." And with that she went in and closed the door behind her, leaving Connor alone with the books.

"Yeah, friends." whispered Connor to himself. He looked to see another room right next door to Twilight' and went in. Already there was a bed waiting for him, the open sheets welcoming him to a night of slumber. The fatigue of the day caught up with Connor as he plopped into bed lazily, taking off his gar glasses and setting them on the night stand.

"Goodnight…Equestria…" said Connor. He blew out the candle on the night stand and let the moon be the only form of light coming in. For so long, not only was he able to enjoy a nice bed for once, he was even able to enjoy the moon's presence, he always did on his time on Equestria.

"I know I won't be that same pony anymore…"

Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Back inside the residence of Twilight’s home, a sleepy stallion awoke from a bed that was barely able to hold his body. The wooden legs seemed to scream in protest as they squeaked with every movement the blue stallion made. The sunlight poured in through the open window and made its way onto the stallion’s face, directly in his closed eyes. He woke up, batting his eyelids until he felt he could see right again. He was still drowsy, the sugar rush from the festival still in his system as it seemed. Connor found it a wonder how he was able to sleep with this much energy.

“Man…what a day…” yawned Connor. He looked to his left to see his beloved on the wooden night stand. He remembered putting her right there, oh yes…he remembered her well indeed. The time they had yesterday was an amazing experience indeed, he found himself slightly aroused at the thoughts. “Oh Sally, you sexy pair of shades you…” cooed Connor. He picked up his beloved pair of triangular gar shades, gave it a peck on the lens and put it on. It felt itchy where he put his gar glasses on, but he felt more of a stallion then he ever had without these shades on. “Oh where have I been without you all my life…?”

He heard snickering, it was faint and when he heard it but it was snickering none the less. He stopped dead where he sat on his bed, eyes as big and wide as plates and his irises were like dots. The color drained from Connor’s fur and mane nearly instantaneously and, if it was possible, so did his gar shades. He creaked his head to the direction from where he thought heard the source of the snickering, but saw nothing. Panic crept into his head; he began hyperventilating a little bit. “Oh sweet mother of god this is embarrassing!” thought Connor.

“Spike…Twilight…?” asked Connor, hesitant if he even wants to know anypony, or dragon in this case has walked in on him. Then all of a sudden he heard full on gut laughter. It sounded like that of a child but he still couldn’t see either Spike or Twilight in his room, yet he could hear them as if they were in the room with him.

“Spike! You blew our cover!” whispered a female voice. If Twilight Sparkle and Spike weren’t seen, now they were as they appeared out of nowhere in a cloud of what seemed to be sparkling dust. They two looked at Connor with awkward grins, Connor didn’t seem the least bit satisfied and very angered. “Heh heh…heeeey Connor…good morning?” Twilight Sparkle kept chuckling nervously along with Spike but Connor was the least bit satisfied at this. He got out of bed, grabbed his night stand with both his front legs and chucked it at Twilight and Spike as hard as he could.

Twilight and Spike had hardly any time to react but were fast enough for Twilight to teleport Spike and herself a few inches away from the flying stand of death. Twilight felt the air through her mane and tail rush into the direction of the night stand as it tore through the hallow tree home in a hole twice as large as the night stand itself. Spike and Twilight had mouths agape and staring at Connor with total utter shock as he was breathing heavily, still pissed about Twilight and Spike sneaking around while he was asleep.

“What the hay was that for?” shouted Twilight Sparkle. Despite her shocked demeanor she was still pissed off beyond reason at Connor for chucking an entire night stand at her.

“If you tell anypony, and I mean ANYPONY about what you saw, you’ll beg…oh you’ll beg a lot…” ominously said Connor. “You too, fatty.”

“Hey Twilight isn’t fat!” exclaimed Spike. Twilight scowled at her little assistant with a glare to melt butter, it was not a very intense stare but Twilight knew she had Spike wrapped around her little hoof like a knot.

“I wasn’t talking about Twilight Sparkle you dork, I was talking about you,” said Connor. “You appear to have quite the tubby belly there.” Spike looked down, believing Connor and scowled at his belly.

“Mind you that this is baby fat! I’m still a baby dragon after all!” exclaimed Spike. Twilight, despite her mood being dampened had to giggle at Spike’s retort.

“Yeah, and believe me little one, so is this.” said Connor. He stood up on his hind legs without any real effort and flexed his entire body as much as he could. Twilight was very surprised to find Connor as he was before her, a stallion that seemed to have most of his entire body bulge up into pure muscle. Connor got on his forelegs again and stopped flexing and his body returned to normal. “I was one weird colt.”

“Your still a weird colt Connor.” said Twilight. Connor’s shades seemed to shine at the ends and shimmering over across the rest of the glasses. Through the orange of the shades Twilight and Spike could see a sparkle in his eyes that quickly turned into a flame. Spike knew that was a look of determination but to see a pony use it for…some random reason? This pony was the weirdest Spike had ever met in his life.

“That is where your wrong Twilight Sparkle!” exclaimed Connor. He got up on his hind legs yet again and dramatically pointed towards the ceiling with his left leg. “For I am no longer a colt, yes, the night before and Sally here taught me that much!”

“Who’s Sally?” asked Spike. He was very confused, he never heard of such a silly name such as Sally, Connor was silly enough but the pony bearing the name was right in front of them so it wasn’t odd to him anymore. Now however there was no “Sally” in sight at all.

“Shh!” whispered Twilight. “I want to hear this, Connor’s funny when it comes to this kind of thing.” She was holding back a giggle at Connor’s outburst for she wanted to hear what “real stallion” nonsense he was preaching.

“And my time here has shown me that I, Connor Stronghooves, am as stallionly as they come!” finished Connor. As he finished his speech his shades shined and glimmered the same as it just had done before when Twilight called him a colt. “For my hooves you see, they will pierce the heavens with all their might!!”

At that point, Twilight and Spike were on their haunches in gut-bursting laughter. What they had just heard had to be just the weirdest thing that they had ever heard in their life, not to mention the silliest as well. It took them two minutes to stop laughing as they looked up to see Connor's face of disapproval of their laughter. The purple mare's face blushed with embarrassment as for the second time in the morning she had to feel embarrassed in the blue stallion's presence. "Oh, I know how much that means to you, we're sorry, right Spike?" asked Twilight. They both looked over to Spike who was still rolling on the floor, laughing out loud. The hyper active stallion just cleared his throat and hoped that the little ball of scales would listen, he didn't.

"Dammit Spike! A real stallion doesn't just lay on the floor!" exclaimed Connor.

"Language..." said Twilight. Connor just blushed in embarrassment; he forgot that Spike was still just a little kid after all. "Spike, seriously, get up..." Spike still couldn't help himself but did the best he could to try to stop his laughter but nothing he was doing was getting any good. His sides and belly hurt from all the massive amount of laughter that has been produced by this dragon. "Spike if you don't get up and stop laughing I'll make sure you won't eat gem stones for a week." Almost as if a switch in Spike's head was switched, he immediately stopped laughing and got up onto his feet. Connor was very impressed with what he had just seen; Twilight really DID have the little guy tied around her hoof.

"I'm sorry for laughing Connor, it’s just that I've never met a pony who's so over dramatic with everything they do. It’s kinda funny." said Spike. He rubbed his right arm with his left and looked ashamed of having to possibly insult a new friend. This only left the stallion smiling slyly.

"Little stallion, I ain't mad." stated Connor. Spike only looked up to the stallion; he was a little too close but wasn't breaking any kind of bubble that the little dragon was aware of having. The blue stallion's shades seemed to shine once again as if it was planned to happen. "It's okay if you find me a little silly; I'll accept any feedback from good friends. Just so long as it won't make me look too stupid your words and actions are fine in my book." The bundle of scales couldn't help but smile a bit. Come to think of it, Connor really did look as if what he was saying was practically true, he DID look like a real stallion.

"Well, if it means anything, you do look really cool!" exclaimed Spike. "I mean, sure you’re a little over dramatic with what you believe in, but if it means anything, it does look as cool as your saying!" Connor's eyes made another spike and his shades shined once again. Without warning, the baby dragon felt the stallion's front leg wrap around the back of his neck and practically thrown into the chest of Connor. His face wasn't buried into his chest but rather the right side of his head was. Twilight couldn't help but feel worried of what the extremely hyper blue pony was doing, sure he wasn't doing harm...that's viable she means...

"H-Hey be careful!" exclaimed Twilight. She lifted a leg in protest but Spike just brushed it off.

"Relax Twilight! I don't feel hurt!" said Spike. "I was just pulled in, no biggie."

"Yeah Ms. Sparkle!" joined in Connor. "Just a bonding moment between bros." At that the small dragon looked up to the blue stallion in wonder. At this lighting, Connor's head, shades and what mane there was on his head blocked out the light in the room. It was a sight to behold in Spike's view, and he was looking upon it in awe.

"B-Bros?" stuttered Spike. Twilight couldn't help but facehoof at this. This was ridiculous to her, Spike could probably tell it was to Twilight because of the way she was looking at them made him think she was thinking the whole thing was stupid. And he was right.

"Yup! With you and me the heavens won't stand a chance between us!" exclaimed Connor. At that, both boys pointed towards the ceiling with their free arm/leg shouting "YEAH!" in unison. Twilight, cursing in her head of what Connor had put into her baby dragon's, trotted over to the nearest wall and kept pounding her face into it for what it was worth. The two boys looked at the purple mare with confused looks on their faces, though they were short lived as they continued onward in their banter. "You know Spike, I think this is the start of a lovely brohood."  And then, the brohoofed.

Connor grabbed onto Spike's head spikes with his teeth and threw him on his back, and with that the new-found dynamic duo took their leave through the gaping hole in the wall, with ponies looking at them with looks that are mixed with confusion and shock. Confusion because of how calm the two seemed to be and also Connor's ridiculously awesome shades, shock because they saw what happened that made the door have a hole in it to begin with, seeing the night stand from before. The duo took one look at the night stand, which didn't look like much of one anymore as the wooden pieces were scattered all over to where it land. Spike looked very surprised looking down upon the broken night stand; Connor really did a number to it.

"So little buddy, ready for a day full of shenanigans and things that would bolster the stallion's soul?" asked Connor.

"...I have no idea what you just said but let’s get to it!" exclaimed Spike. Without warning, Connor got up on his hind legs, shouted as loud as he could like it was some war cry, then galloped off into Ponyville, with Spike holding on to the now pumped up stallion's mane for dear life. Twilight looked upon the two with worry in her eyes, seeing her little purple assistant being whisked away to Celestia knows where on the back of an emotionally unstable, hyper active, pumped up pony. Connor was an individual to be trusted but not one she could completely rely on. Especially since he's got Spike on his back, the one little guy that she's been taking care of for the last ten or so years. But, in her mind Twilight couldn't do anything about it but let colts be colts, and went through the hole in the wall to clean up the mess Connor made, the night stand.

It was probably the most awkward situation she had to trot herself into; Twilight couldn't help but chuckle nervously as ponies that happened to be there for it all. The night stand making the bigger-than-a-pony hole in the wall, Connor's obsessive shouting and over dramatic acting, the randomness of it all would be enough for anypony to just walk away without saying a word about it. This is not how normal ponies act, not in a long shot at all. Twilight guessed it was just another day for Connor though, and she thought Pinkie Pie was weird but this guy... defiantly takes the cake. Yes, she was certain he did.

She picked up the remains of the night stand with her magic, her horn glowing with a bright colored version of her lavender coat, and took it with her to her home. Twilight didn't walk with grace in her stride, no no, she walked backwards through the gaping hole in her wall, looking like a guilty child and she was just caught with a hoof in the cookie jar. Limited words could describe the embarrassment of what Twilight was feeling at that moment, her third day as a residence in Ponyville and somehow or at least related to, caused a lot of ruckus. She knew if Connor kept it up at this rate he was gonna get kicked out for sure, son of the night are not. It was low of her to think, and she knew it was, but she would be looking forward to the day that THAT actually happens.

She got through the gaping hole in the wall, trotted further into her new home and piled the remains of the night stand on to the library floor. "If he wants to clean it up, he'll do it when he's here." muttered Twilight to herself. She decided since she had nothing better to do, she decided it be good to read some books. The lavender colored unicorn looked over the library main room from where she dropped the remains of the broken night stand and noticed books on the floor. She completely forgot that she practically threw books to the floor looking for the reference guide of the elements of harmony. "Great...work to be done..." groaned Twilight. She started to look over at the book covers and putting them into, what she noticed was all the other books weren't in the right places. "Probably no big deal, gonna put them to their correct places here."

When she placed one book from the floor to the correct spot, she took the wrong one to its spot, only to find the same situation, but with two books. "Huh?" asked Twilight to herself. She did the same, only to find three wrong books in the place where she was gonna put the books. "Was the last librarian lazy or something? These books are in all the wrong places!" She did what was the only logical thing, using her magic, she was able to throw every last book in the main library room that was on a shelf and dumped onto the floor. A couple hours of work was to be done here, and two hours that made Twilight wish Spike was with her. Another curse to the heavens was made that day from the muzzle of Twilight Sparkle, and for the same reason as last time too, to have Connor as a roommate.

"Princess, I hope you know what you were thinking of when you said Connor had to stay with me..." muttered Twilight softly.

"Uh...Connor?" asked Spike. The old, blue pony was still galloping in Ponyville, and the baby dragon was still holding on to Connor's mane for dear life. "Think you could...um...slow down?!"

"A real stallion NEVER slows down!!" exclaimed Connor. "And don't call me Connor, call me bro!" With that he just galloped faster, making Spike more nauseous with every step the hyper stallion made. Ponies had to clear out of the way, and sometimes make a beeline to the left or right when he was coming in too close. Cusses were said under the breaths of the ponies that had to make a beeline, Connor and Spike could hear them but it didn't stop this stallion, not in a long shot.

"B-B-B-But I'm not even a real pony!" stated Spike. All the blue stallion could at that moment was just laugh. Gallop and laugh while the baby dragon on his back look forward in shock and horror of what will happen next. Though it was rather hard to keep his eyes open, the wind did keep blowing into his eyes which made it all the more horrible to him. He didn't like that Connor was wearing shades to block out the wind, and look cool going as fast as he was.

"Yes, you aren't, but I am!" replied Connor. He galloped even faster, the little purple dragon thought it was just to spite him and try to scare him more, little did he know he was actually right. "C'mon bro, don't be such a downer, enjoy life for the thrills!" Spike became increasingly agitated with this, becoming a little more frustrated every second. He took thrills to the heart but this was just ridiculous.

"Where are we going anyways Co-" began Spike.

"Ah-hem, call me bro, remember?" interrupted Connor. All Spike could do was just scowl at the blue pony, the gaze was met with an attentive posture through the galloping.

"Alright fine...bro, where are we even going anyways?" asked Spike. He couldn't see it but the pumped up stallion was smiling brightly, especially when the baby dragon called him "bro".

"Gonna help out Applejack!" exclaimed Connor, he said it as if it was a matter of fact. Spike only looked upon Co-...his bro, with a look mixed with confusion and curiosity.

"Help her with what?" asked Spike.

"With the apples!" exclaimed Connor.

"Wait...what apples?" Connor had to face hoof that in the middle of his gallop, but he was able to pull a wicked save and land on his hoof without having to trip.

"She and her family owns an apple orchard, and their apples are freaking delicious." Connor could recall yesterday during the summer sun celebration, the time he had with the mares were really special to him. Not a second went by did he actually enjoy his time with them, and the apples that Applejack's stand were probably the best he ever had. At that moment of thought he wondered if it was just because he hasn't eaten anything for one thousand years.

Connor had snapped himself out of his train of thought, and when he did he nearly crashed right into a whole bunch of stands selling food and what not for ponies. His expert dodging of said stands where really good and what not, but it was meant with a whole bunch of cusses from the stand owners for having the pumped up stallion even nearly crashing into their stands. After a lot of graceless dodging and nearly bucking Spike off of his back, he continued galloping.

"Co-err, bro, you think it’s a good idea to just WALK now?" asked Spike. Connor stopped, looked back at the baby dragon and blushed a bit in embarrassment for having to nearly crash into something a second.

"Um...yeah I guess it is a good idea." said Connor. He started chuckling nervously as Spike just sat on his back with a scowl on his face and arms crossed with disapproval. The blue stallion just turned his head back forward and instead of irrationally galloping towards Sweet Apple Acres, he trotted off to the direction he was going before. He erased his awkward posture and stood up tall trotting away to the southern pony's home. He was met with a lot of stares of ponies as they all looked at Connor with scowls, completely ignoring the baby dragon that was on his back. All that the blue stallion could do was just shoot back the same stare through his gar glasses, and trot away like they were nothing.

"You okay bro?" asked Spike. He could practically feel the tension shooting off of Connor like fireworks; it was almost too stuffy for the baby dragon that could take lava to his scales like it was water. The now pissed earth pony just looked over his shoulder to see Spike's worried look. He took a deep sigh before saying a word.

"Yeah, I am, it's just something small little bro, nothing special." said Connor.

"Are you sure?" Connor just looked Spike dead in the eye with a reassuring glance, and then winked with a bright grin attached to his face.

"When have I ever been so wrong in my life little stallion?" asked Connor. The old spunky mood was back on the gar-wearing pony like cologne, just like it was before and it lifted the baby dragon's spirit even more. "If I wasn't alright I wouldn't be now would I?"

"Well no..."

"Well nothing, I'm alright and that's all that's needed okay?" Spike just nodded and chuckled like a little kid. "And you see, you’re alright, nothing to it!"

"Yeah," the young dragon pounded a fist in the air and Connor followed suit with a hoof pound to the sky as well.

"I was right on one thing though." said Connor.

"What?"

"This IS indeed the start of a beautiful bro-ship." The stallion didn't say a word as he continued his prideful stride towards Sweet Apple Acres. Spike couldn't help but smile like a little dork though, today already looked promising to end well for them both, and it felt right. All he could do aside from sitting on the back of a self-proclaimed stallion was look forward to the sunset.

"Oh wait...it’s still the morning..."

After some trouble, running into some random guest's luggage, making a mess out of that and what not, breaking the ice statue of the hotel, AND possibly breaking down the elevator, Brett, James and Jacob finally got out of the hotel. That's a total lie though, more like they got kicked out but...somepony else has a different opinion on it.

"We didn't get kicked out, we were showed out since we humbly asked them where the door was." said Jacob. He and his brothers were sitting on their haunches just out on the dirt roads of Ponyville. Brett for some reason had black ash all over his face and nuzzle, it tickled his nose and eyes as they began to water up more and more with the passing second. James just looked wet and had some shades of purple, implying the fact that they are bruises by the way he was rubbing them, like they were battle wounds. "And James quit being so over dramatic about them, they're just bruises. We've been through WAY worse than this."

"Well probably because you didn't take a whole bunch of suitcases and a statue to you did you?" the green pony said with irrational hatred. Jacob's only response was just flaying his front legs up in the air while rolling his eyes.

"Yeah, I don't see any form of physical pain on you brother, I, or I should say James and I, tried to fix that elevator after you SOMEHOW wreaked it. AND to top it off even send James flying towards that statue to begin with!" shouted Brett.

"Chill out bro, it was just a prank..." said Jacob. He had no sign of a heavy heart over what had transpired by the words of James and Brett, anypony would but somehow Jacob just seemed immune to it like some punk who wanted to prove something.

"JUST A PRANK?!" screamed the other two alicorn siblings. Jacob's mane was blown away at the immense volume of their voices, it was so extreme but once again, the alicorn felt nothing from it.

“Jacob, you pushed me, on purpose!” exclaimed James.

“Not to mention seemingly sabotage that odd mechanism that these ponies call an elevator on purpose as well. To me it seems you want to do what you’re doing.” claimed Brett. Jacob’s eyes flared with intense burning hatred for what his brother had said.

“Well if want to know the truth, it’s because: fuck you I’m Jacob Lightbringer.” said Jacob coldly. Without another word, the zebra-alicorn walked off with a cold grunt and throwing dirt by the tail and into the eyes of his brothers. Brett and James accidentally breathed in some of the dirt and started gagging on it while it scratched their throats. They’re sinuses went wild as their eyes watered from the slight lack of oxygen, the boys wildly coughed. It was nice to see even after one thousand years that their gag reflexes were fine, not for them though.

When they tried to spot their older brother they only saw a white and black speck with a large pair of wings making a beeline forward. They could make out the pegasi as large specks like Jacob tried to get out of the way, imagining that they themselves were cussing under their breathes. At that moment their mother walked out of the hotel building with a look of clear disapproval, the same look that the alicorn brothers feared for their lives...

“Sons, I am disappoint.” flatly stated Princess Celestia. Her brows went down to her eyes as now her look was a mix of anger and disappointment, it was nice to see that her mothering skills haven’t withered just a tad bit. James felt bad and looked down to the ground but Brett just rubbed his chin with a hoof, with a look of confusion.

“Mother, that is the wrong way to verbally state that you have clear agitation and irritation at us for our shenanigans, for the punctuation was clearly that of a stallion-child. We are sorry for causing what happened however I would like to state myself that it was not all well intended on purpose for any of the said events to transpire.” explained Brett.

“Yeah, it was Jacob’s fault anyways!” exclaimed James. Princess Celestia did not seem to be effected much by James’s outburst. “If it wasn’t for him I wouldn’t get all bruised up and what not! He tripped me into that ice sculpture!”

“And I would like to also state it was him who had broke that contraption that our kind calls “elevators”, had I have any better skills at repairing items I would have done a better job. So I blame Jacob on this one.”

“And he also tripped me into that one guest’s suitcases too! And I mean we’re always naked what did that guy even have anyways?! Clothes?! I mean what did he have!? He wasn’t even wearing clothes to begin with!!”

“...For once mother I agree with James’s statement there, to have clothes aside from the traditional dress clothing PURELY made for special events is a crime against our nature.”

“Boys,” said Princess Celestia. The two had let go of their irritation of their older brother’s kicks when they saw the face of their mother. Princess Celestia had a look of sadness, like she was close on the edge of tears and looked like she was doing the best she could to hold them back. They tried to go up and hug their mother but she just brushed them off with a forehoof.

“Listen, do you both feel guilty for, you know what?” asked Princess Celestia. James and Brett nodded in agreement.

“Yeah, we do...” said James. He looked down back on the ground again with a look of depression.

“Indubitably so dear mother...” said Brett. Despite the tone of his voice and the way he was using words, he did have a look of depression himself, showing that even the smart ones regret what they do.

“You two look sad enough because of it, can you imagine how he feels about it?” asked Princess Celestia. ...The two alicorn siblings didn’t think of it that way, they always saw Jacob as something different then what had happened. How he acted was alien to them. “While during that time you both brought drought and disease, Jacob had to be the one with the hoof of blood, just like Connor. He ended the suffering that Famine, Pestilence, and War had brought upon ponies, before all that he was no killer, not at all.”

Once again, beaten by their own mother’s words as they had to imagine what their brother had felt, a pain they could only imagine. “Do you understand now?” Brett and James were in deep thought, but their replies were short and simple none the less.

“I believe I have only a firm grasp of how Jacob must be feeling, not the real situation behind the mask he wears, mother.” said Brett.

“I too feel guilty as well, but maybe we should go find him though? I’m sure he hasn’t gone far.” said James. The two’s mother only shook her head in response.

“I love him like you two, to death, but this is something he’ll have to vent out on his own before he can come back to us,” said Princess Celestia “I just hope he won’t hurt anypony.”

“Well, as much as I will regret asking so, what is our punishment for having me and James banned from this lovely hotel?”

“...Shut up Brett...” whispered James through gritted teeth. Princess Celestia nearly laughed when she heard James whisper that.

“Nothing, just have fun for the day while you can, okay boys?” asked Princess Celestia. For a split second the scene to her was just like how it once was before the four stallions of the apocalypse weren’t even a thought, during the time when her sons were only colts. She could imagine everything in black and white but the red and green alicorn colts still remained to their color and even their mane styles. She could see their haunches as even their cutie marks weren’t even there, everything was how it was in the first few years she had her boys. Though at this time, they had big cute smiles on their faces, anypony who would have seen the sight of these two would have their hearts melt like it was ice.

