The Holy Crusade

Wright yawned awake as the train screeched to a halt. He looked out the window and saw a few ponies standing about on the platform, one of them waiting for him. She stood about as tall as Luna, maybe a few inches shorter, and her coat was a soft lavender. Her name was Twilight Sparkle, Princess of Magic. Next to her was a small dragon he guessed was Spike, Twilight's assistant. Wright felt a little bile rise up, but he swallowed it back down, unsure why he had a feeling in his gut that something awful was about to happen.

With his powers, Wright noticed that he could sense dangers, but unsure when they were to come. It could be a few days before anything would happen. He enjoyed having the abilities of a unicorn, a rare disorder linked through genetic mutation. He is technically a unicorn, just born without a horn. His forehead however had just a small little pump that was covered up by his mane. Many would confuse it for a goose bump, like when you hit your head real hard on something.

Ponyville, City of Mares. Mare population exceeds stallion population by a 3-10 ratio. Wright thought to himself. He often thought like this to help assess himself in a situation. Because of this, the spirit will likely be female which puts me in a tight pickle. He stuffed his necklace in his red jacket and put on his glasses. Mark, set, and point.

With his luggage in tow, he stepped off the train with a deep sigh. He approched Twilight, and gave her a deep bow.

"Greetings princess Twilight, I am Wright Time." He looked up at her then at her dragon, who's seemed to be a little larger from the last time he saw him on the papers. "And salutations to you Sir Spike of the Royal House."

"Hello Mr. Time. I am glad that you were able to make it here safely." Twilight gave him a soft smile and looked around. "Lets get to the castle where we can talk in private?"

"That would be wise princess."

"Please, call me Twilight. I'm not one wanting to carry titles."

"If you want me to, I will." Twilight nodded. "Right, Twilight it is then. Thank you for giving me permission."

Twilight giggled and Wright looked at her with a confused expression written across his face. "There isn't a need to be formal, really. I still think I'm a unicorn." Her voice makes one think she really does miss her old self. Perhaps she does. Before she was a princess, she had no idea Celestia was her real mother. "So-Welcome to Ponyville!"

"I feel welcome." Wright says, feeling the space around the town, so far he felt no added spirits to take care of. There were a few spirits who were new, and not quite ready to move on yet. They would in time, he didn't worry. "Such a peaceful town, I feel the magic of everypony here."

"Everypony here works hard, and sticks together. We have dozens of festivals every year! It's so fantastic!" Wright can't help but chuckle at how childish the princess had looked when she yelled with a smile. "Oh, where are you from?"

"I wasn't born in Equestria. My parents both lived with zabras in Zeborica." He answers. "I was born while on a boat to Manehatten."

"How long were your parents on the boat before you were born?"

"Four days."

Twilight looks at him with pure shock. "How'd they take care of you then?!"

"They didn't, they died by Griffin and Diamond Dog pirates. I was taken in by a Griffin named the Dread Pirate Rowers. He named me, and told me every day 'Goodnight Wright, have a good sleep! I will most likely kill you in the morning!'"

Twilight felt awful for asking. "S-sorry if I brought up bad memories..."

Wright smiled. "Not at all. My time on his ship was the best few years of my life. He took me to an island where a bunch of spirits were, and that's where I got my cutie mark."

Twilight looked at his flank and saw a skull with two white wings and a halo. Under the skull was a pitchfork pointing to his legs. "That's an interesting cutie mark..." She said with clear uncertainty. Twilight was unsure how Wright would react to most of her questions, and kept turning her around in every answer.

Wright continued to study Ponyville. He saw a few stallions here and there, but his estimations were correct, there were more mares than stallions by a ton. Soon he felt the magic pulse through his head and down his tail. His nerves picked up and his whole body locked up. There was such an influx of magic, it pulsed through him like a dozen demons, the whole force hit him. He fell over and felt his whole body take in such energy.

"Pinkie?" Twilight looked at a pink pony who looked down at Wright.

"HIYA! Who're you?!" When Wright failed to respond Twilight looked down at him with concern. This also made Pinkie pause from her greeting so she was a little confused herself. "Is he okay Twilight?"

Twilight stared down at him, his muscles made his entire body look like one of Rarity's manikins. "W-Wright? Yo-you okay there?"

Wright was able to adapt to the energy of the being in front of him and he stood up. Blinking around confused he coughed. "I-....I'm fine..." He looked over at the source of the surge. "Sweet Celestia! You're glowing!" He quickly took off his glasses and blinked at her. "My Faust....Y-you are a walking paradox. I refuse to believe that you exist...yet...." He laid down on the ground and covered his eyes.

"What's wrong Wright?" Twilight asked taking a careful step closer to him. "Pinkie...did you break him?"

