Domain of the last Human.

             A large stallion was wading through the undergrowth. He was a giant, and incredibly muscled, with a red coat, and a heavy yoke round his neck. He was currently crushing a large timber wolf under his hoof. Bloody timber wolves. Why the God Ed would include something as vile as these creatures was beyond him. He had probably inherited the insanity of the human.

             He snapped out of these thoughts as he felt his sister's familiar aura emanating from the area. The tracking spell he had placed on her was nigh useless in this bloody forest, the strange medley of different magics interfering heavily. He was not as skilled in the art of sensing  aura's as the human was, but he knew where she was (roughly). He could see some of her reflected emotions. Fear, uncertainty..... the poor thing had been out here for a few hours. It didn't matter though.

           Soon she would be safe. And grounded. Very, very grounded. Words or lights  couldn't explain how grounded she was.

           "Eeyup!" the stallion said, satisfied. His satisfaction, however, did not last long when he saw his little sister's aura light up with terror.

            Emotions are rarely reflected on the soul, never leaving the mind of the individuals. A trained soul seer can pick up the strong emotions as they are reflected on the soul. The greater the emotion, the brighter it becomes.

            The terror the stallion saw blotted out the rest of the aura.

            Instinctively, the stallion bolted towards his sister,  accelerating  4 times the speed of light instantly . He realised his mistake  too late as he traveled forward in time, a minute into the future.

             He stopped himself and was about to start running. His aura spell told him where she was, and he could clearly see that something was chasing her.

              Then he felt it. A feeling....no, a presence. A presence that was very, very familiar. His rival, and his soul mate.

The human.

              Instantly, he stopped, and composed himself. The stallion and the human had tried to kill each other atleast a few hundred thousand times. He knew the human, and the human knew him. The human would never take new life or let a new life be taken.

             He let the aura spell weaken, until he could only see the human's powerful, yet peculiar aura. Half black, half white, in perfect balance. A half soul. The stallion smiled as he remembered his early days. His teacher telling him 'Half souls cannot exist.'

             He began to quickly make his way towards the human,confident that his sister was safe, until him felt something snap.

             That wasn't possible. He could not sense his sister anymore. The tracking spell... it .. it can't break. Unless...... unless the target..... the target.....

              ....dies.

.

.

.

.

.

.

            The stallion wanted to scream. To cry out. To do something. But no sound left his throat. Not a muscle moved. Their was only one thought in his mind.

            His little sister was gone.

            He didn't save her.

           The stallion collapsed. As if on reflex, the Earth rose around him and hardened, making a shell that not even a dragon could break.

<><><><><><><>

2 hours ago

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            When I see Ed again, I must thank him. Perhaps even give him a bonus. Perhaps a few hundred tonnes of nitroglycerin, a few thousand kilo litres of oxygen to go along, and finally, a flaming matchstick.

............................

I must admit, I was confused by the number of worlds in your galaxy. I was tempted to label them products of human imagination, but when I checked the resource you call 'Inter-net', I was suprised to find visual recordings of all the worlds you described. I merely took the one your remembered profoundly and created this particular world.

              At this point I had realised that Ed had done something stupid. I suppose he doesn't understand animation..... wait, did I tell him what animation was? I don't think I did.

..............................

There were instances of time travel too in the documentary. I must admit, such feats of magic are beyond me. I do not understand how it is possible.  I asked the 6th Malfunction, but he just laughed. So instead of the time spell, I coded in a carefully crafted illusion spell to do the trick. I am sorry for that transgression.

             Time travel spells are impossible!!! What the hell is wrong with him! He should he known it was just imagination when he saw a time spell!!!!! It is impossible to go back in time. How does 10 billion year old god not know that?!!!

..........................

The documentary , I must admit, was not very well done. It hardly gave any details. So I had to improvise. I believe this improvisation   is called 'Headcannon'. Or so it was called in the inter-net.

             .......what? Just how...?

..........................

Finally, after I had researched the official documentaries, I was still not completely convinced of it's authenticity. But that changed when I saw that there were other, albeit not officially recognised, sources of information aside from the documentary. One of them as called 'fimfiction', though why they added 'fiction' to the name is beyond me.

                I'm sure I had cyanide here somwhere.

.........................

          After I had recovered from Ed's short speech,and found that my mind was still intact, I decided to review my situation. I was in magical pony land, and I was a unicorn- pegasus thing  with wings too small to fly and a horn that did nothing. I had a mark on my ....ass... flank? Yes, on my flank, exactly like the symbol I had taken for myself. A half soul, a triangle of chaotic rage and a little black dot in the middle, a Dark Void.