Reality kicked right back in as everything turned to color within another split second to find the stallion versions of her colts, though it wasn’t much of a happy image to see compared to the one of their childhood. What was before her was just two alicorn stallions, same appearance and even their attitude but now with their cutie marks. The difference was clear as day when you looked into their eyes, all you could see is guilt, guilt and pain. Hatred for which the pain comes from, and with the pain followed in suit was guilt. It was a cycle of emotions that just kept spiraling out of control to be how it was. And if one thing all three of the alicorns thought right then and there, was that nothing would ever be like how it was before. Never again.

Princess Celestia shed a tear down the eye that was concealed by her flowing silky mane so that her little ponies couldn’t see. Brett and James nodded to what her mother had told them and trotted off, their old hyper-active attitudes gone and replaced with some sophistication to them. The ruler of Equestria just looked at the boys until they were out of sight, what surprised her the most was that they didn’t even bother to fly at all. They both had a perfectly functioning pair of wings that wouldn’t hurt if they used them, not at all. Heck even make better time to their new friends, the mane six, but no, they just trotted without a care in the world. Or at least what was on the skin. A panging guilt came over the white alicorn as another tear was shed from her concealed eye, the one showing on the urge of tears itself.

She was right though, nothing would ever be how it was again, no matter how hard they could try to rebuild the innocence that was there before it’ll never be back. All they could do is hope that they were strong enough to cope with themselves after all that’s happened. For there is nothing else they could do.

Chapter 10

Chapter 10

So continues the adventurous tale of a hormonal blue stallion and his self-proclaimed little brother as they trek across the dirt roads of Ponyville. The odd stares were given to him just like yesterday during the Summer Sun Celebration when Connor was trotting around with his gar shades. In this case it’s the same thing but now Spike is on his back, seeming to enjoy the ride to Sweet Apple Acres.

It was a fairly long and silent trot but after a few minutes they could see the old red barn house of Applejack’s current home and family business. At the sight of house the blue stallion galloped into the premises of the barn yard, with Spike holding on for dear life onto Connor’s mane. “This again?!” asked Spike.

“Yes sir!” exclaimed Connor. He galloped as far as he could around the barn yard, not being able to see Applejack anywhere. Every turn he made going around the huge orchard he wasn’t able to see Applejack or anypony else in the whole place. Step by step the irritation of Connor began to grow and grow as his unable to find Applejack plight grew tiresome by the minute. “Dammit all! Where is she?”

“You don’t have to swear…” said Spike. The gar-shade wearing stallion immediately stopped where he was running as Spike nearly flew over his head but was able to hold onto Connor’s mane right before he stopped.

“I can swear if I want to!” exclaimed Connor.

“Not ‘ere you can’t” The gar-wearing stallion turned his body around to come face to face to the familiar orange cow-pony, Applejack. What he just barely noticed was just a little filly with a red, bushy mane and tail right next to the orange cow pony.

“Applejack?” asked the young filly. Her voice was sweet and innocent, so sweet it dared to challenge Fluttershy on the “d’aww” scale. Her eyes were huge and her irises nearly took up all of her eyes, they were red, redder then all the other apples in the family orchard. “What does that word that big pony said mean sis?” Connor nearly grimaced when he heard the adorableness drip from the voice of the filly’s words. It nearly made his heart explode.

“Oh…it means nothin’ Applebloom, why don’t yah see what Granny Smith is doin’?” asked Applejack. Her eyes darted over to Applebloom over to Connor, hoping her little sister wouldn’t push her further on the topic.

“Please big sister?” asked Applebloom. They moment of weakness was at hoof, it seemed impossible but her irises got bigger as the small red mane filly gave Applejack the puppy dog eyes. Applejack felt sweat on her face come up as she looked angrily over to Connor for a bit, and back to her younger sister.

“Now Applebloom, what I saw you have to do alright?” asked Applejack. The serious look was gone from the orange cow pony’s face as she saw her little sister looking down to the ground, looking on the urge of tears. The blue stallion hatched up a brilliant plan.

“Spike…bro…play with the filly.” said Connor.

“What?” asked Spike. The next thing that happened, Spike was tackled by a yellow and red blur took Spike off the back of Connor and into the hard, dirt ground. He landed with a big grunt and a sore head, seeing the little filly eye to eye was one shocking experience, she took up his entire vision too.

“Do you play wrestlin’?” asked Applebloom with a big smile on her face. Spike would smile if not the fact that he was tackled so maliciously by her, but he tried to be nice.

“Well um…not really…” said the small purple dragon. Those words to Applebloom meant nothing, and began to start throwing around Spike like a rag doll. “Bro! Help me!” His cries of plea were drowned out by the sounds of pounding ground. As Spike was being cartoonishly thrown around by the small filly, Applejack took the time to scowl at Connor and begin lecturing him.

“Now listen ‘ere buster, now that kind of mouth may be suitable for them fancy Canterlot folk up there, but in this ‘ere barn, we ain’t having none of that. This is our home, and our rules, alright?” asked Applejack.  The over confidant stallion just smiled like a guilty child as he started laughing to himself, Applejack looked up at Connor’s grin with worry and confusion. “Now Connor, what’s goin’ through that big ‘ol head of yours?”

“Oh nothing, I just thought of a joke. Nothing important.” said Connor. Applejack raised an eyebrow but just shrugged it off. “Well…guess we better break up those two huh?” He trotted over to the two young ones as he took a moment to see what has transpired. Applebloom had Spike by the tail as she was flailing around Spike in the air. Surprisingly not seeming to not mess up and fall to her knees she kept swinging the purple dragon around by his tail and never stopped. She finally slammed Spike to the ground, pasting grimaces onto the two adult ponies from the sound of the impact, hearing scales pound dirt was probably the most painful sound Applejack ever heard. Connor would be feeling sick but getting stabbed by an alicorn horn repeatedly the night before the last one made him loose the feeling of pain.

The moment the small bundle of scales hit the ground, everything felt sore, pretty pained but just sore. Despite all the cartoonish violence put into this wrestling play, nothing hurt, but being slammed face first to the hard ground defiantly did. He felt dizzy, woozy, and felt a tight feeling in his gut, and a tight feeling of the back of his left palm being held against his head forcibly. At that point Spike started yelping like a little bitch. “Oh sweet Celestia, Charlie Horse, Charlie Horse!”

“Quit all the yappin’, ya’ll are sounding like Winona!” said Applebloom. The bundle of adorableness had Spike Connor took the time to see again what he was seeing, his little brother having his ass handed to by a little adorable filly. This was nothing that he could stand seeing, he had to take action.

“Good lord Spike! Throw a haymaker at her or something!” exclaimed Connor. Spike looked up to his older brother in disbelief of what he had heard; Applebloom just looked up confused at the old stallion. At that point, the stallion with the odd orange shades noticed the small filly’s grip on Spike weaken. “She’s loosen her grip little bro, this is your chance!”

Spike felt his arm feel loose, a bit numb from being held against him by the surprisingly strong filly, and that was the moment to strike. Using his tail, he grabbed a hold of Applebloom’s rear leg and threw her off of him. The small apple filly just skidded along the ground a good couple of feet before getting back up. Spike picked himself up from the ground as well, smirking at Connor, who smiled back upon his little brother. “Thanks bro!” said Spike.

Without another second to lose, the baby dragon was once again viciously tackled to the ground by Applebloom. With a couple more seconds of a friendly beat down, the young filly had Spike in the same position again with the back of his hand behind his head. Connor just sat on his flanks, and face hoofed for all it was worth of that moment. “That boy ain’t right…” thought Connor.

“…Anyways. What did ya’ll need Connor?” asked Applejack. The large stallion looked down to Applejack who gave off a smile and her attention towards said stallion.

“Oh yeah! I remember now…so I wanted to ask,” said Connor. He got close to Applejack, closer then she’d like but even at this borderline distance, she’d still talk to the now awkward pony. “if I could um…buck your apples?” The orange coated cow pony just stood on all fours as she blushed from the question. She looked up to the blue pony, who had his eyes half open and a smile so sly it nearly erased all hopes of what Applejack thought he meant.

Seemingly out of nowhere from the apple orchard, a large, red coated stallion with a long flowing blonde mane and half of a green apple for a cutie mark jumped right next to Connor, and kicked him in the face with a rear leg. To the stallion’s surprise it hurt more than it should have, and was blown back by the sheer force of the red pony’s kick. Applejack couldn’t help but have a worried expression, this was just…her mind was blank and now she’s overreacting a bit.

“Macintosh!” shouted the orange coated cow pony to the larger red coated stallion. Macintosh just had a serious expression with eyes of fire and irritation; this was something that he had been familiar with doing before, and something he would gladly repeat if the situation required it. Like now. “I don’t believe he meant THAT kind of bucking!”

“I dun think so sis, so pardon my OWN form of bucking.” said Macintosh. “The colt didn’t look like he had a ring on ‘em either, so I did what I did.” They could hear the sound of hoof against ground as Connor calmly and casually trotted up to brother and sister like the recent kick to the face was nothing. The bruise was there, nice and shining just below his glasses but to him this kind of thing was nothing. Applebloom and Spike completely ignored their recent wrestling match and introduced into the shouting of the young one’s siblings arguing.  For the dragon it was worst, seeing the purple bruise on his older brother’s face made him worry half to death.

“Bro!” exclaimed Spike. Connor could hear the worry drip from his younger brother’s voice when he spoke those words, and smiled as warm as he could for the young one. The baby dragon ran up to him and gave him a hug with his arms wrapped around his neck like a little kid in worry. The gar-wearing shades pony grabbed Spike by the…spikes on his head and threw him over his shoulders almost cartoonishly and had him sit nice and comfortable on his back.

“I’m fine little bro, this ain’t nothin’!” exclaimed Connor, pointing at his new, shinning bruise with a front hoof. “Besides,” He switched his attention over to the red coated pony that only raised an eyebrow at him; awaiting a reaction from the stallion he sent flying. “That sir was a pretty nice kick there!” The Apple siblings just looked at Connor with confusion, Big Mac the most surprised.

“Wait…so you’re not mad?” asked Macintosh in disbelief, scratching the top of his head with a hoof.

“Eeyup!” exclaimed Connor. “How did you do that? I mean what drives you to such an awesome kick? That hurt like…” He looked over to Applebloom, and then remembered what Applejack had said before. Even noticing her glare at him with an eyebrow sticking up so far up her head it nearly was concealed underneath her straw hat. “…like a kick that hurt a lot…yeah. Exactly that.” The orange cow pony just tipped her head with a hoof towards Connor, and smiled her trademark smile.

“Thank you Connor.” said Applejack. Said pony just smiled goofily with closed eyes. Shifting his attention back to Macintosh, they both had a couple of seconds of awkward eye contact until the red farm pony spoke.

“Well yah see now, I dun like it when mah sis’ gets talked to like that by some colt who thinks they can get any mare with some words dripping in foal’s gold.” said Macintosh.

“Whoa there buddy, that’s where I have to stop you right there.” said Connor. The red stallion looked over to the blue one and just grew an annoyed expression.

“And why’s that now, Mr. Connor?” asked Macintosh. Applejack knew it was coming, the one thing she didn’t feel like seeing today, nor anypony in that matter but Spike. Everyone in the apple orchard saw this coming, but the big red stallion and his youngest sister didn’t. Spike jumped off Connor’s back as the big stallion got on his rear hooves and stood on them as he pointed a front hoof to the sky, dramatically in Applejack’s words, but to Spike this was cool.

“You see, I’m no normal male pony, I’m the pinnacle of manliness, the perfect image of a stallion, the pony your mare wants you to be! I am the one and only Connor Stronghooves!” exclaimed Connor as loud as he could. The baby dragon looked up to his older brother in awe while everypony else was just looked at him with a tired expression, even young Applebloom gave this look to the rambunctious stallion.

“Is he always like this?” whispered Big Mac to his orange coated sister.

“Eeyup.” said Applejack.

“Also Macintosh, I did not wish to make sweet love to your sister, I have only wishes to buck the apples!” exclaimed Connor. “What did you think I mean?”

The red farm pony looked dumbfounded towards the taller, bigger blue stallion with embarrassment. He was getting strange looks from everybody around him, the only one wearing shades in between the five of them with an irritated look, awaiting a reply from him. All Big Mac could do was just sigh, feeling defeated and like a mule, he trotted up to the bigger pony and held out a front hoof.

“Ah’m sorry for the kick, it’s just that ah wouldn’t want anypony with the get up like yours doing sumtin’ unfit for conversation to my lil’ sister.” said Macintosh. With a pang of guilt, Connor took the hoof with his hoof and shook it, taking on his gesture with a smirk.

“Well it’s all good bro, and besides, you already told me that remember?” asked Connor. “No need to repeat yourself a second time right?”

Big Mac just smiled back and nodded, responding with an “Eeyup.”

“Now c’mon, let’s go apple bucking before I have to return the favor now.”

Hours have passed since Big Mac’s misunderstanding with Connor went down and the two, alongside Spike had seemed to get along. The hot blooded stallion’s work on the orchard was something out of extraordinary, by the red farm pony’s standards it was, but Applejack was fully aware with what the stallion was capable of so this was a little under exciting. However, the extra help for the farm did make her gleefully delighted none the less.

Noon crept its head in slowly; two sweaty bodies and a baby dragon on the back of one of them were trotting through the orchard, with wagons attached to the saddles on the backs of Big Mac and Connor. Alongside the saddles, the saddle bags themselves were FILLED with apples, green, red, yellow, all kinds the apple orchard could grow. The stallions had pleased expressions on their faces for the wagons themselves were filled to the brim like their saddle bags.

They finally got to the barn house, with a bored filly lying on her back on top of a hay barrel, looking at the sky with furled eyebrows. When she noticed her older brother trot over to the barn house, she leapt up from her back and to the ground, landing on all fours and galloping to her older brother. “Macintosh!” shouted the small filly. Her little voice was just beyond cute to Connor, and it made him bite his lower lip from the cute levels flooding above the max. Seeing her run up and giving her brother a big hug with front legs around his neck was just more than the manly stallion could take, and bit on his lip even harder.

“Big Mac, Ah’m bored.” whined Applebloom.

“So?” asked Macintosh. He looked down to see his sister’s irises grow larger then he remembered them being. Her big, bright orange eyes and her lower lip quivering was almost more then Connor could bare.

“Oh sweet mother of god! Your little sister is adorable!!” screamed Connor. Everyone around the hot blooded stallion just stared at him in initial shock, Spike with his irises smaller in his form of shock. The gar-shade wearing pony looked extremely creepy at the moment, his sweaty body helping out with that look, and Applebloom look very scarred of the stallion. Connor’s face was flushing red as it was painfully clear on his blue coat that he was embarrassed of the outburst, regretting to have done it.

“Anyways…no Applebloom, me an’ Connor here are workin’, we don’t have time to do what ya’ll want at the moment. Maybe later okay?” asked Macintosh. His voice was sincere, but without his younger sister’s knowing was mostly just to get her away. None the less, she nodded and trotted with a bored expression on her face again to anypony knows where.

“Hope she’s just gunna be with Granny Smith, or bother Applejack…” said Big Mac.

“Why are you hoping that?” asked Connor. “Another question too…why didn’t YOU of all creatures in the world do something about it?” Eyeing his little brother who seemed pretty relaxed sitting on his back, tensed up from the question.

“Are you kidding me? I’d like it better when my limbs weren’t in uncomfortable places you know!” exclaimed Spike. The small dragon stood up on to his butt and folded his arms in defiance, knowing what his older brother was gonna say next he didn’t even bother looking at him, just to whatever was on his left side.

“C’mon little stallion, you’ve done nothing either, lazy...err…mule.” Connor looked over to Macintosh who just gave him a raised eyebrow, then a solemn nod for stopping himself from breaking rule number one of the Apple’s family orchard.

“Look I don’t care okay? I’ll play with her when she goes easier…” said Spike bitterly. The pony, for which the small dragon was riding, just turned his head over and scowled at him.

“That’s the point, you have to prove your superior in this “wrestling” game by your own will and strength, not because some filly can make you cry Charlie Horse.” said Connor. “You would need to win through the me that believes in you, not the you that believes in a fair fight.”

“Connor, what does that even mean?” asked Spike irritated.

“It means don’t lose, knuckle head.” said Connor. Big Macintosh couldn’t help but at least chuckle from that one comment, the blue coated stallion did the same but his little brother wouldn’t take it. Instead he just turned his head to wherever no one was facing and stared intensely into that direction.

What the three heard next was the sound of hoof against ground going at a fast pace, when they turned to see who was making the sound, it was just Applejack galloping towards them. It wouldn’t surprise them so much to see her gallop the way she was, however the thing unsettling about it was that she had a look of worry on her face. The stallions unhooked their harnesses and set down their saddle bags nice and easy on a bale of hay and trotted towards her.

“What’s goin’ on AJ?” asked Big Mac.

“Well, Big Mac, this news goes to Connor ‘ere.” stated Applejack. The cowpony looked towards said pony and he looked back. “The princesses are ‘ere, and they don’t look happy, not one bit.”

In the apple orchards of the Apple Family, a blue stallion could be seen from the skies galloping as fast as he could without having a purple baby dragon tumble off. If he didn’t have to worry about that, he would have been where he should have been by now.

Even despite the challenge of not being able to go faster, Connor still galloped as fast as no pony should towards the direction of his destination. A trail of dirt and dust flew into the sky by the hard hoof steps of said stallion as he trekked the dirt roads of the orchard. The pony with the gar shades didn’t feel guilty about leaving Big Mac and his sister behind; he already did plenty of work that day. The evidence was present around him as most of the trees he was passing by had no apples in their branches. But this wasn’t about apples; it was about royal duty now.

In a few minutes, he and Spike were able to see the main house of Applejack and her little family. The old wooden house, despite looking like it saw better days still stood strong where it was, looking like it wouldn’t need some repairs sometime soon, something that was good to see. Through the windows he could faintly see a flowing mane, two sets of them with different colors. Though it was hard to make out the colors seeing how most of his vision is orange but he could tell from the two sets that one was more lightly colored, while the other was completely dark. At the sight of this, despite the pleas of his little brother, Connor galloped faster to the old wooden house.

“Do we really need to go this fast?” asked Spike.

“C’mon bro, where’s the fun of TROTTING for goodness sake?” countered Connor. Without another word, he picked up his pace, with the baby dragon holding on to his brother’s brown mane.

In a matter of half a minute, Connor was already at the front door of the Apple Family house. Without knocking, he went right in and entered, seeing his mother and aunt sitting on their flanks and drinking some tea. They didn’t look at him at first when Connor first entered having to already down another cup of tea, but after they were done, serious faces stared at the stallion in worry. “Good to see you son.” said Princess Luna. Despite her warm, motherly smile towards her own son, her eyes speak of a lot of worry under the skin.

“Hey mom,” said Connor. “What are you guys doing here?” The sisters set down their cups on a night stand just next to them; Princess Celestia took a deep breath, and exhale, and then began to speak. Her poker face still held strong but nervousness wracked her body like she was a piñata.

“James had a nightmare, Famine still haunts him.” said Princess Celestia.

“Well that shouldn’t come off as a surprise, I mean, not that I don’t believe in James or nothing but being as we are, I’m surprised myself that I had a decent dream.” said Connor.

“Yes but, this wasn’t an ordinary nightmare, there was something else in there.” The room grew quiet, it was almost awkward quiet but the room just didn’t have any noise to it and it all hung heavy on the shoulders of the baby dragon.

“Uhm, if anypony needs me I’ll be outside…waiting.” said Spike.

“Yeah, it’s probably for the best right now, bro.” said Connor. Spike jumped off his brother’s back without any real grace to it, landed with a grunt, and ran off outside. After the door closed behind the purple dragon, the room felt less stuffy.

“Bro?” asked Princess Celestia.

“Yeah, the little stallion seemed pretty cool, so why not?” asked Connor. The royal sisters just looked at each other with a bit of worry, nodding then turning back to their hot blooded relative.

“I know he’s a dragon but, you think you can keep…IT from him for so long?” asked Princess Luna. Connor looked hurt at that question, gulping and exhaling he continued to talk.

“Look, none of them know, Twilight doesn’t know, but if they want to find out they’ll have to find out themselves, I won’t tell them willingly.” said Connor.

“Connor, they’re going to know one way or another, and with your condition they might find out sooner then you’d like…”

“God dammit mom, you don’t think I know this!?” snapped Connor. Upon seeing the hurt face of his mother, he just sighed and rubbed a temple with a hoof before continuing. “…I’m sorry, just tell me what you wanted then I’ll be off doing god knows what in this town...okay?” His aunt looked pained at that moment but trotted up to the stallion either way.

“Here…its best if you see it for yourself.” said Princess Celestia. And with that, Celestia’s horn touched her nephew’s forehead, and the dream commenced.

Connor opened his eyes to see himself in a spectral state, though rather odd despite being in a dream and the necessity of such to happen, but whatever had his aunt do this, it must have been important to have to need to enter a spectral form in somepony’s dream. He didn’t question out loud the whys of which things were happening at the moment but he figured it would be better off to ask for later.

He was floating in mid-air, still seeming like he was on all fours and standing straight and tall alongside his aunt who floated the same way. Looking down he saw a stage, ponies of all races gathered to see the perfectly woven red fabric of a stage curtain in front of them, awaiting the main performance. Noticing a little green colt take a small peek from the curtains, the hot blooded stallion couldn’t help but smile a bit; he could recognize the little colt anywhere as young James Plantgrower, a bit of nostalgia pinching at his mind.

Everything seemed to move in fast motion; everything went into a faster pace than it should, seeing Celestia’s horn glow and looking back to the dream moving fast erased his questions. “We don’t need to see this part of the dream.” said Princess Celestia.

But when the curtains were raised, and colt James with wings spread out and standing dramatically on all fours, that’s when things went at a slower pace till it was natural. Connor looked up to his aunt again who seemed to not break out of her warm, smiling gaze upon her son in the dream. He’d ask why we’re stopping to see this but then he realized it wasn’t much of a good idea.

“If you’re wondering why we’re stopping to see this part, it’ll be something that we’ll have to keep watching to find out.” said Princess Celestia. “Besides, what’s the rush?” All the stallion did was raise an eyebrow at his aunt and went back to watching colt James do his thing.

For what seemed to be five minutes the young form of Celestia’s child had done fancy maneuvers, with cat-like agility and the grace of a swan he flew around in the sky of the stage happy and free. During the even fancier looking moves he had a big wide grin on his face that no pony couldn’t look upon and not smile at. He looked over to Celestia with a worrying look to see that her face held a warm smile. She only broke her gaze that was fixated on the performance to give Connor a face that read “I’m fine”. He knew it was otherwise though.

Then the moment of truth came. James flew high into the air, as high as he’d be able to go and then began a nose dive maneuver. Though with each foot he had fallen his wings seem to loose feather by feather until he wasn’t able to properly fly with them anymore. He was no expert on wings but he knew non-functional ones when he saw them, and James had them at the moment.

He fell, his wings lost all the feathers on them during his free fall so he wasn’t able to flap them and great good air anymore. All the young colt could do was just fall and hope the landing wouldn’t hurt as much, or at the least, a quick death. Connor looked over to his aunt again to see her reaction but all he had was just a blank expressionless face.

Little to no surprise to the two ponies, a black hole appeared at the floor of the stage, and the colt James went right in. The royal ponies flew right in to the black hole before it closed and saw James fall down further and further into the empty and black abyss. They could even hear the same voices that echoed through the emptiness, all from the other three stallions as they continued to verbally assault the young green colt.

He hit the ground head first, which to the look on the young green alicorn’s face seemed to not as hurt as he was expecting it to be. Then, the mirror appeared, changing form from young colt to adult stallion with their cutie mark, and then…Famine. Connor flinched a little looking at the form but he held a firm strong face in the eyes of the deathly ill sight of Famine. Then he heard him speak.

“Don’t cry James… It’s just something we all go through…now…join us James…” said Famine. It took everything it could for the blue coated stallion from gritting his teeth in anger of this sight. Seeing his cousin bawling and whimpering was more than his heart could bear and he felt an urge coming up. Watching his cousin reach out to the mirror desperately, leg shaking as it came up and touched the mirror with a hoof made it worse for him to see. As much as he wanted to look away, he became fixated on the actions happening in front of him.