"I didn't touch him I swear!" Pinkie raised her hooves in defense. "I'm trying like you say, at least I waited until he looked my way."

Twilight sighed. "Yeah, but he's the guy."

"Oh! We're not supposed to talk about that in public Twilight!" Pinkie said covering Twilight's mouth.

Twilight pushed her gently away and looked at her. "How'd you know?"

"Because he was talking to you when I heard and want to say high because I saw him with you and-"

She raised her hoof. "I get it Pinkie... Alright, Wright? Are you going to be fine?"

He looked up. "I am next to a paradox Twilight,,,,I am unsure what to do now."

"What do you mean?"

"I...I am unsure...." He shook his head. This is damn weird... "Oah....ah....Okay. She is infinite energy, she just...wow, expels energy at such a massive rate, she would be dead if...but...s-she's not..."

Twilight looks over at Pinkie and her horn lights up. She activated the spell beacon at her castle and ran the spell to teleport. Everypony there was the remainder of the elements. They all looked down at Wright who was still laying down with his eyes covered.

"What's up with him?" Rainbow asked with a short glance. "Is that the guy you hired?"

Twilight nodded and frowned. "Yes but...he has seen Pinkie unprepared. It's going to take him a moment, perhaps a few days..." She looked over at Pinkie. "I'm sorry Pinkie, but once he tell him what information he needs for the castle, you might need to keep away."

Her ears fell back, and she nodded. "Okay...I'm sorry Twilight."

Twilight gently gave Pinkie a hoof on her shoulder. "It's okay, at least you tried. I didn't expect him to react in this way."

"By any chance is this one of his...ahhem....'Abilities'?" Rarity asked.

This has seemed to snap out of his shock. A hater! A non believer of my work! He rushed over to her and glared deep into her soul. Lifting up his mane he showed her the bump. "I will tell you this once miss. What I have is very real. Why do you think Twilight hired me? Her mother and aunt take care of the shit, I take care of! I risk my life to defend these ponies!"

Rarity looked up at his little nub. "What is that? Did you hit your head?"

Wright water was about to boil over. "NO! I suffer from a genetic mutation that's bucking rare. It causes my magic to go through the rest of my body. The endings had to go somewhere, they grew out of my right forehoof and my eyes." He explained before sitting down. "Ugh....Ponies....You're Mistress Rarity correct?" Wright looked at the rest of them, except for Pinkie.

"Can we finish this up?" Apple Jack asked Twilight. "I need to work on the farm, it's nearly the end of Apple Bucking Season."

"Yes, lets do that!" Wright smiles and turned back to Twilight, avoiding Pinkie still. "My contract, lets talk about it."

"The girls and I have thought about raising your pay after the resent disturbances in the Everfree. It seems something has found out that we sent you here, and not even Zecora can live in her hut." Twilight's ears fall back. "We're sorry, but we hope the pay will cover it. I'm also willing to pull a few 'princess cards' if you get in trouble."

Wright scratched his chin slowly. "That does put a damper on things. So what's my raise?"

"Fifty thousand, can you still complete it in the time my mother told me?"

"At most another week has been added to my stay, but that's fine. Things pop up, I understand." He replied cooly with a smile. "I'm going to need a place close to the target to stay at. Is there a place I can stay at?"

"I have a spare room." Fluttershy raised her hoof slowly into the air. "I-if you want, I c-can host you."

"Ah, Damn Fluttershy, you are most kind." He bowed to her. "I gladly accept your hospitality."

Twilight clapped her hooves together. "Alright, one more thing. My mother wanted to give you a gift when you got here?" Twilight grabbed a few papers from a nearby desk, then gave them to him.

Wright sat down and examined them closely. He saw a picture of Copy Cat with a stamp over her face. There was also a stamp over a picture of her right forehoof.

Copy Cat

Official citizen of Equestria by orders of the Princesses Celestia, Luna, and Twilight Sparkle.

"Damn, she actually did it." He smiled and removed his gaze from the papers. "And you signed as well, thank you. I know your brother's wedding was ruined because of them. It must be a little awkward."

Twilight smiled back at Wright and nodded. "It was, but Celestia said that she wasn't part of the invasion, so she's alright. Can't place blame on an entire race when only one of two dozen queens decided it was okay to attack one of the most powerful nations in all of Equuis."

"Alright, I'm going with Fluttershy to her home, and I will come back to town to gather a few bits of information. If I could have access to all documents in relation to the castle in question, that would be nice also."

"You have full access, even to the locked archives. I'll get Spike working on another key."

"So we're done?" AJ asked. "Great!" She walked out.