Sooo.... on the whole, I looked like a..... a handsome horse? No , a cute handsome black horse with wings and a horn.This was definitely Three's work. It speaks volumes about the amount of respect he has for his father. He turned me into a horse. Without a right hoof. As in, right hoof completely burnt off.  A cute pony with a hoof missing and a visible burn mark. Like a battle-hardened Warhorse who has been crippled for life. That was actually pretty funny.

         What the hell is wrong with me?

         "Well, I still have all of my power, and all of my memories. The High God must have missed. Now lets see what I remember about the show.

           There are multicoloured ponies in it and...and...and?"

'Oh shit! I don't remember!'

          "Wait, what did the Earth look like?"

          To my relief, I remembered.

           My relief died instantly. I suddenly realised that though I remembered what the Earth was like .......the memories. They seemed so..... hollow.

          I didn't have any recollection of any emotion that I had from Earth, other than (quite morbidly) those of my disillusionment. What memories remained, on a closer inspection, were glazed over.

          "What was my mother's name?"

           Blank.

           "What was my father's name?"

           Blank.

           "What the hell is my name!!??!"

            Blank.

           Perfect.

           All right, I didn't remember about some long dead world that I knew for only 76 years. So what?I am The Fire in The Dark, master of The Dark and The Light, one of the most powerful creatures alive. The Wryms themselves think twice before engaging me in combat. This was nothing. Just a little emotional shock.

           I didn't realise my face was wet with tears.

           It was no use. It was the same pattern. Sorrow, and regret. And then...., anger. An old, ancient anger, one that set me on my current path, and almost ended path for the Demons. Burning hot rage pierced my mind, screaming for release. Already my inhibitions were burning down, making sure that there was nothing holding me back. In a few minutes, a sort of  peculiar rage would fill me. I would have no inhibitions, But my mind... my mind would be crystal clear. I would know what to do, and  when to do it.

          I would attack the Gods again. This time though, I would not leave anything alive. I would destroy the entirety of that galaxy, and tear apart Time itself, leaving no trace of what had  stood for so long.

            Many lives. Many souls.

           Many dreams.

           My son.

'No'

         I was nearly over the brink. Rage was making thinking difficult. But I won't do it again. I am not a monster.

         I forced myself to think about the Secret. The truth of it all, that no one should know.

         It worked. Instantly, I felt cold and empty. A thick, black depression set over me. I used the Truth.

It Doesn't matter. It will never matter. It never has mattered.  

        Instantly, my anger just went away. Instead, I felt... just, empty. A feeling worse than anything else in the universe.

       I curled up into a ball and tried to push off depression. I don't know how long I stayed like that.

       There is a price to desiring power and knowledge. It's called madness.

       What many don't know is there is a price to desiring wisdom too. It's called Truth.

       After that, nothing much really happened. I pushed off the depression to the usual manageable levels, got up and fiddled around.I saw an unusual box with six keyholes, with an construction/growth spell for a tree, or castle. However , it held a good amount of defensive Harmonic magic, so touching it would really hurt, so I left it. I found that my body had been injected with an complex inbuilt spell, rearranging my cells and magi-constructs  into a horse form without changing anything too much There was a flip switch included in the deal, and a few tries later, I was  human again.

        For some reason ,though, I still had a horn and and wings. The horn was a unusual piece of work, meant to focus the magic within a conventional creature into the outside world. The wings were somewhat the same, only that they harnessed the Inner magic into a specific spell, one so complicated that I was sure it was Five's handiwork. The trouble is, humans are not exactly conventional creatures. I don't have Inner magic, so these things are basically useless. The wings looked were cool, though.

       Just as I was debating whether I should properly investigate my new parts or just rip it off(The horn, not the wings). I felt panic spark somewhere. A soul. And a tiny little mind. A child!

       I instantly bolted, out of the cave, through a cliff and into the forest towards the spark.

<><><><><><>

   Somewhere in the Everfree.

<><><><><><>

        Apple Bloom had never been more terrified in her life.

       The hydra was getting closer. The trees were slowing it down, but it was not enough.

       It was just another day. She was returning from Zecora's hut, keeping well to the path, when she saw it. A stream of shadows flowing towards the Everfree. She had flowed it , even when it disappeared from sight, until the forest became darker and darker till it was almost pitch black. She had wandered into  the deep parts of the forest. She was just a little scared (not too much, mind you).

        That changed when a hydra appeared out of nowhere.

        The hydra was trying to eat her. It was moving surprisingly fast. One of it's heads bent down and snapped at Apple Bloom, getting a mouthful of trees. Venom flowed from its teeth, injecting the wood with a colourless liquid reeking of magic and poison.

         Apple Bloom screamed in fear. It could have been her in it's mouth.

         She ran as fast as she could, but it was no use. The hydra lunged forward again. A giant jaw snapped shut on her hind leg, and flicked her up into the sky. The hydra opened it's mouths to swallow it's prey as it fell towards the ground.