He saw the dragon hand reach out from the now-enlarged mirror and immediately flew right ahead into the mirror alongside the young colt James to find the surprise of the nightmare. Before him, and his aunt, stood on its hind legs was the giant dragon Connor could hardly recognize, nor one he felt was friendly at all. At this, the pony with the gar shades did indeed grit his teeth in fear and anger of the ginormous black dragon in front of them. Hearing his cousin’s attempt at shouting the dragon away made him angrier as the black monstrosity didn’t even so much as change its blank expressionless face, not even slightly twitching. All it did was just look at the colt James and never broke its deathly gaze.

Noticing the scales glisten in the darkness it made him realize something, there was no light in the darkness they were in, otherwise it wouldn’t be known AS a darkness, and James seemed to reflect off of the scales of the beast. The one thing he managed to piece together was that whatever it was, it was something very unnatural. A heartbeat could be heard from the dragon but it sounded smaller then it should have been. It should have been at least just a little louder, but it was as if the being of something at his size was there and not one of a giant beast.

“Aunt Celestia, that dragon isn’t natural, it’s a fake.” said Connor.

“I thought the same but look.” The dragon opened up its maw and let out a blood curdling roar that shook down James to the very core, and admittedly, Connor and Princess Celestia as well. Then, it began to speak.

“aaN BahLok Fah HIN LeIN NaaL AlDuIn, DRaaL Fah FIN NOROK DOVahKiin Wah MeyZ, Fah FIN KRUziik DOVah DO VED VOKUN STaaDNAU WIN KeIN ahRK HIN LeIN!!” shouted the dragon.

Though its lips weren’t in synch with what it was saying, the earth pony stallion understood what it was saying, while being blown back by the pure force of the dragon’s voice. One thing was certain though, this dragon wasn’t real, nothing about it was natural yet it could perfectly imitate the force and strength of the voice of a dragon, if not that then even stronger. He did not like this one bit.

“What did it say?” asked Princess Celestia.

“Whatever it is, it WILL rage war on us, that’s all I can say.” said Connor. Then finally, the moment Celestia was waiting for to happen.

“YOOR TOOR SHUL!!!” shouted the dragon. From the mouth of the dragon the stallion could see it all, instead of a moist, fleshy inside of a mouth, all he saw was just an empty blackness that shined just as bright as the outside. Whatever it was, it was no dragon. However the confusing part was how it was able to perfectly imitate dragon’s fire, the fire brought about by the voice of a dragon. But when the moment the nightmare ended SHOULD have ended¸ he felt the flames wash over him.

“This isn’t dragon’s fire…” thought Connor. That was the moment his aunt’s horn flared and they no longer floated in the dreamscape of a dream gone wrong.

Connor opened up his eyes to see himself standing where he remembered standing in the living room of the Apple family house, taking a bit in of his surroundings he realized no time went by. He could recognize everything in his surroundings as they all were where they were before his aunt touched his forehead with her horn. His mother stood there, just behind Princess Celestia as she looked at him with a face of worry.

“Well, what did it really say Connor?” asked Princess Celestia. “There’s more to it than what you told me.”

The obnoxious stallion just looked down with a serious face, then back up to the face of his aunt. He took a sigh before continuing and began to speak.

“All it said was that a dragon named Alduin will attack or something, then next was “prepare for the strongest dragon born to come”, like its some sort of villain.” began Connor. “Alduin, I advise looking into some sort of history on dragons on that name. But dragon born, back in some old mythology a dragon born is something, or somepony rather, that fights and slay dragons.”

Little did Connor knew, his little brother had his ear pressed up against the wooden door, hearing it all. He felt his heart sink at the moment of hearing what a dragon born was, whoever this dragon born would end up being he’d just hope that he wouldn’t even lay a hoof on him.

“Well, what else did it say?” asked Princess Celestia.

“That dragon, Alduin, would eat the world.” said Connor, ending the sentence on an ominous note. “And with it, the righteous fury of its black wings and might. However…that black dragon...the one in the nightmare, I think that the dragon might have been Alduin.” The royal sisters looked at each other with ill expressions, they’ve seen the dragon for themselves, and they did not like it one bit.

“This dragon, it wasn’t natural, it was as if it was CREATED.”

“Aren’t we all?” asked Princess Luna.

“No, hoof made or…well…just created by something, point is, that was not a dragon, and the fire it breathed was not real dragon’s fire.” stated Connor. “It’s just an imposter with the face of a dragon for a mask.”

“Well we can’t formulate conclusions like that, this was all from what James had seen, not what we had.” said Princess Celestia. Connor just grunted, stomped a hoof on the ground, and made his way to the door, only to stopping to say one thing to his mother and his aunt.

“You got what you wanted; now I’ll take my leave, thank you.”

“Connor wait…” said Princess Luna. The night princess’s son looked over his shoulder he gave her an empty, faceless expression as he waited for his mother to say something. “While you were working we were looking, well Celestia was, we just stood around for a bit until she came back, and she had found this.”

With the white alicorn’s horn flaring, she telekinetically picked up an object from behind her, what she had kept hidden from her nephew this whole time and set it in mid-air in front of him. He couldn’t believe his eyes, a piece of his old life came back to him just like a lot of them had lately, and though this time it was something on a smaller scale. What was in mid-air before him was a drill-bit, it had the necklace loop with it as it had a long thread going through it to form a necklace. The drill of the necklace shone brilliantly white within the glow of Celestia’s magic, it was truly a sight to behold for anypony.

“Your old drill-bit necklace, remember?” asked Princess Celestia, her face had a large smile on it, hoping to have surprised Connor with such a precious object to him. “I preserved it after all this time you were gone, I hope it’s as good as you remember it.”

The blue coated stallion just looked down with sadness, to him this was the last thing he needed, but he knew it was for him to enjoy, not hurting him. Regardless of such, he grabbed it with his teeth and set on his hoof. “I thank you guys for this, but I can’t really accept it.” said Connor. Once again the royal sisters had looks of worry on them towards their relative.

“You don’t like it? We just thought…” said Princess Luna. A hoof placed on her mouth shut her up by her son, his look of depression was changed from a sad one to a happy one as he smiled warmly at his own mother.

“I appreciate the gesture,” said Connor, he looked at the door a good few seconds, smiled again and faced his mother, grinning, “but there’s someone waiting for me that deserve it more than I do.” He slung the necklace over on to his back and trotted back to the front door, only to have been stopped again.

“But why do you think that?” asked Princess Celestia. Her face was one of confusion until she looked upon the face of her hot blooded nephew. All she saw was the picture that spoke a thousand words, a face to tell her why, and it was a blank expressionless one. She could see the eyes that gave her all the answers to her questions despite the orange that stood in the way of his eyes and hers but even through the gar shades, she could know. She gave him a solemn nod and he opened the door to take his leave.

When he came out, he saw Spike standing on the porch of the home, leaning his head on to the railing of the porch as he looked out on the apple orchard. Realizing it, Connor trotted off to his little brother’s side, and laid a front leg around his shoulders. The baby dragon didn’t seem to mind for he just ignored it.

“You know, it’s not like I can’t tell you eavesdropped on us.” said Connor. That was when Spike faced his older brother with a look of shocked surprise on his face. His irises grew small and his eyes bigger as he backed up from the stallion.

“Y-you err…know about that?” asked Spike. The old stallion just raised an eyebrow and his smirk got even wider as his shades shined in the afternoon sun.

“Little stallion, you and I aren’t much different, at least from what I saw so far being here.” said Connor. He gave his little brother a nod, whom of which the dragon returned it with the same. “I know you heard about the dragon born thing, do not worry, and whoever it’ll be I’ll make sure he or she won’t even touch you.”

“Thanks bro.” said Spike. The two just went back to looking up at the orchard, just enjoying the view as the rays of Celestia’s sun shined off of the apples and leaves; it was truly a sight to behold. After two minutes the large stallion started scratching his head with a hoof in irritation. “Anything wrong bro?”

“Hmm? Oh I’m just trying to remember something…good lord what did I want…OH YEAH!!” exclaimed Connor. “Look to see something on my back, I have something for you, but I’m too lazy to bring it to you.” Spike just rolled his eyes and walked over to Connor’s side and saw the necklace on his back, sitting nice and right perched on his shoulder blades.

To the baby dragon he stared at it in awe, he never seen a drill before, nor knew the use of one but seeing the drill bit made his eyes sparkle. “I can have it?” asked Spike. The gar wearing stallion just gave him an affirmative nod and the baby dragon reached for the necklace that amused him so. He held it by the string and looked on to the necklace in wonder. It made the stallion smile that it brought the same kind of amusement to him as it did for him. The small dragon brought a finger to it and made it spin around, spinning around and watching the twenty helixes spin around in a spiral. “What is this thing?”

“Well, aside from a necklace, that’s supposed to be called a “drill”. Or well, that’s what Aunt Celestia told Me.” began Connor. He took the necklace from Spike and held it by the string too and started to spin it around and continued. “She said that ponies didn’t invent the drill, we just took it from something else, whatever it was.” The baby dragon paid careful attention to his older brother as he kept on explaining. “But she said that whomever or whatever invented the drill believed that it could bring itself to the heavens themselves.”

“Why did she think that?” asked Spike. The blue coated stallion just smiled warmly down onto the baby dragon and shook his head with a free hoof.

“I don’t really know, but she said that whatever image they had when they invented the drill that it was for a good cause.” continued Connor. “She told me that she saw the drill as my kind, the ponies, that with the dreams of the followers and the dreams of those who fell for a greater goal are weaved into the drill, creating the twenty helixes on it. She saw both things follow one greater goal, or well, a leader far as she was implying at the time.” The purple dragon nodded to show he got all that, and with that the stallion brought the necklace around his neck and looked out to the orchard again.

“Though, for the longest time thinking about it, a drill is a lot of things, it can weave from two sets of things, or heck, maybe three if you want to go about and REALLY claim a drill is like ponies. But no, I believe it’s what you make of it, where you dig with it and how you use a drill, for the greater good, for personal game or just to serve the side of evil. A drill could be a lot of things, but breaking it all down it can go from either tool or weapon and seemingly no exceptions.”

“Well what do you really think of a drill bro?” asked Spike. He held onto the railing of the wooden porch and looked up to his older brother who didn’t do nothing but continue looking out to the apple orchard. Connor closed his eyes and continued talking.

“Well, for a time I thought it was just to dig, dig to where you want to go, dig to where you need to go. To me, I aimed for the heavens!” He then dramatically pointed a hoof towards the sky while standing on his hind legs, the sight of his older brother being melodramatic with his poses gave off a feeling of wonder within the baby dragon.

“If you think you need to go higher use the drill and never stop digging! That’s the way I think a drill works!”

“But what should I think of mine bro?”

“Whatever you want it to be; it’s your drill now, from brother to brother.”

At that moment, the little dragon’s eyes went wide as Connor gave back his necklace. He put it on and started to dramatically pose with it, proud to death of his new jewelry. Without warning the blue coated stallion grabbed Spike by the…spike on his head and threw him on to his back where he sat peacefully.

“Alright little brother, its time to do some more apple bucking for today.”

Chapter 11

Chapter 11

Dear Princess Celestia,

It’s been about a week since I sent you my last friendship report, and sadly no, this isn’t another one. Ever since the last one, things have been getting better with Spike and Connor, me and my friends too but they’re different cases. I don’t understand Connor too much¸ he’s still weird around us, not to mention stupid, its only Rarity he’s been taking an interest to social-wise. And what is with that necklace he gave Spike? There’s something about it I can’t put my hoof on and it’s been bothering me since the day his “older brother” gave it to him. I can feel from it that there’s more than meets the eye when it comes to this thing.

Well, aside from Connor’s behavior towards some ponies he has been a lot of help lately. From Applejack with her apple orchard, making sure that she and her family wouldn’t do the apple bucking season alone. To Rarity in some clothes designs for stallions and colts alike, and for it, business for her has been booming lately. She must be incredibly grateful to be able to expand to more than just mares and fillies. And finally to Pinkie Pie, helping her out on some on the various recipes she’s been working on.  He even had some ideas for recipes of his own that the Cakes decided to go through, that really worked!

And I’m happy it isn’t just me learning about friendship though, Connor may be…let’s say reluctant,  but he’s done better like I have since we’ve gotten here. I mean, he’s having Spike almost all the time with him now, all that “brother stuff” really dug its way into the two of them. It’s almost like a, dare I say it, a drill dug into the two of them and had them connected. I do know of Connor’s foul mouth, and I repeat that he talks just so… Anyways, everypony here knows about him and his big old, I do desperately hope that he doesn’t say every word he knows, it’s my job to teach Spike vocabulary, not a pony like Connor. Don’t get me wrong, he’s a really good guy when he wants to be, but there’s just something about him that I can’t quite put a hoof on, and it makes me restless at some points.

Oh look at me write on and blabber about everyONE else under this roof and not too much over my other friends, they really are great, great mares. I know I whined and complained about learning in a subject that seemed unnecessary to learn, but I was dead wrong. Friendship is a wonderful thing, and I’m pretty eager to learn more all about it, one month into it and it’s become one of my top three favorite subjects!

Well, this was one long letter wasn’t it? Well, the ponies here in Ponyville seem to be gathering around the markets for some reason, guess this is my cue to finish up huh? Well, I’ll send another letter soon, or so I hope so. Nice to write to you again!

                                                                                                         Your Faithful Student,

                                                                                                                                                                      Twilight Sparkle.

On a cool summer’s afternoon, a rather familiar lavender coated unicorn had her haunches sat down on a small pile of pillows, looking down her freshly made letter. She looked out of the window next to her, from there, sunlight came shining down in rays as it made the unicorn’s coat glimmer and drying the ink on the small parchment. With a look of satisfaction, she rummaged around the rest of her room for something else.

“Where in the world is it…ah-ha!” said Twilight. From a drawer in her night stand, and with a horn flaring light purple, levitated a longer piece of paper, already been written upon from a time before.

“Okay now…step one…Have Connor FINALLY clean up the mess he made from last week…” She trotted over to her door and opened it to see the main room of the library. It was the same as always, it had the wooden horse’s head in the middle of the room on a table, and hundreds of books upon shelves collecting dust. Where the pile of wood and broken furniture she left for her roommate was, it was gone at last. “Check!” Crossing off chore number one on the list of the small parchment, Twilight walked about with a satisfied look on her face.

“Now I guess its time for step two on this list,” said Twilight. The purple unicorn jumped up in surprise from a loud noise. It was as if a hundred or so foals screamed as loud as they could and pierced the sky with a barrage of colors and small explosions. When she trotted over to the nearest window she saw what had made the noise.

“What in Equestria was that!?” thought Twilight. She got up on her hind legs and was able to get a clear picture of what was in front of her.

She wasn’t able to see what was able to make such a noise, due to the massive crowd of ponies that assembled at the market place. Whatever it was that made the loud noises and explosions, it sure as hay brought the attention to almost everypony in the town.

“Sweet Celestia, I didn’t hear about any kind of social gathering! Those must have been fireworks or something.” thought Twilight. “Wait a minute…”

She frowned a bit when she noticed two familiar shapes at the edge of the crowd, her assistant and her roommate were pushing through the crowd and trying to get further in.  She was so focused on this she didn’t notice that the rest of her friends were alongside the rambunctious stallion and his self-proclaimed little brother.

“Those two better not have done any of that funny stuff…I better see what’s going on.” thought Twilight.

She lost any form of irritation she had previously had, and went back to her room in a brisk pace. Dropping her to-do list into the same drawer she took it out of, she trotted out of her the library.

As the minutes of trotting passed by for our purple unicorn friend, she couldn’t help but be a little worried by the massive amount of ponies going to where she was headed. She knew the town was full of her kin, but this amount gathering in same location at the same time had gotten her a little excited, the worry and fright dying out. She had no idea what was going on but whatever it was, it must have been something big. What irritation that was within her was now gone as a smile was etched across her muzzle in curiosity.

She finally got to where the large massive crowd of ponies assembled at the market place, hearing the faint voice of a lone mare of the scene. “Behold Ponyville,” shouted the mare. “Be amazed by the talent that is the great and powerful Trixie!” Only having to hear the voice of this pony, Twilight just let out a long sigh and a scowl growing on her face.

“Oh great…one of these kinds of ponies…” thought Twilight. Her pace was replaced from one of enthusiasm into one of a lazy stride. She tried to enter the crowd to wear the real show was taking place with this “great and powerful Trixie” filly was.

“’Great and Powerful are ya?’ Just who the hell do you think I am?!” exclaimed a louder, more masculine voice. Upon hearing this, the town’s librarian just face hoofed for what it was worth.

“And on a different note…THIS kind of pony…” thought Twilight. Her stride was much lazier, without real enthusiasm left, seeing how the show was just a couple of show-offs. Knowing one of them was her roommate was leaving a bad taste in her mouth.

Pushing and shoving, and a few shouts at her and Twilight repeatedly saying, “sorry” and, “excuse me”, the lavender coated unicorn finally got to the front of the crowd. Her thoughts of what was there in front of her were in between wonder and disgust. Wonder from the small fireworks and sparklers being shot off and revealing colorful wonders and set smalls colts and fillies in awe, and disgust from the two show-offs on the stage.

“Well, pardon me but I do not know who you are, but if you desire to introduce yourself, go ahead.” said the mare on the stage who could only be the Trixie character Twilight had been hearing of. With a mane as white as snow, a light blue coat, a cape and magician’s hat with a crescent moon cutie mark with its own little wand. She really did know how to make a show go though, with the fireworks and dramatic boasting that would sound real fancy. No wonder the ponies around town gathered to this spot.

From the left of Trixie’s side stood a stallion that nearly towered her in height and body mass, wearing orange gar-shades and a messy, spikey brown mane. Standing on the stallion’s back stood Ponyville’s librarian’s assistant in all his glory, Spike, with his drill-bit necklace around his neck.

“I doubt you care…but I’ll tell you anyways! I’m Connor Stronghooves! The image of what a stallion should be!” exclaimed Connor, standing on his rear hooves and pointing a hoof up to the blue sunny skies. Spike jumped to the ground to let his older brother stand up without the burden of him on his back. But at that moment, an apple was just thrown at him, and knocked off his glasses.

“Uh-oh.” whispered Twilight.

Time seemed to stand still as he saw his precious shades, Sally, fly from his muzzle all the way to Trixie’s side of the stage and just past her, then finally off the stage. Spike backed up and off the stage and over to Rarity’s side off of the stage and alongside the rest of the mane six. A shadow befell the blue stallion’s side, as some ponies gasped in shock from such a violent action.

“Shut up we get it you stupid idiot!” shouted a stallion that was at the edge of the crowd. Connor tilted his head over to where he had heard the voice from, the ponies in the crowd that was in the direction of the brown mane pony’s eyes moved out of the way. What he had saw was an earth pony with a light shade of brown for a coat and a darker shade of it like Connor’s for the mane and tail, bearing a cutie mark of an hourglass. “As rude as what I did was, that was to say you need to tone down a bit, wouldn’t you agree?”

The very stallion that threw the apple just stood there on all fours in a defensive stance and waited for a quick move from the blue stallion on stage. The shadow over the prince’s eyes did not leave, but only made his glare more menacing, especially when it turned to green slits.

“Don’t throw another apple like that again…” said Connor coldly. The same shadow finally came back and covered his eyes like before so nopony could see the rage that burned like hellfire in the eyes of the blue-coated pony. With his teeth, he picked up his shades, put them back on, and trotted over to where his little brother looked up worryingly at him, along with his other friends.

“Are you okay bro?” asked Spike.

“Yeah, just fine little stallion,” said Connor. “As for somepony else, you…” He turned around and pointed a hoof over at Trixie, still looking unimpressed from the stallion’s dramatic and flashy movements. “I am Connor Stronghooves, why are you in this town?” It was by then the mare with the starry magician’s get up did she even so much as slightly smirk.

“Well, you see, stay in that spot and listen well, for I, the Great and Powerful Trixie shall tell you why I’m in Ponyville!” exclaimed Trixie. “I’m a traveling mare of sorts and bits, but more importantly, I’m here to show everypony why my special talent is magic.” Twilight coughed at this, a real unicorn doesn’t boast about her abilities in such a fashion.

“More like her special talent is having too big of a mouth if y’all ask me…” whispered Applejack. After that, she and the rest of the gang just kept whispering their thoughts of Trixie, not too big gossip that’s for sure, but words the show mare wouldn’t take kindly to. After some more whispered words were said, the unicorn up on the stage platform couldn’t help but feel irritated and get angry.

“Well look here Ponyville, looks like we got some Neigh Sayers in the crowd.” said Trixie.

“You know, we wouldn’t be against you if you didn’t boast of how great you are all the time.” said Connor. Rainbow Dash just coughed while Twilight cleared her throat. Connor caught on the hint his friends were giving him, which made him scowl.

“Well I have a right to, I AM awesome!”

“Not when you’re talking about it all the time.” the purple unicorn whispered. Sadly for her, the stallion with the orange pointy shades just shot her a dirty look, one that lasted for about five seconds before returning his attention to Trixie’s.

“Look, what even IS your special talent anyways?” asked Connor.

“Well I am EVER so happy that you asked!” exclaimed Trixie. “You see, my name is Trixie Lulamoon, but you can just call me…THE GREAT, AND POWERFUL TRIXIE!” She stood on her rear legs, horn flaring and making more fireworks appear, wowing the crowd with an assault of lights, sounds and wonders from the stage. This only hurt the eyes of our main characters though, as they rub their eyes from irritation of the light.

“Look we get that part, you mind answering my question though? It’s rather annoying to have to hear what you call yourself every time I ask a damn question, now I demand an answer.” exclaimed Connor. To emphasize his point, he just stomped his hoof to the ground, making a large thump that made some of the children flinch. Trixie flinched as well, though not as bad as the fillies and colts in the audience, it was still flinching and even the brown mane stallion could see a trickle of fear in her eyes.

“Hold your horses now, Connor…” the orange pony said, putting a hoof on Connor, which said pony shook off and faced her.

“THAT’S SLAVERY!” shouted Connor. Applejack’s hat was nearly blown away by the volume of his voice, if she hadn’t held down her hat by a hoof then it surely would have.

“It’s just an expression that we all like to use sometimes, it has nothing to do with slavery Connor.” said Rainbow Dash. She and alongside everypony else around them just looked at him with looks that the blue stallion could read off of them, their faces saying “What the hay are you doing?” “Besides, we aren’t horses Connor, we’re ponies, duh.”

“…Back to the topic at hoof,” He looked over at Trixie again who now had a bored expression pasted on her face. “Can you please answer my question?”

“Why yes I can.” said Trixie. Connor just whipped what sweat there was on his forehead and gave out a deeply relieved sigh. “You see, my cutie mark means that I’m especially talented in magic, as I said before,” Twilight coughed at this, Trixie noticed the unicorn’s gesture, but chose to ignore it either way. “But, as it turns out anything that anypony can do, I can do better!”

“Oh yeah!?” exclaimed Rainbow Dash. Without another word she took to the sky in a blue blur. From what the townsfolk on the ground could see was the headstrong pegasus fly into the air, only being followed by a specter of light, bearing the six colors, red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple in order, just like Rainbow Dash’s mane and tail. The crowd was inspired by the sights of the multicolored blur as it kept going cloud after cloud, having them go together by force to form an even bigger cloud.

After a couple more seconds of epic maneuvers that had made the crowd even more dumbstruck, Rainbow Dash finally bucked the cloud, having it have a major downpour of water. With one more move, she made a downwards twirl to the ground, using her wings to give her a lift by the wind velocity she was gathering, fly right under the extreme downpour, landing on the stage and spread her wings for the last time. With it came the water vapor in her wings, creating a beautiful rainbow over her damp body. All of the audience was in awe, even Connor found himself stomping his feet against the grass ground to his friend’s feat. “Beat that.” said Rainbow Dash.

“Why yes, that was a rather beautiful feat you’ve done there…but watch, as the Great and Powerful Trixie does better!” exclaimed Trixie. Her horn flared a bright purple, the aura of her horn around the bright colors of the rainbow surrounding the cyan Pegasus’s wings, grabbing her and spinning her around counter clock wise, and into the shape of a tornado. This went on for about a few minutes until the show mare decided to let go of Rainbow Dash, and let her face plant right into the ground.