Wright read her like a book. Earth ponies weren't all that hard to read because they were so grounded with nature. She was less than pleased to have someone like him enter their town. She was one of those ponies he guessed just weren't into his line of work. It was understandable, he messed with unrested spirits, he was sure that there would be hate towards him. It wasn't natural, nor was it safe.

Everypony else in the room wasn't quite sure what was going on though. Twilight looked a little unnerved about it as did the rest of her friends. Wright just continued to smile, occasionally glancing at Copy's citizenship papers. For him, he guessed his stay wouldn't be all that too bad.

"A-are you ready to go now Mr. Time?" Fluttershy spoke up next to him. He nodded with a kind smile and waved goodbye. Even though he knew that he was going to be seeing them later, he wasn't sure when though. He had a lot to do.

While they walked down the halls Wright looked to Fluttershy. "I need your help coming up with a cover story while I'm here miss. I have a few I can run down with you if that's alright."

"Why do you need a cover up?"

"Because right now, I have a changeling who's disguised as me, and I need a story if anyone finds out I'm here." He answered quietly. "So my first idea is that I'm your best friend from foal hood. Or we can go with the dating scene."

Fluttershy blushed up and squeaked, sparking a laugh from Wright. "U-u.....um...I-I don't kn-know...about that..."

"Come now, I can be a very kind stallion!" He laughed. "Friend it is then. I was only joking. I only brought it up because you are a very beautiful and kind mare."

"W-well....thank you..." She tried to hide her blush by looking away. "B-but I am the Element of Kindness...so..i-it's just a part of me I always had."

"If you'd like, I can tone myself down. I know I can be a little unbecoming." He smiled at her with a gentle stare. His eyes looking into hers with such softness and easy tone to his voice helped Fluttershy calm down from her slightly flustered state.

"N-no...it's f-fine..." She said back to him. "Y-you have nice eyes."

"See? We're friends already. I said something nice, and you said something nice. We're already there!" Fluttershy looked at the smiling stallion in his red coat. He just had this easy going personality, always moving around when it came to his attitude. Wright just seemed to adjust his tone and voice as conversations seemed to go on.

She took a careful glace at his cutie mark once more. It was slightly frightening, but the work he must do might be ten times or even twenty times worse. If he's accepting the contract Twilight and rest of them gave him, then he must have done worse before. He was calm when he was told issues had risen up since he first accepted, like he didn't expect things to just stay the same. Fluttershy walked, feeling like Wright was taking the lead when it was really her. Was it the way he walked, so high up in the air she was sure that was where his mind was. He just studied the walls with his glasses on.

His glasses were rectangular, sharp edged, and only about half the size of his eyes. They were brown in color, and from where she stood the lenses looked like they bent light into the rainbow. They way the light reflected from them made him look like he was some sort of graceful bear. She found herself blushing. I shouldn't be looking at him, I only just met him! She thought, shaking her head furiously.

"Everything alright Ms. Shy?" Wright asked sounding only slightly concerned.

"Y-yes, I'm fine." She replied with a soft squeak.

"If you say so." He said looking on ahead.

By this point they had finally exited the castle as two new friends. Wright kindly kept his distance to make all the other mares know that he wasn't quite with Fluttershy, but was still walking along side her. He kept his tail still, and his glasses on while he gazed around while still keeping Fluttershy in his view.

While he walked around, Wright studied the sky. It was clear enough for him to start seeing-and feeling- the magic he was looking for. There were hints of dark magic sewed within the ground, small seeds of destruction infused with nature and dark magic. They would grow out of control if it wasn't for the lighter magic that was also infused with the ground. Magics of all kinds were infused within the air, the ground, everywhere. The homes had spells and magic, the air swirled with colorful patterns with the scents of roses from the apothecary's shops. There were also strong after scents like apples, and the sweet smell of redwood the houses and homes.

Mares of all kinds strolled around with gentle smiles. Some gave him a curious glance while others looked generally interested to see who this new pony was that was walking with the town's shy beast master. Wright just kept looking up though, studying the streams of magic through his glasses, or glasses of revealing he was given by Princess Luna after his four job under them. It's been eight years since he was taken under the wings of both princesses, and since then his life had turned from bad to somewhat tolerable. While he worked hard, he still made enough pay to get around the fact he was risking his life each step he took.

"What are you looking for?" Fluttershy asked.

"Trying to find which ways magic flows through Ponyville." He said, still looking up in the air. "Pegasi leave behind magic when they fly and most don't realize they fly in the same paths so it makes for excellent directions around town."

"Oh, that's interesting." She scratched her neck awkwardly. "If I'm a bother, I can tell you where I live."

"Nonsense! You're fine standing next to me." He laughed. "Come, lets get going. I've gathered enough to know which way the magic flows in the air. Going to be a little hard with the ground though."