          And then, it was shredded, much like paper . A black liquid caught Apple Bloom, and lowered her gently to the ground.There was a distinct smell of iron, a smell that  can never really be forgotten. Blood.

         The human did not like what he saw.  The little creature was unconscious, and covered in  her own blood. Where her left hind leg was supposed to be, blood was flowing out in spurts, perfectly in time to her little heart beating furiously. The human heated his hand , and brought it down on her stump, searing the wound close. He could see the venom flowing through her body. It was hacking away at her life ,  loosening her mind from her soul,  feeding on her life force.

         The human did not waste time. He burnt every shred of magic  in her body. Even a small, complicated tracking spell which he was too distracted to notice.

         He was too distracted too notice the spike of despair nearby, or the feel of his arch-rival's soul appear briefly before it disappeared into a  shell of Earth.

<><><><><><><><>

10 min later

<><><><><><><><>

              Okay, review situation. I had killed a .... a .... I forget it's name, and saved a little female horse. A cute, yellow horse with red hair and tail, complete with a bow in her mane.

           Yeah, I am really in a magical horse land.

           Magical, not safe, considering the shredded remains of the .... monster . And looking around, the forest was dark, dangerous creatures roaming in the shadows. The only reason they didn't attack was that my aura had flared to its original size and power when I shredded the other monster. They knew who the real monster was.

          The filly was out of danger. It was clearly  a sapient creature, and clearly a child. I still maintained the spell cutting of her magic, even her life force, so that the venom doesn't kill her. A risky move, but the only one I could think of.

          To keep her alive I had share 3/4ths of my life force with her. I paralyzed most of her muscles and wrapped her in Vibranium. She was going to have a major panic attack when she woke up.

          I picked her up in my left hand, and choosing a direction , began walking.

<><><><><><><>

               6 hours later.

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          Apple Bloom looked out on the path she usually took when she visited Zecora. It had taken the human quite a long time to find it. She looked once again at her new found friend, smiling. He was so cool!

          The human smiled back reassuringly, if a bit unsure. After a little pleading he had allowed Apple Bloom to use her neck muscles, albeit a little hesitantly. He said that the spell still remained in her body, and her moving around was bad. He didn't say why, though.

          "Ah, great! I did it again. I always forget to ask for names. So, what's your name?" The human asked.

           "My name's Apple Bloom! What's yours, Mister?" the little filly replied.

           The Human took a second to decipher what she said through the accent. He always had trouble with accents. It was not his fault, though. He was an Indian, (or used to be, anyway) and he had really not been exposed to this kind of accent. He could understand and speak english very well,( Hell, he used to speak a weird mixture of Bengali and English when he was young)  but even 70 years of ruling the Earth had not helped

him understand accents very well.

            "My name? Well, I am....uuhhhh..." The human faltered, debating what he should say.

'I am sorry, but I don't know.......Nah. Wait, My titles! One of them should be usable. Let's see, Strongest of the galaxy destroyers?....no. The Fire in The Dark? Too long.  Butcher of all Creatures? Definitely not. Think....Think....Think......

             "What's that drawing on your watch?" Apple Bloom asked again, "Is it your Cutie mark?!! What does it mean !??!! How did you get it?!!! "

            "Oh, that. It's nothing much, really. Just the mark I have adopted." The human said, thankful for a way out of the naming dilemma. "Wait. What's a cute mark?"

            "You don't know what Cutie marks are!!!! OH CELESTIA!!!" Apple Bloom exclaimed, going back into a state the human had tried to describe as hysterics(A gross understatement).

<><><><><><>

Some ranting later

<><><><><><>

           Oh god can she talk!

           After about an hour of crazed explaining, Apple Bloom finally calmed down. Jeez, she was reacting like some....some crazy  fan girl. A crazy fan girl who has not fully completely understood what she's fan girling about.

         But what I did understand, though, cutie marks are like, marks of  destiny, I guess? That you have to 'earn your mark' and you are then bound to it for the rest of all your natural years? That dark. And  implausible. A spell that can exactly control and calculate the required actions by individuals and implement them while undermining the individual's mental resistance ?  That is way, way, way beyond even Five's level, and he is one of the best spell casters there is. Not counting the Wyrms.

          "Well," I ventured,"To answer your first question, no, that's not my cutie mark."

           "So you're blank flank too?" Apple Bloom asked.

           "No, it's just that humans don't have cutie marks. And we don't need them. We...."  I added quickly, before she went into hysterics again"....find our special talents in time, just like ponies. Just don't get mark on our flank... back."

            I guess what I said was true, but....umm..... let's just say it was too complicated for me to explain at that moment. I would explain a little later(i.e. hopefully  never)

           "Ohhh! I get it." Apple Bloom said."You have to draw your cutie mark yourself? Wow! Can you choose whatever you want?"