“See? What did I tell you? Whatever anypony can do, I can do better.” said Trixie.

Connor, Spike, and the mane six looked at each other, mostly disgruntled faces were there but then an idea sparked up between Rainbow Dash and Applejack. “Yah know, Ah’m thinkin’ we might be doing this wrong. We should just use a unicorn to deal with this unicorn; don’t yah think otherwise, Rainbow Dash?” asked Applejack. She was nudging her with a knee from her front leg, as if trying to imply something.

“Yeah, I didn’t last too long; maybe a unicorn can do this better than I could.” said Rainbow Dash. Spike caught on to what they were trying to imply and simply nudged Twilight with an elbow. She looked down on her assistant, him with his pleading eyes, Twilight didn’t need to ask why he was looking at her with eyes as big as dinner plates, she caught on to the hint herself.

“Spike, you saw how they reacted to Trixie, I don’t want them to think I’m like her.” said Twilight, fear dripping from her words.

“Oh c’mon Twilight, Bro is always boasting about how great he is but we still like him!” said Spike. At that moment, the looming eyes of the very stallion bore their weight onto his little brother. A bit of tension spiked up in the air between the three as Connor had his eyes set on him.

“Spike…” said Connor calmly. The baby dragon turned around to look at his older brother dead in the eyes. To him they seemed unsettling, nerving, and awkward despite the shades of red that broke off to see the emotions in his eyes.

“Yes Bro?” asked Spike. A twinge of fear held tightly to the words of the child dragon.

“You think I boast a lot?” sternly asked Connor. Spike only played around with his index claws, looking down at the ground with nothing to say. “Well come on now, spit it out.”

“Well, um…” stuttered Spike. It was his caretaker that stepped in.

“Well to be honest I think you do, but at least you don’t go around and try to make everypony else feel bad.” said Twilight. Looking back down to his little brother, all he could notice was just how nervous and afraid he was. The small tyke took a peak at Connor, then looking down before he noticed.

“Thank you for your honest opinion, Twilight. But as everypony else is talking about, and um…implying something, we need a unicorn to help us out with Trixie.”

“No.” said Twilight flatly.

“Oh hush Twilight, I took the hints, and I don’t think that they meant you, but rather, a lady like mwah.” butted in Rarity. She trotted to the front of three, and towards the stage. With eyes filled with determination but the way she walked had grace to each step she took, grace to make some ponies think that she came all the way from Canterlot. Straight from what some could only assume that she came from the upper class among the upper class in the capitol of their country.

“Besides, why do you ask yourself why I believe that I’m better suited? Why I think I can do better at magic than you can? why, let me explain.” said Rarity. Her horn ignited in a bright light, grabbing a hold of one of the blue curtains using a telekinesis spell. “I think that there’s more to magic than the casual brutish nature to it. Oh no, there is much more to it than just that.” With that, she wrapped the curtain around her, becoming to what seemed like a ball of blue colors surrounding her figure, until her entire body had all but vanished.

In a brilliant flash of light she came back again, but the curtain was gone. What was there instead was an elaborate styled mane and tail, and a dress that matched the color of the curtain, along with many hues and a golden trim. “See? Beauty and grace is all you’ll see from this kind of magic.”

The crowd was in awe, Spike especially with his eyes as big as dinner plates and his jaw nearly unhinged as he marveled at the spectacle that was Rarity.

Connor just decided to do the one thing that he knew would rustle Rarity to the ultimate extent when it came to her showing of, he whistled. Not the kind of whistle that you would try to ignore a conversation and go off in a half decent tune, but the kind of whistling that would display a bit of affection for another pony. One that to the ears of the white coated mare on the wooden stage considered “uncouth”.

“Connor!” yelped Rarity, her cheeks a slight shade of red. All the blue stallion did was look the other way, and his muzzle scrunching up, then turned his head the other way. Most of the mares in the audience giggled, all except Rarity’s friends. She felt a bit embarrassed, having a stallion just DO that publicly, this was the first time to have to deal with some situation like this. Trixie looked deep into thought. Connor could tell she was thinking of something devious in mind for the look on her face said it all. He did not like this show mare. Not one bit.

“Well, it’s time to show everypony else who can do better.” said Trixie. Her horn ignited with a brilliant light of its own, masking around the head of Rarity. Connor took up a defensive stance and waited what would happen next. If he were to act now, Trixie would just finish up and clean the mess in a few mere seconds, so all he could do was wait. When Trixie was finished, Rarity revealed to something most interesting. Her mane…let’s say it changed.

“MY HAIR!” screeched Rarity. The mares of the audience gasped in horror as their eyes grew tiny. “WHAT DID SHE DO TO MY HAIR!?”

“Oh nuthin’, Sugarcube, ya’ll look fine.” Applejack lied.

“Yeah, you still look very nice.” said Twilight Sparkle, with a fake smile plastered on her face.

“Oh…and very…pretty…” said Fluttershy.

“Yeah, if sewer head was the latest fad.” said Connor. Spike punched his older brother in the shoulder as hard as he could; only met with the feeling of punching a brick wall in his scaly knuckles.

“Owowowowowowowowowowow!” exclaimed Spike, shaking his wrist back and forth from the throbbing pain. Rarity looked up to see for herself; sadly it was what Connor had said. It was filthy, it had flies buzzing around it and what she had imagined a rat in it. The two things that happened next was her running off crying, running into the crowd and all the way back home.

The thing that followed up was Connor taking off his shades and walking up on to the stage once more.

“You know, a unicorn and pegasus couldn’t do anything to you, but now its time to see if you can stand the method of MY madness!” exclaimed Connor. “You may have it with designing, and with rainbows, but its time to ignore all this pansy crap and take up a REAL test of a pony.”

“And what is the challenge that you wish to present to The Great and Powerful Trixie?” asked Trixie, nonchalantly. The brown mane stallion just smirked at this for his response, nothing more was said for a minute. It must have been the longest minute everypony else in the crowd had felt, the tension was high, Trixie grew frustrated from Connor’s silence and wanted to break it. “Well? Answer me!”

“Well it all depends, you got a table or something we could use?” asked Connor calmly.

“Well why do you ask that?” asked Trixie. Everypony else was thinking the same thing. What could the hot blooded stallion want with a table involving a test of strength? Could it be…?

“We are going to hoof-wrestle!” exclaimed Connor. Trixie face hoofed, so did Twilight and some of the crowd followed too. Murmurs were all Connor could hear from the crowd, but he didn’t care, he knew what he had to do.

“Well, even though I could most likely best you in this simple game, I do have to ask, why of all challenges you can put upon me, why this one ?” asked Trixie.

“Because anything else would have most likely have you end up on a table for a guy I know.” said Connor coolly. “He’s a damn good doctor.” Those words put a chill on Trixie’s spine, it left her un-easy, exposed in a sense that somepony had said that he could put you in some form of harm and promised to do it if they wanted to.

“Don’t get confused though, I’m just here to hoof-wrestle, nothing more.” Trixie gave him a nod, and using her magic she brought in a small table from behind the curtains. She placed it down in the middle of the space between them.

“Trixie doesn’t think that a test of strength is necessary, but I did promise that anything anypony can do, I can do better.” exclaimed Trixie. In the crowd you could hear cheering from the boastful words of the Great and Powerful Trixie as she took on the third challenge of her performance.

Sure in the past she had dealt with fan boys, fan girls, and haters to challenge her, the Great and Powerful Trixie, always usually beating them at a form of magic or some other thing revolving around it. Never before has somepony, a stallion of all ponies, to challenge her to a test of strength without the use of magic.

They took their spots at the table between them, sitting down with looking at each other dead in the eyes, never looking away as they set down their front right legs on to it.

“So, how do you want to play this?” asked Trixie.

“What do you mean? This is just hoof-wrestling.”

“Yes, but Trixie is always fair on the third challenge of the day, especially somepony with the courage to take MY spotlight.” She gave the pony on the other side of the table the dirty eye, who only shrugged it off without a second though.

“If you say so, Trixie.” calmly said Connor.

They took each other’s hoof, rested their elbows on the table, and started to push the other’s hoof. Trixie, with all her might, jerked on Connor’s hoof to try to win this round. What was going through her mind was panic, she couldn’t get his leg to move at all, it was as if the leg was not only harder than trees but also incredibly strong. It was as if he was toying with her, not making a move as Trixie tried desperately to win round one. The crowd looked upon her with worry full glances and anticipation to see her actually move Connor’s leg.

“Looks like Bro has this in the bag.” said Spike proudly, folding his arms. Him and the rest of the mane six only nodded and talked among themselves. Simple stuff really, stuff going against Trixie was the topic of the conversations going off, saying how she’ll finally get what she deserves for being a show off. Trixie could hear them too, they aren’t exactly far away from the stage so any word they were saying, Connor and Trixie could hear them as clear as day.

Connor took a real good look into the eyes of Trixie. He saw a number of emotions that kept mixing together. Panic, the feeling of a mental shut down derived by the feeling of fear. Fear, the feeling of utter emptiness brought to her after the feeling of loss kicks in. Loss, the feeling that can happen to anypony in any time, which this comes in from the feeling from anything that had made you feel at a loss. These emotions aren’t rare to the blue coated stallion, and he could tell why she felt them and what he thought was both stupid to do, and the right thing to do, at the same time.

He put on the face that he was struggling, went as slow as he could for his leg to go down, watching as Trixie’s struggling face turned into one of glee. For some reason the show mare’s smile made him feel a little warm inside to see. Finally, allowing her the victory, his hoof hit the table.  The sight of that nearly had Trixie squeal in delight, but she knew better not to, not here. Spike and the mares of harmony’s jaws hit the floor; they were gawking at the scene as Connor lost with nothing but a straight face.

“Well then, Trixie did think that that was a good challenge.” said Trixie with a straight face.

“So did I.” said Connor with an eyebrow raised. He had a calm posture to everything that was going on, the cheering from the crowd, the feeling of dreadful disappointment that he could feel off of his friends, and even letting down his little brother was all pretty bad to him. But that didn’t matter, he did what he wanted, and what he wanted was the right thing to do. Nothing can or could tell him otherwise.

“Well, Trixie did promise best two out of three, so, do you want to lose another time?” asked Trixie.

“Nah, I surrender. No point losing another time, sweet heart.” said Connor, giving the Great and Power Trixie a wink. To him this was nothing more but a personal victory for him, to the one on the stage was all the victory she wanted, but his act of flirting had only angered the show mare whose blue cheeks turned red.

“Who the hay are you, calling me ‘sweet heart’? The Great and Powerful Trixie will not tolerate this, what is your name?” demanded the mare. Connor took his leave off the stage and towards his group of friends who waited for him. “Well?”

Connor took his shades back from Spike, put them on, and turned his head to the direction of Trixie and gave her a sly smirk. What had her star struck was the way the light reflected off of the red shades, with the light not blinding her but enough so that it was a rather nice sight to see the stallion wearing. “Stronghooves, Connor Stronghooves.” said Connor, “Had you been paying attention earlier you’d know it.”

With that, he trotted off, with Spike on his back and the feeling of success rushing through him. “Hey Bro, how come you lost?” asked Spike. For a minute or two the stallion stayed silent, seemingly lost in thought but was still able to navigate himself around the empty streets of Ponyville with ease. “Well?”

“I think she’s hot.” said Connor. This wasn’t what Spike had expected, not at all. What came next was the only appropriate reaction for the baby dragon to make.

“…WHAT?!”

Chapter 12

Chapter 12

The day was long and tiring for the blue coated stallion, all he could think while apple bucking was the fireworks in the distance, and how they needed to stop. All he could see aside from the sea of green leaves and red apples was the annoying flashes of light and disruptive sounds of fireworks that dug their ways into his brain with each successive bang shaking his concentration.

During his time in the modern world so far he had come to accept a lot of things which would be considered alien during his time one thousand years ago and would have most likely send him into a state of shock. Today wasn’t that kind of day, instead there was one thought in mind that managed to keep away the feelings of panic and confusion from the way each firework went off without a second thought: Trixie Lulamoon.

He couldn’t lie to himself. She was a very fashionable mare in his opinion. The way her white hair flowed evenly like it was made of silk and clouds, the way her cape and wizards hat made her eyes shine like the stars on her ha-and he walked right into an apple tree.

He rubbed his face for a few seconds before his passenger decided to throw his two cents into it. “Bro, what’s going on with you man?” asked Spike in a worried tone. This had caused the only help for Connor on Sweet Apple Acres task to come up to him with a cart full of apples as red as his coat.

“Is somethin’ bothering ya, Connor?” asked Big Mac. The two looked towards the large, blue coated stallion with curiosity, awaiting a response from him.

“Nnope.” said Connor doing his best to imitate the red stallion’s usual dull expression.  “Just don’t quite have my head in the game lately, my bad Macintosh.”  Much to his surprise, Big Mac just grinned knowingly and nodded his head in content.

“Well that’s alright Connor, ya’ll been a mighty fine help to my family here in the Apple Bucking season, even with that little incident between you and me…heh.”  Big Mac said this with an awkward laugh while rubbing a spot behind his head innocently. “I think ya’ll need a break, unless you’d like to talk about what’s on yer mind.”

Connor only shrugged, putting himself in reverse and pulled his cart next to Big Mac’s, then walking alongside him, only taking off the harness of the cart to go buck another tree for apples to land in a wooden bucket. It went on like this for the next three minutes in silence before Big Mac decided to break the ice again. “Hey yah know Ah was bein’ a bit serious when Ah asked if ya’ll could share what was on yer mind, Connor.”

“I already know what’s on Bro’s mind,” said Spike calmly. He had a devious grin plastered on his face, not caring for the dangerous, angry look that was on his brother’s face.  Eyes that thanks to the sour expression looked like fire, which told of the many bad things he’d do to Spike should he squeal.

“Tell him one damn word of what I told you before, and I’ll beat you so hard not even Celestia herself can find traces of you in the ground.” threatened Connor. Spike winced at his brother’s words like he’d been struck by pins to his arms.

“Well wouldn’t ya'll like to say it yourself?” asked Big Mac.

The large blue stallion just responded with a sigh. He stopped in his tracts to look at Big Mac, saying with a straight face, “I’ve been thinking a lot about this pretty mare, it ain’t much.” The farmer pony just smirked knowingly.

“If it ain’t much then why are yah stressin’ out over it?” The realization hit Connor harder then he thought it would.

“I…I don't know Mac, guess I just like her more than I thought.”

“That’s the understatement of the millennium,” said Spike as he tried not to laugh so hard he'd fall off his brother’s back.

“Well, spill the beans Casanova, who is she? Does she have a fine paying job?” asked Big Mac, nudging Connor playfully. It was a really odd question to ask between two stallions when it came to a mare, this was one of the first things the stallion had learned during his first week of being back on Earth.

“She’s a show mare.” said Connor, with a straight face trying to not have a different reaction.  It wasn’t very stallion like to do so.

The farmer pony just looked at Connor with a look of disbelief. “Well, ya’ll have an interestin’ taste in mares don’t ye?”

Connor raised an eyebrow, “What are you talking about? What’s wrong with being a show mare?” Big Mac’s look of disbelief turned into one of shock at the blue colt’s ignorance.

“Connor, show mares um…well Ah can’t say it in front of Spike here, he ain’t old enough to hear what Ah’d say,” stated Macintosh.

“Well why not?” asked Connor curiously.

Big Mac leaned in, whispered the answer into Connor’s ear. Spike fought with himself on whether to listen in or not, but decided it was better to just stay quiet and wait for them to finish. His message delivered clearly, Macintosh backed up as surprise and a shade of red on his face that spread over his blue coat. “Oh…I didn't know what kind of show mare you were talking about. But no, she don’t doesn’t do that.”

“Then what does she do then?” Big Mac asked interested.

“She’s just a traveling magician, boasting about how she’s better than everypony else. Believe me, if you thought I'm bad you should see THIS mare.” That only made Big Mac rub his chin, deep in thought.

“You know, if she’s as bad as ya’ll say she is, then why in Celestia’s name will yah like her?”  Connor shook his head.

“You didn’t hoof wrestle her bro,” Big Mac looked more confused with that, Connor only rolled his eyes. “Say what you want, hoof wrestling can bring out what a pony is through their eyes.  What I saw was a pony who’s lost, confused and such, not evil.  I just want to know her story really.”

The red coated farm pony just trotted away with a shrug, mumbled something about how stubborn some ponies could be, and went back to work. Both stallion and baby dragon figured out that they might as well get back to it, and spent the rest of the day working in silence.

By the time Connor packed up and went to take his leave back the library, the sky had already started to get late. The orange light of his aunt’s sun shone brightly, brilliantly, and covered the land of Ponyville in a beautiful glow that tinted everything with its beauty. It was a true sight to behold looking upon Sweet Apple Acres as the radiant light bounced off the sweet red apples the town loved so much. The only thing ruining it was that the fireworks at the markets were still going off.

“Gee Bro, how long do you think that she’ll keep up these darned fireworks?” asked Spike, rubbing his chin in thought, looking over to where the fireworks could be seen, even if they were faint to hear and see.

“Honestly little stallion, I have no idea.” said Connor. Looking up to the sky he could see the moon come over from the east, his mother was right on time. The part of the moon of which grabbed his attention though was how all he could see of it was tiny. It wasn’t a full moon, or a half one, but a Waning crescent moon of such a thin strip it was almost not there at all.  On the inside he felt his stomach drop, feeling a bit weak in the legs they started to shake a bit.

“Hey, are you okay Bro?” asked Spike in worry. He took note of how he was feeling, and just as quickly as it took for his legs to feel limp, he stopped and regained his posture.

“Yeah, just a tiring day of apple bucking is all… blood brother,” said Connor with some heavy breathing as he blow off the dragon’s worry-some question.

The walk home for Connor was a silent one.  He didn’t talk because he knew Spike would just pester him about how he was feeling earlier.  The trotting stallion couldn’t help but know the little guy was around his hoof when it came to him.  It was a nice feeling to know that someone cared about him for sure.

However his train of thought was messed up when Spike burped out fire, and from it came a letter.  He had never saw Twilight Sparkle’s method to sending a letter to Princess Celestia, all he was around to see was her write a letter and without even leaving the library, the letter was gone in the next second.  How he thought she’d do it was a teleportation spell, never went into the details of it, just did his own thing.  Spike grabbed it with his claws, careful to not cut into it by accident, and Connor just looked to see the letter for himself.

“So, what does it say Spike?” asked Connor.  The baby dragon sat in silence, stuck in his own little world reading a letter that’s not meant for him to read. “Spike?”

“Huh?” said Spike in surprise, exiting the world of reading.  He could tell that his older brother had found that not paying attention to him when he asked for his attention politely can anger him a little.

“What does it say?” repeated Connor, in a mildly annoyed tone in his voice.

“Well it’s not for me, Bro, it’s for Twilight.” explained Spike, stuttering a bit. The blue stallion gave him the eye, but just shrugged it off anyways, and kept walking.

“Honestly Spike, I don’t care so much for whom it’s for, but don’t read another pony’s mail,” said Connor, not even looking at the little dragon.

All he did was roll it nicely and held it on a free hand, and held onto the blue stallion’s mane with the other, and quietly responded, “Okay.” Connor could hear the sincerity in his voice, even if it was shyer than Fluttershy’s, but he just kept walking. Walking and never looked back at Spike.

He couldn't tell if the streets were busier than before. It was dusk and ponies at this time should be going back into their comfortable homes and beds .Not to mention that the performance put on a certain show mare has stopped shooting her fireworks, (about damn time too) into the sky with no other meaning then to capture interests. He couldn't tell, but just kept walking. Nothing to him at the moment was anywhere more important than walking to him.

Walking back home, and hoping what’ll come next, won’t come next.

As anypony could suggest, the walk home for Connor and Spike was a silent one. At first they tried making small idle chat, but it was awkward to last long so they always stopped talking. There was nothing there for them to do but just get to the library.

Spike could feel the tension off of the pony he was riding on. It was like sitting on a bed of hot coals, you were not going to ignore it. He did his best to take it without saying a word, but even he could tell that whatever was bothering Conner it was the type of thing that would make most ponies panic, panic for what he wasn't sure of.

The dark azure stallion could feel that Spike was getting uncomfortable from his tension. He wanted to turn his head around, tell him and lie to his face that he’s fine and walk like nothing happened. But even then he’d know the child still feel more tension and freak out, and if he freaks out he’ll gather the attention of the others and then when the moment of truth for him comes, all eyes will behold the horror within, and forever be scared. Just like everypony else that encountered him and knew of what he held in, something that to this day only his family knows about.

He had come to terms with the fact that his new friends, and Spike especially, would learn about it eventually, but this was too soon, too fast. His life was already going for the better, and what he could only assume was the same as his cousins and mother, if they knew already about it...

“Bro, look out!” exclaimed Spike.This whole time as it turns out, the purple dragon sitting nicely on his back wasn’t the only one who had entered their own little world as Connor went head first into the door of his home. However the results of anypony would suggest weren’t the result, the doors didn’t fly open, not at all. Instead they were forced off their hinges as the force of his body knocked him, Spike, and the door to the ground, after tumbling through fifteen feet into the library that is.

Twilight rushed to the scene and all that welcomed her was a missing door, Spike lying on top of the unhinged door, a large blue pony with his head right through it, and some books scattered across the floor. She was mad. No, beyond mad.  She felt furious to the point if her anger where a kettle would have taken too much heat, thus the steam would fill up to the breaking point, and explode. But when Twilight lets it all out, she’ll let it all out. “CONNOR!!” screamed Twilight.

Connor’s head bolted up when he heard his name being screamed by what he was thinking was a banshee, he looked up to see the lavender unicorn’s face bright up with a shade of crimson that terrified him. The fear of disappointment was one that is not to be taken lightly by anypony. But what else shouldn’t be taken lightly, from what he knows from experience, is that very unicorn should not be messed around with. Looking around he noticed the books scattered across the floor from where he crash landed. He took one big gulp and sunk his head in defeat.

“Do you have ANY idea how long it took to organize these books?!” shouted Twilight. The regretful colt just watched her go down the stairs. He could even tell that his eyes were sinking into his head.  His bottom lip was quivering when her front legs hit the stairs, his back legs felt weak when she was almost sprinting towards him. Never before has he felt fear before in all of his life, he faced many things in his life and endured many tortures and hits, enough for the average pony to die at just one of the hits he had to feel. But this was Twilight Sparkle, he dare not to tread on her. But now he has, and the flood gates of doom have been swung open by his carelessness.

“…It couldn’t have been that long right?” joked Connor with a nervous chuckle that gave away his fears. But the motherly scowl from Twilight had it all die out within a few seconds.

“You don’t even want to know. Now if you don’t mind I’d like for you to go off and do what you normally do so I can fix things here. Okay?!” snapped Twilight. Connor picked himself up from the ground, looked at Twilight with big puppy dog eyes, and walked away slowly with his tail between his legs. Spike managed to get up on his feet too, brushing off any bit of wood dust off of him before facing his caretaker, giving her the stank eye.

“What?” asked Twilight, irritated.

“You hurt Bro’s feelings. He didn’t MEAN to actually cause this mess.” said Spike.

The lavender coated pony sighed before continuing, “Spike, the library isn’t just constricted to just me, you, Connor, and the others, it’s constricted to all citizens of Ponyville, and must be regularly checked up. Like the library in Canterlot or the study room back at Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns. Breaking down the door and knocking books off their shelves is NOT keeping the library cleaned up.”

Spike looked at her with an unsatisfied face, reaching behind he took out the letter meant for the mare in front of him, rolled it up and threw it at her front feet. He crossed his arms in defiance to his caretaker and stormed off to where he saw Connor going. “There’s that stupid letter for you.” Little did he know, Twilight was looking at him with fire in her eyes, and grinding her teeth so fast and hard he could have heard it if he paid attention.

Walking away to her room she tried to keep her composure nice, tight and calm. With what she had to deal with just now, she would have normally disciplined Spike severally on the spot, several times.  But she had to lead an example. She was supposed to be nothing like Connor. No use of violence could be justified in his situation.  She had to promote the good will within Spike. He’s been around for a long time for her but his growth and development is much longer than a regular pony’s, and can take longer for them to learn any morals then a pony would.