"Why?"

"Pinkie Pie messes up my senses." He explained with his right eye twitching. "Even from here I still can't get a hold of what's her energy or what's not, you know?"

"N-no, I don't. Sorry."

Wright shrugged. "Eh, true enough. I'm probably babbling on like some mad pony."

Fluttershy giggled. "Well, you sort of act like Twilight. She loves talking about her spells, and I know somepony who's worse than you." Her eyes opened wide, realizing how she just sounded. "Not like you two are bad or anything! I-I mean-"

Wright started to laugh loudly and fell back on his head. "Somepony who's madder than me!? Ha-hahahaha! Oh that's good!"

"Y-you aren't mad?"

Wright gave her this look that spoke 'Really? Mad? Me mad?' "Fluttershy, it's going to take a bad day with no medication, and ten evil spirits to make a day what you might conserder 'bad'." Wright smiled. "Please, even those don't make me mad. What makes me mad is something so stupid it doesn't make sense. Like Pinkie Pie, she makes me mad."

"Why?"

"I hate things I can't figure out." He explained. "I'm like a science nerd. I believe spirits are real because they give off different waves of energy that most can't feel. Those that do feel it generally don't even know what it is. The rare ones like me feel it because they have nothing better to do with their lives so they go 'why not?'. I do that. So when it comes to Pinkie Pie...She is a walking paradox, she isn't supposed to exist, yet she does. Limitless energy in such a small box. I wonder how she's even alive from not exploding."

"She has before..." Fluttershy smiled. "There was this massive party, she actually burned herself out and passed out on my couch."

"Hmmm....." Wright left the conversation off there, unsure how to go about it now. Now I just need to find out where she gets her energy. Perhaps I can try to create something like it to fuel my magic. His head also started to hurt less. He was gathering plenty of information, just Pinkie had managed to screw with his brain by just existing.

They made it to her abode in near record time Fluttershy thought. It was great to be back, and with her new company. She wasn't at all afraid of Wright. The princesses had seemed to have near complete trust in the stallion and his work. He however, stared out into the forest. His eyes seemed to have a wary look. The whole border seemed to have this strange fog that didn't expand into Fluttershy's land. He saw the fog bank up, instantly he realized her home was blessed like his.

"You have a very safe home Fluttershy." He commented, but his voice echoed worry which also worried Fluttershy. Wright just had this thousand yard stare into the forest, like something was up but he wasn't talking about it.

He took a step forward, his eyes narrowing in. The flow of magic was so chaotic, it was insane how these plants had adapted to it. They were misshaped and looked dangerous. Deeper in he thought he could see some Poison Joke and Lazy Ivy. Each tree, each vine, and each leaf had a dark aura resonating off of it. He shuddered at the sight.

"I have my work cut out for me..." He complained more than he was making a note of it. He already knew the forest was dangerous from what he read in news articles from his Sunday papers, but this was just stupid to him. He smacked his face with a hoof and groaned, though not from the pain, but how hard he has to work now. Not only did he have a castle to bless, but before he could do that, he had to passify the forest. "Faust bucking dammit...."

"Would you like some tea?" Fluttershy offered, standing by the door.

"Yes, a few gallons of it to get rid of the migraine."

"What's wrong Wright?"

"I can't do anything to the castle until the entire forest is cleansed." He felt like he was about to cry, tears swelled up in his eyes. "I knew that this wasn't going to be an easy job, but not an entire year's worth of work! WHAT THE BUCK!?"

Her eyes widened at his remark. "A-A whole year?!"

"Maybe an entire life time!" He huffed, sitting down and rubbing his temples in small circles to help ease is growing headache. It felt like he was getting hit by a speeding train full of jackhammers, on fire, and exploding-don't forget the explosions. "I'm going to need a tea leaf farm...just to make the tea, to get rid of this headache."

"How about some Codeine? That helps me whenever I had a really bad headache."

"I'll swallow the entire bottle and it wouldn't be enough." He fell over and wined with a groan. "Buck this, buck my life, buck that damn bucking contract, bucking dammit...Faust, son of a bitch, motherbucker, anal dwelling butt monkey, shit faced, flankhole, whorse."

Fluttershy stared at Wright, slack jawed at his foul language and use of said language. "I-I'm going to make you some tea. Is vanilla okay?"

Wright just nodded, laying in the grass while the other animals just stared at him with less than general interest other than who was this new pony. All the while he just seemed to curse on how he hated his life and accepting the contract that put him into this place. What the problem was was much too big for him, which meant he had to call upon another one of his own to help him out. The issue was that he hated this pony with a raging passion. Her name was Pastilla.