           "No, I don't have a cutie mark. Though, you could call this a mark of my destiny. So...it is like a cutie mark?..... God Damn it, I'm confused again. Congratulations Apple Bloom, you confused the most powerful being in the universe ", I said with a smile.

            As expected, she only gave me a blank, confused stare. This is why I don't make jokes.

           "Anyway," I said, trying to defuse the awkward situation " you asked me what the mark meant? I guess it is a mark of my destiny."

            I conjured up a rough image of the mark using Light and assumed my teacher monotone.

            "The Circle in between is the representation of my soul. Of course, souls are not really circular, but I digress. My so...."

             "What 's di- gross mean?" Apple Bloom asked suddenly. I blinked once before answering.

             "Digress, not di-gross." I corrected. "It means ......... UUhhh..... when you ...divert?Divert attention..... Okay, forget I used that word." Another the Epic Fail for the Almighty Fire in the Dark. Well, whatever.

              "See, the fact is that my soul is an anoma...is unusual. Usually, souls are composed of varying amounts of   Dark and Light energies, with either one being present in large quantities. Sometimes you get Pure souls who are completely black or white, but those are rare. My soul, however, is an Half Soul, or a soul that is perfectly balanced between Light and Dark. I'm  the only one, so the symbol seemed prime choice. Creatures would look at it and know the Half Soul was here." That seemed enough information. I didn't tell her that my soul was in danger of ripping itself apart. "Any questions so far?"

              "Nope."

              "You're a smart one. Well, since I'm a Half soul, I have an advantage over other creatures. I can control chaotic magic without trainning when I am presented with an stimulus. That means an outside force." I said, noting Apple Bloom's confused expression return."Like an emotion. In my case, anger brings out chaos. Don't worry, though. I haven't been truly Angry for at least 300 years. I not going to suddenly rage up now. So the Triangle represents the power my anger brings out, and lastly the black dot........What?" I stopped and looked at Apple Bloom perplexed face.

              "Did ya just say 300 years!?!?!"

              Oh, yeah. To a mortal that might seem a bit much. "Yes, I did."

              "How old are you?" she said, in an awed whisper. Huh, got her to whisper. A point to yours truly, I guess.

              "Aproxi-....About 27,000 years?Yeah." I couldn't help smiling at Apple Bloom's expression. It was same emotion any sentient creature held when I when I turned up suddenly, only translated into human expressions.

              Suddenly, though, I felt a presence. The presence of something more powerful than an average mortal. I didn't stop walking, though the presence vanished , not lasting even a millisecond, so fast that I thought I had imagined it.

              "You're older than Celestia?!?"

               "Whut?" I stuttered, Apple Bloom's question breaking my reverie."Who's that?"

<><><><><><><><><>

                 Even more ranting, a manticore attack and some extreme confusion later.

Clearing in front of Everfree, Ponyville.

<><><><><><><><><>

             "Dark Void?" Apple Bloom asked.

             "Yup." the newly (re-)christened human said. "Now my name is Dark Void." In hindsight, Dark couldn't think why he had not adopted this name from the get go. Naming himself after his deepest, darkest obsession made prefect sense.(to him)

             "Alright, were here."  said the human. " Now it's time to remove that spell from your body. And grow back your leg." The human gingerly placed Apple Bloom on the ground with his wings, and removed the Vibranium bonds.

              He had donned the his pony form, to -as he put it- blend in with the crowd. He had not met the aforementioned crowd yet, but better safe than sorry.

             "Okay, Apple Bloom, I'm going to put you under now, okay?" Dark paused a little, then resumed before adding"That means I'll make you fall asleep." Apple Bloom nodded in agreement, her eyelids becoming heavy as Dark's spell began to shut her consciousness down.

             "Thank you for helping me." Apple Bloom said suddenly, before she fell into a deep sleep.

             For Dark, though,  those words...... they were familiar to him. His smile broke, only for a second, but it still broke, and for that  one brief moment the human looked like the old man he was, the man who has seen too much in his life.

               Those words...... they were the words of that little girl. That little girl who knew that her idol had failed. Who knew she would die because her idol had failed.  The same little girl who had forgiven Dark, and recorded those very same words on the internet.

               "Thank you for helping me."

                 Unknown to Dark, the pony following him began to fall back. It was no longer safe to follow him outside the forest, not after that mistake. Thankfully, the magical aura of the unicorn was obscured by 18 different spells.

                 He pulled out his com piece and whispered to it.

                 "Blang Seu reporting. A Blue Mare lived in the moon. News confirmed. New threat has been identifeid. A bigger threat than any we have ever encountered. Creature called The Fire in the Dark has arrived on planet. Send the Red letters."