It still didn’t stop her from being pissed off beyond rational reasoning though.

Walking back into her room and closing the door with a rear kick, walking to her bed with fury pent up inside of her.  She was so infuriated that when she went to straighten out the letter that was so rudely thrown to her, she nearly tore the parchment in two.  Trying to gain back focus she got what she wanted, and now all she wanted was to read her teacher’s reply:

Dear Twilight Sparkle,

First I would like to say that I do not mind if you share your thoughts with me, even if you go on about them. I find comfort into knowing you can write to me like another friend, makes me feel good and lately with the situation with my sister and children, I would like to feel comfort anywhere, even from the little things. As for what concerns you have with my nephew would be better answered through my sister for reasons very obvious to you and I. But sadly, Luna’s writing skills are much to be determined, she has yet to properly write the English language so all info would be coming from me. So I will answer you to the best of my abilities.

Connor Stronghooves, as you are well aware, has a very dark history behind him. In truth there’s a reason why the Mare on the Moon was just a simple fairytale for fillies and colts, my sons and sister are hard for me to forget but, he is a special case.

Seeing him change so dramatically is…shocking to see. Looking at him like that reminds me that even the worst of us can find good in what we do. If he ever shared with you thoughts of his past life before the Mantle of War, then you may know he lived a life of fear. Not of me or his mother, from my knowledge at least, but rather what ponies would think of him. I tried to talk to him about a large piece that is him but he only gotten short with me and Luna.

It’s something that you’ll see tonight, the moon will reveal all you’ll have to know tonight. Maybe then you’ll understand Connor in a way, not totally and completely, but rather feel empathetic towards him. When Luna wanted to “fix” Connor, she did so at the cost of being what a pony is. It was un-equine of what she done, he knows it too, but he managed to have some condolences with it and used his talents to bring peace to what he could.

As for his drill necklace, I’m incredibly shocked that he just openly gave that away to Spike so easily. I mean, we already knew about this but this is just an odd concept to me. We found that thing around his neck since we found him on our door steps in the very castle in the forest. He would never take it off, and anypony that tried was met with resistance, especially me. We knew there was something special about it, but just like you we never found out. Connor made sure of that.  Though the fact that he’s been growing fond of the baby dragon his younger brother is something else that’s rather worrisome to me.  He just met Spike, why would he be attached already?

Anyways, just a forewarning on top of telling you that Connor will do something tonight, I’ll advise you to stay away from him. His…condition is a very interesting one. The kind of interesting that you can’t know of it when it happens, but rather at a safe distance. I’m not too worried of Spike being too close to him but I’d like you to keep a sharp eye on him. The moon will soon rise over Equestria, and when it does, the world will hear the Dark Prince’s call.

   Sincerely,

                      Celestia

The letter felt all sorts of wrong for Twilight to read. She knew she had warned him of what to come next, but at the same time she didn’t. In her earliest memories she could recall the same pony that wrote that letter to her telling her to not be superstitious and somewhat paranoid. Now she was telling her to stay away from something that she knew what it was but also what it wasn’t.  It set her at ease knowing the when and why, but everything about it was in the grey. She wished that she had more information, if anything were to happen to Spike… no. Those thoughts were wrong to think of.

Surprised that her anger quickly turned into fear, she took a minute to take deep breaths and think. “Okay Twilight, get it together girl, just take Spike for a bit, say we’re going out for ice cream, and leave for however long it’s going to be,” thought Twilight. She looked out the window in her bedroom, seeing that the time of twilight has ended and coming in the night.  She could actually see the moon rising up slowly, very slowly but steadily.“Guess Princess Luna needed some practice on the pace the moon was traveling.  A thousand years of being on it would make you think she’d do better you know?”

Or was it on purpose…?

“No Twilight, what did I tell you? Get it together…” thought Twilight. She set the sheet of paper down on her night stand and headed for the door. The moment she took one step out the door, she galloped as fast as she could to where she thought Spike was. A look of worry invaded her eyes as she continuously bumping into things, knocking a book or two over as she ran towards Connor’s room. Funny how she always blamed him for being clumsy when he ran, she was no better herself.

When she got to the door she felt her heart pound in her chest, perspiration already coming from her body as she felt a stinging feeling in her eyes. It was late at night. She was already tired from just galloping from one end of the library to the other, not to mention worried sick for her assistant. “Man, I am way out of shape,” murmured the unicorn. She shook her head a bit to keep focus, then slammed open the door with a forceful hoof. She could have felt awesome at that moment, but sadly the adrenaline didn’t kick in at that moment when she kicked open the door. Instead, she felt a jolt of pain coursing through the leg that she kicked with and the door remained unmoved. One more buck and another shot of pain later finally granted her access.

Shaking that just a bit she saw Connor hunched over on his bed. From what she could see he was looking down on the ground. All she knew was what was in the letter, and the fact that she practically told the stallion in question to go away more forcefully then she should have just a couple of minutes ago. He didn’t look like he even noticed her come right in despite the noise she caused, just kept looking at the ground with a lonely expression as if he had no one. The thing was though, he wasn’t. Spike was sitting next to him, trying to calm him down, make him feel okay. It was him that looked to his right and saw Twilight in the door way. He ignored that she looked tired and in return, decided to look as pissed as possible at the unicorn.

“What the crap do you want Twilight?” Spike asked dully.

“I-I just wanted to ask if you could come with me to get some ice cream…yeah!” nervously asked Twilight. She had the fakest grin that anypony could have. Spike knew that something was wrong, but in his mind he knew what it could be if he just played it out, something that his older brother showed to him. Just play it casual.

“Well…that sounds cool and what not, but isn’t everything closed in Ponyville?” asked Spike coyly. Twilight’s muzzle scrunched up, he had her cornered.

“It does, and I bet they are, have fun Spike,” said Connor. His dull, low pitched voice pierced Spike’s courage, made him feel weak inside. The way his older brother looked depressed at that moment was far more then he could bear. “I’ll be fine, just go on little stallion.”

Twilight could feel a panging guilt in her throat. She wanted to speak out against him but remembering what the letter said, she knew she couldn’t. Who knew what her mentor was talking about? She just had to get Spike out of there. With a few hoof steps, Twilight grabbed Spike, placed him on her back and trotted off. He was usually weightless when he rode on her back, now he just seemed a bit heavier than usual.

All he did was sit there. He didn’t turn around and watch them leave. He just sat there on his haunches and looked down on the ground. He felt bad for destroying the front door of the library, but he needed an excuse to get away from everypony.  It’s what he needed this whole time, and a part of him knew that she knew that there was something wrong with him far as this goes. Spike didn’t need to see what was going to happen to him.

At the legs of the bed he felt them move. Not at a great distance but they were shaking, everything else in the room was shaking too. He felt the sound of something hitting the ground like a chorus of unending noises. Looking up through the window he saw the moon, but it wasn’t lighting up how it normally would, it was a full moon this time. But all he saw was dark side of it. It made his heart try to escape his chest as he started seeing that this was the sign that would change his life, the life of his friends, and more importantly, Spike’s life.

Nothing mattered when the night came, he got back his instincts and he knew something big was causing the Earth to shake. It was a perfect opportunity to see if he still has the fight in him, to show the world why the thought of his name strikes fear into the minds of many.

He knew he couldn’t kill in this case though. He had to be especially careful with everything around him.  Especially in the afternoon when that random pony just threw that apple at him, it took a lot of what he had from trotting up to him and snapping his neck, to lose himself to instinct. He can’t kill in front of his subjects. He knew that, but nothing said he couldn’t have fun.

His vision turned from its normal colors into green once more, and from the appendages growing from his back made him scream. It always hurt growing what came from his back, it never felt good, it always hurt. They were however necessary in his case.The dark side of the moon made it all the more reasonable. His mother wasn’t going to give him a break this night.  Now was the time to reveal the monster under the skin, but he needed a public.  It’s never fun without any witnesses.

Looking to his left and right sides he saw his wings flap a bit. Trying to shake off any numbness he felt so he can use them to their full effect. Even with wings he knew he was an Earth Pony without a shadow of doubt. No real Pegasus Pony would have leathery, scale, and rugged wings like these. Nor have them grow out of his back so violently.

Conner looked towards his window one more time. The dark side of the moon has shown its face to Equestria and everypony in it From what he could make out in the distance was the roar of a creature. Nothing like the Manticore in the Everfree he had faced long ago, but something fiercer, something much bigger. He snorted a bit, “The bigger they were, the harder they fall after all. This is going to be the most fun I’ve had in ages. “

He got up on his hooves, unafraid of what would happen next. He felt determination, to protect his home, and everypony in it, even little Spike. Facing the window entirely, he braced himself for what he was going to say, having his wings stay tightly against him.

“WULD NAH KEST!” shouted Connor. The power of his own voice, the voice of dragons, lifted him at incredible speeds through the very window he was looking at. He crashed right through the glass and into the cold, brisk air of the night. The feeling of glass against his coat and wings made it clear he had to be a bit more careful than this. He couldn’t be reckless and just live in the moment this time sadly.

Without the feeling of his voice projecting him through the sky he was free to fly to where he had to be. This time though he could see the creature that he had heard roar with the anger to outmatch Twilight’s bursts of wanton fury. An Ursa-Minor, creatures that were large as hell with fur to reflect the night sky. This was only a baby, but even children needed to be taught a lesson.

Unfolding his wings, he took flight towards his battle, his fight. Flapping furiously with the power of a shooting star he knew this creature had no chance with him.

Twilight rushed to the scene where the Ursa continued terrorizing Ponyville. Shock and fear mixed together as she didn’t know what to do next. Things were happening too fast, questions rising up that she desperately wanted the answer to.  “Did the Princess prophesize the Ursa coming here…?” thought Twilight.

Spike could feel like nothing was right given the situation. It had him worried to death but looking down on his necklace he could see it shine in a green aura.  He was surprised to see it like that, “Did Bro know about this when he gave it to me?” thought Spike. He looked back at the lavender unicorn. She was more concerned with the Ursa than anything else. It seemed pretty clear to him that his brother would know the real answers, not Twilight.

When they got to the scene they saw Trixie trying to subdue the Ursa right next to her wagon home. It angered Twilight to the extreme that she had to be involved with this, was the Ursa Minor just another act of her trying to get more attention? Putting on a bigger show? She was irritated beyond belief and too stressed out to even handle this properly.

“Behold creature, as you are among many creatures to be defeated by the Great and Powerful Trixie!” exclaimed the show mare. Levitating some rope over, she successfully got the rope to be tied around the Ursa Minor, but only by some fingers.  The rope was snapped easy as fear descended upon the blue mare. With the very paw that had the bit of rope on it, the bear swung it (with for some reason, whirring sounds) at Trixie.

At that moment she didn’t know what to do, she could have dodged it easy, she could block it but even then it’d be useless. All her life she had these kinds of fear strike her, the very fear that condemned her to be nothing but a traveling gypsy show mare. But now here she was, very much at the end of her life as she would feel what it feels like to have been crushed.  Now physically, alongside the only thing that she knew as home. She closed her eyes as she waited for the end of her life, only to be interrupted by a sudden feeling in her left side.

She didn’t feel the crushing of her body. Her body wasn’t crushed but she knew her wagon definitely was, she didn’t need vision to prove that much. The sound of crushed wood was loud as it could ever be and that was enough for her. She wasn’t on her hooves, she knew that much. Something was carrying her, but what? She finally opened her eyes to be in the front legs of a stallion pony she had hoof wrestled just earlier that day, though he was different. He didn’t have wings. Not to mention that these wings looked vaguely like a dragon’s.

Before Trixie, the blue coated stallion held her in his front legs. On his rear hooves and his wings splayed out for everypony in front of him to see the leather that was his wings. Looking into the face of the mare, he had a face set in stone with determination. The one thing that made it different was that his eyes were green with slits instead of dark brown like they were before.

“Are you okay?” asked Connor. His voice seemed to change slightly as well, gaining a more gravelly and dry sounding throat.

The show mare didn’t know what to say, she just nodded. She was dumbfounded, how did this come to happen? And why in Equestria did he save her when everypony else just looked over in shock, and a hint of relief? She felt herself lowered onto her hooves as he didn’t say anymore.

Everypony else had the same look on their face as Trixie did. They were dumbfounded, confused, and tenser then they were seconds ago. They all recognized Connor, how couldn’t they?  All of his constant galloping had earned him an image burned into every pony’s memory. Not to mention giving a speech to them during the Summer Sun Celebration that declared himself a Prince of Equestria with their ruler’s support. But here he was, he had the same face, same build but everything was wrong. For one his wings, and the fact that his front legs were bent the opposite direction.  Even his shoulders seemed more broad standing up then they remember him on all fours.

“Subjects,” called Connor in his best imitation of his mother’s powerful voice, which unlike his mother didn’t force all of them back by its sheer force which was disheartening. “Here I stand on my own two feet because you all need to know something. What I’ll do next may determine how you feel about me, and I ask that you hold no ill thought of me when this is over with.”

He caught a glance of Spike, who had a face of pure worry and concern, alongside Twilight who didn’t look too good herself. Connor looked around the crowd. His previous thoughts of wanting some fun had been dispelled when he could make out his friends in the crowd. He could see Applejack with Big Macintosh, they had the same look of concern as Spike and Twilight did. Thank the heavens that their younger sister was with them. He noticed Fluttershy next them too, her face showed more fear than anything else but he knew it was just how she was when something different is approached to her. And yet for some reason he was more worried on what she’d think instead of everypony else in the crowd.

Rainbow Dash wore a familiar look of concern, but the look in her eyes told him that she was waiting for something to happen. A pony with dragon wings was indeed a spectacle for anyone with a taste for thrills. Pinkie stood alongside Dashie with the most puzzled look on her face. Her face showed more of confusion then of any real worry. He could even hear the wheels turning in her head, but was stopped from further action by a cyan hoof in her mouth.

What really froze him in his tracks was the look of worry on Rarity’s face, one not far from where Spike and Twilight was. She was utterly concerned, the two weeks of growth they both had together had made them close, the way you could with a friend, a true friend. But like Pinkie Pie she was guessing on what Connor would do next, but in her head rather than words said. He took another look of Trixie who’s was following his head movements, she saw his concern, and had a look of pity on her face, that and also of fear.

Connor’s face hardened, “Get out of here, I’ll handle it from here.” Trixie nodded and ran into the crowd, curiosity getting the better of her on what would happen. He looked back at the Ursa, who was standing on his rear legs just like Connor did. Seeing it tower him gave a rushing feeling to him, his cheeks were warm with blood rushing to them, adrenaline fueling every muscle in his body to prepare for the fight. But now his body had one last thing missing.

He screamed, but he wasn’t screaming to charge magic within him to power any attacks like he did against his fellow stallions, he was screaming because of the pure agony of complete transformation. He screams were heard all around Ponyville, he could tell because more ponies wondered right in to see what was happening, only to be met a pony with dragon wings changing dramatically.

His hooves morphed violently into claws, his rear hooves becoming feet while his front hooves had a hand grow right out of it. He felt his muzzle get longer and his teeth get sharper and bigger. His tail becoming that of a reptile’s with spikes coming right out of it, the spikes themselves were spiraling into a single point at the end. His mane had the same effect as a spine of spikes trailed his actual spine, the spikes getting smaller the more they trailed down his back. His shoulders became broader, and his front legs becoming arms, with elbows instead of knees. If any muscle on him wasn’t shown off enough, now they were. Connor was absolutely ripped for a creature of his stature, and the same was true of the creature he became: something on the lines of an adolescent dragon.

The last thing that changed about him on top of a lot of things that had was that on his head, right above his eyes, two horns appeared. In old fairytales there told of a creature who ruled the very fabric of Tartarus who had done many evil things in his life with many names, but none as popular as “The Devil”, a creature of pure darkness. He had horns that could pierce through anything, striking down whatever he rammed his head into. Legends would say that his horns point downwards towards the ground because when he looks at you, you know the last thing you’d see would be one of the horns piercing your skull.

That was the first thing that came to mind of these horns, the very horns of the dark prince of Tartarus. Ironic how on the solid ground, the beast in front of these ponies was a prince of these lands, maybe one that should be better off forgotten.  But of course, Connor only had one thing left to truly finalize the transformation: He roared, not a roar of that of a pony in desperation, or one who would scare off their enemies when they lose their minds, no. This was the roar where the meaning behind it was unknown to ponies, unknown to the peaceful world that was their country. This was the roar of a warrior, not a warrior pony like the royal guards who protect the innocent, but the roar of a warrior hungry for blood, a vicious, cold blooded killer who would think nothing of anything around them but the prize of the hunt.

The very aspect of what his call had meant had the ponies around him shudder, but it had no effect on the Ursa who still stood on his hind legs without a care in the world. Being a creature of the Everfree forest you'd have to get used to creatures that were like Connor, whether they'd be a dragon or a hydra. Being bigger than most creatures in the dark forest made getting used to a norm like that was easy. The mane six and Spike were the most concerned out of the crowd of ponies, they had no idea that this was going to happen, and now that it has… well they stood frozen in place, unable to bring themselves to either join the fight they knew was coming or stop it.

Connor held back his rage a bit. Menace or not this was a living creature after all. He had to be careful not to kill the thing since as far as he knew it had yet to actually do more than cosmetic damage to the small town as all babies would. He made the first move, trying to knock it out quickly to avoid any further damage. Only then did he notice something, his punched left a dent, an actual dent into the bear. No living creatures get dents, but he knew what did, things that weren’t living, inanimate objects. He also noticed that the Ursa Minor didn’t even make a facial expression. It just stayed the same as it did since way before the fight. What confused him though was how in Equestria the beast was able to make sound if it’s not supposed to be real.

Didn’t matter though, he knew he could destroy it now with no repercussions. Connor could unleash all of the fury that welled within him without holding back. He felt pent up in an easy life for two weeks, he couldn’t deny that he had a passion for the fight. And now even in such a calm world he could do what he wanted with this imitation of an Ursa. For him, size doesn’t matter, he felt like nothing in the world could take him down, and he was going to prove it by showing his subjects what he was like when he went all out.

He started flapping his wings, but he kept himself in place by staying still, allowing him to gain momentum when he takes off.  By the time he let go, he already had broken the sound barrier. The next five seconds were followed with the fake Ursa walking around on its hind legs, trying to swat at the blue blur but proved unsuccessful every time he had tried to hit Connor. When he was done with his array of blows, the giant monstrosity of nature stumbled into the forest, covered in dents, and then landing with a thud. Oh but it didn’t end for the Ursa Minor there, it rose and let out a low rumbling snarl that slowly turned into a bellowing roar.

“Think you got shit on me, pal?” asked Connor seriously in a voice far deeper than what it used to be in his pony form. “You ain’t got anything, you aren’t even alive you fake. All you have is a damn face!”  He started to flap his wings again, this time nothing stopped him, he just slowly rose up into the sky to meet the fake bear at eye level. Not close to each other but whatever eyes could be there, Connor knew they’d see into his.

“You know, I’m glad something like you came along. I’ve been really feeling tense lately and dealing with you in a new form is just the thing I needed.” As he said this, he held up what was his left arm and noticed that his claws decided to invert to become spirals, like his spines did. Then he got curious, the actual claws themselves kinda hinged off of the tip of his fingers and started to spin around. Surprising, it didn’t hurt for it to do that, it just felt right to feel.

“TAKE THIS, from the depths of my being and into the physical world, my ANGER, my RAGE, and all of my FURY!” shouted Connor as loud as he could. When his claws started to spin again, they were going so fast that even with his razor sharp vision, could only see something of what they looked like. They were spinning so fast he felt his hand burn with intensity to burn steel, so hot that it actually had his blue scaled hand shook and took on the color red which only grew more intense with each word he spoke. “BURNING.  DRILL.  FINGERS!!!”

Once more he took off at supersonic speeds towards the Ursa but instead of going for the head like he had done before, he went straight towards his left leg. When he got there he pierced the Ursa at the foot, digging a hole right into it. When the hole was made he went right in.

What he saw was something completely new to him, he saw strange lines within the metal shell right underneath what was supposed to be a paintjob, that to represent the colors of an Ursa Minor. It was alienating to him but he still took his way up the foot, and right into the heel, going his way up the body. He was drilling this and that inside the fake Ursa, seeing the same mechanical workings as he saw right in the foot, but this time going everywhere. He was going to destroy the useless shell with his very own claws, and nothing else felt so right.

When he reached the head though, he found something different: He saw a creature. Dog features and a metal collar around his neck was desperately pushing and pulling two handles, a Diamond Dog. Connor could only think of that the handles were to possibly control the body of the whole Ursa. He looked to where the teeth was and saw it was only a screen, what could have been allowing the Diamond dog see what’s in front of him without actually having to open the mouth and seeing what’s happening.

“You’re coming with me,” said Connor. The dog in question gulped in fear as he was shaking in his seat. He took his charge towards the dog, not killing him but taking him by his right hand and drilling a hole into the back of the head of the machine.  After a few feet of flight with the dog in hand, the entire body of the Ursa Minor took on internal explosions, which set off a chain reaction of the rest of the body taking on the same damage, eventually setting off into a giant one. It was a beautiful sight to see for the blue scaled monster.

Connor took a decent stop somewhere in a dirt field. It wasn’t too far from the border of the Everfree, but he was sure as hell certain this’d be safe enough for him to not be interrupted during a little…interrogation. He slammed the diamond dog on the ground, the entirety of his right hand take up about all of its neck, making the dog squirm in his death grip. This only made him slam the diamond dog further into the ground, keeping him conscious but taking the fight out of him for now.

“Listen up you disgusting mutt, if it wasn’t the vow I made to myself to not kill a single soul that was within my kingdom, you would be dead by now.” He gave certain words a growling edge to convay how much he wished that were not the case. The dog swallowed hard but couldn’t seem to finish as Connor’s shouts continued. “So I’m going to give you one chance. Just who the actual fuck do you work for?” he all but made an inaudible snarl. At this point the diamond dog was shaking, fear racking his entire body, even actually trying to use his rear paws to get away. All they did though was kicking up dirt into the interrogator’s abdomen. He didn’t have any feeling there but it did give him an excuse to slam him against the ground again, this time causing a small crater to be made, with the two in the middle.

The stallion-dragon had lost his patience, it was time to be harsh or he was going to get nowhere with this. “Tell me who you work for,or else my vow isn’t going to be the last thing I break tonight!” With that Connor stomped down, a crack in the ground went past the dog and split a tree in half behind him. At this point the diamond dog’s eyes were sunken into his face, he truly that that he was going to die unless he said what he wanted.

“Our masters…the scaly ones…t-t-they have us p-p-pilot those machines…they call them…um…” stuttered the diamond dog.

“CALL THEM WHAT?!” roared Connor.  Now the diamond dog was on the urge to pee in fear, but he had to finish up here, he couldn’t die, not now.

“They c-c-call them…Gundra I think. I don’t know, they're just hunks of machine they found from a long time ago... didn’t exactly know why w-w-was in pony town…” stuttered the diamond dog. Throughout the interrogation, Connor couldn’t feel help but feel a hint of pride for the dog. One for not even having to do more than lay a hand on his victim, he didn't have to kill, he was relieved but on the inside he felt a little sad that he wasn’t able to, he didn’t know why either.

He picked up the diamond dog, and threw him to his front and watched him just fly until he landed face first into the ground. Connor felt bad, seeing the diamond dog just scurry away like a rat, seeing him actually limp with his right leg. He wanted to help, but he knew it would be just weird, so he took flight back to Ponyville.

He dreaded what his friends would think, what the citizens would think, he just might have to flee to Canterlot, probably get banished again, maybe this time to one of the stars his mother adorned the night sky with. Hopefully, just hopefully, that this would blow over like the feeling of the wind against his wings.

The fight had not lasted very long, the citizens knew that much. But seeing him come back put everypony on edge, especially the immense explosion in the middle of the Everfree had some bits of shrapnel hit nearby the town. They were little chunks of metal, but the force and speed of them could have killed any creature that would have taken one to anywhere important, no pony was about to complain about broken windows. This was indeed a night to remember for the folk of the peaceful town.

Connor touched down to where he transformed. The spot was weird to him, yet it pulled at him to be in the spot. He looked around again, the ponies were all gathering back together to where he remembered where they were too, except they were all a bit further away from him. Seeing what he was capable of, they did not know how to approach him. Fear hung around the air like the oxygen they breathed. Tensions were as high as they could have been, and their faces were what broke Connor’s heart.

It was the kind of face you’d have that you discovered something that was out of the ordinary. Something that confused you, made you question why it had to even happen. Those were what Connor was reading off of, not just their faces, but from their eyes too. He knew he couldn’t talk without provoking anything from him. This is what he’d expected though, a standoff between a ruler and his subjects.

What didn’t surprise him at the least was what friends he had in town come galloping towards him, all coming from his front too. What did though was that their faces were that of fear, but he didn’t know what they were afraid of. With everypony else he could read that it was just a fear of him, their fear was unknown. He looked to where they came from the crowd for only a second to see Trixie standing there.

“Are you okay Bro?!” exclaimed Spike. He jumped off of Twilight’s back and rushed over to his side. What did intimidate him was how tall he was compared to him. In his pony form he already was taller than him, towered him actually, now it was just like looking back at the Canterlot Castle all over again, but this time something that looked like his kin. Despite what could happen he ran up to him and clung Connor’s left leg.

Connor found it funny how he was barely taller than his own shins. The entire town feared him, almost loathing him right now for what he did, yet he was able to find solace with himself, all because of Spike. Using his tail he patted Spike on the back, softly, gently, it surprised him how he could be so soft. “Yeah, I’m fine little stallion,” said Connor.

He morphed right back into his pony form slowly, though progressively fast when his arms turned back into legs. His hands turning back to hooves, no more wings, and finally sharp teeth retracting and being replaced by the flat of a pony. He was back, he wasn’t the monster that was displayed for everypony to see, but the stallion he was before his transformation. He could feel the mane six gallop up to him and bring him into a tight group hug.

“You really scared us, darling,” said Rarity in her usual drawl. It was nice to know that even in one of his darkest hours,  Rarity was still there for him.

“That was really cool what you did there, but I’m glad you’re back to normal big guy,” said Rainbow Dash trying to smile.

“That was very, very, very, very, very scary,” stated Fluttershy. He chuckled to himself how the shy one had to put extra emphasis on what had spooked her tonight.

“That was a whole lot of fun! You think you can make those pretty lights again?” asked Pinkie Pie energetically. It surprised him how she was able to keep the hug and not bounce around like she’d normally do.  He could practically feel the sugar emitting from her body like an aura.

“Well glad ya’ll are alright sugar cube,” said Applejack. That was the point to where they broke off the hug, they all faced him face to face with the question the stallion knew they had in mind.

“You do know anger, rage, and fury are synonyms for each other right?” commented Twilight trying to come off unperturbed.  Connor sighed. She ignored it and continued, “Look we’re glad you’re okay, but what did you even do?”

“I transformed into a bipedal in the form of a teenage dragon,” bluntly said Connor. Twilight face hoofed.

“Seriously Connor, how could you keep us in the dark like that about this?” demanded Twilight. “What did you think we’d even do?” The stallion just looked down before giving his answer. Even though she did just tell him that whatever he is, she wouldn’t harbor any bad thoughts of him, it just felt being an ant underneath a magnifying glass. She had the best intentions but it didn’t exactly make him feel the best from this.

“Honestly, I’d rather not explain the details when the entire town can hear,” said Connor. “Something like this was better off forgotten in my time.”

“Is that your justification for not TELLING us about this?!” snapped Twilight. It was Rarity who had placed a hoof on her shoulder to calm her down.

“Just head on home girls, I’ll make it back safe and sound, alright?” They all nodded, though reluctant, they all went their separate ways. Going back to their homes but first having to go through the crowd. Spike stayed with him though, he couldn’t just leave his older brother’s side. “Hey, I just want to do one thing before we head back.”  He nodded, and then climbed on his Bro’s back.

He trotted over to Trixie. If there was a time and place to confront her it’d be now. What surprised him was that she didn’t run away when she had the chance, not even a cringe. Connor guessed that when one lost nearly everything there’s no point running, what he had in mind would give to her back what she lost, a roof.

When he approached her though, she reacted the same way everypony else did except for the mane six, backing up with a face of caution. “Please, I’m not here to hurt you, I’ve done enough of that sort of thing tonight.” said Connor. He sounded weary when he said that, tired, and it wasn’t because it was late in the night that had made him tired. “I do have to ask though, you could have run away but you didn’t, why?”

She shifted a bit, inching only a bit closer but didn’t even look at him in the eye. “I guess I just wanted to see how the fight would turn out,” said Trixie quietly. “Besides, I do admit it did entertain me, a lot, I mean, I never seen anypony or anything fight with an Ursa before. And fights like these don’t happen every day.” She was opening up to him, this was good, and maybe it’d be easier to ask her what had had him curious to ask her.

“Yeah, I suppose not huh?” asked Connor. He smiled, just from the corner of his lips did he smile only a bit, and he noticed the show mare in front of him did too. “Hey um, would you like to walk with me for a bit?”

She seemed reluctant, but she nodded, “Sure”.

That was then they started talking, walking away from the crowd so they wouldn’t be having all the attention Connor had to begin with. Surprisingly they all just went back to their homes, try to sleep off the monstrosity of two monsters fighting in the Everfree, hoping to forget it soon and never have to deal with this kind of thing again.

“So it wasn’t even an Ursa to begin with?” asked Trixie, confused.

“Yeah, it just wound up being a diamond dog controlling the whole thing by these two…things where he could squeeze them with his paws.”

“Were they like levers or something?”

“I think so, yeah.”

Their conversations just kept going off to random things then, just like how he did with Twilight and the others, Spike even joined in a few of them for fun. Despite how much fun Connor was having, he knew it was close to an end when they got back to the library.

The doorway still had no door like he remembered. It wasn’t too long ago did he accidentally take down the door. From Trixie’s expression he knew she wanted to ask why there was no door but all she was met with was blabber from both stallion and baby dragon. “Well I know that fake Ursa destroyed your wagon, I want to be a friendly neighbor and offer you a home here, would you like that?”

He couldn’t tell if she was dumbfounded or what, she just looked at him like he was weird. Sure asking a mare to come spend the night at his house is weird, but when it’s for the right reasons the least it could be is questionable. But he only thought that she was just only curious, nothing more. “I know we both got off on the wrong hoof a while ago, but I’m being serious right now.”

Looking at her, waiting for a response, he could have sworn that her eyes were starting to water up and her face drop. Her lip nearly went to a quiver but was shaking instead. “Alright, I’ll take you up on your offer Mr. Stronghooves, but when I get the money I’m leaving, got it?” asked Trixie. At least she was prideful about it, at first the shadow of doubt crept in about this idea, but they were as dispelled as the thought itself came in. He laughed at her response, not because he thought she was pathetic, but rather how stubborn she was, and how quickly the fear had drained from her in such a short time. A very hypocritical response from somepony worse than she was.

“Whatever you say.” He let her in first, allowing her the opportunity to see what had happened to the door. A pile of wood was astray on the floor, like someone took an axe to it and chopped it down till no one could recognize what it used to be before. She looked over at Connor with an unimpressed expression.

“This was the door wasn’t it?” asked Trixie, her tone as bored as it could get. He chuckled nervously, embarrassed at her reaction, his cheeks turning red like beats.

She rolled her eyes. “Well, which room is supposed to be my room?”

From upstairs, Twilight could hear them talk, faintly but she could pick up Trixie’s voice any day. She felt angered when she heard her ask where she was going to sleep. Twilight has always had a fine line, it was a fair one, and never in her life has it ever been crossed, but now it has. Trixie’s kind was one she always hated, magicians that do nothing more but boast and claim how they’re the best in the world without showing anything for it. Slamming open the door, she stomped down to the public part of her home, watching as the others in the room were surprised and shocked to see Twilight so angry.

“Listen up you fake, I don’t care what Connor says, you are NOT living here with us!” shouted Twilight.

“Well the stallion of the house said I could, so why not?”

“Because I was living here before he was, and I have something to tell YOU Ms. Trixie. I have spent my entire life learning magic, I was so into it that even my cutie mark means magic, and what are you? Some traveling mare that just preaches to anypony that’d listen on how much of a good magician you are and then upstaging anypony you can. You’re only good for cheap tricks and knock off spells for colts and filly’s birthday parties. I go about on royal business because of how good I am. I got connections to the Princesses of Equestria, Connor here is a Prince, what do you got?” ranted Twilight.

“Wow,” whispered Spike to Trixie.  “Namedropping, she must be pissed at you.”

“Her home that was just crushed by a fake, and now another one until she gets back on her hooves.” rebuked Connor. “Besides, what you say is true, I am a Prince of this country, and I declare she lives here and even take magic lessons from you so you can’t accuse her of being a fraud.” He always let her win arguments with him, not always but he can guess at least ninety five percent of the time he lets her off. This time he was going to stand his ground to be a good pony.“Don’t like it? Well too bad.”

Everyone else in the room was dumbstruck. Trixie feeling hurt and happy at the same time, Spike just shocked that somepony actually WON an argument with Twilight that wasn’t Princess Celestia, and Twilight for just being told off in general and unable to counter. Connor walked right back into his room, and then came out with his bed sheets and blankets.

“Wait…why are you getting new sheets?” asked Trixie. “What’s wrong with the ones you have?”

He ignored her two questions when he came back with a fresh pair of new sheets. He didn’t want to answer until he was done because he was busy. He came out of the room after two minutes and finally acknowledged the other three’s existences.

“Well this actually used to be my room,” said Connor, “there IS an extra mattress in Twilight’s room, but the way you guys are I don’t think you two sharing a room isn’t an option.” The mares eyed each other, they both had the look to kill but they knew there was a better time and place to settle their dispute.

“I’m just going to crash the couch for now. I got no problem with that.” He trotted over into a different room, closed the door and never came back out.

Trixie and Twilight were left there with Spike, no Connor to separate them, the little dragon couldn’t do anything to hinder them either. It was Trixie that broke the ice. “Well…I suppose I’m going to hit the hay, see you tomorrow, I guess…?”

“Yeah…sure.” said the cranky unicorn in a defeated tone. In the same fashion that she came into the room in, she did so going back into her room, muttering things under her breath that only Twilight could hear, and then she slammed the door behind her.

“I better follow her…” said Spike like it was a matter of fact. Unlike Twilight’s grumpy composure, the little purple dragon just walked up the flight of stairs slowly. He was in no rush, he wanted to sleep badly but he just didn’t have the energy to do it.

Everyone else was in bed at this point, but she was there, left alone, her only company being books. Sleep was what Trixie craved though, the Ursa Minor machine destroyed the chance of her being able to sleep in her own bed so the one set up for her would have to do.

As she walked to her room she contemplated what has happened to her, she doesn’t have anything now. Her cape and hat was in the wagon when it was destroyed, not even clothes, even though she was offered a room she knew it would never be her’s. So here she was now, at the lowest point in her life, and the only reason she gets to sleep under a roof was because of the kindness of one pony. Everyone else under hates her guts. She shouldn’t even be thinking like this but now she had no choice but to, it was either that or books she knew she wouldn’t be able to read without having to put it back on a shelf.

Trixie opened the door with a weary hoof, and jumped right into the bed. She noticed the night stand and had the feeling something was inside it. She was surprised that Connor left the room without taking anything for himself.  He must have left something behind right? Opening the drawer she saw something that shone with red, gar shades. She was wondering why he wasn’t wearing them just moments ago and why they’re in here, they seem to fit him perfectly too.

She picked it up with her two front hooves, laid down on her back and looked at them. Trixie didn’t use magic to hold them up, she felt like she didn’t need to. She squeezed on the glasses once to see what it’d do, it didn’t bend, and it didn’t show tension from the force of Trixie’s hooves either. They seemed like they were made of good materials to be able to be as strong as it was, maybe magic enhanced.

She then thought of Connor, wondered what had drawn Connor to these particular pair of glasses, why he even wears them. She wondered for a few moments, debated to guess her own question. Trixie then thought of him, how could he look in a mirror when he does and pretends what’s on the skin is a pony but on the inside was something terrifying? What’s a Prince doing in a small town when he could be living life to the fullest in Canterlot? The ex-show mare wasn’t very sure, she would probably know why eventually. But she knew on the inside that she was very grateful. She planted a small kiss on the shades in appreciation of the stallion that wears them, for at the moment is the only act of respect she could give him.

Using her magic, Trixie was able to levitate the gar shades next to her as she trotted out of the room. She had to give these back to him, they seemed special, she couldn’t just leave them where they were, it belonged to its owner. She went over to the door of which was Connor’s room at the moment, and knocked. It took a good five seconds but finally the stallion opened the door. “Yeah?”

“I have found your pair of sun glasses,” said Trixie. She levitated the pair of gar shades onto Connor’s snout, and just positioned right against his eyes. “But how come you left them in your room? They seemed special to you if you had them in your night stand drawer.” Connor smiled.

“Well I have one for you, how come you’re not referring yourself in third person like you did before?” asked Connor, his turn to raise his eyebrow. Trixie didn’t answer for a while, not too long but long enough to make it awkward for her. The blue coated stallion shrugged and changed the topic. “If you want to know…they really do mean a lot to me.”

“Then why didn’t you take them with you?” Connor was silent like Trixie was, unlike her though he did answer.

“I guess I just forgot them…” said Connor. He turned around to go back to bed, but turned his head back to see Trixie still at the door way. “Hey, don’t worry about it okay? Good night.”

“Good night,” right when he closed the door. She decided to say what she wanted to say to him, a silent way of showing how she felt of what he’s done, “…sweet dreams.”

Chapter 13

Chapter 13

Dear Princess Celestia,

It’s been about a week since Connor had transformed into… whatever he turned into; he still won’t talk to either me, Spike, or Trixie about it. I honestly mostly thought of him as a bit of a brute, somepony who just does a bit more harm than good, even though that’s only sometimes when he actually does how I assume him to be, he’s still a good pony at heart. I know that by now you’d expect another friendship report from me, something other than just another rant on what I think of my friends, but please understand that I’m scared, I need help, everypony under this roof needs help.

Thankfully Spike has had his ways of trying to get up and about and away from Connor and everypony else while I deal with Trixie, he’s been helping out with Rarity and finding more gems for her dresses. Just a couple of days ago, Connor showed him how to use his drill bit necklace to dig, by turning it into a bigger drill. I can’t even describe the amount of laws of physics he had broken while doing it, but he showed a way on what he can do is possible. I think that everypony else isn’t taking it well either, but I haven’t talked to them about it, its sort of a hush kind of situation for us.

Whatever he is, I just wish you could tell us, I don’t want to live in the shadow of doubt any more than Spike, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy and I do. It’s incredibly tense in Ponyville too; all I get from the other ponies are stares. So are the others but they try their best to ignore them, I’m the only one that’s having it all seep in, and I can’t stand it. I’m so glad Spike has other places to be then Ponyville; I try my best to not have him see me like this.

But for the last time that I’ll ask in this letter, please, please tell us why and what he is, I…I…

Twilight just stood there staring at her letter, tears come out as easy as they stain her letter. She puts it away, and for a huge amount of time that she spent the week so far, she went to bed.

Away from Twilight’s room, away from the stress and away from the fear, Spike and Rarity roamed the barren wasteland just outside of the Everfree. Ever since the morning when the marshmallow coated pony woke the baby dragon from his slumber they’ve been out digging for gems. The bundle of scales and claws always loved it when his crush took him out to do things like this; it gave him practice to try out being a digger.

In his claws he held what should have been his drill bit necklace; instead it was just a drill much larger than that. It was simple, though heavy for him. During all these times of digging for Rarity he began to get the right form now. All he had to do was just hold it steady yet firm on the handle, while he worked his other hand on the crank and twisted it counter clockwise so he could get him and Rarity some of the really good gems.

Though despite the fact that he’d been learning more and more every day on being a digger, he sometimes couldn’t help himself but dig further into the ground then he should. It was always Rarity to get Spike back up to the surface if this was ever the case. Today was no different for the duo as they tread the dirt of the ground, Spike pulling the wagon, his necklace shinning bright in the sunlight, and Rarity taking the lead. Her magic had been helpful as well, her gem finding spell was always accurate, even if what she was getting was a faint reading, and it only meant that Spike had the opportunity of digging further.

Her horn was flaring, it grew brighter and brighter until it finally was blinking in rapid speeds, she had found a jackpot.

“Spike, you know what to do.” said Rarity.

“Yup, sure do!” exclaimed Spike happily.

The baby dragon pulled the wagon right next to spot of where she pointed her horn at, took the drill bit necklace from his neck and pointed it to his left side. The transformation of drill bit necklace to drill was always a complicated maneuver, one that had Twilight ask on how it was capable to defy the laws of physics or whatever she goes on about. But it was simple to him, and that’s all that mattered. He flung his arm around with his left arm to his right side, never letting go of the necklace, and in an instant it transformed to what he wanted it to, a drill.

It was there with all of its beauty and grace, one Spike never got tired of. It always had to glow green at first for some reason, but so far it had not affected him or anypony else, from thereon even Connor declared it safe. It was always with him when he was younger, so what could go wrong with a baby dragon?

He took the drill by the handle that seemed a bit too big for his size, and by the crank, and went to what he did best, digging. Now by the large size of the drill you’d think that it would prove ineffective and would just outright fail when trying to dig up a large hole. Spike was a quick learner though, and had already mastered even something as trivial as the size proportion goes.

Over the past week, the fashionista pony was able to craft Spike a pair of goggles to use when he digs too far into the ground. She was tired of constantly bickering him to wear some form of protective eyewear so that, and word by word, “It’s so you won’t get dirt in your cute little eyes, Spikey-wikey.” The amount of friend zoning that had taken place that day was at unbelievable levels. Regardless of what happened that day, Spike still wears his goggles with pride. They were perfect too, perfect fit, perfect lens, and perfect elastic band. They had the look of a five bit pair, but one thing that Rarity does, she can take the net worth of anything involving fashion at all, and quadruple it through quality workmanship.

Lowering the said item over his eyes, shifting them until they were in the perfect position, he started digging. Even though he’s been doing the same thing for over a week now, and for some ponies (or baby dragons for this matter) they would give up by now and seek a different hobby. Not Spike though, Connor was right to give him his old drill bit necklace to him. Having to drill for the first time he was hooked, both hands on the drill, one to hold steady the drill and the other to turn the crank shaft came as natural to him as breathing did.

When he was done digging where Rarity showed him, he managed to claw out a lot of different assorted gems, colors and shapes of them were numerous and en mass. Rarity, having to see a large stash of gems laid out for her to take, had many feelings well up in her. One of them happened to be happiness mixed with greed, a lot of it.

“Oh these will do very nicely!” exclaimed Rarity. Using her telekinesis, she managed to bring the large stash on the little red wagon Spike and her brought to this little trip, and continued onwards for more gems.

“Hey Rarity, if the wagon seems to be full enough already, why don’t we turn back?” asked Spike.

“Spikey-wikey, you know we need more gems for dresses, and you do love to eat gems don’t you?” pouted Rarity. All she had to do was pout with her lower lip and bat her eyelashes, and Spike was already drooling.

“Um…yeah.”

“Then c’mon dear, we need to get just a few more gems, okay?” Now she had to do the overkill and give him the puppy dog eyes, always the god damned puppy dog eyes.

So from thereon they spent some time at the desolate dirt fields. At this point the small wagon had something of a small mountain of gems in it; both of them were pleased by this, Rarity for her dresses, and for Spike to have plenty of gems to eat today. They decided now was a good time to go back to Ponyville, for they couldn’t fit anymore gems into the wagon, Rarity was sure of that.

On their way back to Rarity’s home, they noticed a rather intriguing landmark, a small crater with nothing in the middle but a foot mark, and a crack going a few feet south east from the crater, and to a tree that was broken in two. The two looked down on to the foot print, it wasn’t very hard to see where the toes were supposed to be were four toe claws, and one on a different part of the foot, and facing away to the opposite direction.

“You think this was Bro’s footprint, Rarity?” asked Spike. When he looked up he could see that she looked a bit pained, the way he asked her and the fact that Connor….well…you know was a bit hard for her to deal with.

“Yeah, I’m pretty sure it was.” said Rarity. He saw how Rarity’s face dropped when she answered him, and dropped the topic. To everypony what had happened affected them a lot, their safety, their belongings, and those that were close to them. To know one of those people that were close being the thing that bring those feelings up is something very unsettling, and scary. Spike however had a different idea.

There weren’t ever any kind of male role model for Spike to look up to, but now with the only role model there can turn into something that looks like him, it makes up for all the years not knowing any role model that’s suitable for him. He jumped down into the small crater to place his right foot up against the footprint in the middle of it. His foot was much smaller than the print he’s standing in.

Rarity, despite her own thoughts of what Connor was, couldn’t help but feel a bit happy for Spike to be as enthusiastic as he was. He was young, and ignorance always looked cute on children. “C’mon Spikey-wikey, its time to go home now.”

What seemed like forever, the moment Spike looked up to see the marshmallow colored pony, there popped out three diamond dogs from the ground right next to Rarity. At that point he sprinted towards her as fast as he could. There were some weird things on them though, the collars around their necks were normal, but what was being held in their paws was just as weird. They seemed like sticks, small in size, but shinned in the sun’s light and looked metallic.

“Leave Rarity alone!” shouted Spike. Two of the dogs already had a hold of the mare, and even pointing their odd sticks to her face. The third one seemed to be concentrating hard down the sights of his stick; it must have been something special because the hole that goes into the stick was what Spike was looking into. What he hadn’t realized, even Rarity didn’t, was that he was looking down the barrel of a pistol. With one pull of the trigger, Spike flew backwards with a loud grunt.

“Spike!” shrieked Rarity. Before she could break herself free, the Diamond Dog that shot Spike hit her in the head with the butt of the gun, and knocked her unconscious, not without leaving a bruise where she was struck. As subtlety as they came, they left behind the surface ground to the underground to who knows where.

The drill that lay on the ground next to Spike started to flash light green, over and over again, even when it reverted to its original drill bit form, it still kept flashing green. The light blinked over and over again without end, this however was a special thing about drill bit necklaces. For somepony else it was a signal, one of which that he would have hoped to never see or know is flashing. Not the dragon that lay unconscious next to the necklace, but the previous owner.

Spike woke up to see the sun light in his eyes, batting away the tiredness in his eyes he looked down in his body of where he got shot. Surprisingly, the bullet was just a flattened piece of metal right up against his belly without penetrating his body. “Whatever it was, thank Celestia for these scales.” thought Spike.

Spike’s head cleared up; even though the bullet didn’t kill him it was still enough to knock him out cold. He looked around for his drill, but he couldn’t find it. If he wasn’t easy before, now he was in a state of panic. First he had to lose Rarity, and now he loses his keepsake? He would never brave the underground to find Rarity on his own with the kind of heat those dogs were packing; who knew if they had bigger toys down under there? “Oh man…what will Bro think if he finds out I lost his old necklace?” asked Spike, assuming no pony was around to hear him talk to himself.

“He’d tell you to drop your balls, not your bearings.” said a voice. Spike looked towards where he heard the voice and saw his older brother’s back to him. He was looking down the hole where the Diamond Dogs took off to and stared in the bottomless pit, wondering where it leads off to.

“Wait…b-but Bro! I lost your old necklace,” said Spike, “I have no idea where it is! It was sitting right next to me here!”

“I have It.” said Connor. He flung his next to his right side and from his mouth the drill bit necklace flew. Spike, despite losing a bit of his strength to sleep he still found enough of it to catch his own necklace with ease. He was still uneasy, why was his Bro just standing there, ignoring his existence like he was nothing? “Spike, you do realize that we’re going to have to go down there, right?”

Spike couldn’t believe what he was hearing; all of his brain told him that this was a bad idea, to turn around and walk away from it all or at least get some more help. Two thoughts struck him like the bullet that nearly killed him: the thought of Rarity being hurt by those kidnapping dogs, and Connor’s strength and what he could have been capable of doing. He knew his Bro could do anything, and now that realized that again he decided to stand behind him.

“What about the others? Are they coming along?” asked Spike. He knew they needed leverage against whatever they might have been about to go up against, Connor knew it too.

“Nope, not right now at least,” said Connor “Soon they will, but it all depends if Trixie can round them up.”

Spike’s gut sank further into his bowels. “But…but Bro, we have no idea what’s down there, we don’t know what will happen to Rarity, and-”

Connor turned around to face his little dragon brother, looked him dead in the eye, and said, “Rarity will be safe, and I will make sure of that. If those damned dirty dogs lay a single paw on her I will burn these tunnels to ash. That is a warrior’s promise.”

Spike couldn’t tell who he should be scared of, the dogs underground or his Bro who had just promised to wipe out Rarity’s captors. He’d been like this through the past week, otherwise the other ponies wouldn’t be scared, or spit venomous hatred at a Prince of Equestria. He couldn’t tell if his Bro was doing it all on purpose or it was all just some big joke, desperation can make many think his actions were that, a big joke for the content of the joker himself.

“I understand your fear, if you don’t wish to come with me then so be it.” said Connor, right before climbing his way down into the hole, and into the darkness.

Spike had no idea what would be waiting for the two of them if he went down, he had more to fear than Connor had to after all. Would he ever come back out? Would he ever see Twilight and the others again? Would he see Rarity be saved in one piece or in pieces? It was surprising that he found himself think these kinds of things, had he not been taught peace and harmony instead of all these shockingly familiar feelings of dread?

One thing he knew however is that his drill needed to find Rarity, needed to find Connor, and hopefully something good might come out of this. He looked down at his necklace for what may possibly the last time he’ll see it, and knew what he had to do. With the same motion he turned his necklace into a drill, and jumped down into the hole.

How long had it been that a young purple dragon had been falling down this makeshift hole? Spike expected it to hurt when he hit solid ground, only to be thankful that he was wrong. He looked around; all he was able to see was the different gems in the ceilings and walls of the tunnel reflecting the green aura from his drill. He knew his Bro was right, the drill would help him, guess Connor never figured it would help him out as a flashlight, let alone as a real, functioning drill.

He knew one thing though; he had to be sneaky in this area. This was Diamond Dog territory, Spike though just remembered this specifically as Rarity’s captor’s territory for future preferences. Or whenever the other ponies actually came and wondered what a small baby dragon was doing down here so he would get a great reputation with Rarity, the civilians of Ponyville, and maybe more importantly among all of them: his Bro.

He kept following his brother’s hoof prints, feeling a sinking feeling in his gut. The hoof prints turned into foot prints, those prints with five toes, four in the front and one in the back of the foot or so all the prints after the hoof prints were. At first he couldn’t have believed that those new prints were Connor’s like the ones in the crater up in the surface, but he saw the prints between the hoof prints and the foot prints and how it all seemed to change as violently as it could.

He knew now that the path that the monster Connor could be walked, he couldn’t follow down here, not without losing more of himself than he did a week ago. He needed Rarity safe, but he also needed to be safe, his Bro could take care of himself in a place like this. Spike took his drill by the handles and spun it counter clockwise by the mechanisms of the drill, and started tunneling into the left side of the tunnel he was walking down.

He had no real protection aside from his goggles and his drill if it had to come down to self-defense. He had no mask to shield his lungs from the harsh gasses from below the soot and rock of the Earth, nor did he have any clothing to protect himself from anything that might poke and puncture his scales and into his fleshy insides. But he did have his goggles on, a drill old enough to know the hardness of the Earth, and the desperation of wanting to save the two ponies he loved. He kept digging, unknowing what would happen next or if he would come back out alive or not.

A digger’s instinct is greater than that of reason though, and this digger was out for his diamonds, but would those diamonds help him get out alive? A digger never knows those things; he just lives through them as they go.

Spike continued on, the light of his drill his only lantern in the darkness of uncertainty.

One week. One week was all it took for the tendencies to come back. His curse was one not many to this day suffer from, a good thing too. The transformation would bring them to the point of insanity, a point where the blue coated stallion with the gar shades always contemplated if he ever hit. These feelings, these thoughts were far unnatural for ponies and herbivores to have, but he had converted to an omnivore long ago. Meat tasted good when his teeth could cut through the hard, tender flesh.

He kept walking, knowing that the tunnel he was following would have him wind up saving Rarity. Every step forward counted, both towards his goal, and the fun he would have along the way. Its not right to kill just for personal gain though, Connor knew that much, but he always knew that to keep his inner demons in check something has to give.

Thankfully, aside from the maneuverability of an ape and opposable thumbs, there was something that was useful in this form, his enhanced sense of smell. If it weren’t for that he’d be lost in this Celestia-forsaken place, what disturbs him is that he can smell Rarity, even if she must be placed into some horrid place farther underground. The thought of that made him tread faster, making more noise than he should make in the enemy’s territory.

“What was that noise?” demanded a voice. It was far too gruff for it to be a pony’s voice, and sounded far unintelligent. Connor knew it was a Diamond Dog, just a few feet away. He took to the shadows of the ceiling as he watched the Diamond Dog enter the tunnel, and just at the spot he was.

“I know you’re here, show me where little one is.” smugly said the Diamond Dog. Looking down to where he was he found it cute for the big doggy to act tough just because he had a weapon in his paws. He did what Connor wanted him to do however; he kept searching the tunnel, away from where he was, until he was finally out of ear shot of the other potential dogs. He dropped right down on the Diamond Dog, subdued him, and pinned him down with his face to the wall.

“If you make a move, I will rip you apart like you were a medium rare steak.” threatened Connor, setting his voice down to a growling pitch. Seeing the position he was in with his next potential victim, and the adrenaline pumping through his system, he felt in the mood of that kind of thing right now. His rational senses pulled him back up from the gutter, and back into the reality of things. This dog may have taken Rarity, either that or some other dog, it doesn’t matter.

He felt quick breathing from the dog in his arms, this all put him in a bit of a scare, seemed to have put him into shock for the time being. Suddenly Connor felt the dog howl as loud as he could, he quickly slammed the dog’s head into the wall until he was certain his head was stuck in there. He pulled his head out, and started to punch him until he was silent, but alive. He grabbed him by the neck and slammed him up against the wall.

“I’ve given you the chance to do this the easy way, but now I know I’ll just find another one of you, you won’t be the only Diamond Dog that dies this day.” Connor threw the dog to the ground, took the arms of the Diamond Dog by the wrists, ripped them apart from the body, and started destroying the rest of the dog with his own arms, blood splattering the wall next to him.

When you’re killing someone privately you shouldn’t make too much of a mess, but the bloodier the kill, the more thrill that goes with it. But now he stood in the remains of a creature too foul to be remembered, his hands covered in his blood, his chest covered in blood, even a bit of his shades were covered in blood.  He promised he wouldn’t kill anything within the borders of Equestria, but either by underground or by borders these Diamond Dogs weren’t safe from his wrath.

He dug up a small hole, threw what he could into the hole and continued onwards like he did before, but now with the adrenaline coming through his system. He took a chunk of dog meat with him before he continued forward though, and what was a long time he ate a piece of meat. “Oh how satisfying this kill proved to be.” thought Connor. He smacked his lips at the thought of consuming more meat.

The thing that separates someone who knows their senses and a hunter is the taste for blood. It comes in all shapes and sizes; Connor’s blood thirst is triggered by the taste of meat. It’s unnatural yet tasty nature of consumption would be frowned upon by his friends, but what they never realized before is that eating his enemies were one of two choices. The other choice was eating them, he wasn’t chained by the taboo of cannibalism, and it certainly wouldn’t be the first time having to eat another of his kin.

He went back to the mess to pick up the Diamond Dog’s interesting weapon. It certainly was as small and tender as any big stick was, but it was no stick, it was metal. Connor looked down the barrel and noticed the trigger; he pushed against it and saw the bullets fly right in between his eyes. All he felt was a whole bunch of poking.

“So, this is the kind of weapon that these Diamond Dogs use to protect themselves?” asked Connor. He started to laugh heartily without fear of anyone, or anypony else hearing him. “Oh boy, warfare has REALLY done good to switch things up.”

Walking back down the tunnel at a steady pace, he couldn’t help but to keep laughing more. “I guess that’s what you get when you try to switch up a game where the rules are to kill, nothing gets done.” Saying that made his spines quivered as if on cue. Nothing was around him, at least anything alive, so why were his spines shaking? They spiked up from his body, becoming daggers and they were being thrusted towards empty air. There was no target, it was just his own body telling him that he had weapons for greater than these sticks, and Connor was listening.

He walked faster, knowing that whatever was ahead was nothing to fear. He had forgotten to have humility in the face of danger, but danger was merely just another kill to add to the list when it came to Connor.His walking turned to running, his running turn into sprinting, and the only times he stopped was when he was about to slice up another Diamond Dog in his way, and there were plenty to go around in the underground.

Running up to a hole he noticed a large city of them, innocent civilians led by weak, incapable leaders. He contemplated whether he should actually go in and kill all the Diamond Dogs for the hell of it, for taking away Rarity, but he shook it off, entered the area but kept himself unseen. Connor killed an unsuspecting Diamond Dog where it was far too dark for the other Diamond Dogs to care and took his robes, and walked around, hidden in plain sight.

This was fairly impressive to say the least of the place he was looking at. Around and around holes were made as tunnel ways to other places, markets, homes, he didn’t stumble around an underground network; Connor came across an entire city of Diamond Dogs; made out of dirt and other hard substances capable of keeping the city as it is. As he looked around he thanked his lucky stars that the place was too dark for the other dogs to see that he’s really not one of them, and that his shades helped him out on that. It really surprised him; shouldn’t they have eyes that have adapted to this lifestyle?

“No, no more questions, just need to find Rarity.” thought Connor. He noticed that his pace looked more hurried than his usual calm stride, and brought himself back to a steadied walking pace. Though as it seems that the price to pay for stealth was his lack of the language of the Diamond Dogs, as he looked above the tunnel openings he noticed that all the signs were written in a language he’s never seen. He had confronted Diamond Dogs before, but not in their dens, or in this case an entire city full of them.

It was tempting to go and talk to a Diamond Dog for directions; it may be stupid to try something like that, but he had to do it. Looking at one such Diamond Dog he knew what to do. This one had a gray coat just like every other dog in there, but with this one it was just standing there, bored, while everyone else was working on something. This Diamond Dog stuck out more than he did, and that was saying something. If things went south he’d be able to clean up the mess quick, he knew he could.

“Hello there,” said Connor. “Would you mind redirecting me towards the mines? I have somewhere to be.”

The Diamond Dog sniffed him down, looked at him disgustingly, and said, “You smell like you do.” He entered what appeared to be a threatening position, by then he knew his cover was blown. Connor looked around, hoping that no one else saw what was going on and once again thanked himself that no one found him out yet other than this Diamond Dog, in fact, no one was around to begin with.

“And you are very far from your pack, mutt.” said Connor. He grabbed the Diamond Dog by the neck, and pushed him to the darkness of an ill-lit alley. The last thing that mutt saw was the green of Connor’s eyes behind a red pair of gar shades, just like others of his kin that day.

Earlier that day, Connor had told Trixie to round up the rest of the mane six, or just anypony that would go with her to where Connor was going. One thing she knew in her very short time in Ponyville was that her roommate would rather wind down a crazy road, no matter the reasons.

What broke her heart bit by bit were the refusals he got by asking the Mane six who weren’t kidnapped. She remembered asking Applejack, she could recall that she was very up for the rescue mission. She was right until mentioning that Connor was coming along that really had her stumped. “Ah’m sorry sugar cube, the uh…crops need to have some extra tending, yes sir uh, have a good day now!” From what Connor had told her, Applejack was a very selfless pony. He must have been wrong then.

She remembered having to tread to find Rainbow Dash; she refused just like Applejack did and continued on with what she was going to do. Then she went on to Pinkie Pie, she didn’t respond, she just cartwheeled away. She expected Fluttershy’s rejection to be just like the others, but she didn’t even try to have a good excuse, and just slammed the door in haste.

What hurt her most was asking Twilight if she would come. She could recall what happened like an image from an old dream.

“Twilight?” asked Trixie, “Are you in there? The Great and Powerful Trixie asks for your audience this instant!” Trixie kept pounding at the door regardless, she was tired of having the others refuse to save Rarity with Connor, she may be naïve but it doesn’t mean that she’s completely void of the events around her. They knew him longer, how come they didn’t want to save their friend with another friend with them?

“Go away Trixie!” shouted Twilight from the other side of the door, whimpering. Her voice was muffled, but the kind of muffled that she’d have her face full of something. Trixie noticed that the door wasn’t even locked and walked right in, unprepared for what she was about to see.

Trixie believed Twilight Sparkle to be a strong mare in the times of adversity, especially with the shunning and hate being spewed at her by the other ponies in the town. She could withstand waves of words and a siege of hate from anything in the world, what she didn’t realize was that other ponies had different defenses. Twilight had none against this.

What she saw instead was a great mare crying her soul out into a pillow. No wonder she didn’t sound very happy on the other side of the door. “Hey…what’s the matter?” asked Trixie, for what seemed to be once for her life, trying to soothe a pony’s troubles in a calm, motherly like voice.

“Get out of here!” shrieked Twilight. Guess she wasn’t as weak hearted as Trixie had thought before entering the room. “I didn’t say you could come in here!” She stepped out of the room and stood at the doorway, completely caught off guard of Twilight’s outbreak

“But Trixie just wanted to know if you’d like to save Rarity with me, Spike and-”

“-and Connor, correct?” asked Twilight forcefully.

Trixie cringed, “Yes, but I don’t get it, you all gave him the love he needed for the past week, what’s the big deal with going with Connor?”

Twilight breathed deeply before responding, then exhaled. “You want to know why I don’t want to go, or the reason why everypony else has refused to go with you?”

“How did…?”

“Believe me, do you think that anypony would go on something as dangerous as this with that…monster? I don’t need any proof that nopony else wants to go with the likes of Connor!”

For some reason, Trixie felt bad for hearing all this.

“Connor is the reason why for the past week we’ve been living like how we are. The shop owners refuse to trade with us anything because of Connor. The spa has not only shunned me and the other girls, they’ve banned us from that place, why? Connor! I live day in and out fearing that I’m next on whatever sort of list he has on dead things. He can’t even tell you, or us in that matter what he is! He’s hiding something, but Celestia has refused to say anything back on this and I can’t take it anymore!”

“Trixie assures you that…”

“No more!” roared Twilight. “I’ve had enough of the fear! The pain! The suffering that we take day after day, all this unnecessary grief we deal with, all this agony! Its all because of him! Now leave my room NOW!”

Right before Trixie did leave, she had some words to share with Twilight. “You know, I feel sorry that you have to live a life without comfort princess, how do you think I felt since day one of my life? I’ve dealt with shun and rejection in so many ways, I could have gotten places if it weren’t for ponies like you who wouldn’t let me have a chance at a life like yours! Do you think I wanted to spend the rest of my Celestia forsaken days rotting in that cabin?!”

“Now I’m paranoid of him too, but you know what, he gave me a chance at a new life, he gave you one as well and so did he do the same for the others, you’re essentially giving up Rarity for your petty fears! And if you’re going to turn your back on him then I, the Great and Powerful Trixie turn mine at you. You aren’t worth the ground you tread!” With that, Trixie slammed the door on Twilight, and the doors of her memories.

She shook her head back to reality when she realized where she was going off to. She felt a sinking feeling in her gut that things weren’t going to be alright, but she had to keep moving, if not for Rarity’s sake, than it was for her. She owed a lot to Connor, she would not abandon him.

Trixie decided to gallop to her destination, when it came down to rescuing someone there can’t be any hesitation. It didn’t take her long to find herself at the outskirts of Ponyville, where she remembered Spike and Rarity going off to, but the harder part was finding a way to get to Rarity without getting herself lost.

Looking around she found herself an entrance into the ground, it wasn’t much, but granted it was the only route she could go at this point she took it as it was. Right before going in she turned her head to the direction from where she came from. She could see Ponyville where she was, it was faint to see, but the Mayor’s manor helped her locating the little town. It wasn’t much of a place, but it was her home. It wasn’t the place where she was born, but there was something from it that had her stay, that something was underground somewhere, finding something.

She jumped right down into the hole and embraced the darkness, unaware of where fate may take her, but only that she succeeded in her mission, alongside a baby dragon and his brother with the gar shades.

How long has it been since the baby dragon had been digging? He doesn’t know, no one knows, only his drill knows, but his drill has no mouth but only a soul. That soul is the heart of his soul; he knows it every time he cranks the handles of that drill, the one passed down by his brother. So long as he could keep digging he could believe in what his brother believed in, whatever it was that he believed in.

“Why haven’t I hit anything yet?” thought Spike.  Sadly, the one thing Spike hasn’t learned yet was patience; all children don’t know that yet but eventually he will, and a digger knows patience more than others.

He kept spinning his drill, and spinning, and spinning, fearing that he would hear his drill spin for an eternity. Sure he came across a few crystals but they were nothing like Rarity, which was what he wanted the most. The thought of whatever the Diamond Dogs might be making her do made him spin his drill faster.

Eventually, something did come up in the most unlikely of forms. He saw an eye, a metallic one that glowed green just like his drill did. In fact, his drill was lighting up in the same pattern that the eye was. He started to drill around the eye and realize that the eye wasn’t just an eye; it had a face, a nose, a rather weird looking mouth, and a cock pit. At least with what he could assume was a face, nothing in books he’s ever read or by anyone he ever met.

“Wow, what a face!” exclaimed Spike in excitement. By the looks of what he had just found it seemed that nothing in the world was shinier or more valuable than this. Sadly, his ignorant mind had him believe that he needed to show his Bro this now of all situations.

Digging around to allow him more space to observe his new find he came to the conclusion that he couldn’t bring it to Bro, but maybe he could bring Bro to it! Oh Spike felt like a clever little genius at that moment he swore the light bulb above his head was brighter than the drill he sported.

He assessed quickly which way bro could be. He definitely isn’t where he came from, but maybe if he went to the south-west he could find him. Spike realized that he never taught himself a good sense of direction, or even a way to find his way home from where he was, let alone actually be able to get to Ponyville from where he was from.

It all didn’t matter, he just had to try, his friends would be coming, his Bro should be along with them, and above all, Rarity is waiting for him. He put back on his goggles, whirred up his drill by the handles, and started digging; this time to a new direction, further down into the Earth. Spike was uncaring to wherever he may be going, but he believed that his drill would light the way there. It always had during the past week.

The digger stayed silent as he felt the familiar feeling of steel against rock and dirt as he drilled a new path onwards. The digger would find his gem eventually, he knew it.

Chapter 1

Chapter 1

It was a peaceful night in the land of Equestria, the longest day of the year in celebration of the sun rising in the morning, the gift given to them by their leader every day . Though this celebration was more than just to embrace the beauty of the day, oh no, there was far more to it than that.

However, there was going to be more than what was planned, for four relatively small meteorites were on a crash course with four different parts of Equestria. The pegasi of Equestria that were in the way of the falling objects made a beeline out of the way. Finally, the four meteorites hit, making small craters at the impact spots but surprisingly not hurting anypony.

Some inhabitants of the areas around the craters decided to investigate them, they knew it meant something big is going down, they all had a gut feeling about it, tonight was the Summer Sun Celebration. In truth the deeper meaning of the event was never clear to them, they could have never suggested that their leader coming out to raise the sun got anymore deeper than just raising the sun. For a moment they considered that possibly these meteorites was connected to the event. Hopefully it was another feat the Princess had done to make tonight's event different than the years before.

One of the meteorites starting moving, like it was breathing, then what seemed like four legs came out of the large husk of rock, what came from it next was fire from two ends of it. The rock started changing a bit, morphing from what was a rather large rock into what looked like an earth pony. It was a stallion, but he was alien, covered in some sort of black rock, a lava-like substance dripping through the cracks and burning the grass at it's feet. The ponies backed up in fear. Whatever it was it was definitely not of Princess Celestia's doing.

He came up out of the crater, mane, tail and eyes burning brighter than before like he owned the whole place came out of the crater, looked at the people and what appeared to be a mouth started moving from the head of this stallion. “Where am I?” he asked.

“In between Everfree forest and Fillydelphia…” answered one of the ponies in the crowd. Though back in this stallion's time all questions asked by a leader were metaphorical and never meant to be answered, it seems that as the centuries passed that the ponies didn't even know who he was. Not like they should though but it was always best to learn from history, this mare would be spared for now.

The rock and lava seemed to fade into the hairs of the stallion as he took on a normal pony form, his fur stayed as black as the rock that was previously his hide, the fiery pit of his sockets became real eyeballs as his pupils glowed red like fire, and his cutie mark that appeared on his flank were three spears with bare pony skulls perched on them. His mane and tail were still as red as the fires that used to be them, he became shorter in his transformation but his muscular build and height still intimidated everypony that looked upon the scene. He didn't look much different as he did in his previous form.

“I can tell that none of you remember me, it has been so long so I do believe I understand, yet I don't. None of you were alive or even thought of one thousand years ago when your precious Princess banished me to your sun. But soon you all will know me. Whether you like it or not.” He looked at all the ponies around him; they all shifted uncomfortably as each met his gaze. He looked at the ponies calmly with his very hateful eyes, sadly he only wished that they would see him differently but they couldn't help themselves but shake.

The same mare who answered his question before decided to answer where the stallion was. Not just out of fear of what could happen to her, but to break the tense silence that engulfed everypony around them. “Who are you?”

The stallion just smirked, revealing white teeth that would fit better in the jaw of a normal stallion rather than this one. Maybe there was more under the skin aside from what they were seeing, hopefully, “I am only the carrier of a mantle. The Mantle of which that represents the sins of your violence, your hatred, your anger, and yet it represents your love. This Mantle is that which represents violence that the world has seen yet you have not. But for now until I say otherwise, I am War. And you are not safe.”

He stood on his hind legs, neighed loudly, transformed back to the rocky form he used to be, and slammed the hard ground with his front hooves. War proceeded to charge off into the east, leaving behind a trail of fire that burned down the grass and trees he passed. He knew the place his mother had told him and his brothers to go to, a place to show themselves properly to the citizens of what was to be their country again, he could only hope he got there first before the others.

Earlier that day a young purple unicorn was trotting away with her bags on her side. She wore a happy expression, looking forward to her intense studying session. She was stopped on a bridge by three other unicorns, “There you are Twilight,” the mare in the middle called out, sounding relieved, “Moon Dancer is having a little get-together in the west-castle courtyard, wanna come?”

The three mares moved their heads slightly forward, awaiting Twilight’s response.

Twilight was taken aback by their gesture, “Oh sorry girls, I got a lot of studying to catch up on.” She gave an awkward smile and hurried past them, breaking into a run and leaving the disgruntled mares muttering behind her back.

Twilight returned to the library, empty of other ponies. She rushed inside with the same urgency she displayed outside, not realizing that she had hit Spike -her small dragon assistant- with the door, and started looking through the books. “Quick," she said, "Find me that old copy of predictions and prophecies."

"What's that for?" she asked, pointing at a box pierced by Spike's tail.

“Well, it was a gift to Moon Dancer, but...” he took off the gift box from his tail and watched the teddy bear fall out, along with the stuffing. It wasn't much of a gift anymore.

“Oh Spike, you know we don’t have time for that sort of thing.” Twilight was clearly disapointed by Spike’s plan for the day.

“But we're on break!” exclaimed Spike.

Twilight began looking around the books again, no longer paying attention to Spike as she sifted through them, pulling off books from the shelves with the magic of her horn, “No…no…” She become steadily irritated as she looked book after book until finally she shouted, “SPIKE!”

“It’s over here.” Spike was on top of a ladder, holding the book she was looking for in a claw. The second Twilight saw the book, she grabbed it with her magical aura, and since Spike was holding on to it, he was pulled along with it, crashing into the floor as Twilight face an 'ah'. She trotted away as Spike sighed as he began to pick up the books Twilight left laying around.

“Elements…elements...elements…aha!” said Twilight, flipping through the pages of the book. “The elements of harmony!” Twilight rejoiced for a minute, settling down to read the book, clearing her throat and began.

“See Mare in the Moon?” read Twilight quizzical.

Spike couldn’t help but overhear Twilight reading while putting all the books away. “Mare in the Moon? But isn’t that an old pony’s tale?”

Still, Twilight couldn’t help but go further into the book, looking up the Mare in the Moon legend. “Aha, the Mare in the moon, and the Four Stallions of Apocalypse?” read Twilight in even more confusion. Despite the title she kept on reading, “There was once a pony who wanted to rule over all of Equestria, alongside her four sons of sin and furthermore the rest of the world too. They all were defeated by the elements of harmony and all of them were banished and sealed inside the moon. Fate has it by the longest day in the thousandth year, Nightmare Moon and her four sons: War, Death, Pestilence, and Famine will take over Equestria bringing eternal suffering and night, plunging Equestria into a zone of true darkness.”

Twilight couldn’t help to believe that such a thing would be possible, she was not one to listen to legends but none the less, it was something that she in her being believed should be looked into. She noticed Spike falling and managed to catch the kid on her back just in time, it was a soft landing for Spike, relatively at least but Spike wasn’t complaining. “I need you to write a letter to the Princess Spike.” said Twilight.

“I don’t know Twilight, the Princess is awfully busy preparing for the Summer Sun Celebration, I don’t think she has the time for a little letter.” Said Spike.

“Trust me Spike, being her pupil and how she trusts me totally and completely, I think she might have the time to hear a little bit of what I have to say.” Said Twilight, handing a quill and parchment to Spike. He didn’t disobey Twilight but he was a little worried what Princess Celestia had to say, furthermore, Twilight began to speak.

“Dear Princess Celestia,

After reading an old pony legend I couldn’t help but worry about it so I send this letter to you in urgency. The Summer Sun Festival and the upcoming one being the thousandth one and also longest day of the year, made me worry of the return of the five ponies from their imprisonment from the moon, and as the legend implies, plunging Equestria into True Eternal Darkness. I advise we take any action necessary in order to prepare for their return, if it does happen. I know that it’s an old ponies tale but…well I just can’t help but to worry over something as heavy sounding as this.

Your Faithfull Pupil, Twilight Sparkle.”

“Got it down Spike?” asked Twilight after finishing instructing Spike what to write down on the parchment.

“Yup, just got done too.” Said Spike. He took a deep breath and green flame came out of his mouth and burning the parchment into a crisp, only to find it turn into a green mist flying out of the window.

“Now all we have to do now is wait.” Said Twilight, confident the princess will pay heed to her and what she had to say. Then all of a sudden Spike burped up a letter from the princess, faster arrival then the two thought it would take. “I knew the princess would listen, now could you read it to me please?” Twilight walked over to the large glass window and looked out of the window looking pleased.

“Dear faithful pupil Twilight Sparkle,

  You know that I value your diligence and that I trust you completely,” Upon hearing words Twilight Sparkle felt confident that the princess most likely is taking her seriously. “But you just got to stop putting your nose in those dusty old books.” Twilight immediately felt the confidence from before that the princess took her serious was already long gone. “I understand such concern, prophecy’s like this aren’t meant to be taken lightly, especially since I lived during the time from which this prophecy was written in. But this is the kind of matter that only I should deal with it, not you. You’re a young mare, life at your age isn’t ALWAYS about studying and it always does pain me to see you spend your time doing so. This is why I send you on the following assignment: to check in on the celebration planned to be taken place in a town called “Ponyville” while you’re at it, please make some friends, this is also another assignment, it never hurts to try such a thing and I am confident everything will be in place for you that way things will work.

From, Princess Celestia.” Spike finished reading as he saw Twilight just looking out the window, thinking to herself.

“Why in the world would the princess tell me to just make friends? I have no time for such things.” thought Twilight Sparkle. She knew she was right, the fate of Equestria doesn’t depend on the social skills of one pony, if so then she would have taken up the sword and doing so but deep down she truly thought that it wasn’t necessary. She always was at studying, and never thought she would deal with such things, none the less she took up the assignment of keeping track of Ponyville.

“Alright Spike we’re heading out, grab whatever essentials you need and we’ll head out in 20 minutes.” And in less than a heartbeat, Spike left, happy to be out of the library of a dorm room Twilight had set up. She always somewhat knew what the princess would set her up in, she was never always clear but Twilight always figured them out in the end, like any other pony that would take up such things from the princess. Though she will still not understand why she could make friends, and why she was told so to begin with.

Whatever the reason was, she knew she’d figure out in time.

Chapter 8 (Revised)

Chapter 8 (Revised)

Chapter 8

Somewhere, not at Twilight's Library, a little green alicorn colt woke up, the lavender flowers helping out the groggy pony to bring him to his senses, and with that he felt his nerves pounding at his head. "Oh darn…" thought the green alicorn colt. "My head sure hurts a lot, I hope it'll clear over soon." He looked through his surroundings carefully, making sure everything was where it was before making a move.

He got out of the bed he was laying down in, yawning very loudly as his muzzle widened to help out match the loudness of the yawn. The yawn was so annoyingly loud that two sentences of this story had to be made to purely show you how damn loud this yawn was. But enough of breaking the fourth wall, its time to get very serious.

The green colt walked around, struggling a bit to keep a foot hold onto his balance, becoming more tedious by the second until he fell down with an "oof". At that moment, two pegasi guards with a golden armor get-up complete with a helmet came in, their wings had their space and stretched out in a battle-ready stance. The white stallions went on the defensive of what would happen next, ready for anything.

"Prince James, is thou harmed?" asked one of the pegasi. James got off the ground, picking himself up by his front legs and sighed.

"Yes, I am fine in this morrow," said James. "Now please…good sirs, thy need space in thou time to become prepared for today's tasks." The pegasi guards nodded their heads, became comfortable and left the bedroom, leaving the alicorn colt alone.

James sighed, the guards mean well, and sure things in Equestria haven't been going good at the time, but are the amount of security necessary? He trotted up to the mirror and looked at his reflection. The horn was sharper and longer than that of a regular unicorn's was perched upon his skull, like it always did. He fluttered about his wings, the graceful movement of them still amazed him, a lot of things did but his wings were sometimes a marvel to him.

Sure it seemed odd, but the feathers looked like an angel had granted him such feathers, they seemed so fragile, so easy to break, but when he used them ponies looked up to him shock and awe as he performed aerial tricks. He was still in learning from his trainer on how to fly properly, despite the movements that put an ease to mind on anypony, still needed a lot of work. He was an alicorn after all, not a pegasus, he needed to do better to fit standards.

James imagined a wonderful dream, ponies in a crowed in a stage that seemed to be more like an uncouth stable but at the time, it was the best they could do. Red curtains covered the stage, woven from some of the best fabrics the royal family could find and looked like it was just barely cleaned and pressed. Usually during this time, the three pony races of the earth, sky and magic would quarrel over the little things, say things out of prejudice and spite of the other race just so the talker could get what he/she wanted. But not here, James could sneakily see the ponies of all races get along fine with one another through a gap in the red curtains. It warmed his shy heart to see ponies get along just fine.

"Prince James, art thou ready?" asked a pony's voice. He turned his head to see a unicorn stallion, in what seemed to be like rags, and smelt of mud. James shook his head to shake off the horrible thought of what had gone through his head about the unicorn, it was one of his mother's lessons, it was not his place to judge a pony. "So no then, noble Prince?"

"Oh um…yes, thy almost ready." said James. He smiled meekly

"Alright, thou subjects wish for thou presence in thy show on this fine day."

"Yes, I am aware." And with that the stallion left his prince's presence. James sprung up his wings, and within a second they were up in full wingspan, he felt proud that he was able to be as fast as he was. However, this was a dream, he isn't this agile in reality, but that didn't damper the feeling he felt at that moment. "Alright…I'm ready…"

The curtains, as if on cue, swayed their way to their own directions to make the stage clear for all the ponies attending. James looked down dramatically, legs spread out far enough from each other for what he wanted and thought would surely "wow" the crowd: a dramatic opener. "Show time!"

James rose into the air as fast as he could, performing a whole bunch of spiral maneuvers in the air, masterfully performed as per the usual of James's day dreams. The buck of reality ignored once again in this dream like it was nothing and kept flying in the air for what it's worth, and by the mood of the stage, it was worth a lot. The ponies all cheered, pegasi marveled in the glory of James's performance, the unicorns seemed extremely impressed and the most intelligent unicorns in the crowd of ponies have theories of flight without wings. Apparently they haven't met Connor, James was chuckling in his head at the thought.

James continued his aerial moves, the more moves he were doing the more envious the pegasi seemed to be. Those that actually WERE jealous of James were wishing they were an alicorn, to be as the same species of their ruler was something everypony at the time dreamt of once. An odd fantasy to point out of what the colt and fillies were thinking of yes, but this was one of the green colt's fantasies, he can do what he wants with his dreams, especially this one.

James, with a smirk on his face was slowly going up in altitude the more moves he performed, going up, and up, and up as he went with one very skilful move at a time. Until finally, he was as up as he could possibly be as of the stage he was on. At that point he went straight for a nose dive.

It started off as a nose dive, becoming more of a free-fall as his long wings seemed to lose themselves to the wind, becoming broken. James look to the crowd who seemed helpless to do anything about James, the pegasi doing nothing to help, or the unicorns with their levitation spells. James could only feel fear, all his paranoia struck out at this exact moment of his dream, the fear of what other ponies would think of this, what his mother would think of this, and what the rest of his family would think. Tears struck out of his face as he closed his eyes, not even closed to ready for the impact that would follow.

When James was about to hit the floor he expected darkness, and when he looked at the ground he did, as he fell through the black hole of the stage.

"What a disappointment he is your majesty…" said a voice in the black void. James just kept falling and falling, the voices of the void echoing in his head.

"Jeez little brother, you're way too weak to fly…" he heard the voice of his older brother, Jacob.

"Don't worry twin, you won't be so much wrong in the future, but for now you really are bad at this…" that voice came from Brett, and words he never thought were gonna come but they did.

"Dammit James! Even I can fly better than you! You're an alicorn for god's sake!" shouted a voice. The voice of his cousin and the self-proclaimed "son of the night", and he believed this was true, Connor was a better flyer than he was, hard, bone crushing training was he able to accomplish flight without wings. Something James had always envied of, his endurance and will.

Pretty soon he landed hard on a cold surface, or at least he felt cold hitting the ground, an instance to say that he was probably dead, but he felt every bit alive. He just felt cold, a very unfamiliar, yet a very familiar kind of cold. All of a sudden, a mirror wide and tall enough for him popped up just a few meters from where he was. He trotted up to it slowly and looked at himself.

He still had his colt form all right and his mane was perfectly curled the way it should be, then he saw something unusual. He noticed his reflection growing until he became his adult alicorn state, it was a fast growth but he saw it all pass by, the day he earned his cutie mark, the picture of a blue seed with green bits on it popping in half to blossom a yellow daisy flower. In his young age the look of his own cutie mark in the reflection didn't surprise him, even though he didn't even earn it at this age yet, nor had any idea what his special talent was. But he saw it happen, his teenage years, until finally at the end of his growth at the supposed age of 25. He looked tall and proud at his reflection at the stallion in front of his eyes. It was more than he thought he was gonna be, but something that he had always was familiar seeing.

"I don't get it, I'm a colt, why isn't this new for me to see?" thought James. Then he saw it change violently, a form he knew all too well…Famine. Then it hit him, he's just having a dream, a nightmare that reminded him of his good years, where things in Equestria made sense, only to have it all go horribly wrong with his vain fears. However, Famine was nothing to be in vain, it was something he once was, tainted him to become his home's destroyer. The tears struck down his little colt face as he collapsed onto his knees, crying as hard as he could.

"Don't cry James…" said a voice. It was soft, cold, deep and seductive to hear all at once, he looked around and saw nothing but the mirror, which still held the image of Famine. "It's just something we all go through…now…join us James…" He saw the muzzle of Famine move up and down as he was speaking the words. He couldn't help himself as the little alicorn colt moved a front leg up to his own reflection. Famine held a strange smile that looked and felt right, James couldn't help but smile. But the moment his hoof touched the glass surface of his reflection on Famine, the smile was just disgustingly evil. In the motion of what seemed to be having his hoof out of the mirror, but when it came out of the glass, it wasn't a hoof, it was a hand with five fingers and claws.

The hand was more black than Nightmare Moon ever was, it seemed too big for the mirror to fit in but it managed to become a larger piece of glass, giving the hand more than enough room to move around. It grabbed a hold of James's hoof and threw him into Famine's form of reality, inside the mirror. James couldn't help but a look of despair of what he had seen, the first thing in his dream that he couldn't recognize at all.

Just like the hand, the rest of the body was bitch black, blacker than the night itself. It was a dragon, but not just any dragon that James ever saw, it was a dragon covered in spikes and scales that seemed to glisten in the darkness of the void. The eyes were more devilishly red than the eyes of War, the sight of them bringing untold horrors of destruction and darkness, but something underneath the skin was something much more sinister, James had a gut feeling about it. It had the height of a regular adult dragon, the same wings of one, but the spikes and scales of this pitch dark dragon was something unnatural, yet it seemed like he was born with these features.

It growled at James's presence as he shuddered in fear, the tears seemed to have evaporated as he wasn't crying anymore. However, he was trotting backwards away from the sight of the tremendous beast. "No…stay b-b-b-back!" shouted James. His shout was one of weakness, the scent of fear hung heavy in the air as a black aura surrounded the dragon. Each step from the dragon's huge feet pounded the ground with the force to crush mountains, making James bounce every time it took a step. "I'm warning you!" James did all he could to at least intimidate the dragon in some way or shape, but clearly nothing that James could think of could even faze the creature.

The dragon brought out a humongous roar that nearly took the skin off of James's bones, it probably would have but James could tell that this dragon wanted something, otherwise he would have died right then and there.

"aaN BahLok Fah HIN LeIN NaaL AlDuIn, DRaaL Fah FIN NOROK DOVahKiin Wah MeyZ, Fah FIN KRUziik DOVah DO VED VOKUN STaaDNAU WIN KeIN ahRK HIN LeIN!" shouted the dragon. The voice of this gigantean dragon seemed to nearly turn James's ears inside out with the volume of the dragon's booming voice. "YOR TOOR SHUL!" At those words, fire came out with the heat to melt diamonds from the giant maw of the black scaled dragon. The flames were just about to engulf James; he closed his eyes to embrace the fire in hot death. The fires hit and engulfed him as he thought of searing pain coming but it never did. Instead he found himself woken up by the shrieks of a familiar voice.

"Dammit James, wake up!" shrieked a voice. It was masculine, it sounded gruff but it was soft enough to hear without the impression of demand in the voice. James woke up covered in sweat, cold hard sweat making his fur patted and messed up along with his mane. His vision was blurry but none the less it was reasonably clear, his brain seized up and had him crawl away on his flanks away from his older brother, chest beating up and down like a bad rhythm as he was hyperventilating. Jacob caught him by his telekinesis spell so that his younger brother wouldn't crawl away.

"James! Calm the hell down!" continued Jacob.

"NO! It-It'll get me! LET ME DOWN!" screamed James. Jacob complied but trotted slowly towards James, not wanting to make any sudden movements. James could see his brother's advances but freaked out and sent a lightning spell towards his older brother, sending Jacob flying to the other side of the room.

"What are you doing James?!" shouted Brett. His untimely appearance worse than ever of any appearance ever. Being his twin would make you think he'd actually be the first one to help you know?

"Stay back! The beast lurks!" shouted James, his hyperventilating getting progressively worse. "The…dragon…it…I don't know…!" Jacob picked himself up from the floor and shook his head to leave out the groggy feeling.

"James…" said Jacob. "What dragon…?" James took a minute to realize his surroundings, they were in his room, or at least the place from where he was staying in for the following week with his family on vacation. It was a luxury hotel, not meant for royalty but to the regular ponies it felt like a huge luxury to even sleep in for a night let alone a week. James took that minute to calm down the best he could, the dragon wasn't here, it couldn't be here, and he sure as hell was going to be okay. He let himself calm down little by little as he stopped hyperventilating.

"This…huge black dragon…it was in my dream of when we were younger…I don't know what it was saying though, it was talking in some weird language or something." said James. Jacob and Brett's eyes went wide, a case like this was not discarded in their time.

"What was its name?" asked a voice the three alicorn stallions knew all too well, the voice of their mother, Princess Celestia. She seemed just as concerned as her other two children, but her expression was flat and bold but her voice was just as calm as ever.

"I don't know, at one point he was saying stuff like…I don't know, something about "DOVahKiin", and "DOVah"…oh sweet lord I had no idea what to make of it…" said James. Celestia trotted up to his sweating son he sat on his flanks on his bed, she seemed more worried at the hearing of "DOVahKiin". She remembers hearing this language before, but it has been probably hundreds of years since she did hear it, it was just so vague.

"It's okay James," said Princess Celestia. "I'll see for myself." She nuzzled James on the cheek as he turned his head in embarrassment, slightly flushing.

"Mom, I'm an adult stallion, not a little colt!" exclaimed James. Jacob couldn't help but snicker at that comment. If Jacob was anything aside from Jacob Lightbringer, he was immature.

"D'aawww, wittle Jaymie-Waymie having da' wiw' nightmares? Let's get MOTHER to fix this situation!" ranted Jacob. His baby voice was stupid to hear and listen but it made Brett laugh his flanks off. Princess Celestia scowled at her two kids as they looked at their mother with fear, instantly their smirks swept off their faces. Celestia really knew how to take a hold of her kids well.

"I'll look into it James, just sit back and relax, let mommy take care of things." said Princess Celestia. Her horn touched James's forehead, they both closed their eyes as Celestia's magic went to work looking into James's nightmare. At that moment Jacob and Brett started laughing as hard as they could.

"Did you hear what she said? Mommy!" exclaimed Brett. At that the two just kept laughing as hard as they possibly could, knowing that their mother couldn't do anything about it, at least not at that moment. After two minutes, Princess Celestia had her horn leave contact from her son's head and had a grave look on her face. They never seen their mother so serious, they actually got worried as the room quickly became deathly quiet.

"I should have known…" said Princess Celestia darkly. She had her eyebrows furled in anger as she stormed out of the room, James couldn't help but pipe up.

"Um…mom?" asked James. Princess Celestia turned her head around to see James worried. "Known about what?"

"The million bit question…" thought Brett. Celestia didn't answer for the longest time. What seemed like an eternity she exhaled a deep sigh and looked at her sons with the up most seriousness.

"That black dragon you saw in your nightmare James," began Princess Celestia. "Is something to worry about."

"Then why not tell us what it is mom? I think we could handle the truth." said Jacob. Princess Celestia took all the emotional strength she could muster to give her sons a warm smile. Even then it couldn't convince them that everything was okay, for it wasn't, not where they were.

"All in due time Jacob, after the little vacation we have is done, I'll let you all know in a week," said Princess Celestia. "But for now, its morning and now plans have changed, I understand it was at the last-minute but right now it's not me that need you, it's yourselves." James, Brett and Jacob did not understand what she had meant at all.

"What I mean is learning about modern culture through your mother isn't as good as actually going out and doing it," said Princess Celestia. "If you had to learn along friends, and yourselves, then this week will be a fun one for you all." She smiled and walked away, deep in thought.

"Damn…" thought Princess Celestia. "We aren't ready…" She walked into the room for which she and her sister were lying in. Princess Luna looked up to Princess Celestia in worry, hearing the screams of James as well. Celestia just looked down upon her, collapsed onto her knees and cried silently. Luna felt bad at this scene; she always knew her sister had a lot of mental strength, and physical. And she could understand anypony breaking down after the events of the Nightmare Moon incident for everypony involved felt broken somehow, especially Connor. But seeing Celestia like this shocked Luna.

"What happened big sister?" asked Princess Luna. She cooed softly into her older sister's ears and nuzzled her neck softly, even got close enough for their bodies to touch, but it seemed to stem the tears out worse.

"I'm not worthy to be called that, not even a mother…" said Princess Celestia. She buried her face into her forelegs as she cried harder into them. Luna brushed her magically flowing mane with a hoof, going slow and softly as to not make a tangle in the seemingly perfect mane.

"No sister you are...please tell me what happened. I'm really worried about you." said Luna. She looked on the urge of tears too but with nothing to else to say but to let her older sister speak, she stood silent. Celestia just looked at Luna with self-pity. She took her face out of her forelegs, her eyes bloodshot from crying as much as she did.

"James is still haunted by Famine…" said Celestia. That part didn't surprise Luna, James was always fairly sensitive and she herself would hate the sight of Nightmare Moon if she ever saw the image of her again. "But what makes it worse is that he's haunted by…whatever this dragon was…" Luna seemed shocked at the hearing of such news, a dragon haunting a pony's nightmare? Sure their size is shocking but for a magical being as powerful as James to fear a dragon? This was something new.

"Apparently it knew about Famine, using it at first to lure James into whatever it was planning to do with him," said Princess Celestia. "I will not tolerate something to use my children…" She said that on a low growl as Luna felt afraid of possibly suffering her sister's wrath. "Well…that's not just it either…do you remember what happened after Connor did the Three Deeds of War?" Oh yes…Luna could remember it all well, and how she felt ashamed for making her son do what she did. Something she knows she'll never let go.

"You saw how the ashes of ruin got onto his fur and mane? Making him as if he was evil incarnate? This dragon looked unnatural just like how Connor did. Same colors too…nothing's right…" Luna had to agree, an unnaturally darker than the night dragon was absolutely nearly impossible to see in Equestria now. "The creature was a male I could tell by the gruffness of the voice it spoke in, but the way it spoke was in the dragon language, I couldn't decipher what…I guess "he" said to James. Something is going on and we have no idea what it is. It infuriates me to not know of something that's important."

"Maybe Connor or one of the regular dragons knows what to do?" asked Luna. "You know his condition, he knows more of dragons then we do." Celestia nodded in agreement to that statement. She wiped her face with a forehoof to get rid of whatever tears were left and some snot, Luna couldn't help but giggle at her older sister when she saw the green goo come out of her snout.

"…Anyways, the point is Luna that we have to talk to Connor as soon as possible, he may hold the answers we need, whatever this dragon is we need to take it down." flatly stated Celestia. She got up, wobbling a bit as Luna helped her up by using her body for Celestia's support. "Thank you."

"Ah, no problem sister!" exclaimed Princess Luna. They both knew what they had to do. They got up and barged in comically into the room of James, Brett and Jacob. "Attention!"

"What the crap was that for?" asked Jacob. He seemed annoyed by his aunt's sudden barging in, it was just too sudden, too fast.

"Listen up you maggots!" exclaimed Luna. Princess Celestia cleared her throat to shut her sister up which she did, and then she began to speak.

"What Luna was TRYING to get to boys is that we won't be spending time with you, the elements will." said Princess Celestia. James, Brett and Jacob all seemed to cheer at both parts of the news, which annoyed Princess Celestia. "What's wrong with me?"

"Oh nothing, good mother, but rather happier to be spending time with a lovely bunch of mares if I do say so myself." said Brett. "For you see, the yellow one is very attractive and I wish to court her." James, Luna and Celestia seemed to just stare at the red alicorn in shock.

"You mean Fluttershy?" asked Princess Celestia.

"Yes, that is her name correct? She may be very shy but she's just too adorable to ignore." stated Brett like it was nothing.

"Meh, the rainbow mane mare's pretty hot." said Jacob. Celestia just couldn't listen to what she was hearing, none of this was right.

"I thought I raised you all better than this! You're talking about the elements of harmony like…like this! This isn't how you speak of mares ever!" exclaimed Princess Celestia.

"Well look we just find a couple of them attractive is all, no big deal." said Jacob. "Actions speak louder than words if I recall." Celestia just shook her head in disapproval. She'd honestly hate for somepony to actually talk about her like that the same way her two boys are thinking of the elements.

"Your right, but still, I ask that you give them more respect when you refer to them. Agreed?" asked Princess Celestia. Jacob shrugged and walked out of the room.

"Sure, whatever mom, now c'mon boys, we got a day ahead of us." said Jacob. Brett and James cheered as loud as they could without disturbing their neighbors and galloped out of the room. Luna chuckled to herself at the sight of the hormonal alicorns leaving the room.

"Pray tell Luna, what is so funny?" asked Celestia annoyingly.

"They may no longer be the four Stallions of the Apocalypse," said Princess Luna "But they haven't changed one bit."

"…That's what I'm afraid of…"